TIME FOR A POETRY FEST

I was thinking yesterday whilst relaxing during our late Spring Public Holiday about poetry and its place in our lives. The poems we loved as children, the poems that had 'special messages' for us during our teen years, and whose subjects took upon the face of our current 'beloved' and finally the adult years the poems that have inspired us, spurred us on in the face of disaster and those so beautiful they make us weep. Then an idea struck me, yes slap bang in the middle of my forehead. a beautiful. inspirational but simple idea. This is it!

During the summer months I am going to open a blog, similar to Daisy Lupins Story Telling Circle, for those that remember that at Halloween. This time it is to be devoted to poetry and I am going to run it for three months. June will be Poetry we loved as Children, July will be Teenage Dreams and August will be Now we are Mature. I would ask you all to either post your favourite childhood poem on your blog or email me with it, you can add an illustration if you like, but don't panic, I will transfer the poems onto Daisy Lupin's Poetry Fest, I will also source illustrations for your poems if you want. I will put these on my new poetry blog which will be linked to my Cats in the Kitchen Flora in the Garden Blog.

http://daisylupinpoetryfest.blogspot.com/

I loved poetry as a child, mainly it has to be said due to my Father, who had been to a school where vast chunks of poetry had to be learnt by heart every week. He could spout vast amounts of rip roaring High Victorian and Edwardian poetry, and did so to me. I loved these poems. Unfortunately, in later life I turned my back on a lot of poetry, as I had a very difficult teenage and early twenties relationship with my Father and he became associated with poetry. In my later years, I have now overcome this stumbling block and delight in poetry once again.

You don't have to stop at one poem, come back with as many as you want. One proviso, so we are not constantly repeating poems, if a poem is popular, the person who posts or emails it first will have it credited as their favourite, you can still comment on it though, plus there are surely lots of different poems for us all. I'll start the ball rolling, this should be so interesting to see what poems people pick, and who knows we may find some new favourites ourselves. So for the whole of JUNE it is POETRY WE LOVED AS CHILDREN. I'm making a sidebar badge for it, so come along and join in and enjoy.


C. Hassam

Well, that's the long weekend over, a mixed bag of weather, but at least I got out into my garden for one whole long day and was happy with what I achieved. My poppies are amazing this year and I must get them photographed, unfortunately, we have had quite heavy winds at times and some of the poor poppies are unfurling to be blown away without a chance to bloom properly. My petunias are growing really lushly, deep velverty blooms. I have one sparse looking bed where my shrubs and lilac bushes are but I have planted lots of little clumps or what will become ground cover, so by the end of the Summer all the soil should, I hope, be covered. As soon as the ground is dry enough, my other half, the Wiz, will lay this year's bark chippings around the stepping stones and in the sitting area. I then just have to put all my ceramic blue pots in their permanent summer positions.

Vogeler


I gave in on Friday and put all my ornaments out. So the White Rabbit is anxiously looking at his watch under the lilac bush, my Hare is moon gazing, my Green Man has been in situ all year round, so he can protect the garden. my glass orb looks beautiful popping up above the salvias and penstemons. The final flourish will be siting my oblelisk and placing my golden hare in position. I put in four solar powered lights on Friday, and went to look at them on Friday evening, they cast lovely pools of soft yellow light in the darkness. I will have to get some photographs organised.

C. Hassam

The time I couldn't spend in the garden at the weekend gave me time to finish off some craft commitments, and I put them in the post today. I feel footloose and fancy free on the craft front, and a great weight seems to have been lifted from my shoulders. I am starting to brim over with ideas again, now I have only one swap ongoing. It's much better for creativity this way.

Caught up on some good music television over the weekend too. David Bowie's last concert as Ziggy Stardust back in the 70's. How some of those costumes he wore, like the romper suit type thing, make me cringe now. The sound started off ropey but as the concert kicked in it got better and better. Also a very long programme about LA music called from the Byrds to the Eagles, which was fascinating, especially the filmed bits of Laurel Canyon. I also started on a new book Labyrinthe by Kate Mosse, this one goes between the present day and the Cathars in Medieval France, I think the Grail comes into it as well. It's a big fat juicy book!

MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU PROBABLY EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ME

Following on from seven random things I realised that I had never done this meme, that I found ages ago. Sorry, but I go through stages of being addicted to these things, also they are a great way to find out what makes people tick, and if someone else wants to do this one, great. Sorry, also to whoever's blog I stole this from, I don't know whose it was, but it might have been Janet's as she loves meme's too, apologies if I have named the wrong person.

What curse words do you use the most?
Well this is revealing, I swear like a trooper in the privacy of my own home. I take the attitude that most curse and swear words were originally just good old anglo-saxon and later on Early English. The combination of having lived a hippie lifestyle and later studying Chaucer meant I felt completely differently about 'curse words'. If they were good enough for Chaucer they are good enough for me. I know from feedback I have had from people who are now good friends that when I started this blog, people imagined a prim lady sitting daintily prettily typing out a blog! Hah, nothing could be further from the truth! I have no qualms at all about swearing, and totally poo poo the idea that people only curse and swear because they have a limited vocabulary. Try a good dose of private cursing, it certainly takes away the stress.

Do you own an i-pod?
No but I am being constantly promised my daughter's old one, are you reading this Sweetpea?

What time is your alarm clock set to?
It isn’t. I just wake up, usually between seven and eight, nearer to seven if the sun is shining, nearer to eight on a dull day. Alarm clocks, are only for going on trips or holidays. Then I am too scared of sleeping in and spend the night checking the time.

Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture?
I’d rather take the photograph, I love taking photographs, if you look at our holiday photos it always seems to be of a man and two children, where is the woman, behind the camera, but that suits me fine.

What was the last movie you watched?
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a double whammy, a good fun movie and Mr J Depp.

John Piper

What cd is currently in your player?
A Paul Simon compliation.

Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk?
Yuck, why on earth would I want to drink milk?

Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Yes, people tell me secrets most weeks and they stay secrets.

When was the last time you had Starcrack Starbucks?
Never, sixty miles to my nearest Starbucks.

Can you whistle?
No, just make an imperfect flat sound but I can sing.

What are you looking forward to?
Short-term…My daughter coming to visit after her holiday to Jamaica, so she can tell us all about it. Mid-term... The chance at some point to have a break away, a short holiday for my other half and I, time for total chill out.

Did you watch cartoons when you were little?
Yes, Yogi Bear ['What's up BooBoo?' and 'Smarter than the average bear'] and the wonderful Top Cat and his nemisis Officer Dibble.

Do you own any band t-shirts?
Have in the past, mainly Grateful Dead

What will you be doing in an hour?
Having a lovely foamy hot bath.

What was the last song you heard?
Season of the Witch Donovan, for two reasons, my fellow blogger Gemma quoted it on her blog and got me thinking about Donovan, then another fellow blogger Lila sent me a link to Donovan on You Tube and from hence I went on searching until I came across Season of the Witch.

Last time you cried?
As I have said before I often shed a tear at happy or unhappy endings, at happy events or sad events. Within the last few days is probably the truest answer.

Desktop or laptop?
Good old desktop, an old friend.

What’s the weather like?
Grey and chilly today, typical weather for May in our area which always seems to flucuate between wonderful hot sunny days, pouring rain and the aforementioned.

What were you doing an hour ago?
Placing a fish dish for dinner in the oven.

How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
I cannot at the moment sleep the night through, I have been making myself go to bed at 12.30, 1.00 at the latest, otherwise I will be up pottering around until 3.00. I go to sleep easily, the trouble is I can't sleep all night, I always wake, about one minute before the dawn chorus starts. I just realise that that is what my body wants and I go down the stairs and make a cuppa whilst listening to the birds waking up, then go back to bed until wake up time. I probably function on about six hours in total, but really probably should have about seven or eight.

Do you eat breakfast daily?
Always, it's what fuels you for the day, always either fresh juice or probiotic drink and then cereal, finishing up with a cup of coffee.

J M Whistler

What did you do last night?
Started reading a new book, Phil Rickman's The Smile of a Ghost, I love his books.

Do you use sarcasm?
At times I have been known to, and no 'sarcasm is not the lowest form of wit'. I do have at times a dark dry sense of humour.

Do you like mustard?
I love grainy mustard with cold meats and on salad adore honey and mustard dressing.

Do you sleep on your side/back/stomach?
Always sleep on one side or the other. I like to go to sleep on my right side which lets me look at the night sky outside the bedroom window.

Do you watch the news?
Very occasionally, don't really like the way news is shown on television.

Laura Knight

This weekend is an English Public Holiday weekend, which means that Monday is a day off work for people, it is commonly known as Whit Weekend, or Whit Week. This week was always celebrated from the early 1800's in the industrial cities and towns in the North of England by Whit Marches. If you think of the long working hours and days of people of that time, you can understand how a holiday week end would be a huge celebration. People would try to achieve new clothes or at least dress up in their very very best, young girls would wear white dresses with flowers in their hair and marches would be held through out the town. Churches and chapels would march, led by brass bands, around the town to some final area where the fun would begin and there would be games and picnics and a fine time would be had by all. It was a moveable holiday happening on slightly different weekends every year, depending on when Easter and Pentecost were. It has now been regulated to the last weekend in May and is really called Spring Bank Holiday and is just a four day weekend now.
Erte

I am hoping for good weather this coming weekend, this is the weekend when I like to get all the annual work in my garden done with so it is ready to enjoy for the summer. I have got my last batch of annuals to plant in the remaining containers. I have bought an oblelisk that I am screwing together to grow clematis up and I need to bring out my collection of ornaments that I have been collecting since last year, nothing like the late summer sales in garden centres. I have also got a set of four solar lights which I will place at sporadic places around the garden to softly illuminate parts at night.

I am experimenting with my flower beds this year, I have planted lots of items over the past few years, and some are now mature, in fact, my borders are probably about as full as they can be, unless I start splitting plants and giving some away. So I have decided to try to have a sort of unkempt look in the garden this year. A type of blowsy, lush ripeness, just teetering on the verge of slipping over into dangerous wildness, but still under control. I don't like gardens where there is not a blade of grass out of place or a weed dare not raise its head. In fact, I have been known to let one or two weeds grow if they have pretty flowers, as some of these weeds are just wild flowers and sometimes of herbal use. I will have to take some photographs of how the garden looks now at the start of the summer and how it progresses through the summer.


Dante Gabriel Rossetti

To achieve all the above I will need some good gardening weather, and I have a feeling that it might not be happening according to some long term forecasts. Well we will see, if there is no good weather, I'll just have to indulge in a chillout weekend doing my other favourite things, crafting, reading maybe a dvd or too and some nice wine. Won't that be hard to do?

NOW WE ARE ONE

One year ago today, I spent the morning setting up my blog template and falteringly working out my first posting. It was a mad spontaneous decision to start a blog. I had lurked around a few blogs to see what was out there after reading an article about them. Then my daughter phoned me full of how she was starting a blog. I just thought, 'What fun!', imagining rambling at some length to the world in general. With trepidation I put out my first posting and then with even greater bravardo left comments on a couple of blogs I really liked the look of. Then I went about the rest of the day wondering if I would get any comments, or would the world in general see fit to ignore me. Late that evening I returned to my blog, and yes, I actually had a comment. Guess who was my first commenter? Why, of course, it was someone who was to become a dear friend of mine in cyber world, Ms Robyn! After that, three more comments arrived, and there was no stopping me, my daughter never found the time to get her blog off the ground properly but here I still am!


What have I learnt in my first year of blogging. So much, just so much. Mostly positive, most people are nice, but you do come across one or two who let you down. I have made friends all around the world, and actually met some of them, become a Glitter Sister, have participated in both successful and unsuccessful swaps, actually ran a couple of swaps and best of all, these two things, I have learnt so much about other people's lives and found a support network of people I can discuss life with. The most important point of my blog has been though, to break through my block of many years in my art work and send my creativity soaring again. I am creating my healing spirit dolls, my other little fripperies, altering anything from cards to books. Blogging made me decide to start my Local History Group, after writing snippets about our village history on my blog. Also with exchanging customs from other cultures, I have immersed myself deeper and deeper in my English myth, folklore, herbs and magic.

Elizabeth Blackadder

Here's to the future of communicating with you all. I am not saying I will blog for evermore, but I am happy to do so at the moment, but I do know I will always find a way to communicate my Daisy ramblings and lore to the world. Raise a glass or two of pinot grigio with me tonight to celebrate this day. [It is only breakfast time for me now!]

Laura Knight

I am looking out of the window at a cloudy sky, but in among the clouds are patches of blue, and the sun is trying to shine. I had an early morning stroll down to my garden, which is looking so verdant after all the rain, some of the plants are taking beds over, but I am rather inclined not to cull them until autumn and let this garden, be of blowsy controlled chaos this summer, just letting it teeter on the edge of wildness, not too far, just a suggestion, so you can imagine secrets hidden in the plants. And there will be secrets hidden in the plants I have been collecting up all sorts of interesting bits and pieces to put between the plants and I hope to have them all in position by the beginning of June, when weather permitting, I should have done all my serious planting. The poppies have numerous heads on them. [Don't they look like green aliens emerging from the leaves?] I will have to stake these up as poppy leaves are notoriously untidy and sprawl everywhere. My beautiful pale blue irises are waiting to open and I keep scooping up and putting in pots the marigolds that have self seeded from last year.


Tara from Silver Apples of the Moon, sent me some herb seeds in the autumn and they have germinated nicely and are pushing up out of the soil in their pots. All the way from her garden in America to my cottage. I have taken delivery of four giant bags of bark chipping to recover the path between the stepping stones, and to seriously cover where the table and chairs reside. I do feel everything is happening a couple of weeks earlier this year, and hope that my garden will be able to maintain its freshness throughout the summer. Even the bedding plants are taking off earlier, I just hope that they are not finished too soon, such as before August is out.


Other items of interest to me at the moment, I am currently reading the new Barbara Erksine book, Daughters of Fire, which goes between present day Edinburgh and Yorkshire and Celtic times in those two places. I have decided as well to make a summer project of re-reading some of Thomas Hardy and reading one or two of his I have never got round to reading. I love Thomas Hardy's more rural books, especially Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a tragic soulful rural tale. This was also made into a brilliant film a good few years ago by Roman Polanski. I have spent a couple of classical evenings listening to Chopin's Nocturnes, balm to the soul, soothing yet stark, conjuring up wonderful images. Also I have been dipping back into old Paul Simon, you sometimes just forget what wonderful lyrics he writes.

James Whistler

Once again, don't forget to raise a glass with me tonight for Cats in the Kitchen Flora in the Garden is one year old today.

I SOMETIMES MUSE ON GIVING A WRONG IMPRESSION

Madonna Lilies ~ Stanley Spencer

I sometimes muse whether I make my life in the country sound like too much of an idyll. Yes, it is idyllic but there are downsides as well. sometimes I think that despite the photographs I have published occasionally people paint their own mind picture which is different to the reality. Villages come in all shapes and sizes, and with many different features depending in which area of England you are in. Some villages have village greens and/or duck ponds, though many have lost their village greens by now to development. Architecturally villages differ immensley throughout England as well, you can go from hardy grey granite to chocolate box thatched cottages.

I thought I would like to try to get across to you exactly what it is like to live in my village in the North of England. First let me say that to me, any village living is better than living in the city. My village is rural, the nearest town is just over six miles away, but as years pass I can see the town encroaching ever nearer the village, I would think twenty years ago that the town would probably be about seven miles, but its outskirts are ever widening. If I had to move again, I would be happy to move even more rural to the point of being an isolated house somewhere, though I would have to have communication with the outside world, I am definitely too chatty to be a hermit.

Spring Solstice ~ Paul Nash

Our village itself has grown from a long street with some small offshoots until over the past sixty or so years there have been four small developments tacked on at various times.
The biggest downside is that the A road to Newcastle, the nearest large city, sixty miles away, cuts right through the main street of the village. Obviously as the years go by the traffic becomes worse and worse, although a bypass has been talked about for years. From the west you approach our village over an arched sandstone bridge over the River Eden. This is a fine sturdy bridge, but was certainly not built for articulated lorries using it as a short cut, also the terrible floods we had a couple of years ago have washed lumps of the sandstone stanchions away. Everyone complains about the traffic rushing through the village, especially as the pavements are narrow and old fashioned and there is a bad bend where numerous accidents have happened. Our cottage is on this main street, but luckily we are double glazed and in the garden at the back, the big barn plays tricks with the acoustics and the traffic noise is not too loud and doesn't detract from the joy of the garden and the birdsong.

Autumn Sunlight at Sennen Cove [Cornwall] Laura Knight

The old buildings are all built from a rich red sandstone, a stone that wears away very easily as it is a soft stone, especially in our polluted world sandstone gets eroded very easily. Our barn is of this beautiful sandstone. Our cottage on the otherhand, has been faced and is painted, the next door cottage has been too. We have no village green, but we do have a church with a steeple and an old graveyard, in fact, we have two churches, with graveyards, the Church of England church and the Catholic church. The upside is I can walk out of my door and within a couple of minutes be on a quiet country road and turn off onto a bridle way. Occasionally, the village has a mild panic when there is a rumour that someone is selling more land off for development, but luckily so far, these have just been rumours, as I do believe our infrastructure and cannot take any more homes. We have a village school that is full to capacity, in fact, a few children in previous years have had to go to the next village school.


I would also hate you to think that every moment of my life is perfect, and I spend my days pottering around my garden, in floaty skirts [thought I often do drape a shawl round myself and I suppose at times I do tend to gypsy skirts] musing on the missel thrush on the wall. It often is, but I also have the mundane tasks to perform, the changing of beds, the washing, the cleaning. There are days when I feel stressed and am just happy to come home to the cottage and close the front door behind me and give a sigh of relief. There are days when I can feel slightly down, and a little bit grumpy, this usually makes me realise I have been overdoing things 'burning the candle at both ends' as my Mother would say. It is just I try to find extra bliss in all the small things that make my day enjoyable. Silly little things like the feel of my old straw hat on head when I am gardening, the blackbird that is not frightened of me and sits near my feet if I am quiet with a worm in his beak. The sun shimmering through the silver birch leaves, and later at twilight sitting out in the garden as the stars switch on in the sky and the tiny bats come out from the derelict barn down the lane and dart hither and thither. Or on colder evenings sitting in my living room with the rich smell of incense burning, candles flickering glad to be inside. At the moment my most blissful moments are waking just as the first note of the dawn chorus rings out and lying in bed listening as more and more birds join in then turning over and going back to sleep. Some mornings I even get up for a cup of herbal tea and listen to them before returning to bed.


Today has been a lovely day, the sun has been shining after a cool start and I have been busy planting a lot of my bedding plants and rearranging pots in the garden. I am just at the point where I know I still have a bit to do, but the plan and arrangements are clear in my mind and I have done enough to look around the garden and see some small points of perfection. When I was sitting having a break, I decided I must try to keep an eye on the insect population this year, especially after reading the article about the bees. I have seen one bee, quite a few ladybird and one butterfly. My husband is also concerned about the sandmartins, this year there are not as many of them in previous years, he is keeping an eye on them. I wonder what is keeping the numbers down, is it something about the environment around the river, or is perhaps because there are not enough insects around? He will be watching their numbers, has anyone else in England noticed any difference in numbers? I did think that we had not as many swallows, they arrive later than the sandmartins but the number of swallows in the blue sky looks the same now as other years. I presume they came in two batches.

There is an important happening in the night sky this month. There will be a Blue Moon, this happens when there are two full moons in one month, the second is called a Blue Moon. There is a complication to this, it depends where you live, if you live in the Americas, you get the second moon right at the very end of May, everyone else, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe will get their Blue Moon in June and poor old New Zealand will have to wait until the end of July. This is because of the time zones around the world. We roughly get a Blue Moon in the month every two to three years, so it is very special. Lots of extra lovely Moonlight.

We have a public holiday on Monday in England, so this is a holiday weekend, and weather permitting I intend to make the most of it and get the garden right.

Some of the illustrations in this postings are paintings by some of my favourite English artists. I believe that a lot of people under estimate what wonderful 20th century painters we had in England. The names are underneath the pictures.

A HAPPY MAY DAY TO YOU ALL

HAL AN TOW, JOLLY RUMBLE O

FOR WE WERE UP LONG BEFORE THE DAY O

TO WELCOME IN THE SUMMER O

WELCOME IN THE MAY O

FOR SUMMER IS A-COMIN' IN

AND WINTER IS A GONE

May Morning has dawned bright and sunny, it seems so long since we had a true sunny MayDay. I hope you are all getting up early and washing your face in the May Day dew, then scouring the woods for sticks and flowers to make Kissing Balls. By breakfast we will have made the Kissing Balls and the food will be being made for the May Day feast. We must put our finest dresses on and help each other decorate our hair with spring blooms, because we are off to dance round the maypole on the village green before choosing the May Queen and her attendents. We shall watch a Mumming Play, concerning St George and the Dragon performed by travelling players. Then there will be feasting and dancing taking us up to the moment when the beacon on the far hillside will be lit as day ends and the bonfire on village green will echo it. Late in the evening we may be blessed by a fleeting visit by the Green Man and his Lady, before young village couples slyly sneak away to leafy bowers. There will probably one or two hasty weddings in the next couple of months. I hope you have enjoyed your visit to a traditional English May Day.

I was pleased with the Local History Exhibition, it was never crowded but we had a steady stream of visitors, of which the best thing was that I noticed all that came seem to spend over an hour looking at the photographs and reading the text and documents. We also made a pleasing amount in our Donations Box. One man, who came lives in two old cottages he knocked together, when he was renovating and knocked down a wall there in a little niche he found this tiny brown leather shoe from the late 1700's. It was exquisite workmanship, I thought it was too tiny to have been worn, except for a very young baby, but couldn't see a young baby wearing shoes. It could have been specially made or perhaps very young babies wore such shoes. There is a tradition of building a niche in walls and hiding a shoe in it for luck for the houses. People brought me old photographs to look at and copy, and one man even gave us some old local postcards to keep. Everyone said how enjoyable it was and I was interviewed for the Parish Council magazine LOL!

One man at the exhibition can read houses, by that I mean nothing psychic, he is a retired builder who has always dealt in renovations and he knows what property originally looked like, apparently there are clues in homes. I know from what he has told me before that upstairs my bathroom and one bedroom are a lot more modern built than the rest of the cottage and my dining room and kitchen used to be a single story with just my living room and morning room, where the stairs are having an upper floor, and my upstairs corridor is also a more modern division.

The man that reads houses made me think that I don't think I have ever mentioned the underground stream in my back garden. Before our next door neighbour's moved their son was talking to me about our two gardens, and he told me about when they were digging a trench to make a new bed and to build a wall that deep underneath the soil there is an underground stream, he said that it followed on in our garden. Where it followed on in our garden is on the shady side and it is where I plant my irises which always flourish and I know some types of Iris do like damp conditions.

I bought a pair of dowsing rods, this was about two years ago, and dowsed my garden with them. I was really excited when they started to cross where the underground stream was supposed to be and I could follow the crossing of them across the garden. Then my other half started to look at maps and eventually, with looking at maps and walking the land he found the tiny stream. It breaks away from the main beck and runs down the edge of a couple of fields in the open then after the last field it disappears into an open green space planted with trees oppposite some pensioners' bungalows, it then runs underground through our gardens and we even found where it joins up with the beck again. After it goes through about four gardens it goes under the road and across to where the bridge over the beck is. I find this absolutely fascinating.

One serious thing to think about. My other half showed this article he had been reading about mobile phone masts and honey bees. Apparently scientists think that the rays being emitted from these masts are confusing the navigational system of bees, who are becoming confused and unable to find their hives, also they are becoming confused in their collection of pollen. The article spoke to bee keepers who live beside these masts and they were losing colonies of bees. One man had lost eighty per cent of them. These masts are everywhere in the countryside. Please keep a watch out for bees, I know it is early in our part of England but I have not seen many bees, can we all watch throughout the summer and see if bees are as plentiful as usual or not.

If we lose the bees nature will be in a dreadful state and so will the human race, no one should under estimate the job bees do, they are our chief pollinators, plants will not exist without them. If these rays are affecting the bees, please just stop and think what are they doing to us? I think I might have mentioned in an earlier posting that I was having really bad sleep patterns, and was told to remove my mobile phone from the bedside table as it was too near my head and its rays could interfere with my brain's sleep pattern. I did that and since then, it may be co-incidental, but I have slept soundly. So many people seem to be at a low ebb at the moment it does make you wonder if some modern day appliances are causing some sort of energy waves that are detrimental to certain people.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY......BUT DAISY STOLE SOME LOST HOURS

My favourite small bird the European Goldfinch. I love to watch them play on thistle heads in the common land at the back of my cottage.

This is turning out to be a really busy week with everything geared towards the Local History Exhibtion on Saturday. Naturally, the sunny weather has returned, so yesterday I downed tools regarding the exhibition to spend a few hours in my garden potting on some plants that I have been hardening off.

More birds from the family of finches, such colourful cheerful looking birds, flashes of pure colour as they fly by you.

I did something this year about plants that I will never do again, unless someone in England can recommend a better supplier. Last year I bought my plants from a garden centre and my children bought me some lovely perennials for Mother's Day from a supplier called Crocus. They were really good plants. This year I bought a few more perennials by post and then decided to buy my bedding plants that way, although they come as plug plants you seemed to get a good quantity of them. Once again my children said they would buy me some for Mother's Day, so with their order and me ordering as well the firm J. Parker's has had a substantial order from us.

The Blue tit, I love watching them crawl up the wall of my barn and swing from its gutters, such entertaining acrobats.

I have not been at all happy with the way the plants are arriving, obviously they send them out as they are ready, but this means they come in small dribs and drabs, my bigger complaint is the state of some of these plants. They come in plugs of 66, which as soon as I get I have been opening and potting on before putting their permanent homes. I am beginning to notice the plants that are slightly more mature and are sent out in slightly larger cases, such as the Geraniums and ground cover plants are all doing well, but I have lost half of my petunias, and nearly all my trailing geraniums. I am feeling very disgruntled about these as I not used to plants dying on me. I think I have learnt my lesson with bedding plants, back to the garden centre.


The Mistle or Missel Thrush, they are becoming rare in England, but not if you know where to find them. There is a beautiful one visits my garden.

After doing some gardening yesterday, I sat in the garden, watching the birds, there is a tremendous amount of bird activity at the moment. Just sitting in my garden chair, I watched different types of the tit and finch family, plus of course, common or garden sparrows, blackbirds and thrushes, including the beautiful mistle thrush, my crows, who don't wish to be photographed, plus the collared doves and wood pigeons. I counted eighteen varieties of bird life in one half hour. Whilst I was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee, Mr Heron flew over my garden and I was fascinated to see he was carrying quite a large fish in his claws, he must have been taking it home to the heronry. A Rook was chasing him as he had flown too near the rookery, though, the rook seemed to think he was chasing the heron, I could see Mr. Heron, was treating the rook with distain. The Heron is marvellous to watch, those great wings that seem to go so far without flapping, he is a silent flyer. Magic.!

The wonderful mystical Mr. Heron, to see him fly across an early moon at twilight is an uplifting magical experience.

All my other endeavours are now geared towards my exhibition, I have had a constant stream of visitors from outlying hamlets and villages, asking if the History Lady lives here, and dropping off old photographs and old documents. I am scanning and reprinting a lot of the old photographs, for two reasons, one I wouldn't like anything to happen to someone's personal belongings, and two, you can clean up the quality slightly of the photographs and make them clearer, the same goes for the documents. I have had other members distributing flyers but there is just me and someone assisting me, very ably, organising everything. The manpower of the group will be put to use early tomorrow morning when the display boards arrive and need to be assembled and the tables and chairs set out. I also have got a tea rota going, and have made ID badges for the actual Group so visitors will know the people to ask questions of. I hope the weather says good, because if people are going out for the day, they probably could pop into the exhibition first. Keep your fingers crossed that it is a success and think of me and my modest exhibition tomorrow.

This is a painting of Sir Philip Howard, of Corby Castle, sitting very elegantly surveying his land. Great Corby is one of our next villages and that is my local river that is the backdrop to the painting. The Howards did own most of our village at one time. You can see their coat of arms and insignia on some of the houses in the village.

COME INTO THE GARDEN MAUDE

I have been busy over the last couple of weeks, sorting out maps, photographs, and writings about my village and its environs. This is because a week tomorrow, my Local History Group is having a drop in event at the local community hall. People can either bring any documents etc they would like to show us or just come and have a look at the display boards to see what we have found out so far. It's free and you get a cup of tea or coffee and biscuits, so we are hoping it will be a success. This gave me the idea that it would be nice to share with you some of the old photographs I have found and tell you all about them.

The first photograph above, is my very favourite, it is taken in the next village to us about 2miles away. The road leads down to the river and there used to be a ferry there that would take you across the river. What fascinates me about this photograph is the lady standing outside her rather impressive ivy covered house. She is wearing an amazingly large crinoline, and has obviously just come out to see what is going on, another member of the household leans out of an upstairs window to watch the photographer. I love the fact it is not a posed family photograph but just someone standing in the type of clothing they wore everyday. The photo just has 1870 on it. I am not sure if this is correct due to the size of the crinoline. I think it is either slightly earlier or prehaps, fashions took a long time to reach our neck of the woods.



This photograph shows the same view, except it is further down the road, and we have moved into Edwardian times. The river and the woods of this village, Wetheral, were a Sunday or day off destination for people in this area. You could walk in the woods or take a picnic by the side of the river. Children would be taken there with their pace eggs at Easter for a treat. It was also a popular spot with the middle classes and their Botanical Societies etc, searching for plant specimens in the woods.



This is the other end of that village, note the unmade road, today this is a busy tarmac road. It looks so idyllic with all the hedges and bushes, you could wander down that road in quite a daydream, not likely to be able to do that with the cars that go hurtling through today.



This is the Wheatsheaf Inn, it is at the top left on the previous photograph, just before the road bends, hidden by greenery. This is also an Edwardian photograph. The Wheatsheaf is still there today, though that is now a busy traffic bend in the road. I love the staff standing outside the door and the man on horseback watching the photo being taken. I wonder who he is?



This engraving is from 1837 showing the large railway bridge over the river. What a wonderful feat of engineering. The Victorians certainly could build. The railway station at Wetheral is still open and trains do stop there. I love crossing this river in a train, on a return journey, to me it is always a sign that I am nearly home. You can walk across the railway bridge, there is a fenced off pathway along side the railway track and this leads you into the village of Great Corby. This is where years ago the ferry from Wetheral used to take you across to.



This tinted photograph is of the next village after Wetheral, Heads Nook. These are Railway Villas, someone did tell me that they used to belong to the railway and managers and clerical workers from the railway lived in them. They are very substantially built properties. Alas, the railway station at Heads Nook is no longer open.



Yesterday and today, I have had a stream of small white boxes containing my summer bedding plants through the post. It is total chaos, I am finding it hard to understand why these boxes are coming through individually when I put one order in. Yes, I understand they send the plants off when ready, but it looks like a certain amount of them must have been ready at the same time, why not put them in one container. There are nicely and safely packaged, one problem, though. The small perennials little plastic homes are labelled with names of plants inside but the trays of 66 plug plants give no indication of variety! hummm! Well some I could recognise by leaf, although they are still small plants, I could see which were going to be geraniums and which were petunias but one or two at the moment it's anybodies guess what they will become.

It is still slightly early to plant outside, although the days are warm, we are still experiencing ground frost at night occasionally. So, my day has been spent sitting in the kitchen potting on, goodness knows how many small plants, I lost count. Suffice to say that every windowsill in the cottage has been taken over by trays of young plants. Never mind that will give them a good start and they can go outside at the end of the month. It's certainly kept me busy today, but I got them all potted on, mainly because I know there is still a batch of them to arrive. Fortitious as well that they came just as the moon began to wax again.