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Tag: garden
The grass needed mowing again
It was starting to look a mess
In, fact it was the perfect place
For the moth to have a rest
It looked so regal standing there
In its cape of black and red
Ruffling gently in the breeze
On its grassy, makeshift bed
A tired fly stopped a while
On top of a blade of grass
Perched precariously clinging on
Waiting for the aches to pass
After a while, it looked around
And much to its delight
A beautiful moth was having a nap
It was such a glorious sight.
some time later, the moth woke up
And spotted the little fly
Then they both fluttered off
Without as much as a good-bye!
This week we have ‘wood’ to work with for TJ’s challenge. Now, I could have chosen any number of things, chairs, tables, etc. but I thought I would write about our poor old garden fence instead.
Battered and broken,
propped up, drunkenly swaying
Its days are numbered!
We have had a bit of an Indian summer over here in the UK, and it is still pretty warm. In fact, Miss Hap and I went for a walk about an hour ago and came back roasting!
It is wonderful to see some roses in full bloom in the garden, and there are still some to follow.
I thought they deserved a Haiku in their honour.
October roses
beautiful and delicate
bring joy to my heart.
This week for TJ’s Household Haiku Challenge we are to use ‘teacup’. I took this photo at my sister’s house as she always makes an occasion out of it when she has visitors. In my house, you get a mug and like it, but hers you get a pretty cup and saucer and tea made in the teapot too!
So onto the haiku:
Glorious sunshine
sipping tea in the garden….
but where is the cake?
- The last little rose has poked its head out of the now mass of leaves, (some of which are turning brown) and it won’t be long before they are cut back for next year.
- The blankets are out! Yes, the weather is turning chillier, and we all have our little blankets that we like to snuggle under in our house. Roxy nicked my place on the settee and Mr Grump fussed around setting her down so she is warm and snug
- The nights are drawing in very rapidly; it is now getting dark so much earlier in the evening and, unfortunately, the early mornings are also getting darker making it harder to get up.
- The dressing gowns are coming out of hibernation as well now, It won’t be long before the fleecy pyjamas get an airing either!
- Only the true stalwarts are still cutting about in shorts! I know the English like to get them on as soon as it is either officially ‘summer’ regardless of weather, or we get a bit of decent sunshine regardless of the season!
- The colds and flu have started already! Yes, as some of you know, Mr Grump has already got ‘man flu’ and no doubt the rest of us will end up succumbing to it!
- All the Christmas stuff has started making its way into the shops! Gah!
What a pleasant day it turned out to be today. As we have just had a Bank Holiday, and the kids are off on half-term, the weather forecast had been rather gloomy for this week (typical), so to see the sun shining this morning was a bonus.
Yesterday my younger sister had given me some cucumber and tomato seedlings, 2 sunflower seedlings and some sweet peas to put in my garden as Mr Grump has not planted anything this year. Luckily, the rosemary, chives and rhubarb we had previously as well as my roses, are doing pretty well, so our garden will not be too sparse this year after all!
Anyway, Miss Hap was out with her friend for the day so I got on with a bit of housework, but had a nice unexpected visit from my sister-in-law. We then went off to pick up my little sister from work and went back to her house to sit out in the garden for while.
My sister (Masterchef) likes to makes an occasion our of everything, we sat outside drinking Earl Grey tea from pretty china cups (she kept glancing over at me as I am usually not to be trusted with anything delicate due to my clumsiness) and tucking into a huge platter of cheese, gammon, feta cheese and biscuits.
It was so lovely sitting there chatting, as we rarely get to spend time with each other. The garden looked beautiful with the flowers and plants just coming to life, the sun was shining,and we all were laughing. It was such a simple pleasure, but gave me a much-needed boost to my mood!
Oh and when I got home I got sunburnt – but of course being me, it is only on the one arm! Classy! 🙂
On one of the last visits to my dad, he was enjoying watching the birds that were feeding off the seeds that he and my step-mother had laid out for them in the bird feeder.
Miss Hap seemed quite enchanted by it as well so we decided to buy one when we got back. We hung it on a special pole with a water bath and little table type thing on it, and waited for the birds to come.
Over the last couple of years we have some regular visitors of starlings, a little robin and our favourite, Mr Tubbs, who occasionally brings his wife with him for dinner (I am not quite sure what he is, but he is quite chunky).
Our little dog Roxy, used to like to go out and bark at them to scare them off but has since given up on that, as she knows she has no hope of catching them. What she does instead is to wait for them to drop bits on the ground (Mr Grump quite often puts out large chunks of bread that has gone stale) and gobble them up.
We have a few trees to the back and side of us, and when we looked out one day, we found that we had an unexpected visitor. He fancied a bit of lunch and liked what we had on offer, so he settled himself down at the table to tuck in!
I do love those off-the-cuff days, where you have nothing planned as such, and things take an unexpected but really pleasant turn…..
My younger sister (Mrs Masterchef) phoned and asked Mr Grump if he had some tools, as she had a new water-butt that needed installing, and as the weather was glorious again today, it was ideal to do the job. Her husband (Mr Musician) is not renown for his DIY skills and we were invited to their house so that Mr Grump (who is very handy) could help if necessary.
Miss Hap was visiting nanny and playing with friends there so didn’t come with us, I had decided that i would wear my lovely high heels to match my outfit that wasn’t black (for once). Anyway once we got there and saw them in their wellies and working clothes I felt a bit over-dressed teetering about in my clod-hoppers!
I made myself comfortable out in the sun and left Mrs Masterchef and Mr Grump grappling with a standpipe and a hacksaw, and Mr Musician at the very top of the garden digging it over, and pulling out huge roots that had more meat on them than he did!
I did occasionally wander over to see how they were getting on fitting the water butt and cringed when i saw a hairline crack had appeared in one of the fittings, after a bit of manhandling by Mr Grump. Time for a cup of tea I think! All of them were on the booze so I put the kettle on for myself, but spilt water all over the worktop as the lid came off the water jug.
Once the work was done and they had tidied up, Mr Musician went to get his guitar for a bit of a sing-along. I love these occasions, as both he and my sister have fantastic voices, and they sing so well together too. Myself and Mr Grump decided to lower the tone a bit and we crooned along. I thought we all did a brilliant version of ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ that 10cc would have enjoyed.
By this time the high heels that were killing my feet had been kicked off, and Mrs Masterchef’s fluffy bootie type slippers put on. One of the advantages of being in the company of family (especially when they are the same shoe size)!
Time went all too quickly before we needed to go home to have dinner and prepare for work and school tomorrow, I just love those kind of chilled days, enjoying the company of family. Oh and as an added bonus; since I have given up smoking my voice is not as croaky as before, and I occasionally even hit the right note!
What a glorious day today was! It was so sunny, and reasonably warm as well. I had already decided that I wanted to change my logo picture on my blog, so me, Mr Grump and Miss Hap set off to a lovely little village nearby to get some photos.
The pictures we took were of a traditional phone box (I like the one I had in the pic before but it was a stock photo and I wanted my own) which is situated right next to an old well. To me the phone box is quintessentially British, plus it is all about communication, both of which depicts me!
Anyway, we got a lovely load of photos and only a few strange looks (it was obvious we were not tourists, plus we were taking pictures of a phone box with mobile phones, which probably struck people as odd!
Next stop boring shopping which actually killed some of my good mood, I hate grocery shopping on Saturdays at the best of times. What makes me really cross is when I am looking for something on the shelves and someone plonks a great big foot right into my personal space, then follows it up with the rest of their body so we are almost nose to nose! Bugger off out of it, why don’t you!
On the way home I spoke to Mr Grump about maybe calling in on a nice pub to sit outside and enjoy the weather perhaps with a spot of lunch to go with it. we decided to drop the shopping in first, and as we turned into our road, we saw some odd woman waving madly at us to go first even though it was her right of way. Once we got home we realised this car was right behind us, and the mad woman was in fact my sister-in-law in her lovely new car!
It was so nice to see her and have a gossip and a catch up. She decided not to come with us as she had errands to do, We finished our cuppa then headed off to the pub in a little village a couple of miles away where my niece and her fiance were .
It was glorious there, we sat in the garden right next to the river which was populated with trout and other assorted fish.The sun was warm and bright, and there were quite a few families also enjoying the unexpected sunshine. It was by now quite a bit past lunchtime and myself and Miss Hap were starving so Mr Grump ordered some food for us.
After a while, I was greeted by the most enormous ham sandwich I had ever seen! Each slab of bread much have been an inch thick, containing a good quarter of a pound of hand-carved ham! A generous portion of dressed salad and (what seemed like) a whole packet of crisps completed the meal! Wow! Finally a place that does my kind of portions!
A couple of very pleasant hours ensued until my poor frozen body could take it no longer and it was time to go, (After all, it is still only March)! Yes spring is just around the corner!
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