A day out with the ducks

Hello again and thank you for joining me here. I hope you have had a good week.

Yesterday hubby and I went to the Wolseley Centre in Staffordshire, which is an area of natural beauty and home to a variety of wildlife.

It was a perfect day for strolling around, and we made a few feathered friends along the way.

The ducks clearly believe that the role of all humans is to bring them  breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks on a 24/7 basis. Unfortunately we disappointed them on this job role!!

Another group of animals that we found taking full advantage of human intervention were these very clever but cheeky squirrels. 

Are these two squirrels practising for the synchronized bird seed stealing event?

This is by far the fattest squirrel we had ever seen.

We also found some rather lovely sculptures which had a nature theme. I'm not that keen on spiders so I did keep my distance from this one sitting in its web.

And this carved wooden sculpture with ducks, otters and fish reflected the many watery areas in the nature reserve.

This was a lovely place to visit and I'm sure we will be going back there  soon.

Have a great week all of you whatever the weather and however you choose to spend the week xx

Hidden car park

Hello to you all 👋

It has been such a hot sunny weekend here in this 'Small Corner'. I hope you have had a fantastic weekend too, whether you are a sun lover or prefer a little shade.

On Saturday we revisited a park area not far from our daughters flat in south Birmingham. 

It is a lovely open area hidden away behind the busy high street, with plenty of seats and trees to cast some welcome shade for a picnic.

 

So guess what we did ?

Picnic in the park anyone....

We have also finished a little more of the front garden project recently. Like lots of people we need space to park the car and sometimes need a little extra space when we have visitors or a large van in the drive. However I don't want to have a car park for a front garden. I am enjoying having a flowery garden. We came up with the idea of a car that can be hidden within the garden. The plastic squares are filled with white and grey stones and concreted at the corners to keep it firm while the car wheels run over it. The four rectangles have porous membrane underneath so allow water to run through, so all is good with the drainage

This is the other half of the drive where the car currently lives. It would be good to do something similar on this side too, maybe lifting a few of the bricks to put some more plants in to make it less car parky. But that is for another time. I will let you know how things progress.

It looks as though this week is going to be very warm and sunny here, so I am getting out the suncream, hat and sunglasses and will be searching for some shade to sit in while sipping an ice cold something...

Please continue to stay safe all of you and I will catch up with you next week xx





 

Looking after the birds

Hello and thank you for visiting me here. Whether you have been here several times or this is your first visit I'm sending a friendly wave .

I have been pootling around again this week and by the weekend I really felt that I needed to get out and about. Upton upon Severn is fairly close by and hubby and I were able to spend a few hours strolling around this very pretty riverside town. These lovely flower tubs lined one of the narrow streets by the river. The brick wall and glass infill on the left form part of the flood defences for when the River Severn rises beyond its banks. 

It seems very tranquil but I'm sure it is devastating when the waters rise too high and there is iminent danger of flooding.

This is Winston who came to visit on Sunday afternoon with my son and his partner. He is such a cutey and enjoyed wandering around the garden.

 

 

Also this weekend, I was looking for an  easy project for the garden and this is what I came up with. A bird feeder and bird bath all in one. The containers are plastic but I think are being put to good use here. 

 

The bottom tier just has gravel in it, the middle tier has seeds and the top tier is the bird bath with a few stones for small birds to perch on. It is a perfect height and I can see it from both the kitchen window and the conservatory windows. I'm hoping it won't be too long before the birds start visiting. I did think about using terracotta pots, but it was dificult to get all the right sizes I needed and is expensive.

 

I shall see how this version works out and then maybe slowly get the terracotta pieces as I find them, and can afford them. For now this is the model on display in this 'Small Corner'

 

Have a lovely week all of you whatever your plans are x
 

For the love of dragonflies

It's the start of July and I am still loving the dragonflies in the garden. 

 

 

This week a dear friend visited me and we found something quite exciting down by the pond among the tall grasses and irises.

 

These are the skins the dragonflies emerge from as they change from larvae  to full dragonfly. After spending the first part of their lives under water the larvae climb up the stems of tall pond plants, hold on tightly with their legs and begin the process of transformation. The adult emerges through a small split in the back of the larvae casing and  then dries off before taking its first flight. We found lots of the larvae shells still attached to grasses and other foliage around the pond. I have never seen this before so it was something really special. 

In celebration of my dragonfly love I made a few cards and a simple necklace this week as well.

I'm starting to get cross stitch itchy fingers again, so have another project to start this week.

Not saying what it is going to be yet but you can see the colours I will be using. A bit of a tease I know but that is part of the fun. 

 

 

Have a lovely week all of you and a very Happy 4th of July to all of my friends in the USA  xx

'Rain showers and light breeze'. Really!!

 

Sometimes it rains and sometimes it pours, and then on some Friday evenings it just floods, despite the weather forecast insistance that it's only: 'rain showers and light breeze'. 

Hmm... not what I see in this small corner. 

 

Poor hubby was frantically trying to sweep a swimming pool in to a teacup size drain! And all this happened in about half an hour!! Looking back this kind of rain happened in early May as well.

Meanwhile when the garden wasn't flooding, some of my poppies decided to add a bit of individuality to their display.

This one decided to buck the trend of black centre and opt for a toned down white and pale grey centre instead.

And this one definitely wanted to stand out from the crowd. What a beautiful show off. Looks a lot like a can can skirt to me!!

In the kitchen, I found a recipe for this Summer pudding which was very  easy to adapt. The base is crushed ginger biscuits. Great activity for taking out any pent up frustrations!

I think any biscuit that doesn't get soggy too quickly in a cup of tea would work here. Next I used some red fruits from the garden (last years frozen), lightly stewed and left to get cold. Again any combination of stewed fruit would be just as good. This is topped with cream but it could be yoghurt or anything else you fancy topping it with. The finishing touch was the remainder of the biscuit crumbs with with a few chocolate sprinkles. Heavenly!!

I did feel a little more creative this week and decided to transform a cheap noticeboard into something a little prettier.

I re-purposed some packing fleece, used to keep foods fresh in transit, and used it as the backing for the cork side of the board. Covered it with a flowery fat square and added the ribbons.

I used some spare buttons for the intersections before sticking the whole thing on to the cork board with double sided tape (just in case I need to remove it at a later date).

 

It is now hanging on the back of my craft room ☺

And finally, I managed to get my eyes tested this weekend and will soon have some lovely new specs. Should have done it ages ago but....

I'm also having some magnetic sunglasses that fit on the front of my ordinary lenses. I always find it frustrating which to wear, sunglasses and then not able to read because they're not prescription or prescription specs and being blinded by the sunlight. I'm not keen on transition specs  or paying extra for a second pair of prescription sunglasses. Oh well, lets hope there is time this summer to try them out.

Have a lovely week everyone and thank you for stopping by to say 'hello'.

Stay safe xx