May in Photos

27 May 2016

So May, you have been a busy month but a really good one with it, good busyness is the best kind don't you think?  I am ready for a rest now.  I have once again joined in the Photo Scavenger Hunt hosted by Hawthorn Spellweaver so here are my photos inspired by words and words inspired by photos for May.
Path


 A path on a walk we took on one of our Wednesday nature days.  I love this place it is a few minutes drive from my house, close to a busy motorway and yet we never see anyone when we walk here.  It feels like you are in the middle of nowhere.  The forecast was for rain showers all afternoon, undaunted we set off and had a beautiful afternoon in the sunshine with patches of blue sky and big white fluffy clouds.  I could have stayed out till dark, we were late home this picture was taken at 5.30pm and we still had a fair walk back to the car.

Hairy


A daisy flower fairy with slightly mad hair, taking pride of place on our birthday ring.

Edible 


 Wood Sorrel. Sprouting up everywhere at the moment with its delicate wild flowers.  The leaves have a slightly citrusy taste, if you haven't tried one look out for them next time you are in a wood.

Small


Actually make that tiny, or maybe minute!  A Gorse Shieldbug, one of the topics of our nature study  this month.  Cameron remembered a good place to find gorse so we went off on a hunt to find them in the wild, having learnt about them at home.  Our research paid off as not only did we Alice find the bugs themselves we also found the eggs (also Alice), the bugs are 10 - 13 mm the eggs are significantly smaller.  The gorse was absolutely amazing, a feast for the eyes and nose the bushes covered the hillside and were carpeted in flowers, their wonderful scent filled the air, the smell was divine.

Poem


When I have said my evening words,*
And my clothes are folded on the chair,
And mother switches off the light,
I'll still be six years old tonight.
But, from the very break of day,
Before the children rise and play,
Before the darkness turns to gold
Tomorrow, I'll be seven years old,
Seven kisses when I wake,
Seven candles on my cake!

*we always talk about the good parts of the day and share a poem together.

Hands


Alice making labels for her homemade party bags.

Vintage


This sign rather amused me especially as the gate itself was padlocked shut!  The observant may notice that it is an old railway sign, so it was a necessary message in its day, owned by the company who included the Mallard and Flying Scotsman in their rolling stock the latter came past our house not so long ago.  We see quite a few steam trains rolling along the line at the end of our garden so we have become a little blasé about them passing, we were eating lunch and could hear it coming from a way off, steams trains have a particular sound, we looked up noted it passing and carried on eating it was only later that we discovered it was the Flying Scotsman!

Shadows


I am blessed to live in a beautiful area, full of wide open spaces some of which are spoilt by ugly electricity pylon lines.  On an early evening walk this month I was struck by the beauty of the sunset reflected in this large puddle not realising that I had managed to capture one of those pylons in my picture too!


View from a Window


I did take several pictures when I took this one but managed to delete all but this one!  This has already appeared this month, but I do love it so I hope you don't mind me including it here too!

Flower (my choice of category)


Remember those gorse flowers I mentioned?  Here are some of them, I can still smell them when I look at the pictures.

My busyness this month has meant that I have had days at a time without getting online.  I know that I have not been visiting blogs like I usually do.  I shall be coming a visiting soon, I am sorry I have been a little absent!

Looking forward to what June has to bring, including the prompts for photos.......

35 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos, and words. We have wood sorrel here too, and I love the taste. It is one of the first wild foods my little man learned to identify :)

    We say that birthday poem too. Happiest of days to Alice.

    Wishing you the most wonderful weekend. xo

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    1. Thank you Kim. I think it was probably my children's first wild food that they could identify and taste too, now I think about it ;)

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  2. What a great bunch of photos and can't believe the tiny shield bugs. What a find and along with your wonderful shadow pic, even with the pylon. Forty shillings would have been a lot money for not shutting a gate and I love seeing the old currency on vintage signs and such. Have a lovely weekend and take care.

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    1. Thank you Susan. I can't believe we found any bugs at all. We had walked a fair way and past many bushes before we found one that was covered in them! I had begun to think that we were on a wild goose chase, but Alice was undaunted so it was natural that she should find them and I am glad it was too as it was her choice of topic :).

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  3. I don't know, I think the pylon reflected in the water is rather charming. I know what you mean though, they are a blot on the landscape. Happy belated birthday to Alice.

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    1. I was suprised how good the pylon looked that way, I failed to get my words right! Thank you for the birthday wishes.

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  4. you live in such a beautiful area and I'm glad you are sharing it with us. Isn't it fun to be busy with life? When I was visiting my daughter I didn't have enough time to be on the internet and I liked being away from it. It readjusted myself and made me more aware of the time I do spend.

    I do like the internet though...

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    1. I love the Internet too but it is good to spend time away from it I agree and it is fun to be busy with life.

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  5. A lovely collection of photos. Sadly, we missed the Flying Scotsman when it went over the Border bridge in Berwick. Like you, some of our best views are blighted by pylons and power lines. Have a good weekend, Anne x

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    1. Yes I understand the Flying Scotsman was on a tour round the country. My dad couldn't believe we were so blasé about it passing us, he was really jealous!

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  6. So many good photos! Never tasted wood sorrel but might give it a go... Best photo is the shadows one where the pylon looks so beautiful. But you have steam trains regularly at the bottom of your garden? Dying of envy here but I can claim to have seen Mallard near Skipton back in the mid 1980s!

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    1. Thank you. The west coast mainline is on an embankment at the bottom of the garden. We are far enough north that it is fairly quiet here, just a few trains an hour and yes some of them are steam trains! We often wave at them which always reminds me of the Railway Children :)

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  7. what a lovely collection. I'm late in posting mine. must do it later today x

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  8. You captured some beautiful scenes! Pylons are not pretty that's for sure but I guess necessary to connect remote areas to the grid. I love how you share a poem together, and talk about the good parts of the day. Have a lovely weekend. x

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    1. Thank you! Connecting remote areas to electricity is a good thing but I wish it had been done more sensitively. I am sometimes amazed by the things that people protest about, particularly when they are going to spoil their view but we accept ugly, intrusive (can you tell I don't like them!) pylons as being part of the landscape. They were thrown up in a hurry, imposed on landscapes as a necessity which perhaps they were at the time but I always wish they had been more sensitively planned. I hope you have a good weekend too :)

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  9. I agree with you in the need for sensitive planning when installing these necessities in the landscape. Today's multidisciplinary teams help a bit but there's a long way to go... A lovely, good busy March shows from the photos. Birthday's months have something about them, don't they? Wishing you little girl a wonderful seventh year.

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    1. Birthday months do indeed have something about them!

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  10. Those blooms of wood sorrel look so delicate. And I'd love to run down that path, over the grass, to the trees beyond. Thanks for your lovely photos that give me a glimpse of your life and where you live on the other side of the world. Meg:)

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    1. You are welcome Meg, I am glad you enjoyed it ;)

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  11. What a lovely little poem - we have a 7th birthday coming up this summer so I will definitely use this. Thank you!

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    1. It can be used for any age. :). Just change the numbers to suit the age of the child.

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  12. Lovely post, beautiful words and photos, I can smell the coconutty gorse as well. I guess I'm weird but I quite like pylons, ( I also like brutal architecture so I'm used to being in the minority) We will have some in a field near to our new home, probably would have put some people off but to me they look like something aliens from space marching across the landscape, very 'War of the Worlds'.

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    1. I do like them in some landscapes but here in many of the valleys they cross the look plain awful, it is not so much the architecture of them as the 'mass' of them spoiling the scene.

      Thank you for your kind words :)

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  13. What a lovely selection of photographs. I love it when you look at a picture only to find something in it that was unexpected. That birthday poem is too lovely and such a wonderful tradition for your family.

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    1. Thank you Jak. I am always doing that with photographs!

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  14. Excellent selection! I could smell both the gorse blossom (heavenly coconut) and the shield bug! My favourite? View from a window - love the silhouette x

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    1. Thank you! The gorse smell is amazing isn't it. Thank you so much for hosting once again, looking forward to next months prompts.

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  15. What a lovely poem. I have never heard of it before. The gorse is out in full here too. It smells wonderful. X

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    1. It is lovely isn't it, we have been using it for a few years now (you just change the numbers to suit the child's age)

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  16. I joined in the Scavenger Hunt too, and am doing a round robin to see what everybody else has come up with. I really love your vintage sign, I wish I could put some of those signs up!
    Ellie
    xxx

    http://www.thiscountrygirlsjournal.com/2016/05/may-scavenger-hunt.html

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    1. Hi Ellie, thank you for dropping by :). It's a great sign isn't it, I bet you would find them useful!

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  17. I love the gorse at this time of year - it reminds me of home, that hot thick honeyed smell on the cliffs in the sunshine - lovely!

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    1. It is an amazing smell isn't it, I am glad it was a good reminder ;)

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  18. Hi what lovely photos you really captcher the essence of the moment.
    Jacky

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  19. That poem idea is wonderful! I used to love writing my own poems as a child and to share them with my mum like that would have been great! Your daughter is very clever to have located the shield bugs AND eggs! Are you doing 30 days wild?x

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