Glory ! Glory ! Alleluia !

 

Beachcombing again - Marazion fossils 🦈

So after a long day of working in the garden , Ricardo surprised me with a picnic down at Marazion . I was so tired that I almost fell asleep in the car .

.... and I just had a little pootle about on the beach .

The sun was beginning to go down .

Beachcombing is just the very best therapy for me . 

Usually picking up nice drift wood , string or heart shaped stones or funny face stones and sea glass .

                 💗  Heart Stones 💗

                    🤣 Funny Face Stones  👻 He's spooky !

Sometimes I just find ..er ... nose stones  🤣

When we are on the Isle of Wight or Lyme Regis ,we find awesome fossils 🦖🦈🦕

Well Marazion , is famous for semi precious gem stones and although said to be Devonian , it is pretty rare to find any fossils  . 

I have only found one fossil in over thirty years .

I talked about this in an earlier post. We are still not sure what it is . If it is Devonian , then it could be a tooth from a very scary armour-plated fish like a Dunkleosteus . 

It also very much looks like a spine from an armoured dinosaur such as a Polacanthus or Ankylosaur . ..but they weren't around yet in the Devonian period , so if it was that , then it could possibly have rolled down from the Isle of Wight which is Cretaceous . 

Anyway .....I found another fossil !

It has been a miserable , dark and drizzly old day , so I lit the lanterns  and took a few pics for you .

It's not as exciting as my first one , it is a very sea worn gryphaea mollusc  . 

I know , it's not the most exciting find in the world , but it is rare to find fossils at Marazion  , so I was thrilled to find it ! 

Moving swiftly on .... "What's in the jar Debbie ?" 

So this is a jar of  real treasure .... beautiful sea glass ....that I have collected with my grandchildren .

           Now then ....if I turn the jar on it's side ..lets see what we can see ...

.........and with the help of Grandma's little magic torch .....

                            Isn't that cool ? !!  

                       I knew you'd like that !  🤣

 

                          A beautiful Uranium glass bead !   😃

          🌧️ Who cares about the rain ! 🌧️ Hope you are having a great weekend ! 🌧️

                                                         🌧️🌧️🌧️

🌿Various jobs in the garden today 🌿🐒

 

Pittosporum , Crocosmia "Lucifer" also known as Montbretia -seed pod sprays , Cotinus coggygria "Royal Purple" , one little Dahlia flower, Agapanthus -seed pod spray .

  Aha ! Found the Grape-vine snips !  🍇🌿

                                Decided to leave out the Dahlia flower .

        I like the simplicity of just the seed pod sprays .

Flowers for the table done , got on and thinned out the grapes .

...and while I was there , I made a very tiny start on clearing around my little Monkey Puzzle Tree .

It's doing well . Seems to be developing two leader shoots . Should I remove one of these ? 

I need to have a think about that 🤔🐒 Anyone got any ideas on this ? 

Then I made a start on clearing these brambles, which are blocking my pathway .

It has to be clear so that I can get up there ,and yes , it is on a slope , and do maintenance work , pruning and such like on all the shrubs and trees .

 There are no bird's nesting in these brambles and I'm not pruning any bushes just yet .

I decided to clear about two feet of brambles into this thicket .

I told my brother that if he hasn't heard from me in a couple of days , to let people know I'm somewhere under the Bramble thicket .

I achieved clearing two feet of the horrid spikey things .

I could have cleared a bit more but I'd filled the wheelbarrow and it was time for elevenses .

I put everything away and maybe I'll do a bit more this afternoon .

             Maybe 

                Maybe not 

                                            🌧️🌦️🌧️🌧️🌧️

Yesterday evening 's walk along the cliffs . 

    Darkening sky with rain coming in....the fields looking so dry . 

I hope that some of this rain will head up north to put out the fires on the beautiful North York Moors .

                         Thinking of you -  love Debbie  x

Marianne Faithfull - What Have They Done To The Rain (RARE!) - YouTube

🌧️ Squalls be coming in ! ⛈️🌧️☀️🌧️

 Heavy thundery squally showers coming in this morning . 

I think it is going to be like this all day today .

The puddle where I wash my boots has returned .

Aah ....the fragrance of rain ....so sweet !

We needed it for our gardens ....we need more still to replenish rivers , lakes and reservoirs .

 It's not too bad ...just a bit of a rainy old day .... on and off .....rain for the gardeners and some warm sunshine for peeps on the beach  . 

⚓🦈🐬

The sea is very rough at the moment , don't go in when it's like this , unless you are a very experienced surfer and even then , these waves don't look fun to me !

Even when it looks calm , there can be rip tides and currants that can drag you out .

Do take heed of the RNLI Lifeguards on our local beaches . Take note of and only swim between the flags .

Not all our beaches have RNLI  Lifeguards . Don't be an idiot and wander too far around the rockpools and cliffs and then get cut off by the tide coming in .

Imagine wandering around the corner here with this coming in ! ... Just ..no ....don't !!

         It's blinking cold too !       🐬🦈🐋

Anyway .....

     ........ my next job ....is to find my snips to thin out the grapes .

                                     🌿 ⛈️☀️🌧️☀️🌧️☀️🌧️☀️🌿

⛈️Storm Erin and Storm Fernand ⛈️

 So , we are somewhere between Storm Erin and Storm Fernand . It rained "proper rain "this morning with thunder !  Just as we were leaving the house to go to my physio session , typical ! ⛈️🌧️🌧️

The garden needs it so badly and we really need more !

I think we are now having  a brief sunny interlude before Storm Fernand arrives .

The good news is I was able to gather lots of lovely fir cones that came down in the gale .

Some to make Christmas decorations with and some for kindling .

 I have left them out in the sunshine to open up . This should be a very pretty bunch .

Storm Erin wasn't too bad really , but it did get us thinking about Winter preparations . 

The sweep came and made sure everything is clean and safe .

We think that we have enough wood from last year to get us through and we have had some oil delivered . 

Our boiler is not working properly . It's old . We have a new one coming sometime soon . We may have to rough it for a little while without heating and hot water .

It hasn't been really cold yet at night , but when it is , so long as I have my old stone hot water bottle I will survive !

I think the next important things on the winter preparations list are - Covid and Flu jabs .  Not sure where we will be having them done yet . Or how much it will cost ?

 I'm getting in a few bits of cold care things in from the chemist .

Next to get all the Winter warm clothes ready , hats , gloves, scarves , leggings . We don't usually get too cold ...more important to get ready all the wet weather gear really ! 

That's all fer now . Not sure when Storm Fernand is coming in . We need the rain ,  not the wind .  Hopefully it will just brush past us and not cause too much damage .

                                               ⛈️🌧️☀️🌧️⛈️

p.s.    I hope these now x-hurricanes for us here in Cornwall , haven't caused too much damage where-ever you are . I'm especially thinking of my American friends ⛈️🙏🏻

Meanwhile on the Bathroom Windowsill

My Orchid is flowering and an assortment of cuttings are on the go .

 I haven't talked about my little fern spore propagating experiment , because I hadn't thought it would work .

                              Well , looky here ! 

                            It's worked !   

Mostly just Watching the Bees 🐝🐝

I gathered some Lettuce and tidied up the remaining plants . We should keep the Lettuces coming for a long time yet and I might sow some more seeds .

 The Tomatoes in the greenhouse are dwindling down now . Just a few more still to come .

Same with the Sweet Peppers . We sadly munched our last mini Cucumber "party time" of the season yesterday .  

I took a slow walk around the garden . 

Watched the bees ....

Looking at the Courgettes , I can see mostly male flowers .

The flower on the right is a male and the flower bud on the left is a female with the immature fruit behind it . 

We really need some proper rain to really give the earth a good soaking . I feel that only then we will start getting more courgettes . 

Good news - is someone has fixed the hose to the outside tap for me !  I am SO so grateful !  

The next area that I am excited to get tidied up  !  

Grape-vine ....Monkey PuzzleTree .....and the T. rex . 

I really am excited about this bit of the garden ....it's gonna be SO cool !  🦖

     😃  I will have so much fun doing this ...yes really !  

                                                 Tetrapanax papyrifer rex 

                                                  🦖🦈🦕🌴🌿🦖🦈🦕🌴

.....but not today ....I am aching something dreadful after all the weeding I've been doing .

So I'm sitting here in the car doing some "dolly stitching " while my husband goes into town to have his hair cut .  

 It is nice and quiet here . 

      It is too noisy at home to concentrate on my more serious medieval embroidery . For the same reason I haven't been able to do my botanical watercolour painting that I had planned to do in the summerhouse . 

I just can't concentrate on my work . 

It has been so hot and we are forced to close our windows because of the noise . I am so unhappy about it . We have also had to go out to get away from it .

I'm trying so hard to not let this bring me down . 

 So gardening is all I have done , all Summer ,which you know I love , but is making me a little tired .

Anyway .....trying to keep positive and happy ....

I picked a goodly basketful of Plums  . I think the deer has had a few of them too . I also watched him munching some of the lower branches of our Apple trees ! 🦌

The apples are for my neighbours this year , who are going to make cider 🍺🍏🍏

Oh well ...there are enough for all  of us  ...if I can just get to them first !!   🙂  

    Weather update -  Kernow Weather Team   - think Storm Erin is now heading towards Iceland and not Cornwall . 

 No rain until next Wednesday . 

It is overcast here today , the sun is trying to come out  .

Time for a nice cuppa tea . I've rather taken to Earl Grey . Also , the occasional comforting milky Chai is nice too .

     What tea do you enjoy ?  What can I get for you ?  Would you like a biscuit ?  🍪🍪🫖☕

                          Cheerio fer now , love and hugs Debbie  💐 x

                                                 🌿🌤️🌿