More fresh air!

Not so small daughter was back at college this week – well, for most of this week as there was another teachers’ strike and we spent Thursday morning sharing the kitchen table with our laptops.  She was listening to a lesson on Alexander the Great and I was doing accounts – we made an interesting pair!

We’ve had some sunshine this week too, which has been lovely; it has tended to only be for part of the day so you have to time what you’re doing if you’re trying to catch the sunshine.  Earlier in the week it tended to be earlier in the day and down at the canal, the swans are out and about on the water …

Not just swans – there were lots and lots of ducks out on the canal bank too.  The dog likes the ducks, especially when they see him coming and take themselves off into the water.  I think he sees it as tidying up!

Can you see what I spotted here?

Apart from those lovely reflections which look like an oil painting, that is!

Right in the middle of the photo are two white things on the far bank …

They’re ducks as well (safely out of reach of the dog) – I haven’t seen a white pair on the canal before and their bright feathers caught my eye.  They were out on the water a bit later, they looked like miniature swans although they are just ducks.  I’m not an expert on duck varieties so can’t tell you what they are, but I hope I see them again.

Oh, I wanted to show you this too.  I spotted this tree stump on a walk this week – can you see anything unusual about this?

It was once a silver birch tree but let me brighten the photo and move in closer.  Now can you see?

I think those two holes at the top have been made by a woodpecker.  I’ve never seen them so close up before!  I think it will be the Greater Spotted Woodpecker which is the one that you can hear pecking at the trees if you’re out in the woods – this link has more photos of the birds, the holes they make and the sound so you can hear for yourself what it’s like.  I’ve heard them in a couple of the woods that we walk in this spring which is great – it’s definitely more than I used to hear them so that’s good news if their numbers are on the increase!

 

I’ve been to RHS Bridgewater this week; a friend and I took a picnic, had a stroll around the gardens and ate our sandwiches in the sunshine.  I haven’t been to the garden for a long time – certainly not since the autumn last year and maybe not even before that for a while … one thing I have realised this week is that if I don’t make time in the calendar to do something, it doesn’t get done and the downside of that is that I end up firefighting with jobs that seem to rush up on me and I don’t have time to do nice things like have picnics in the RHS garden!

It’s still reasonably early in spring and although there were plenty of shoots coming up in the borders, they looked very different to how they do over the summer …

The garden felt as if it is still in that phase between winter sleeping and spring awakening, although the tulips were in full bloom and beautiful to see …

The bluebells were out too – here’s a proper English bluebell …

and I spotted these beautiful blue Camassia flowers too.  I don’t think I’ve seen them before and found myself wondering how they would fare in my garden!

I’ve added the label because it seemed far easier than writing it out! 🙂

In the alpine house, there were some HUGE succulents – they looked similar to ones we have on our windowsill but several times the size …

Succulents are very popular houseplants these days, aren’t they?  I think it’s because they don’t always take a lot of looking after so can thrive on a bit of neglect!  My lovely friend Emma Varnam has written a book of crocheted succulents patterns which look amazingly lifelike; I think about her every time I see plants like this now.  Her “plants” certainly don’t suffer if the cats knock them off the windowsill!

 

Talking of cats, look at this butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth kitty keeping cool in the raspberry canes.

Do you remember the other week I mentioned that I’d found dead furry things in the water butt and couldn’t work out how they had got in there?  Well, this week I worked it out.  This little madam has been using the hole in the top of the water butt as a post box and as I watched her drop feathers in there, I realised that probably everything that I suspected was in the sludge at the bottom has been “helped” in through the hole at the top!  Perhaps it’s her own way of tidying up (a bit like the dog encouraging the ducks into the water) … It doesn’t make the thought of having to clean it out it any more pleasant (no, I still haven’t done it) but it does explain it – and I’ll need to find some mesh to cover the hole sooner rather than later!

One last garden photo – the Hellebores are all fading now and the flowers are starting to go to seed.  I think they look just as beautiful as they did when they were in full bloom!

Thanks for all your comments last week about the Fish Lips Kiss heel pattern.  I’ve downloaded the instructions (it’s a paid-for pattern from Ravelry) but I haven’t any knitting to show you this week.  I’ve got to the point where I need to create the heel, but my husband has been working away for a few days so I’ve not been able to make the cardboard template that the instructions tell you to make so his sock has ground to a halt.

Nothing else on the needles, you might ask?  Well, yes – WIPs of course (or PHDs – projects half done as Anne mentioned she calls hers in last week’s comments – that sounds far more sophisticated!) but this week I decided to leave them all to one side and give my hands a rest.  It wasn’t easy as I’m so used to having knitting in my hands, but I do so much of it that the tendons in my arms get tight despite exercising them, so I thought I’d give them a rest this week whilst I couldn’t get on any further with the heel.  My husband is back now so I can get on with the heel template and pick up my needles again – hooray!

 

On the sock subject – thank you so much for your continued support for not so small daughter’s trip to Japan this summer – we have so appreciated you buying the Don’t Be Koi socks pattern and your donations towards her trip as well – your generosity is so appreciated thank you! xx

 

Well, it’s another bank holiday weekend in the UK this weekend – we have a run of them coming up! – so whatever you’re up to, I hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy Monday off!   I’ll be posting this month’s Monthly Musing tomorrow (squeezing it in there before the end of the month 🙂 ) and next Wednesday is the Winwick Mum Sockalong 8th birthday so there’ll be my annual count up and giveaway – there’ll be a post that day and an extra email if you’re on the email list to remind you to join in.  (If you’re not on the list and would like to be, you can sign up here – you get a free Kitchener stitch guide if you do!  It’s not compulsory, though, you can find the posts on the blog whenever you want to 🙂 )

See you soon! xx