Glorious Sunday!

What beautiful weather we had in the South today! The warmest day of the year so far, I think we got to 18°c. It was so nice to feel the warm sun on my skin (I was in short sleeves!) and to have the windows open so a breeze flowed through the house. I did three loads of washing and got it all dried on the line too.

I spent about an hour and a half in the garden planting and just watching the wildlife enjoying the weather too. I planted my mini daffodils and some snowdrops in the rockery, to hopefully enjoy next year.

All of the time I was outside there was a Comma butterfly flitting to and from the heather. I took eight photos but only a couple were any good!

Comma butterfly

This could be a dead leaf in the heather!

There were a couple of bees too, a Red-tailed bumblebee and one with a white bottom. I also saw a yellow coloured butterfly and two butterflies dancing around together but I couldn't see what they were. 

Red bottom!

I spent 10 minutes standing still, by the washing line pole, waiting for a robin to feel brave enough to come to the feeders so I could get a photo. The robin teased me, flying from the tree, to the fence, onto the grass but never to the feeders. Just standing, listening I heard the sound of people chattering, a lawn mower starting up, a motorbike whizzing up the hill, a car alarm going off all sounds I wouldn't necessarily have acknowledged if I hadn't been still. Sometimes our lives are so busy and on the go, we forget to stop and listen and take things in. 

A few more photos from the garden today. Blossom in my neighbour's garden.

Daffodil buds.

A lone seven spot ladybird.

My washing blowing in the wind.

Spring is on the way and I can't wait! I hope you've all had a glorious Sunday too!

Making a pond

I've always wanted to have a pond in the garden but my nan didn't like the idea. So, I've made a pond in a bowl, I got the idea from this website. I did it yesterday with my nephew and finished off when my niece got home from school.

Finding the best location. I was going to dig a hole to put the bowl in but decided to stand it on top instead. The rockery hasn't really been touched for many years (apart from a few bits I planted last year) so it's a bit overgrown and has weeds coming through.

My nephew washing the gravel.

The pond in place, ready to be filled.

The finished pond, filled with rain water. I'm not sure how successful it will be but it's good to experiment! I thought, if this doesn't attract any wildlife I will dig a hole in the rockery and use pond liner to make a new pond.

When I tidied up the rockery a bit today, I saw this caterpillar under a rock. It was curled up in a ball and I don't have clue what it is! I had a look online but couldn't find what it is. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

After not seeing many ladybirds last year, I saw a seven spot ladybird on one of the bins yesterday, so hopefully it will be a better year for seeing ladybirds.

Ladybirds galore, a Christmas book and a cake!

After not seeing many ladybirds this year, last Monday I saw at least 20 over the road from my mum's by the little wooded area and they were mostly on the stinging nettles. (There is a handy identification sheet on the link above)

There were lots of orange ones with lots of spots.

Quite a few blacks ones with some orange markings.

One red one with lots of spots. 

There was also a funny looking, bumpy one which I think was the Pupa (it looked similar to the Pupa in my book), this photo is a bit blurry though.

I was looking for the book The Night before Christmas last week while I was in the town but I found this book instead in The Works and it was 3 for £10 so I got one for myself, my mum and my sister.

I loved this story when I was younger.

I made this cake today with my nephew, it was a packet cake my mum gave me that was going out of date.

We aren't having a very good week here the shower is broken and the electric went off last night and now there is no power to the boiler. Unfortunately, at times like this, when things are going wrong my nan takes it out on me and has a go at me quite a bit. Although I'm fairly used to it now and I tend to know when it will happen, it still upsets me and makes me annoyed as it's not my fault.

I hope you're all having a better week than me.

Blackberry picking

I took my niece and nephew blackberry picking on Monday. We went over the road to the little wooded area opposite my mum's, there weren't many blackberries ready to pick but there were lots of green and pink ones.

We saw quite a few ladybirds too but the photos aren't great.

And this massive spiders web!

In total they found four blackberries each, not enough for a crumble so they ate them when we got back!

I hope you've enjoyed this little walk and are having a good week.

A quiet week

So, what has been happening the last week or so... Well, not much really! I have been feeling quite tired and haven't had much energy or motivation to do anything over the last week so I don't have much to write about this week.

I'm typing this on my new laptop, I'm finding it much easier to type than on the iPad. I'm not so sure about Windows 8 but you can easily switch to the desktop, just like in previous Windows versions. 

I haven't really been taking many pictures over the last few weeks but I did manage to take some yesterday. When I was putting the washing out I saw a large bee on the tree, covered in pollen but I didn't have my camera outside, when I came back out with my camera the bee had gone! Later on, I took my camera out and managed to get a few photos.

This is the tree, I'm not sure what it is though. I like the shadows of the washing!

The flower close up.

I like this one from underneath the plant, I was trying to get the ladybird but it's a bit too dark.

Autumn is definitely in the air now, it's sad to say goodbye to Summer so soon. Although we've had some really nice weather, it doesn't really feel like we've had much of a Summer.

I hope you've all had a lovely week.

  

Halfway point...

I can't believe we're halfway through the year already! I think this most years but time just seems to be passing by so quickly and I'm not doing much with my life. I'm currently looking for work but being a carer and helping family out doesn't leave a lot of time to look - I will tell you more about that another time.

I saw my first ladybird on 30th June, it was a yellow one with white spots, I have looked it up and it was an Orange Ladybird. I found it in my trousers that had been drying on the line! I didn't get a good picture as I couldn't get my camera to focus so here is a blurred one!

This flower is growing in one of my pots, I'm not sure what it is though. There seem to be a lot more weeds growing in the garden this year.

It's set to be a hot, sunny weekend here, I hope you have a great weekend and good weather too!

 

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Crocheting and flowers

Even though I haven't been doing much crocheting, my granny stripe blanket is now taking shape. I'm pleased with how it's coming on and I'm excited to see how it will look once its finished, that might be a long way off though!

Here is my progress so far.

The pink lupin in the rockery is flowering now and looks lovely.

I don't know what has happened to the red lupin though! It went a bit funny after I bought it but it seems to be perking up a little bit now.

The foxglove isn't flowering yet but seems to be doing well.

I haven't seen any ladybirds yet this year, which is unusual. Last year it was about April when I first saw them and we had quite a few around the garden. I guess it's the late Spring making them later. I haven't seen many butterflies either, just the Large Whites.

I have been busy uploading my mums photos to Flickr now that you get 1 terabyte of storage and unlimited uploads, it's nice to look through the old photos. I will be packing tomorrow to go on holiday on Friday, hopefully I will get to do some posts while I'm away.

Hope you all have a great week!

 

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