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Monthly Archives: July 2020

Meeting Friends at the Allotment

Just the best afternoon with friends in months! We laughed and shared stories, we sang and we made videos – great fun! We met in Wendy’s allotment, surrounded by fresh air, beauty and friendship. Enjoy our moments.

Rose arriving at the allotment, wearing one of the masks I made for her

Graham awaiting his treat of a freshly picked pea pod

Californian Poppies, Cornflowers and Honesty

Screen Shot from a video I made of us singing, well spaced, at the moment when the round went wrong!

Wendy very generously gave each of us some produce from the allotment – mine was rhubarb so I have made our delicious family recipe, Different Every Time Pudding for our tea.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 10, 2020 in baking, Beauty, community, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2020

Tags: allotment, Different every time pudding

Orange, Purple and Your Impact

09 Jul

Every year someone plants up a waste corner on the start of our walk with Nasturtiums. This gesture is much appreciated.

The Dwarf Buddleia in one of the chimneys is getting better by the day.

Jane Goodall’s words are spot on.Let’s each make a positive difference.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 9, 2020 in environment, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, quotations, Uncategorized

Tags: dwarf buddleia, Jane Goodall, nasturtium flowers

Little Things, Droplets and Lyra

08 Jul

This came my way the other day and I loved it.

It was very mizzly this morning and the webs along our walk were filled with jewel-like droplets.

I was reminded today of a little treasure of a book, ‘Lyra’s Oxford’ by Philip Pullman that the lovely Mr S gave me many years ago. I read it again this afternoon and loved it still. It is a delight, a little taster of the wonderful ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 8, 2020 in books, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, Uncategorized, Words

Tags: 'Lyra's Oxford' by Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

Bertie, Eryngium and Raspberries

07 Jul

We are meeting the same people on our walks as we have been doing much the same walk each day, with small variations following different side tracks along the Flat Lode. Bertie has become a favourite to meet! He is like a big soft teddy bear, very gentle and well behaved. He is very tall and weighs 37 kilos!

The Eryngium have turned the most striking blue. Each year we think, they aren’t very blue – and then, suddenly they are!

Our raspberries are producing well this year and we are delighted. They are very tasty.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 7, 2020 in environment, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, Uncategorized

Tags: Deer hound

A Very, Very Good Day!

06 Jul

Today, our eldest daughter has come to spend the day with us, the first time since lockdown – and what a day we’ve had. She arrived in her best car, an Audi A8,in glorious red to celebrate our day together.

We went down to Chapel Porth, a family favourite and almost had the beach to ourselves.

We bought Cornish pasties for lunch, of course, and after lunch sat in the sunshine in the garden enjoying each other’s company.

M, like me, has a passion for making and story telling – it runs in the family. She has made some lovely 3D pieces for us and this evening has made a new button for our loo. It was lost some years ago and today, M has 3D printed us a new part. She brought her 3D printer down especially to do this job and it has been fascinating to watch the whole process.

Above is the prototype starting to be printed and the final piece is below.

The only one like this in the world!

To celebrate further, I made a new recipe, Blueberry and Cream Cheese Crostata and it was truly delicious.

14 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 6, 2020 in baking, Chapel Porth, Cornwall, environment, Happiness, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, Uncategorized

Tags: 3D printing, Blueberry and Cream Cheese Crostata, Yottam Ottolenghi

Poppy, Walk and Help?

05 Jul

Another Poppy is blooming. At breakfast time it popped out of its sepals and later in the day was fully open. As the sun left that part of the garden, it closed up again.

Opening

Fully open

Our walk today was very blustery! Join us going up to the Flat Lode Trail with a view of Carn Brea, past the St Uny engine house and back home.

St Uny Engine house from the back

St Uny Engine house

We have a problem in the edible trough. A little Viola plant died last week, just went limp and gave up the ghost. Yesterday, all was well with the rest of the Viola border and today – another plant seems to have died. Any ideas? The trough is damp, everything else, lettuces and the rest of the Violas seem fine…….

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 5, 2020 in architecture, Carn Brea, Cornwall, environment, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2020, Tin mining history

Tags: St Uny Engine House, violas

Fire, Fresh Veg and A Cake

04 Jul

It was so cold last night that we lit the woodburner, in July!

Warmth

All the vegetables tonight came from our raised beds – potatoes, Mangetouts, Dwarf Beans and Curly Kale and for dessert, Chocolate Mud Cake with just picked Raspberries.

Mangetout flower

Purple Mangetout

Dwarf Beans and Mangetout

Curly Kale

Newly dug potatoes

Instead of layering up the cake I made with T earlier, I froze one half which today I have defrosted and iced to have with our raspberries.

Decorated with Violas from the edible trough garden

Homegrown raspberries

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 4, 2020 in baking, garden, nature, Photography, Postaday2020

Tags: Cristina's Chocolate Mud Cake, Curly kale, dwarf beans, edible flowers, mangetout

Mum’s Chimneys, Full of Colour

03 Jul

I said yesterday that I would show you Mum’s chimney collection which I inherited so here they are in the order in which you would see them if you were to visit us in our garden. You would be so welcome, Dear Reader!

Steps up to the garden, lined with various Mints, Lavenders and Vanilla Nemesias – scented all the way

Heliotrope and Vanilla Nemesia at the bottom of the steps leading up to the garden

Chives and Garlic Chives

Heliotrope and Vanilla Nemesia at the bottom of the steps leading up to the garden

Petunias, lime green on bottom patio

Begonia on the slate patio

Dwarf Buddliea at the top of the steps

Dwarf Buddliea at the other side at the top of the steps

Begonia at the back of the vegetable garden path

Begonias on the way to the vegetable garden

Begonia on one side of the arbour on the back sitting area

Begonia on the other side of the arbour on the back sitting area

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 3, 2020 in Beauty, environment, garden, Happiness, nature, Photography, Postaday2020

Tags: Begonia, chives, Dwarf buddliea, garlic chives, heliotrope., Nemesia, Petunias

Begonia, Borage and Bugs

02 Jul

Mum’s chimneys are so full of flowers this year, just glorious.I’ll do a whole post devoted to chimneys soon while they are in glorious flower. Mum would be proud, wonderful gardener that she was. After she left teaching, of deaf babies, she refused to write ‘retired’ on any forms and wrote ‘Gardener ‘with pride.

The Borage in the edible trough is flowering. I love adding the flowers to salads and to gin, when we have any in!

I spotted a couple of interesting bugs today, firstly a Shield Bug (I think) on the raspberries. We have only ever seen green ones before but think we have identified this one as a Hairy Shield Bug. Can they choose their colour depending on where they are like some magical spiders?

Hairy Shield Bug

The next was a luminescent green creature which I think I have identified as a Thick Legged Flower Beetle, a fairly boring name for such a wonderfully coloured creature.