Five for Friday

June passed by so swiftly and it looks as if July is going to do the same.  Most of the days have been dull, grey and sometimes cold. Damp too with the occasional gleam of sunshine through the cloud.  Yesterday it just rained and rained.  Consequently garden produce hasn't done very well at all.  Strawberries are still hard and green.  A few tomatoes have ripened and so have the gooseberries.

Above the first two tomatoes from the greenhouse. 

 

A few more picked today.

Above the pickings from the only two gooseberry bushes that have produced fruit this year.

 

We've been pottering around locally except for one visit to a friend who lives in Derbyshire. 

We had a quick stop in Bakewell on the way.  We took a couple of bags of clothes to a charity shop, had a cup of coffee and visited a couple of shops before we moved on.  We bought a Bakewell pudding from one of the pudding shops to give as a treat for lunch.

The love locks are still on the bridge over the river from the car park and cattle market.  I wonder if they will have to be removed if they make the bridge unsafe?  I was lucky to catch the bridge with nobody on it.

The flowers at Trentham Gardens have been lovely and we've managed a couple of walks in between showers.

The foxes have been very active in the garden.  I took a photo of this one as it had it's nose in a pot of Lupins.

Paul took the one below of a couple of cubs.

Books.  Three from the library and one I treated myself to.

I couldn't resist 'The Book of Wildflowers' with words by Christopher Stocks and illustations by Angie Lewin. It's delightful.  'Hands of Time' is by local watchmaker Rebecca Struthers and is her personal history of watches and time.  The 'Geometry of Holding Hands' is an Isabel Dalhousie novel from Alexander McCall Smith.  It's a while since I read one of these and I'd forgotten how soothing they are.  It's a gentle antidote to some of the gruesome crime novels I've been reading recently.  'The Man in Black' is a book of short stories by Elly Griffiths.  I picked it up from the library today and I see it has a Ruth and Nelson story in it as well as others including her characters Harbinder Kaur, Max Mephisto and Flint (Ruth's cat).  I'm looking forward to this.

 

All for now.

Five on Friday - the Dinosaurs of China

On Wednesday we visited an exhibition we'd had tickets for since March.  It seemed a long time since we'd booked the visit but the day had finally arrived.  Our time slot was 11.30a.m. 

Our destination was Wollaton Hall in Nottingham where, according to the poster, it's all happening.  It was busy but not as busy as we thought it would be, outside marquees and refreshment facilities and extra portaloos were in place.  We parked easily under the trees, in the shade and were in plenty of time for our entry slot.

The exhibition is entitled  'Dinosaurs of China,  Ground Shakers to Feathered Flyers' and is a joint operation between China, Nottingham City Council and Nottingham University. It is, according to naturalist Chris Packham in his introduction to the exhibition, 'a once in a lifetime experience exhibiting dinosaur skeletons and fossils never before seen outside of Asia.'

The message as you head towards the exhibits is that 'you may never look at dinosaurs or birds  the same way again'  as they try to answer what they term 'a ticklish question'  the question being  'could birds be the relatives of long lost dinosaurs?'   Since our last visit earlier this year the layout of the galleries had been altered and many of the exhibitions put away so that the skeletons, fossils and illustrations could be housed.  The exhibition moves through three areas, dinosaurs that didn't have feathers, those that did and proto or early birds.  The conclusion, which apparently has been known for quite a few years now is that
'dinosaurs are not extinct, birds are dinosaurs'

As it is Friday I'm showing you five photos from the exhibition for no particular reason other than that they are the best of the ones I could manage as trying to take photos around other people and especially groups of school children was quite difficult as was the light from the windows in some of the galleries.

1.  Protoceratops - is described as a humble relative of the mighty Triceratops.  A herbivore its period is late Cretaceous and many have been found throughout northern China and Mongolia.  It would have been the size of sheep.

2. Mamenchisaurus - was a late Jurassic herbivore and was discovered in Sichuan Province, central China.  It is classed in this exhibition as a peaceful plant eating ground shaker.

3. Lufengosaurus - was the first dinosaur  discovered, studied and displayed by Chinese scientists.  Another herbivore found in Yunnan Province in South Western China its age is early Jurassic and it would have been about the size of a transit van.

4.  Oviraptor - about the size of an emu and possibly an omnivore.  When first found it was laid on a nest of dinosaur eggs and was thought to be an egg thief caught in the act.  That is what its name means.  Since it was found many other fossilised Oviraptors have been found sitting on nests.  Its age is late Cretaceous and examples have been found across Mongolia and northern China.

5.  Linheraptor - this was a complete skeleton found in rock and is known as Velociraptor's Big Brother.  It is thought to have had feathers like other raptors. It was a carnivore of the late Cretaceous period and was found in inner Mongolia in north west China.  It was thought to be about the size of a bicycle.

Some of the background illustrations in the exhibition were wonderful so I've chosen five to put in the collage above to show you.

Joining in with Tricky at F.A.S.T blog for this weeks Five on Friday.  Use the link below to visit his blog and find others who are taking part this week.

Five on Friday

I wasn't sure if  I'd be able to join in with this week's Five on Friday as we have been away for a few days and there has been lots of catching up to do since we got home yesterday.  As you can imagine I had lots of photos to download but I've found a few and will write a longer post about some of the visits in later posts.

Below are five random photos taken at places we have visited over the last few days. 

1.  Selly Manor Museum in Bournville - we spent a happy afternoon wandering around both village and museum.  More in a later post.

2.  Henry the Cat who seemed to follow us around as we visited both the ruins of Bordesley Abbey and the Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch.  There are little black and white cat toys called Henry in the shop as he is such a popular part of the visit.

 3.  Geological Bear - one of the 100 plus bears that can be found around the Birmingham area as part of the Big Sleuth Trail and painted by school children who are members of the Little Bears Detective Club whilst fund raising for the Birmingham Children's Hospital.  This bear was in the foyer of the Lapworth Museum on the Birmingham University Campus.

4.  Pitcher Plants in the Gilbert Orchid House at Winterbourne House and Gardens at the opposite side of the Birmingham University campus to the Lapworth Museum.  With the wonderful Barber Institute in between.

5.  Tired legs and feet after walking from the station to the Lapworth Museum, across the campus to the Barber Institute and then a little further to Winterbourne House and gardens and of course, walking around each place as well.  More about all the places we visited in further posts.

Joining in with Tricky and Carly from the FAST blog for this week's Five on Friday. Click on the link below to see others taking part.

Five on Friday - Five from the Garden

I haven't joined in with Five on Friday for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd just quickly participate this week and show you five flowers from the garden.

As you can see from the photos it's looking very blue and orange at the moment.

 1.  French Marigold

 2.  Hardy Geranium

 3.  California (n?) Poppies

 4.  Blue Borage

5.  Clematis 

Joining in with Tricky and Carly at FAST blog click on the link below to find more bloggers joining in this week.

Five on Friday - Five from Conwy

I missed joining in with last week's Five on Friday as we were away from home for a few days visiting North Wales (see my last post).  It had been some time since we had visited the little walled town of Conwy so we popped in for a day from where we were staying near Porthmadog to rediscover its charms and its wonderful historic buildings.

1.  Conwy Castle - the 13th century castle was built by Master James of St George for King Edward I (1239 - 1307) as one of his fortifications in Wales at a cost of £15,000.  The castle dominates the town which is enclosed by walls of the same period as the castle.  Climbing to the top of its towers will reward you wonderful views of both mountains and sea.

2. Aberconwy House - is a 14th Century Merchant's House which is the only one of its kind in Conwy to survive past the turbulent years of of the Civil Wars in the 17th century.  The room attendant we spoke to told us that the first known and recorded owner of the house was called Evan David.  Apparently he  was sympathetic to the Parliamentary cause even though the castle was in the hands of the Royalists at the time.  In the early 19th century the house was lived in by a Captain Samuel Williams who dealt in slate, copper and lead.  By the mid 19th century the house was a Temperance Hotel and joined to the building next door, both buildings are in the hands of the National Trust. We were told that the rents from the building next door helped with the upkeep of the older property.  

3. Plas Mawr - is an absolute gem.  It has been described as 'the finest Elizabeth townhouse in the Britain' and I wouldn't disagree.  It was built c. 1570 by local landowner Robert Wynn.  On one of the main streets of Conwy its frontage at street level is a gatehouse, behind that is a courtyard and then there are steps up to the main house which as you see from the photo above leads into two other sections of house at different levels,  the building at the back is now an art gallery. There is also a courtyard garden between two parts of the house and a tower room with views over the town rooftops to the castle and the quayside.  I will take you inside in another post as there is so much to see.

4.  Suspension Bridge - is a Grade 1 listed structure and is one of the first road suspension bridges in the world.  Opened in 1826 its architect was ThomasTelford and the engineers Robert Stephenson, William Fairbairn and Eaton Hodgkinson.  You can walk across to the toll house on the other side and see how the toll keeper and his wife lived and worked in a very small space just over 100 years ago.  We were met at the door by the room attendant who had spoken to us much earlier in the day at Aberconwy House as the Toll House and Bridge are cared for by the National Trust.  He was extremely knowledgeable about both places.

5. The Smallest House - can be found on the quayside built against the town walls.  It is 6ft wide and just over 10ft high. Built in the 16th century it was occupied until May 1900.  The last person to live there was fisherman Robert Jones who was 6ft 3ins in height.  Inside is a settle next to a fireplace and up a short ladder is a single bed and beside table.  The house is apparently still owned by the descendants of Robert Jones.

Joining in Five on Friday organised by Tricky and Carly at the FAST blog.  Do click on the link below and visit all the other bloggers who are taking part this week.

Five on Friday

I was looking at some of the the books on our bookshelves wondering which books, if any, I could bear to part with.  Obviously some books are taken off the shelves  more often than others  so I got diverted into thinking about  which books were used most often.

Of course, it happens to be reference books and cookery books which are most often used so I've decided to share Five of the ones that are taken off the shelves most frequently.

They aren't a very inspiring selection of books, their covers, quite plain, old fashioned and possibly quite boring to look at but inside them is a wealth of information.   

1.  The Cranks Recipe Book -  I wish I'd had this book when I first stopped eating meat in the early 1970s but I didn't and struggled half-heartedly to give up meat entirely throughout that decade.  I remember eating at both Cranks and Oodles restaurants in London during the 70s and being inspired by their food, as I was by Sarah Brown's Terrace Project in Scarborough, but it was in the early eighties when Paul had been made redundant that we decided to manage without meat as we couldn't afford to buy it very often so it seemed a good idea not to buy it at all.  Our first Vegetarian recipe books were those by Rose Elliott and Sarah Brown and then we bought the Cranks book.  You can see how well thumbed it is, the pages are loose, yellowed and spattered with remnants of cooking but it is a well used and well loved book. Over the last few years we have gradually re-introduced some types of fish back into our diet,  Paul eats it more than I do and shares it with the cat.  I think the recipes we use most from this book are the nut roast recipe, Crecy plate pie which is an onion and carrot pie, Homity pie and Devon Apple cake.

2.  We love the bird visitors to our garden and feed them all year round.  We also love spotting and photographing different birds on our walks and also on holidays by the sea.  We have several books about birds but this one is the book that is most often pulled off the shelves for a quick identification of anything unusual that appears in the garden.  It is dated 1974, so again a fairly old, well used and well loved book.

3.  I have several of these King's England books by Arthur Mee picked up over the years in second hand book shops. On the book shelves are copies relating to the Midlands counties of Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire as well as the Derbyshire one above.  It is the Derbyshire one I use the most and often consult it when I'm looking for background information on perhaps a village, church or stately home in the county usually when I am writing a blog post.  Of course, nowadays, I use the Internet quite a bit too to find things out, but it is interesting to see what these books of the 1930s say about some of the places we visit and about some of the buildings that no longer exist.

4. Another useful book which is often consulted when we've spotted an unusual butterfly or moth in the garden.  We used to have quite a few more of these creatures visit the garden when we first came here but we don't see so many now.  I remember years ago when we were both studying for degrees with the Open University.  I was studying the Arts and Paul was doing Sciences.  One of his projects included a study of moths and he was issued with a moth trap as part of the course materials.  Whilst he was trapping and recording moths I was studying 'England in the 17th Century.'  My favourite book from that time was Christopher Hill's 'The World Turned upside Down' - feels a bit like that at the moment.

5.  Another fairly old book which seems to have been on our bookshelves for ages.  We've used it often to identify plants we've spotted whilst out walking and in the garden.  For the last two years we've been inundated with Wood Avens in the garden and we were able to identify it from this book.  We've cleared much of it from the flower beds as it was growing in with the hardy geraniums and with the buttercups which also threaten to overwhelm the beds sometimes.  Self Heal or Woundwort was another plant we identified, this grows in the grass and some of the flower beds too, as do dog violets and forget-me-not, all self seeding, every year.

Joining in this week with Tricky and Carly at the FAST blog.  Click on the link below to find others who are participating in Five on Friday this week.

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary so we are going out for the day.  I'll catch up with you all later today or over the weekend.

Five on Friday

Friday has come around so quickly this week.  I've been busy pottering about clearing and decluttering.  One bag went out for Age UK yesterday and two boxes of old mugs, glasses, cutlery and dishes are ready to take to the Cats Protection shop soon.

We took an afternoon out of looking after an elderly, twenty one year old cat who needs lots of attention and visited Shugborough Hall (see my previous post).

It has been wonderful to actually get washing completely dry outside and the grass has been cut too.

I also grabbed my camera and went out into the garden where I found lots of new blooms and buds to admire.

Below are five things I spotted.

 1.  Blossom on the Victoria plum tree at the top of the garden

2. Buds on the Peony in the front garden, sadly the peony in the back garden didn't survive the winter and extra damp soil from last summer's floods.

3. Flowers on the Amelanchier (Snowy Mespilus)Tree.  It will soon be a mass of white.  The birds love the berries in autumn.

 4.  Little pale Violet flowers all over, in nooks and crannies, on paths, under hedges, in the pebbles around the greenhouse where we stand the pot plants and in the pots themselves with whatever else is in them.

5.  Flowers on the Bridal Wreath (Spirea Arguta) we have one in the front garden and one in the back garden.

Just a quick post this week.  Click on the link below to find other bloggers joining in.  Thank you to Tricky and Carly at FAST blog for hosting.