🎵🎶🎵 Snowdrops and Daffodils . . .

 . . . Butterflies and Bees  ♫♬🎜🎝

Hello Friends!

I simply could not resist, and for those of you who know not of which I speak, or for those who wish to trip down Memory Lane, please listen here . . . 

All Kinds of Everything

As my photos today will be predominantly snowdrops and daffodils I couldn't help reminiscing over the sweetly innocent Dana who won Eurovision in 1970 with the most charming song.  Some great songs have come out of Eurovision, as well as Dana's All Kinds of Everything, Abba gave us Waterloo, and later came The Voice sung by Eimear Quinn, not forgetting in 1967 Sandy Shaw with Puppet on A String, or Love Shine a Light by Katrina and the Waves, to name but a few of the classics.  I digress.

The flowers that herald the imminent passing of Winter are flowering, so can Spring be far behind?  Snowdrops and Daffodils ~ the opening words of Dana's song!

Just to round out the opening bars, here are the butterflies and a bees. . . 

Do you have a favourite Eurovision winner?

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie xx

The Joys of Spring

Hello Friends

It has been a week or two, maybe even three since I last stopped by for a chat. Time marches, ever on, and the flowers in my garden once more come into their own. Those that took a battering from Storm Hannah have done their very best to recover, and those that kept their precious heads below the parapet now flourish and flower, giving their most beautiful all.

Here's a little of what is blooming in my corner of The Shire this week.

Of course, it wouldn't be Spring in Wales without the rain, and the rain brings out the snails, so look who I caught, red handed on my lovely French tarragon. Shortly after this, it became a tasty snack for a nearby beady eyed bird!

My peony, an offspring of the one salvaged thirty years ago by my late father from a fate of going to landfill ~ he rescued it, brought it home, planted and nurtured it well, and it rewards me still.

The delicate clematis, the Lazarus plant, for it returned from the dead years after we thought it was lost, is slowly opening, bud by bud by precious bud

Each day I eagerly await and monitor it's progress

and beneath the towering clematis sits two of the many self sown columbine or aquilegia in many shades of purple and pink

 A few days on, the clematis is doing very well indeed

and opens out in all its glory

a little arty play with some filters

These two patio roses were bought by my dearly loved mother over ten years ago, and I had given up on them! They were pushed into a corner, neglected for nearly three years while my attentions have been elsewhere. I wish I had taken before photos, for they were in a truly sorry state, dry dead twigs with no sign of life and I held no hope, but still I decided to try again.  The best "before" I have is this, where you can see how poor a condition they were in after resuscitation commenced.

I cleared away the thick and choking weeds, refreshed the compost, added some Richard Jackson's Container Magic to the compost, and put them in a warm and sunny spot. For over a month I have tended with water and regular feedings of Richard Jackson's Flower Power, and just look at them now!  You would not recognise them. {I am not receiving any remuneration from Richard Jackson' I think the product speak for themselves}

The exceptionally fragrant Rosa Rugosa is in bloom, and soon the air will be filled with exotic scents of Summer

A Golden Wedding, the yellow rose of friendship

I do hope to come across the adult Red Tiger moth that will emerge from this beautiful, big caterpillar.  It will be a stunner, for sure.

and finally on our little tour around the garden, the Arum lilies are opening out in all their simple elegant beauty.

Soon, we shall step out into the countryside once more,

Until next time,
Deborah xo

Blackthorn and Bunting ~ in which a robin sings

Hello Friends!

A recent visit to Melin Tregwynt proved a little disappointing in that the mill and weaving sheds were closed when we got there, but we were happy enough to sit in the café greedily devouring a bowl of home made tomato and basil soup served with fresh, crusty bread hot from the oven and a large chunk of yummy cheese.  I am very easily pleased!  The shop was open, and I could so easily have come home with any one of the tapestry delights on offer, especially the current Throw of the Month, but managed to keep my purse in my bag!

Outside, fluttering gaily in the not unsubstantial breeze, this delightfully creative bunting caught my eye. I have never seen any made of tapestry, and now my mind is ticking over with ideas!

Spring is springing all around, and a few days of warm sunshine certainly encourages early blooming of plants and flowers everywhere.

The blackthorn is spectacular. Who needs cherry blossom when we have our own native gorse and blackthorn to turn our hedgerows into a visual extravaganza?

Around the valley, the blackthorn billows in great swathes of white, and in the coming days will continue to open and flourish. It brings so much pleasure to my eye as I walk familiar paths, looking forward to the turning of the seasons, the anticipation of the ripening fruits and making of Sloe Gin, a favourite tipple for me and for my home made Christmas gift hampers.

A thousand fairies, hidden to all but those who believe in magic, frolic in a flurry of white cloud across the meadow, through the trees, a bower of flowers, suspended in the air as they flit and float by in the gentle warm sunshine of an early Spring afternoon.

Shhh, be quiet as mice, for you do not want to scare them away, let's watch the magic for a while ~~~

I could stay all day, pointing my camera this way and that, capturing the delicate blooms, pure and white, pristine against a clear blue sky ~~~

Why! We're even led to Narnia in the snow ~~~

Pretty primroses, palest pink and creamy yellow, speckling a rustic riverbank, like tiny stars in a distant green galaxy far, far away ~~~

and serenaded by the sweetest voice of a darling wee robin, singing his tiny heart out, clear and clarion across the valley floor ~~~

Until next time ~~~
Deborah

An Early Morning Walk ~ in which daffodils abound

Hello Friends!

The gentle warm days of early Spring have arrived in my Shire so this morning it was easy to decide that housework can wait, and I will take advantage of this glorious weather and all it has to offer.

Following a fortifying breakfast of oatmeal, banana, walnuts and dates, and wrapped up warmer than I probably needed, I set off from the cottage pointing my feet towards the coast.  How glad am I that this decision was made? It was simply glorious out there this morning!

The quiet calm of the morning belies the furious hidden activity as the land awakens from a long slumbering Winter.  Soon, the peace was speckled with a confetti of notes, as a chorus of many birds started singing out their hearts, from chirruping robins, to cawing crows, and the urgent cries of gulls wheeling over the high cliffs.

As the sun pushed its way through the lightly clouded sky, away on the furthest shores of the bay a pale sea mist hides the distant cliffs, softening the milky blue waters of St Bride's Bay.

Closer to shore in the shallows the bright sunlight dances and shimmies across the rippled surface of the sea.

A tractor ploughs the land chugg chugg chugging along, chased by a rather large flock of expectant gulls, hoping for a tasty morsel, maybe a juicy worm or grub, to be uprooted in the freshly churned, velvety dark brown soil.

Sudden movement caught my eye, and some distance away, around a corner came a group of young military men, with packs on their backs, running along, thumpity thumpity thump thump thump on the hard ground beneath their feet. It did not take them long to catch me up, and I stood aside to aid their swift passage. Sweat poured off their brows as they panted their way towards their destination. I wondered how far they had come and how far they had yet to go.  I felt exhausted just watching.

When Spring comes, she brings flowers ~ oh! so many flowers, and today, as the daffodils are reaching their end the coast is starting to flourish with the first early signs of magnificent displays of coastal flowers to come.

There were daffodils, oh, so many daffodils, dotted here and there, and so many different sorts, from all yellow to pale yellow sporting deeper yellow trumpets; trumpets edged with frilly orange coral ruffles; all white petals and white trumpets; short fat trumpets or long slim elegant trumpets. Almost any combination you could think of! Here are a few growing in big clumps along the path edge ~~~

Further along, out on the path, the Spring flowers that our coastline is famous for are beginning to bloom, how this lifted my spirits to see Bladder Campion, Violets, and Sea Thrift all emerging from their long slumber since last Summer ~~~

Soon the flowers will be spectacular as more and more flowers join in the display, with great drifts of pink and white sprawling along the high cliff tops, suspended in a sandwich of blue above and below.

Nature is the best therapy, and I returned to my cottage restored and refreshed, quite ready for a delicious, thirst quenching cup of tea!

Until next time~~~
Deborah