A quick five for Friday, things that have cheered and made me smile.
1. In the post
Tea - a delivery of loose leaf tea from the Loose Leaf Tea Company. there are both fruit teas and English Breakfast tea.
Flour - a delivery of bread flour from Shipton Mill. Still no self-raising flour to be had so we ordered three small sachets of baking powder and plain flour.
A beautiful card - It was a nice surprise to receive the wonderful handmade card above from a lovely blogging friend Simone at Linden Grove. How kind and thoughtful of her to send it. I smile every time I look at it. Thank you Simone
2. Stamps
On the envelope of the card was a lovely stamp with lines from a poem by John Clare. It's from a series of stamps featuring the Romantic poets. Poets like, Keats, Shelley, Byron and Wordsworth. Here is a link to some of the others in the set.
I'm not a stamp collector but I do have a few sets of stamps that I've collected over many years. I might be tempted to add the Romantic Poets set to them.
3. Evening Visitors
Dog Fox
Male Badger
Vixen
Vixen
Ralph
4. Mass Observation
On Tuesday I took part in the Mass Observation Archive. I kept notes of all that happened that day and wrote a diary about the happenings and also about my thoughts and feelings about the virus and the lockdown and how it was affecting us.This year is the 10th Anniversary of the 12th May Diary Project. The Mass Observation Project was started in 1937 when people were asked to record everything they did for the whole day on the day of King George VI's Coronation.
5. Garden Birds
Male Blackbird - they sing so sweetly in the mornings and late afternoons.
Robin - I haven't seen any young ones as yet.
Great Tit - there seem to be a lot of them around this year, I love their distinct markings.
Well I said at the beginning of this post that it would be a quick five but it has taken a lot longer than I thought and is a lot longer than I expected.
Those stamps almost make me want to start stamp collecting again
ReplyDeleteThank you Sue, they are lovely stamps arent they?:)
DeleteOh but we are so glad it was longer Rosie!
ReplyDeletelove all of it and especially Ralph! SImone does lovely art work and I love the stams too....I like the idea of the Mass observation, I might look into that.
thanks for sharing xxx
Thank you Lyn, Ralph lives over the road with his sister Pip and brother Dave. Dave is all ginger and Pip looks like Ralph except for a sort of moustache across the top of her mouth, we can tell which is which when they look at us:)
DeleteThank you for the mention Rosie. It was very kind of you. I am glad that you like the stamp too - I thought it was apt as it featured a bird. The tea and the bread look wonderfully packaged. Your evening visitors look such a joy and isn't Ralph lovely! The mass observation project looks interesting, I've not heard of it before now. The garden birds are a welcome sight. Have a lovely weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Simone, both card and stamp were delightful, thank you once again. We do have some lovely evening visitors. From the wildlife camera last night we had fox cubs visit the garden:)
DeleteOh a pretty long post, is lovely!!!!
ReplyDeleteWondering what is meant, by "dog fox." Is 'dog' the gender, or is it really, a hybrid of a dog and a fox?
Lovely things in the mail. Yes, even the flour is lovely, these days!!!!!
Ohhh such pretty stamps!!!!! Way back, when I did snail mail, I always got the prettiest stamps! -smile-
Have never heard of your 12th May Diary Project! What a delightful thing!!!!!!
Gentle hugs,
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Thank you WoW. The male of the fox is called a dog and the female a vixen so a dog fox is a male fox. I thought the stamps were lovely:)
DeleteLovely photos and post Rosie :) I am SO envious of your badger visits and great to get a photo. I am so pleased your flour has arrived and plain flour with added baking powder will be just as good as SR flour! I've only recently heard of the 12th May Diary Project - I must admit in my nature journal and general diary at home I have made only slight mention to what is going on at the moment. Mainly because in the diary there isn't enough room and with my nature diary I try to keep it positive. Love the card you were sent by Simone - such a lovely gesture and the stamp is beautiful. My Dad used to buy all the grandchildren first day covers as they came out and put them in albums. My son loves his - I did try and carry on for a few years after he died but then the local post office shut down and I just got out of the habit. I still buy the occasional set for my son and, like you, I have a small collection of certain ones. Stay safe and well.
ReplyDeleteThank you RR. We put out the camera last night as we heard lots of noise in the garden the night before and wondered if it was fox cubs playing. We saw two cubs on the film visit with dad fox but also later three little badgers visting with Mum badger she is the pale one I posted about a few weeks ago. I only have a few of the stamp sets but always enjoy looking at them as I always forget what I have:)
DeleteA very uplifting post Rosie.
ReplyDeleteWhat could be better, tea and flour to bake with... perfect!
The card from your friend is lovely, what a special stamp adorned it.
We have a plethora of tits this year, blue, coal, long tail and great I don't think I have ever seen so many flitting about on our feeders.
Thank you Julie, glad you enjoyed the post. We seem to have more tits than finches this year they were flitting over the heather and in the plant pots yesterday looking for bugs:)
DeleteBeautiful photos and how wonderful to have a badger visit your garden. I love the stamp. John Clare is one of my favourite poets.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jean, it is lovely to have the badgers but we have had to protect the raised beds from them this year as they do like digging for root vegetables. When we lived in South Lincolnshire we weren't too far from Helpstone and would visit occasionlly to see John Clare's birthplace and his grave in the churchyard:)
DeleteYou are stocked up again with the most important luxuries to keep you happy and smiling! John Clare has cropped up again! It's all the nature everyone is noticing at the moment. We've been keeping an eye on it for years. Beautiful photos and stamps, Rosie. 😊
ReplyDeleteThank you Karen, it's good to be able to have homemade bread again. John Clare is a good poet for today's times isn't he? I'm glad more people are discovering both poet and nature but I hope they respect nature and beautiful places too:)
DeleteLove your garden visitors and great pics of them too. I'm off to check out the tea company........CNx
ReplyDeleteHello and thank you for visiting, this was the first time we'd had tea from that company so far so good:)
DeleteI was wondering how you tell a dog fox from a female, we have several that visit and would like to know.
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
Thank you Briony, we can only tell at this time of year because her tummy shows she is or has been suckling young. Two of the cubs came to visit last night with the male fox and they seemed to be eating the dog biscuits we put out but not the meat as they couldn't work out the bowl and seemed a bit afraid of it even thogh Dad was eating from it:)
DeleteI as ever remain in awe of your garden visitors. Honestly, you live in a nature reserve. I think I have said that before! Love the pic of the great tit and those stamps are lovely. Does plain flour with baking powder work the same as s r flour? X
ReplyDeleteThank you Sharon. Even though we are in the city we have a small green area behind the back garden which is the school's nature reserve and just a street away a huge area of fields and another nature reserve it used to be farmland, pottery and pit tip. We are very lucky to have all these visitors. I'm going to give the plain flour and baking powder a go next week, I just need to check the ratio of bp to flour, I'll report back with the results:)
DeleteOk..X
DeleteHaven't baked this week. Have put on weight during lockdown. 🙄
Lovely post & as Sharon says, I am too, in awe of your garden visitors. Even a card in these difficult times is so thoughtful & that one is cute. My Dad was a stamp collector & so is my brother-in-law in Leeds. Thanks for sharing, take care, stay safe & huggles.
ReplyDeleteThank you Susan, we were lucky to see fox cubs the night before last just two of them but I guess there are more. I'm always thrilled to see them. My cousin is a proper stamp collector and has examples of all British ones over the years and big folders full of them. Take care:)
DeleteMay 17th
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment on our awful wind and T-storm. We and family, are all safe, and that's what really counts.
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I hope things get back to normal soon. Take care:)
DeleteI've just started buying loose tea and trying all sorts of different ones (though I think a cup of Tetley/Yorkshire tea remains my favourite!!). How to nice to receive the card. Some lovely garden sightings :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Pam, I like English Breakfast most then Earl Grey, P has the fruit teas which always smell wonderful but never taste quite as good as they small. I'm always thrilled with our garden visitors:)
DeleteThis is such an interesting post, Rosie. I love your wildlife photos. Glad you managed to track down some flour. At least you’ll be able to make something tasty to enjoy with your tea. Hope you are staying safe and well. Marie x
ReplyDeleteThank you Marie, we are lucky to have the visitors to take photos of and to enjoy having them in the garden:)
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