High art or stupidness?

Yep, sadly the latter.

I had the wrong setting on my phone when I took these photos of alliums, lilies, roses and California poppies, tightly closed in preparation for the night. Freaky, huh?

Nesting .

The swan is sitting on several large china blue eggs.  The coots are a little way behind, still building their nests whilst the geese have romped out in front - with eight little goslings to take care of.

A literary tale.

This is the view crossing the river Fowey. Just to the right of the road is the house that inspired Manderley in the book, Rebecca. Daphne Du Maurer lived here and her love of Cornwall helped create many of her  book settings such as Jamaica Inn and Fisherman"s Creek.

Nature keeps on dazzling.

I love what happens around us when we are least expecting it. A lone Heron, casually flapping his huge wings overhead when we were collecting firewood yesterday. Today,  a fat blackbird sitting on the top of a hedgerow.
I was laughing at Mrs Bun racing comicly across the garden till she savagely pecked Betsy. Although I shouted at her she ignored by admonishment and racing over for food. Bird brain!

A walk on the wild side.

Such a wonderful day for a walk. Catkins, snowdrops, ploughed fields and the  shaggy ponies all warming in the afternoon sun.

Roses grow on you.

Luke recently had to house a huge amount of red roses for his workplace. We only had them here for one night but I did enjoy feeling like all my Valentine's days had come at once.
Ole!

Bald as a coot

On the way to town (after parking cheaply on the outskirts and walking in) I took the pathway along the river to see what wildlife was on it. These two little coots didn't disappoint and came tootling over to me.

Reaching high

This pale lemon hollyhock has seeded itself in a patch of rough ground on the outskirts of the city.

Work lends a helping hand

I swept up three bin bags full of fallen leaves this afternoon from outside my work place. I want to ensure that the elderly and infirm visiting us don't slip on the sodden leaves that have carpeted the entrance. So it's quite nice to be able to benefit from a work task. I brought two of the bags home with me and can make some rich crumbly leaf mould from them. I can either empty the leaves out into a container or simply leave them in the bin bags. All I need do is punch a few holes into the bag and occasionally add some water to help break the leaves down. Next year I will be able to use this free resource as a top dressing in the borders. I like how work can benefit my play time. And no comments from passers by about me and a broom at Halloween!

Alone.

Luke is working today so I contacted a few family members to see if I could visit them but they already have plans so I'm on my own - well, with my girls and my laptop. Looking out at the morning sky I see it's a beautiful crisp and sunny morning. The wisps of cloud fade at their edges into the merest of blue sky; like a watercolour washed out for subtlety.The rust coloured leaves on the aged oak are glowing in the sun and soon they will all have tumbled to the earth, leaving only the bare branches silhouetted against a winter sky. I used to dread this time of year - long dark days and plenty of rain for months to come but nowadays I see the beauty of an Autumnal day. A robin flies onto the fence and it's breaast looks russet in the daylight, the wrens make a huge racket, hidden in the hedge and I feel almost obliged to do a 'Julie Andrews' and run, arms outsretched, over the hills singing loudly. Bit wet for that though so I will enjoy the morning from the warmth of the house.

Only last month...,

.., Luke and I walked across the fields and down to the stream. With the sun shining though and the abandoned shopping trolley out of the picture it looked, and indeed it was, very tranquil.

York in the sun.

The gardens near to York minster and within the walls of the city. This bed is enormous and in front of it is a lovely large weeping pear that puts my little one to shame.

 Then next to the cathedral  is a lovely old building with a bed of old gold roses fronting it up. Beautiful.

What a fantastic sight, the towering entrance of York minster. The largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe.

Facing the chop.

Thanks to Luke we now have a fully stocked wood store and a pretty clear patch behind the shed. Out came the chainsaw (he loves that thing - says it makes him feel like a real man) and two hours later he had sawed and chopped the entire log pile. He got a shock when he uncovered the carcass of a large bird. Who knows how long it had been there or how it had died but I waited until he nipped into the house before I scooped it up on the spade and got rid of it. I was thinking he would be amazed that it had disappeared of it's own accord but my clumsy shovelling gave the game away as he saw the ridges in the ground. Foiled again! Now the area is clear we have the broody box and the small chicken run tucked around there, ready for any new chickens. All very tidy. The wood store looks great too with it's jigsaw of logs.
In Luke's honour I built a fire and took the evening chill off the room. I also added some of the dried stalks from the cut back lavender and that produced a wonderful aromatic aroma.

After so much DIY this week (including me taking a while to sand back and then repaint the newel post on the stairs only to lose my balance and land head first  into the carefully painted post that resulted in a hairy post and a shock of white in my hair!) it was lovely to kick back, put on an old film and enjoy the lavender scented fire. All we need now is apple and blackberry pie and thick custard!

Up in smoke.

The new chickens are confused. Is this their first taste of snow? Sadly it's not. There was a lovely wood just down the road that has recently been cleared to make way supposedly for arable farming although the talk is that a housing estate is planned in a few years time for it. We walked through the field only two days ago and felt sad for the demise of the trees that were bundled up in mountains of wood. Now we are enveloped in thick white smoke and falling ash because the wood is being burned. What a waste. It does smell like a lovely Autumnal bonfire though but those dancing pieces of ash, falling softly into the garden is all that is left of a vibrant environment that used to house nesting birds, rabbits, badgers and bunnies.

Nature has a cheeky side

Or possibly just a vivid imagination on my part but when I strolled past this old tree recently it seemed like nature had attempted a little joke by putting boobs on the trunk. See for yourself.

Home from home

My Mum is currently on holiday in Spain, staying with her brother who lives there. So, imagine my delight to see that someone in Spain checked out my blog today. Mum's are such supporters of their children, aren't they? Thanks, Mum!

Life in the garden.

Plants + worms = happy chickens. Here the girls' bottoms give their position away - when the tails are up the beaks are down - eating my plants!!

This little chap was dug up last week, if only it stayed still I could have put a ruler alongside it. Just a guess but I think it was about 20 cms long. Impressive.

These girls delight me everyday. That little one, Mrs Bun, is completely flat footed and it's hilarious to watch her strut. 

Time to rest.

Just home from work and five minutes in the hammock does the trick.

Luke, back from his cycle ride has a quick sit down with Buck Bucky in the background.

The cat has a sit down too - is anyone gardening around here?

The great outdoors.

Righteo, after a delicious slice of pistachio cake and a pot of tea Luke and I got home in time to rescue the chickens from the heat of the greenhouse. To be fair, most of the morning they have been outside, tweeting away in the herb patch. Mega chicken, Lola, is broody so will not let us near her and grumbles away when anywhere near the other hens. The three growers need to live outdoors now, the weather has got too warm to leave them in the greenhouse so this afternoon Luke has got out his toolkit and unscrewed their house and run as it's too big to get through the greenhouse door frame. Now  he is putting it back together just behind the main hen house but the little ones won't know what to do tonight when it's bedtime.

We will have to quietly catch them in the greenhouse where they will go when it's getting dark as that is all they know. Once collected and popped into their house again they will be fine. Next week we think we will take Lola to her new home in Gloucestershire. A cousin of mine has agreed to have her to add to his small flock of hens. We will stay overnight to ensure that she is okay in the morning. If she settles down then we'll leave her there (with a heavy heart, she's a good egg layer and a fun chicken but she is too large for the bantams and it's not an ideal situation). Once we know she is fine in her new home (I feel sad just thinking about it, right now she is up to forty minutes in the potato row having a very long dust bath) we will put the three growers in with Buck Bucky the next evening. Still, that is a week away and we have to make sure they don't end up cooked in the heat of the greenhouse.
By the way, we walked up to the main road to see the Olympic torch relay coming into Cardiff and it was jam-packed. Cars parked everywhere and thousands of people. We met our neighbours and it was a lovely chatty time. We've been invited to a barbecue at the local councillors' house next weekend but the chicks need to be sorted first.

 Spot the Olympic runner......, 
................................................... yes, you are right. It's not one of these ladies.

You can just make the torch bearer out (he's the one carrying the torch!)

I also spent a few minutes ordering some sale plants on the telephone as the website wasn't working yesterday and sadly, in that time, they have sold out of the allium Globemasters which are one of my absolute favourite plants. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.
What a lovely old day I've had 

Too hot to trot.

It's my day off today, I've mown the lawn, leaving the longer grass and daisies around the hammock to give it a lazier, more relaxed look. I've also lightly forked over the border that has been flattened by the big chicks. The gladioli have struggled to push through that solid ground. There are new bits of bindweed happily growing in the back patch  because it''s prevalent behind the fence and only one piece will start a new plant.
I've come indoors now because it's so hot out there and after Luke and I have met up at the tea house we are coming back to watch some poor soul running through the roads of Cardiff with the Olympic torch. I hope he's got a cool flannel and a long drink at the end of his run. We'll be sauntering home for a nice cup of tea. Terribly British, what ho!