Five on Friday

Hello!

I am linking to Amy of Love Made My Home and her Five on Friday. I haven't joined in lately as we've been rather busy here with decorating and a sickly cat.

Edited Version!!!!!!

Oops, you might have noticed something funny here! I accidentally pressed the publish button a short while ago, instead of save!  But here goes, this should be the correct version now!

1. Spring is here!
2. Bluebells in the ancient woodland
3. Jelly ears
4. Present received
5. Happy Happy! (The Splendid Sampler)

1. Spring is here!

We have lots of frogspawn in the pond this year, more than we have ever had before! I do hope a few of he little chaps survive because next doors very naughty cat is really making it his life's work to annihilate all our poor little frogs.

2. Bluebells in the ancient woodland

The bluebells in our front garden are already flowering, but then they are growing in a sunny position, with the added bonus of the afternoon sunshine being reflected back onto them from the whiteness of the wall. 

So, having mentioned the bluebells that we had seen growing on the nearby Common the other week, we thought it would be a good idea to go up there again and see how they were progressing.

As it happens only a few are in flower yet as it is cool and shady here amongst these tall, old trees.

Previously I mentioned that shrubs and non native trees that have somehow self seeded were being cleared by the Commons' Rangers' and volunteers, and this time we noticed that further clearances had taken place, making it much more light and airy with dappled sunshine.

Old and decaying native trees, such as the one seen here,
 are being left to support the wildlife. 

We spotted this but are unsure whether it is evidence
of beetles or woodpeckers 

3. Jelly ears

Would you believe it! If you saw my post about our walk a few months ago when we went searching for fungi - I laughed when I walked round our garden the other day and found these Jelly Ears growing on the stumps of an old budlia tree!

4. Present received!

I feel really guilty that I haven't been able to blog about these lovely presents I received from the very generous Kim  of Wisdom with Needle and Thread.  She recently celebrated her blog anniversary with a month of giveaways.

I was lucky enough to win these lovely kits from week 5:

I was really surprised and excited as this wrist cuff was an extra surprise

It is Kim's 60th birthday in July and she is having another amazing celebration! She is making and giving 60 RAK's (Ramdom Acts of Kindness) to 60 of her blogging friends. You can read about it here.

5. Happy Happy (Splendid Sampler)

I have fallen behind with my blocks, but I can now report that I have finished said block!  The flowers and vase are attached by buttonhole stitch, and the stems are in backstitch.

I hope to be back again soon with a "finish"

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Barbara xx

Five on Friday

Hi there!

Thank you for your lovely comments on my blog last week, and I hope you won't mind me taking you on another walk around our wonderful Common. There is something different to see every time we visit!

Linking to Amy's Love Made My Home, my Five on Friday are:

1. Gliders
2. Gates
3. Ancient woodland
4. A possible WWII bomb crater
5. Old R Whites lemonade bottles

This Friday we had another cold but bright day here in SE England, and DH and I made a point of taking a refreshing walk, while the sun shone.

The gliders were flying again today!

There are so many different gates, and this well worn track is the route the Commons' Rangers' use when transporting the sheep and cattle that are kept here.

Leading to the old airfield.

We walked through some trees where volunteers have been clearing the shrubs to improve conditions for this Ancient Woodland. Bluebells are already beginning to sprout from the leafmould.

This tree could be growing out of what we
 consider to be a  bomb crater
- other bomb craters are visible elsewhere.

The woodland is situated at the end of an airfield which was heavily bombed during the Battle of Britain (in WWII).  The worst occurence happened on what is known famously as "The longest day", when the air raid was particularly severe.

The volunteer group has been really busy.
The log piles are being left
for beetles and other wildlife to live in.

How old this tree must be! 

The bottle on the left could be
an old milk bottle.

In amongst the trees we spotted these old bottles.  On the one on the right (green one) we could make out R WHITES.  It looked like someone had been trying to dig them out. DH had a go at pulling them out too! They were stuck fast. I think the tree roots must be growing into them.

Once back home, I googled R Whites' bottles and found a blog with some information on the bottles and then wondered how old they would be and whether anyone was selling or buying them. I found them on eBay but they are only worth about £2, in good condition, and then depending on whether they were clear or green glass, and this one looks green.

The writing says "WHITE"

Another old bottle, can you see how thick
 the glass was? Possibly 6mm!

Then it was one gate after another! ......

..... leading us back home!

Thank you for taking the time to visit me today, and if you haven't visited Amy's, Love Made My Home yet, I recommend that you take a little time to pop over and see what others have to say on "Five on Friday".

Maybe another week you might like to join in too!

I wish you all a Very Happy Weekend, and I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs!

Barbara xx

Winter's walk - Five on Friday

Hello Dear Reader,

I'm afraid I'm late as usual! But I wanted to congratulate Dear Amy, of Love Made my Home, on the first anniversary of her very successful "Five on Friday"!

There is still time, this week, if you would like to join in, as Amy is keeping the link open until 7pm UK Time on Thursday 25th February, 2016.

She has crocheted a lovely heart garland giveaway for this special link-up!

You can read how Amy's link-up works here.

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Without further ado here is, or should it be are, (?) my "Five on Friday":


These are a few photographs I took this week at the end of a gloriously sunny, but extremely cold day.

All pictures were taken around the edge of our little local airfield.

The glorious view that met us at the summit of the hill 

As we were admiring the view a glider had just taken off -
not easy to photograph, when the target keeps moving!

There are always plenty of dog walkers around,
enjoying the freedom of the open space. 

Just managed to catch the last glider of the day landing!

Still trying to get that perfect shot!

I took lots more pictures, but I think "Five" is probably just enough to show what a lovely afternoon/early evening it was!


Here's wishing you many more "Five on Friday"'s Amy! Thank you for running your link-up!


And for any stitchers amongst you, I hope to be back here tomorrow, if the light is good enough for some photos!

Hugs!



Barbara xx

Five on Friday - Christina's Notes

Hello my friends,

I am linking to Amy's Five on Friday, on her blog "Love Made my Home".   This is the last Five on Friday post until 5 September.

Do visit Amy's blog to see what the other participants have to say (after reading mine, of course?).

For the first time I am also linking to Super Mom - No Cape's Stitchery Party.

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It is a sunny morning here as I am typing, and it looks as if we are going to have a lovely warm day. 

Apologies to anyone who was expecting to see further pictures of my doll Izzy, however, this is still a craft related post, and I will show you pictures of Izzy soon.

Here are Five Facts about :  CHRISTINA'S NOTES

These are photographs of a pouch, made for my mum for Mother's Day, they are from my iPod and despite my having turned them horizontally on our computer file, Blogger decided they should be portrait style! 

ONE:

I made this for my Mum as she likes to take her knitting with her when she is out and about, however she kept losing certain items, therefore I decided to make this pouch to hold her pen, notes, measure and wool needle. By chance Mum has since found her scissors and four sock needles fit in very well too! The embroidery was in perlè cottons with scheesha mirrors, french knots, chain stitches and stem stitch. The binding is from a never ending bag of scraps I bought when I first started patchwork. Main fabric is Osnaburgh - my favourite for embroidery!



TWO:

As with all those "quick" projects one invents, this took longer to make than I had imagined, and changed quite considerably along the way.

Mum's knitting notes pouch

Copious notes!

THREE:

Notepad within - main reason for making the pouch!

Main pocket, showing lining and note pad. 

FOUR:

I typed the word "pencil" on my computer, found a nice font, enlarged it, printed it and traced the word onto my fabric, along with two pictures from one of Mandy Shaw's embroidery books, ready for stitching.   For the ruler I just drew two lines, marked out the actual measurements for stitching. The stitching is in 2 strands of DMC and stem stitch.

3 Pockets on back. 

FIVE:

Finished Pouch!

Lastly, to finish off I couldn't resist showing you this bee "getting stuck in"!

There's a Bumblebee getting smothered in pollen in one of
these Hollyhock flowers!

Thank you for visiting, and don't forget to visit Amy's Five on Friday (link at top of page)

 and 

Super Mom - No Cape's  Stitchery Party (link also at top of page).

Hope you have a great summer.

Barbara

 xxx

P.S. I will be posting before 5 September!

A Wildlife Garden

Hello Dear Readers,

Although I am close to the limit, I am linking to Amy's Five on Friday at Love Made My Home and these are five creatures I have been looking for in our garden this week .......

ONE:  I was wondering how many species of butterfly I could find, as the "The Big Butterfly Count" is in progress at the moment, until 9th August.  Why not join in, maybe it's something you could interest the little ones in?  Visit bigbutterflycount.org, download and print a butterfly identification sheet and recording chart and off you go!

The idea is to take 15 minutes out, and count how many varieties you see, you could count them in a park, garden or on a country walk, preferably on a hot sunny day. See the bigbutterflycount.org website for full details.

Oops, I sound like an advert. I'm sure you'd enjoy it, and it is to help nature!

Here is one I found not far from our back door.

This butterfly obviously likes these straw flowers, and it's great to know as we weren't going to grow them again next year as they grew very straggly this spring, however the flowers have developed really well so I would imagine we will grow them again, especially as the bees and butterflies really enjoy them.

TWO:  Carrying on around the garden I decided to look into our old compost heap to see how it was progressing.

In England we have a garden compost collection (i.e. hedge cuttings, grass mowings and any weeds we gather) every two weeks for which we are issued a small supply of large plastic sacks (which we pay for out of our council taxes). This garden greenery is taken away and composted by the council and is hence a sensible way of recycling. Our sacks are kept laid flat in a small "wild area" of the garden, on top of an old compost heap, with a couple of large stones weighing them down, to prevent them from blowing away.

I'm sorry but I have to sneak an extra photograph in here or my tale won't follow on very well!

This is where our compost heaps are situated - and why I happened to be in this corner of the garden - I was heading for the Buddleia hoping to find more butterflies! The Buddleia is actually in our neighbour's garden and not only forms a super screen between us, but is wonderful for the bees and butterflies which is why it is also known as the butterfly bush.

In this spot about a week ago a beautiful large orange butterfly landed on my cardigan, which was embroidered with flowers.  The butterfly must have been attracted by the different colours. I've only seen it one other time and I'd love to take a photograph of it. Maybe today......

Occasionally we have found some interesting wildlife here, and lo and behold under a layer of plastic sacks there was the slow worm again!

A very healthy looking slow worm!

Don't worry, if you don't know slow worms, they are perfectly harmless. They are not snakes but lizards and spend most of their time hiding under objects, which is why we rarely empty or turn our compost heaps. They feed on slugs and worms and are really one of the gardeners' friends. I understand they can live up to 30 years in the wild.

My husband often sees them around the garden as he is out there much more than me! Unfortunately we do see some that have been attacked by cats or possibly birds.  I have just found out that they can shed their tails as a defence mechanism, by breaking one of their tail vertebrae in half, this leaves the tail wriggling vigourously to distract the predator whilst hopefuly the slow worm gently moves away to live another day.  It is a very strange thing to see.

Slow worms are a protected species in the United Kingdom.

THREE:  Also hidden amongst the sacks I found this spider, carrying her precious cluster of eggs.

Not the usual type of spider we find in the garden!

Both the slow worm and the spider froze as they thought I was a predator, so I just carefully covered them up again and left them in peace.

FOUR:  I couldn't resist a picture of this lovely bumble bee.

I don't know the name of this bush but it has been flowering better year
 on year!

FIVE:  DH was clearing some of the weed out of our pond this week and he came across 5 skins (or exuvias) left behind after the nymphs reach maturity and climb up out of the water via a suitable plant where they break out of the back of their skins, emerging as the most amazing dragonflies with the empty husk or outer skin left hanging on the plant.

I searched out some photographs of the wonderful dragonflies we have seen over the years in our garden but I will have to show you another time, as this is Five on Friday! 

Do you have any unusual wildlife hiding in your garden?

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I hope I am not too late for anyone to visit me.

It would be lovely to know if you have spent some time here, please don't hesitate to say hello!

Why not take a look at Amy's Five on Friday you can use the link in my sidebar.

You may have found me via Amy at Love Made my Home, 

but if you didn't there are lots of other interesting blogs to see there. 

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If you have been here before you may have noticed a routine forming, 

as next time I will have more pictures of the doll I am working on!

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Thank you for dropping in.  

Have a super weekend everyone and do come back soon.

Barbara xx

Five on Friday

Hello Dear Readers,

I have wanted to join in with the lovely Amy's Five on Friday for a while now, but I'm never ready in time!  Here I am at last! For more details please link to Amy via the button on the right of the screen.

How was your week?  We've had a funny couple of weeks as we have had a team of bathroom renovators, including a decorator, plasterer, tiler and carpenter working here over the last fortnight, removing our old bath, sink, toilet and the wall which had separated them and constructing a wonderful new shower room. It's all going extremely well but it's impossible to do anything else when part of the house is out of bounds!

We are so pleased we had the forethought to purchase and install a chemical camping loo in our garden shed, as it would have been exceedingly difficult without it. It has been so convenient for our use during the day, as we both enjoy drinking lots of tea.  The builders are good enough to ensure we have an indoor working loo every evening, albeit we have to use a bucket and a standpipe to flush it.

However, enough of that, here are a few pictures I have been wanting to show you but haven't been able to spend time uploading them onto our computer as it was sitting at the computer which bought on my last bout of back trouble.

1.  Not one of mine, dh took this at 4.30am when our cat decided someone else should be awake in addition to her! Bless, she means well.

2.  We like to think we have a wild life garden (although some people would say it looks unkempt and overgrown) and here are a few of our simple country style flowers which dh took for me when I was unable to walk into the garden recently.

If you look carefully you will find there are a couple of bees gathering
nectar from the flowers in this photo. 

Erysimum, these are related to wallflowers

The birthday rose my mum bought me a couple of years ago.
 This is the best bloom it has had to date!

3.  I've not been able to upload my photos as often as I'd like lately but finally here are some of the wild orchids on our front lawn.

4. And its been a good year for the roses, which are looking so pretty.

The birthday rose again.

5. I just had to show you our wild strawberries, they are growing very well again this year and despite being tiny they are so very tasty!

Well, that's my first Five on Friday! Thank you for visiting and I look forward to seeing you again.

I trust you have had a lovely week and wish you an enjoyable weekend. Bye for now, and next time there will definitely be crafting here, I promise!

Barbara xx