Poppy petals bursting out of their sepal
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Monthly Archives: May 2015
Berberis, Surfers and Evening Sun
1 The sky was blue and the Berberis flowers golden in today’s sunshine.
Arch of Berberis
2 Porthtowan this evening was beautiful. After supper at The Blue Bar we strolled on the beach, watched the fishermen waiting patiently, listened to the repetitious rush of the surf on the shingle and watched a father and son walking together up the beach after surfing.
Surfers returning
3 Shooting right into the sun made a lovely parabolic sunbeam.
Sun coming down
Edibles, Colour and Scent
1 We have a new raised bed just outside the kitchen where I am growing edible flowers and small salad leaves. So far the Rocket and Pak Choi have sprouted, the Nasturtiums are doing well and the Violas are pretty – I did buy them as flowering plants..
The new raised bed for edibles
2 The front garden is full of colour and is lovely as you approach the house……….
Colourful patch in the front garden
3 ………… and the best thing is that it all smells divine too. The Wallflowers are really strong, the Bluebells have a quite heady scent when all together and the Clematis Montana Elizabeth smells a bit vanillary. I wish you could share in the sensory delight!
Clematis Montana Elizabeth
Happiness, Clematis and New Garden Sculpture
We have a perpetual calendar and these are today’s words which I like.
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared” Budda
Be kind, be happy.
2 We bought a new Clematis yesterday, Miss Bateman, and it is very lovely. It is named after Catharine Bateman, the daughter of orchid specialist James Bateman and was warded RHS First Class Certificate in 1869. It seems that earwigs eat the flowers so we will have to keep an eye on her.
Miss Bateman
3 You may have seen my photo of a rather quirky kinetic sculpture of two little Woodpeckers a couple of days ago. When we went back to the Nursery yesterday, I bought it, so now, here it is in our garden! Do you ever do that? Fall for something but don’t buy it and then go back, on tenterhooks, in case someone else has got there before you?
Two little Woodpeckers
One Sheep, A Windmill and Another Lane
After a morning working in the garden, we went back to one of the nurseries we had visited yesterday, driving again through lovely Cornish countryside. Here is a lone windmill, a lone sheep on a hill and us alone on a narrow Cornish lane with Bluebells and Pink Campions. All photos taken from the moving car. Peace and love to you all.
Lone sheep on the hill
Single windmill
Cornish lane
Plant a Tree for Hope and A Gallery of Beauty
My blog is for the Beautiful Things that I find around me every day and I have found some, of which more later. We have spent the day driving in our beautiful county of Cornwall, looking for a tree to plant in our garden, not in memory of someone we have lost but in the name of hope for the future, despite the fact that we are to have a Conservative government for another five years. So much of our social fabric has been destroyed over the last five years that first thing this morning, all we all felt was despair but we have to bounce back, organise and care for each other. In the words of a friend “It’s a perfect opportunity to practise loving kindness, compassion, service, smiling and being kind – even in adverse circumstances.”
Now, a gallery of today’s beauty. Click on any photo for detail or the caption. All these things have made me smile.
Blue-tit at our feeders this morning
Cornish lane with Bluebells
Fading Bluebells
Delightful Woodpecker sculpture
Bewildered owl
Anyone know what this is?
Charming owl
Bluebells in St Austell
Our new Bay Tree
Bee inside a Rhododendron flower
Election Day, Swans and A Tulip
It’s Election Day here in the UK and my Suffragette Garden, in purple, white and green is doing its bit this morning. I planted it to honour my Great Granny who was a Suffragette and who was force fed in Holloway for her actions to get women the vote.
Aquilega
Clematis
New Birch leaves
2 After singing this morning – always uplifting and good for the soul – N,G and I watched a pair of swans on the Penryn River where the tide was nearly out. They were trying so hard to take off! One nearly made it, leaving the mud but quickly landing back in the water and swimming back round to its mate who hadn’t got airborne. Just look at the mud on the one that hasn’t been back in the water yet!
Swan
The pair, one very muddy
3 The tulips in the Suffragette Garden are lovely too but I got the timing wrong. The white ones have been and gone and now the purple Parrots are in flower.
Parrot Tulip
Contrasts, Rhubarb and Jenny Joseph
1 The Cornus Controverta Variegata leaves contrast beautifully with the new Fennel growth.
Cornus Controverta variegata
2 We have picked our first sticks of Rhubarb and what a glorious colour they are.
Beautiful rhubarb
3 Jenny Joseph is well know for her delightful poem, ‘Warning’ which is well known and begins
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
Today’s poem in my Poem for the Day is also by her and pleases me greatly. Here is “The Sun Has Burst The Sky”
The sun has burst the sky
Because I love you
And the river its banks.The sea laps the great rocks
Because I love you
And takes no heed of the moon dragging it away
And saying coldly ‘Constancy is not for you’.
The blackbird fills the air
Because I love you
With spring and lawns and shadows falling on lawns.The people walk in the street and laugh
I love you
And far down the river ships sound their hooters
Crazy with joy because I love you.
This is for the lovely Mr Smith whom I met in late October 1966 and married fewer than 10 months later in August 1967.
Sewing, Candle and Crackers
1 My new project is to embellish duvet covers for one of our Live-wires (can’t really call them the Grand-babies any more as they are all growing up – 2,4,6 and 7 years old). Live-wire B, who has just turned two, is about to move into her cot-bed and I am sorting out her new duvet covers. More about the project as it develops. Today has been spent tacking!
My ongoing project
2 We had a candle on the hob this evening and it made a lovely reflection in the black glass.
Candle on the hob
3 This delightful photo came to me via a friend today. Thank you!
Bring cheese and crackers!
Glendurgan Gardens, Bluebells and A Maze
It’s Bluebell time and I had heard that the Bluebells in the Gardens of Glendurgan are stunning so off we went. I just have to say here, for those who know about my hip replacement, that to set off without a stick, to be able to stomp about wherever I want, to walk right down the valley to the beach and back makes me so very happy! Please enjoy the walk with us. Click on any photo for the caption and an enlargement.
Fallen petals
Stone pattern around the drain
Bluebells
Unfurling ferns
The huge Tulip Tree
Looking up into the Tulip Tree
Looking up into the Tulip Tree2
English Bluebell
Banks of Bluebells
Bluebells and Primroses
The Glendurgan Maze
Cherry trees
Robin
Beautiful leaves of the Primrose plant
Durgan Village School, now a home. Just imagine the view!
Post Box Cottage in the village of Durgan
These two walls mark the old Cattle Rush where the cattle were driven down to the stream to drink.
Another bank of Bluebells
Beautiful bark
New growth
Twisted bark
