nessienoraCRAFTexplorer

These are the three bags I made and sent to Simon's nieces in Austria. I have been collecting old pure wool jumpers, gathered from various sources, for some time, and excitedly shrinking them in the washing machine, only then to leave them stuffed into a cupboard! I had been planning to make these for some time, so was delighted, however amateurish the results, to complete these at last! The first incorporates some work using the embellisher machine, and the other two have birds and flowers cut out on the Cuttlebug machine, as well as stitching.

This last one was a delight really, as the bobbles were part of the jumper! I get the jumpers cheaply from charity shops. Some shops cannot sell certain woollen items, e.g. where they have been handmade, or where they have shrunk already.

Christmas at Michael House

Christmas was great. We were fully booked with guests. I was quite anxious before the guests arrived, fuelled by not being very busy for a while before Christmas, allowing greater focus on the few days than might have otherwise been the case, and the fact that I alwasy want it to be a great success. I also always hope the guests will get on with each other. They did, they were all lovely, and it all went well.

The dogs behaved, mostly, Barnie only stole on two occasions, a chocolate gift he found in Simon's top room and a piece of Christmas cake he managed to tear off the cake when we were distracted! His (Simon's, not Barnie's!) study is titled the 'Doghouse', and as it has a big TV in there, is now dubbed 'The Doghouse Studio'!

Christmas butterfly

I confess I did not take this photo, I 'borrowed' it from the searchable archives.

Each winter since we have been at Michael House, we have had one or two Vanessa butterflies hibernate in the house over winter. Some have lived, some have died. Last winter one was poised above our bed on the ceiling for months. Then, I realised it had gone. I had not found little sad bits of butterfly dotted about, so I can only assume it survived and went on to enjoy the warmer weather.

We have one in the porch at present. I have put out some sugar water for it to drink. Apparently they taste with their feet, so I hope it knows what it has there! One year I overdid the stickiness and the poor thing got all stuck down, so I hope I have avoided that this time.

I thought the poor thing had died, it was folded up and on its side. But I glanced at it later, and there it was, wings resplendant, so I have popped it back with it's water in the porch.

It is interesting that we make such a fuss of pretty things. If it were a moth, would I be bothering? Perhaps. If it were a wasp, a cockroach? I doubt that there is much difference between a butterfly and a cockroach's experience of pain or pleasure, whatever they have of either. It is largely our love of what we interpret as beautiful or useful that dictates our decision to protect one creature over another. I would be likely to protect a bee before a wasp, a butterfly before a moth, a pretty caterpillar over a cabbage white, I suspect most of us would.

I do hope this butterfly survives the winter and goes on to do great butterfly things in 2009.

I do find another affinity with these butterflies of course, the name!

one present less to open

Barnie has already consumed one present. We hadn't even got it as far as under the tree.

Limericks

There was a young dog name of Berrri
Who used to be overly merry
His boisterous jumpings,
and leapings and humpings
were snipped by our friendly veterinary

or...

There once was a lab name of Barnie,
Who had a great love of the sarnie
He’d eat the bird seed,
On all things he’d feed.
We wish that he’d move to Killarney.



For Lovely...

There was a young lady, a charmer,
Who had it in mind, 'Be a farmer'.
So she gave up OT,
She'll make, as you'll see,
Without drama, the best llama farmer.


I am beginning to think in limericks!

Ted remembered something he forgot to put in his letter this year - he is getting scatty in his old age, like the rest of us:

'the uptites hav bene thinking ov getting anuther kat for ajis, but thanc gudnes thay hav not yett. du not remind them. thay wud like a main koon. i thinc that is rasist.'

For anyone reading this who has not received Ted (the cat)'s round robin, you are going to think me completely mad! Ted has very poor spelling and is generally grumpy and rude about everything and everyone. My alter ego? Of course not!

Wishing anyone who reads this a Happy Christmas and a great New Year, in which the only Crunch is of snow underfoot and Coco Pops.

X factor, pah

here's the proper version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf36v0epfmI

oh no, it's Leonard Cohen again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki9xcDs9jRk

this is another beautiful song!

The unshaded one

Berri managed to completely break his collar last night, but we didn't bother too much, as he was due to have it removed today. He is now so pleased to be lampshade free and is most loving and gorgeous, he doesn't seem to blame us for the whole episode!

3BT

I think I need to list three beautiful things today, as I have not been seeing much as beautiful. Sometimes, reminding myself of how lucky I am and that I have a great life just makes it worse, as then I feel gulty as well as miserable. I am having difficulty getting up at present, I think there may be a little SAD effect on my affect. Anyway, enough maudlin introspection, on with the 3BT.

err.

oh, I know...

um

Being amongst people at the art group and eating, err cake. Oh, and creating a reasonable pastel picture.

At last having a card machine for guests to pay on. It has a clock on the front, so that will be useful. Oh dear, that is really scraping the barrel of beautiful things.

Anticipation of tomorrow when Berri will hopefully be able to cast his lampshade aside and walk proud and tall again, if slightly lighter underneath.

And now, Ted the cat has just fallen into the recyclling bin trying to get my attention to let him in. 3BT and 1AT.

Getting creative

A watercolour card, very simple, but quite pleasant!

This no longer exists, as I stupidly painted something else which was more important on the back! It was just intended to be a little card, and was copied, roughly, from a book, to learn new techniques. I enjoy painting buildings.

This is a watercolour of Trebarwith Strand, and sold some time ago. I tried to make it my header for the blog, so it now has writing on, but I could not get it to work properly as the title!

This year, partly due to the need to reduce spending and partly to having a bit more time and feeling inspired, I am making quite a few Christmas presents. I will not display those on here until after they have reached their new homes, but here are a couple of my watercolours for now, which have either already sold or are cards or other pictures.

The Shaded One

Nuff said. Sky is clearly embarrassed to be seen with him. It should be coming off soon.

The Patient

The four legged patient is doing well, he has eaten a lot today and been for a little walk. He forgets he is impeded by a lampshade and just carries on as if it is not there, until he is stopped by it jamming into something. He had broken it even before he left the vet, so it is getting much the worse for wear.

Berri-Biskit

Berri-Biskit has had the chop today. He now looks as far from the picture of him in a recent post as would be possible to imagine. He has a big lampshade on to stop him licking the affected area, he is very miserable and looks pitifully and, we feel, accusingly, at us.

I have always had all my animals neutered, so I am not really sure why this has been such a difficult decision. Maybe because it is for me the first dog i have had to have done, or because it was not done immediately it could be. The vet was not particularly encouraging of having it done. The decision was made when Berri was badly bitten by a dog which I assume he had tried to mount. He had done this before and been very badly bitten on the beach here. Both times involved various visits to the vet and discomfort, for Berri and all of us. but, he always seems such a proud boy, I hope that has not gone for good.

3BT

I stopped doing the 3 Beautiful Things exercise some time ago. I think I will revisit it sometimes:

Macaroni cheese cooked by Simon

Being on the beach at Trebarwith Strand and meeting lots of dogs and their people. There is no better way to get chatting to other people than via your dog sniffing their dog's bottom, or their dog stealing your dog's ball.

Facebook - witty little comments, re-making contact with people I had nearly forgotten, links to other things. OK, OK, Wordscraper Blitz, a scrabble type game, in which you play against yourself, but it is timed and others are also playing and the person with the higest score wins. Very addictive.

Pavlov

Maybe our dogs are not so clever, or they think we are not.

During the few days of summer we had this year, and in past years to a greater degree, we enjoy taking our food outside to eat whenever possible. The dogs love to come with us. As they cannot be near us indoors when we eat in the kitchen or dining room, being around us and hoping for morsels to 'accidentally' drop on the patio holds great interest for them, so they leap up and down and wait for us to open the gates etc.

Today, we decided to eat crumpets and cake in our little annexe, where we sleep and where we have a wood burning stove alight much of the time. We have never done this before. The route to the annexe is via the back door, as the route to the garden is, and the dogs jumped up and down for the gate to the garden to be opened. They were of the opinion that, as we were carrying food and drink, we must be going to eat outside!

This all comes down to the conditioning that Pavlov discovered in some cruel experiments he conducted whereby dogs learn to salivate on the cue of food and act accordingly. Or does it just come down to us having very silly dogs, who expect us to eat outside in the cold in winter? I wonder if they will latch on the next time we take food out of the back door!

Shopping in Truro

We ventured to the vast metropolis of Truro, for a spot of Christmas shopping today. It was fairly quiet, pleasant and we had several food and drink breaks. What I noticed however, was how out of touch with fashions I have become and what a country cousin I now am! I haven't worn a skirt for months, it never crosses my mind to do so even! Yet, here were all these women wearing skirts with lovely boots and looking generally great. I bought some make-up for someone for Christmas, and it was extortionately expensive. I began to understand why, on Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 yesterday, someone rang in to say that the new 45% tax threshold of £150,000 'wasn't much at all, and barely enough to get onto the property ladder', which I had previously considered a preposterous statement.

Searching for ancient woodlands

We have come to realise that it is fun to search for ancient woodlands. There are books describing where to find them, and it entails visiting all sorts of places we would probably not otherwise see. We went to three woods on our recent holiday in Shropshire, some on the well trodden route at Croft Castle, but we did not find the really ancient ones here, then we visited Shrawley woods, much of which seemed to be behind fences saying 'Keep out'. The woods were of small leafed lime trees and were right beside us for a long while. The final woods we tried to visit, but did not really see properly, due to failing light, were at Lords Hill near Snailbeach, where there is a stand of ancient holly. To find this we had to cross the Long Mynd, quite a hairy car ride. Then the road went down a lane so small it had grass growing along it's length and there were two closed gates along the way! I found this quite daunting, and might have chosen to turn round, but when we found someone opening and closing the gates and going through as though it was all quite normal, we followed suit. All these visits were just tasters, and much more time could be spent at each of them, as well as exploring many other sites, we have many holidays of searching ahead I hope...


Shrawley Woods, small leafed lime trees

Lords Hill Snailbeach, - hollies

Croft Castle - collection of ancient trees

Pretty pictures from our holiday in Shropshire

Mistletoe


Fabulous autumn colour






Those dogs have to sniff their way into as many pictures as possible. This is mainly of an amazing tree we found when we were looking at a small leafed lime tree woodland, this is not a lime tree!

Wigmore Castle

Ho hum, Leonard Cohen has become a ghost with three heads. My photos were truly awful, but there are plenty of excellent snippets on YouTube

the view from the kitchen window at The Shear

Resting at the cottage we rented in Shropshire - we all did lots of that

Credit crunch - well there's nothing else to eat.

The table is bare.


I never have any money in the winter, that is the nature of the role I have chosen, and I am beginning to accept it and I have discovered some great charity shops and have more clothes than ever. We just about get by, Simon's work is less seasonal, luckily. Having little money leads to creativity, well I am hoping it will. Somehow, though, it feels more acceptable not to have any money this winter, what with the credit crunch, and everyone having similar problems. I might not have even felt comfortable mentioning my penny pinching ways this time last year, so the financial crisis has done some good, even if just for greater openness by myself. Blogging and Facebook are free.

Leonard Cohen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTRX23EMNk

the version we heard at the concert at Cardiff was even more magical than this, but the You Tube recordings on people's mobile phones do not do it justice!

Absolutely magical, exquisite, a term I do not use often, or lightly.

delights of dog ownership

Sky has rolled in something nasty, fox poo. Fortunately, she is not due at the White House where she makes her visits, for about three weeks, so should be sweet smelling by then.

the garden

Today I did some clearing up of the garden towards preparing it for winter. The day was beautiful, the garden less so, as it gets very neglected. But, despite this, there were lots of things to enjoy. We still have some things to eat coming from the garden and the polytunnel in particular. I gathered runner beans, courgettes, a very few last broad beans, there are tomatoes a-plenty, and there are still a few slightly sad looking sweet peas and calendula flowers out.

We may take Ted on holiday, he doesn't know yet, but is wondering why he hasn't been fed since this morning. It is because, if he can come, he will be very unwell if he has eaten a lot, and only a bit less unwell if he has not eaten for a while.

Sky

We have a little game whereby Sky drops the ball over the stile and then I throw it over for her. I have to be careful there is no-one the other side before I throw it!

courgette

I was not aware there had been any nuclear fallout problems in Cornwall?

Dartmoor

that smudgy thing is a balloon

We visited Dartmoor recently, en-route to see the Devon Open Studios. I fell in love with Dartmoor. We went twice and had fantastic weather on both occasions.

Sennen

We visited Sennen the other day and had a wonderful day, seeing where Jonathan, Simon's cousin has moved to in St Just and we had lunch in Sennen, a favourite place of mine. Whilst there we managed to get clamped in the car park, as we forgot to get a ticket, so preoccupied were we with dogs, sorting out a table in the great cafe/restaurant which overlooks the bay, etc. The clamping man was lovely, very good at defusing any potential angst, although we had no excuse, but I tried the hopeless female rout, it did not work. I did not try it, I was it! He had previously worked in the army, including service in Iraq. He had doubtless defused rather more than angry immobilised people.

The dog in the pictures was mad, he kept jumping up at the sky. His leaps didn't seem co-ordinated with the high waves, perhaps he jumps up for fish when the boats come in, who knows. He appeared to live there.

Previous post

My last entry sounds rather breathless and a bit boastful really, upon reflection. I covered so many topics, just to pack them all in in an effort to catch up, where really they should all have had their own neat section. We will be busy this weekend, there is a wedding locally, a shame the weather won't be nicer. I can recall a wedding, the same time of year, with rather poor weather. Ours! At least these people will be in a proper building, not worrying that their tent may fall down. Then, they are off to Australia, to live.

Where to start?

It is so long since I have made a post on here, that I do not know where to start.

We have had a hectic season, and from now on the busiest times are more restricted to the weekends. Despite the weather, July was our busiest ever and the rest of the summer has been good as well. As we move into autumn, there are more walkers coming this way and there are a few weekend weddings and parties for which people need somewhere to stay.

I just heard from someone who stayed in early July. he was walking from land's End to john O'Groats, so was at the beginning of his travels. He made it, he lost four stone in weight and he recommended Michael House as one of the best places he stayed! So, that was lovely, he also made lots of money for the charities he was seeking sponsorship for.

I recently sold the above picture. It was framed when I sold it, so looks better than this!

We also recently visited the Devon Open studios www.devonartistnetwork.co.uk. I love attending Open Studios. they provide an opportunity to meet artists, see them in their working environment, have a nose at their home and garden in many cases, and get a real feel for what they are doing. We saw about five in all, over two days, they were quite a long way off, over Dartmoor, and we had gorgeous weather, so spent quite some time enjoying that. In the process, we fell in love with Dartmoor, an area we didn't know well, but thought would be wonderful, and it is.

I have some photos to upload, so will do another post with photos soon.

Just for now

Whilst we are busy through the summer season with the guest house, I plan to mainly blog on the Other One - http://www.michael-house.blogspot.com/. So do pop over!

Rocky Valley

This is Queen Victoria, at Rocky Valley.

Here are the dogs, again. This is at Rocky Valley, near here, a fabulous, well, rocky valley. It leads down to the coast path and the cliffs above the sea.

view from the back of the house

I always seem to take these photos when the light is rubbish, I must try to do them early or late! The echiums are magnificent this year, never seen them so good. I did take this photo a few days ago.

Robins

The robins are making their winter noise, immediately the solstice is over, in fact, they were doing it yesterday

What an owler

As there was a full moon, and the tide was out late, I decided to visit the beach alone with the dogs at around 10.30 pm last night, after clearing up from the guest's supper and laying breakfast.

We had a great run on the beach, there was one family there, and one dog with them, whom Berri-Biskit made instant friends with. When they left, a fisherman arrived, also with a dog and he was setting up his fishing gear. I always worry a little that Berri- B will discover some sort of delicious bait and cause mayhem. All was well.

There is a stream that comes down to the sea through Trebarwith Strand beach. It forms a mini delta as it reaches the sea, ie., it widens and is very shallow. I waded through this, getting my feet and sandals very wet, as I could not gauge the depth, as it was approaching darkness. When we returned, I decided to cross on the rocks a little higher up, so as not to get wet (eh, I was already wet).

I crossed at a little rocky place, only a couple of feet to get over, a little slippery, but fine.

Not fine. Woomph. I slipped on seaweed and went, bottom first, into a rock pool. As I went down, all I could think of was my keys in my pocket and the two bags of steaming poo in my hand. I was absolutely soaked, and covered in sand. Fortunately, the water was fresh, as it was heading toward the sea. Nothing hurt, except my pride. I hoped no-one had seen me.

The poo bags were still clutched in my hand, but had taken in water - I just hope they hadn't leaked.

I scurried back to the car, which fortunately was only at the top of the beach. I just wanted to get home and out of my drenched clothes. It is only about a five minute drive home. I drove carefully, aware I was probably a bit shocked.

I suddenly saw some brown wings, near my wheel. An owl had come out of the bushes. It is a tree lined, quiet road. Had I hit it, what should I do? Carry on, go back? I had to drive passed my usual turn off to turn round, and, when I got back, there he was, a lovely little juvenile tawny owl, sitting right in the middle of the road. I got out, and we looked at each other for a bit. If I moved anywhere behind him, he swivelled his head and watched me more. He showed no sign of moving out of the road, I didn't know if he was injured. I could hear his mum, calling him, I knew I should avoid touching him, or his mum might not recognise his scent and reject him. Also, I thought he might bite me if I tried to touch him. But I was worried he might be injured and that a car might squash him.

A car came along, shortly followed by another. Fortunately, they were together, and the occupants were middle aged women. Hopefully it was too dark by then for them to notice my state of total wetness, and I had almost forgotten about that anyway. We were all at a bit of a loss, and concerned for the owl's welfare. Then, the idea of using a coat to flap the owl to the side of the road came up, and I did so, with my soaking fleece. He was not happy with this plan, and puffed out his wings to their full width - about 18ins. - and made alarming clacking noises with his beak. But, once at the side of the road, he stayed there. And, his wings did not look injured, and he could walk fine. He had probably just been stunned and was in shock with all the lights etc. We all left the area, gingerly. When I turned round further down the road, and came back up, there was no sign of him.

I may not go down to the beach tonight.

Title

I have altered the title picture, but am not happy with it. it seems to involve a lot of fiddling about to get a photo sorted and the right size and with the wording in the right place and the right size as well! Oh well, I will tackle it soon.

the Other Blog

I have been doing more posts on The Other Blog recenlty, www.michael-house.blogspot.com

a little bit of craft activity

The butterflies are silver and move around onthe ends of bits of wire! it was a card for a 25th wedding anniversary.

Goldfinch on top of the echium

OK, it's rather small, and could be any bird, but I know it is a goldfinch! They sit there a lot, bobbing up and down in the breeze.

One for Lovely

This was taken at the Pencarrow, near Bodmin, Farmers day and country event. ALthough the weather this year was not great, it was a lot better than last year, when the only living things still outside were the llamas! I have only just noticed the clever play on the l in Lland! You could be Llovely's Llamas, or even your proper name with an extra l!

Jigsaw

A jigsaw now appears at the bottom of this page, for the delight and entertainment of anyone who is reading this!

Bad blogger

I am horrified to see how long it is since I did a post of any sort. I have all sorts of ideas on things to include, but ideas is all they have remained. They mostly involve taking or downloading photos, which takes time, and I am now busy with the guest house, so that has gone on the back burner.

One recurring thought however, is that I have posted very little about any craft activity for a long time. I entitled this Nessienora Craft Explorer for a reason, to explore crafts. I could better have called it Nessienora Plant Explorer, or Nessienora, Bird Explorer, Nessienora, Anthropomorphising Pet Explorer, or dare I say it, recently, Nessienora, Breast Explorer! But as for craft. Not a peep. I have been doing some watercolours, and a little felt making and have made some cards. But, my interest seems to be more directed to the painting of one sort or another and I do want to pursue the felt making. I will not change the name of the blog, that sounds complicated! I will post some pictures of stuff I have done, soon.

Mammogram

About 6 weeks ago, I had my first routine mammogram. It was very quick and easy, local and carried out with minimum discomfort by radiographers on a mobile unit. I thought little of it, was surprised how minor the procedure was, and went home. Then, a few days later, I received a recall letter. Perhaps the picture was not clear, perhaps there was a benign lump, perhaps I had cancer.

The staff at the Mermaid Center at Treliske, Truro, were excellent. They were reassuring. There was something, probably a cyst. They took more pictures, then did an aspiration to remove whatever was there. Green, lovely. I felt reassured, that was the end of it. They did a last mammogram to make sure it had gone. It had not. So, then I was called back for a biopsy. This was about one week alter. It was not painful, and the staff were so attentive, that I thought I was definitely dying, although the radiologist had been very reassuring that the 'lump' (I have never been able to feel it) was probably nothing to worry about.

Today I returned for the result. I was very nervous, the outcome seemed so life altering. But, as I waited anxiously in the waiting room, I asked myself what I was most worried about. Not dying, not pain, but how it would affect my business, losing my hair, the general uncertainty and lack of ability to plan anything. And how it might affect me and Simon, whether I would be unbearably ratty.

I was called in, the consultation lasted about one minute, all is well, there is a fatty or calciferous lump, but nothing needing any treatment.

Gradually, the relief flooded in and is still with me. I can now get on with planning things, and return to worrying about all the little day to day niggles, how the tomatoes are growing, how rapidly the weeds are taking over, whether I have just been bitten by a cat flea and the like...

I think it has been a useful experience, something and yet nothing. Simon has been fantastic, coming with me and hearing all my worries, yet holding back on his own anxieties and fears for the future. There may be many more tests of us to come I am sure, but I feel stronger to deal with them now that we have come through this one.

three beautiful things

As I seem not to manage to do this, I think I will stop saying I will do it! It is a bit restrictive, and although potentially a good discipline, sometimes stops me doing a post at all if I can't think of any, let alone three beautiful things to write about! I may still do the odd 3BT post, as and when the mood takes me! Of course, today, it is easy to think of 3 beautiful things:

Echiums
The weather
A healthy Barney

message from Barney

This is me in my special den. I love it in here, but you really didn't need to shut the zip, you don't usually. You didn't know it when you took this photo, but I was not very well. Apparently I ate something dodgy. I was feeling quite rubbish later on, and couldn't even eat, walk or get up. You took me to the hospital. I had to stay the night, after having some bag of stuff put into me. I felt a lot better the next day and came home. I am back to normal now, munching my way through everything I can find. I ate a few of the new degradable poo bags Vanessa had carefully put in a closed drawer for me.
You humans grumble about being in mixed sex wards when you go to hospital. when I was in the hospital, I was in a mixed species ward. Now, don't get em wrong, I like cats, but, when you are feeling weak and ill, you really need the company of your own kind.

view from just outside!

This is my monthly picture of the view from just outside the window where I sit at the computer, a couple of days late. The echiums are out and the camelia is well and truly over. People tend to love or hate echiums. Clearly, I love them! they are majestic, they dance, they attract a myriad of bees. They are a talking point. And they love living here and we have loads of seedlings and plants we sell for a Zambian charity or the village hall.

Any concerns that bees are reducing in number is allayed by the buzzing coming from the blossoms. As the season develops, the flowers push higher and higher, but also outwards, until the leaves are almost completely obscured. The flowers also spiral around the stem and leaves.

Chaffinches

This little fellow is making use of the dog's unwanted fur for it's nest. This is the dog bed, upturned to air, and the chaffinch made repeated visits to collect the fur. He will have a lovely little, doggie smelling nest!

Today, a fledgling chaffinch, I assume not from the same, now completed nest, as that was only a few days ago, got himself into the kitchen. Ted, the cat did not know anything of this, fortunately. I did not stop to get the camera, as I did not want to prolong his distress. I tried not to touch him, as that can put the adult off feeding I believe. I eventually got him outside, and he seemed to be reunited with at least one parent.

three beautiful things

1 - A goldfinch sitting on top of an echium, swaying in the breeze. This is not my photo, this one is sitting atop a teazle, which is a popular choice. He, or she, was singing away for quite a time. Perhaps they have nested in the garden. Must keep Ted away.

2 - Seedlings peeping through the compost in the polytunnel, at last!

3 - Despite being a life labour voter, and a keen supporter othe GLC of years past, I am not entirely disappointed with the new mayor of London, he is such a character, and we should be in for some fun! Perhaps if I still lived in London, I might have a different view. Maybe Ken can now step forward for consideration for PM? - once he is reelected as an MP, of course! Perhaps including this in 3BT is a tad overstating my views, but there it is...

Veggieplaces

I am very excited. Michael House Vegetarian Guest House has been made the 'Place of the Month' on http://www.veggieplaces.co.uk/, a listing site of vegetarian guest houses and restaurants. I am not one to blow my own trumpet, but this site relies on reviews, and I assume it is because of a recent, really nice one, that I got the accolade! Major (veggie of course, so not that major) London restaurants have been given it, so I feel really honoured. It came at just the right moment, when a few things have been going wrong recently. Thank you Lovely for reminding me to write here!

Three Beautiful Things

This is my monthly picture of the view from where I sit at my computer, or just outside the window, taken on 11th April. The camelia is just hanging onto it's last flower. The echiums are growing apace, as is the grass.

Today, it is easy to think of three beautiful things, sometimes it is harder:

1 - Finding a lovely little place on the cliff top, surrounded by coconut smelling gorse, with a natural cushion and arm rest, to have a little rest


2 - getting loads on my list of to dos, done, bills, cards etc., now in the post


3 - getting further underway in the polytunnel, planting seeds, weeding. I always feel so positive that this year it will go well, even when I have had a disappointing year, such as we did last year.

3BT

Berri watching the tiger programme
The sunset this evening, but I am a bit alarmed at the speed with which the sun is moving across the sky towards it's mid summer zenith.
Playing Scrabble on Facebook with fun people

Berri-Biskit

Berri-Biskit has just been enjoying watching a programme about tigers. He wanted to play with them. Luckily, he couldnt get into the TV, as they would have made a quick snack of him.

This is a picture of him when he was very young. He still thinks he is a few weeks old sometimes, even though he is a fully grown dog now.

Outdoors

The head gardener taking a well deserved rest in the polytunnel


The head gardener posing amongst the pots in the only section of the polytunnel deemed suitable for public display at present


What a lot of flowers on this primrose! they are everywhere now, and some have been out since January.



our new hellebore seems happy here, but time will tell!

The weather has been so varied these past few days, but there have been opportunities to make a start on the garden and polytunnel. It is such a haven to work in the polytunnel, with Ted helping and all the warmth concentrated. There are already calendular flowering. There is a lot of work to do out there, I want to get it looking good this year and being productive. Although we cannot guarantee the productivity of the outdoor garden, at least the polytunnel should give us some yummy food. We plan to use nematodes to tackle the slugs and snails this year.