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Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures – A Year In Flowers

I love taking photos of the flowers in our garden, in rain or shine and love it when I catch an insect on there too! Click on any image for the full picture. There are a few whose names I can’t remember. I’d be delighted if anyone could help out.

Nasturtium Peach Melba

Poppy

Cornflower

Cistus Snowfire

Day lily, white and purple

White Dahlia

Nicotiana

Everlasting Wallflower – all year

French Lavender

Snowdrops, Feb/Mar

Love-in-a-mist

Bee on Agapanthus

Iris Reticulata,

Primrose, Dec-Mar

Bee getting nectar from Fuchsia

Poppy seedhead

Poppy bud about to burst open

White Borage

Clematis

Climbing Rose, all summer

Sun through a poppy

Iris Reticulata

Nasturtium

Aquilega Songbird Cardinal

Forget-me-nots, May/June

Tibuchina Urvilleana , Nov/Dec

Montbretia lighting up our hedge

White Passion flower

Bee on a dandelion

Sweet pea

Help me on this one please?

Chocolate Cosmos

Cistus Salvifolius

27 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 30, 2012 in DP Challenge, flowers, garden, photography, postaday2012, Uncategorized, Weekly photo challenge

Tags: DPchallenge, flowers, garden, nature, photography, Postaday, postaday2012, taking photos

Beautiful Message, Puy Lentils and The Family Bible

20 Jun

1 I received a beautiful message from Ammar this morning that has set me up for the day. He was saying thank you for the lovely time we all spent together last week

2 I made the simplest and one of the most tasty lunches today – Puy Lentils with Tomatoes, Basil and Mozzarella and we ate it with a selection of leaves from our garden.

3 I had an email from my brother today about our reunion in July and asking if he could take The Family Bible back to Munich with him as it should be with him as he is the oldest of the four of us. That prompted me to go to it to have another look. A Family Bible has pages between the Old and New Testaments for the family to record Births, Marriages and Deaths so this is an invaluable family document. It was a present to my Great Grandmother on her marriage in 1885. There is a red marker between Luke IX and X but unfortunately I don’t know its significance.

I am a Humanist, not a Christian, nevertheless I find this a most beautiful book. It contains some amazing historical coloured maps of biblical regions, which have changed dramatically over the last 128 years.

Have a look through the gallery below for lots of fascinating photos.

Ingredients for a delicious and very quick lunch

Ingredients tossed together and served with our own leaves straight from the garden

The Family Bible

Beautifully tooled spine of the Family Bible

Dedication to my Great Grandmother on my Mother’s side (not the Suffragette)

‘Egypt, The Sinai Peninsular and The Promised Land’ – Map from 1885

‘Canaan as Divided Between the Tribes’ map c. 1885

‘Palestine in the Time of Our Saviour’ – map c 1885

Map c. 1885 ‘Illustrating the Missionary Journeys and Last Voyage of the Apostle Paul’

A Red Marker

30 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 20, 2012 in books, community, environment, family, Food, garden, growing, senses

Tags: 1885, Ammar, Bible, Births, Canaan, Deaths, Egypt, garden, Great Grandmother, leaves, love, Luke IX, Luke X, Marriages, messages, Munich, New Testament, Old Testament, Palestine, Paul the Apostle, Postaday, Puy Lentils with Tomatoes Basil and Mozzarella, respect, simple lunch, The Family Bible

ShelterBox, Rhubarb and Next-Door’s Garden

25 Apr

1 Asked by whatshappeningatmyhouse, which charity would I give £1m if I had such a sum, I realised that ShelterBox is one of my beautiful things. Started by one man with a very big heart and a very special vision, here in Cornwall, this charity works worldwide to give shelter and dignity to those affected by disaster, be it natural (tsunami, earthquake etc) or man-made (war, civil strife etc). It was indeed, a beautiful thing Tom Henderson started. http://www.shelterbox.org/

ShelterBox has brought these Fijian families new homes allowing them to start to rebuild their lives again whilst living in comfort and dignity.

2 My good friend, Jean, gave us a rhubarb plant at choir on Monday – and because we cannot pick any until next year, gave me a bunch of rhubarb too. Today I’ve made a very special pudding that has been cooked in our family for three generations! It’s an Ambrose Heath recipe called Rhubarb Butterscotch Pie but we don’t put it in a pie case and we call it Different-Every-Time Pudding because it is! See my Food pages for the recipe and photos of the process and see shelikesherfood for KJ’s take on the pudding.

Different-Every-Time Rhubarb Pudding

3 Both our garden and next-door’s have some beautiful, delicate colour at the moment.

Camassia

Clematis Montana

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 25, 2012 in baking, charity, Cornwall, flowers, Food, garden, nature, senses, ShelterBox

Tags: Ambrose Heath, azalea, butterscotch, camassia, charity, choir, civil strife, clematis, cornwall, earthquake, forget-me-nots, garden, KJ, montana, pie, pudding, Rhubarb, rhubarb plant, ShelterBox, Tom Henderson, tsunami, war

Senegal 7th April – Weaver Birds, Newest Grandchild, Glasses of Tea and Sky on Fire

17 Apr

Yes, I know that’s four things. It’s so hard to keep to three from our trip to Senegal!

1 The garden, full of bamboo, bougainvillea and many other flowers, attracts lots of birds. The Weaver Birds love the bamboo which they tear off in strips for their nests, the Sunbirds come for the nectar and to spread their wings in sunny spots and the Bulbuls do their courting here! All the time there are Black Kites wheeling about overhead. Lucy, before we came, also saw Egrets and a flock of Pelicans!

Weaver Bird with Bamboo strip

Weaver Bird with Sunbird on left

Sunbird sunning her wings

Black Kite

2 Ndeye Marie was delighted with her chunky coloured crayons and paper and immediately started practising her letters.

Crayon Fun

I also read Eric Carle’s ‘The Very lonely Firefly’, translating it into French as I went along, to Ndeye Marie, our newest Grandchild – what joy!

Reading to Ndeye Marie

3 Mr S and I went down to Ami’s family home to see the hired chairs being hauled up onto the roof for the Wedding tomorrow. Some family were having tea outside and invited us to join them in true Senegalese fashion. The mint tea in tiny glasses was very hot, very sweet and beautifully minty.

Ousseynou making tea

4 The sky at sunset

The Sky over Pikine

Happy Cows, Friends and Crescent Moon

27 Mar

1 Just had to share this delightful experience: “Cows belong in fields. We have known it for a long time. And the cows agree!” Click on the link for a guaranteed smile!

Just some excited cows released form their winter quarters

2 Lovely evening with friends, most of whom I’ve known since I was a teenager, a delicious meal and thoroughly entertaining company.

3 A beautiful crescent moon hanging low in the sky as we drove home.

: Our Garden Summer 2011

: Our Garden 2009 when we moved in

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 27, 2012 in environment, garden, nature

Tags: animals, cows, crescent moon, friends, garden, nature

Well-being, Jewel Cookies and La Fete du Muguet

24 Mar

1 This morning I woke up feeling well! It has been a horrid few days feeling the effects of all the vaccines we’ve had for our trip to Senegal, so M.Eish – no energy, cotton-wool brain, muscle pains and general malaise -so quite scary. I’ve had my share of that so it was wonderful to wake up feeling good!

2 I’ve baked some Jewel Cookies. I found the recipe on a delightful blog by Go Bake Yourself which sent me back to http://www.ilovemilkandcookies.blogspot.co.uk/ for the original recipe called Lemon and Polenta Cookies. They’ve gone down very well with Mr S and Lucy.

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3 I’ve planted some Lily-of-the-valley for my beautiful friend Kath who died last year. It is a tradition in France to offer a sprig of lily-of-the-valley (“muguet” in French) to loved ones on the 1st of May which is a Public Holiday in France, officially known as La Fête du Travail (National Labour Day) but also called La Fête du Muguet (Lily of the Valley Day).

Kath and Charlie loved France, had a home in Meyssac in the South and not a year went by when she either gave me a card depicting the flowers or a homegrown bunch, on one occasion bringing them all the way on the train from Yorkshire when we met up in London for a few precious hours. Now Kath has her own special place in my garden as well as, always, in my heart.