Wintry December

 It's been an interesting month and a proper wintry month - well wintry week.  The snow came down one Sunday afternoon and kept coming.  It was very cold too (minus 5 here) so luckily the snow stay and everywhere looked pretty and white.  Lethal on the pavements, but pretty in the garden and local park!

We were visited by lots of birds too - the regular pair of blackbirds, 3 goldfinches, a wren and Mr Robin who spent a lot of time here.

The highlight was attending a wedding at Battle Abbey School - apart from the bride's dress getting a bit snowy, it was good. The building was beautiful with some fitting stained glass windows of snowflakes and with dinner in the library.   After that, Christmas with all the decorations, presents, food and drink!  

Thank you for visiting over the year. Not sure what style my blog will take next year but I guess photos will be involved.  

Wishing you all a very Merry 2023!

Elaine xx

Wet November

 It's been a very wet November.  Here we've had 3x the normal November rainfall.  The good news is our hosepipe ban has been lifted but the bad news is that roads and fields are flooded.  When I was a child with a November birthday, it always snowed and several years my party was cancelled as no-one could get there!  

Anyway back to the photos.  Some days have been nice, there have been some good skies and sunsets and I've been out with my camera in the local park watching the trees change to autumn colours.  The funniest photo is the squirrel with his conker.  He watched me walking by, I got my camera out, he posed beautifully and as soon as I put my camera in my pocket, he scarpered up the tree. 

Lots of birds again including a Great Tit that's new to the garden.  We have a Wren in the honeysuckle but it's too fast and more camera shy than the squirrel.  And as you can see, Christmas is a-coming so says the Christmas Cactus.  Mind my white Easter Cactus is in full flower too so who knows what's going on with the natural world :)

That's all for this month - thanks for visiting!!

Elaine xx

Trees, Birds & a Hedgehog

 October has been lovely - some rain but mostly sunny, beautiful blue skies and 21 degrees to end the month.   Another eclectic mix of photos so do take a look:

A great selection of oak leaves and colourful autumnal trees so I managed to do a few Saturday tree posts on facebook. A selection of birds too - the blackbirds are back that nest in the honeysuckle, bluetits as ever, a goldfinch and Mr Hedgehog came to visit.  We noticed him trundling around the back garden, he went under the fence and was next spotted sitting in the middle of the road.  It's quite a quiet cul-de-sac but I felt obliged to go out and make sure he got safely across the road.  In the end he came back into our front garden and disappeared.  It's about a year since we last saw a hedgehog so guess we will have to wait another year!!

Lastly I opened the curtains to a beautiful sunrise so I fetched my camera and 10 mins later the clouds arrived and it was gone.  Nature is a wonderful thing - always changing, always something new to see!!

Thanks for visiting

Elaine x

September - Ode to Autumn

Autumn seems to have come round very quickly this year - misty mornings, dark evenings and it's certainly been a strange month.  The Queen died at the grand old age of 96 after 70yrs on the throne and so started a period of mourning and superb pageantry.  Below are some photos that I took off television.

Apart from that the weather has been reasonably kind - sunshine and warmth with some rain thrown in for good measure.  Whilst the spring and summer was dry, some trees seem to have enjoyed it.   There are loads of acorns on the Oak trees and the conkers on the Horse Chestnut seem massive.   In nature, there is always something positive to be found. 

Thanks for visiting!

Elaine xx

A mixed August

 Another dry month but the good news is we have had some rain..... well we had 2 days of torrential downpours, lightening and thunder and at last the grass and verges do seem to have greened up a bit.  We still have a hosepipe ban but as we don't use ours to water the garden and my OH rarely cleans the car then it doesn't affect us too much.

This month's photos are a bit limited - flowers in the garden, interesting skies and random birds on the feeder.  We had 5 bluetits at one point but they flit so quickly I didn't manage to catch them all together.  I think the ground is so hard they are struggling for food and I've certainly noticed them drinking from the water dish.

Autumn seems to have arrived early going by the amount of leaves dropping already but hopefully we'll get some rain soon (preferably overnight) and all will be well!!

Thanks for visiting!

Elaine xx

Dry July

 Another month goes by and I think you could describe it as very dry - we've had so little rain and everything is going brown and crispy.

We managed to get the caravan out and have a quick trip to Yorkshire for "Christmas" with friends. We stayed on a small site overlooking wheat and barley fields and the sky was different everyday.  We had a little rain early morning or in the evening but the days were good. I say that but we went to Leeds to find my Great-Grandfather's grave and the heavens opened and the rain came down - was that  a sign??

Anyway we came home to a lawn going brown and some very crispy hydrangea flowers!!  Not sure what I'll photo in August - guess you will have to wait and see!!

Elaine xx

Flowery June

There seems to be a theme - colourful flowers - and again mostly in my garden as I'm into the 6th week of exams and I've been nowhere.  Weekdays are in a Sports Hall (not very photogenic) and weekends are catching up with the household chores and ironing.

So June consists of flowering shrubs, my patio pots and the rose on the front of the house.  We've had some lovely sunsets and one day there was a goldfinch singing it's heart out on a TV aerial.  The photo is a little blurry as it was a good distance away but it was singing very loudly.  It makes you wonder where the lung power comes from in such a small bird.

Well that's it for June.... thank you for popping by to look!!

Elaine xx