Photographs and Paintings

Hello Lovelies, 

this morning was beautifully sunny and I headed off happily on a little walk once the boys were all at school.

It was so pleasant that I explored a new footpath and added three new stiles to my route.........

The sky was such a bright shade of blue and the bare oak trees looked stunning against it...........

I loved this Sheep and lamb on the farm sign..........

and stopped for a while to watch the Chaffinches singing and darting from branch to branch......

There are gorgeous wild primroses near the church.........

And the snowdrops still look at their best.........

I love photographing nature and as you know I've also begun attempting to draw it.

Last year I picked up this sweet little book in a charity shop and recently I've been looking at it again for inspiration. I thought you lovelies might like to see these beautiful nature pictures too.

 How wonderful is that cover illustration

Each page has wonderful paintings of plants and animals beginning with the same letter.........

 Do click on the photos to see them more clearly 

It may be a book for children but an adult can learn so much from this book too......

 Look there is the Chaffinch I saw on my walk

Molly Brett is one of my favourite illustrators and I've shared some of her other books in the past  HERE

I love the way Molly got inventive to fill the pages of trickier letters.........

But my favourite illustration is this in the centre pages.........

I think it's delightful, beautifully painted and so clever.

I do hope you enjoyed these midweek photographs and paintings lovelies.
Jacquie x

A January Mosaic and Other Photos

Hello Lovelies,

thank you for all your kind comments on my wrist warmers...they really made my day.

My computer tells me I took 568 photos in January! yikes...I guess I'm a little bit addicted to snapping away on a daily basis.

I thought I would make a mosaic out of my favourites from this month, like  a few other bloggers do.

I think you have seem all these images, except the centre heart...which is a painted version of my heart drawing.....I got brave and tried out the wet stuff....I think it turned out O.K.

I've also been uploading a photo a day to Flickr since the new year..... seen as I have so many to choose from. It's just a bit of fun.
Flickr was my first internet sharing experience and I loved it. Back then there was a low limit of the amount of photos your could upload for free....but now it's changed so I'm happily making a set of 365 images for this year....you can see how it looks so far  HERE 

This week I've been trying to keep up with my "Celebrating Home" goals. On Thursday I gave the boys room a thorough clean.....moving all the furniture and finding mountains of dust. While I was dusting a high shelf I found these old books from my own childhood..........

There are only two books in the series, this one and "More tales from the end cottage" which I also have.

I read them out loud to my boys a few years back and I was delighted that they loved these charming tales of gentle domesticity and animal adventures ..........

Written in 1970, they are about a lady called Mrs Apple and her pets. The stories are so descriptive of life in a cottage in the days before electricity and running water........

I love this drawing...and especially the patchwork curtains :0)

Sadly they are not in print any more, but you may be able to pick them up second-hand.

This week has been rainy and cold....perfect reading weather. But yesterday the sun came out so eldest and I braved the watery world . I love walking with all my boys, but the other two are a lot harder to talk into joining me.

 The puddles were even bigger than last week. I feel so sorry for people who have suffered flooding.............

In the sunshine it was good fun to explore the footpaths. The sledges may not have seen any use yet this year but wellies certainly have.

 I admired the sunshine on the fields............

It was certainly squelchy and slippery underfoot. My boy made me laugh by doing a sort of "mud skiing" through this lot......

This water was too deep for wellies and I didn't fancy slipping off the muddy bridge into it but I loved the blue sky reflections......

 We wandered along chatting happily and  ooohing at all the water everywhere



and when we got to this little bridge, we played Pooh sticks in the fast flowing stream.........

Then we turned around and squelched our way back home..........

It was such an enjoyable part of my day.
I hope you enjoy your Sunday Lovelies.
Jacquie x

A Quiet Winter Day

Hello lovelies,

today has been  grey and showery, but still rather lovely. This winter the dull weather doesn't seem to be getting to me like I has in recent years. 

I do love a sunny day but there is a quiet calmness to this sort of weather that I like too.

This morning, on my walk to the hairdressers I passed the florist and admired the wonderful display of bulbs......

 I LOVED those yellow clogs...........sigh.

Outside the church the first snowdrops are beginning to flower..........

 I wasn't in a rush and enjoyed being able to look for pretty things that caught my eye. Now I'm looking at this photo I'm fascinated to see the way snowdrops grow pointing upwards.......I've never noticed that before.

There aren't many flowers about at the moment, nor many leaves, so the bare branches are fully in view..........

As I passed the disused red telephone box I noticed it had been utilised as a place to offer free apples to the locals..........

There were even paper bags to put your selection in. The apples were looking a bit tired, but still O.K. so I picked out a couple and popped them in a bag..........

 A bit of googling told me that there are abundance projects all over the country.....where groups pick unwanted fruit and offer it  free to local groups and people.
 Like THIS project in Manchester. What a great idea. And in our case a great use of a unused but still loved RED TELEPHONE BOX

Later today mum and I did out usual trip to a local market town and I squeezed in a little charity shopping. I was delighted to find this brand new apple bird feeder........perfect for one of the free apples :0)

Sadly I have now finished reading Susan's excellent BOOK. Her delight in the English countryside was contagious and she visited so many wonderfully interesting and historic places.

I searched the charity bookshop for something else to read and uncovered a real gem...........

It's not written by Laura Ashley but I knew it would be my cup of tea when I saw the gorgeous seasonal wreath mosaic inside the front cover...........

And it seems like it will be another lovely gentle read too..........

It was published back in 1992 , but twenty two years later, I think traditional rooms like this still look wonderful ........

Maybe this looks a little more dated, but I still love the gingham and the baking scene..........

Back in the Nineties I did a lot of stencilling in my first home, I got really good at it. It was a lot of fun and  thought it looked wonderful at the time. 

I think this simple leaf design still looks perfect in it's period setting ........

And of course I love to see timeless blue and white china and indoor bulbs...........

This is such a restful image, don't you think..........

There are examples of country decorating from different countries. I loved this gorgeous illustration by Carl Larsson...........

HERE you can see this beautiful drawing looking much more colourful

And I loved this Provence scene with it's sunny feel and fresh herbs on the table........

I do hope I'm not boring you with all these photos from the book. There are just so many precious images I wanted to share...just a few more, O.K.

 This bedroom looks so fresh and welcoming..........

And wouldn't it be wonderful to have breakfast here on a sunny morning, with the door wide open.........

The only thing missing from this lovely book is a bit of traditional crochet.

 At least it's got lots of old linens and quilts used as tablecloths.........this is another room I would feel right at home in.

Today has been relaxed and it's always lovely to have the time to write a blog post and share these snippets of my very ordinary life with you lovelies. Thank you for being such kind people who, hopefully,  like these things too.

Jacquie x

Rainy Days

Hello Lovelies,
On Saturday afternoon we had an exciting thunderstorm and on Sunday morning,  a real downpour.
"Lovely weather for Ducks" is what my dear, late Dad always used to say on this sort of day. When it rains  I often think of it and remember him fondly. With no place we had to be, I was happy to stay indoors.


It seemed like a great excuse to do a little daytime reading. I'm SO enjoying Susan's book. I read about the wonderful places she visited in Kent....this is Sissinghurst, I'd love to visit here too.........

After a while I got a bit chilly and decided to turn on the oven and do some baking. Some SIMPLE FLAPJACKS using yummy golden syrup....I get to lick the spoon:0)

While they were in the oven there was time to look around the kitchen.
The first flower has opened up on my Amaryllis and it's not the bright red " Red Lion" that was pictured on the box! I think someone mixed up the bulbs. Oh well, it's still gorgeous......

I also noticed my favourite tea towels hanging on the oven door. One is a souvenir from our Cornish holiday last year....... Happy, sunny memories.....

When I chose my oven the most important thing on my mind was a long horizontal handle that you could hang tea towels and oven gloves over :0)

The flapjack turned out pretty good........

And after dinner the sky lightened so we decided to pop out for a bit of fresh air.......

It's not always easy convincing my three that walking is fun........but the promise of puddles did the trick.....

I loved the light and the reflections on the river.......

And the colours of the narrow boats........

here part of the river is diverted into a canoe slalom course, the water was really thundering under the bridge and flooding the course........

 scary

the hardy canoeists were sensibly keeping to calmer waters........

Thankfully there wasn't any flooding by the long boating lake, but there were lots of puddles and it was a joy to watch my boys running and splashing through them...........

Then they found the biggest puddle ever, a flooded field..........

They were so happy ...........

Simple joys.

It was lovely weather for ducks.......and boys :0)

Jacquie x