Well Dressing

In certain parts of the country people respect their village well, probably for reasons such as fresh water for drinking, and soft water for cleaning wool or silk.

In the spring the villages 'dress' their well and create stunning art made predominantly from flower petals.

Peter Rabbit's jacket is blue hydrangea flower petals.

Pancakes

Someone once, very kindly, gave me what they considered to be 'the best pancake recipe ever'. 

Quite frankly, I agree.
These are really lovely yummy pancakes.

Mindfulness

"It can be easy to rush through life without stopping to notice much.

Paying more attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you – can improve your mental wellbeing.

Some people call this awareness "mindfulness". Mindfulness can help us enjoy life more and understand ourselves better".

Do you remember when, as a child, you spent time studying the most amazing things around you; like all the petals on a daisy, or the legs of a bug, or a bee going in and out of flowers? I suppose once we have pondered these things we have learnt about them and then move onto other new experiences. 

Mindfulness, seems to me to be a case of giving ourselves permission to take 'time' to wonder, to quite literally 'stop and smell the roses', taste the coffee, feel the sun on our faces, and sand between our toes and once in a while be totally in the present. 

Here are a couple of roses from the garden, just to show that there are a very few flowers and not just vegetables. I wish I could send you the smell too, the bird song and the warmth of the sun.

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I think the dyed threads gave me some time just to look at the colours, feel the textures and just revel in their beauty.

Dyeing Threads

Had a most fantastic time dyeing threads.
After the colour had taken they needed rinsing, this took a lot of time and water.
Then to dry them.

Here they are drying in the sun.

The first picture is of some separated, and you can see the large collection of reds and pinks that I dyed together and have not been separated.
It is interesting how the different threads took up different amounts of the dye.



The second picture is of them all washed, separated and drying.
Now, you ask, what am I going to do with all these lovely coloured and textured threads? I really do not know. Any ideas?

Asparagus

This is the time of year when asparagus is being picked and is readily available.
Yum.

The egg is fresh, organic and free range.

Beach Huts

These little beach huts are charming and much sought after. Some can cost as much as a house and they do not have any running water let alone toilets.

They are a good place to make a cup of tea and to shelter from the weather, they make great places to change your clothes in private and to sit and rest and watch the world, or beach, go by.

Hoopy Towel Day Froods.

Don't Panic.
Find your towel and enjoy the rest of the day.


A piece of advice for would-be hitchhikers. A towel is the "most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have", providing warmth and warding off the galaxy's "noxious fumes".




Hoopy Towel Day Froods

Sunset Over The Field

A sunset in May.

Chris

It seem s like just yesterday, when two innocent 18 year olds walked up to the gates of their new college and one said to the other, “if we never talk to each other again, I will be glad that you are here with me at this moment”.

We were friends until last night when cancer took her away.

Wisteria

Did you know that the amazing purple flowers the wisteria plant/tree have the most fantastic scent?
I did not realise this until last weekend. The smell is absolutely divine.

Such a shame this is only a photo and that technology has not been able to capture smell to attach to the photo and then through the computer.

Little Boat In The Sun.

Love this little boat quietly sitting in the sun awaiting its next trip out.

A Florida Sunset

Just a pretty picture.



Looks lovely and good not to remember the no-seeums biting.

Parsnips

Before the potato was introduced to Britain the popular root vegetable eaten was the humble parsnip.
Now that last years have been eaten I have planted more seeds for a crop later this year.

Partridge In The Garden

The poor peas have a lot to contend with. The blackbirds excavate them while searching for worms, the pheasants just plain old like them; and now I have to wonder if the nibbled edges are the work of partridges!
Certainly this one seems perfectly happy strutting in the garden.


















Photo is not good quality as it was through the window.

Delicate Dew

The dew was on all things in the garden.
You can see the tiny droplets on this.
It is so delicate and lacy.
Can you guess what it is?





A dandelion seed head.

Masks

These amazing masks are created by people in Costa Rica from balsa wood.
They are painstakingly drawn on the wood which is then crafted to make the most elaborate masks depicting the flora and fauna from the area.

Can you actually see the mask in this one?

It is here near the bottom.

The masks are displayed and for sale once a year at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota Florida. The money made goes directly to the mask makers and supports their community.

detail.

Early One Morning In May

This morning was one of those beautiful, clear, bright spring mornings.
There was a heavy dew and the sun rose it was just catching the edges of the apple blossom. Too lovely to resist. So, off I wandered with my camera.

Lovely Light

Lovely light shining on the blossom.

Weather

The weather at the weekend was the epitome of the first verse, and today the second verse.

“WEATHERS
This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,
And nestlings fly;
And the little brown nightingale bills his best,
And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,'
And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest,
And citizens dream of the south and west,
And so do I.

This is the weather the shepherd shuns,
And so do I;
When beeches drip in browns and duns,
And thresh and ply;
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe,
And meadow rivulets overflow,
And drops on gate bars hang in a row,
And rooks in families homeward go,
And so do I.”

Thomas Hardy

Some chestnut spikes, these will turn into conkers later in the year.

Saw More Bluebells

Stumbled across this wood, it was fabulous, the hill gave it such perspective.

Hares

Soon the crops will have grown too high to see the hares, so I have been trying to take photos of them before they are hidden by ripening grains.

Hurray For Apple Blossom

The apple trees are beginning to flower, the blossom is mainly in tight buds, however, the petals are shades of pink with the fabulous fresh green of new leaves.

Sunshine Iris

What a difference a week makes, this time last week we were all a little chilly, today we were toasty warm. The sun shone and everything looked so bright.
Just like the song.

Ain't it a glorious day
Right as a mornin' in May
I feel like I could fly
Have you ever seen the grass so green?
Or a bluer sky.

Anyway these iris were splendid in the sunshine.

3 Sisters Planting

This form of planting was used by the American Indians/Native Americans.
The theory is that you let the plants work for you, brilliant!

The Beans provide nitrogen for the sweet corn (maize), the pumpkins provide shade and slow the growth of weeds and the sweet corn acts as a support for the climbing beans.
As I say brilliant.


I put bean seeds in the ground but planted a sweet corn plant and a pumpkin plant that I had growing inside and had been waiting for better weather to plant them out.
Hence you only see the pumpkin in the foreground and the sweet corn, so no beans yet.
Let's hope this super idea works.

Yellow Fields

There are lots of bright yellow fields around at the moment.
These are full of flowering rapeseeds (canola). It looks fabulous, however, as it blooms it is not one of my favourite smells.

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And today was warm enough for ice cream, I decided if I added raspberries it would almost be 'healthy'.

Swifts

There is a saying, "One swallow doesn't make a summer'".
This is true as the swallows arrived a couple of weeks ago and summer certainly did not. With the swallows came the house martins, they are enjoying grabbing mud from the puddles to make their nests.
Then last week came the cuckoo, and today the swifts arrived.
There are, no doubt, many people who are able to tell you which other migratory birds head to this part of Europe to breed in the summer, however, I am now sure that with the arrival of the swifts that summer is on its way.
Not only that, the weather was quite delightful today, if a little breezy.
Here are the swifts.