52 Weeks of Happy - Week Twenty Eight

Summer is here at last!  I seem to have spent the whole week in a sort of heat induced, slightly fazed out state of mind although some things have been achieved - I'm not quite sure how!  We managed to pick loads of gooseberries and quite a few strawberries in the cool early morning air one day last week and made jam and a summer pudding too.  We also visited a lovely woodland garden where it was blissfully cool walking under the trees.  I'll post more about the garden later next week and then go back to writing a few more posts about  places we visited on our recent stay in Wales. 

 Anyway here are four simple things that have made me smile this week

1.  Making Jam - we managed ten jars of gooseberry and five of strawberry.  I also used strawberries in the summer pudding plus raspberries and cherries bought locally.  I usually add blackcurrants which gives the pudding a richer, darker look but they still haven't ripened yet, so this one looks a bit paler than normal but it was very tasty and refreshing.

2.  Hare Sculptures - one of fourteen in and around Hare Hill the woodland garden we visited on Thursday morning.  As I mentioned above I'll write more about this small but lovely garden in my next post.  I was enchanted by it especially by the hares but also by the walled garden and the vegetable plot.

3. Squirrels - still keeping us amused, still pinching the bird food.  The one in the photo had managed to get the last bit of fat ball out of the feeder and was leaning on the fence post enjoying his plunder.  In the early morning and late evening there are three or four squirrels chasing each other and rolling around, I love watching them.  We sat out really late one evening when it was too warm to go inside and watched the bats swooping and diving, I was hoping to see the hedgehog or the fox, both of which leave evidence of their nocturnal visits, but they would, of course, have known we were there and kept away until we finally went indoors.

4. Mr B - aka  'Barbie Girl' - yes I know he's a male blackbird!  This is his third summer in and around our garden and he regales us with his song which sounds exactly like the first bit of the song by Aqua (I think!?) that goes 'I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world' etc.  We aren't hearing it so much now but through May and June it was non stop from about 4.30a.m.  We know that it is Mr B singing that particular tune because we can recognise him from the grey bits on his sides.

Linking up with  Little Birdie  where  '52 weeks of Happy' started. Each week you find just four things that have made you happy to share.