Sunlight

I’ve had a lovely time this month noticing how the sunlight catches and enhances things.

Evening light

Morning on the farm with Ivor the bull and his companions

Morning dew

Backlit hellebores

Morning sunshine, and looking up at buzzards soaring

an experiment under the apple tree

the bliss of bluebell woods

backlit Harts Tongue ferns

a soft goodnight

The prompt for this month’s photographic meet-up is SUNLIGHT.

We meet up on the first Tuesday of each month. You are very welcome to join in anytime. For future prompts go to the Photo Challenge Page.

Next month’s prompt is Sculpture.

To join us, leave links to your Sunshine photos, either current or archive, in the comments – “Bring me Sunshine!”

Edit:

Adding ‘Walking on Sunshine’ after seeing it mentioned in Crafty Creeks’s post

Don’ it feel good!!!!! ❤

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Mother’s Day

Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the UK. A belated Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a mother or can celebrate their own Mother. I know it can be a difficult day for some and I never take for granted just how lucky I am. Love and hugs to all. ❤

My Mother’s Day celebrations started on Friday when my daughter A took me out to lunch at my favourite local eaterie ‘Feed the Soul’ in Godmanstone.

That’s Nick preparing our matcha green teas with great care and panache – he co-runs the restaurant with his sister who creates the most beautiful and delicious vegetarian and vegan foods.

A had a matcha latte with oat milk, I had a plain matcha.

And look, my nail varnish matched the pottery – I love little moments of serendipity like that.

We took a while to decide what to have as everything is so good. The soup of the day was Pea Soup and I was very tempted as it was cold and raining outside …..

In the end we both had a Buddha Bowl full of healthy deliciousness and amazing flavours and textures

Let me tell you – those kale crisps were surprisingly gorgeous and oh so tasty!

It was just wonderful and a rare treat to have some quality Mother-and-Daughter time – it felt a bit like my birthday!

I don’t normally go for puddings – but at Feed the Soul they are unmissable!

A chose an apple and ginger square

and I could not resist the Strawberry Cheesecake

I wish I could send you all a piece – Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

What a lucky Mum I am!

And then on Sunday I was in for a very special Mother-and-Son time, with my Farmer son who lives close by. (not my Marathon Running Son who lives in London) For the first 37 years of my life I lived on a farm as a farmer’s daughter and then a farmer’s wife. My husband and I ran a dairy farm and it is a long time since I was out checking on cows to see if they were about to calve – that’s what I did with my son on Sunday morning – such a wonderful nostalgic trip down memory lane. 

First, we looked at the young stock, munching away at their haylage, then after a lovely tour round the farm we went to look at the cows who are all mothers in waiting.

My son had had to help this little one into the world at 5 am that morning

we were pleased to see her up and about and looking lively

she seems to take after her father, Mitch the bull

I was delighted that I seem to have retained my ability to spot a cow that was about to calve. I spotted her on the way in, standing in the midst of the others and by the time we had looked round the other cows she was lying down and had popped out another Mother’s Day calf

The cow got up straight away and started licking the calf …..

there is always an anxious few moments waiting to see if the calf is ok, but just a mintue later it had raised its head and wiggled its ears

and was being visited by the other mums-in-waiting.

Must just show you my cards

The one on the left from A the one on the right from my son, HaHaHa!!!

both with lovely messages inside.

A truly Happy Mother’s Day.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

 

New

Melissa of The Aran Artisan has joined a weekly challenge , suggested by Jamie at Blue Daisy.                                                                                                                           I am tempted to join in  …..   however – I know that the rebel in me will buck and kick against HAVING to do something every week  ……. so in order to join in, I’m going to allow that little rebel, which now seems to have taken on the persona of a pony, to dip in and out as the mood takes her – naughty!! She’ll like that!

The photo above is of my son-in-law’s latest amazing building project that he has been creating for the last 2 years. It has not always been easy! With a project this size it was bound to have its challenges. Today was the first day for the cows to check out their NEW home, and they seem to like it very much!                               A proud moment!                                                                                                             The creative link for me is that I have been making a video diary of the whole process which has been fascinating! I come from a farming family and used to milk cows with my husband when I was 19, we milked about 100 cows in an old style, single row, Abreast Milking Parlour.                                                                 The cows you see above are part of a herd of 400, they sleep on water mattresses and will choose when they go to be milked – by robots! That’s progress.

Melissa suggests a Haiku a week to accompany the picture, (but not necessarily directly relating to it) – I love this idea too and like the idea of the two going together…….

Surveying the view                                                                                               Munching sweet steaming silage                                                                                  The cows settle in