R is for rosehips

 In the summer the native dog rose looks lovely in our hedgerows but the flowers died off some time ago and now we have rosehips.  They are just little splashes of colour almost hidden in hedges where the hawthorns have rather more profuse fruits.  Wild rosehip looks as though it has been put there deliberately by someone with a paintbrush.

Wild rosehips were particularly important during the Second World War, when rosehip syrup was made as a source of vitamin C when supplies of some fruits were scarce.  I can remember rosehip syrup being served with milk puddings at school in the fifties.  

I’ve mentioned foraging earlier in this series but I’ve never collected rosehips for food.  I am happy to leave them for birds and other wildlife.  Besides, they look so pretty in the hedgerows.  They don't need to be picked, cooked or preserved to be worthwhile.  They can simply be admired.

Rural retreat

 I was supposed to be dog sitting for six days starting last Sunday but Holly Dog had to go to another friend until Wednesday.  Anyway, Thursday I went to my rural retreat.  

Here's Holly Dog welcoming you to my blog.  She likes me to go as I take treats, especially carrots.  We still have to renegotiate each night as to which one of us has most of the bed but we rub along OK.

This glorious sight is the view from the front porch.  It was warm enough a couple of times to sit out there and knit.  

And here's the village post box. 

The notice reads, "Birds are nesting in this postbox. PLEASE DO NOT USE!" followed by details of a nearby box.   

Who wouldn't want to stay in a village with something like this!

Vegetables and ducks

There are some things which bring a smile to my face even on a dank January morning.

I'm trying to eke out the contents of my fridge for as long as possible before I have a delivery by Sainsbury but today I decided that I really wanted fresh vegetables.  So off I went to Redbourne, a small village a few miles from here, where there is a wayside vegetable stall. 

It's a tiny stall with an honesty box and each morning it is wheeled out to its place near the village green.  Some produce is grown by the stall holder and some he gets from a wholesaler but it's all lovey stuff and I don't have to go into a shops to get it.  

As well as the expected root vegetables and greens he had free range eggs, pots of snowdrops and pots of hyacinths.  I bought some of each along with my carrots, swede, celeriac and cabbage.

And when I looked across the road there was this waddling of ducks especially for my entertainment.

Plenty to bring a smile to my face!

Smiles

 

 I woke up this morning to a sound which I have never heard in the eleven years I have lived in this house.  It was a cuckoo!  Their numbers are in decline so that was very special.  Are they the only birds which are better known for their song than their appearance?  It was good to wake with a smile on my face!

It is a beautiful morning so I decided to go to Brigg to do my shopping.  In Lidl a schoolgirl, aged maybe 13, was ahead of me in the queue at the till.  She gave me a shy smile and "Good morning" and she helped me put my stuff on the conveyor belt.  I don't really need help but I wanted to encourage this bright young lady who wanted to make her bit of the world a better place by offering help when she could.  She renewed my smile.

Then I went along the tow path to get to the market place and I met a gorgeous golden cockerpoo.  I love spaniels of any description but this one really won my heart when, to his owners intense embarrassment, he tried to climb on the platform of my trundle truck.  A lot of dogs do this if they have other human friends who use mobility scooters but I love it!  This dog not only made me smile, he made me laugh!  

A happy morning - and I was home by 10am!

North Owersby

North Owersby is a place which always gets me wondering. The church is well away from the rest of the village with only the old vicarage and a few newish houses nearby.  I suppose like many Lincolnshire villages the village gradually moved away from the church.

The church was rebuilt in 1792 using mediaeval masonry, and then altered completely in 1888.  It's very light and airy but not the prettiest of churches.

Well it's not pretty until you look at the windows.  At first glance they're nothing to write home about (or even write a blog post about).

But look again  Look at the little roundels at the top of each window.

I go into many churches but I've never seen such sweet little roundels.  British birds, the same birds as sing in the churchyard.  Wonderful!

Holton le Moor

I've been to Holton le Moor to take the service.  I've known Holton most of my life as I went to  Pack Holiday in the Moot Hall when I was a Brownie and then went camping here when I was in the Guides.  Girlguiding still has strong links here as the old school is now their County House.  

Moot Hall is a wonderful place.  It looks incredibly ancient but it was actually built in 1910.  

Today though I was here to lead worship in St Luke's church.  Its rather large for such a small village but it is well loved.  I get very well looked after there.  (It's the church where I was given some harvest produce a couple of weeks ago.)

It was a nerve-racking service.  Two great tits decided to join in the worship.  I'm phobic about birds in enclosed spaces.  Why is it that birds indoors are always the size of vultures?  

I think the congregation was amused anyway.  

Jam Today

Elsham Hall (only the gardens are open to the public)

We've had several lovely days here in lovely Lincolnshire so after I'd been to Brigg today I decided to visit Elsham Hall Park, a place I've been meaning to visit for quite a while.

I couldn't believe how quiet it was.  I didn't see any other visitors at all!  It's a place which is popular at weekends and probably during school holidays but on a lovely day in May it was deserted.

Only it wasn't.  As I went around I was definitely being watched.  

It started with a lamb.  He definitely saw me as being provided for his personal entertainment.  I was a disappointment.

These two fellows regarded me with disdain.  Who can blame them?  

The donkeys couldn't even be bothered to regard me which is a pity.   I quite like bending a donkey's ears.  They are usually excellent listeners.

I moved on to the bird life.  The peacock was definitely on the showy side but sadly it wasn't me that he wanted to impress.  He'd got his eye on a peahen but she wasn't very interested in him.  

Ah well the ducks were interested.  Interested in my sandwich.  I know my place in the great scheme of things.

All in all I enjoyed my visit to Elsham.  I'll be going back later in the year to see the gardens.  So expect to catch up with my new-found animal friends over the next few months.  

The Advantage of being a Lazy Gardener

Most of the time Jack keeps me in order but for the last year Jack has been hors de combat so the garden and I have each been doing our own thing.

Last autumn I forgot to give a good haircut to the lavender bushes in the front garden and today I received my (un)just reward.  I've had goldfinches in the garden.  I've been trying to entice them in with sunflower seeds and nyjer seeds but they weren't interested but they succumbed to my tatty lavender. 

You will have to look very hard to see the birds but they really are there!

In other news, I have visited Jack this morning.  He's proudly displaying shorts, surgical stockings and a wonderful scar but the pain is now subsiding a little and the cheekiness is the same as ever.  He handed something as I was leaving which will appear on the blog before too long.

And in even more other news I have booked a place on a photography course later in the year.  Not before time.

Simple pleasures on cold days

I wrote recently about my lovely book Simple Pleasures:little things that make life worth living and today has been a day for appreciating a few simple pleasures for cold days.

1. I've been enjoying the view from my window.  The starlings have been squabbling, passing children have been waving and I'm warm and happy indoors.  Bliss.

2. Comfort food has been on the menu today.  Casserole for lunch and there will be soup for supper.  Simple homely food to warm both body and soul.

3. The joy of making things.  I made my soup and casserole but I also knitted and I sewed.  Creativity is always a pleasure but not regretting being confined indoors is hugely helped by doing something wonderful with the time.  

Birds

I think I rather underestimated how much my cold knocked me back.  I am having real difficulty in getting back to a reasonable active lifestyle.  The steps are even more babyish than I had thought they would be.

I am managing a little though.  On Monday I went to Brigg, mainly to replenish the supplies of bird food.  There seems be to very little interest in the poppy seed hearts, Niger seeds or mixed seeds which I put out but the local birds can't get enough of the mealyworms and fat with insects in it.  This sort of cheep food isn't cheap food by any means but I'm having such entertainment that I'll pay.  The winds last week meant that mealyworms blew from the table but I melted some waste fat from the kitchen and mixed the worms with that and they then stayed on the table until fetched by the birds.

The Ancholme at Brigg

Brigg was lovely as always.  It's a trundle truck users dream.  Everyone gets free parking for two hours in Brigg but there is no limit for Blue Badge holders.  Once parked I can get the TT out of the car and trundle to my heart's content as the whole shopping area is fully pedestrianised and there is a path down by the river which means I can soon be out of the town and watching birds in the countryside and on the water.

Stixwould signal box and the canal beyond

Yesterday I went to talk to my spiritual counsellor.  Henry sees his clients in a converted signalbox at an old railway station near a canal.  It's a lovely comfortable room but one of the best things about it is that the bird watching is great.  It's rather nice to be able to break off from the conversation when something interesting is happening outside.  Yesterday there were egrets visible from the signal box and I watched a moorhen who I think was prospecting for somewhere to build her nest.

I'm no twitcher but there is something very special about seeing nature going about her business.

March mollycoddling

February wasn't good.  In fact February was dreadful.  February was one of those months when breathing properly seemed like a distant memory.  It was a month of misery and lethargy.  End of moan.  Start of positive thinking. 

View from my window.  Friends top up the feeders

It's the last day of the month today and while it looks very pretty outside, I won't be venturing through the front door.  I am however truly blessed.  Before 9 o'clock two people had phoned to ask if I needed anything.  So to all you kind people who keep an eye on neighbours anywhere, thank you.  The recipients of your kindness will appreciate it.  

But I don't want to become dependent on others more than I have to So I have to look after myself in March, recover from these three weeks of weakness and get back on my feet.  In fact I'm going to mollycoddle me.  My other blog is going to be about doing quite a bit of sorting but this one is about being gentle with me. I've got a few treats in mind but I also want to look after me in the course of my everyday life.

Anybody else up for it? 

Back to Eden 1

There are some welcomes that you remember for ever and the welcome I had at Eden Project a few days ago was truly memorable!

The welcome from the humans was good - but the welcome from the birds was great.  I decided to have a late breakfast of coffee and Danish in the terrace restaurant in the Mediterranean biome and I soon had several twittering friends demanding their share.

The cheekiest of course was the robin.  He came right up to the plate.

The blackbirds weren't far behind.  The females especially were very determined to get their share and they saw off several other feathered diners.  

Shyest of my table companions were the finches.  For a long time they sat on nearby chairs and watched the shemozzle at the table but when the others weren't looking they too came and shared my Danish pastry.

The waitress told me that the birds had been born in the biome and never left it.  I felt that I was the guest, invited to the birds' table but that it was a bring-and-share meal.

I have to confess I had a second Danish - but only because I wanted to share it with the birds.  Honest