HERE'S TO A GREEDY, JUICY,LEARNING SUMMER OF PERSONAL DELIGHTS

Stanley Spencer

At long last by the end of last week I had finished all my outstanding swap committments. All that is left is the ongoing Hello Dolly Swap and a healing doll, I promised someone, and even these two dolls are now at the actually being made stage. The little grey cloud rumbling above my head in a thundery manner started to disperse once I had posted, my woodland sprite, my crow chunky pages and my Shhhh! project. Sometimes I find that group projects, seem to stifle my creativity in my own art for art's sake. I become so aware of not letting a group down and my responsibility to the those people, that I actually seem to freeze when I want to involve myself in personal work.

Laura Knight

I have decided, and I know that some of you know about this, as I have mentioned it in a couple of emails, that I am drawing back from group swaps for a while, apart from the one that is still ongoing. I am going to concentrate on my art and probably just get involved in one to one's and RAKs. I was stretched out in too many ways before, with the amount of swaps. For now I want to concentrate on my art, my garden, my history research, my blog and putting more time aside for my favourite occupation reading. I want to have a greedy, juicy, learning summer of personal delights. I fully intend to make myself a banner saying just that 'Here's to the greedy, juicy, learning summer of personal delights'. Raise a glass with me to that and have one too. What fun we can have in the autumn revealing what we gained through these months. Southern Hemisphere, do the same with Winter using suitable winter words.



You note I have a new sidebar item that advertises National Faery Day on 24th June, if you click on it you should be taken to the site and you can choose one for your own blog. There are lots of things going on around that time, such as in Bodmin in Cornwall, a three day faery
festival. I'm sure we can all think of lots of lovely things to do to celebrate this day.



A very good friend of mine from the blogs, and I have been talking about Druids and Driudism recently. This is really quite apt as the doll the Hello Dolly Group are making this month is a Celtic Goddess. Druidism is fascinating, and has reinvented itself many times throughout history. Basically it is similar, I think to wicca, and to various pantheistic religions [ one with many gods and goddesses, often associated with nature, eg rivers, trees, rocks]. It is also a belief that really looks after our Earth. Listed below are the main attributes of certain types of Druidism.

John Piper

~Love of Peace~ Love of Beauty - the bard and artists within~ Love of Justice - non punitive justice and law ~Love of Story and Myth - the power of mythology~ Love of History and Reverence for Ancestors~ Love of Trees - sacred groves and study of treelore~ Love of Stones - stone circles and crystals~ Love of Truth - wisdom~ Love of Animals - druidry sees animals as sacred ~ Love of the Body~ Love of the Sun, Moon and Stars~ Love of Life.

Jill Worthington

The Druids came from pre-Celtic times and by Celtic times had a long history of lore and beliefs. It they had any written words they have been destroyed long before then and a lot of our information about them come from Roman writers, such as Julius Caesar. The Druids, deified elments of nature, such as the moon, stars and sun, and looked to them for signs and seasons. The also held as holy natural elements such as. rivers, lakes, tops of hills, groves, trees, and plants. Fire was regarded as a symbol of several divinities and was associated with the sun and cleansing. The calendar was governeed by the lunar, solar and vegetative cycles. There were three categories the Bards, who knew the songs and stories of their people, the Ovates who were gifted with second sight, and were the seers and healers and the Druids who were the philospohers, judges and teachers. There was much maligning of the Druids by certain Romans and talk of human blood sacrifices though some of what is written must surely be taken as anti Druid propaganda. It took many years of learning to become a Druid and it was open to both men and women. I feel aspects of it mix in well with wicca and solitary hedgewitchery, it also brings back to us the importance of never losing our traditions and lore, our history and beginnings are what makes us the people we are. Even in today's age of technology we should never forget how to use the oral storytelling tradition.

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.

I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS I WANT TO SHOOT THE WHOLE DAY DOWN - [courtesy of Boomtown Rats]

These are the stained glass panels in St Martin's church in Brampton, my nearest small market town. These images were designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelite artist.


Oh dear, that is exactly how I felt yesterday. I awoke to a gloomy grey day complete with drizzle of rain, too many deadlines looming in my head. I definitely got out of the wrong side of the bed and I grumped around growling to myself as I went downstairs to make the breakfast. Too wet for the garden and plants waiting patiently to be planted before they give up hope and wither. My energy levels were plummeting as the day got greyer. Ready to pick a fight with myself, and here was the final blow, I had stupidly let myself run out of a couple of household items I needed. No way, could I face going into the town, then inspiration struck, I would go the other way to my nearest little market town Brampton. Then another light bulb in my head lit up, I had been thinking that I needed to do a tour of the small surrounding villages before the Local History Exhibition on Saturday, to note the differences to the old photos, on a rainy day what better way to do it than to catch the twisty turning backwards and forwards country bus that takes over an hour to take me what normally takes ten minutes.

This is the Market Square in Brampton, looking towards the Moot Hall.

Off I went and caught the direct bus to Brampton, this would give me half and hour or so before having to catch the slow-mo bus back. Off I went to the Post Office, the Baker's and the lovely local Butcher's. Then there was just time to visit two charity shops and the local Moot Hall which is the tourist information centre. Luck was with me, I bought a beautiful foot high bluestoneware flagon, with a stopper cork and a wooden tap, which will look beautiful in my kitchen. Only £1 incredible. Inside the tourist information office was a sale of bargain books, selling wonderfully cheaply, just found time to purchase three of them before heading back to the bus stop.

This is looking from the Moot Hall down the other way towards St Martin's church.

The little bus turned up and I was the only passenger, these little buses only have six double seats on each side, a long back seat and a space at the front for pushchairs and parcels. I was already a bit more cheerful with my unexpected purchases. Well that was the most wonderful hour's journey, up and down hill, turns to the left then back out again turns to the right and back out again, almost doing complete circles from where we had started until I was set down just over one hour later two door away from my front door. I had seen pheasants a plenty, some strange type of wild geese, a crow and a bird of prey fighting, tiny lambs tottering around and some beautiful leggy foals in the fields with their mothers. Not to mention some wonderful old building and countryside. The blues had been blown away and the grumpiness shaken and rattled out of me by the twisty roads, and as a plus some locally made Cumberland Sausages to make a casserole with for dinner.

A close up of the Moot Hall, which is the tourist information centre.

Today I had to go into town, to the library to do some extra large photocopying for the exhibition on Saturday. On my way to the library I noticed that a new remainder bookshop had opened this week all books £2. What! I checked that out twice, in I went like pooh bear to a honey pot. Unbelievable books all at £2, I was spoilt for choice, I picked a wonderful book all about jade, another one quilting round the world and a beautiful book full of botanical illustrations through the ages. Some of these books had been over £30. Added a few fiction, rushed to the till and paid, and got out the shop pronto before I was tempted to buy more. I did manage ascertain that the shop will be there for six months, ummmm I'll definitely be back if books stay at that price and it was just not an opening offer.


I must show you this cute little woodland sprite I received from Lila of Indigo Pears as part of the ongoing Hello Dolly swap. She is called Fern and she is carefully carrying a nest of eggs. Isn't she just delicious?
St Martin's church Brampton

Dear Mrs Nesbitt, has tagged me with the following 40 questions, so here goes, deep breath and off I go:-

1. What is your occupation? My degree is in History, I don't want to sound stuffy and say I am a Historian, so perhaps, Researcher of Social History might be better. I can also complicate the matter by admitting I have a Dip AD in art and design as well.

2. What color are your socks right now? Bare feet.

3. What are you listening to right now? Chopin's Nocturnes, though I love a varied selection of music, especially old hippie stuff.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Spring Vegetable Rolls

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Not quite sure what this means? Is it something to do with motorbikes?

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple Haze.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My daughter, Sweetpea.

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, or I wouldn't be doing it.

9. How old are you today? About seven

10. Favorite drink? Wine, red, white or rose.

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Hah you know about me and sport!

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, I'm not a true blonde.

13. Pets? Always, cats

14. Favorite food? At the moment, celery,nut and apple salad.

15. What was the last movie you watched? Howard's End.

16. What was the last book you read? Spirits in the Wires Charles de Lint.

17. What do you do to vent anger? Growl!

18. What was your favourite toy as a child? My doll's house.

19. What is your favourite, fall or spring? Spring because after that it's Summer and I have my garden.

20. Hugs or kisses? Depends who's doing the giving.

The interior of St Martin's Church Brampton showing the stained glass in situ.


21. Cherries or blueberries? Cherries.

22. Do you want your friends to leave you comments? Well that's what blogs are about.

23. Who is the most likely to comment? My little circle of regulars.

24. Who is least likely to comment? These people that visit everyday and just lurk, please try saying hello. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, I could list you!

25. Living arrangements? An empty nest just my other half and I.

26. When was the last time you cried? Monday, just felt overwhelmed, see above.

27. What's on the floor of your closet? Handbags, shoes and of course, books.

28. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Pam

29. What did you do last night? Mounted photographs and cut out printed captions for them.

30. Favorite smells? Vanilla and Floral smells such as jasmine, lotus or rose.

Another of the stained glass panels designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

31. What inspires you? The countryside and books.

32. What are you afraid of? Heights, mainly, I was terrified crossing the railway bridge in the wind at Thirsk and didn't want to sound a wimp by saying I was scared of heights. I won't even climb a ladder.

33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Don't like hamburgers.

34. Favourite dog breed? greyhounds.

35. Number of keys on your key ring? Never carry a key ring or keys, I have ways and means.

36. Number of years at current job? Doesn't work like that, it's sporadic.

37. Favourite day of the week? Sunday for chilling.

38. How many states/countries have you lived in? One country, two counties.

39. Favourite holidays? Where else but Cornwall.

40. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? I can just see my other half shaking his head and he is now bend double with laughter!

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.

ONE SWALLOW A SUMMER DOTH NOT MAKE

This is the Silver Birch tree that is in on the common ground behind my house and garden. This was taken in the early morning sunlight, which seems to be glinting on the new leaves which have just unfurled in the last couple of days. Look at that beautiful cloudless sky.

I was sitting in my workroom on Monday afternoon and looked out of the window across the street to my neighbour's yard and barn when suddenly a bird swooped and swerved in front of it, yes, it was a swallow, then another appeared and for some minutes they performed their acrobatic flight around the yard. Today, Tuesday, they are no where to be seen. I have noted this happens every year, the only thing I can think of is that a few swallows make up an advanced party fly ahead and check out their summer habitat then return to report to the rest of the group who are winging there way here. I am confident within the next day or so they will all be wheeling and diving in the sky. The weather has turned slightly chiller which reminded me of the above adage which I have used as a title.

This is the dove cote entrance to the barn that the crows are using, if you enlarge the photo you can see a large stick they have not been able to get inside, and it has got stuck behind the guttering.

I have been trying to photograph my crows, but they are such crafty birds. I got up early with the camera and went down into the garden as I noted from the bedroom window they were busy flying in and out the barn. I quietly positioned myself in the corner of the garden and waited, and waited and waited! I looked round over the common land behind and there were the cheeky birds just out of camera range sitting in a tree looking at me. So no luck yet, but I spent some time photographing various items which are illustrating this posting, explanations are underneath the photographs.

This is the ruin of an old forge [it has no proper roof just some corrugated iron thrown over some of it]. Inside, although the entrance is blocked up now, the forge fireplace is still in the corner. Look at the old wooden dovecote on the side. This is situated on the lane that leads away from the land behind my garden.

On Sunday we entered the fifth moon of the celtic year in which every month has a tree and I did promise to follow the months and tell you a little about the tree of the month. The tree is the Willow, also known as pussy willow or withey. In herbal lore the bark of the willow is used as a pain killer, it contains an ingredient that forms salicylylous acid which is actually the active ingredient in aspirin. Which shows there is a lot of truth in old time herbal lore. The Willow tree is connected to water and is also a tree of the moon. It is one of the traditional woods to be added to the bonfires on Mayday evening. It is said that if you sit under the Willow Tree and listen you will hear the voices of the fairies when the wind stirs the leaves. To plant a Willow tree near your home is to protect it and its branches make superb wands or dowsing tools. You can also carry a little piece of Willow with you to protect you when travelling. Folklore tells tales of Willows uprooting themselves by night and stalking travellers!

These three photographs were taken at Easter when the garden was just showing signs of Spring growth, the beds look sparse but beside some of the markers there are tiny plantlings coming up. The next task will be to put down a new layer of bark chippings.

This is my shrub corner, the lavender is sprouting new shoots and the broom is getting ready to flower and at the fore of the photograph my white lilac bush is showing off its new leaves.

This is the bed I was hoeing before I stopped to take photos. The honeysuckle is flourishing and the new growth of herbs has started in the pots.

Here is the Easter Branch I decorated for Easter, as I have said before, we don't really do decorations over here, but this was a late attempt at me doing some. I will be more organised next year and do more decorations. Unfortunately, by the time this photograph was taken the chocolate minature bunnies seem to have all been eaten.

Many thanks Pea, for telling me the name of the little girl in the red cloak in American comics, of course, it was Wendy the Little Witch. How could I have forgotten that.