Five on Friday - Savouring summer.

Hello and welcome as I join with 'Five on Friday'. As the weather seems to be cooling and the evenings drawing in, I find myself not really wanting to let summer go just yet. My five random summer photos reflect my mood perfectly, summer days with winter preparation.

Summer holidays and carrying on with routine jobs and shopping, are not so easy with teens, that don't really want to be taken out for some 'fresh air and a change of scenery'. These bold, bright and beautiful flowers, complete with a sunflower, were purchased on one such occasion. Chosen with a chorus of 'can we go home now'.

A bit of a polish and more spring cleaning, this time upstairs in my room. I found all these seaside, ocean related ornaments tucked away and neglected behind a calor gas fire. This unused fire place welcomed a sweep out and polish. The birds drop twigs down the chimney and of course dust and cobwebs are never far behind. Having lit the multi- fuel stove a few times this week downstairs in the lounge, it's reminded us to source a double fronted stove to replace it. This will open up and heat into the dining room, which is the coldest room in the house. 

I've neglected Knit and Natter group over the holidays, there have been other things to do. Having teens you're sort of wanted home, but not really needed, strange. This week, I was handed these angels for the town's angel bombing nearer Christmas, shush a secret! I'd asked the ladies a while ago now if they'd like to knit or crochet some for me. There's more in the bag, so lovely that they took the time to do this. I wrote before and left the pattern links here on this post. I took my latest project that is small and portable, socks. I also bought a few more new balls of sock yarn too, well I thought they'd be good for presents.  

Preparing for the barbers and a duck walk at a local beauty spot this afternoon, I made up my duck food recipe. Some children made it for their sponsored walk last summer. People often tell you, 'don't give ducks bread', but they never say what to feed them. As I like things done properly, I thought I'd better find out what to feed them. Here is the official answer, so that's what I went with. This time I didn't have any peas, so mixed up - bird seed, oats, lettuce and sweetcorn.  

The ducks seemed to appreciate their meal and ventured onto the grass to eat. There's a definite pecking order, with the ladies very much in charge. We thought the male ducks looked quite young, their heads not fully sporting the gorgeous green colour that defines them. There were many families enjoying the last of the warm sunny days, playing frisbee and picnicking on the grass too.

I borrowed this DVD from the library and hope to watch it tonight. The original was filmed in 1974 with the characters and events set in the summer of 1929. Here is the Wiki link if you want a trip down memory lane. Teen 2 has seen this already and I remember studying the book with the Open University Children's Literature course. It'll be interesting to see the changes that have been made in this updated version.

I'm off to knit some more of M sock and maybe watch a bit more of the film. I'm not sure if the teens really like it. Maybe if there had been aliens on the island.... If you've seen this new version of Swallows and Amazons, do let me know your thoughts. At the moment we're a bit confused as to why the beginning was made unnecessarily sinister.

Fast Blog

Christmas Break part 2

Hello there, thank you for visiting me in blogland last week. It's been lovely to visit your blogs and read comments left here too. Today I'm sharing a few photos of our walk over the Christmas break. On New Years Eve, after lunch, we drove to Lincoln with Angus. It was cold but dry, perfect for a nice crisp walk. Bundled up with warm hats and gloves, we met Johnny and his girlfriend at Hartsholme Country Park. We kept Angus on a lead as he would've been in the river on one side of the path, or the boggy stagnant water the other side. Both would've been muddy... why do beautiful fluffy Goldies like to get muddy and look a right mess? 

We'd been there two years ago, meeting Nat and his Fiancée for a walk. It was Summer back then, so it looked completely different. Apart from the glorious warm sunshine, there had been wide open grassland to walk on, alongside the water. Everything looks different in warm sunny weather. I remember we were waiting for their car to be MOT and some parts replaced.
After that walk we'd taken a brief trip to Hobbycraft, I'm not sure that I've been to a hobbycraft shop before. In typical yarn lover fashion, I headed straight to the yarn section and purchased 3 balls of Women's Institute DK yarn. I found it a quite thick, course yarn. I crocheted with some of the yellow yarn to make a scarf but later donated all 3 balls to my Mum. Since then I've been better at not buying random balls of yarn. I'm trying to stay focussed on using up yarn that I have in my stash and only buying what I need to make something specific.  

Back to the New Years Eve walk, we kept to the paths, along the lake and woods. At one point we took a turn that took us back onto the main road. Without a map we decided to go back the way that we came... we were not lost! Ha ha. 

We had a nice afternoon talking about birds, ducks and swans. Johnny's girlfriend has done some studies on the feeding habits of the swans. It's shocking that people still feed ducks with bread, despite being asked not to. You may remember that I talked about feeding ducks on this post. The duck food recipe that I took back then, was from the Canel & River Trust website. 
It's simple to make: Oats, birdseed, sweetcorn (or peas) and lettuce (shredded). Mix it all up together and feed the ducks crowding around you. I usually carry some birdseed in the car, though I need to buy  more as it's all gone. 
I once fed some ducks in a car park walking through to the shops. People were queuing to pay at the ticket machine. Suddenly the bridge area over the river was swarming with ducks eating birdseed. A man and his dog waited patiently to cross the bridge, oops!
The ducks were very happy as I disappeared, it didn't feel right that day to stand and watch. 

I'll leave you with some swans in cold water, Brr!!
Cold water swimming, or Wild Swimming is all the rage at the moment. It's good for circulation, mood and skin health etc. But it's not for me. 
How about you, do you like cold weather days? 

Take care and have a lovely weekend x