Life seems very surreal at the moment. Now D and E are not leaving home to go to work and I no longer do a food shop on certain days of the week I find it hard to keep track of what day of the week it is! The days just seem to merge into each other as I do some housework, washing, cooking, wandering round the garden, reading, watching i-player (I am re-watching all the "Line of Duty" episodes) and studying the lessons of a heraldry course I have found on Twitter. I should really start going through all the paperwork connected to my deputyship of mum's affairs for 7 years now her estate is finally settled. I plan to just keep just the most important pieces of information. But somehow it is hard to get motivated at the moment.
In the garden:
More violets (Common Dog Violet I think as they have a white spur) appear each day.
Ladybird (Harlequin I believe)
Acer leaves
Near the top of the garden by the wild flower "meadow" B cleared a border by the fence as he had to replace a fencing panel. It looks as though a lot of Red Campion plants have seeded there so there should be a lovely display in a few weeks.
Berberis
Grape Hyacinths
Amelanchier (last week - the blossom has faded now)
Garden robin
We have a solar pump in the pond which ferries water between the pond and a pool at the top of the rockery
where it then flows as a small waterfall
back to the pond.
Buds are appearing on Rhodendron
I've never been sure what this flower is.
Camellia with
leaf mines on some of the leaves.
Common/Smooth Newts are active in the pond - it is fascinating to watch their courtship rituals. A few record shots D took.
Apologies again for poor quality of photo taken from the tv screen. A Blue Tit is making a nest in the nestbox with camera and is now taking in moss and feathers.
We have seen Dark-edged Bee flies in the garden and also more male and female Hairy-Footed Flower Bees. (Sorry no photos). Also no photos but towards the end of last week we had the first Brimstone, Holly Blue and Orange Tips of the year.
I finally found the missing colouring in books but the heraldry course I am doing at the moment involves some colouring in so I may not be using these at the moment.
As we rarely go out at bank holidays anyway Easter seemed reassuringly normal. I am thankful we had the ingredients for Easter baking and Easter Sunday lunch.
B made Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday
Ready to go in the oven
and ready to eat.
I finished knitting Daisy Duck and duckling. Not the best little toys I have made but they were so tiny and fiddly and I am not particularly good at the sewing up and making faces part.
Mediterranean Tart for Vegetarian Easter Lunch
Simnel Cake
Bluebells picked from the garden
Recent Reading
Robert MacFarlane has been kind enough to organise a Twitter Reading Group and The Living Mountain was the book chosen. I've had this in my bookcase for ages so it was a good reason to start reading it. I enjoyed it immensely although having only visited the Cairngorm area once many of the places were not familiar to me. So I pictured in my mind some of the Lake District fells as I read it.
I always enjoy Patrick Barker's writing although I did not enjoy this as much as Coastlines for a number of reasons - partly I think the anxiety we must all be feeling makes it harder to concentrate on non-fiction and, in addition, I had never visited any of the islands he writes about. I always think you enjoy a book like this more if you have been to at least some of the places mentioned.
I did start to read the next in the Wesley Peterson series - The Plague Maiden a few weeks ago but gave up after a few chapters as the subject matter reminded me too much of what is going at the moment. So I moved onto the next in the series which I loved.
I found this OS Puzzle Book lurking in the bookcase and as I love os maps I am really having fun with all the puzzles in this book. A good way to fill the hours and it is very absorbing.
I hope you are all staying safe and well. Take care everyone.
*D Photos taken by my son with the Canon SX50 HS bridge camera
Rest of photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.
11 comments:
Love your garden stream and pond, great for attracting wildlife.
Life certainly goes on in nature, as if nothing else was happening? Your Mediterranean Tart looks mouth watering. I would come over for a slice if I could. I know it probably isn't, but your mystery white flower looks a lot like Scurvy Grass. Check it out and let me know? We have an awful lot of it on our hedgerows here, sailors would eat it by the handful as soon as they came ashore after long voyages for the high levels of fresh Vitamin C, hence Scurvy Grass.
Ian - Thank you - yes the pond etc attracts so much wildlife from birds to mammals, amphibians to insects :) It is a constant source of interest!
Rustic Pumpkin - Thank you and I think the same of nature. Outside the safety of the home and garden cocoon it seems surreal to think of the turmoil, sadness and horrors in the outside world. All we can do is try and keep as safe as we can.
Thank you for the suggestion re: scurvy grass. Not sure but I suspect it isn't. I think it is some sort of cultivated plant although of course it could have been bred from scurvy grass? The flowers are bigger than they look about an inch or more in diameter.
It is hard to get motivated at the moment even in the sunshine, I'm finding it more difficult this week than I did the previous three. Your garden has some lovely plants and flowers and I love your pond and pool. Lovely to be able to watch the blue tit in its nest I hope there are some little ones soon. Easter was quite normal in a way for us too as we never venture far over holiday weekends, those hot cross buns look delicious as does the mediterranean tart and the simnel cake. I've enjoyed your post. Stay safe:)
Rosie - Thank you so much and yes this week does seem harder for me too. I just miss the countryside and going places so much. Made myself this afternoon clear some of my mum's paperwork (I was her deputy for 7 years and there are files and folders full of all the things I looked after). Have kept most of solicitors stuff for time being on sale of house and administering her estate "just in case" but most other stuff I will have to ditch. Then I will have to start on the items I brought back from her house. This is the ideal time to do it when I can't go out but it will be a matter of forcing myself to do it!!
So pleased you enjoyed the post and thank you for your kind words. Stay safe too.
I know what you mean about the days merging into one another.
Those hot cross buns look delicious :-)
CherryPie - Thank you and it is a weird situation. I can only tell weekends because my son ceases homeworking for 2 days!
The hot cross buns were good - OH is good at breadmaking.
Do hope you are keeping well, RR. Your garden and the pond look wonderful... and your newts are terrific. It seems to be the best year ever for Bee-flies (well, that probably isn't not be true, but it is for our little patch... perhaps because we have left the grass long apart from my 'shielded' exercise paths. What lovely knitting: I don't think I ever got beyond a Dr Who scarf! I'm left-handed and family members found it so hard to teach me! I've probably said before that my maternal ancestors came from the Cairngorm region, so anything to do with Nan Shepherd fascinates me. I recently finished 'Wild Geese' by her, and particularly liked her descriptions colour by colour of the landscape. I find she has a truly unique poetic voice in her collection, 'In the Cairngorms', which I must re-read, though it's perhaps more a winter book. I have just finished a book about Trim, Matthew Flinders' remarkable cat! I need to pick a new book for tonight... What amazing baking in your household: the hot cross buns and that magnificent flan! Easter seemed very strange to me this year, though we were able to link up with family on Zoom. I keep hoping for more butterflies in the garden, but I looked at the holly today, and there on cue was a Holly Blue!
Caroline Gill - Thanks so much. Yes, we are all fine here and I feel a little less anxious now no-one has been out of the house and garden (apart from OH's occasional walk) for 3 weeks. I hope you and family are staying safe and well too. I agree about the bee flies and it being a good year but it may be because I am spending more time in the garden and thus seeing more. Managed a poor photo yesterday which I will put in next blog post.
Thank you re: the knitting. I have made two Dr Who scarves too!!! :) My mum taught me to knit when I was little but she always used to sew up jumpers etc. for me as my sewing skills are poor so I find those little toys a little difficult! I can't crochet though have tried to teach myself without success!
Yes I think you mentioned about maternal ancestors and Cairngorms which would make the Nan Shepherd books doubly fascinating :) She does have a poetic voice. Have you read any Crumpley books? They are mainly set in Scotland (though can't remember which area but I have read The Nature of Autumn). I've not read Trim and will look out for it :)Pleased you were able to speak to your family on Zoom - such difficult times and I would find it very hard if my son and daughter were living elsewhere and I couldn't see them. Well done on the Holly Blue :)
Take care and look after yourselves.
Hi Caroline,
First of all I think your unknown plant is Iberis, commonly called Candytuft.
I’m in love with your pond and pool and little stream! They look so natural with the moss on the rocks. Lucky you having the newts, I bet you have dragonfly and damselfly larvae there too.
You go to town at Easter, how lovely to make a Simnel cake. I’ve never even eaten one! We didn’t do anything special this year, not even a roast! I think because it didn’t seem like Easter and I hadn’t even realised it was close to Easter until the day before Good Friday! 😂 K did get us some Easter eggs but it still didn’t feel like Easter. I was just cursing the radio because some of the radio shows I like were not on! (Radio 2)
Lovely seeing what’s going on in the garden. 💖
Take care, Mxx
MillyMollyMandy - Thanks so much Mandy - lovely to hear from you and I did enjoy your recent blog post you have been sorely missed.
Thanks so much re: the plant id - yes I can see it now because it does look like candytuft!
Glad you like the pond - the rockery could do with weeding though! The moss just grows naturally - we have lot of moss in our garden. Yes we do get dragon and damselflies. My son has an exuvia somewhere from one of the dragonfly species :)
I am not surprised about your Easter - the world all seems so upside down at the moment :( Everyone's life and world has just completely changed almost overnight.
Stay safe and well and take care.
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