Sat Sitting

I love sitting in the garden when time and weather permits and we have lots of different areas to choose from depending on the time of day.  Early morning is probably favourite at this time of year and so at the weekend I decamp to my little wooden seat with a mug of coffee and my trusty notebook and make notes to help me write posts such as this one.

So, here I sit in the morning sunshine which is scorching as usual, it makes the light very harsh and makes taking pictures difficult.  This is my chair with a comfy blanket and a couple of plump cushions. 

 I have a bit of company too of course, where there is a sunbeam there is usually a canine snoring gently.

And this is the view as I am sat sitting.  Everything is looking so lush and green despite having had no rain for 6 weeks or so, except for a cupful one night last week!  Pity about the washing line!  It's strange what you don't see through the lense when you take a photgraph isn't it?

 It is beautiful this morning, the rooks are making their usual early morning racket and the doves have had their breakfast and are cooing and preening their feathers and getting ready for the business of the day. 

A plane passes overhead on it's way to some exotic destination, it glints silver in a wedgewood blue sky, a frothy trail tailing behind.  With the bees buzzing and gossamer spiders thread invisible until caught in the sunlight and the sweet scent of roses, it all takes some beating here in blighty on a day like today.

Did you spot the Baby Bunting?  Super cute and made from the leftovers of Big Bunting which isn't quite finished yet as I have decided that I would like to embellish it with some glass beads (which I haven't bought yet).  Here's a taster for you to swoon over...go on you know you want to, it is such an easy pattern to follow, (it has to be for me to be able to make it)!

This is Baby Bunting...............

This is Big Bunting, minus beads....................

My bargain of the week was this fab bag which is perfect for all my hooky projects.  You can never have too many project bags in my opinion.  It matches my Mme Gregoire rose perfectly!

I am off to make some cherry brooches now, pictures to follow another time.

Do any of you have a special seating area if so share the pictures with us.  In the meantime, have a lovely, lovely week.  Mr Fairy has built a greenhouse and there are henny things afoot.  I will tell you more next time.

p.s.  I have lost all my followers, at least I hope they are lost and not crossed me off their favourites.  Any ideas how that has happened and if anything can be done to sort it out?

Scented Fir Cones

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping warm and safe. We are well and truly snowed in today with school closed and roads impassable, so no work either. Overnight, we had about 6-8 inches of the lovely white stuff.

So, what better way to spend the day, than a bit of crafting for Christmas. Now, for the life of me I can't remember where I saw this tutorial, so I must apologise if it was one of "yours". I gathered the fir cones a while back and have been drying them out by the woodburner for a couple of weeks now.

In a pan I melted some cheap and cheerful candles. I didn't bother doing it over a pan of boiling water, just threw them straight in and turned the heat on low.


When it was melted, I added some silver glitter and a good few drops of spicy christmas oil to the mixture. The glitter is optional I suppose, but as these are scented firelighters, the oil is not. I bought mine in Sainsbury.

Now you have to wait a few minutes until the wax cools and starts to set slightly when you dip the fir cone into it. You have to be fairly quick at this stage and get as many done as you can before it becomes too gloopy. When this happens just put it back over a low heat and start the process over again. I had to do this several times as I had quite a lot of fir cones to cover.

They should look soemthing like this when they are done...

Tap off any excess wax as you go and place on some newspaper to dry thoroughly...and that's all there is too it. A pile of gorgeous, sparkly smelling fire lighters.

These are an ideal pressie for friends and family who have open fires or woodburners that they will be lighting over the festivities. I have some cellophane and pretty ribbon to make them look nice and will write on the label what they are for in case they should mistake for pot pourri. I just wish that we had smellyblog, because the whole house smells gorgeous now!!

On other crafting matters, I bought an advent panel a couple of years ago and told myself that I would get it done. Alas, it has been sat in a bag until now that is. A friend of mine has just made a beautiful one and it stirred me into action.

I wish this picture was better, but we have no natural light here today, but as you can see from the close ups above, it is very sparkly and bright.

Anyway, I will say bye for now and leave you with a lovely snowy dove picture. Take care all of you and stay safe.

Dev x

Washout

Well, what can you expect from a Bank Holiday in the UK? Yep, you got it...rain, rain, hail, rain, a bit more hail for good measure and more rain. A total washout in our little corner of the world. What happened to the sun and the beach and ice-cream and flip-flops?

They say that it is good weather for the ducks, but we don't have any. What we do have are our lovely doves and they at least enjoyed a shower! Initially, at least. After about 4 hours or so, the novelty wore off for them too.

Now they are thoroughly soaked and miserable and just sitting around waiting for it stop, only it didn't. It was raining when I woke around 5 am and it was still raining when I went to bed at 10 pm.

So where did that leave us? Well, there was lots of this.

And there was a bit of that too...........................

Now, I wonder what that could be, would you like to see? Okay then, as you are asking nicely.

She is so sweet and pretty and I love angels. She is holding a dove in her hand and is worked in Sirdar's snowflake which I had to source on the internet. I was working...ahem...... browsing one day, as you do and I came across a guy called Alan Dart. Oh my, what he doesn't know about cute and original knitted toys. Check out his website.

As you can see from the above photos, most of my activities have taken place under my lovely, warm, wooly ripple. It has been so cold here too.

As for the little man, Hector, well he continues to be the naughtiest dog in the universe, but with a face that this, who cares....

Is he gorgeous or what!!!

There are new things afoot here at the Fairyglade. Here is a clue.... Man person has been wearing strange clothing and asked me to buy him some marigolds!!!!!!!!!!

I will leave you with that thought for now and tell you more in my next post.

Dev x

Almost forgot, Libby sent me a lovely award and I have to tell you 7 things about moi.....all totally random so here goes..............

1. I went to Iceland for my honeymoon.

2. I began training to be a midwife and delivered 12 babies, but had to give it up. Lots of different reasons.

3. I am terrified of spiders.

4. I wish I could lose weight.

5. I hate tv adverts with a passion...oh and trainers, can't abide them. That's the footwear by the way and not people who train people to do things and stuff.

6. I would love one of those japanese crochet books I keep seeing on different blogs.

7. My favourite colour is white, mind you pink is lovely too and then there is powder blue and I look ever so good in lilac....oh dear!

So there you go, hands up who would like to be my friend!! (Form an orderly queue please)!

I need to pass this on really, so any of my readers who would like to divulge 7 of their innermost secrets and desires...please consider yourself awarded and spill the beans.

Watch the Birdy!

I have always loved doves and it was only when we moved to the Fairyglade that we had the space to put in a dovecote. We started off with a single pair, though at the time we didn't know if they were an actual pair. It really only becomes apparent as they get older and take on certain characteristics. This mainly involves the females sitting coquettishly on the roof of the cote and the males running round and round in circles with their tail feathers brushing along the ground making as much noise as possible and chests puffed out with importance..mmmm, does that sound familiar?

A coquettish female, sitting pretty.

Over the years they have steadily increased and we now have a flock of around 24 or so. It fluctuates up and down as some fall victim to the local sparrow hawk and neighbours cats. They have also stayed predominately white, though one or two have bred with strays that have flown in for some supper and have never left when they realise that the pickings are so frequent and plentiful. This is one such pair. The browny female is an interloper who caught the eye of one of our lads and that was that.

She chose this rather fetching abode when man person was doing some building work in the garden a couple of years back now. The dovecote only houses 6 dominant pairs and they hang onto their boxes with a vengeance. There is stiff competition to retain or steal such a lucrative dwelling. Unfortunately, some get desperate and find alternative places to build a nest and go onto breed.

This sweet little female chose a seed tray in the bottom shed and went on to raise several babies over the year.

Last year we had to make a concious effort to try and stabilise the population because they were eating us out of house and cote. This meant having to remove the eggs every couple of days. At one point we had as many as 40 doves. Too many for us to cope with and frustrating for them because of the lack of suitable nesting. It is sad, and I can hear you all saying what a wicked lot we are, but occassionally one is overlooked and this is the result.......

How adorable is that, only a few minutes old. But they grow fast and that has now grown into this............. so there are some happy endings!

They are canny cats when it comes to food and are not above stealing it wherever they can.........poor Hamish, he doesn't stand a chance bless him! But, see how gentle he is, those two are actually feeding from his bowl.

Now, don't start panicking, he is a whippet and has always been thin. He is not actually dying from starvation despite all the ribs on view.

So basically, they live the life of riley here at the Fairyglade, bathing in warm puddles..................

Gossiping in the early morning sunshine...............

Sitting coquettishly eyeing up the talent but appearing to have no interest what so ever, as you do.............

Eyeing up coquettish females who have no apparent interest in such a fine creature as himself.....................

Yes, all in all, life is pretty good here for our winged friends. They are a joy to watch and their gentle cooing is balm for the soul.

Dev x