I have been sorting through all my foodie magazines, cutting out favourites and decluttering the rest. I came across this recipe for biscuits with the most delightful name, Snickerdoodles, common in USA I think but not here in the UK. As I typed the name in to tell my neighbour that there were some waiting for her on her doorstep, my iPhone knew exactly what I was starting to write!
ClothKitty has a new bow in her hair (to disguise the small hole.) She looks pleased with it!
The geranium in the front garden has been gorgeous and I am loving how there is a smile of petals on the pebbles.
On the Jostaberry bush at the allotment, we spotted a pretty spider.I think it may be a Crab Spider. Perhaps someone out there knows……
When we returned home, the post had been delivered but as I moved the inner curtain to pick up the letters, there was a visitor sitting on an envelope, a little Common Toad! We’ve put him back in the garden but cannot imagine how he got in…..
A pot-full of various poppies has flowered and is lovely.
Michael  Rosen has written a pastiche of Lewis Carroll’s poem, Jabberwocky, a longtime favourite and we love it! It takes the mickey out of recent events in UK politics concerning a video, an affair and a resignation
This came to me via a tweet and some final letters are missing but I hope they don’t spoil your enjoyment.
We’ve had heavy rain all day but the border outside the kitchen is still bright and colourful. The Winter Flowering Pansies just go on and on! Perhaps that tells you something about our temperatures this Spring and Summer.
Taken through a rainy window
I listened to BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please this afternoon and heard a young poet talking. She is Cecilia Knapp and she is the The Young People’s Laureate for London. Her choices were very pleasing and I particularly like one  by another poet new to me, Caroline Bird. I loved this one, Checkout, that she chose and will seek out more by this poet and those by Cecilia Knapp. What a lovely gentle sense of humour and expression of love is shown in this one. .
Another poem Cecilia Knapp chose was Crossing the Bar by Tennyson. We sing a beautiful version of this with The Ingleheart Singers. Here is just one verse.
The bees are loving my Cosmos border planted to be pollinators at the allotment.
Our local fish stall opened their new shop today and what a wonderful display of fresh Newlyn fish! The beautiful spotty one on the right is a Balan Wrasse. I bought one of the Bream and had it filleted for tomorrow.
My lovely neighbour took me down there as it was a special opening day and Chef George was outside cooking up a wonderful Paella. We had the offered taste and it was so delicious, we each bought some takeaway for later.
Yesterday’s walk offered so many photo opportunities. Here is the lovely front door of the Manor House.
I just love this lichen covered bench set on a rather precarious slope.
Much of today has been damp and mizzly so I spent my time making ClothKitty another set of clothes – a skirt (which was cut out many years ago) and finished off a rather natty waistcoat (I had done the binding but not been able to find the time to finish it 40+ years ago with four little ones to look after.)
Come with us around some new gardens we discovered this afternoon thanks to our lovely friends who told us about it at singing this morning. Click on any image for a bigger view.
Can anyone identify this lovely plant?
An original 18th century stone seat
Tea and coffee house with delicious home made cakes and an honesty box
He really wanted some of our cake but we thought it probably wouldn’t be good for him!
Magical walkway……
Grasses
Can anyone identify this rather peculiar plant?
Tree ferns
Look very, very carefully for the blue streaks and you’ll see a pair of dragonflies
I first made Cloth Kitty about 40 years ago and am now revamping her for the younger LiveWires. This is her in one of the outfits I made then and today I made her a lovely dressing gown. I’ll show you the new outfits as I get them done. They are very fiddly. I need to mend a little hole in her head too. I’m told LiveWire no 5’s favourite colour is red so I plan on embroidering a little red bow.
I had a sudden fancy for some Choc Chip Cookies this afternoon – they don’t take long to make. I added some chopped up crystallised ginger which made them super delicious!
There were just enough Purple Mange Tout at the allotment for us to harvest this evening and a baby courgette all of which I added to our mixed veggies risotto for supper – healthy and delicious!
We have brought in one of our roses which was beaten down by yesterday’s wild weather. It smells glorious and looks lovely in a piece of Mum’s green glass.
For all my fellow logophiles, here is a wonderful word that came my way today.
Brian Bilston, a poet whose works I really enjoy, has given me permission to share this one with you today. I love the imagination which took me on a walk through our favourite independent bookshop in Penzance.Thank you, Brian. This is magical.
In 2013 some of our choir walked from Lands End to St Just, inspired by the March of the Women, 100 years before, who walked from Land’s End to London demanding Votes for Women. Tonight, in the atrium of the Eco Park we sang March of the Women, conducted by our leader, Claire, using a toothbrush.
Ethel Smyth’s rousing March of the Women was composed in 1910 to words by Cicely Hamilton, with a tune adapted from a traditional Italian melody. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) introduced it as the official anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union and it became associated with the suffrage movement more generally. Info from the British Library
In 1911 it was sung on Pall Mall in celebration of the release from prison of a number of activists. The following year, the conductor Thomas Beecham (1879–1961) apparently heard it sung in Holloway Prison, where Smyth and Pankhurst were imprisoned and it is said that Ethel Smyth conducted the imprisoned women singing at their windows, using her toothbrush as a baton.  Some of you know that my Great Granny was a Suffragette imprisoned and force fed in Holloway. I like to think she may have known and sung this song.
Two of our lovely choir members with whom I sing in the tenor section. I have permission to use their photos in my blog post.
There was a rueful smile when I saw this cartoon.
Covid rules in England say choirs can only sing outdoors in groups of no more than 30, all socially distanced. Have you seen/heard any football matches recently? 🙂
