Nature's Calendar - Grass

I have been trying to identify this grass, I think it is either Meadow foxtail or Timothy grass does anyone know?

Nature's Calendar - Bugle

Nature's Calendar - Sun Rise

this photo was actually taken on Easter Sunday Morning at 6.17. I was so pleased I saw it just as it was rising above the tree tops

Counterfeit Kit challenge - Blog hop

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit blog hop. We have all taken our inspiration for the Design team's own blogs.
Here is my entry for the blog hop

I took my inspiration for one of Lisa's layouts, Park Day

Your next port of call is Lisa A's blog

Nature's Calendar - Dead leaf

I just love the markings on this leaf. I was actually looking for butterflies, and saw this thinking it was one. At least it didn't move away as soon as I got near.

Nature's Calendar - Wisteria

Dancing barefoot on the grass

I said yesterday that I danced barefoot out in the lane early in the morning. I never took a photo though, so today I grabbed my tripod and made up for the omission.

I do love it out here first thing on a bank holiday, with no one around except me, my cat and the birds

Nature's Calendar - Ribwort Plantain

Nature's Calendar - Buttercup bud

I also like this photo looking up to the sky

Easter Sunday Morning

Christ has risen, he is risen indeed
I woke at 6.00 this morning, it appeared to be light outside, I had missed the sunrise. Pulling back the curtain, Oh no it is a dull day, what a shame and I'm going to a bbq this afternoon. I go outside, strange yes the sun isn't shining but the sky is clear, so clear I can see the vapour trails of the planes. Wait what is that red behind the trees at the bottom of the lane? I haven't missed the sunrise it is just coming up, how wonderful to see it rise on Easter Sunday Morning, Thank you Lord.
It's going to be a lovely day again today.

Have you ever danced barefoot on the grass, I thought it was about time I did, so here I am in my kaftan dancing before the Lord in the lane, not a soul around this early.

I can cross another thing off my list of 'must do before I die' but perhaps I should have waited till the sun had dried up all the dew.

Fountain fun

Hot day

fountain spray

children play

Ball rise

before our eyes

falls and dies

This is fun

in the sun

when shopping's done

Nature's Calendar - Wood Anemone

Nature's Calendar - Hawthorn Blossom

I had always thought that the blossom of the Hawthorn was just white, but today I noticed that the stamens are pink especially when the flower is just opening and they are close together

Nature's Calendar - Orange tip butterfly

Nature's Calendar - Fern unfurling

Simple Pleasure

A young lady walked into the bank entrance just in front of me. She walked with a limp but her whole being beamed. She got on the escalator and rode to the top turned the corner and came down the return one. Yes she was mentally deficient by our standards, but because of that she was able to ignore the constraints a 'normal' person would have and derived much pleasure in this simple act.
What is more she gave me and others a joy in her action, I know I wish I could throw off convention and ride the wave of delight in the same way.

This boring entrance to my bank will never be dull again because of a young lady dressed in pink who rode the escalator today

Nature's Calendar - Lamium (Yellow dead nettle)

This plant is a cultivated variety of the common white dead nettle. It grows rampant in my garden the leaves are variegated in colour.
I had never before seen all the little hairs on the petals it's amazes me what can be discovered when I get in close with the super macro button on my camera

A little question

I love scrapbooking I love making pages to preserve memories. When I post one of my pages here I don't often give details of what I have used. I'm wondering if fellow scrapbookers would like to know such things as the name of the papers I use the fonts and embellishments etc?
for example in this layout I used just one piece of patterned paper by My Minds Eye called Lost and Found Portobello Road Party Celebrate Paper and I stamped the 'birthday' onto cream card using Banana Frog Doobie stamps. The doily behind the photo was created by using a corner punch by Martha Stewart.


Is that helpful or is it just too much to read through?

Nature's Calendar - Bird of Prey

At the animal sanctuary

Losables

My blog friend Mel of I Speak Melsh fame has compiled a Melsh/English dictionary. and one of the words in her famous book is LOSABLES a little bag of things that once you have opened the bag can be easily lost.
Well my losables are quite a bit bigger than 'little things'- mine consist of:-
the last thing I put down. ie scissors, pens, pokey stick, double sided tape, glue dots - well you get the idea.
The latest thing to get lost was the remote control. My grandson had taken it as usual and I searched and searched. The TV was playing away to itself and I couldn't turn it off. I did eventually find it and it wasn't really hiding, though of course I thought it was; I had looked in amongst the toys I had looked amongst the books I had searched the floor feeling under all the seats I had put my hand down the back and sides of the settee to no avail. Where was it, Neil had obviously taken it off Rufus and put it on the sideboard out of his reach.

Not a new photo but does show how much Rufus loves anything with buttons.

Alphanumeric blog hop

I'm looking for a variety of very versatile and vivacious verbs and adverbs. Nothing vague or veiled they mustn't be vacuous or in a vacuum, but of value, a veritable vanguard of voluptuous vowels vying with each other to vocalise the vortex of sound.
I will endeavour not to commit verbicide and will vouchsafe that they will not be vulgar and I'll volunteer to voice them with all vocal dexterity and the volume of sound will vastly improve in vividness as my vessel of verbs increases. My vision and vocation is to vigorously vindicate the letter V and visually venerate it

As I venture into this avenue of the vernacular of the letter V I am not averse to using the dictionary to increase my vocabulary and view a variegated version of any vividly interpreted word.
Any visitor to my blog today will have their mind vibrating with victorious Vs, a VIP of letters that I have voted most highly.

So I would value your verdict on my venture into the land of 'V'

Visualise now a valiant and valued list of friends all with their own various vehicle of letter or number, ready to vault into action

I Speak Melsh:
BE Glorious:
Captured On Film:
Chatty Crafty Arty Pig:
Creating Room:
Curiouser and Curiouser:
Daily Life - Bits and Pieces:
Deb's World:
Den's Crafty Diary:
From High In The Sky:
Gallo Organico:
Ginger's Life Of Spice:
Handmade By Kirsty:
Havoc and Mayhem:
Heather's Scraps:
Helena's Creative Maven:
Holaday's Happy Hearts:
Jeant-Jinnag:
Just Jimjams:
K's Crafty Corner:
Life...As I See It
{Life Behind The Purple Door}:
Lisa E Design Blog:
Living Life One Blessing At A Time:
Mary's Musings:
Michelle Loves...:
Obstinate Pursuit:
Over At Our Place:
Paper Turtle:
Peonies and Pennies:
Random Reflections:
Rosalind Revival:
Scrap Dreams:
Scrappyjacky:
Scrapworthy Lives:
Staring At The Sea:
Surefiredaisy Says:
This Kalil Life:
This Little Life Of Mine:
Xnomads' Blog:

Note: If any of the posts aren't up yet, please bear with us - the different time zones and the peculiarity of blogging platforms when it comes to autoposts may mean that one or two posts don't appear on time! If that's the case, come back to this list to pick up from the next blog, but do please pop back and try the other link later, when the post should be there for your enjoyment.

If you have come to me in order then your next port of call is Michelle's blog

Nature's Calendar - Peacock

Not exactly wild life but this beautiful peacock was displaying so spectacularly that I just had to have a photo and to use it here

Alphanumeric blog hop

What is all this about you may well ask, well you may if you are not taking part. If you are taking part you know what it's about and this is just a reminder to make sure you post your blog in time.
Our lovely blog friend Mel has organised a super blog hop for Sunday (tomorrow) at 2.00 pm BST.
Each of us have a letter or number to play with and produce something to showcase it. So don't forget to log on and hop in to see what we have all done. A nice way to while away an hour or two, much more interesting that having a Sunday afternoon snooze that's for sure.

A tribute to Sammy

I've done this layout as a tribute to my cat that I had to have put to sleep on Wednesday. I still can't journal it with pen and paper yet, somehow it is easier to type it here. but I will put a journal block on there soon

Nature's Calendar - White Bluebell

Just down from my bungalow in the lane just before the main road is a little clump of blue bells. Each year there seems to be more and more white ones in amongst the blue

Two lovely black eyes

the answer to my question of yesterday is Yes

Nature's Calendar - Cuckoo Pint

proboscis

Oh dear Oh dear I've done it again

my nose sticks out too far

it took the brunt of my fall you see

and hit the ground so hard

it bled and bled and wouldn't stop

I thought it might be broken

but no just swollen to twice its size

Will I have black eyes in the morning?

Counterfeit Kit challenge - layout No. 4

Well I have never had such a run of doing in real life paper and glue layouts and I have since starting to do the Counterfeit Kit challenge my first one was in February I love the tutorials and ideas that they put up to make your own things.
This layout is also covering the weekly challenge on UKScrappers which is

Celebration/special event

Pink or Blue

Bells, houses, stamping or flowers 

I used one of my precious My mind's eye lost and found patterned papers which is so nice I didn't want to cover too much of it. I cut a circle out of some card stock and using my Martha Stewart corner punch made it into a doily. I then added three flowers which I made using Nellie Stellen flower punch/embosser, silk trim and buttons. the Birthday part of the title I stamped on a piece of spare card, heat embossed it and cut round each letter inking the edges and placing on 3D foam pads.
one of my Journal cards is the only other thing added the rest is on the paper.

Nature's Calendar - River Frome

The river Frome from Snuff Mill. I love the way the light has caught the trees and is reflected in the water, making a diamond shape

Samantha

I have had to have my 15 year old cat put to sleep today I just want to post this very last photo of her taken this morning when she was curled up on my bed.
She hadn't eaten for two days and the vet said that her kidneys had packed up. The kindest thing was to let her go. I held her while the vet sedated her so that she was not distressed when the lethal dosage was given to her. Good Bye Sammy thank you for all the happy years you have given me.

Counterfeit Kit challenge - layout No.3

My third page from my counterfeit kit
I enjoyed making my border layering ribbon punched pp lace and the final bit of my canvas (well the 12x12 bit that I allowed myself for my kit). I must admit to buying more buttons, the two outer ones. I am a button fiend lol
I created the heart myself on the computer, printed it on acetate and stickled it on the back. I really enjoyed doing that and will certainly use that method again.
I also created and printed out the date block

Nature's Calendar - Grey Wagtail

This little wagtail was bobbing his beak in and out of the water.I think it was insects rather than fish that he was catching though.

Nature's Calendar - Gorse

Nature's Calendar -Grap Hyacinths among the stinging nettles

I didn't think that there were any more places for me to discover walking down the back lane to Asda. But I was wrong. I found what appears to be a garden, obviously attended by the people living nearby, in one corner there appears to be a wild part overgrown with nettles, but in amongst them are beautiful deep blue grape hyacinths. the nettles will be a great attraction for butterflies later so I must remember to look later in the year.

Counterfeit Kit challenge - layout No. 2 for April

Just a quick post to show my second counterfeit Kit layout for April.

I'm getting a little behind in this so better get scrapping. Not today though as I am out for lunch immediately after church. A group of Ladies and we are all widows so lunch together once a month on a Sunday. Perfect timing for me this year as today is the anniversary of my dear Husband's death, though to tell the truth it doesn't seem any different than any other day as I do miss him most of the time, but have made a life for myself now and move on.

Nature's Calendar - Buds

The bud/flowers on this tree look like furry caterpillars

Nature's Calendar - Tiny Yellow trumpets

I was surprised to see this flowering bush, I had never noticed it before but the flowers look like miniature daffodils but are less than half inch across

Rulers Rulers

The other day I posted a photo from a magazine of a set of drawers with rulers for fronts. It caught my imagination and as I have several wooden ones that I don't use I thought I would have a go.
here is the result

The third drawer down has a plastic slide rule attached and it was either my husband's or my father's but I have never known how to use it.

The set of drawers I used I have had for a long while housing things that I never use, it is now being used for my ribbons (some of them) and buttons (again some of them) I do have another set of drawers that I'll decorate as soon as I find more old rulers and tape measures.

and

Nature's Calendar - Whitebeam

Counterfeit Kit Challenge 1st Layout for April

Over at Counterfeit Kit challenge blog we have been taking inspiration from a kit from Front Porch Kits the kit was from March called 'a little bird told me'
here is the first layout I have done with my kit

A smile for the day.

The Price Of Gas In France

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre.

After careful planning, he got past security,

stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van.

However, he was captured only two blocks away,

when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime

yet make such an obvious error, he replied,

"Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings."

I had no Monet

to buy Degas

to make the Van Gogh.

See I have De Gaulle

I figured I had nothing Toulouse

Nature's Calendar - Ladybird

Painting by Daniel

I love the way children paint and are so pleased with their efforts. My eldest grandson's 'masterpiece'

Wordle

Thanks to Mel's tutorial I have created my own wordle

Counterfeit Kit challenge for April

I've had so much fun putting this kit together it is really more like 4 kits in one so will hopefully give me great scope with my layouts this month.
Counterfeit Kit challenge revealed yesterday the kit we were to emulate,

by the way we are not depriving the company of selling their kit it sold out the day it was launched 18th March.
here is my counterfeit.

and as I'm now the proud owner of lovely flower and leaf punches and embossers I'll be making some of my flowers myself (see beside the tin)I've also made some journalling labels to go with it.

I haven't added any alphas here this month as I hope to cut most of them on Robo