Fungi Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

Over the past few weeks I have seen a number of fungi and am fascinated by their variety:

Five Things I'm Loving this Friday

Five Things I am Loving This Friday:

• I have today off work
• Father is home and progressing well
• We have a good week planned; time with friends.
• Our National Trust Membership pack has come through just in time
• I am in a good mood.

Five Things I'm Loving this Friday

Five Things I am Loving This Friday:

• The forecast for the weekend is good
• Father is due to go home on Tuesday, with luck and a fair wind
• We have a good weekend planned; time for us, time for family, time for self.
• Nature is a wonderful thing that produces some amazing sights

• We had our own, wonderful, strawberries for supper. Yum!

'Come and have a look at this!'

'Come and have a look at this' comes the call from The Man. So I run into the kitchen expecting to see some of the neighbours' cats being cute. But no, this is the sight that met me:

I am not sure why, but it reminded me of A A Milne's poem, The Three Little Foxes:


Once upon a time there were three little foxes
Who didn’t wear stockings, and they didn’t wear sockses,
But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses,
And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes.

And they lived in forest in three little houses,
And they didn’t wear coats, and they didn’t wear trousies.
They ran through the woods on their little bare tootsies,
And they played “Touch Last” with a family of mouses.

They didn’t go shopping in the High Street shopses,
But caught what they wanted in the woods and copses.
They all went fishing, and they caught three wormses,
They went out hunting, and they caught three wopses.

They went to a Fair, and they all won prizes —
Tree plum-puddingses and three mince-pieses.
They rode on elephants and swang on swingses,
And hit three coco-nuts at coco-nut shieses.

That’s all I know of three little foxes
Who kept their handkerchiefs in three little boxes.
They lived in the forest in three little houses,
But they didn’t wear coats and they didn’t wear trousies,
And they didn’t wear stockings and they didn’t wear sockses.

Five Things I'm Loving this Friday - a bit late

Things have got a bit behind this week for a host of reasons, so this post is a little late. But time to catch up now, so, Five Things I am Loving This Friday (Saturday):

• The sun is out and it is a beautiful morning
• After two weeks, Father is now out of hospital on on the road to recovery
• I work with some wonderful people, who are incredibly supportive
• I live with the most amazing man, who always (well, mostly) knows just what to say to make me feel better
• I have a day of playing with paper and glue planned, which always makes me feel good!

Scrapbook Day: Challenge 3

I am taking part in some of the Challenges on offer for (Inter)National Scrapbook Day. This page is in response to the Challenge that Shimelle Laine has on her Blog here (the layout is based on one of her's also). It is one of the pages that I am doing for The Man's Birthday Scrapbook. I did not have photos for his early twenties, but he found a few, these are some of those and show him dressed up as a Roundhead when he was in the Sealed Knot.

What a Difference a Day Makes!

So 24 hours after my last blog and the strawberry has gone from pale blush of pink to full on red, another few hours and it will be ready! Will I get to eat it before the squirrels, that is the next question.

Five Things I'm Loving this Friday

This Friday I am mostly thinking about the wonders of nature, particularly as in this part of the Country everything is so far advanced for the time of year. So, This Friday I am loving:
That we will be able to eat salad greens from our own garden from now on:

That very soon we may be able to eat Strawberries from our garden:

That the Ceanothus in next door's garden is in full bloom:

That the bulbs that my Brother and Sister-in-Law gave me last year are now coming into bloom. I have no idea what they are, but they are pretty (if you know, please tell me):

That the Lavender is already in bloom and smelling wonderful:

Afternoon Tea

This weekend we are celebrating The Man's birthday. I really did not know what I wanted to do to mark the occasion, but after a bit of a search on Google I found that a local hotel do a proper Afternoon Tea every afternoon. I have always wanted to 'do' a proper Tea, so I dropped them an email and the table was booked.

The weather was perfect, a bit windy, but a really clear blue sky which meant that we had the most amazing views of the Thames valley from halfway up Richmond Hill. To make it even better, we were offered a table on the terrace, out of the wind, so could enjoy the weather and the views from the open, much more 'us'. 

I was so pleased with the Tea and how we were looked after, not too much attention, but just enough. Perfect.