Daffodils

 

It was Mothers  Day in the UK yesterday and mothers will be getting bunches of daffodils given to them. My Mother used to love them and grew them in our garden. One year when I was very young I gave her a bunch of daffodils to her for Mothers Day, she was overjoyed until she looked at her garden and spotted I had picked them from it. I'm glad to say I was forgiven but she would remind me now and then. Last year I planted some on her grave and I am glad to say they are blooming nicely fro Mothers day.We have them on our garden growing well this year

It's not the only place you can see them

Across the road in the bank is a magnificent display which were planted by my neighbour

 

There are even a few growing beside the allotment path 

 

The pavilion had them in abundance 

 

showing a beautiful display 

 

Go to the village centre at the Forty

 

and the display which were planted by the school kids years ago are growing well

Before I go remember last week I showed the magnolia buds well the flowered over the last few days

Stay Safe

St Swithing Wickham

 

This week the church explorer visits St Swithin Wickham a church with a Saxon tower and some nice features inside. Watch out for the Elephant in the room

Missed SkyWatch

 

Seems I forgot to post this SkyWatch from February  taken while I wondered getting some photos of the daffodils that had started to grow

Looking out of our front garden towards the west it sky looked very cloudy

Looking towards the south a little light could be seen

The towards the south the sky was lighter still

It did make me wonder if rain was on the way

 Clearly not because a couple of hours later the sky was clearing

Happy SkyWatch

Now Winter's Gone

 

  Now wither has gone I went to look around the garden to see what survived the harsh frost we had. I had worried that the -11 deg we had in our garden would have caused damage and killed off some of the plants

No worry about the roses they are growing well already

The hydrangea was a surprise after being out in the cold weather it was budding nicely 

The tulips and the daffodils do not suffer at all

The olive tree on the other hand did suffer. This is normally covered in green leaves but they started falling off during the frost and it mostly bare now, I only hope it will recover, I bought it as a present for my wife many years ago

This was the potato vine that suffered in the high winds early this year when a gazebo was blown across it causing the pergola to fall over, we had to cut it back to sort out the pergola. The cutting back and frost killed it. Near by we also had a eucalyptus tree the frost killed that as well

The magnolia survived

and looks like it will be flowering in the not too distant future

I had concerns over the acer we had as my wife nurtured it from a very small plant

I was happy to see it is also budding, I look forward to seeing it in leaf again

Take Care

Woodland St Mary

 

 I had planned on posting this church next week as I had written a blog already but had a change of heart and decided St Mary's on Woodland St Mary  which I visited back in February and supplied by the amount  snowdrops I could see. The church is now looked after by the Church Conservation Trust

Dawn & Sunset

 

I cannot say I had the best of weeks but there is always Friday with Skywatch to bring joy

Dawn of the day it's nearly 7AM

The gathering glow

The moon still glows in the sky

The dawn soon to chase it away

11 hours and 55min later I noticed the sunset and went upstairs to the bathroom to see the last of the glow

 The colour of the sunset always brings a little joy

Happy Skywatch

A Bad Week

 

 I cannot say it has been the best of weeks. I'll start with the photo, it shows me on the shop floor of out factory back in 1983. it was taken by my friend who I worked with from an over head crane. It was a Sunday and we used to come in most weeks and on occasion would fix the broken overhead lights. we sat on the crane by straddling it no H&S then. In the background you can see another guy working, that is another friend Paul who passed away last week.

Last week I found out he had passed away he was 71 the same age as I am. We had served or apprenticeship together  and a couple of years after I finished and left the pace we worked he came to the place you see him in the photo. He worked the rest of his life only retiring last year a few years after I finished. It's no use saying how you feel about it as I feel you all know.

Today  I read that Gary Rossington had passed away. I had the privilege of seeing them at Oxford Poly Tec in the 1970's. They sung all the hits they made at the time and at the end bowed and left. While the concert was going on you got odd shout for Freebird. After the band left the shout became a chant till one person shouted Fuc*ing Feebird. the band cam on to an eruption from the crowd. I heard the most incredible guitar solo I ever heard. I have just listened to the song again it brought back a lot of memories for me. This is Freebird on youtube and is 11mins long.

My Apologies I have removed comments for today but thank you to those of you who made them

Rest in Peace 

 

St Mary Wootton

 

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Mary Wootton, It seems there is more than on Wootton in Oxordshire but this one is also know as Wootton by  Woodstock as it is only a couple of miles away

After Sunset

 

Sometimes we see a wonderful sunset other times we miss it all together 

 

Then there are the times we get to witness something like this

 

A long ribbon of beautifully coloured cloud

 

which ended like this in the east

 

To the south it was fading out

 

I did stitch a couple together for this

Happy Skywatch