Daffodils

A day of Grace

An extra day, a day of Grace. It falls today, on a Friday this Leap year, so usual Friday tasks ahead for me, but would like to do smoething different this evening, but not sure what! Notable births for this date include Ann Lee (Mother Ann) of the Shakers, 1736 and the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini in 1792.

We have a new bird on the block; I was up the top feeding the livestock when the young cock pheasant popped over the fence, completely unperturbed by my presence, and helped himself to breakfast - he's still there now. Last year, the pair that live over the field behind us had 3 young - two hens and a cock, I think this is the cokc bird - very bright and handsome. The birds don;t seem to mind him, although William Barnes (the cockerel) had a run at him. He seems more nervous of the ducks. So much for biosecurity - very difficult when you live amongst open farmland.

I picked the first of the daffodils for indoors yesterday, they really brighten up the corner of the hall. Friday tasks - clean the fridge, check the vegetable and fruit baskets, library and shopping.

Thursday

Damp and cold here today, so have spent the morning getting to re-grips with the spinning wheel again. Air a bit blue, but I am producing something that vaguely resembles yarn, albeit a novelty one........................

Pleased with the Forage wine we tested last night - a mix of elderberries, foraged quinces (from an overhaning branch by the church in a nearby village) and wildling pears from the roadside up past the garge, here in the village. Nice and fruity, bit dry, and very nice cold. Today's eggs as wel - one of the Buff Sussex bantams has started laying again, so pleased about that; in there are 2 Black Rock, 2 Warren and 1 Cotswold Cream Legbar eggs as well. So - eggs for tea, then.....

On this day.......

..back in 1807 in Portland, Maine, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born.

Life is real, life is earnest!
And the goal is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

He alos wrote The Song of Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish, The Wreck of the Hesperus and Tales of a Wayside Inn, among others.

Also born today - Rudolf Stiener in 1861 and Enrico Caruso in 1873. Died on this day - English diarist and writer John Evelyn in 1706, Russian composer and scientist Aleksandr Borodin in 1887 and dear Spike Milligan in 2002.

The prettiest bowl...................

This was my treat; I rarely buy much new stuff, especially china, as I love old things that have been worn in, loved before and look lovely. However, couldn't resist this in the gift shop at Beaulieu at the weekend. I actually saw it there last year, but didn't have the money then, but did on Sunday, so it came home with me. Very beautiful, it will go on the landing chest when the landing is decluttered.

Simple pleasures

One of my favourite jobs is scrubbing the kitchen table; the table is pine, with a single drawer in the end, and I remember it in the kitchen of my paternal grandmother's home in London, but I suspect it may well fo back further in the family than that. Very plain and functional, it's done really good service for us already, with many years to come. A nice hot scrub with a real brush and left to dry - one of life's satisfying jobs with a direct connection to the past.

Such a lot of gorgeousness............

... for 3.10!!!! A couple of weeks ago, one of the local charity shops had a basket full of lovely hand sewn mats, tray cloths, etc, all at 10p. I hesitated, and didn't buy them. I then fretted about them all week, went back the following Friday and rescued all the good ones, ending up with 31 altogether. I couldn't bear the thought of them being binned if not bought......

Cold and frosty

....morning again here - below zero still as I type this; haven't been oustide yet, but it'll be more defrosting of drinkers and no bees flying - hope they're safe and warm. Manic few days away from the house, lovely to be back with few commitments this week, so can get on with things. Treated myself to a couple of things (well, more than a couple.......) yesterday whilst out; I got my long-awaited money throug, so bought a beautiful bowl, some perfume (very rare treat, that) and went into a handy nursery to buy a couple of pots of snowdrops and came out having spent 42.00 pounds - ah well, all good bargains, and plants are long-term investments, as I told my OH :0) will post about the plants on the garden blog

http://gardeninthevale.blogspot.com/

Lots of tidying and cleaning to catch up on - would much rather be doing something else, but it really is a bit desperate here again.

We visited Bealieu yesterday for EJ's birthday - enjoyed looking around the Victorian kitchen again, recognising some of my own stuff!!