Sunset

We have been treated to some amazing sunsets this Autumn, the most spectacular one this week giving the tree at the bottom of my garden its own Ta Dah! moment.

Click on the photo to see it bigger.

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Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday Sunset

and sunrise

Turn

Oak tree turned into a sun dial by the evening sun

swirls like the ocean

running on the shore of your

imagination

 

The spiral made in my lawn this year has been thoroughly enjoyed by many – children always run around spirals – turning, turning, turning, always turning, always running, always laughing – it is a delight!

Easy to do – you cut the lawn on a high setting and then starting in the middle, mow outwards on a lower setting, keeping a gap of the mower width to your right or left, whichever way you are moving. I’d love to know if you give it a go.

I first cut a spiral back in 1999 and then came the Waves, and the Grid

What pattern would you create?

Just had to include this wonderful piece of graphic design:

I saw this on a site called ‘Trust Me I’m a Designer’. Clever don’t you think!

It’s your turn!

Leave a link to your photos in the comments so that we can all see what turns up this week. 😉

Joining in with Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge – his prompt words this week are: Ocean and Shore

and the One – a – Week Photo Challenge that Cathy and I have compiled for fun.

Chaffinch Haiku

This Haiku journey is fantastic! The excitement of learning a new craft and discovering more and more – and thanks to a wonderful response from Maia to my last post, I am now trying to form the Haiku according to this part of her comment:

“I’ve found that working with another rule has drastically improved my haiku. Traditionally, the first and second lines are supposed to form a complete concept/idea/image/emotion, and the second and third, another. What makes the poem is how they work together. I think I got a piece of that idea in this one:

In the mid-day rain
Three goldfinches bicker
Over damp thistle”

Isn’t that beautiful!

The excitement I feel is the same thrill I get working out a new knitting or crochet pattern, or craft experiment – I feel fireworks of joy going off in my brain, in my synapses, in my toes, fingers and just everywhere! I just had to look ‘synapses’ up to see if I got that right and in the definition was this description:

“When all your synapses are firing, you’re focused and your mind feels electric.”

YES! EXACTLY!

Anyway – here goes

sunrise meets the oak                                                                                              branches in a soft pink glow                                                                                       frame for a chaffinch

 

nearly there?                                                                                                                  Thank you Maia!

Winter walk

Seeing the world through the eyes of children is pure joy, especially when making the most of the Winter sunshine on a December weekend. I’m lucky to have this lovely walk from my house

this south facing hedge catching all of the warmth, with the oak trees still holding onto their leaves

My daughter and I took Miss E, Master R and Miss M for a lovely walk with their cousins big bro and little bro  – 5 grandchildren all together – happy Granny!

Ages ranging from 2 to 7 – precious! They all took little containers out with them to collect things to make a picture when we got back, and were delighted to find Oak Apple Galls. We never did get to make the picture as other things took over, but it was a fun focus for a while.

Grannyism: How to recognise an oak tree …….

An oak tree has a bark like an elephant’s skin and is all knees and elbows, accompanied with a demo of knees and elbows all bendy and and sticking out.

Spotting tracks:

and we even flushed a couple of deer out of the bushes and watched them bound away bouncing over the maize stubble.

which the boys pulled up for a sword fight, whilst Miss E helped big bro’s little bro look for interesting things

and found some amazing fungi

 

just sitting there on the bare earth (Edit 30.Dec.14: just discovered that it is Orange Peel fungus and apparently edible although not tasty – I won’t be trying it – it is still there, saw it again yesterday)

and masses of enormous mole hills, great for stamping on

all in a row following the lines of stubble

onto a track, then

 

a race to the top

 

when 2 year olds needed a ride

before turning for home

under the fairy arch

 

looking for Granny’s house in the distance

and home for hot chocolate – glorious!

November walk

I met up with some old school friends for a nostalgic wander down memory lane, a walk in the wilds of West Dorset and a delicious pub lunch at The Three Horseshoes, Powerstock.

we came across some acorn art

a voluptuous oak tree

deep wooded valleys

and walked a disused railway line

the smell of autumn in the air

West Dorset has a feeling of the land that time forgot and it is where my paternal ancestors come from. I most probably share DNA with the Iron Age inhabitants of the nearby Pilsdon Pen – a cosy, rooted feeling.at the end of the walk the sun tried to squeeze through

Bliss. . . .