The Sky at Night - & in the Morning :o)

 

 

 

This past month or so I have seen some of the most beautiful clouds, sunrises & sunsets. Every now & then, Mother Nature throws something into the works that takes our breath away & in my opinion, the sky at night & early in the morning, is one of those.

 

In no particular date order, here are some photos I've taken over the past few weeks :o)

 

I just love this first photo. It's just so dramatic & moody. Somewhat like me at times !! :o)

 



This pic and the one below look, to me, as though the day didn't quite know what to do with itself :o) Would it be cloudy, would it be sunny, would it rain or would it be dry ?

 



 

 It decided to be all four. Because it could :o)

 



 

The sunset seen from my front door is just amazing. I'm lucky enough to have a fairly clear & uninterrupted view of the sky, simply because my house is a bit higher than those across the road.

 

 

I loved the shape of this cloud as it drifted across the sky. I also loved the mist below it, making everything in the distance a bit hazy.

 

 

This was the sunrise on Tuesday, so beautiful.

 

The sunset a couple of weeks ago. I love the mistiness in the distance.

 



 

The different levels of streaky pink & grey are just so lovely. I could watch the changing colours for ages.

 

 

This sunrise was spectacular. It was like a huge gold beacon just burst out of the sky . . .

 



 

and the rest of the clouds just tumbled, all pink & fluffy, into a new day :o)

 

Mother Nature. The world's greatest artist :o)

 

 

"Those" cards

 

Our theme this month was my choice, and, just like everyone, although I don't like to think of it, there are times in our life when a not so jolly card is required, so I thought I'd bite the bullet & choose sympathy, thinking about you & get well.

 

I opened Liz's parcel first & found some lovely bits & bobs, including this poppy image, which is one of my favourite stamps. All I added to this was the glitter strip, the sentiment & the three red gems.

 

 

Everything on this card came from the parcel. Because I decided to use the flowery background paper, I didn't want the image to be too fussy, so I used very few colours on the flowers. I love this little girl stamp, she's very versatile.

 





 

This butterfly is one of Liz's favourite dies :o) Because it was cut with 2 tone paper, I wanted to keep to that & although you can't see it very well, the white card is mounted onto a dark green card. All I added to this was the silver gems to give it a bit of a lift.

 

 

Another card using the little girl image. This was hard to photograph because of all the different shades of green :o) Some look more like yellow or mustard in the pic, but in reality, they're all various shades of light green. Again, all I added was the green gems & I used a die to cut the image & its background .

 



Now on to Terri's parcel :o)

 

This lovely bouquet just shouted *get well card* to me, so I just matt & layered it onto a purple paper that was in the parcel & then used vellum for the top left & another purple for the bottom.Also in the parcel was the lovely black butterfly sticky ribbon & just to continue the theme, I stamped black butterflies in random places. Not too sure if they go, really, but it's too late now :o)

 

Terri is a great advocate for reduce, reuse & recycle, so she often includes old cards & pictures & as well as the flower bouquet above, she included the following two flowers :o)

 

Lilies, to me, are rather like chrysanths - they are traditional on sympathy cards and for funerals. I used a die to cut this single lily from the card front Terri had included & decided to keep it as simple as possible. I think simple cards for sad occasions are much more suitable. But maybe that's just me :o) I just added black glitter strip & gems from my stash.

 

And lastly, the other flower from a card front, the beautiful poppy. Nothing, in my opinion, can really improve a poppy, so yet again, plain & simple was the order of the day.

 



 

 

Now onto September's parcels, where the theme is:

 

MEN !!! ::o)

Heavenly Hollyhocks

and other beautiful flowers :o)

 

Over the past few days, I've been taking photos of the flowers in my garden. Even though it's a big garden, it never really looks better than in the Spring, when the trees are in blossom & the daffodils and Aquelegia are out.

 

I love old fashioned, country cottage type flowers & have been lucky enough to grow quite a few from seed, including one of my all time favourites, Hollyhocks :o)

 

I only have 3 colours -  a burgundy,a deepish pink & a most gorgeous pale pinky white one - but I'm positive I used to have a yellow one. Gawd knows where it's gone, though. I'll have to look out for one next year, I think, to replace it.

 

Anyhoo - when I was taking some photos, I managed to get 4 of a buzzy bee, doing what he does best - collecting pollen from my Hollyhocks :o)

 

 

 

 Here he is on the start of his journey in this particular flower.

 

 

 

In this pic, he seems to be having a good old rootle around.

 

 

 

In this one, he seems to have disappeared right deep inside.

 

 

And here he is again, almost completely covered. I bet he weighed a lot more going back to the hive than he did coming out :o) A good job jobbed, as my Mum would say :o)

 

 

 

This is one of the taller Hollyhocks - you can see it's taller than the fence between us & next door & that fence is taller than me :o)

 

 

I adore this one - the colour is just so beautiful & delicate.

 

One of my jobs this week is to tie them back to the fence. I can't get in the greenhouse because they are so unwieldy :o) I also need to tie the honeysuckle back because it's fallen off the top of the fence & is blocking my way into the veg cage. I have to bend double to get under it & being a PeaJayKay of the well upholstered variety, it isn't easy !! :o)

 



 

I love the colour of this Caen anemone.

 

Now this is one of my all time favourite flowers - Hemerocallis, also known as the Day Lily because each flower only lasts a day.  It's in the top 3 of my *Top Ten Must Haves* in the garden :o)

 

The delicate looking Dog rose. As much as I love the colour of this, it's not in my *Top Ten* :o)

 

 

A definite in my list - Japanese anemone. I only have the white variety but I would love to have a pink one, too.

 

 

 

 Poppies are a must have. Not only for their delicate beauty, but for what they signify.

 

Lest We Forget.

 

 

I  just love this peach coloured Gladioli.

I've always loved Gladi's - maybe when I was a kid, I had a premonition that I'd marry an Australian. If so, it sort of came true - Shaun's half Australian  :o)  

 

A red gladi :o) 

I'm not a lover of the colour red, but red flowers & red at Christmas are a must :o)

 

This beautiful little red rose is in my little memorial garden, known as Kit's Korner. This rose is in memory of Peg, a dear friend who died a few years ago.

 



 

And finally, this rose is also in Kit's Korner. It's in memory of Johno, who, once he'd learned to Trivvie hug, didn't want to stop :o)

 

I have a long list of things to do in the garden this week & I'm pleased to say that after the appalling weather we had last year, things are growing well in the veg cage. Even the courgettes have survived !! :o)

 

Here's to a happy harvest :o)

Snowman Challenge

 

It's been a while since I entered a Christmas card into one of Hazel's challenges, so I thought I'd better dust off  my challenge hat & give it another go :o)

 

As this week's topic is snowmen/women, I thought I'd use a stamp I've got of a teddy bear, a mouse & 2 hedgehogs building a snowman & hope that Hazel didn't mean a it had to be a finished snowman :o)

 

As well as the Snowman/woman challenge, I'm also going to put it in Hazel's July Anything Goes.

Assuming I can still remember how to linky-link-link :o)

Embosseling :o)

I like the sound of that - it's rather like embezzeling, but instead of stealing money, I've been making cards :o)

 

This month's challenge, embossing, was Liz's choice. We had to use at least one type of embossing on a card, be it embossed stamping, embossed card or embossed toppers.

 

I'm ashamed to say that I only managed 2 from Terri's parcel & 3 from Liz's. The reason/excuse is that it's been a very busy July, what with district nurses calling every other day, various hospital & doctor appointments etc. & I've just been so tired, I haven't had the time or the inclination to get going on them. Sorry girls :o(

 

However, here are the ones I HAVE made. I might be able to squeeze another out of Terri's parcel between now & the end of the month, but I'm not betting on it !! :o)

 

Firstly, the two from Terri's parcel:

 

The bird paper is all I used from the parcel, simply because I thought the leaves on it looked like the leaves on a tree embossing folder I have. I just embossed a bit of white card, stuck it on a card blank, stuck the bird paper on & covered the join with a glitter strip. I then used brown ink & stamped the sentiment.

 

 



 

The green bauble/snowflake embossed card & the dark green card came from Terri's parcel. I found a sentiment & used a recycled card as a topper & finished it off with a glitter strip. I LOVE my glitter strips :o) 

 

Now onto Liz's parcel:

The only things I used from my stash for this card were the glittery sentiment & the embossed holly corners. 

 

This little froggy is an embossed stamp - I loved him as soon as I saw him :o)  Because I decided to use him for a man's easel card, I didn't want anything too fussy, so I just coloured him with Promarkers, printed the silly play on words sentiment *Hoppy Birthday, Mick*, stuck it onto dark green card, cut into 3 separate words & popped them on the card. I then found a frog stamp of my own - not the best, but all I had - & stamped it onto the bottom card twice & then stuck some gold stars on.

 

 

And lastly, included in the parcel was this lovely white embossed frame. I found the topper in my stash & put it in the middle then stuck the whole thing to a green card blank. I then rootled around in my sentiments box & found a best wishes sentiment that went well with the green. It was a sort of paisley shape, so I just cut it to a rectangle & stuck it on.

 

Only a week or so till August's challenge, which is my choice :o)

 

 

 

 

 

Taking some time for Gazen around :o)

Well, it's been a funny ol' month or so, what with one thing & another. Life certainly is interesting & throws some curve balls to keep us on our toes, but it keeps interferring with my blogging & if it continues to do so, I shall just have to resort to doing my ravin' nana !! :o) THEN it'll be sorry !! :o)

 

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary & we are unable to go out because the district nurse is coming in. At the moment, they visit every other day & as it's far more important that they come & sort 'imself out, so we decided on a little trip to Sandwich this morning. Partly so I could take some photos for a friend in America, whose ancestors came from this neck of the woods & partly because I had a brain wave :o) Now, that doesn't happen very often, so it's best to take advantage before said brain wave crashes to the ground & disappears forever :o)

 

A hundred years ago, well, about 7, actually, I went to Sandwich with my best friend, Julie, on her birthday. We arrived in style in *Lady Blanche Worthington, her very old & very battered Land Rover & luckily, the border guards & the police were fooled !! We managed to cross the border unharmed & undetected !! :o)

 

Anyhoo, we drove around, looking for mischief, as we did before she was exciled to France & we happened upon a nature reserve called

 

GAZEN SALTS.

 

As it was December, we decided against mooching around & put it off for another day. We never did go back, but this morning, my brain woke up & said GAZEN SALTS !!!

 

Quite why my brain decided it would be a suitable place to go with someone in a wheelchair is beyond me, but we managed part of it & here are some photos to prove it :o)

 

 We parked up & I got the wheelchair out the back, and we headed towards the sign that said *Nature Reserve*. It was on a slight wonk, so we weren't 100% certain we were heading in the right direction, but we were.

 

We thought we were actually in the reserve when we came across this tree, but no.

 

 

First, we had to walk along the side of the cricket pitch -

I just love this row of trees -  :o)

 

 

And then go between these trees & the HUMONGOUSLY large stinging nettle patch on the left :o) Gawd help the poor fielder who has to try to find the cricket ball when it goes astray !! :o)

We went through the gap between the trees & came across a gate on the right hand side & in we went to the nature reserve proper :o) As you can see, not the best terrain for a wheelchair, but I'm strong & determined :o)



 

 

Part way along, we came to the lake which was stuffed full of fish. Some of them could have fed a family of 10, I reckon, but there were *NO fishing allowed* signs. 

As soon as the ducks saw us, they made a bee line towards us, but they were out of luck. The duck food stand thing was empty & we didn't have any bread either.

 

 

In the distance there were some little black ducklings. If you click on the pic, it'll enlarge & if you zoom in, you can see their fluffy feathers :o)

This is all man made, but it looks so natural. It was so beautiful there, just watching the ducks & fish, listening to the birds singing. The sun was hot, but there was a lovely breeze rippling by every now & again.

I really don't know what plants or flowers are there, but it was full of green lushness.





 

 

The tree trunks were all different & various wild flowers - & weeds, I expect - grew all around.



 

 

 The sun seemed to reach out to us through the undergrowth as well as through the trees.



 

I loved the way this grass type plant just hung down. You can't see it in the photo, but between the last two hangy-downy-seed heads (?) there was the finest spider's web I've ever seen.  *Gossamer thread* springs to mind when I think of how delicate it was :o)

Another woodland path, leading us to who knows where ?

 

This is some sort of wild Iris - I have some in my garden, though I don't know how it got there because I know I didn't plant it & it only appeared about 3 years ago.

 

 

And finally, the path back out of the reserve.

 

We could have spent longer there, but as I said, it isn't really suitable for wheelchairs. Once we have the wheelchair accessible vehicle that can take the mobility scooter, we'll go back & will then be able to get around the whole reserve.

 

For more info on it, just click on the *GAZEN SALTS* link at the top. I think you'll find it interesting :o)

 

Now, back to my card making & knitting, both of which have been sadly ignored for a a while :o)