Red Poppy...

Tuesday 28th June 2011

I had intended to have this as my Macro Monday post for yesterday.  But I was late and didn't get it posted in time.  So I thought I would put it on today.  I love these gorgeous poppies.

To be honest, I don't know the variety.

They have grown in Steffi's garden in Kent since she and Paul bought the house about 16 years ago.

I loved the richness of the plum and aubergine colours in the centre with the little bit of sage green...

Such a striking plant and every bit as beautiful when the petals fall and the poppy seed heads mature.

Sunset Over Strangford...

Wednesday 22nd June 2011

Watery Wednesday

I took this series of photographs of the Sunset over Strangford Lough after we had spent a day wandering around Portaferry and visiting the Aquarium...  As we travelled home the sun gradually set...

The car ferry at the dock in Portaferry, taking on cars, for the short trip across Strangford Lough to Strangford...  As we left Portaferry the sun was beginning to set...

The sun was getting lower in the sky...

Reflecting beautifully across Strangford Lough...

We stop a bit further along the Coast for me to photograph the sunset over a small bay...  The sun was almost on the Horizon at this point...

By the time we stopped near Mountstewart the sun had just disappeared...

And the sky was still full of colour...

And night was almost upon us...

How many books inhabit my To-Be-Read pile?...

21st June 2011

Book Blogger Hop

I don't actually take part in this meme (mainly because I don't post reviews about all the books that I read) but I do think the questions posed can be interesting... and thought provoking...

This particular question made me laugh out loud... 

Question:  

“How many books are currently in your To-Be-Read (TBR) Pile?”

After all I live in a house that has at least one book case in every room (including the attic) except the kitchen and bathroom...  The small bedroom which is nicknamed the book room...  has a lovely blue futon sofa bed (very comfy to lounge on for reading) but which has long since ceased to be used as a spare bed as it cannot be opened up due to the number of bookshelves that now surround the walls.   

Other than all the books packed onto every shelf usually lying on their sides (I discovered I could fit more books onto the sh

elf this way as I didn't like the wasted space above the books) usually two piles deep...  so many novels, biographys, fascinating non fiction, historical tombs... a multitude read... many more waiting to be read... 

imaginary and real worlds hidden within books of mythology... folklore... fairy tales...  all of which I fully intend to explore and lose myself inside...  when time allows...

So in answer to this hilarious question...  too many to be counted...

I've even taken to borrowing books in the to-be-read pile from the library in audio book format so that I can "read" listen to them while I am working...  new method of multi-tasking...

My mum taught me to read when I was 2 1/2 and by the time I started school a week before my 4th birthday I had already read all of the reading books for the first year...  

The highlight of my world when I was tiny was the arrival of the mobile library bus at the parking area just beyond our gates... where I would proceed to read and browse most of the children's books before deciding upon which ones I wanted to take out to read again...  

Kerria Japonica...

Monday 20th June 2011

Macro Monday

I photographed the Kerria Japonica which grows by the fence in my mum's back garden in late Spring.

In the spring this part of mum's garden is a riot of colour...  with the Kerria Japonica, the lovely pink Camelia, the two japanese azaleas which are just starting to flower when these photographs were taken and the lovely hellebore towards the front of the border...

The Kerria Japonica is starting run riot in its spot and will need to be pruned...  I usually do this when it has stopped flowering for the season...  no point in losing any of these glorious blooms...  I thin out old stems after it finishes flowering for the season...

The Kerria Japonica is a deciduous shrub with very showy yellow flowers...  

a blaze of sunshine in bloom...

Mum grows hers in partial shade, in well drained soil, beside the fence...

It is a graceful shrub with beautiful arching green stems and pretty serrated edged dainty green foliage...

This one has the lovely double blossoms in buttercup yellow...  I think there are single varieties around...

The blossoms look like little yellow pompoms...

The petals start to fade to a pretty buttermilk yellow as the blossom ages...  really beautiful...

This gorgeous shrub flowers from mid- to late- Spring...

This particular plant was given to mum as a young plant taken off an established plant in her friend Betty Smethurst's garden, when she visited her many years ago, in Cumbria...  Betty passed away a few years after this and when we look at the Kerria Japonica in full bloom we think of Betty's sunny personality and mum's wonderful lifelong friendship with her...

Squirrel Eating at Bird Feeder...

Sunday 19th June 2011

Straight out of the Camera Sunday

We are so lucky to share our lives and our world with beautiful intelligent wild animals...

Like the grey squirrel...

Acrobatic and fun to watch...

Their agility is inspiring...

They love nibbling the birdseed...

And the peanuts that are put into the open dish specially for them...

They are so pretty...

With their gorgeous fluffy tails and dark clear eyes...  and dextrous little paws...

Homing Pigeon...

17 June 2011

I was just turning off the pump for the Koi pond in mum's garden this evening...

When this beautiful homing pigeon shuffled up to me...   I have a natural affinity with pigeons...

I've always loved them...  this one has its racing number ring on its leg so we contacted TACT to get the phone number for the organiser in Lisburn...  So we will hopefully hear from the owner soon...

In the meantime it is in the bedroom in a box with some grain and a deep dish of water as pigeons need to be able to submerge their beak in water to get a drink...

We were told it is important to keep the pigeon warm... hence the bedroom...

I couldn't leave the pigeon as it couldn't take off (probably exhausted) and my friend and neighbour has 7 cats under the age of 1 year so this beautiful bird was not safe to be left.  

This is the second homing pigeon that I have rescued.  This bird is in much better condition than the last one which had been attacked by the local peregrine and had bad damage on its back.

This bird just needs to go home to its loft...

Photos curtesy of Neil as I was holding and stroking the pigeon...  Couldn't remember how to hold it properly although I was shown with the last homing pigeon I rescued.

Foxgloves...

Friday 17th June 2011

The beautiful stately foxglove is one of my favourite wild plants...

Foxgloves are a native biennial common in woods, hedgerows and open places throughout Britain...  Foxgloves are very pretty allowed to grow wild in our gardens...  

A well loved plant but extremely poisonous...

The long tubular flowers are popular for bees who crawl inside to extract the nectar...

In folklore foxglove was credited with the ability to break fairy power over children and adults.

In Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the foxglove is surrounded by myth and magic, and country people refer to it as the king of herbs... the flower has often been celebrated in poetry...

The foxglove leaves are used as the source of the drug digitoxin, used in the treatment of heart disease, to slow the pace of the heart-beat...  the plant was also used in ancient (if dangerous) herbal remedies...

The foxglove should not be picked and brought inside for flower arranging as it is said to cause people in the surrounding vicinity who breathe in the scent to become sleepy...

Earl grey for One...

Thursday 16th June 2011

I have been searching for a quirky teapot/cup for one for drinking my earl grey and green tea for absolutely ages.  Then yesterday, when I was in the garden centre to buy yet more niger seed for the goldfinches + their many friends, there it was... the most perfect one... sitting in among all the rose patterned ones...  It was quickly picked up and carefully balanced in the trolley on top of the bags of niger seed...

As I have been working hard recently to finish my Pretty in Pink Collection for Sasha Doll Style...  

and to reach the point where the Sasha Doll Style new website is ready to be uploaded to the web for the first time... hopefully without any difficulties... fingers crossed... will try on Saturday...

I decided as it was a nice day to take a little me time...  I have been twitching to knit a pair of socks for myself using this lovely soft Regia cotton/wool sock yarn that my sister Pip gave me at Christmas...

Yep...  it was a toss up... 

Sasha sweater for the new Marmalade Compote Collection that I am working on now... 

or 

lovely new cool summer socks for me...  

I am knitting these ones at the same time... so that for once I will actually have a pair of socks instead of yet another orphan... I have far too many orphan socks that I keep intending to complete...  I think it would be nice to actually get to wear these ones this summer...

The Wave

Wednesday 15th June 2011

Watery Wednesday...

For this week I have a series of photographs that I took of a wave while I was sitting on the rocks near the beach at Crawfordsburn Country Park...  The photos were taken using my mobile phone so aren't quite as sharp as I would have liked...  although it was a warm hazy day...

I have always loved watching the ebb and flow of the waves over the rocks...  

Like the ebb and flow of our lives...  I have thought much over the past weeks about the passage of time...  how quickly it can speed by...  the importance of living every single minute as though it is your last and not putting off until tomorrow that which needs done or said today...  

It is soothing to the troubled spirit sitting listening to the sound of the water and sea birds...