You say you want a revolution.....

"Well, you know
We all want to change the world ..."

Whilst blog-tangling recently, I happened upon THIS lovely blog.   I'm always on the look-out for blogging inspiration and so am more than happy to join in with this particular type of revolution and its simple enough - just list 10 things that are making you happy this month.  If you would like to take part then head over to Astra's blog to leave your link.

1.  Freebie flowers - glads and alliums from the lottie, mallow (lavatera) from the garden, wheat and grasses from the field!

2.  My new jewellery stash purchased from the local 'boot' on Saturday! I was lucky and found lots of goodies but in particular I fell in love with this gorgeous necklace, (£4) from one stall;  and  ring (50p) and bracelet (50p) from  another! 

3.   Our  adorable 14 month old "granddaughter" sitting in the middle of the dinner table in a local hostelry on Sunday after lunch, smiling the biggest cheesiest smile and babbling lots of babble in to her Daddy's mobile telephone!

4.   The fact that The Great British Bake Off is back on tv.  LOVE that programme!!  (and the eye candy in the form of Mr Hollywood ain't bad either!)

5.    That I'm seeing an ex-work colleague on Thursday for a catch up and a balti - and that lots of other lovely ladies I work with are coming too!   Nothing like a curry and a gossip!

6.   That my wondrous partner and I have a lovely couple of days without children this very weekend!  Don't get me wrong - we love the bones of them but sometimes... just sometimes, it's great to have a complete weekend heat re at home on our own without the constant background noise of music, crashing of doors, petty squabbles and the like.  And, conversely, we can be as noisy as we like! ;)  heheheh....

7.   That I can actually SEE my craft boxes after a good clear out of rubbish in my craft room.  This means that potentially I can start my scrapbooking again!  Potentially.

8.   That the shadows are lengthening, the light in the evenings is more golden and I've seen blackberries already ripening on the brambles.... my favourite time of year is fast approaching. Delicious!

9.  That it's sunflower season!  I adore seeing these beauties randomly peeping over garden fences!   This single one is planted in a pot down on t' lottie.

10.  Finding this photograph on my old camera which I've only just uploaded.  I always get frustrated taking moon pictures because they never turn out as well as I'd like.  This one was a luck shot - and I'd say it was taken..... ummmm....probably around May/June time.

What's making you happy this month?

~x~

Starry Starry Night

Hey guys

Keep your eyes cast skywards during the mornings of 11th - 14th August as it's time once again for the Perseid meteor shower!  

"The peak of activity - when you might expect to see 20-30 meteors an hour is predicted to be between 00:30 and 03:00 BST on the morning of the 13th."

Read more about this fascinating phenomenon **here** 

As some slightly 'better' weather has been predicted for the next few days and the waning Lady Moon we may get a decent view! 

It's a busy old sky this month!  On 31st August - we'll have a "Blue Moon".  A "blue" moon happens when there are two full moons occurring within a calendar month - although it's 'blue' in name only!    

Ooh I say - I had a bit of Sir Patrick Moore moment then didn't I?!   

And ask me to say "fascinating phenomenon" again  on Friday evening after a couple of glasses of the pink stuff!

I'm off for a lie down!

EEK!!!

Seeds

The Seed-Shop

Here in a quiet and dusty room they lie,

Faded as crumbled stone or shifting sand,

Forlorn as ashes, shrivelled, scentless, dry -

Meadows and gardens running through my hand.

In this brown husk a dale of hawthorn dreams;

A cedar in this narrow cell is thrust

That will drink deeply of a century's streams;

These lilies shall make summer on my dust.

Here in their safe and simple house of death,

Sealed in their shells, a million roses leap;

Here I can blow a garden with my breath,

And in my hand a forest lies asleep. 

Muriel Stuart

Little Pepper Pots!!

Tap these little pods gently and out pop......

Hundreds and Thousands!

Isn't nature wonderful?   (I may have said that before!)

Olympic Moon

"Borrowed from the ITV website with thanks"


Wow.

Just wow.

Seems like the Lady Moon wants to get in on the act too!

I had to share this stunning picture - please click the LINKY to see more pictures and a tiny bit of editorial.

I know I'm a simple soul but the pictures made my heart pop.

Bloom...

Hello lovely people.

A very warm welcome to my new follower, Cheri.  Everybody wave now!!  **wave**  :)

The garden saga continues.  Once again, we have been stymied by the flippin' weather.  Excitement at the new project is now turning to exasperation as every day we pull back the cover, and less than a couple of hours later we have to cover up once more.  As this week off work was to be dedicated to garden work you can imagine how annoyed we are.

Hey ho.   At least ALL of the lawn has gone now.  That was a heavy and messy job.  Thank goodness we had somewhere to put the discarded turves. At the back of our garden fence is messy area which leads on to the field.  We have transferred the turf here and hopefully the grass will   regroup and regrow and make the area more presentable.  I have lots of  seeds gathered  from various seed head rescues which I will scatter over it and leave Mama Nature to work her magic.  It will be interesting to see how that looks this time next year.

I bought a lovely gardener's reference book from one of the car boot sales yesterday entitled 'What Plant, Where'.   The title says it all as to its content and guides enthusiastic but clueless gardeners like me in the right direction.

It was ironic then, that when we moved some rubbish yesterday, embedded in a tiny crack in the cement, this little lady was more than happy just where she was.

A fitting justification to the common phrase, "Bloom Where You Are Planted"

Garden Update

Blessed Lugnasadh to you all.

I do hope that you have been able to reap some of what you have sown, today, and that your veggie patches are plentiful and your borders bear gifts.

So, today is the beginning of the harvest season.  The grain in the field is ripening nicely.   Whilst walking the hooligan along the path around the circumference of the field we retrieve any stray ears of wheat which have been casually plucked and discarded, or stems which have been knocked down by passing Joe Public.  On our way back to the house, we offer these to the chickens who adore their wheaty gifts and, tuk-tukking softly to themselves, shake the wheat ears and feast upon the resulting grain.

We are on leave from work this week and have managed to get to a couple of boot sales, thankfully between showers.  s a result, the garden has been blessed with some new perennial plants for a very reasonable amount of cash.    At the very top of the garden we have a very neglected border which has been given somewhat of a makeover.  This border gets very dry and, once the new plants were in situ, I added a bark mulch in the hope of retaining a little more moisture. The bark mulch came free from a local tree surgeon who gifts the shredded fruits of his labour to the allotment people.  I managed to appropriate some this time so have avoided paying garden centre prices!    I'm really pleased with how it looks now.

These are a few of the plants we bought from boot sales over the weekend.

Heuchera Chocolate Ruffles.  The ''old fashioned" name for the Heuchera is 'Coral'

A delicate Astilbe - Sprite.

I've been after this particular species of Buddleia for ages - the photograph
makes it very pale - it is actually very dark purple and is called 'Black
 Knight'  Another much maligned invasive plant this one, but I can live with that!

This plant is beautiful.  It almost looks like a cornflower, yet is scabious blue in colour and
its cornflower type flower heads are held aloft tall slender stems.  Unfortunately car boot man removed the bliddy label before he handed us the plants I didn't realise until we had got home. 

The calendulas grow in their droves down on the lottie and, whilst they do get invasive if not checked, I love their cheery little bright faces and so am more than happy for them to self seed in this area of the garden.  I lifted a big clump of them on Sunday and divided them into smaller clumps for planting.  Some of them are already setting seed and so even if their flowering is very short lived this season, I'm sure that I shall have a border full of brightness this time next year.  

With the addition of some 'cheap in the sale' Willow edges from our local Wilkinsons  - the final Ta-dahh!



Until tomorrow

xxx