Blueberries in bud

Hi everyone, hope I find you all well.

Although the weather has been unusually wet in the UK, it has also been unusually mild, spring flowers are beginning to appear out of the ground, my blueberry bush has leaf buds on already and my fuschia's have not stopped flowering, albeit only one or two flowers at a time on each, but flowers nevertheless.  Today it is gloriously sunny, if a little cool, definitely windy so ideal for the washing to get out onto the line, an unusual sight this winter.  Could it be that spring is round the corner, or are we in for a cold blast later this month, we shall see.

Hurrah, my patterns have arrived, all I need now is some measurements from my daughter to ensure I make the dress the right size for my granddaughter, this afternoon I intend to study each pattern carefully, read the instructions and see exactly what is required before I start cutting the pattern out, it is a long time since I used a pattern, so I don't want to mess this up just as I start.  Wish me luck.  

I spoke to the butchery counter at my supermarket on Friday and asked if I can bring in plastic boxes for meat, rather than use bags, he was most happy as was my local butcher, of course it saves them money as well as me plastic, so can't be a bad thing. 

Once again as always, thank you for joining me, I look forward to joining you again tomorrow, have a lovely day wherever in the world you are.

Siwzy

The Spring Awakening (Lucie Pierce)

Just listen to the voice of Spring, 

To each musical sound it brings, 

When the old winter has gone, 

You know a new life has come.

When the wind chimes in the sun, 

A whole new world has begun, 

Our feathered friends are flying high, 

Gracefully through the sky.

The little elm-leaves show, 

And the dogwood blossoms blow, 

The daffodils are coming out, 

Bright yellow and all about.

Finally Spring is here, 

And all the birds start to cheer, 

The flowers are nice and bright, 

Which brings us true delight.

Now the day has come to an end, 

We must thank the world again, 

Squirrels nesting

Hello everyone, I hope I find you all well and rested after the weekend.

Our's was once again a quiet weekend, interspersed with the delights of granddaughters latest antics, this weekend found her exploring the depths of her mothers wardrobe, presumably hunting for the lion and the witch, and scaling whatever heights her little body could reach, and if it seemed unattainable showing that this was not the case by manoeuvring things to help her!

This morning I saw a squirrel busy collecting grass from around the apple tree and twigs from the ground, then coming back for more.  I assume this was to line it's nest in the dray, but is a sight I have never seen before, plenty of birds collecting nesting material over the years, but never squirrel's, another first to add to my ever increasing list.

Last week I picked up a magazine from the supermarket "Sew Home and Style" which had a voucher code for Simplicity New Look patterns giving 50% off until 14th February, and as the pattern I had decided on was by Simplicity, I ordered this and a second pattern online using the voucher and saved myself 50%.  Now I have to just wait (impatiently) for the patterns to arrive in order to start making the dress, at least I have my knitting and poetry to keep me occupied in the meantime.

So long for today and thank you once again for joining me, I look forward to joining you again tomorrow, have a lovely day today wherever in the world you are.

Siwzy

Watching Squirrels (William Worthless)

theres nothing I like more a wonderous site to see

I like to see the squirrel jump from tree to tree

jumping between the branches never ever still

bouncing in and out using so much skill

keeping so much balance he does it all with ease

making it look easy on his own trapeze.

then climbs in  a hole that is very deep

shuts his little eyes then off he goes to sleep.

Hello dear readers, I hope I find you all well today.

From early childhood I have had a vivid imagination especially when it comes to cloud watching, it is amazing what shapes you can seen in the clouds when linked with imagination.  Today the sky is blue with clouds flitting across and so far I have seen a dog chasing his ball with tail curled up behind him in pleasure and a tree with strong  trunk and wide heavily laden branches, but how quickly the wind changes their persona to become just another fluffy white cloud, a wonderful if somewhat day-dreamy pastime, is it any wonder my teachers used to call my attention back from the world outside to classroom to inside again!  I have seen books of the pictures that clouds can depict, asserting that I am not alone in being dreamy headed, or is it observant, why I wonder, do I find the clouds so evocative, even a stormy day's clouds hold wonderful pictures.  “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.”  Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds  How many of you are cloud watchers?

Yesterday was a really busy day, working in the morning and not getting home till mid afternoon, and a quick visit to the supermarket.  Yes I did take my produce bags, but I didn't use them, instead I used a jute shopping bag and put all the loose vegetables into that, and as most supermarkets now have labelling scales for the people who wish to use the self service checkouts, I weighed the items and printed the label, stuck each label inside the jute bag and handed this to the cashier, which he then hand scanned, commented how much quicker this was than zapping each bag through and why doesn't everyone do it.  It did take a little longer and you need to be prepared to pack and unpack the veggies to weigh and they pack much more efficiently taking up all the available space in the bag, but how pleasant to come home with a bag of fruit and veg, not two bags of plastic, air, fruit and veg. I will keep this up and hone it to be more streamlined, but for now I am happy, a little more towards helping the environment.

Today sees the official opening of the winter olympics in Russia, although beset by horrific homophobic hatred within the state, may I wish all those taking part every success.

As always, thank you for joining me today, have a lovely weekend and I hope that all is well wherever in the world you are.

Clouds

I’d have to be really quick

to describe clouds -

a split second’s enough

for them to start being something else.

Their trademark:

they don’t repeat a single 

shape, shade, pose, arrangement.

Unburdened by memory of any kind, 

they float easily over the facts.

What on earth could they bear witness to? 

They scatter whenever something happens.

Compared to clouds, 

life rests on solid ground, 

practically permanent, almost eternal.

Next to clouds

even a stone seems like a brother, 

someone you can trust, 

while they’re just distant, flighty cousins.

Let people exist if they want,

and then die, one after another:

clouds simply don't care

what they're up to

down there.

And so their haughty fleet

cruises smoothly over your whole life

and mine, still incomplete.

They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone.

They don't have to be seen while sailing on.

Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh

Zero G day

Hello dear readers, I hope I find you all well today.

Well today is zero G day, Jupiter and Pluto are aligned perfectly to decrease to gravity on the earth, so you and jump and float for a few seconds, there will be strong tidal pulls things will be lighter to lift.  That's the prediction by celebrated astronomer Patrick Moore some years ago and published by some websites and journals that we have been working towards this day for a number of years.  But is this the case? Apparently not.  It is true that it was predicted by Patrick Moore during his radio programme, but this was on April 1st 1976, so for all of us who jumped and came down as quickly as before, or tried to lift heavy items and found they were still as heavy or we were weakening fast, not to worry it was just an April Fool from may years ago being upheld to fool us again this year.  I loved reading that this morning and felt I should share it, after all it has been doing the rounds on twitter and Facebook as fact!  I always look forward April Fools day to see who far fetched, yet believable these items can be, the most memorable in the UK has to be the spaghetti tree on Panorama many years ago.

Today I shall continue sorting out my office, now designated junk room as I prefer to work from the dining room table, warmer and brighter than upstairs, loads of paperwork was shredded last week all totally unnecessary, but seemed so at the time!  I really need somewhere to organise my knitting and sewing things, whilst still having the household and work paperwork readily available.  Then as I said yesterday I will work on the produce bags.

For my offering today I have selected (with the help of Google) a teaching aid for children, quite a handy little ditty, but seemed appropriate for Pluto and Jupiter.

As always, thank you for joining me and reading my ramblings, have a lovely day wherever in the world you are and join me again tomorrow.  Bye for now,

Siwzy

Planets (anon)

Here are nine planets that we know.

Round and round the Sun they go.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars,

These are the planets near our star.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, too.

Neptune, Pluto, we can't see you.

These are the nine planets that we know.

Round and round the Sun they go.

Feeding the ducks

Hello dear reader, I hope all is well with you today.

I have just had a lovely walk through the park to post some letters, one to my granddaughter with a picture of a parrot for her, the sun was shining, birds singing and little white clouds scudding across the blue sky, on the way back I stopped at the duck pond to feed the ducks, they were very reluctant to come out today although the sun was lovely it is bitterly cold in the wind, and they were favouring their shelter among the reeds, but come they did in dribs and drabs and polished off the bread that I had brought for them.  The drakes wonderful colours were resplendant in the sunlight, greens and blues reflecting the light, glorious sight to behold, I spent a few minutes watching them and musing on how simple and beautiful life can be. 

I had a wonderful tip the other day from All the Blue Day blog, about produce bags.  How many of us are fed up with the endless stream of plastic packaging we have to deal with when buying our vegetables and fruit, certainly I have.  Jo (AtBD) was given by a friend some upcycled material produce bags for her shopping, washable and very light, what a brilliant idea, I am going to work on a pattern and size and let you know what I come up with.  Frugal Queen also has a very easy to follow instructions for "crumbs" quilt using  a nine patch quilt pattern with a twist.  

I am off to the kitchen to bake a couple of fruit cakes using my store cupboard ingredients, so much better and cheaper for packed lunches than biscuit bars, and again saving the waste of the wrappings.

Thank you once again for joining me, have a wonderful day wherever in he world you are, and I leave you with a "Ducks Ditty"  inspired by the ducks on the park pond.  See you again tomorrow.

Siwzy

“DUCKS’ DITTY.” anon

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling,

Up tails all!

Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,

Yellow feet a-quiver,

Yellow bills all out of sight

Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth

Where the roach swim—

Here we keep our larder,

Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!

We like to be

Heads down, tails up,

Dabbling free!

High in the blue above

Swifts whirl and call—

We are down a-dabbling

Up tails all!

New moon

Hello dear reader,  I hope I find you well and ready for the week ahead.

I have had a very relaxing weekend, never got round to do all the chores I mentioned last week, just chilled and spent time with my husband, it was too wet to go into the garden anyway.  I finished Humpty Dumpty and his wall, knitting that is, just need to make up and stuff, I did go out for the stuffing yesterday.  I just couldn't sit with idle hands last night so started another jacket,  ah well, happy now. I am now searching for alphabet and number templates for my sewing, have found a couple of places on-line, but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know, I did look in Hobbycraft when I was getting the stuffing but to no avail.  

In the autumn I told you about the squirrels burying food for the winter, now they are busily digging it back up bit by bit, they seem to go the exact spot, make a small hole and then sit there eating before moving to another spot, amazingly re-filling the hole they have just made.  How do they know, they don't stop and sniff the air or anything like that, just scamper across and dig.  Our two robins, have been around all winter so far, but are becoming much more frequent and noisier and venturing towards the back of the house hoping for scraps, which of course they get.  When I made my muesli the other day I kept some back to feed the small birds, and they seem to love it.

We had a lovely new moon last night and it brought to mind a poem by Walter de la Mare called Silever and that is my offering today.  I hope you like it

Thank you for joining me and reading my ambling missive, I look forward to joining you again tomorrow, and have a lovely day wherever in the world you are.

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in silver feathered sleep

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream. 

Walter de la Mare