Today's Flowers

The humble dandelion - only a wildflower, but look at the detail in it. So pretty - and some of our fields are yellow with them at the moment. Sign of summer maybe?




and, of course, once the flower is over the seed head is so distinctive and delicate. The dandelion clock!






Thanks to Luiz, Denise, Laerte and Sandy who host Today's Flowers. To look at more beautiful and unusual flowers from all over the world, please click here.

Skywatch Friday

Watching the changing colours as the sun sets.










Thanks to the SkyWatch Friday team. For a look at skies around the world, please click here.

ABC Wednesday - S

S is for Signpost

This post has been scheduled as I am still on my travels - should be back next week.

Another photo from last November's trip to Adelaide and the Toy Factory in Gumeracha.







Thanks to Denise Nesbitt and her team for hosting ABC Wednesday. For more looks at the letter S, please click here.

Today's Flowers

cherry blossoms



This is a scheduled post as I am on holiday for a couple of weeks.

Thanks to Luiz, Denise, Laerte and Sandy who host Today's Flowers. To look at more beautiful and unusual flowers from all over the world, please click here.

Skywatch Friday

How lovely to see the lovely blue sky through such pretty branches.




This is a scheduled post as I am on holiday for a couple of weeks.

Thanks to the SkyWatch Friday team. You can see skies from around the world if you click here.

ABC Wednesday - R

R is for Railway and Rocking Horse

This and next week's are scheduled posts and will not be linked as I am on my travels.

Two photos taken last November in Adelaide


A disused railway line



and The Biggest Rocking Horse in the World at The Toy Factory in Gumeracha.






Thanks to Mrs Denise Nesbitt and the team who host ABC Wednesday. For more looks at the letter R, please click here.

Today's Flowers

Wild flowers in the woodland - pretty primroses.



This is a scheduled post as I am on holiday for a couple of weeks.

Thanks to Luiz, Denise, Laerte and Sandy who host Today's Flowers. To look at more beautiful and unusual flowers from all over the world, please click here.

Skywatch Friday

Australian skies this week - another shot taken last November.




Unable to link this week as this is a scheduled post. I will be away until 30 May.

Thanks to SkyWatch Friday team - for more skies around the world, please click here.

ABC Wednesday - Q

Q is for Quantocks

From our windows we have views of the Quantock Hills, (apologies for the hazy photo) an area of outstanding natural beauty. You can read more here. It is a lovely place to visit with pretty villages, forest walks and trails and lots of wildlife.



For the next 2 weeks (R and S) I shall be on holiday so my posts for ABC Wednesday will be scheduled.

Thanks to Mrs Denise Nesbitt and the team who host ABC Wednesday. For more looks at the letter Q, please click here.

Today's Flowers

My orchids suffered a bit from our house move last September - moved twice in the space of three months and fairly neglected during that time. They usually flower from January to August - however, this one began flowering in March and the others have now got flower shoots forming, so I remain hopeful!



Thanks to Luiz, Denise, Laerte and Sandy who host Today's Flowers. To look at more beautiful and unusual flowers from all over the world, please click here.

Skywatch Friday

One of the pleasures of living where we do is watching the wonderful sunsets, even after a dull and cloudy day.








Thanks to the Skywatch Friday team. For more wonderful skies around the world, please click here.

Hedgehogs

I received the following in an email from my daughter today. She didn't take the photographs - we do not know who the photographer is.


Hello to you all


I have come here today to tell you to be so very careful when you are driving


because this is the time of year when I am just learning to walk


so please don't run me over


just look how sweet I am

thank you.


Aaah!

ABC Wednesday - P

P is for Postcards - Old and New

I have always loved postcards. I like to send them, am always delighted to receive them and keep them in a slot-in album so that I can more easily read again the messages written on the back.


I think it must go back to my childhood and the memory of rummaging through a drawer at my grandparent's house where there were countless postcards. My cousin and I still recall finding the sets of cards that told a story, some with soldiers going off to war, and the Victorian-style ones with flowers and lace.

About 20 years ago I went to a Craft Fair and came across a stall selling Original Framed Postcards (50 - 100 years old). Looking through, these caught my attention and I couldn't resist buying them.

This first one was sent to a Miss Bower and dated 15 July, though unfortunately I cannot make out the year. There is a halfpenny stamp on and I think the King is Edward VII. It was posted in Sheffield.

I love the picture on the front, such a beautiful young woman.



The message on the back reads "Dear Edna - Thanks for present tell Jessie I will write on Sunday, ask Jessie to look in the top drawer in the dresser and send me my registration card as soon as you can I have to change my address on it. love from Mother




The second one is a little water colour, which is quite simple but lovely.



It wasn't posted just simply inscribed on the back with the message "From Your Loving 'Aunt' with best Easter wishes" and is dated 1 April 1934.



I treasure them both.

A few weeks ago, after daughter and grand-daughter had been visiting I found a teddy bear under the spare bed. Knowing it to be a part of the bedtime routine for my now 6 year old grand-daughter I took a photo of it with Winnie the Pooh and Beddy Bear (who both reside with us)and emailed it to my daughter with the message - "Winnie the Pooh and friends, does one of them need to be sent home"? Speaking to my daughter the following day she said that she had asked Imogen if she would like me to send Night-night Teddy home or should he have a holiday with us until their next visit. GD replied that he could have a little holiday until her next visit. So I sent her a postcard



and on it I wrote "Dear Imogen, I am having a lovely holiday with Winnie the Pooh but I miss you. I am trying to be good and Winnie says that if I am Very Good he will get me some ice cream and honey when Nanny isn't looking. I am looking forward to seeing you when you come back again. Love from Night Night Teddy".

It duly arrived and she read it and later confided to her Mummy that she thought that I had written the card. Asked why she thought that she replied "because Night Night Teddy can't write unless I help him". No fooling her then!


ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs Denise Nesbitt and her team. For more looks at the letter P, please click here.

My World Tuesday

I had a busy time last week. It was our grand-daughter's 6th birthday and she had asked me to make her birthday cake. She made her choice from my book -



On Monday I set to and made the cake.


I decided to make it three colours/flavours, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate - a bit fiddly but this is how it looked -


Then it had to be cut and shaped and with the necessary ingredients, my book and a little patience, this is the finished cake! I wonder why she chose this one!


Imogen lives with her mummy in Stratford upon Avon (about 100 miles away - 160.93 k) so on Tuesday OH and I drove to Stratford to deliver the cake in time for her birthday party on Wednesday. In the late afternoon I strolled into the town (about 15 minutes walk from daughter's house). It was a lovely day and I took a few photographs.

This statue of William Shakespeare is in a lofty position, on a plinth


overlooking some of the lovely flower beds in the surrounding Bancroft Gardens





This view across the river is of the church where he is buried


The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (now without scaffolding) has undergone extensive transformation work since 2007 and is due to be re-opened during 2010 - read more here


and this is a view across the river in the other direction


There is a bird sanctuary here


and this Canada Goose was having a lovely bathe




Grand-daughter loved her cake, had a wonderful time on her birthday and we came back home for a rest!

Thanks to the My World Tuesday team - Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Louise and Sylvia. For more looks at other peoples' worlds, please click here.