Busy Bank Holiday Weekend

 

Friday and Saturday saw some gardening, generally tidying up so the wheelie bin could go out this morning as I'm not in the office. Popped over to Notcutts with Dad looking for clay pebbles given I'd been let down by Amazon but as with most of the garden centres, they don't sell them which is kind of weird. They are a pot topper essentially and help to keep the moisture in.

My neighbour had done a floral exhibit at Boxley Church for their flower festival this weekend celebrating the Queens Jubilee. She got to decorate the pulpit in the theme of Armed Forces. The image above representing her take on said theme. Awesome as always, she borrowed hats and a uniform from a friend of a friend and has created a fitting tribute to the Veterans. All in all the floral displays were really good and we whiled away most of the morning there taking photos. The HDR on the camera tackled some of the more complex areas rather well, every now and then it will surprise me.

Left there to head down to Dockside to see if The Range had any of the Safina Bistro sets available, I'd come across it earlier in the summer but as i wanted to see if spray painting my existing metal chairs would suffice (they were peeling and going rusty) I just took a photo of it to know what it was for later. Having checked on Amazon (where else) for similar sets I couldn't find anything and so having mentioned I was going to try and get it delivered Dad said let's pop down and take a look. Managed to get the last one on the shelf, all boxed up, brought it home and checked it out and it's now safely tucked up in the garage for next year.

Finally, having bought a few 2nd hand books at the Church for a friend's son I headed up to Julia and James's to drop them off and came back with a little friend for the garden...

This little character was a pressie from Julia and James for the garden, a blue tit, he's been popped into the trough underneath the dining room window as that was deep enough for the metal spike - the butler sink being too shallow to comfortably provide enough support.

Monday has seen me stay at Chez Ware to catch up on some chores before it's back to the grind tomorrow. No peace for the wicked as they say 😉

Orange Everything!

 

So Thursday morning, up at 6am initially for the tablet alarm, and I see an orange glow everywhere. In my room (the curtains are a dusky pink) so thought it might have just been those reflecting the light, but every room I moved into had the same weird orange look to everything in it. 

Took a few images on the mobile to record the "event" and then went back to bed, it cleared almost as quickly as I'd noticed it, by around 6:30am all started to look more normal. Unsure if it was the effects of the sunrise, according to the rain app sunrise was 5:59am that morning, but it was heavy cloud and you couldn't see any sign of the sun until more or less around when the top image was taken which was 6:23am.

Weird for sure ???

Fort Luton - Classic Cars

 

So Sunday saw Dad, Tedster and I head along to Fort Luton for a classic car show. Very interesting place right on the doorstep. Little light on the cars on the Sunday, think they'd had a few more entries on Saturday who were booked at other shows on the Sunday but those there were very interesting.

There's two tunnels turned into museum space with some good items in there, mostly pertaining to various wars. All in all it's quite a quaint venue and worth a couple of hours to look around it. There's also a Royal Navy Museum area and a café. 

Fort Luton

New Garden Poppy

 

Friday saw me mosey up to Home Bargains for a few supplies - went and bloody lost my list walking round which was uber annoying and meant I didn't actually remember everything that had been on it. I scoured the aisles looking for it but reckon either someone's kid picked it up or a member of staff on a tidy-up mission.

One of the things I did pick up which wasn't on the list, who sticks to a list ;-) was this awesome metal poppy which I've placed in the butler sink opposite the somewhat smaller daffodil. Brightens up the yard though :-)

Having realised I forgot the Quench Lemon Tea I thought I would look on Amazon, my goto online shop, yes they had it... but at over £7 for two bags which only cost me 89p each in store I decided I'd just need to revisit sooner rather than later. Maybe a job after work tomz if I can be bothered to walk along to the shops, although equally I need to collect my meds so that should be incentive enough to walk the extra distance - IF it's not raining that is ☔

First Rain

 

A quick collage of a few piccies shot from the studio window of one of the first heavy showers we've had in weeks. It was bouncing off the decking and making large puddles in the yard. All very welcome after the days of heat and the weeks without a decent amount of rain.

Although now I'm hoping to keep avoiding it on my forays into the office - something I've not missed whilst WFH.

Happy Frog!

 

So having tried a couple of times, unsuccessfully, to keep this little chap away from one of the local cats, Dad came over and took him back to his pond to hopefully live out his time with the koi fish. This is the little chap making himself at home on the lily pads before hopping off!

No real idea where he came from, he hopped out of one of my plants whilst I was watering and there's no obvious pond around nearby so initially I popped him underneath the plants where I thought he'd get some shade and be reasonably safe from predators. Cue the cat who lives two doors down and the bloody thing kept terrorising the frog and after a couple of rescue attempts I decided enough was enough. Now the cat knew the frog was around it would keep seeking it out. Hence the rescue mission to catch the frog and rehome him somewhere safe.

Hot, Hot, Hot

 

So yesterday as I've said, I spent most of the day lounging on the decking trying to stay out of the sun and make the most of the breeze. It ended up being a bit like musical chairs with either me or the brolly moving around to try and stay in some semblance of shade!

This was early on when I was sitting in one of the rattan chairs, from there I moved to the recliner deckchair and after that the sofa.

As much as the decking is lovely to have I'm not really an all-round outdoorsy type of girl - too many bugs for that, especially the flying variety. Still I lasted most of the day and indeed went back up there in the evening for some night shots for the family challenge.

Today has been too hot to be outside, so holed up indoors with the windows and curtains shut just trying not to get overheated. Pretty much nada in the way of breeze outside and quite frankly it's wearing pretty thin, I'd rather have some more normal, British weather thank you very much. Am sure the 'bro and family are enjoying the endless sunshine whilst they are on holiday in Norfolk. They aren't used to getting this much sunshine on their holidays 🤣 😎

Cherry Laurel

 

So whilst relaxing up on the decking, and having swept it off earlier in the day, it seems these cherry type fruits are once again making an appearance on it. Think this means they are cherry laurels and whilst the fruit may look inviting they are in fact poisonous to people, cats & dogs although the birds love them...

Yeah don't I know it when I keep finding berry coloured bird poop where I'd rather it not be thanks very much 🥴

They start off a red colour and gradually darken to black, or almost black. Hopefully won't get too many squashed anywhere and stain the composite decking.

Latest Family Photo Challenge

 

So yesterday, it being yet another too hot day again, although a better breeze than today 🥵 I spent some time up on the decking with the long lens on the M50 taking ideas for the latest family photo challenge - From Where I Stand. Or in my case yesterday, Sit!

This is just one of them taken on the mobile. Was quite relaxing and no effort on my part other than my brain wracking itself for ideas 🤔

It's a novel subject matter, the main premise being to perhaps select a square area, maybe 1/2 a metre square, and snap whatever you can see whilst staying within that perimeter. To be frank we're running out of ideas after 2+ years of family snapping!

Visitor to the Garden

 

Actually it is a frog - Google Lens is a wonderful thing - mind you to be fair it struggled with this image and so I looked up the difference between a frog and a toad manually 🤣

This little dude jumped out of my pot of pinks that hang on the wall near Mum's sewing machine. I'd taken the pot down to water it in the evening and out he jumped - near scared me half to death!

Managed a quick snap on the phone and after I went back to watering the yard's pots he jumped off into the corner and I've not seen him since. Put a bowl of water out yesterday underneath one of the large plants to see if he will come back. No idea where he's come from given I didn't think we had any nearby ponds.

Just hope he manages to find somewhere to keep damp and out of the sun and away from the bloody cats that frequent my garden.

Vintage Bike Show

 

Sunday saw Dad, me and Tedster head over to Aylesford Priory for a vintage bike show - uber hot and sunny weather so we donned hats and I wore a 3/4 sleeve shirt over my vest, we took the cameras and little folding stools so we'd have something to sit on for lunch if we managed to find any shade!

Had a really good day, more different makes of bike than I've ever seen at a show before but Dad knew most if not all of them! Had a really good chat to a bloke about his scooter and trailer - something I've never seen before:

This was post the restoration following a fire which pretty much damaged most of the vehicle:

He was exhibiting two scooters and also owned at least one of the bubble cars back home (think he was Dutch?).

All in all a lovely day and really friendly people who were only too happy to chat about their pride and joy!