Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt

I saw this on Alisons’ blog and thought I’d have a go.  Go and check out Rinda’s blog post here for the rules.

1. A pier
2. A clothesline
3. A border
4. A roadside stand selling something
5. A train
6. A historical landmark
7. A person playing a musical instrument
8. A person dressed as an angel or a statue of an angel
9. A fountain
10. A horse
11. A shadow
12. A maze, labyrinth, or trail.
13. A library
14. A person playing with a ball.
15. Someone dancing.
16. A bride.
17. A church, chapel, cathedral, mosque or temple.
18. A movie poster
19. An outdoor stairway
20. A swing hanging from a tree (or a hammock)
21. A picture of you standing with something that symbolizes your nation.

We have until the last day of summer, 21st September

Dungeness

Maurice has some holiday from work, and as we want to work in the garden, we decided not to go away.  We’ll have a couple of days out, and next week we are going to Nicholas’s graduation ceremony in Bath.

Dungeness is a shingle headland about 75 miles to the east of us.  It’s on the south coast, south of London.  It’s somewhere we’ve often fancied going with our cameras, as it is bleak and desolate, and very photogenic!  So we headed out there on Monday, us two plus one dog!

We parked at the lighthouse car park.  Here’s the new lighthouse, built in 1961.  There have been 5 lighthouses at Dungeness, the first proper lighthouse as long ago as 1615!

Here’s the fourth one, built in 1901, and now open for tourists, but not today, unfortunately.

We are now right next to Dungeness A and B nuclear power stations.  Dungeness A was closed in 2006 and will be finally closed and the site cleared in 2111!  Dungeness B started generating electricity in 1983, 13 years late.  There were lots of problems with it’s construction and of course it came in way over the original budget.  I am quite fascinated with nuclear power stations, but unfortunately they have all closed their visitor centres since September 11 2001.

Straight ahead of us was this derelict building – I couldn’t resist the poppies in the foreground!

There is the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Light Railway which puffs it’s way along the coast to Dungeness.  We ate lunch sitting outside the railway cafe.

We walked around the ‘village’.  It isn’t really a village, but a collection of wooden shacks, some built round old railway carriages, which are built here and there amongst the shingle.  It is a very windswept, desolate place.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in one of these ‘cottages’.

The big skies and changing light patterns appeal to artists.  I can see why!

Maurice particularly wanted to see the ‘acoustic mirrors’.  These were giant concrete structures built in the late 1920s with the aim of magnifying the engine noise of enemy aircraft flying in from across the English Channel.  They were not particularly efficent and were superseded quickly by radar. 

It was a lovely walk along the shingle  to the lake.  The acoustic mirrors are on  an island in the lake and are not accessible, but we did get a good view from the lake side.  Dungeness is a nature reserve and is full of flowers at this time of year, especially poppies, vipers bugloss and centranthus.

Not only is the flora interesting, but Dungeness is home to many interesting invertebrates, including some moths not found anywhere else.  Great crested newts and medicinal leeches live in the lakes. 

All in all a very interesting place!

Garden project (continued)

Yay!  My greenhouse is all built and glazed!  Maurice finished it off this afternoon.  We have cleaned the glass and moved the staging back in.  I have about 6 plants in it so far: a pepper, a chilli, 2 pots of basil, and 2 cacti.

Can’t wait to go shopping at the garden centre

But, as you can see from the final picture, we still have a way to go…

My Creative Space

I am signed up for ‘Organise Your Creative Space’ on www.simplify.com.  Several of the other participants made a little movie of their space, so I decided to have a go myself!  I have never taken any movie before, I always let DH take the home-movies when the kids were little.  It’s only a couple of minutes.   I originally took a much longer film, but of course I couldn’t upload it, after trying all day on Saturday GRRR!

Anyway, here is where I do my scrapbooking and sewing, and very occasionally eat dinner!  It is an ‘in progress’ look at the space.  maybe I’ll do another one when I have finished reorganising.

 

Garden Project

Since we had our big cedar tree felled, the patio has really opened up and is really sunny.  The problem is, it has also made the rough paving much more noticeable!  So operation patio clean up has begun.  We did have 2 builders give us quotes, but that proved to be far too expensive. 

First job, relocate the greenhouse:

It hasn’t got any glass in yet because Maurice wants to complete the paving round the edges first.  Sensible choice!  Meanwhile, I need to look up to see what I can grow in there.  I did buy a chilli and a pepper plant last week at the garden centre.

I’ve cleared the bit that was under the tree and made myself a little vegetable patch:

I’m hoping that stray plank of wood will become the side of a ‘raised’ bed, to keep the soil in.  Another job to go on Maurice’s list!  So far I have some tomatoes, runner beans, courgettes and beetroot in the garden.  The pots in front contain herbs and the big green tub has mixed salad leaf seeds.

Here’s another job I have completed recently.  I cleared these steps up to the children’s play house right at the bottom of the garden and put piles of new bark chippings down.  Doesn’t it look lovely?  The children’s play house was not really played in, we should have sited it nearer the house!  It is deteriorating now, but we still like the look of it, so it will stay until it falls down.  Dad built it when Nicholas was little, so it is at least 22 years old!

Here’s a few more photos I have taken recently down in the main garden:

Jubilee celebrations….

in and around our town. 

Here’s what our shopping precinct looked like, red, white and blue bunting everywhere!

Even our car park joined in!

And shop windows decked out in Royal memorabelia.  Here’s the local Co-Op funeral shop window.  They always have a superb window display and they have surpassed themselves with this!

Here at home I made jubilee cupcakes:

and put up a bit of bunting in the dining room:

and made a union jack cushion for Lucy.

On Tuesday we had a craft buddy Jubilee tea at Burn’s craft cabin, including salmon and cucumber sandwiches, copious cups of tea in bone china tea set, and more cupcakes, jam tarts and scones!  We made these patriotic ATCs.

 

And look what my lovely friends gave me as presents!

What a great weekend!  There were loads of street parties all around here despite the bad weather.  A really lovely atmosphere  It felt good to be British!!