1 Beautiful warm sunshine took us outside today and our first lunch in the garden this year – a simple one of sun-warmed tomatoes and home-made guacamole with melba toasts followed by sweet clementines.
First lunch in the garden this year
2 Bees were also enjoying the sunshine and the Spring flowers.
Bees on the Muscari
3 We’ve also done our first plantings – two varieties of shallots and a big Birch tree, something the lovely Mr S has hankered over for years and has at last achieved.
Beautiful Birch under-planted with bluebells
Tags: al fresco lunch, bees, home-made guacamole, multi-stemmed birch tree, photography, Postaday, postaday 2013, weekly photo challenge lunchtime
1 My piano teacher had had to have a tree felled as it had been almost toppled by the wild weather. The logs looked so beautiful on her lawn so I asked if I could take a photo and I was given some to bring home!
Fifteen years old?
2 The wet weather over the last four years has wreaked havoc with my potting-up table. Once upon a time, it was a beautiful coffee table made by an ex-boyfriend and given to us as a wedding present 47 years ago. It is still well loved but, truth be told, it is beginning to rot. However, these beautiful fungi and lichen are growing on it and I’m sure it will last at least another season. I’d love it to get to 50 years old!
Beautiful fungus
Golden fungus heart and lichen
3 I’d forgotten I’d planted these very delicately mauve and purple crocuses so their appearance has been a lovely surprise.
Delicate crocus
The Goodbye Gig last night was enormous fun. We sang the best we ever had; the cabaret acts were brilliant and we will have raised a goodly amount for Comic Relief but we won’t know exactly how much until singing next Thursday.
The Suitcase Singers at Miss Peapod’s
I try not to be a stats junkie but these today please me : 451 followers, 36,651 hits and read in 131 countries. Thank you all for taking the time to read my posts. Every visit pleases me!
Tags: Comic Relief, fungi, gig, lichen, log rings, Miss Peapod's, photography, Postaday, postaday 2013, singing, stats junkie, The Suitcase Singers
1 Coming home from town this morning, I walked on the other side of the road to be in the sun, which was warm, and noticed this lovely twisted tree trunk in the midst of the bright green new growth of Crocosmia.
Twisted tree trunk
2 These two are often in the tree outside our bedroom window. I like to think that they are a couple much in love! Does anyone know if they do, indeed, mate for life as swans do?
Jackdaws
3 The Gig tonight is to say Goodbye to one of our lovely choir members who is off to Glasgow. She will be taking her special Choir-baby, T, with her of course and we will miss them both so much. We’ll also be raising money for Red Nose Day.
Poster for 15th March
I’m posting early because of the Gig which I will report on tomorrow.
Tags: Choir-baby, Comic Relief, gig, Jackdaws, mate for life, Miss Peapod's, photography, Postaday, postaday2013, Red Nose Day, swans
1 We had our usual singing this morning, rehearsing for our Gig tomorrow evening, followed by a singing workshop with delicious cakes made by several members of the choir.
All that and the view of the Penryn River outside. Bliss!
The Penryn River and a beautiful yacht
I wonder where the ladder leads…..
2 The cakes were truly scrumptious! Thanks to all who baked.
My Lemon Butter Cake
3 I love the flowers and the mosaic which cheer visitors to the hospital.
Crocuses in the hospital grounds
This lovely piece greets people as they enter the hospital.
Tags: cornwall, delicious cakes, gigs, Miss Peapod's, Penryn, Penryn River, photography, Postaday, postaday 2013
I’ve shown you some of the countryside in my neighbourhood here (the countryside) and here (the sea).
Now I’d like to show you some of the pleasing features of our small town. I love the street signs and the hounds make me smile every day! There are many more beautiful Tregellas tapestries.If you would like to see more; I posted about some of the others here. These are the ones in the market area.
The Old Court House
The Plaque
Butcher’s Opeway
Cross Street
Delightful design around the base of each tree
Fairmeadow Opeway
Tinners’ Hounds by David Kemp
Lemins Court
The Tin Miner
Lidgey’s Passage
One of the Tregellas Tapestries, showing Cornwall’s export of daffodils, cauliflowers and potatoes
Symons Terrace and self-portrait
These two got away
Tregellas tapestry showing emigration. Thousands left Cornwall taking their mining skills all over the world
The viaduct that takes the line to Penzance and to London
Bench
Sign over the gateway leading out of the market
Tags: My Neighbourhood, Phoneography Challenge - My Neighbourhood 2, Postaday, Weekly Photo Challenge)
1 Having my cup of coffee this morning I realised that our kitchen light was reflected beautifully in the black coffee. I had to let it cool down before I could take the photo as it kept steaming up!
Kitchen light
2 I took so many photos of Redruth this morning for another “My Neighbourhood” post to be done tomorrow. On my way back up the hill I spotted this tiny feather being blown back and forth in the breeze.
Feather caught on a rose thorn
3 We’ve had the Long-tail Tits here again today but they don’t hang around to have their pictures taken – neither do the Magpies. They are very skittish and leave if there is any movement in the house. I stayed put in the kitchen, used maximum zoom and managed to get this shot.
Magpie at the feeder
This last is for Liz, as promised. I am trying to entice her to visit Heligan!
The Heligan Giant
Tags: coffee, feather, longtail tits, magpie, photography, Postaday, postaday 2013, reflections, The Heligan Giant
1 Walking into town about lunchtime today, I was delighted to hear the sounds of the nearby primary school children at play – such happy squeals and shrieks and laughter, sounds that we have heard all our working lives and since, in our travels around the world. All children at play, wherever they are, make the same happy sounds and we heard it in Mapoch, South Africa where we went to build a classroom the year after we retired.
Children on the climbing frame in Mapoch
2 I love the yellowness of this time of year but I also find the delicacy of this pale daffodil very beautiful. The specialness of this daffodil is for two very good friends who have each lost a parent in the last couple of weeks. This is just to tell them they are loved.
Pale daffodil
3 We Skyped with T for her 2nd birthday today as she opened her presents. How lucky we are with current technology that allows us to share such events from hundreds of miles away.
For those who would like the Nutella Cookies recipe, I’ve put it on my Recipe pages today. Enjoy!
Tags: bereavement, happy children, love, Mapoch, Nutella Cookies, photography, playground, Postaday, postaday 2013, South Africa, volunteering, Voluntouring
1 The rabbits in the field behind our house are getting very frisky despite the minus temperatures.
Rabbits in the field behind our house
2 Hiding under the Pittisporum hedge was this beautiful, delicately pinked daisy, just waiting for some sunshine to encourage it to open up. A Macro Monday photo, you can see the hairiness of the calyx in this close up – lovely.
Pink tipped daisy
3 Having gone into town to post T’s card for her 2nd birthday, I couldn’t resist checking out the charity shops for some bright red shoes for our next gig on Friday. I didn’t find any shoes but did find these delightful little egg-cups which will be perfect for the Grandbabies’ boiled eggs at Easter.
Charming egg-cups
Tags: charity shops, Macro Monday, photography, Postaday, postaday2013, Spring
1 It’s Mothers’ Day here in the UK and I have been cheered, as always, by the love and the warmth from my lovely ‘kids’!
I’ve also spent some time, of course, thinking about my own lovely Mum who died 20 years ago this year which is very hard to believe. She is always here with me in so many ways. Mum always insisted that she stood 5′ and half an inch tall but in fact she was 4′ 11and a 1/2″! We sometimes called her MiniMum and there are many occasions when I find MiniMum on my shoulder whispering her wisdoms in my ear. She was so warm and she was one, who in the words of Thomas Hardy, ‘used to notice’ the beautiful things. She would have loved my blog…..
Purple, white and green card, chosen with care and a nod to our history
Lovely colourful silk scarf
Gorgeous flower basket
2 While here for her birthday, our eldest gave me a recipe for the easiest cookies in the world and they taste good too! I’ve just made a batch of Nutella Cookies and will add them to the cakes I’ve made for Thursday’s Singing Workshop cake-break.
M’s Nutella Cookies
3 I’ve been given The Dragon Award by Marilyn and I’m utterly delighted by that! Thank you so much. In the ensuing conversation, Marilyn said the following about my blog which pleases me greatly – “I love your blog. It’s beautiful. Elegant. It’s a friendly place, like visiting a good neighbour who doesn’t lock her kitchen door and always has a pot of coffee on the stove.”
dragonsloyaltyaward1
Tags: cookies, Mother's Day, Nutella Cookies, Postaday, postaday 2013, Purple White and Green, recipe, The Dragon Award
Like many others, I have a mobile phone to text and talk but it stays in my pocket. My lovely little CanonS100, however, is always in my hand and so I was delighted that I don’t have to use a phone to join in this week’s challenge.The following photos take you on a circular walk from our house and were all taken in the last few months.
View from our bedroom window. The sea can be seen along the horizon.
Our back garden on a misty morning
Sunset from the back garden
Cottage across the road lit up by the sun’s early rays
Walking up to The Flat Lode Trail
St Uny Graveyard; the tree has grown up through the gravestone.
Mysterious gate
View from The Flat Lode Trail
The lane alongside Trewirgie Road, overlooking Redruth
Lovers’ Lane
There’s a Dragon in our street!
Tags: CanonS100, mobile phone, Phoneography Challenge: My Neighbourhood, photography, Postaday, postaday2013, St Euny Churchyard
