Lovely autumn colours

Bess loves walking in any weather and any season,

lots of berries on this branch !!
I will add more photos soon
Angela

Hello folks
Have just bought this lovely old tin - it even still has it's original key.

Then I remembered I hadn't watched the film "Gone to Earth"  starring the very beautiful Jennifer Jones, for quite some time so settled down over the weekend to watch it again. I do love this film despite the sad ending - the original book it is based on is of the same title by Mary Webb. If you love a good tale and all things country try and get a copy of the book it's wonderful.

October is here again but we have had mainly warm and slanting sunny days - perfect methinks. Due to the hot dry summer we have had the leaves have stored up lots of sugars so we can expect deep autumn colours on the leaves before they drop.
My tulip tree always goes a fabulous bright, golden yellow - but this year it is now going a rich copper-yellow - absolutely stunning. It is now around forty foot high - and to think I brought it as a little three foot tree home in my car maybe twelve or so years ago!
Happy and Mellow Autumn to you
Angela x

Hi folks - I can't imagine where the last six months have got to?
So true that time flies - almost the end of another year. Hope you have had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year.
Today it has been very wet and windy so I haven't been very far at all with Bess, just half an hour as it was so cold and a piercing east wind brrrrr.
 This afternoon I finished a bit of knitting with pure wool and it is in the washer now hopefully being felted - then I will cut a circle from it to be edged with fine crochet.
At the moment I am having a very early glass of wine- it's 4pm!! (well it is Christmastide !)  and watching "Bleak House" on DVD - must check who the casting director was as they got every character spot on. Charles Dance and Gillian Anderson in particular were superb in their roles.
Feet up now with various cats and Bessie Womble the dog snoozing in front of the fire.
Bliss
Take care in everything you do
Angela x

my Christmas mantle decoration - not very glitzy -  it was quick to do and looks natural
Do you like it?

Flaming June - well it has been very warm and pleasant at times. Perfect for the farmers who managed a first cut then we had a cooler week with some rain to make it grow all again for a second mowing in August.
I do like to see the tractors busy and loads of hay going down the lanes.
Me and Little Bess had a different walk back today and I came upon this

a little home-made plant stall. How sweet and there were all sorts of lovely and unusual plants. And only 50 pence each.
There were hollyhocks, purple woodruff, love-in-a-mist, borage, sunflowers and cucumber plants. A few more I can't just recall - as I didn't have any money with me I will pop back down today in my little mini and indulge myself - I don't reeeally need anymore plants but at that price who could refuse? 
There is a note saying to please put your money in the box hung up on the right. How quaint and old-fashioned but lovely to see people still use £honesty boxes".
This is the cottage door...

and this is the lane it is on ...

which leads us under the railway viaduct before we get onto the canal towpath...

Bess and her stick  - she never tires of sticks,

This aquaduct over the Leeds to Liverpool canal is known as "Periwinkle Bridge" due to it's amazing design.
Bye for now, enjoy the fine weather,
Angela xx

Tree People

a sad and tortured face here - can you see it?

A gargoyle or even Sssssid the snake ?
Out and about with Little Bess, and these two dissimilar faces said hello as I passed.
 The month of May is so very special and varies so much from year to year. On record it has been the coldest and latest spring for 30 years, I believe this but cannot even recall anything from 1983 so do these things matter to Mother Nature? No - she just gets on with it no matter how we human beings count and measure.
To quote one of my favourite poets e.e.cummings - "he answereth only with Spring"

This face makes me smile - it is a hammerhead shark of sorts - or do you know the Picasso style modernist cats by Rosina Wachmeister?  take a look you'll see what I mean
Take care and enjoy the very last days of the merry month
Angela   xx

Hello there
What  a wonderful but time and penny consuming thing ebay is?
  I have even begun to do something my younger (but not wiser) self vowed never to do,  re-reading books. I used to think life is too short and that it would be boring or I would remember all the plots and stories!
I did have one exception to this though as I have read "Wuthering Heights" several times. I find that as you age in years and experience that you can understand and empathise more with the characters.
This week I have read Joanne Harris's " Blackberry Wine" and enjoyed it immensely, even though i have read it before several years ago. It was bought second hand via ebay and the funny thing is it has pencil marks and underlinings on several pages - I do this myself !  only in books that are not valuable of course and those you would keep and refer back to.
Second hand books are a wonderful thing if you read a lot as I do - and I got four last week and even then it was buy one get one free :) - how lovely

Above is my latest purchase of a hare by Kate Wyatt - I have re-decorated the lounge and decided another picture was needed - call it an early birthday present to us and the house.  The dining room I thought had sixteen pictures but when checked it has eighteen!!   If I ever win the lottery there will have to be a library and a gallery amongst my early purchases. 

Now to take Little Bess for  a walk in this wet and windy weather ... we don't mind, we each have our waterproof coats and love of fresh air,

Until next time, take care in all that you do

Angela x

.

Time

Hello there
I,  like most other people often wonder where time goes? I am lucky enough to only work part-time and that is also in my little home office. Maybe that is part of the problem - too many distractions.

I do get a lot done to be fair, I have painted the sitting room which is known as the "Red Room" and it now has green walls. The chimney breast had a couple of other colours but is now a deep crimson to bring the room together as I am stuck with the red carpet and sofas.
This is a photo after dark so the green walls don't show very well. The house was actually built in 1975 but my cottagey taste takes over in here!  My husband prefers the rest of the house more modern and clutter free - the dining room does happen to have sixteen pictures up though , they are a weakness of mine whenever I go to a car boot or antiques fair. I bought a lovely print of Pendle Hill ( of  Lancashire Witches fame) from ebay last week too - now where on earth is that going to go? There's still a pile on the floor in the hallway as they didn't go back up in the red room when I had a change round.
Can you see the little gourds on the chest?   such a simple idea and they make me smile :)

Also treated myself to an old american style rocking chair I saw the other week in the antiques shop at Salmesbury Hall, it looks perfect in the red/green room and little Tana seems to agree >^..^<
Take care
Angela xx