Rubus fructicosus

First of the many Blackberries I am hopeing to pick this year

WANTED!

REWARD

Home Grown Vegetables when I get a chance to grown any!

This slimey lot party every night in my garden!

They always leave a trail behind themselves

of the slimey kind so I know where they have been!

Pelagonium

Back in May I was given a few pots of Pelargoniums!

Mombretia

The beautiful sunshine colours of summer!

Oh Dear!

My son parked his car under a tree near where he lives, he had the opportunity to move his car to outside his home to wash it. On the roof of the car what looked like a ping-pong ball was this birds' eggs, must have been pushed out of the nest by older siblings.

Was It All A Dream............?

We had the whole day to get there. Bristol that is, for a special treat lined up by our (Middle) Son Robert at, as they say, enormous expense (All in a good cause though, the Conservation work of the Bristol Zoo.

Alex went into Town to do a couple of chores, but on his return decided that the front tyres really weren't up to a motorway trip so off back to town. 30 minutes and £73 later we were ready to go, we just needed to call into Tescos to get some petrol using that 5p off voucher. Unfortunately we had forgotten it's changeover day at Butlins and Tescos was under siege. We decided we had enough petrol to get to Williton, and filled up there. On the road to Bridgwater, one damn Tractor after another but never mind we would soon be on the Motorway zooming along in the sunshine. Except that no sooner had we got up to speed when we started to slow down again and then to a stop, minor shunt up ahead. We eventually got going and the trusty Sat-Nav sent us on our way, up the A370. Never mind it must know what it's doing. We ended up in Bristol Town Centre so we might just as well gone our usual way. Still a nice day and no harm done. Picked up a key from Michael (Eldest) and ordered a Taxi for 5.30 which duly arrived in time. What we didn't bargain for was the the Taxi driver didn't know where the Theatre was and got lost! No need to panic as we had a spare 1/2 hour and a few pushes on the pad of the Taxis SatNav and there we were.

What's at this leading up to I hear you cry. Well, we had come to see a comedy hero of ours, John Cleese who was doing a Charity Night in favour of the Zoo. We saw him and Chris Searle in the Theatre and it was very entertaining the best bit however was the champagne reception afterwards where we were able to meet and greet the Maestro. Robert hadn't bought a ticket for himself but could stand not meeting JC so he persuaded the organizers to let him in after crossing their palms with the appropriate silver.

It was great. John Cleese took time to speak to us personally and where Robert told him he scared people for a living John Cleese said that was the most interesting job he had heard of for a long time!

A fascinating occasion sure to remain in the memory for a long time.

Colin the hand-reared Lemur

http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/

Chris Searle and John Cleese

Robert and John Cleese

Bags Packed!

I'll let you know more tomorrow!

Sweet Honeysuckle

Lonicera periclymenium

The sweet fragrant smell in the evening sun

Is It A Monster...........?

.............No!
They two small abandoned wasps nests.
They are the texture of tissue, very delicate
and fascinating to look at!

Well.............

............looks like honey for tea!

Patience is a Virture!

I managed to capture a photograph of this lovely

"Gatekeeper" or "Hedge Brown" Butterfly

Please if I am wrong as to what it is called

please feel free to correct me!

They Seek It Here, They Seek It There, That.......

Scarlet Pimpernel

(Anagallis arvesis)

called the "poormans weathervane"

because the flowers close on dull days

Standing Guard!

I wonder who this pigeon belongs too..........?

Ooooooooooh...........

.............................I wonder what this will metamorphose into?

Scenecio jacobaea

This Ragwort!
Horse owners beware
this is a very poisonous plant for horses

200th post! I thought these were seabirds!

I do my bit for the Sparrows and the other garden birds

and this is what happens!

They all flocked on the overlooking roofs and then swooped!

Now there is nothing left!

Determination Prevails!

I went to a local garden centre whilst on holiday and ordered a "Cream Tea" - I was told sorry no scones! On the way home I thought I know I can cook I'll make some, bought the Clotted Cream and Jam but did not get around to it for a couple of days, when I went make them I found the Clotted Cream was starting to grow a "winter's fur coat" go mouldy! I hadn't broken the seal on the cream and promptly took the cream back to Tescos which they graciously exchanged. Today I came in from work lunchtime a promptly cooked some scones!

Scone Recipe

Pre-heat the oven at 220 degrees centigrade - gas 7

225g (8ozs) Self Raising Flour
40g (1 1/2 oz) Butter (room temperature)
25g (1oz) Caster Sugar
75g (3oz) Raisins
1 Egg beaten into 8 Tablespoons Milk

Rub the Butter into the Flour until resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in Sugar and Raisins.
Add Egg and Milk and mix lightly to a soft dough. (You may not use all of this mixture)
Gently roll out the dough to about and inch thick and cut with a 3" cutter.
Brush with either Milk or if you have any leftover the Egg and Milk mix.
Put on a baking sheet and cook for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack.

Serve warm with Clotted Cream and Jam

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Cheese Scones

Same recipe but remove Sugar and Raisins and add 3 ozs of finely grated Cheddar Cheese and sprinkle cheese on the top too.

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If you have any other scone recipes I would love to share them!

I love Daisies!

This is a large headed Daisy.

It is actually from stock that once belonged to my grandmother.

Whenever our family move we always take part of the Daisy patch with us!

I will let my son have some for his garden this year and ask him to carry on the tradition!

Newsround!

Education is not the same!

Believe it or not this was the "Kiddies Corner" Circa March 1934!

Frustrating!

I have been trying to make-up some kits and charts to sell at the craft shop. The computer has decided to be extraordinarily slow, and now its very late and things are beginning to go wrong!
But we will get there - I need them for tomorrow!

Skeins of threads for the kits

Wet Week in July!

Our holiday couldn't have got any wetter! For four days it rained and it is still raining now! We went to stay with my dad in Okehampton Devon, arriving about two on Monday afternoon. The day was wet, and in fact that morning before we left Joan, Alex's aunt rang us to say it was raining quite heavy and did not look as if we could make our visit to her in Mevagissey Cornwall, but according to the weather forecast for the next day that was going to be the better day but we said we would ring before we left Okehampton.

Bright green seaweed at Portmellon Bay Mevagissey Cornwall
Dodger the owner of Joan

Snail stacked on top of each other between a gatepost and wall at Joan's

The river which runs through the town of Okehampton Devon

Wet Wednesday afternoon on the Steam Railway at Bodmin Cornwall

I Chatted All Day!

Thomas!

A few days ago I emailed my friend Jackie http://lavenderjack.wordpress.com/ to see if I could visit her as my husband was going out for the day and her farm was en route. I said I would arrive about 9.30 and leave about 4.30. I had a really lovely day. I didn't do anything just chatted, what more could you do on a wet thundery Sunday.

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I will be away from my computer for a few days, this time I am visiting my dad.

Boys Own Adventures!

Well this film was as exciting as the other three in my opinion! If I get bored in the dark cinema I tend to nod off (shhhh........don't tell anyone I did whilst watching Hancock" on Thursday!) But this afternoon was edge of the seat stuff and I didn't get bored once, I could have quite easily bought another ticket and sat through it all again immediately afterwards!

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I also did not miss and thoroughly enjoyed Dr Who this week. All in all an exciting afternoon film wise!

Bakelite the first Plastic

Bakelite is the first synthetic plastic, invented in 1907 by Dr. Leo Baekeland and is a synthetic resin. He named it after himself and proclaimed it as "the material of a thousand uses" A bold statement but true, it is still used today for some electrical components. Manfacturers embraced the new material with enthusiasm and it was put to all sorts of uses that would have stretched even Dr Baekeland's imagination. Here are a few...............

Picnic Set

Electrical Switches

Post war items

..................and you could be buried in Bakelite!

If you wish to see more items visit

The Bakelite Museum, Williton, Minehead, Somerset.

The sky over Hankridge - Taunton this afternoon about 2pm

Today we thought we would go and see the film "Indiana Jones"! Well that as the intention! We arrived at the cinema to find the doors locked, and saw that the time of the film was 4.30pm, the time we arrived at the cinema was just after mid-day! We took ourselves off for lunch at Pizza Hut and we also looked in the five stores over at Hankridge, then decided to go to Sainsburys for another cup of tea and decided we would go an see another film as we there "Hancock" with Will Smith. Although I like action movies, this film had quite a bit of action, a bit of violence (didn't like that but I suppose it was integral to the film) and was very loud because this particular cinema was one of the very small ones in the complex!

Bye Bye Old Thing.........

This dear little car was the first car for two of our boys!

Then it sat rusting away on the drive for about four years

And today it was finally towed away!
We only kept it because one of them said they might like to restore it!

Postcard from.........

The holiday has officially started!

My husband's extra work has been done!

It's a good job we didn't book a holiday to go away anywhere.

We will not be answering the telephone,

and no-one has our mobile numbers only "special" people!

The first ice-cream on a hot afternoon was lovely.

This particular flavour was 'honeycomb'.

This is a diesel train on the

http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk

I know the "sundial" says 1 o'clock it was actually 2 o'clock in the afternoon!

Very sunny Minehead looking toward Butlins

and looking the other way towards the Harbour and North Hill