Thpooky October

Pumpkin soup

Spooky Cathedral Close at night

My toady friend trying to get away from my over zealous speedy weeding

The ritual carving of the pumpkin 

In October I mostly:

- was bitten by midges on the head whilst gardening

- started wearing my attractive boiler suit to work

- did lots of charity shopping

- listened to Radio 4, especially like Desert Island Discs and Woman's Hour

- started knitting a scarf

- raked leaves, planted bulbs, cut back shrubs and acquired rock hard biceps

- spotted a cattle egret next to the cows in the field behind the bungalow!

- made curried carrot soup and pumpkin soup

I loved the Helianthus in our front garden

Lots of colour still around

Sunny dog walks,

admiring nature

and trying to find Eddie's ball in the leaves

I made coffee muffins with Esme.  

I even dragged her on a walk!

Frank has been good

and bad!

A new venture for us was a trip to the Bournemouth 'Arts by the Sea Festival'.  

The 'Cockatoo Art Bar' 

- a 1965 Morris ambulance with a revolving birdcage on top for spontaneous shows

A solar powered cinema!

The 'Umbrella Tree'.  A moving installation set to slightly eerie music.

'Kitsch & Sync' were a quirky dance, theatre and performance company

They were hilarious

A member of the audience got roped in to the show!

This installation was made out of drinking straws

and the 8 metre long 'Message in a bottle' by Lulu Quinn was made from recycled bottles that had been washed up on the beach

After having a dance to one of the live bands and a go on the fruit machines we strolled down to the beach to watch the sun set

Such fun!

Lots of people were admiring the extra gorgeous sunset caused by sand from the Sahara in the atmosphere 

Bit overcast but still love the view of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury

where we had great fun with our friend Basil snurging around the charity shops

Ooh, sun has come out!

This was a charity shop haul from Wilton - I adore my new tartan waistcoat and don't care if it makes me look like someone from 'Monarch of the Glen'

We have had the usual autumn fog - Eddie?

But on the whole it was very mild

I'm off in to the sunset for a blog break now to knit my scarf, read my many books, light the fire and batten down the hatches for winter.......

Ta ra for now!

'Soon there will be three souls in the house: himself, his dog, his hawk.  The thought thrills him.  He loves this house.  He calls it his workman's cottage, his badger's sett, his refuge.  Outside, light and leaf shadows move on the high grey gables.....'

                                                                                  - 'H is for Hawk' by Helen Macdonald

Mellifluous May

In May I mostly enjoyed:

Listening to the birds and hearing the first cuckoo of the year

Smelling the wild garlic and cow parsley on my walks

Mowing lots of lawns - on one occasion getting my coat caught in the mower caused a bit of a wobbly stripe in a customer's lawn!

Eating home made oat biccies

Winning two bottles of wine on the tombola at the village spring fete!

Nosing around private gardens in the Cathedral Close

Pedalling a pedalo

We had a grand day out in Poole to celebrate Sarah's Dad's 94 birthday!  The weather was kind to us for a change.  We had a sumptuous lunch in The Customs House overlooking the boats.

Ken enjoying the sun and doing a bit of people watching

We went on an hour boat trip around Poole harbour (the second largest natural harbour in the world) and saw five islands, the Dorset lakelands, the Isle of Purbeck, Sandbanks (which has the fourth highest land value in the world - and it is just a spit of sand!!) and Brownsea Island.

We had a very cute yellow boat

Why can't the weather always be like this?!

We didn't get off at Brownsea Island but I would love to go there one day and see if I can spot a red squirrel.

Brownsea Island - managed by the National Trust and over 500 acres of woodland

Sarah and Ken relaxing on board

In complete contrast, our day out to visit Maisie in London was absolutely freezing!

Town mouse and country mouse

Lunch in the Founders Arms on the South Bank - as usual!  Trying to get warm.

Not many customers for the frozen yogurt today!

We had a stroll through Regents Park

and had a go on the pedalos - we took turns in pedalling

Wasn't too happy with the water being about an inch below the side of the boat!

I crawled off the boat at the end in a very undignified, middle aged manner whilst Esme just stood up and ran off!  We warmed up afterwards with tea and cake in a cafe in Baker Street.

Spring finally arrived......

Things are growing at last

I have the sun lounger in place ready 

Rape seed causing me aggro

Sweeties.....

Frank inspecting my newly weeded path

Big Dog absorbing some rays man

Lily's out

Another cold, freezing day (grrrrrr.....).   Big Dog did a sponsored walk in aid of the RSPCA - 'Big Walkies' in Bournemouth with about 300 dogs.  You could choose to do 2.5 or 4K.  Big Dog was so excited that we did the longer one.

We started at West Cliff Gardens

Bournemouth Pier in the mist

Nobody on the beach today!

All the dogs ran on the beach

We had another (fed up with our weather) grim day for our snoop around the Cathedral Close gardens.  10 private gardens were open to the public in aid of the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral which has 3000 members and raises money to preserve the future of the Cathedral.  Nearly £7,000 was raised that day and over 750 people were as nosy as us!

It was lovely to see the garden of Arundells, the home of Sir Edward Heath

Arundells has a 2 acre medieval walled garden

which backs on to the confluence of the river Avon and Nadder

This is the bow of one of Sir Edward Heath's yachts and is a memorial to 2 crew members who lost their lives when it sank in 1974

A favourite garden was Myles Place. 

They have a resident baby owl!

Myles Place - good stripes

Getting ideas for the veggie patch dear?

The South Canonry - home to the Bishop of Salisbury and also 4 trees over 300 years old!

Very neat veggie patch

I took the chance to get a look at some of Sophie Ryder's great sculptures

We visited 9 of the 10 gardens open so I lost track of where these next pics are from!

Nice log store

If no one had been around.....

I'd like a path like this

The College of Matrons, founded in 1682 was another favourite of mine.  Each matron has an area of garden to tend.  

The College of Matrons - Another beautiful and peaceful space.  You wouldn't believe you were right next to the High Street

Lots of garden talk going on

I so enjoy the longer evenings, strolling with Big Dog.

Watching the wildlife

Then back for a snooze.....

Well, it's 20th June as I type this - the first day of summer!  I had to drive to work down the middle of the road this morning (nothing new) to avoid the floods and it hasn't stopped raining all day.  It is heading to be the wettest June on record so I'm off to buy a pair of flippers and a snorkel......