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Monthly Archives: April 2015

Reflection, Shadow and Primrose

Don’s blog, read early this morning, touched a chord and even before my breakfast I had spotted three beautiful things!

1 The sun catching a beautiful piece of green glass that was my Granny’s and throwing light onto the window edge.

Reflected sunlight

2 Those of you who know my copper Monkey Planter, made by Jeremy Beswick, will recognise this shadow thrown by the early morning sunshine.

Monkey shadow

3 A fallen Primrose with its soft furry stem lies on the stone wall.

Primrose

P.S. I love the serendipity of the colour tones that sometimes happen in my posts. It happened yesterday and it has again today. There is no artifice in this! It truly is serendipty – I don’t even notice it until I look at the preview and then it pleases me – another beautiful thing!

16 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 30, 2015 in Beauty, environment, nature, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: Jeremy Beswick artist, shadow

Akebia Quinata, Raindrop and Malus Blossom

29 Apr

Between our garden and next door is a fabulous plant called Akebia quinata (Chocolate Vine or Five-leaf Akebia) a shrub that is native to Japan, China and Korea. It scrambles over the fence and at this time of year produces lots of tiny purple flowers that are supposed to smell of chocolate but that has eluded me so far.

Akebia Quinata

2 Lupin leaves collect the rain and the raindrop catches all the angles of the leaves.

Lupin Leaf with raindrop

3 Our Crab Apple, Malus Evereste, has lots of blossom.

Malus Evereste blossom

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 29, 2015 in Beauty, environment, garden, nature, photography

Tags: Akebia Quinata, Chocolate Vine, Malus Evereste, raindrop

Dendrites, Narcissi and The Weird People

28 Apr

Our patio is getting its annual clean with pressure washing. I’m like a big kid playing with the water. I love it every Spring when the Dendritic patterns are revealed again. Cornwall is very damp and a green film grows over the stones over the winter and it’s like magic when there they are again, so delicate and pretty! I used to think they were fossilised ferns but no…… “Dendrite Limestone (sometimes called picture stone or painted stone) is an amazing original work of art by Mother Nature. The patterns occur naturally due to the presence of iron and manganese oxide Dendrites. Dendrites are the branch-like formations of manganese oxide crystallising within the limestone.”

Fern like patterns

More Fern like patterns

2 The lovely Mr S brought me some beautiful flowers to help chase away the virus.

Narcissi

3 This delightful blackboard came my way today. Thanks, Rachel – spot on!

Blessed are the weird people – Jacob Nordby

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 28, 2015 in Beauty, nature, photography, Postaday 2015

Tags: Dendrite Limestone, iron and manganese oxide Dendrites, Jacob Nordby, narcissi

Weekly Photo Challenge – Motion 2

28 Apr

Last Mid Summer Solstice, jumping the flames as part of the Mid Summer ritual. I love how the stripes are all blurry showing the speed with which the jump is made. What a joyful celebration it was!

Jumping the flames

For others in this Challenge, click here.

10 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 28, 2015 in Beauty, photography, Postaday 2015, Weekly photo challenge

Tags: Mid Summer solstice, Weekly Photo Challenge - Motion

Bee, Fly, Knitting and ShelterBox

27 Apr

1 I fed a tired and possibly cold, bee some sugar syrup this morning and we were very relieved to see it fly away later on. Look carefully and you can see it drinking from the spoon.

Bee sipping sugar solution

2 A fly settled on the tarpaulin I was working on this morning. I have never seen one like it with its orange patches on the wings and orange tipped feet. I have tried to look it up and would be delighted if someone could identify it for me.

Unidentified fly

Our lovely neighbour’s niece is expecting her first baby any day now and the first size Sally-boots are ready.

Sally-boots

I have mentioned Nepal in my last two posts. I just heard that our Cornish based charity, ShelterBox, is on the ground already and assessing how they can help. They had a deployment of boxes in the area so will be able to provide help quickly. They are a wonderful charity. Look them up here . I am so deeply moved by this tragedy having fallen in love with the place and its people on our visit in 2013. Here is the Durbar Square as we saw it and a photo from ShelterBox.

Durbar Square 2013

Durbar Square after the quake

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 27, 2015 in Beauty, knitting, nature, Nepal, photography, Postaday 2015, ShelterBox

Tags: Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Sally-boots, ShelterBox

Weekly Photo Challenge – Motion

27 Apr

In honour of our fellow human beings in Nepal who are suffering in the terrible earthquake, I give you a gallery of ‘motion’ pictures taken when we were lucky enough to visit in October 2013. Beautiful people, beautiful country. My heart goes out to them all. Click on any photo for detail and the caption.

Street food moving from ladle to plate

Trying to catch the motion of the child’s windmill and getting the motion of a scooter as well

Crossing the street

Children swinging. We saw these swings erected all the way on our journey between Kathmandu and Pokhara

Trying to stop the weight of his cart taking him faster down the hill than he would wish

Moving slowly uphill with a heavy load

Elegant motion through the water of the lake at Pokhara

Bike, motor bike and Tuc Tuc on the move

Family on the motorbike, truck and bus

Family on a scooter and young men on a tractor, moving in opposite directions

For others in this week’s Challenge, click https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/motion/ .

13 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 27, 2015 in Beauty, Nepal, photography, Postaday 2015, Weekly photo challenge

Tags: Weekly Photo Challenge - Motion

Car Boot Sale, Potting On and Today’s Poem

26 Apr

This morning we went off to the car-boot sale to see if we could find plants we are looking for – some Verbena Bonariensis and some Lupins. We found both. I am always on the hunt for fine bone china beakers and today I found a very pretty one for 50p! There is a little ivy leaf inside too.

New beaker

I have spent all afternoon potting on some plug plants of Cosmos, all white ones as we love the look of white flowers in evening summer sunlight.

Potted on seedlings

Today’s poem in my book, Poem of the Day, is one I learned by heart as a child and which has a special resonance for me.

Home Thoughts, from Abroad by Robert Browning

O, To be in England
Now that April ‘s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
That ‘s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 26, 2015 in Beauty, garden, nature, photography, poetry, Postaday 2015

Tags: gardening, Home Thoughts From Abroad, potting on, Robert Browning

Humanist Wedding, Man on a Bike and Dessert

25 Apr

I loved my whole teaching career and when I retired I never dreamed that I would be so lucky to have this job of conducting special and unique Ceremonies for happy people! Today saw the Wedding Ceremony of a young Swedish couple and it was just lovely. They have promised to send me some photos that I can put on here but I did just manage to snatch one as they walked up the aisle together afterwards. It was a new experience for me to have the vows repeated in Swedish. All fifty guests had come over from Sweden for the event.

After the Ceremony

2 As we were waiting for the Ceremony to begin, I noticed a biker on the cliffs, balancing his bike on a boulder and making an intriguing silhouette.

Biker on the Headland, Newquay

3 I saw a board outside a hotel in Falmouth the other day saying – “Did you know that stressed backwards is desserts?” I decided that a dessert was on the cards today as the lovely Mr S has been battling a nasty virus for a week and I am struggling to beat it off so I decided that we both needed some quality comfort food. Rhubarb Butterscotch certainly fits that bill! If the photos tempt you, the recipe can be found here. Click on any photo for the caption.

Fresh eggs, from our friends’ chickens, one with double yolk

3 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup soft brown sugar with 2 dstspns flour mixed with the 2 eggs

Batter poured over the rhubarb

Cooked and ready to eat!

My heart goes out to all the people affected by the terrible earthquake in Nepal, such a beautiful country with beautiful and generous people. We bought a Shelterbox recently and I would be pleased to discover that our box is going out to help the people of Kathmandu.

16 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 25, 2015 in Beauty, Cornwall, Food, Happiness, Humanist ceremony, photography, Postaday 2015, Wedding

Tags: nepal, Rhubarb Butterscotch Pie, ShelterBox, wedding ceremony

Baby Sweater, April Morning and Rain

24 Apr

Yesterday I was given a beautifully knitted sweater for KnitZTanzania, knitted by T, the lovely Mother of a very good friend. I am working on one myself and encouraging others to knit so that we can send off another bundle to stop babies in Tanzania dying of hypothermia. The pattern is on my Creative Projects page, takes only 50g of yarn and is very easy.

T’s beautiful little baby sweater

2 April mornings are so beautiful with sunshine and showers, Spring blossoms and bird song. I love this poem!

Morning – Sara Teasdale

I went out on an April morning
All alone, for my heart was high,
I was a child of the shining meadow,
I was a sister of the sky.

There in the windy flood of morning
Longing lifted its weight from me,
Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering,
Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.

3 And today we have showers! We haven’t had any rain for a long time and the garden really needs it. In this photo you can see two of the chimneys that I plant up, a squat ridged creamy stone one and a tall elegant terracotta one. You can also see our beautiful Fledgling, the Malus just coming into flower with underneath Primroses and some spikes of a lovely blue flower whose name escapes me. In the foreground are some of the beautiful white tulips I showed you recently. On the left is the bird lighthouse where Blue Tits have been visiting but we don’t know if they have decided to nest there this year.

Our back garden in the rain

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 24, 2015 in Beauty, environment, garden, knitting, nature, photography, poetry, Postaday 2015

Tags: bird house, KnitzTanzania, Morning - Sara Teasdale

Singing, Clematis and A Special Concert

23 Apr

It has been a day full of singing! First it was the Thursday session with The Suitcases which was brilliant as always and where we sang a couple of songs as possibles for the Wedding I am conducting on 20th July where the couple want a small choir to sing for them. We will need 10/12 to volunteer. Here is a taste of Shoshone Love Song for you.

Thanks to Kenn for the recording.

Our Choir-Baby E was engrossed in her drawing today.

Choir baby E

2 The Clematis on the front fence has been in bud for what seems like weeks and today, suddenly, there were lots of beautiful blooms.

Clematis flowering in the front garden

3 This afternoon, The Ingleheart Singers, my other choir whom you may have listened to on Monday, did a concert at a local Care Home and it was an utter delight. We sang some Cornish songs which were much appreciated and several of the old people joined in, all the words and the tunes coming back to them and obviously giving them great pleasure. We also have a war-time medley that we did for the Heligan event last summer and those too had people joining in. One old lady was laughing and singing along and clearly enjoying the concert. I was told later that she usually spends much of her day weeping but today we brought her laughter and some happiness.