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Category Archives: nature

Plaits, Poppies and The Summer Exhibition

I love being able to plait hair again! When LiveWire T’s Mum was little she used to insist on an odd number of plaits and each one had to have a different coloured ribbon – sometimes seven plaits and all the colours of the rainbow.

On the way to school this morning we spotted pansies in a front garden.Today’s feast of art was at The Royal Academy for The Summer Exhibition. Here are some of our favourites.

By Bob and Roberta Smith

Poupee Bleue by Abdoulaye Konate

Untitled Throne, decommissioned arms by Gonçalo Mabunda

Bob and Roberta Smith

Alter Ego – two silver plated objects, one flattened by a 250 ton press, hanging on threads. Cornelia ParkerDetail from Swell by Sara Dodd. So delicate and made of porcelain, looking like sheets of filo pastry.

This was our absolute favourite, bronze and aluminium, called Silent Journey by Ann Christopher.

I could keep posting for ever tonight!

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 20, 2017 in art, Beauty, ceramics, flowers, Grandchildren, painting, Photography, postaday2017, sculpture, Uncategorized

Tags: Bob and Roberta Smith, Cornelia Parker, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Sara Dodd

Pinks , Purples and A Spanish Poem

14 Jun

Our garden has lots of pinks and purples at the moment and the contrast of orange here and there.

? grasses

Nasturtium

Heliotrope

Carnation

Alium

Eryngium

The Moon Comes Forth
By Federico García Lorca
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

When the moon is out
The bells die away
And impenetrable
Paths come to the fore.

When the moon is out
Water covers land
And the heart feels itself
An island in infinity.

No one eats oranges
Under the full moon.
It is right to eat
Green, chilled fruit.

When the moon is out
With a hundred faces all the same,
Coins of silver
Start sobbing in the pocket.

The Original:

La Luna Asoma

Cuando sale la luna
se pierden las campanas
y aparecen las sendas
impenetrables.

Cuando sale la luna,
el mar cubre la tierra
y el corazón se siente
isla en el infinito.

Nadie come naranjas
bajo la luna llena.
Es preciso comer,
fruta verde y helada.

Cuando sale la luna
de cien rostros iguales,
la moneda de plata
solloza en el bolsillo.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 14, 2017 in Beauty, environment, garden, nature, Photography, poetry, postaday2017

Tags: Federico García Lorca, The Moon Comes Forth, Translated by A.Z. Foreman

Jacket, Broccoli and Painted Biscuits

13 Jun

I wish my patchwork jacket were as bright when dry! My special friend, Kath, for whom this blog is written, had one of these jackets too.

The veins on the Purple Sprouting broccoli are turning purple.

It is a year since Jo Cox, MP, was murdered and in celebration of her belief that we have more in common, many, many people are taking part in The Great Get Together this weekend. We will be in London and will be unable to join in with our local Allotment Society’s Barbecue Get together so this afternoon I have baked some biscuits to be taken down as our contribution to the party. I found the flower cutters a few weeks ago and saved their first use for these painted biscuits.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 13, 2017 in baking, Beauty, Celebration, community, friendship, nature, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: Jo Cox

Everlasting Sweet Peas, Bird House and Bee

12 Jun

My walk today took me on a different route where there was a whole hedge of Everlasting Sweet Peas. They look gorgeous but sadly have no perfume.

I loved this little bird house in a garden along the lane.

Bees could be heard all along the way and I caught this one busily collecting nectar.

Today I have had a really lovely job, collating all the wonderful comments sent in about our event, Until the Day Break, set in St Euny Churchyard. The only complaint was that we had sold out and someone couldn’t get tickets! I’ll share some of them with you later. Click on the red link to see some photos of the event.

Marmalade, John Masefield and Alstroemeria

10 Jun

We bought our Seville Oranges for marmalade in February but froze the oranges as we were too busy to make it so yesterday we set to and made two batches of the glorious golden stuff. Making it, smelling it boiling, always takes me back to my childhood to the kitchen in Daniell Road, Truro, when my parents used to make enough to last the whole year. Today, I labelled the jars and here they are. The tiny jars are for Breakfast-in-Bed treats!

I was wondering why John Masefield’s poem had come into my head this morning and, as I wrote the above paragraph, realised that the poem and the marmalade making memories belong to the same era! I had to learn this poem by heart when in the top class at Bosvigo Junior School, aged about 11. I loved it then and I do now – it’s the rhythm, the alliteration, the assonance and the sheer magic of the exotic words. I never did like the last verse as much as the first two.

Cargoes

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

John Masefield

These Alstroemeria flowers are the lovely Mr S’s favourites.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 10, 2017 in Beauty, Food, nature, Photography, poetry, postaday2017

Tags: Bosvigo Junior School, Cargoes by John Masefield, Seville orange marmalade

Iris, Eryngium and Acer

09 Jun

Our garden has gone from the yellows of Spring to blues and reds among the green.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 9, 2017 in Beauty, environment, garden, nature, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: garden colour

Flowers, Flora and Fauna at West Pentire

07 Jun

Last night, after a 15 hour journey (including a 90 minute delay on the train) back from Barcelona where I had been visiting our twin Grandbabies, I came home to the lovely Mr S and a beautiful bunch of flowers.

Before the rains returned this afternoon we had a lovely walk around West Pentire, admiring the poppies and other wild flowers against the backdrop of the sea – just beautiful. Click on any photo for detail.