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Monthly Archives: March 2018

Ladybird, Kernow Rock and More Minton Tiles

A Ladybird visited us this morning. It was very tiny, less that 5mm in length and very busy. It was hard to catch a photo as it rarely stood still.

10-spot Ladybird
f. decempuncata

I spotted something pink under one of the Welly Dogs in town this morning and discovered a Kernow Rock. Small decorated rocks are being hidden all over Cornwall, waiting to be found and re-hidden for someone else to find. I shall take it out with me tomorrow……

A Kernow rock

Here are the other two antique Minton tiles being used to decorate our veg trug.

Antique Minton tile-tree chopping

Ploughing

A comment was made that a veg trug was a new idea so here is the trug, not a beautiful picture as the stones are awaiting their Spring wash, but as it is!

The veg trug

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 31, 2018 in antiques, Beauty, community, Cornwall, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2018, Uncategorized

Tags: #KernowRocks, vegetable trug

Minton Tiles, Lettuces and Spring Flowers

30 Mar

It has been a glorious sunny Spring day and I have spent much of it in the garden, tidying up and doing a bit of planting as the lovely Mr S continues to get the boat ready for launch next week. I have cleared out the veg trug and collected several old tiles from around the garden, all of which were my Mum’s and I have decorated the trug with the Minton tiles. I’ll show you the others another day.

Scattering seeds

Knife sharpening

I have planted some herbs and half a dozen lettuces. I buy ‘living lettuce’ plants from the super-market and plant them as we don’t have a greenhouse to raise our own baby plants from seed. They have been very successful in the past.

Lettuces

I picked a lovely little bunch of Spring flowers for Easter weekend.

My Easter flowers

A sad P.S. Our friend J was right in his thoughts that our little Bullfinch might be poorly. I checked on the RSPB website and discovered the problem. They advise removing all sources of food and water for three weeks so that the infection won’t be passed on and sterilising the feeders (which we do clean regularly). So, there won’t be any bird photos for a while. Thanks to J for pointing us in the right direction.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 30, 2018 in antiques, art, Beauty, ceramics, environment, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2018

Tags: antique Minton tiles, Muscari, primroses, rosemary

An Elastic Band, A Poem and A Country Lane

29 Mar

Walking back from a lovely singing session with The Suitcases Singers, I spotted a heart on the pavement. I sometimes think passers-by must think I am crazy, taking the oddest of photos!

Heart from an elastic band

Spring seems to be arriving as the softness of light has today replaced the winter grey

Early Spring by Rainer Maria Rilke

Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,

hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.

And a Cornish lane for you, albeit with some winter grey about it. I’ll find a sunny one as soon as I can!

A lane on my way home

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 29, 2018 in Beauty, environment, nature, Photography, poetry, Postaday2018, Uncategorized

Tags: Early Spring, Rainer Maria Rilke

Fridge Front, Hedgerow Top and Side

28 Mar

Yesterday, after posting the beautifully decorated Singer sewing machine, someone commented about the lack of decoration on white goods in general. I thought I would show you our fridge which we decorate with words and pictures that please us – remind us of somewhere or someone, or which are statements that we agree with. There’s a LiveWire handprint, a tiny piece of pottery from the wedding of friends, the photo of mine which was printed in the Guardian, a Suffragette poster and bits of art that we like…….

Magnets on our fridge

Every year the Primroses on top of a Cornish hedge on my walk up from town please me – so many and so delicate.

Primroses

A bit further up the lane these two beauties were waving in the wind.

Shelagh knows the name of these Narcissi! Pheasant Eye?

Macro, Mini and A Singer

27 Mar

I love getting really close up photos of flowers and raindrops. The Fritillaria Meleagris flower held the drops beautifully.

Macro water droplets

We went to visit an old friend today who asked us to bring nothing but I picked this mini bouquet of little flowers from our garden and she loved them. I took them in a little jam jar so that she didn’t need to be bothered finding a vase.

Mini bouquet for Margaret

While Mr S was looking for jeans in a shop in Truro today, I discovered this beautiful old Singer sewing machine on the floor.

Singer sewing machine

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 27, 2018 in Beauty, friendship, nature, Photography, Postaday2018

Tags: Fritillaria Meleagris, macro

Robin, Gardening and A Useful New Word

26 Mar

I caught one of the Robins on Welly Dog’s head this morning.

Robin and Welly Dog

The sun shone again for a while this morning and I planted up the herbs in my vegetable trug. As the rain came in this afternoon I read my new book. The following, from Cicero, is especially for my blogger friends with whom I share a love of gardening – and reading!

Garden and Library

What a wonderful word Scurryfunge is! It certainly has a place in our household! Does it in yours?

Scurryfunge

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 26, 2018 in Beauty, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2018, Words

Tags: scurryfunge

Cut Flowers, Fritillaria and St George

25 Mar

The rain stopped, the sun came out and I went out to rescue Narcissi that had been beaten down by the wind and rain. They have recovered well and smell exquisite.

Garden flowers

I needed some cloches for my vegetable trug so that I can get some salad stuff started so we went off to another Garden Centre this afternoon and found some of the lovely Mr S’s favourite flowers, Fritillaria Meleagris.

Bringing some new flowers home

In the car park, there is a fabulous old tree that has been carved into a sculpture of St George and the Dragon. Just look at that blue sky! We haven’t seen many like that over the winter.

St George and the Dragon

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 25, 2018 in art, Beauty, Cornwall, environment, nature, Postaday2018, sculpture

Tags: Fritillaria Meleagris, st george and the dragon

Labels, Seeds and a Good Read

24 Mar

British Summer Time begins tomorrow as we put our clocks forward tonight so it felt appropriate to start planning our summer garden. Off we went to the Garden Centre. First I found some pleasing terracotta labels for the vegetable patch.

Labels for the veg

We found lots of flower seeds – below are the Viola seeds for the vegetable trough near the kitchen where I plant salad stuffs, some herbs and these little flowers that are brilliant for decorating salads and desserts.

Seeds for the trough

I’ve just finished reading Sebastian Barry’s amazing novel, ‘Days Without End’. He writes in a most accessible yet surprising style, full of lyricism and humour that catches the reader unawares. There are so many little quotations that caught my imagination and some of which are now in my note book. I love the following with its alliteration and unexpectedness. “Your brain is molten in its bowl of bones.”
If you haven’t read it, give it a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I think you may be horrified and delighted in equal measure. If you have read it, please let me know what you thought in the comments below.

A cracking good read!

P.S. We haven’t seen our little Bullfinch today. In fact, it has been a very odd day with no birds at the feeders. For the first time this Winter/Spring, the feeders have stayed full all day.

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 24, 2018 in Beauty, garden, Happiness, History, Photography, Postaday2018

Tags: Days Without End, Sebastian Barry

Another Quiet Day and Our Baby Bullfinch

23 Mar

Regular readers will have seen various recent posts showing you the beautiful baby Bullfinch who has been hanging around in our garden. We have become quite concerned about him as he often stayed too long in any one spot and didn’t seem too sure about what to do at the feeders. This morning, I put some sunflower hearts and mealworms on the grass for him as I had seem him in the same place for an hour or more. He didn’t move as I approached, just opened his beak in that baby gaping way as if I were his Mum bringing him food.

This is how close he came to me

I was able to get down to his level and use my macro. Click on the photo and zoom in to see his beautiful feathers. He seems to have some seed heads stuck in his chest and I continued to be worried about him.

Beautiful feathers

Our baby Bullfinch

Later, there were two Magpies feeding at the table who then, suddenly, made a dive for my baby. I chased them off but am not sure if I shouldn’t have let Nature have its way. I came back to the kitchen a couple of hours later and he was no longer anywhere to be seen and he hasn’t turned up in the subsequent hours. I’ll let you know if I find him………..