This is one of a few examples of cut lettering which live in my garden.

Unlike the other pieces, which are drawn and cut by hand, this one was drawn by hand but machine cut. It is one of the pieces which I will be selling on notonthehighstreet.com...eventually!

I've had quite a few pieces in my garden over the winter and they seem to have made the baron winter garden even more so...in a captivating sort of way. As things have starting sprouting, and now fully in bloom, the pieces have added a different dynamic to the flower beds which gives me so much pleasure. My life is so busy at the moment that there is little time just to 'be' but when I do I like to sit on the bench next to this piece and watch the sun go down.

In and Out of the Dusty Bluebells

 

We love going to the Arboretum in Westonbirt. We especially love going with Alex who knows what everything is and is also mildly obsessed with lichen...which I think is fantastic!
She also does silly things with plants which the two little ones thought was great. We made little mouse ears with Magnolia petals and bound the childrens legs with Sticky Jack, we found flowers which looked like fairy cups and probably reseeded all the dandelions for next year. The Little Ones made houses under dripping Hollies and 'hid' behind sticks, delighting in our complete inablity to find them!!

It was quiet and sunny and so beautiful. Under the trees were carpets of bluebells and billowing cow parsley. We saw little blue butterflies and were deafened by birdsong.

My friend Sarah joined us, feeling a bit harrassed, and left us feeling full of the joys of spring. What a lovely day!

A Beautiful Birthday

The Big girl has had a fantastic birthday and I can't tell you how glad I am. Last year she had a tummy bug on her birthday and spent the whole of christmas in bed with suspected swine flu. It was a bit touch and go yesterday when she came home from school with a head ache...was it going to develop into anything? Could it be the curse of red letter days that had blighted her two most favourite occasions? After a glass of water and a packet of calpol she was feeling much better. She woke up early this morning with a spring in her step, delighted in her pressies, big (a bike), and small (some 'moshi monster' stickers) and skipped off to school in a birthday bubble of happiness!

The Little Girl and I made this cake for her which contains a rather delish filling: 25g icing sugar, sieved, mixed with a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 250g mascapone, 250g squashed raspberries..yum! We made a topping with icing sugar, orange juice and pink colouring and scattered with raspberries and daisy wafers. Big Girl was delighted! We sat in the garden with best friend Rose, Granny and Grampy and scofted a big slice each.

On another note, the abundance of wildlife in our garden has been both a source of delight and horror over that last few weeks. Today a kestral flew into our chicken run and got stuck so flapped around for about an hour. Despite the bird's obvious distress, is was amazing to see it up close and personal like that. Grampy managed to shoo it out and it went on it's way only slightly ruffled.

We've also taken great pleasure in the nesting blackbirds in the trees around our house. They have been teaching their fledglings the ways of the world this week and have been using our garden as their playground. They've become so tame that one even landed on the Big Girl's leg! We also have barn owls, hedgehogs, masses of goldfinches, long tailed tits, swifts and swallows, tree creapers, mining bees, lesser spotted woodpeckers, bumble bees, butterflies and buzzards...to mention a few.

The 'horror' part occured yesterday with an unwelcome visitor. I went to open the chicken run and found our bantams dead...along with our big orpington cockeral. This time not a fox but a suspected mink or stoat attack. It was really quite horrible and so sad. The worst thing is that I would love to get some more hens (ex battery hens preferabley) but I cannot take then on with the risk of subjecting them to even more trama. I would want their time with us to be full of the happiness they deserve but how on earth can I stop a mink? They can squeeze through tiny little holes... can any thing be 'mink proofed'? I think I will have to consult my oracle and fellow Girl Guide Leader, Ann, who knows all about stuff like this. Maybe we could trap the stoat/mink and release somewhere else? I'll keep you posted...