Garden Flowers

So this week I thought you would like to see some of the flowers in my garden  that brighten up our lives here. My wife is the gardener and picks out what were should plant, I just provide the grunt planting  things where she directs so you could say it is a joint effort of our work. The photos were taken with the macro lens on my DSLR and iPhone.

Tulips planted the end of last year

On the left a marsh marigold from the pond and right daffodils among the grape hyacinth 

More daffodils

These were planted the end of last year beside the greenhouse

Not sure what the daisy like flowers are but I am glad they are growing

 Thought I would finish off with a few collages  top one of daffodils

 The marsh marigold and other flowers among the daffodils

And of course the Tulips which are beautiful. I hope this brought a little bit of joy to you all especially if you do not have a garden to enjoy and like us are stuck at home

Stay Safe everyone

Taking part in Our World Tuesday

Agatha Christie

This weeks church explorer blog is the second one I wrote on Agatha Christie 

I think you all know here story and her books but did you know she was buried at Cholsey Church. Have a look at the link and you cans see what I wrote

Stay Safe everyone

Clear Sky

The one thing I noticed after the COVID 19 outbreak started was the Sky go quiet, you would normally see planes flying past all the time with their vapour trails criss crossing the sky. The photo below was taken in the 11th March looking over the allotments not far from our house. I think even then it was clearing but 4 pm in the afternoon you normally see something

A couple of days ago I heard a plane fly past heading towards who know were. I have seen the odd one fly past but the sky going from LHR is quite. The place is so quiet now it has become peaceful and to hear a car, train or plane is rear. I miss our freedom to go out at will and chat to friends or enjoy a walk not I certainly do not miss the noise I used to hear. I like everyone else will will welcome the end of the current situation but I will not welcome the noise coming back. Our planet is getting a well earned break

Stay Safe everyone

Fairy Village

Some of my Garden

So as we are all suffering with the problems caused by COVI-19 I though I would start this week off by showing Some of my Garden. A few years ago it was a right mess after we had an extension to the house. After having a new patio laid we built a couple of raised flower beds and in the not too distant future hope to be adding a couple of raised veg beds

First think I will show is the pond which I put in and was the cause of my back problem digging the hole, is more of less finished now though I intend to add a solar feature  using the fish on the other side of the pond.

 You can see one of the raised flower beds with an Olive tree in it, the green flower leaves are all that is left of the snowdrops that were growing in there. After I made the bed I did not realise how many bluebells were in it so when a fruit tree we had in there got canker I dug it all out and managed to clear the bluebells which now reside at the local compost facility. The bed was planted with the olive tree and snowdrops

This is a view down the garden to the second raised bed which has an apple tree in it, the tree in the foreground is another apple.  You can see a pergola and Arbour with seat further on. There is a small patio there with table and chair where we sit and have tea in the summer. It is my favourite place to sit.  The smaller raised bed has a Red Robin in which is growing well.

 Last of all the greenhouse, we bought it last year and I built a base to put it on and spent three days assembling it.  The main parts I assembled in the garage and then brought them out and fitted them together

I will leave you with a view along the main patio which has pots of roses on, the two large planters have climbing plants in. The big one I did a feature on is made from a pallet, the one further on is an old water but I put a case around. The black tank behind is one of the rain water butts we have it takes 500 litres of water. there are another two behind me that take 350 litres each giving us around 275 gallon, These we use during the summer to water the pots.

I will show you in the greenhouse and other time

Stay Safe everyone we will get through this

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

Joe the First Church Exlporer Blog

This was the first blog I wrote for the Church Explorer. Back then the blog was called My Grave Place but I though it was a little morbid and a few years ago change the name to it's present form

If you click on the link it will take you to the blog, it's not very long but then I was just starting to write them and was very green. Joe

The Church Explorer

Normally I would be posting a new church this week but I managed to injure my back a couple of weeks ago and am only just recovering from it. This meant I have not been out to visit any new churches. I do still have a couple to write on and will publish it in a week or so. The blogs take me a good few nights to compile and I have felt like sitting for a couple of hours at the table to do it. Then what we are all going through took over and it does not look like I will get going any where in the near future. This will affect my other blogs  as well though with the Daily Photo I can dig back into my archive where I have thousands of photos so no worry there. You may also find I will be taking photos from around my garden and featuring more from around my home. Like everyone I just want it to be over with. Blogging is one thing I love doing and I feel many of you who follow my blogs feel the same. We are a community  that try to reach out to others. For the foreseeable future I am going to re-run my old church explorer blogs that I started with back in 2012 and see how things pan out. I hope we all come though this safely 

God Bless and keep strong

Sky in the Rec

The Rec is what people call the Recreation ground in Cholsey, I was at a loss what to show on Skywatch that Monday I went over to the Rec and took a couple of photos of the sky.

As you can see it was a nice day with blue sky and fluffy skys and a little lad playing football with his dad

Say self everyone

Happy Skywatch

Spring on the windowsill

Crickhowell

This week I'm doing something a little different and showing a village I drive though I on the way to Builth Wells. It shows a couple of places we drive past

Now if you do not mind click the link of Crickhowell it shows the flooding that happened there a  nearly a month before. The photos were taken from our car as we were driving home after setting up our caravan (not sure when we will get back to use it at the moment) take notice of the line along the buildings, If you do click the link you can just watch the first scenes you see, the feature the above photo.

If you looked at the video you will have seen the pink house , a closer shot of the buildings give a better idea of the flooding hight 

A crop of the first photo shows the line clearly , the hairdressers was wrecked not to mentioned the post that was in the post box. On the left you can see a car just coming into view the flooding would have been over the top of the car.

I these times of everyone worrying about a virus they might or might not catch these people have lost their houses and businesses. Out of view on the left of the photo is a pub called the bridge in it was totally wrecked. I found out while writing this that the paper who wrote on this revised a few days later and the whole committing rallied around to help those who were affected. Maybe those ho are panic buying at the moment should take note a flood could mess up all that loo paper they stockpiled.

Most of us are lucky and never affected by something like this happening  but we should remember those less lucky, there but for the grace of God we could.
Remember there is always someone worse off then you 

Taking Part in Our World Tuseday

St Helen Dry Sandford

I only realised the St Helen was there after checking the map where I had to go on my visits. It lined up nicely with the other church nearby. It looked a nice enough church with it's Lych Gate but I was to be disappointed when I got to the door as it was firmly locked due to the church needing some urgent repairs.

Just as a footnote with this panic over COVID 19 which people seem to be running around like headless chickens over I may find it harder to visit the inside of some churches because they are being kept locked over due to the fear of spreading the virus. One church I have to visit I have to arrange for it to be opened. I'm hoping churches will remain open and that I can visit but I do not know how it will pan out.

SKywatch from the Hill

Just to finish with my views from Cholsey Hill of where Didcot Power Station used to be, here is the first one I took from the hilltop the others were taken a little lower down.

Boat in the carpark

Return to the hill

A couple of weeks ago I went along to Cholsey hill one Sunday Morning to get a photo of the view where the Old Didcot Power Station was. A few hours previous they had blown up the remaining Stack thus removing the last part. When I got there the wind was blowing hard and gave me trouble to get a good shot. The other day I popped back up to get  one as the weather was better

Looking at the remaining Didcot B you now see smaller stacks the one that was blown upi was about where the pylon is between the stacks

Zooming out a bit here to give a wider view

Above moving right a little you get a view towards the edge of Brightwell.
Right the hangers of Polly Vacher's private airstrip. Her husband Peter used to keep his Hawker Hurricane there









Over to the right more you see Witthenham Clumps, this part id called Round Hill

Nearer you can see Mackney Court Farm near Brightwell

I will leave you with this view of Didcot B the landmark that you could see for miles around and marked that you nearly home now now gone.

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

St Leonard Sunningwell

The last of the three church on my visit near Abingdon. With St Leonard I was not sure what to expect but I found a rather nice church to visit which was a little deceptive to look at

Sky over the quarry

 I have been meaning to get a photo of this for a while, a few months ago this was farmland where last year crops were growing, it is no being turned into a gravel extraction quarry. I stopped quickly on the way to pick my son up from work. I had wanted to get a photo of it with the sun setting behind but not sure how I will do that when it opens

 Looks quite alien to me

 This entrance road can bee seen being laid out in front of it

The fence here will soon begone and the gate to the quarry place here

Happy Skywatch