Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.. hope you all have a wonderful time with your friends and family.

 

December.. an update

Where has the time gone!   ………. the last time I looked in it was October 10th…..

There has been quite a lot going on and I thought I would bring my wee blog into touch with those who still follow me..

Some good news first, My daughter returned home after spending several months working in Majorca for my sister, lovely having her back home for a while.. although she does intend to return back to the Balearic Isles next year.

We had a bit of a rat problem in November, as many of you know I have a couple of rescue bunnies and they are kept secure in their cages within a secure run… or so I thought!   That was until rats decided to dig their way into the run!… so we had to relocate the bunnies into the greenhouse for the winter, it has a concrete base and  also rat proof.

I called in the pest control people who took care of the rodent invasion… chunky and I found a dead one on the lawn one morning and I didnt realise just how big rats were!  excluding the tail it must have been about 7-8 inches long!… so the garden is now rat free thankfully!

Because I keep chickens the pest control people reckon they were attracting the rats to the garden, so I made the decision to rehome my 2 chickens  I was so sad to see them go, but they did go to a lovely new home in the middle of nowhere to a lovely young chap.     About 3 weeks after they had gone I received an email from him to say that wee Brenda my Partridge Pekin had sadly died, along with 3 of his own birds, a branch had falled off a tree in the severe gales that we had in December and fallen on the birds who were eating from a feeder… poor wee Bren.. I howled for most of the night.. I loved that wee bird!

More sad news on the pet front.. Tweed, our little rescue netherland dwarf rabbit passed away … I had noticed a while back that she was getting arthritic in her back legs and losing condition.. she was a wee old lady and I think I mentioned in my last post that I didnt think she would see the winter through and my gut feelings were right!… She is now burried in the garden in a lovely wee spot under an ornamental potted tree and when I stand at the kitchen window I look out over where she is… bless her crabby wee heart, although she was a grumpy wee bunny who would growl and attack you when visited every day, we loved her to bits.

So with the update out of the way, I just want to wish you and your families a very merry christmas and a happy new year when it comes…

I will leave you with a picture… not of Bren or Tweed… that would just start me off crying again… but of my constant companion, who as I type this is up on the sofa snuggling beside me

 

Alive and Kicking

Its October already and I have been a bad blogger, sadly neglecting this little corner of my life {{hangs head in shame}}

I’m still here.. just not been posting much on this blog… when i’m not working during the day you can find me crafting away in the evenings in my workshop at the top of the garden, making cards, mini books,  and crafty projects for a design team that I am on…

I’m still taking loads of pictures, all the animals and birds and doing fine, although our little elederly lady Tweed the Netherland dwarf bunny is a tad arthritic in her back legs, and I’m hoping she will make it through the winter this year.

A big Thank you to Val for giving me the prod needed to get me back into this blog again … thanks Val xx

I promise to post something once a week …. so for now i’ll leave you with a picture of some fungus that was growing in our front garden a few weeks back… the neighbours must have through i’d lost the plot, I had to get down on the floor to take this one

SCARLET WAXY CAP MUSHROOM

Sarah

 

 

 

 

Pink Peonies

I popped out yesterday afternoon to do a spot of grocery shopping.. and look what I found… a bunch of peony roses in the reduced bucket, they were £4.00 marked down to 70p!

Needless to say they went straight into my basket I’ve not done a frugal flower post on my blog for a long time.. so here we are

I absolutely adore peony roses, they are one of my most favourite flowers and I love them even more when can buy them for pennies rather than pounds ..

 

 

My Home Town : Dunfermline

I grew up in the town of Dunfermline and when I got married a long time ago moved out of the area… now every now and again we’ll pop back for a visit and yesterday I grabbed my camera and we took a walk around the town and into Pittencrieff Park.

Here are some of the pictures that I snapped yesterday

Dunfermline Town Clock.

A Saltire Flag blowing in the wind at the entrance to the “Glen” Pittencrieff Park Gates

I loved these old steps they were inside Pittencrieff Park 

One of the many grey squirrels that reside at the park

This one looks like he’s rolling a joint

A cute little cobbled bridge surrounded by lush green vegitation

This is a view from the cobbled bridge once we had crossed it… reminds me of something out of Lord of the Rings

This is a view to the left once you are over that little bridge.. it looks up towards Dunfermline Abbey

There are several caves in the park and this is one of them.. it is said that William Wallace used one of the caves to hide in from English Soldiers.

This burn (stream) runs through the whole park..

The park is filled with huge trees of many different kinds that are hundreds of years old.. it’s good to see that many of them are still standing after the gale force winds that we had last week.

There is a lot of moss around the bottom end of the glen and I noticed these little flower/seed heads growing out of this patch of moss…

Beutiful yellow poppies growing in the dense undergrowth..

My son poking around the burn with a stick..they were twig racing in the burn and my son’s stick had become stuck and he was recovering it to rejoin the “Race” … your never too old to enjoy yourself

A gorgeous lig leafy canopy overhead with blue skies up above

The sun shone of this clump of ferns and they just lit up

This tree was HUGE … but on closer inspection….

Can you see the old mans head in the bottom of the tree with his rather impressive chin and beard?

A rather large rhoddodendron, I loved all its branches

Beautiful Pink head of Rhododendrom Flowers

The path up to Dunfermline Abbey… it had started to rain notice my hubby and daughter under the brolly walking up towards Dunfermline Abbey…..  See the silver barrier to the left of the photograph?  That was there to keep you away from the hole in the wall where this poor casualty of the winds must have fallen last week…

A fallen Giant… i wonder how old it was?

These are the ruins of Dunfermline Palace… I used to play here when I was younger.. it’s all fenced off now and you have to pay to go in for a look around these days…

Another view of the Palace from the old cobbled street of Catherines Wynd..

Dunfermline Abbey … by the time we reached it, it had started to rain

The four sides of the tower at Dunfermline Abbey read “King Robert The Bruce”

A view of Dunfermline Abbey from the May Gate

Along the May Gate you can find Abbott House which I believe is haunted and is steeped in history..

Abbott House was recently painted a few years ago back to it’s original colour and they commissioned new gates and iron workings… which are pretty impressive

there are some really nice and unusual iron craftings on the tops of the gate posts

This one looks like a dragon carrying something in its mouth

A plaque above the front door of Abbot House… not sure what it translates to, but it is on my to do list to try and find out

A building showing off a lovely outline walking up Guildhall Street on out way back to the car park as we headed home finishing off out wee walk around “the glen” (Pittencrieff Park).

 

Sunshine Yellow & Blue Skies

The weather today doesnt quite know what it’s doing… we have had torrential rain, blazing sunshine and bright blue skies, then a hailstone storm, with a little bit of wind thrown in for good measure.. feel more like April than almost June!

During one of the Gorgeous Sunshine/Blue Sky moments I nipped out to the front garden and took a few pictures of my beautiful yellow rose bush, its a fairly tall one and i’m not even sure of the variety or name…

Yellow roses were one of my mum’s favourite and when she passed away back in 2004 I planted this in my front garden to remind me of her

 

100 Mph Winds Batter Scotland .. .. .. and my Garden

We have suffered terrible winds here in Scotland today.. 100mph gusts of wind have battered the country, ripped up trees, blown trees over, blown all the beautiful fresh new leaves off the trees and wrecked my greenhouse and garden fence

I don’t think we are going to be able to repair it this time somehow…

The fence at the back of the garden also took a hammering….

Seems the fence is beyond repair too

It took ages to get home this evening too… because they closed the Forth Road & Rail Bridges.. and the main route M8 @ Junction 1a was completely closed due to an overturned lorry so we had to drive towards Glasgow and cut across country to get to the Kincardine Bridge.. the roads were really busy and gridlocks in some places.. but the main thing was everyone was safe and we made it home eventually…  after all fences and Greenhouses can be replaced.

 

Oven Roasted Veggies

One of thee most popular posts on my this blog is one for roasted vegetables.. I absolutely adore them, so when  I made some last week, i grabbed the camera and took a pic of their lovlieness just before going into the oven.

In the Tray We’ve got ~ ~

• Red Peppers
• Desiree Potatoes
• Mushrooms
• Plum Baby Tomatoes
• 2 heads of garlic
• Red Pepper
• Red Onion
• Bunches of Thyme & Basil
• Olive Oil
• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper
• Balsamic Vinegar

Throw them in the oven until the potatoes are cooked through .. then serve and enjoy

 

Lily Of The Valley (Convallaria majalis)

I spied these gorgeous wee flowers growing in my mother-in-laws back garden when we visited her yesterday for Easter Dinner I had to lie down on the path to get this shot.. but it was well worth the effort

Lily of the valley has tiny white, fragrant bell-shaped flowers that grow on top of thin stems. The glossy green leaves that grow from the base of the plant are as tall as the flower stem, about 6 inches. The leaves will die back after the flowers bloom—and when the flowers are gone, they’ll be replaced by shiny red berries.

 

Easter Chick Cupcakes

Happy Easter to all my blogging friends…

Today I made some muffin sized cupcakes, buttercream frosting, fluffy chick decor with handmade easter flags  The eggs were courtesy of my 2 girlies Brenda (pekin) and Chicken Little (Bantam) !

Here’s the rest of the gang