April in Photos

It has been a month of contrasts.  Quiet times, busy times.  All seasons of weather, but most definitely April showers.  We have soaked it all up and noticed: 

Orange

Lichen on a rock in a drystone wall.  I haven't been able to identify it............

Feather

I have to admit I struggled with this category.  We didn't find a single feather during the month, or something that resembled one.  Taking photos of birds is really difficult and not something I am particularly good at.  I then had the idea of taking some photos of our bird feeders when this little Robin came visiting.  You would be forgiven for thinking, given my difficulty with this category,  that I took this photo months ago and have sneaked it in here but I can assure you that this was taken yesterday afternoon (28 April) it snowed on and off all day!

Something Fresh

...as a daisy, which have grown in their wonderful carpets this month.  Did you know that Daisy's get their name from day's eye as they close their petals up at night and spread them during the day?  Hence the expression as a fresh as a daisy, you have had a good sleep and are a full of energy just like the flower.

Horizon

The view from the spot where our singing/nature group meets on a friend's farm.  The hills in the distance are the view from my house (I live on the other side of them).

Wet

I could have used this for feather but it was much more about wet, a scrape at a bird reserve we visited for the day when my parents came for a visit.  The Avocets were back for the summer and feeding in the water.  They were one of 53 species we saw during our visit. 

Craft

You are probably wondering what on earth it is?  A craft on two counts, a canoe shed built by my husband in our front garden.  It is empty at the moment but will eventually house two open canoes (scroll to bottom).  We have a large garage/workshop at the back of our house, but with two open canoes, two sea kayaks and a general purpose kayak the garage bit was getting a little full (not to mention a chest freezer, seven bikes, scooters and all the gardening equipment) we have been doing some building work at the front our house and decided that part of the garden would make a good place to store some of our boats.  It will have a green roof, we also have one on our garage roof (again scroll to the bottom), hence the slight tilt so that it can be viewed in all its, eventual, glory from the house.

Growing

My garlic is shooting!  I planted this in mid January, normally I plant in late October/ Early November but it was so wet then and for the rest of the year I decided to wait.  I am not sure whether they would have survived the 9.3m of rain we had in November and December!

Memories

April is the month when the wild garlic is ready for picking in my area and a huge carpet of them grows in one of our local woods.   We lived in the village nearest this wood when we got married and would visit often for a short walk at the weekends.  It was the place I took both of my children for the first big walk of their lives it took about six hours with lots of stops, now we can walk round in a couple.  We have spent two years, one when Alice was a baby and last year visiting every month to observe the changes in nature.  We always visit a this time of year to pick the wild garlic to make pesto.  It is one of my favourite places to take a walk and is close to where I live now.

Sticks

A stick lady puppet made at our singing/nature group.  She has a rather Barbiesque waist which was not intentional I can assure you, luckily my children don't know who Barbie is.

Flower (my choice of category)

A beautiful camellia flower from a small tree, covered in these wonderful blooms, in the grounds of a the buddhist temple we visited with our home ed friends.   I will hasten to add we didn't pick it, we found it on the ground next to the plant.

Joining in with the Photo Scavenger Hunt hosted by Hawthorn Spellweaver.  I have really enjoyed this challenge.  I have seen photo scavenger hunts on other blogs but the categories didn't pull me in to take part, but this one did.  I loved that all these categories were a catalogue of our daily lives and I wasn't take pictures for pictures sake if you get what I mean?   I am looking forward to seeing the categories for next month.......