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a handfull of new brooches in jolly bright colours have just been added to the wee planetaye Folksy shop – away and stop by for a browse 😉
Just listed these NEW Big Blossom Brooches on my little Folksy shop, needle felted and just perfect for your woolie jumpers!
The NEW Tiny Blossom Brooches are available in the craft cabinet at Runcorn Framers.
(https://folksy.com/shops/PlanetAye)
(www.facebook.com/runcornpictureframers)
  
  
Another sunny day, just as well as the Norton Priory conservation volunteers were all set to play and picnic in the NP Walled Garden. Great food and company 😉
 
  
Here we are inhabiting the craft cabinet at the Brindley Arts Centre (www.thebrindley.org.uk). Lots of cute wee things from the fabulous Replic’elfs and planetaye-ayes! Goan have a nosey, we’ll be there for the next few weeks. 😉
After treating myself to a nice book (100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet) I found it difficult to stop. But I also had to get a wee encyclopedia of crochet since I’m still a novice with the single needle. I have tied the primroses into a wee posy that sits neatly inside a new Ikea shot glass, the shamrock and thistle are single testers and I did already have some appropriate colours handy. Overall pretty pleased with making flowers and can sit watching telly whilst getting on with a few leaves.
The hinged frame is covered with a set of floral stamps, I really should give it an other coat or two of varnish but one will do for now I think. Patience is not my strong suit when it comes to watching paint dry!
Here are the latest six goodies planetaye has put onto the wee Folksy shop. Pretty peg faeries all got up in their party wings and lotsa jolly pens to practise the old snail-mail thank-you letters, hope you like…
My middle of June was busy. A visit to the Borders Book Festival followed by the first few days of the Melrose Festival. In all I managed four events at the first and saw a couple of the second. All my summer socialising stuffed into 5 days!
But back to the birds…Â oystercatchers in particuler.
One of the smaller flat roofs in the town has, for a few years now in the spring and summer, played host to a visiting pair of oystercatchers. Therefore what better than to dress up as one of the black and white birdies for the Melrose Festival fancydress parade. I have a wardrobe full of black/white/red clothes so sewing on paper feathers and a few modifications to make wings and creating a big beak was all it took. On Tuesday this big bird fluttered off down the street to join a growing crowd of children and some couples and groups of adults, all dressed up and ready to go. We were duly judged in our respective groups and set off to parade round the town following the pipe band! And very jolly we looked too. (p.s. guess who came first in her class? mind there was only one entry)
A few days after this giant oystercatcher posed in the garden a funny thing happened… the real thing appeared. Tiny and fairly helpless a chick made its way from the relative safety of the nest on a neighbouring flat roof. It seemed to have wandered over the edge and across our flat roof and dropped unscathed into our garden. Spotted in the morning running and calling to attract a parent, around the bergenia and hosta plants.
Eventually the adults found him and flew down to comfort and feed the noisy toddler. A worm was deposited in front of the wee yin and was gone the next time I looked, the parents performed the same ritual all day – not sure if another chick remains on the roof, mibbe? because they went between the two places all the time. The mother would also sit in the flowerbed and the chick would climb into her feathers. So the garden 
was more or less out of bounds, the birds got a bit more used to us being close as the day wore on.
Nightime was quieter and only punctuated with the chicks’ peeping call when left alone.
Unfortunately around dawn either jackdaws or crows found and attacked the little chap. I found him near a small shrub later, he had been far too small to defend himself and sadly the parents had been out the way.
On a lighter note, we have found that a blackbird is sitting on a nest (a second clutch?) of tiny babies in another corner, here’s hoping they all make it.
Another spring, and despite the “smog” took a set of photys around the top of the hill. Comparing them with those from last year (about a fortnights difference), the same plants are out but there might be a bit of cross over with the primroses still in flower.
After ten years I have finally caught the fabled Duke of Argyle’s Teaplant, the winter conditions and the warm dry spring must have prompted it into flower. Or I have just wandered past it for all those years? Nahh!
The number of orange tailed bumblebees took me by surprise too. At first I was sure that only one was following me around till I came to the whins – there were more than a dozen of them! but would they sit still for me, of course not.
I have included the sign describing the castle, click on it for a large, readable version.
And here is the song Another Spring performed by Nina Simone… enjoy
I have to admit that last years photys were brighter and more colourful. Sunnier day, or sunnier photygraffer?
- Duke of Argyll’s Teaplant
- light colourd lilacs
- may blossom (hawthorn)
- dark orange wallflower
- sinister ivy flowering
- fern furl
- annoyed Orange Tailed bumblebee
- english bluebells
- primrose, goosegrass (stickywullie), red deadnettle
- Halton Castle sign, click to read
- buttercup
- dandylion
Quite unnoticed by me the forgotten pot and bucket of grape hyacynth (muscari) had grown, multiplied and bloomed! So jolly and springy. And today it promises to be warm again. The daffs are out in the street too so here’s hoping they are left alone for us all to enjoy.
A bit straggly I know but has made me feel more optimistic about restoring the wee flower bed and rejigging the space in the coming months.
The deep glowing blue of the flowers is not represented accurately, my wee camera does tend to freak out with some colours but I didn’t want to fiddle with the pic.
Also awake is the first wee violet, these lettle devils are impossible to move so I’m just letting them grow wherever unless they are a nuisance.
forsythia – pruned last year to get rid of the longest straggly branches, this has forced the flowers in nearer the base.
Ohh now I am in organise mode…
I am getting all my bits and pieces ready for an early start on Sunday, planetaye will have a stall at the Contemporary Arts and Crafts Fair at Astley Park, Chorley on the 6th Feb 2011 so here is a wee sneak preview of some new Valentinies that will be available!
If you are around Astley Park – Chorley on Sunday please drop in and have a look.
Now I must get on with my organising… making teeny tiny boxes for teeny tiny cakes.
