Summertime at Haven

A little life spent. While I was watering the tomatoes last night I spotted this Stag beetle at the bottom of one of my plant pots. Dead:(

I felt the loss because they are endangered and also remarkable creatures.

They pupate for 5 whole years underground before they emerge briefly to mate and then they die.

Did this lad even have time to smell the roses?.. let alone get the chance to signal to a female and 'get it together', before he met his untimely end in my pot?! I so hope so.

I was shocked when I saw that I haven't posted anything since January! 

Life has robbed me of time and then not posting becomes a habit.

I'm breaking that habit and will be visiting you again soon.

I miss my blogging friends.

The garden has flourished this year and is a riot of colour.

Tortoise Fred is in there somewhere....

... Oh, here he is!

... and here are Mr Darcy and My Bingley..

Tails of greeting.

Festive Greetings to You

Long time no see. We have missed you, and perhaps you may have missed us a little too. 

(thank you to Brenda for your message X)

We are all well.

But..

Work has been hard. Distractions have been plentiful. And time is always short.

"Snowball"

I made myself a snowball,

As perfect as could be,

I thought I'd keep it as a pet,

And let it sleep with me.

I made it some pajamas,

And a pillow for its head,

Then last night it ran away,

But first - it wet the bed!

~Shel Silverstein

Bring on 2015 and visiting you all.

Love Helen, Darcy, Bingley and Fred

xxxx

Springing forward (Tempus Fugit)

My, how time flies! 

We have been working, gardening, travelling, celebrating and exercising .... oh, and Bingley and Darcy have been generally lazing around, as usual!

Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy on their wriggle rug

Tomatoes, leeks, chard, trailing sweet pea... to name a few.

The allotment is ready and awaits the produce (we just require the time to get down there to plant!).

Cornwall at my late Aunt's home over Easter, gardening, burning and preparing the place for sale :-(

End of an era.

Elwood and Otis, Diana's cats next door who I am looking after for 3 weeks. 

Here they are going forth from the upstairs bathroom window this morning (fairly safe from the aggressive ginger Tom that comes to get them). When I get home from work, if they aren't in they nearly always come to the hand bell rung solidly in the garden!

Aloof Otis

Onwards and upward with my Pilates class (knackering)

Our front terrace I missed the opportunity to clip the ivy hedge and now the birds are nesting in there. Will have to wait until Autumn.

Haven back garden, lush with Spring growth.

We all wish our fellow bloggers a happy day.

X X X

running to seed

Autumn is here and our last post was in August! 

What happened to those months in between?

How could they have disappeared so fast?

Well, here we are again, and all is well.

Mr Bingley checking over his conker collection ...

Mr Darcy demonstrating disdain for the worker ...

Harvest bounty at a wonderful garden centre we visited just outside Stratford.

Chinese Lanterns light up the garden even on the dullest day!

Dahlia bonanza, the one above is in our own garden,

but look at the display below at Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire.

'Warm Welcome'

Our new orange rambling rose which we are training round the urn.

Lady Hillingdon flowers one more time!

  “The summer-flower has run to seed,

And yellow is the woodland bough;

And every leaf of bush and weed

Is tipt with autumn’s pencil now”.

John Clare ~ The Village Minstrel

familier frontiers

I suppose frontiers should generally be new ones!

But not these, familiar ones instead.

We have been away in Cornwall dear Blogging friends, spending time with our Aunt in her lovely rural home.

When we returned home we observed that Mrs H's world was consumed by W O R K.

So glad to be visiting you all again now, at last!

Mr Bingley walking the boundaries

Nature doesn't acknowledge frontiers... you know ...

I wish to go forth (but Mum would miss me)

Bingley checking out Crows

Sitting with Aunt

We can see where she is struggling with knowledge. We can see what she forgets completely but also what she knows she once knew. We can tell how she is trying to remember. It is possible to alleviate her physical pain, but mental pain - her dementia – no we don’t know how. If only we did. Love you Auntie.

 ... and then we go out again, rest up a bit, ponder life.

 ... the next day the sun comes out and we get up early, drive to Newquay and walk the cliff and beach.

Finishing off with a veggie breakfast.

Mr Bingley supervised the tree surgeons taking down some wayward trees on our boundary.

Plenty of logs for the stove.

 ... also he supervised the flies and a number of ants ...

(some cat must)

A day trip to Glendurgan Gardens a stunning spot (felines kept the bed warm at home).

When we came home Mr Bingley checking nosed BIG TIME in the shed.

Darcy and Bingley

We have had a holiday, and we'd like to take it up professionally.

can Spring be far behind?

The temperatures grew slowly and the sun even came out.

So we all ventured outside.

Mr Bingley sniffing for Spring

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

‘Ode to the West Wind’.

Mr Darcy on birdie watch

Bingley on plant inspection, 

is the ground warm enough to dig it in...?

... dare we dream... might Spring really be here?

N O P E!

... we woke to this ... March snow...

Bingley

So, back inside.

hunkering down again.

Keep snug, dear blogging friends.

the key to a holiday

We have come away on our holidays to beautiful Cornwall.

Bingley                                  Darcy

We love holidays and this is because we know what is required to enjoy ourselves.

Play is training for the unexpected so our toys always accompany us.

Darcy

We appreciate the worth of water from all the new taps.

Darcy

No grass is greener on the other side,

this is because we have grass to chew inside ...

Bingley

... and outside.

Bingley

The summit is just a halfway point.

So new heights to scale.

Bingley (above) Darcy

There is no delight in doing anything unshared.

(including cupboard love) so more the merrier.

Bingley

I haven’t been everywhere but it’s on my list.

Discover new things.

Darcy

Rest is never idleness.

Bingley

The first condition of understanding a new part of the country is to SMELL it!

Bingley 

Time on holiday is to be savored.

If you have a holiday coming up we hope you have a lovely one!

From the lounge window ....

"Ones destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things" ~ Henry Miller