These precious days : family

You may have read back along that I have a new granddaughter, I have been up to London to visit several times, and she has been down to Dorset to visit her rural roots.

Its a precious time when all the family are together.

Its seems only yesterday that Youngest Daughter came back down to Dorset, but I think it was two years ago (I know it was in a summer anyway!). A few weeks ago she and her lovely boyfriend (thats him behind the candles in the photo) moved into a delightful cottage - in our village! How wonderful is that! The best of all worlds as far as I am concerned. And he has a young springer spaniel called Wilson, and I know she missed not having a dog.

That's her by the front door. The special thing is that the owners of the cottage live right next door, and have known her since she was born and are excellent and kind landlords. Also some dear friends of ours (almost second parents to her) live in the house two doors away. Everything just seemed to fall into place - the house became vacant as soon as they were looking around for somewhere. Perfect.

These precious days : last of the summer

I feel as if I have a lot of catching up to do - so much seems to have happened in the short space of time since I posted last.

However, these are precious days (all days are, of course, but sometimes you just KNOW it!) so I shall write a few themed posts, to share the days - the present ones, plus a few memorable recent ones.

We have had such a wet, cold summer here this year. A farming friend started to try to harvest his wheat at the beginning of August (a four day job, he told his lady) This week, he finally got enough dry sunny days to finish it. And that goes for most farmers around here.

I was looking forward to days spent lounging in the garden, doing the odd bit of weeding, but mostly sitting in the sun. (thats the weeding bucket, sun hat and newspaper crossword waiting for me) Didnt happen till now! So these last few days of warmer weather are precious, because I am aware that the fresh mornings and mists of Autumn are waiting in the wings. There have been some chilly dawns already.

The abutilon megapotamicum, clematis seedheads and the crab apples are still looking lovely.
The leaves are only just beginning to turn on a few horse chestnut trees, I have been on some gorgeous walks around our village, and the garden has still got a few blooms.



However, we have a dry spell for the next few days - and I HAVE spent time sitting watching the birds at the feeders . Apart from the usual varieties of tits (blue, great and coal) we have a star attraction. A nuthatch.

I thought it was a woodpecker at first, but his blue and slate colours with pink underside were totally wrong. And he was hanging upside down! (Treecreepers go UP tree trunks, and nuthatches go DOWN.) He really hammers into the peanuts, and seems totally unafraid of humans. But I can never be bothered to fetch the camera (no zoom lens to speak of) so enjoy his company in the flesh. The robin always keeps me company when I am weeding - easy food for him in the disturbed soil.

Ive loads to write about the other changes in my life, but they will have to wait till another post - but its good to be back!