ABC Wednesday......

This week's letter is X,
like the X in the trellis around my Sweet Pea!

see?

And now.... oh, any excuse to show you them!
These flowers are very delicate, but you wouldn't believe how strongly scented they are! You can smell them from a few feet away.

I've never been able to grow these successfully before. These are all from one tiny pot which I spotted on the 'reduced' trolley on the way out of the Garden Centre. They were 49p. I took pity on them and bought them. I put them straight into this larger pot, filled it with organic compost, put the pyramid trellis on top and hoped for the best. I didn't imagine they will fill the space, as they were just a few tiny shoots, barely alive.

I love them. They have always been a favourite. It's very special to have some of my own.

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

W is for
Where the Woodmouse Was.....

Honestly, he was right here! But he popped back down by the fence as I took the picture
This is a little corner of the garden that I keep a bit wild, really. I started a little log pile of larger cuttings at the back, and within a week some bumblebees moved in! Recently, I've added the herbs in the foreground. I don't usually like labels on plants in the garden, but I've put some in here because, otherwise, I'd forget the names of the herbs!

Anyway. Back to this woodmouse.......
He came back later but it was a bit too dark to take his photo. I didn't want to scare him with a flash, but can you spot him?
Close up!
In this next one you'll need to make it larger an look up close! I'll leave it here as a challenge for you. I promise you, he IS here! He is nibbling on a bit of pear near the centre of the picture.
The woodmice used to live in the house. I liked them. I sleep odd hours and they used to keep me company at night. I would leave a few hazelnuts in the corner of the kitchen for them. That's how I knew they were around. They tried out lots of odd places to nest in or use as a store: my partner went to put his shoes on one day, and found 11 hazelnuts inside one of them.

When the nuts stopped disappearing from the kitchen corner, I knew they weren't living with us any more.

To close, here's a wee video I made when we had a regular cheeky mousie visitor. It also features Dilly, a croco-dragon. This mouse is a rather large specimen. Most are dinkier than this.



Some people squirm when I say I used to have mice, but these weren't house-mice: house-mice have a nasty smell. Not so with woodmice. I suppose there is still the hygiene question: but I have no kiddies, so a quick wash and vacuum did well enough for me. They made me smile, and that's the main thing. And now they have the same effect, when I'm out in the garden!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

V is for VERONICA

The other day I dug out around the lawn in the front garden. It had previously gone up to the front of the house and this part was hard to mow. Also, it was very bad quality here, very patchy and with lots of weeds. (The not nice weeds, not the weeds that I let grow and call "free flowers".)

I took these pic's this morning, and it is quite overcast here today....

I wasn't sure whether to plant something round the edge, or whether to just leave it "cut in" as a neat edge to the grass. (As you may have gathered, I like the back garden a bit "wild and natural" in places, for the wildlife, but I like the front garden to be a little neater!)

In the end we went off to the garden centre, with the intention of getting some small marigolds. But look what I brought home instead!

And no, not just because I knew I had to find a "V" for this week!

The common name for "Veronica" is "Speedwell". This took me back to my childhood....

I grew up on a housing estate called "Weeds Wood Estate". I walked past Speedwell Avenue on the way to school, up Yarrow Road and across Silverweed Road. School-friends lived nearby; Jo was in Myrtle Crescent and Kim was in Sedge Crescent.

It was never a luxurious place to live, but OK as council estates go: lots of trees and grass verges. But I've heard that since that time, it has gained a horrible reputation as being quite rough and a place to avoid. E.g., Buses no longer drive through the estate after 6pm, as kids attack both vehicle and driver. Wouldn't have happened in my day..... (Oh, I sound old!)

I wonder whose idea it was to call the place "Weeds Wood Estate". If they had called it "Wild Flower Estate" would it have turned out better, do you think?

I'm curious to find out how big these will get. The label said 20cm (8inches) but my book says three times that high!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

U is for UNDER...
...and UPDATE!

The people who lived here before us put some old railway sleepers in the garden, as edging and in place of a small wall. I find all sorts around them. I spotted mousie tucked behind one the other night and threw him a grape. I didn't really know what to throw this wee fella, though:

Can you see him?
It's about 9pm, and he is just coming out of his daytime snug-spot under one of the sleepers.Bit closer.... (and a bit blurred, sorry 'bout that.. )We're told that years ago, maybe till 2002, there was a pond in the garden. The previous owners filled it in as they were worried about their toddler falling in. Nobody told the frogs and newts, and we still get them! I might see a maximum of two frogs in the daytime, but if it rains in the evening they all appear. I creep about the garden looking at them, saying hello and counting. (I'm fully aware that either the frogs or the neighbours or both will think I'm barmy. Hey ho.) The record so far is 18. I wonder where all the others hide out????

We can't do a pond, but we do have birdbaths on the lawn, and one or two frogs snuggle in under that. I also keep a small, covered tray filled with water under a tree for them. Sort of a mini frog-lido:
That's a ceramic lizard in the front of this next pic, but he soon gave the frogs the right idea. Here's one enjoying the cool pool, safe and secret, under the roof:

*****

Remember "Q is for Quack" a few weeks ago???
Are they OK?
Are they still together?

Well, "U" is for "Update", after all, so.....hey, what's this?....
Ah! A pile of ducks!!!!
Looks like the kids have got new shoes....
"Look, Ma! Winglets!"
She looks very pleased and proud:
And no wonder- she still has all eleven, safe and well!
During the "Half Term" week's holiday, when the school was closed, the caretaker went in and checked on them regularly, with food etc. There were lots of storms that week, and heavy rain, so it was important to see that they got through it OK...

We don't know when it will be that they are lead through the classroom and out the other side to the school's larger pond, but we've asked them to give us notice of the great event- hopefully we'll get it on video!!!

Meanwhile, here's a few seconds of them moving around(!)-

If you can't see it here, try direct on YouTube via this link.

Hope they made you smile!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

T
is for
Table Toes
..........and Tea!

I have a confession to make. I like toes. I don't mean in a kinky way. I may be slightly bonkers but I'm not dangerous. No. I mean toes are cute. I really love to sneak up on Fluffy when she's warm and dozy and sniff her fluffy warm toes. This is the kind of expression she gives me when I do. But it doesn't stop me...


This brings me to my first "T".... table toes.

About ten days before Christmas last year, it was suddenly decided that everyone was coming to my place for Christmas dinner. Oops! Our dining table wasn't up to this. We'd been talking about replacing it, and now we had to jump into action.

Every shop we went to said that, although they had tables there in the store that we liked, they couldn't possibly let us have those ones, we'd have to have one from storage, and that couldn't be done till January. Not helpful.

Then we spotted one in a charity shop. We bought it straight away, and had it in the house ready, with just a couple of days' grace. It's lovely. Well made, good wood, highly polished and with comfortable chairs (very important, that bit, when you're having family to dinner). And the £100+ went to the British Heart Foundation.

It wasn't till it was in the house that I noticed its feet.
Could it be???
Oh my!
"LOOK!" I screamed at my fiance, "Our table has TOES!!!!!!!!!"

"Oh gawd...." he muttered. But it's true:


Now for what is on top of the table lately. TEA.

I have to drink tea. Come on, I'm English. Lots and lots of tea. Made properly, with water that's been freshly boiled in a kettle. (NOT a saucepan! No! No no no! It won't taste the same. Just don't do it. Please.)

But since a cold I had back in April, I seem to be unable to taste very much. And when I do it can be quite odd. I made a chicken and tarrogan thing the other week, and to me it tasted like rice pudding.

OK. So Over the last week I've got a bit frustrated at this sudden inability to appreciate tea and have been buying lots of little boxes of the stuff in the hope of finding one I can actually TASTE. Here's some of them:

Russian Caravan was a nice surprise. It's a bit like an Earl Grey but really strong. Yum. Come to think of it, scratch that. It IS yum, but don't take my word on what it tastes like. It could be like toes for all I know.

Last but not least, I want to show you a really cute little porcelain tea-set we bought for Jasmine Tea. We found it in a sale for £7:


It's tiny, in fact, it's quite Bear-sized:What I really like is the removable basket for the leaves:
Right! I'm off for a cuppa now! Ermmm... Kenyan, I think.

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

S is for Sultanas and Starlings.......

Take one dish of sultanas (or raisins, or currants....) that have been soaked overnight...

...place on the lawn.........and wait.....Of course, there are usually more than this, but today, as I wanted pictures of them..... hey ho! One day last week I counted 37 young ones. The adults made it at least 50.

I know some people try to discourage them, but I love to help out the starlings. Their population has declined 75% since the early 1980s. If we're not careful, we'll lose forever that glorious sight of large flocks coming in to roost. Thousands of birds, turning and twisting through shapes in the air, a cloud opening and closing, hoops of black feathery water pouring down into the trees....

...not here though. Here, I give you SEVEN STARLING fledglingS popping by for a lunch of juicy SULTANAS:

(ooops... I think on recount, that's actually eight! Sorry!)

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

R is for Rolo....

ROLOs are soft caramelly toffee covered in milk chocolate. I remember them from my childhood. They were made by Rowntree-Mackintosh back then. Nestle bought the company but I'm pleased to say that they didn't change the recipe. Although......... I'm sure the pack used to be bigger! Here is the pack I bought yesterday, with Bob T Bear (esq) for scale. (Bob is an 8inch Bear.)The shape of a Rolo is unique:

This pack says "NEW creamy toffee" but they've always been soft and creamy, so I don't know what this means.Once you unwrap them they all come tumbling out..In the early 1980s an advertising campaign was started with the tag-line, "Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?" I was still at school, and can testify to many teenage crushes around me being made official by the exchange of a last Rolo.

The tag-line has stood the test of time in the UK. Receiving a last Rolo is like receiving a single red rose.

Last year, I bought my partner a solid silver "Last Rolo" for his birthday:
WAIT a minute!!
WHAT the????
Oh dear- never leave a Bear near an open pack of chocolates, especially Bear-size ones...

Ahh!
For me?
Oh, thank you, Bob! The last Rolo? I love you too!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

Q is for QUACK!

Meet Jemima.....My partner teaches at a primary school (ages 4-11). The school buildings form a rectangle round a central courtyard, in the centre of which is a small pond.

For the last 4 or 5 years, a duck has flown in at the first sign of spring, and made a nest. The children have named her "Jemima". Here she is, two week's ago, with this year's batch of new quackers hiding under her wings.....here they are just two days old...

There were 12 eggs and 11 hatched.

The sides of the pond are too steep for the youngsters, so the school caretaker put in a ramp for them:

Here's a short film of them using the ramp, proud mum standing by and going "Quackackackack". The food is special grain bought by the school from a pet shop.

These next pictures were taken this Monday. Look how they've grown in less than 2 weeks!A proud and happy mum.

Still 11, all present and correct!

There will soon come a time when the pond is too small for them. Luckily, the school has a larger one. Unluckily, it is on the other side of the buildings- remember, the pond is in a courtyard enclosed by classrooms. Well, don't worry! When the time comes, they open the door of one of the classrooms and lead the family straight through and out the other side, much to the amusement of the children.

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

P is for PURPLE......

Lots of purple coming up in my garden. Most of this was planted by the previous owner of this house. I thought that maybe she had just been mad on purple, given the number of purple flowers. Then I read that purple and blue plants grow in the shade whereas brighter colours might not be shade tolerant: more than half the garden is in shade for more than half of the day.

I think this is Honesty.....
This osteoperum (sp!) was cut from a huge spread of the stuff in my mum's garden. This is its first flower here. I'm glad it's "taken".
This is Periwinkle......
.....it was spreading across the ground and choking everything else, so I've cut it back a lot. Now I'm trying to train it upwards. I think it looks good against the glossy ivy.
Ahh... an iris. My favourite flower. These ones are huge. And something I didn't find till I cut back some almost dead lavender. What a nice find!
Now that the weather has cheered up, I'm enjoying getting out and planting some new things. Today I'm looking for a suitable patch for some fennel. I never imagined I'd get into gardening, but I love it.

... this is what I love:

• the smell of the soil as I dig;
• the lift I get inside when I see something I've planted and looked after is thriving;
• using herbs I've grown in our cooking;
• the birdsong, and the cheeky brave robin that keeps me company;
• making two gardens in one- a tidy bit to admire, and scruffy corners and edges to keep the wildlife happy. .....P is for perfect!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to

Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see info on how to join in, and a table of links to those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

O is for Overcast........ views from my back garden half an hour ago. It's sunny but more rain is approaching.

It's hard to plan things at the moment. One day it's fine, the next we have downpours. Saturday was the warmest day of the year so far. Now it's cold and rainy again. See? How do you plan things? Yesterday wasn't so bad and I bought some herbs to plant out today. Looks like they'll be staying in pots for little longer!


O is for Overgrown.......Another snap from my garden half an hour ago! This is rosemary. I think it may be a little overgrown!

But why trim it back? All it will reveal is boring decking. I'd rather have the rosemary. Frogs hide under the lower branches sometimes. And when baby sparrows have first fledged, they snuggle in and hide here too, waiting for parents to return with food.

Sometimes part of the garden might look a little scruffy to human eyes, but these are the places nature likes best!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see a blogroll of those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

N is for National Day..

Today is St George's Day, the patron saint of England, and is England's National Day.


I don't have a St George's flag. I do know where a few are being flown today, but thanks to a horrible cold virus I'm not going anywhere today...

I do, though, have a few dragons. So here you are.This is a Chessell Pottery dragon called Wilbur. Chessell no longer exists so as dragons go, he is quite rare. This is called "Wilbur's First Flight". Ahhh....
These little ones are called Norbert. Both of them. So I call them Norbert 1 and Norbert 2.

Happy St George's Day, to anyone with any Englishness in them!

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see a blogroll of those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

M is for MINSTEAD................

.......................and MAISY

MINSTEAD is one of the villages we visited when we were in the New Forest last week.
It's a tiny place.
But it had something in the graveyard that I wanted to see...

....so, up the hill to the church we went:

...see the double lych gate? Apparently they're very rare. The block in the centre of this one is a coffin rest. You rest the coffin there as you walk in either side....

Just inside the gate is half a yew tree. Really! It was very old, and split after a storm a few years ago. The parish voted to keep what was left. The resulting carcass effect is a rather eerie welcome....

We walked around to the back of the church, and here it is, what I came to see:

The grave of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes.

STEEL TRUE
BLADE STRAIGHT
Arthur Conan Doyle
Knight
Patriot, physician & man of letters.
22 May 1859 - 17 July 1930
and his beloved wife
Jean Conan Doyle
reunited 27 June 1940

I love the way someone has left a pipe!The grave is near to a big oak tree:
In actual fact, he isn't buried here. This is his wife's grave. Arthur was not permitted to be buried in the main part of the graveyard because he was a Spiritualist. Instead, he is buried "on the outskirts of the graveyard". Hmmm...

Anyway. We turned to walk the other way back to the front of the church- because when I was little I was told that it is unlucky to walk anti-clockwise round a church- "Never go widdershins round a church" was the saying. But don't ask me where "widdershins" comes from!

On my way I spotted this unusual angel:It stood out to me because, although not overlarge, the figure was clinging to the back of the headstone. I've never seen this kind of memorial before. Angels usually kneel at the front or stand hugging a cross, or have their backs subsumed into the main headstone. This is different: meditative, thoughtful. Even a little playful.She is draping some roses over the stone.
I was moved, and wanted to know who had inspired this.....MAISY Elisabeth Smith.
She died at just 10 weeks old on 26th April 2000.

I wanted to take more photo's but something held me back from doing so. It seemed wrong.
The Conan-Doyle grave was different- maybe because he was famous. Or perhaps because that was longer ago. I didn't know Maisy's family. To take more pictures felt like a sneaky theft.

So instead I stood the flowers up that had toppled over. Tidied off a few dead leaves and read the inscription. When I got home, I was surprised to see that I hadn't even photographed that. But I do remember the gist of what it said: that Maisy had been so "loving and giving, and exactly what the world needed, but maybe Heaven needed her kind more, to help look after us all". I think that was it.

I felt uncomfortable beside the austere cross of the Conan Doyle grave. But I had to pull myself away from this one. It was starting to rain, my partner had started to walk back to the car, and maybe this interest in a grave was starting to look weird. So eventually I left Maisy and her angel behind.

It had been nice to see a more recent and more tender monument, seemingly beautifully indifferent to being in the shadow of an 800 year old building, its fractured yew and its more famous residents.

I don't have any faith to speak of any more. And that's another story. But like I recently read of Julian Barnes, "I don't believe in God, but I miss Him." ...I have to admit there was a sweetness around this little resting place. I left it with a lilt inside that returned now, just as I typed this. And I will remember it far longer than the more renowned grave by the impressive oak.

*****

By the way, I didn't think about using "M for Maisy" when I took the photo's. This only occurred to me the other day. I think if I had thought of it at the time it would have stopped me taking the pictures at all.

It seems her anniversary is coming round soon (26th). Spare some thoughts for Maisy and her family when it does, won't you?

*****

For more info ABC Wednesday posts, go to Mrs Nesbitt's blog

where you will see a blogroll of those taking part.

*****

ABC Wednesday......

K is for Kit....

Here is my bear, Bob, in his Gillingham FC kit.When Bob wore this kit last season, Gillingham won. He therefore surmised that it was lucky and so refused to change out of it. Over the next few weeks, Gills got 6 wins in a row and were saved from risk of relegation.

Obviously, removal of such a lucky kit was a big event and so was caught on video:

-And that video took about 140 photo's to make, so I claim the biggest photo post!!!!

*****

For more ABC Wednesday posts, go to Mrs Nesbitt's blog, and check the comments on her ABC post..... the other participants are leaving their links there!

*****

ABC Wednesday......

J is for Joy.....

This is my God-daughter skipping through the woods last spring.
I could have posted this under H for Hazel, her name.
Or W for woods....S for skipping..... maybe I for innocence....
But Joy seemed to sum it up best.