Trees

I've been out and about looking at trees. Now,that may seem slightly sad or make me rather strange (or both and no, I don't hug trees) but I'm always amazed by the shapes that trees form as they grow and what makes them grow the way they do. 

Man made.

A beautiful silhouette at sunset.

Half of this trunk is dead and rotted away and yet still lives.

The apple tree in the field next to our house.  This dead branch housed a hornets nest last year.

Roots and ivy

Not quite sure how this stays upright, it's about 60 foot tall and thriving, despite most of the roots being exposed and leaning more than the tower at Pisa!

Tunnel forming hazel wood 

A branch from this beech tree (one of the largest in the wood), came down earlier this year.  This photo doesn't do it justice.  I'm surprised we didn't hear it, it's enormous and must have made a huge thud as it landed.  It took out two other trees as it landed too.  Lots of firewood.

This is where the branch was attached.  It must have fallen through the two branches.

Some trees appear to be watching you!

Very spooky!

Hornets nest apple tree, took another battering this year when a big branch laden with apples came down in windy weather.  The rotting apples in the field smelled like a cider brewery.

A rotten piece of apple wood.

Until next time......

Lesley

x

Watching

I've been watching the world go by........

Watching autumn arrive.

Watching the weather in Swanage.

Looking at rock formations in Swanage.

Watching the lowest tide we'd seen for ages.

Rock pooling.

More rock formations.

Looking at interesting fern fossils.

Watching fabulous sunsets.

Walking on the beach.

Watching the lights in the evening.

Getting up early enough to see the sun rise.

Watching the waves crash against the promenade.

Watching people waiting for the waves to crash over them.

And spending time with my best friend Tilly.

Until next time.....

Lesley

x

Beautiful Embroidery, Beautiful Music

 Hi everyone, how are you all?

I went charity shop shopping and look what I found.  A tablecloth, dressing table sets and and beautiful embroidered pillow case, (it does have a fold mark on it).  They are lovely, the embroidery is wonderful and not something I particularly enjoy doing but I do appreciate.

On a completely different theme, today I've been listening to:  

Covers 2 by Show of Hands.  Steve Knightley and Phil Beer, two incredibly talented west country lads who sing folky, acoustic stuff and Miranda Sykes who plays double bass.  Steve Knightley writes some beautiful lyrics and Phil Beer can probably just about play any stringed instrument going. In fact, the man is such a talent that he would make a dustbin lid sound good.  I've been a fan for over 10 years and seen them in concert numerous times.  They've even played the Royal Albert Hall.  What's really lovely about them is that they're approachable.  We went to see them last year at Swanage, Phil was outside collecting things from their van and was happy to stop and talk to people.  Brilliant!

Ok, on with the washing, hoovering and ironing!

Until next time......

Lesley

x

Giveaway Thank You

Good morning lovely bloggy friends.
How are you all today?

 The sun is shining, there's almost a clear blue sky, at last.  After yesterday, when I nearly put the heating back on!!!!!!

Just a really quick post to say a big

THANK YOU

to Gill at Gillyflower.

I won Gill's giveaway and what a giveaway to win. A fabulous journal and bookmark.  Gill made another journal in the red fabric (same as the bookmark) and has given me the choice between the blue floral, the stripy and the red one.  I'm going to choose the blue floral, I love it.  Gill has an online shop too, so do pop over and have a look at what's available.

I'd link this to Gills shop but I'm not sure how to do that and I have a feeling that I've just tried to download the WHOLE of Gills blog (and probably most of anything else out there in the ether), as a link!  Completely jamming up my Mac for the last 45 minutes while I try to work out how to stop it.  The silly thing is that LM (Lofty Maximus, my son) is a software engineer and there's not much he doesn't know about the workings of the inside of PCs.  Just where is he, when I need him?


Ok, must go and catch up with all the stuff I should have done an hour ago!!!!

Can't wait for the postman to arrive!


Thank you again Gill, you've made my day.

Lesley 

x

Allsorts

Good morning lovely blogging friends.

Here's a bit of a catch up.

I have never seen so many apples.

The tree is laden.

Should be a good harvest.

What's going on here?

Half of our magnolia tree is in bloom, (sorry, not the best photo).  It doesn't normally do this, I hope it's not about to die on us.  The magnolia was one of the reasons I fell love with the garden when we bought the house.

Has anyone got any ideas as to why it could be flowering now?

In Swanage there's a fab little wool shop and they always have boxes of wool for sale outside the shop.  The Col and I were passing, (back in the spring, I think) and you know what it's like, you just have to stop and see if there's something that takes your fancy or more importantly, you just can't do without.  The Col, to my surprise, spied some wool, picked it up and said, "I love these colours, can you knit me a blanket?  I can put it in the car".

"Not really",  I said, looking at the colours and thinking, why on earth would you want ANYTHING in those colours.  I love The Col to pieces but he's not too good at putting colours together but he does know what colours he likes.  After a short conversation about the other colours in the box and me saying, "surely, those colours would be better?" He convinced me to buy the wool and by the time we'd left the shop, I'd decided it would be quicker to crochet a smallish blanket.

I crocheted sixteen, 9 inch granny squares and then crocheted them together, then added a border.  Talk about bright, it's positively neon!  The Col is very pleased but I've noticed it hasn't made it to the car, it's on the BED!!!!!!!

I'm just grateful he didn't ask for a tank top!

Our part of Wiltshire must have been the only place that didn't see rain yesterday and this was the sunset we got, fabulous.

And here's the moon, well, half the moon.  The sky really was that blue, twas amazing.

Here's Tilly and a very naughty 8 month old puppy called Missie, (with the pink collar).  Missie has been staying with us for the last couple of weeks and when she's asleep is adorable.

Hard to believe this bundle of cuteness has broken my butter dish and eaten the contents, bent the bars in her crate, trying to get out, eaten the badgers peanuts that gave her the runs, (not pleasant at all) and got hold of the take away boxes and paraded around the room with them, curry sauce dripping everywhere.  Tomorrow, she's going home and we're going to miss her.  For all her puppyish ways, I wouldn't change a thing, she's got a lovely nature, is quick to learn and really wants to be a lap dog but those legs are just too long.  We've had a fun packed two weeks and we will be sad to see her go.  BUT, we will be glad to get the house back to normal.

Have a wonderful Sunday, hope the sun shines.

Lesley

x