Gentle

Photos taken in July at Dr. Beynon’s Bug Farm, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales

We went there for Little Miss M’s 5th birthday treat. After a delicious lunch

of cooked bugs

and a fabulous birthday cake

we all went to the bughandling session

when everyone had to hold the bugs VERY gently

We all loved it! Master R was particularly delighted when one of the insects climbed up his face.

The food in Grub Kitchen is truly delicious. There are non-bug options too.

If you are looking for an unusual Christmas gift you can order some Cricket Cookies and other goodies from Bug Farm Foods.

You can keep up to date with what they are up to on their Facebook Page.

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Joining Cathy in our One-a-Week Photo Challenge.

Leave a link to your ‘Gentle’ photo in the comments to join us and be included in the Monthly Round-Up of entries.

Next year we will be meeting up monthly, on the first Tuesday of the month, with a one word photo prompt. Thank you to everyone who has sent me some suggestions for the months ahead. There are still a few months to assign a word to – any suggestions for August, September and October? I’d love to hear from you with your ideas – either leave them in the comments or Contact Me here.

See you next week for ‘WINDOW’.

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In 2 Vases on Monday

Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for In a Vase on Monday.

Schizostylis (Kaffir lily, Hesperantha), Cuckoo Pint (arum) leaves and self sown Antirrhinum

In an orange charity shop vase and little square vase from Chive

Joining Cee’s Flower of the Day.

The vases were filled to be put in the spare bedroom, getting ready for my sister to come from London to stay for the weekend.

She was coming to celebrate our Mum’s 89th birthday, so I thought I would add a photo of a wonderful family gathering we had about 20 years ago.

Our Mum has dementia. She wasn’t really aware that her 3 daughters, one granddaughter and 3 great-grandchildren were there. However, she seemed to enjoy the attention, she smiled when we sang Happy Birthday.

I said, “Mum it is your birthday today, how old do you think you are?”

She seemed to be thinking for a while and then said “Ummm ….. 25”

Here’s a picture of my beautiful Mum, when she was about 19.

She opened the cards the children had made for her and enjoyed eating the cake. The chef at her Care Home put so much thought and creativity into the cake inspired by a teddy bear Mum has.

We were all amazed when he carried it in with the candles lit. It was delicious.

Little Miss M particularly loved eating the ears!

On a Cake on Monday

Happy Birthday to You 

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday Miss E -eeeeeee

Happy Birthday to You

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Yes, I have now been a Granny for 10 years! What an amazingly wonderful 10 years it has been, watching this magical being grow and blossom. The cake was made by her Mum, my daughter, who is a fabulous cook – it was DEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee – lish.

I was asked for some edible flowers so I cut them the night before in case of rain overnight, and plonked them in a vase

Next morning I cut off the heads of roses, marigolds, lavender and marjoram to take to the cake

So strawberries and cream with fresh rose petals, edible glitter, silver and gold candles, and a garland of lavender to celebrate a a feisty, sporty, sparky, creative and all round delightful 10 year old. I’m so happy to be part of her life and look forward to what happens next!

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Pop across to Cathy’s to see what real gardeners are putting in their Vases this Monday. A celebration of the camaraderie of gardeners, this week. It is strangely thrilling to see flowers from some seeds I sent to Cathy in her Vase today – the friendly, supportive connections that are built through blogging are so full of joyful surprises. Thank you Cathy for your brilliant meme and bringing us together each week. ❤

Frozen

Little Miss M has just had a ‘Frozen’ birthday party for which my daughter made her a fabulous cake – yes that is the cake disguised as ‘Elsa’s dress.

and Granny and the children made a frozen ice-bowl using flowers and raspberries from the garden and filled with watermelon and strawberries.

I have done a few of these over the years for different parties, sometimes filling with a fruit punch, sometimes with a fresh fruit cocktail.

This one started on the 28th May with a layer of primroses, thyme and Sweet Cicely laid on top of about a centimetre of ice in the bottom of a large plastic bowl

I only add edible flowers.

The children then gathered some mint leaves, marigold flowers and wild strawberry flowers

We put the pink bowl in the middle and weighted it down then poured more water round the sides, about another centimetre. The flowers were added and it went back in the freezer.

As I was a bit low on flowers from the garden (borage, nasturtiums  and rose petals look great) I added raspberries in layers and when it was full removed the pink bowl from the centre and we used the bowl for a picnic in the garden.

Then back in the freezer so that I could use again for Little miss M’s party

I experimented with using a layer of pomegranate juice and added edible glitter.

Now out of the large plastic bowl, it sat out for about 4 hours and hardly melted at all, so it has gone back in the freezer to use again later in the summer.

You can see loads of other examples of other peoples ice-bowls on Pinterest. It seems the ice stays clearer if the water is boiled first, and maybe it would have looked better set on an ice plinth……. next time.

Contrast

wolfing down the cake

contrasts with her daily mood:

“No, that’s not for me!” 

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Combining the two challenges of Bluedaisyz Weekly Photo Challenge: CONTRAST

and

Ronovan’s weekly Haiku Challenge: prompt words CAKE and WOLF

The photo is of my Mum on her 87th birthday, she often says “No” to things, but seemed genuinely delighted with her cake. Perhaps it was because it had a splendid Welsh Dragon on it, the cook at her nursing home handpainted it for her – I cried! Such a wonderfully touching thing for him to do.

Mum has dementia, a cruel and hideous disease, so it is particularly special when we can see that she is really enjoying herself.

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And another one:

hungry wolf

pushes cake aside 

to feed on dreams

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The ‘hungry wolf’ refers to the creative driver that lives inside which sometimes just will not let me attend to the everyday mundanities – know what I mean?

Photo prompts for the next 3 weeks – the last three weeks of the year – are RED, MAGIC and JOY

Update: Ronovan’s Review:

Contrast | Wild Daffodil. There are two Haiku, but I’m focusing on the first one. The Wild One might not see this as humor, but the fun I received from it tells me differently. The imagery and the truth of it makes it a sweet Haiku people will smile at when they read. The second Haiku is nice, but not humor and the first is so good and there is so much sentiment in it that it steals the show.

I’m thrilled that Ron picked up on the humour – one of Mum’s strongest and most endearing characteristics.