Thursday, May 06, 2010

Skywatch Friday

May 6th, 2010

Finally - a day during which one could lie on the ground (a little damp) chew on a piece of grass (if one has bovine tendencies) and gaze at the clouds, imagining in them the most fantastic pictures!







Have fun, and do visit Skywatch Friday here to see other wonderful skies from around the world.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is P

P is for Pigeons



beautiful pigeons
beautiful pigeons




beautiful bird
beautiful bird


These beautiful pictures taken in Venice, Piazza San Marco and kindly made available by  alastair@picturesofvenice.net

A relative of the dove, pigeons are a graceful bird, but by their vast numbers and their affinity for cities they are often classified as a nuisance.  Welcome, and fun to feed, but a terror to clean up after......

Wikipedia has an interesting article on pigeons and doves here and has much to say about the birds that have been lost in modern times, - the Passenger Pigeon and the Dodo -


Occasionally we see a flock of Homing Pigeons, - a lovely sight as they circle the valley and then return to the cote maintained by a neighbour.
For more interesting P's fly over to ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kind helpers.

Monday, May 03, 2010

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."-   William Shakespeare


The wind blew mightily all evening long, but when I woke early in the morning to tend to the little dog the air was calm and sweet, - nary a cloud in the sky and the waning moon high at the top of the mountain, readying itself to slip behind into another space.  I went back to bed, thinking pleasant thoughts of a day in the Garden.

At six thirty, when I woke once again, rain clouds were dark in the north, and the hills were hidden by a grey mist.  But still in the south the sky was blue with only the occasional small white cloud.

The wind was picking up!

At noon there were great blustery gusts of wind as the little dog and I went for a walk before lunch.
One of them bowled him over and I had to help him up  in the face of such fierceness and carry him home.
We came in to find the electrical power was off, and so it stayed for three hours, while the new grass in the pasture billowed in great green waves, and the tulips bowed and curtsied and leaned their pretty pinkness into the breezes that whirled around them.


Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a smirk on the face of a patch of coutch grass - another day of freedom to spread its wiry roots into the Iris and the Shasta Daisies and along the perimeter of the garden.

I wait patiently for that first day of May when the bees buzz and the flowers lift their faces to the sun,
 and all is calm - a perfect gardening day.

"Ah my heart is weary waiting
Waiting for the May"
Denis Florence McCarthy  Summer Longings


Tonight the sky cleared and the setting sun cast lovely apricot lights on a few clouds in the East.


The wind still gusted around corners and down the fields.