Cache

This photo is of the first (and only) Geocache we found. I find the idea of Geocaching exciting and so do the grandchildren. I need an iPhone to do it – but – I am taking a veeeerrrrrryyyyyy long time to get one – so many decisions to make. I’m not good at decisions.

However I’m glad to have at least one find to fulfil this week’s Photo Challenge  on Lewesdon Hill in Dorset, with the help of my daughter’s phone. We left a Love Rock in it and added our names and date we found it.

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Crafty

My whole house is my studio

Every room a cache

The dining room – full of beach clean finds

The bedroom – yarny stash

 

My kitchen has experiments

From mould growth to tea bags drying

The spare room houses WIPs and HOTHs

And other things I trying

 

Obsessions and excitement

Fills every single day

The internet is full of stuff

With which I want to play

 

Try out this, try out that

and sometimes get things done

But mostly I’m deep in happy-land

Being messy – having fun

The inspiration for this little ditty came when my friend sent me a poem by Dr John Cooper Clarke (see below) as she said it reminded her of me, it prompted me to write the one above

ARTS N’ CRAFTS

Out of bed into the Shed
To paint the wooden roses red
To ride a rocking quadruped
With a big idea in your head

Form and function in a line
The rudiments of good design
From the oaken leg to the fine wine
To table tops of melamine

There’s nothing that you couldn’t make
No effect you couldn’t fake
A pebble sprayed with metal flake
Would make a precious paperweight

Teddy bears to stuff with stuff
Like nylon mink from a lady’s muff
Cotton balls and a powder puff
Pom poms and pocket fluff

Stainless steel and a rock hard aura
The marble glance of a lost explorer
A heavy heart for the love of Nora
Chains of flowers on a draped amphora

Time time time to slay
Each crowded hour of every day
Where indolence is kept at bay
In an arty-crafy kinda way

poem by Dr. John Cooper Clarke

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My entry is a little late this week – trouble with internet connection – soooo frustrating!

Joining in with the Daily Post: HIDDEN

Feel free to join in with the Photo Challenge Cathy and I have put together, by leaving a link in the Comments – we’d love to see your Cache’s.

Pond

Week 14 of our One-a-Week Photo Challenge: POND

click on any photo to see it larger

Back in the darker January days when frost dusted everything with magic, Miss E and I went walking with our cameras. Miss E was given a camera for Christmas and she was keen to get some frosty shots. We went to Thorncombe Woods and headed for the pond.

chagrin felt at school

healed with home education,

love, joy and freedom

Joining in with Ronovan’s weekly Haiku Challenge, prompt words:

CHAGRIN and JOY

~

Do you recognise the bobble hat? – I made one for each grandchild last year, but trying to get a decent photo of all of them was like herding cats

Cute though!

I’ll be away from the computer for a couple of weeks. Cathy will be holding the Photo fort over at Nanacathy, leave a link on her One-a-Week Photo Challenge posts and I will include them in the April Round-Up. Thank you Cathy and as Cathy says:

“Happy Snapping”

😀

Historical

a light breeze blowing

primroses growing by trees

busy buzzing bees

~

and  Bentley

Combining our One-A-Week Photo Challenge: HISTORICAL,

Ronovan’s Haiku prompts: BREEZE and BLOW

and

Cee’s Which Way Challenge

My sister, Bentley and I went for a really good long walk at Badbury Rings last week, an Iron Age Hill Fort, near Wimborne in Dorset. Another walk towards my  17 for 2017 target.

I am always trying to catch Bentley unawares as, like most dogs, he doesn’t like having his photo taken

We walked round the ramparts, across the top and then round the back of the Rings

Spotting plenty of ‘Which Way’ scenes to photograph

Breeze, blow, Bentley with branch, Badbury, bees, boat and barn (and later on, back for blanket, a brew and banana cake)

This willow was a-buzzzzzzzzzzzzzin with bees, both honey and bumble. We tried for ages to get some good photos, but failed, imagine a loud and constant hum accompanied by birdsong from the woods beyond.

The boat had seen better days and was probably home to many little creatures

The barn, festooned with ivy,

another wildlife haven.

Then back home for delicious cake made for us by my lovely niece

who was very happy to receive her Dorset Hedgerow Blanket

She is at Uni studying to be a vet in Glasgow, so it will be nice to have something from home to snuggle under in the evenings, even though it is now officially Spring.

Happy Spring Equinox one and all!

~

Cathy and I would love you to join us in our One-A-Week Photo Challenge, just leave a link in the comments to your Historical Photos, current or archive all are welcome.

For up and coming subjects go to the Photo Challenge Page.

~

“Happy Snapping”

 

In a Dish on Monday

My daughter and her family (Miss E, Master R, Little Miss M and Mr.M) went on holiday last week. To welcome them home I made this little cameo, which is photographed in my hall before I took it to their house.

Joining Cathy for her worldwide garden party held every Monday over at Rambling in the Garden.

I used hebe, hazel, primrose, succulents and this flower spike from a laurel

A few empty snail shells were put in the corner as Little Miss M loves snails – when she was 2 she collected them and made houses for them.

In the early 1990s I worked at Dansel , a bespoke woodworking Gallery. If you are ever in Dorset it is well worth a visit. It was a wonderful place to work and very tempting. I am lucky enough to have a few pieces from those days. Each piece was signed by the maker. The mirror frame was made by Simon Teed.

The sycamore bowl was made by Peter Dalby in 1992. It holds Angel Cards, which were created as part of the Transformation Game at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland.

If you would like me to pick a card for you, let me know in the comments.

The picture you can see in the mirror is a piece of felt I made at a workshop run by Di Pattinson a few years ago.

I can highly recommend her workshops.

The piece was immediately pinned to a canvas painted with acrylic paint mixed with sand and there it sits – I always intended to do more to it but now I think I like it as it is. I could fix the pins at the back with Sugru.The diamond weaving hanging below it was made for me by Miss E for my birthday. She knows my favourite colours! Orange and pink together always a winner!

Maybe, I could fix it on to the painting ……. hmmmm ….. ….

I’ll leave for a while….. I think I like it ….. what do you think?

Photo Challenge Round-Up: STILL

Be still, close, your eyes, breathe , listen

These stones offer a seat, just below Hardy’s Monument, near Portesham, Dorset

and what a spot to Be Still, looking out over the English Channel towards France.

Jane at Rainbow Junkie ………………… still flowering

Cathy at Nanacathy ………………………  still waters

💜 Me at Wild Daffodil ……………………..   still morning

💜 Aishwarya at Captured by Aishwarya ….. still sky

Dorris at Dig With Dorris …………….. still life

The 💜 denotes a post that is also joining in with Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge – it’s fun to combine the two.

Have I missed anyone? Please let me know if I have.

Welcome to Aishwarya joining in with the two challenges for the first time this week.

Thank you so much everyone for your STILLS.

Four fab photo fiends created the 52 Week Photo Challenge, we are:

• Cathy from Nanacathydotcom
• Jane from Rainbowjunkiecorner
• Melissa from The Aran Artisan
• Sandra from Wild Daffodil

This week’s word is CREATION

And tomorrow …………

We launch our list for 2017!

All 52 subjects set out for the whole year, so you can keep your photographic eyes peeled for the weeks ahead, or search your archives to create your posts in advance.

Hurray for Happy Snapping!

Still

Golden November

Fairy song through mellow mist

Caught by cheeky elves

Joining with Cathy and RainbowJ for our Photo Challenge Prompt of STILL

and

Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge, prompts: GOLD and SING

On Sunday I went for a walk in the footsteps of my ancestors up Lewesdon Hill, which is likely to be the highest point in Dorset (or is that Pilsdon Pen?)

It was a very STILL November day and a gentle mist hovered over the top of this ancient hill fort. Especially noticeable after of our recent fierce storms. It was hard to choose just one photograph, so have a wander with me.

This is my 15th walk of more than one hour, only one more to go to fulfil my 16 for 2016 challenge.

Joining in with Cee’s Which Way Challenge, so many paths to the top to choose from.

an air of misty magic

Also posting on the Facebook Page ‘Sunken Lanes and Historic Curiosities’

Then back to the New Inn in Stoke Abbott for the most delicious roast beef and Yorkshire pudding I have had in many a year – lashings of gravy and generous portions of perfectly cooked fresh vegetables, the cauliflower cheese mmmmmmmm! – a perfect treat.

One of my forebears opened this pub in 1895, and with his wife, there they brought up their 13 children and ran the pub for over 20 years. The pub still holds it’s character and I love to think of my relations sitting by the inglenook and supping a pint of home brew.

Please leave a link in the Comments for us to share in your STILLness

Next Week our prompt word is CREATION

Very apt as we have just created a new list for your enjoyment for next year – we hope to be able to show it to you next Tuesday. 😉

 

One hour Autumn walk

My friend and I walked from Bere Regis car park, through woods,

up to and along Black Hill

past old quarries

past sun-shiny gorse bushes with dense spiders’ nests

along the ridge

down into deep dark sunken lanes

and leafy paths thick with leaf mould underfoot and dappled light ahead

through the village of Shitterton.

(Joining in with Cee’s Which Way Challenge)

The footpath goes between those two cottages.

and into the Drax Arms for my birthday treat, a scrummy Sunday Roast – Thank you lovely walking friend! ❤ (my birthday is on Friday, 11th)

Rounding off the excursion with the obligatory visit to the church, which is huge and full of amazing wooden carvings and this rather sweet sign by a gravestone

A boy named Joy! How delightful.

Home to a glorious sunset …

….. time to light the fire.

Wishing you all a snug evening. ❤