Wildflowers

I love of flowers!

This statement will come as no surprise to those of you who visit here regularly but it’s not just garden flowers, I love wildflowers too!

During the summer I have been photographing wildflowers wherever I found myself ~ country lanes, seaside, park!

Looking back at the photos I do wonder where the summer has gone. Some of these photos I took over 2 months ago and yet it only seems such a short time ago.

Just some of the many flowers I’ve photographed during the summer and lovely to see that it didn’t rain all the time!

I have lots of books on wildflowers too, some of them from my childhood. One of them is the Ladybird Book of British Wildflowers, the one above though isn’t my original one it’s another one I picked up a little while ago in a secondhand book shop.

Why did I want a second one??

Well I wanted it so that I could send it to the very clever Fee to work her magic and make me these beautiful blocks ………………………

Aren’t they brilliant??

I think I’m right in saying that Fee enjoys a commission, her blocks are also available from her shop.

Her work is amazing!!

I don’t suppose there will be many more opportunities for sunny wildflower photos from now on, at least I have my blocks to look at!

The air is definitely a lot cooler but at least the sun shone today, let’s hope it continues to do so over the weekend.

Happy weekend and as always thanks for visiting!

 

Day Trips

Last week, with my husband off work on holidays, we had a week of days out and about. We visited gardens, went to the seaside (twice), a garden centre, for walks, we had picnics and meals out and throughly enjoyed a lovely week with very good weather (only a shower or two).

So this is a post full of photos of our week at home and all the flora and fauna and scenery we encountered along the way!

Well I had to leave my calling card, didn’t I!!!

If you made it to the end, thank you for your perseverance!
Being a blogger makes you look harder ~ don’t you think!!!

Happy new week everyone.

 

My Holly & Ivy Park

“The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir”

I thought we would take what will probably be the final blog walk in the park for this year and as you can see greenery may be a bit sparse but I did find some holly and ivy.

There really is quite a bit of ivy and as the trees are stripped bare it really stands out as it wraps itself around the tree trunks.

Not quite as much holly as ivy but I still managed to find a couple of bushes but with absolutely no berries at all. I’m not sure if there were any to start with or if the birds have eaten them all.

It really is quite mild outside today, the day started off bright and dry although it did turn to rain later this afternoon.

However when compared to the weather this time last year, it’s almost tropical!! You can see what the park looked like at just about this time in 2010, here!
Believe me I’m thankful it’s not like that this year!

It has been an enjoyable walk in the park today, it was lovely to get away from all the manic-ness that is this time of year.
Lovely to breath in the fresh air and enjoy nature.

Hope you too can find some time to step back from the madness as well and enjoy some of the simple things in life.

Thank you for walking in the park with me this year, I’m sure we’ll take we’ll take a few more strolls in 2012!

Happy Tuesday everyone.

 

My Autumn Park

I was checking back to see the last time I did a park post and it was the 26th June, I can’t believe it was that long since we had a walk in the park!
This was a post that I had intended to do last month but due to October’s horrible weather it wasn’t possible. Thankfully November has started beautifully and we enjoyed a lovely walk in the park yesterday and there still is some autumn colour about!

I love the light at this time of year when the weather is good that is. The sun is low in the sky and the shadows are long.

There are still plenty of crunchy leaves to walk through!

Even though I do feel a bit sad when the tree’s loose their leaves they do look majestic when you can see their bare branches.

There was a beautiful golden glow yesterday.

We had the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time yesterday afternoon.

It amazes me how some of the trees still have some of their leaves ………

others are just changing colour ……….

and some, like my own garden tree have lost all their leaves!

The wildlife were all out in force, these swans are always very grateful for the what the park visitors bring them.

Of course these cheeky chappies are never far away!!

Since the clocks went back the evening comes very quickly and that low sun soon slips below the horizon……..

creating some beautiful silhouettes as it goes.

I hope you enjoyed your little walk around ‘my autumn park’. We’re still enjoying some gorgeous late autumn weather here, fingers crossed it stays for a while.

Happy new week everyone!!!

 

Autumn Colour

Over the past few weeks I have been taking some photographs of the autumn colours appearing in the countryside and in my garden, when the weather has been behaving itself that is!

Looking through them it seems that it hasn’t been all rain, must have just seemed that way or else I took most of my photos over a period of two days, which may have been the case.

There is no doubt about the beautiful colours that autumn sends our way.

The trees, leaves, berries and shrubs are such pretty shades of the season.

Beauty to be found in the simplest of things.

Rusty orange, red, brown, green, mustard, yellow, purple, taupe. Most of my favoutite colours (with the exception of duck egg blue that is) are autumn shades, perhaps I really am an earthy autumn girl, mmmm not sure about that, earthy yes but I do like my summer sunshine!

Celebrate Colour is all about being inspired by the colours of the autumn season and using them in all manner of crafts. It is the brilliant idea of Emma Lamb, Wild Olive and luvinthemommyhood. They want everyone to share their autumn inspired crafts and there are lots of lovely prizes to be won too. Click on the photo for lots more information.

And inspired I have been, I’ve spent this week crocheting little bits and pieces in autumnal colours which will eventually become corsages, with the exception of the toadstool which might look a little odd!

I have enjoyed working with these colours and matching them up with pretty beads and buttons.

Just have to attach flowers to leaves etc and make a few corsages, I have to say though I do quite like them all displayed like this, so much so that I don’t want to touch them!!

Hope you’re being inspired by the season too!

It’s actually not raining here today although a little sunshine wouldn’t go amiss.

Thanks as always for visiting, enjoy the rest of the week and I hope the weekend ahead is a good one for you all!

 

Festival of Flight

Welcome to the ‘Kingdom of Mourne’!
This magnificient area was the setting for the Festival of Flight this past weekend.

The Mourne Mountains are Northern Ireland’s highest mountains with Slieve Donard being the highest peak at 2789 feet. Now I know in the grand scale of things they’re aren’t huge but they certainly are beautiful!

I want to thank you all for the ‘finger crossing’ I asked for last Friday because the weather on Saturday in this little corner of Northern Ireland was lovely. When we left home it was pouring and we gathered together raincoats, umbrellas, and wellies but when we got to Newcastle, Co Down the one thing we needed and didn’t bring were our sunglasses!

We had brought a picnic with us and we settled down on the beach in the sun and waited for the air show to begin.

The air display included the French Patrouille Reva, the Irish Air Corps and a US World War 2 Mustang but there is no doubt the stars of the show were the RAF Red Arrows!!

The display that these pilots put on was amazing!

Something I don’t think I have shared with you before is that I have had a lifelong facination with airplanes, I love them, I could spend all day at an airport watching them take off and land. So an air display is a real treat for me.

I’m pleased to say that one of the Red Arrow pilots is a woman. Perhaps I’ll be a pilot and fly a Red Arrow when I grow up (whenever that might be!).

The photo above was taken by my husband as his camera is much better at fast faraway things than mine and to be honest this was so exciting I wanted to watch it not photograph it!

They finished their absolutley brilliant display with their famous Red Arrow heart with the arrow through the centre! I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this.

Now the dark clouds gathered over the mountains but then moved on to thankfully rain on someone else. We wandered around the little town which as well as many pretty little gift shops has a yarn shop and a lovely bead shop, then we had our evening meal in a gorgeous Italian restaurant. We then went to the music festival in the evening to watch my son’s band play.

Of course General Fiasco were brilliant!

We finished off our day at the seaside with one of these. You just have to, don’t you!

So another lovely summer day out came to an end, don’t you just wish it could be summer all the time!

 

My Spring Park

Hi everyone!
I thought now that the weather has really improved it was time for another walk in ‘my park’! The last time we visited it looked like this but thankfully we have moved on to better weather.

As you can see though the swans are still happy to see the human visitors!

I just love the light you get at his time of year when it’s a lovely clear day.

Catkins – a sure sign of spring!

I never tire of looking at the silhouette of ‘the castle’.

There are little clumps of crocuses everywhere. On the banks of the lake…..

…..and round the trunks of the trees.

Last week on one day we had 15 deg C, which for this time of year is lovely. Now the weather is still very beautiful but the temperatures have dropped a little so I may well still have need for this…..

…..my aran scarf, which was the project for my knitting workshop with Debbie Abrahams this past weekend. It is made in Rowan’s British Sheep Breeds Chunky undyed yarn and very lovely it is too. It’s very soft and not at all itchy and scratchy as you might expect from 100% pure wool. The purpose of the workshop was to knit completely from a chart with no written instructions at all, lots of concentration was needed.

It was a great day, knitting with 15 other like-minded people, not having to get up to answer a phone, make a meal, sort the washing and ironing or dust and hoover, just knitting and more knitting with a little bit of craft shopping thrown in!! Bliss!

I’ll leave you with two more little ‘pretties’ from the park!

I hope wherever you are, you too can enjoy a little sunshine today and in the coming week and as always, thanks for dropping in!

 

Shortest Day

Today is the Winter Solstice or the Shortest Day! The day with the least hours of daylight in the whole year and as I type this at just after 4.00 pm it is dusk although as we have had freezing fog for a couple of days now it is hard to know when it is daylight!!
Today, during the day the temperatures here have been about -10 deg C and tonight they’re now predicting some places in N.Ireland may drop to -20 deg C. We make Narnia seem warm!!!

I thought of where I would like to take some photos to mark the Shortest Day but where else would I do it other than in one of my favourite places, ‘my park’!
Now even though it’s absolutely freezing there is no doubt that everywhere is stunningly beautiful.

These fellows are very glad to see the human visitors at the moment!

Some people arrived at the same time as us carrying a big bag of bread and the geese arrived from everywhere.

They’re such attractive birds, very intelligent and extremely funny.

The photos above were taken in the garden this morning, it’s amazing how the frost makes the ordinary totally beautiful!

Below are the patterns the frost has made on the glass in my greenhouse, so pretty.

I find the Shortest Day a very hopeful day, a day when things begin to change for the better. We’ve climbed to the top of the hill (a slippery hill at that) and now it’s all downhill to longer days and warmer weather. Second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour the days will lengthen and I can’t tell you how much I look forward to that. To garden days and greenhouse days, to flowers, bees and sunshine. Happy days!

While I’m on the subject of greenhouses, just look at this little lot, thriving away in my greenhouse with the help of a paraffin heater.
My sweetpea for next summer, now if that’s not hopeful, I don’t know what is!

Stay warm folks, only 4 more sleeps!!

 

My Snowy Park

You’ll remember I introduced you to ‘my park’ here, well today I’m going to take you on another park walk but this time it’s a snowy one!

Yesterday afternoon we got wrapped up put our boots on and took ourselves off for a wintery walk.

We had what I consider to be the right amount of snow, enough to make the park and gardens pretty and festive but not too much so that the country came to a standstill. The roads were clear and everyone could get about their lives.

The park looked stunning in it’s covering of snow!

Although a lot had thawed due to the morning sunshine, the greenery still had a little frosting.

The lake had frozen around the edges and the wildfowl were going for a walk along the top of it.

The sun was beginning to set and the sky was beautiful.

It’s such a novelty for us to get ‘Christmas card’ photos like this at this time of year!

The silhouettes of the bullrushes against the sky and frozen lake were brilliant.

Yes it was cold but it was very beautiful and it felt good to get outside and have a good walk to blow away the cobwebs.
We never take for granted what a privilege it is to live near this wonderful park!

Have a great week everyone and if it’s possible wrap up warm and get out there and enjoy the season!

 

Orchard County

As many of you already know I live in County Armagh which due to it’s acres of orchards is also known as the Orchard County. It’s the apple harvest at the moment and by all accounts it’s a good one this year with a large crop of apples.

Many of the local churches hold their Harvest Festivals at this time of year and of course in this area apples form many of the displays!

The photo above was taken outside my local fruit and veg shop at the weekend, all the apples for sale are grown locally.

We brought these home with us and this box of apples ( there’s two missing, we couldn’t wait ) cost £1.50, not bad when you consider how many you get. Now they’re not all the same shape and size like the perfectly formed ones you get in the big supermarkets but unlike the supermarket models they do have the most wonderful taste !

It’s not just eating apples either there’s cooking apples aplenty. These lovely Bramley apples became……….

……….this apple tart which went down nicely with custard after lunch yesterday!!

One of my favourite things as I think I’ve mentioned before in a previous post are toffee apples, I just adore them. I do eat more than one a week (that’s all I’m admitting to anyway) ! Well they do say ” an apple a day keeps the doctor away “, it doesn’t say they can’t be covered in toffee!!!

All these apples have inspired me to knit some as well !

Now in celebration of the apple harvest I thought I would have a little giveaway so I made an ‘apple colours’ inspired corsage! When out shopping at the weekend I bought this little candle which has the scent of Caramel Apples (oh yum!). So if you would like the corsage and candle all you have to do is leave a comment on this post!
As you know I always like to personally answer all your comments but as this is a giveaway post I’m going to thank you in advance so I don’t mess up the numbers. The fact that you take the time to stop by here, read my ramblings and then leave a comment is sooooo appreciated, so thank you !!!
The giveaway closes on Thursday 14th October at midnight (British Summer Time, which is coming to an end, sniff !)
I’ll be back on Friday with the name of the winner.

In the meantime from a very sunny and warm Orchard County have a good week !

………………………………..Thank you, the giveaway is now closed!………………………………