Wild ' n' Windy Weather

The weather is certainly changing here in Cornwall. This is the wild sea at beautiful Poldhu Cove.

I haven't been away for a holiday for a year and a half due to being so poorly...yes..I know its lovely here and I,m very lucky to live here.....but I do love a bit of Dinosaur Hunting and one of my favourite places for this is Charmouth . Contrary to what people say, you can find fossils here in Cornwall.....I found a nice piece of fossil wood , a foot long piece of a pine tree branch, nicely preserved on our own Poldhu Beach and a big " devil's toe-nail  " on a beach down at Lands End .....poorly preserved Trilobites at a beach on the North side of the Lizard....but for prehistoric sea creatures..the place to take the children is Charmouth .

.........and at this time of the year..dogs are welcome too !

Here we are arriving in Charmouth,... little dawg recognises where we are and is practically jumping onto the dashboard of the car in excitement !

.......turn left and there is a car park right by the beach ....and loos ...Charmouth Heritage Centre and fossil shop with amazing Icthyosaur  in a glass tank at the back of the shop...and lots of gemstones and big fossils  and little fossils for you to buy ...,in case you
dont find any ......

                                          .......but you almost certainly will !

 We stayed in the lovely  ,near by village of Wootton Fitzpaine ....it seems that every where you look there are Bronze Age settlements. The sun rising through the drifting mist is just so beautiful !
My only complaint was that I would have liked to have had one fish'n'chip meal during our holiday but the Charmouth Fish'n'chip shop was shut every time we went ! : (
 I brought my crewel embroidery with me ..oh ..I take this everywhere with me and have been doing this for pretty much most of this year...but I will speak more of this over on my new journal  Cornish Piskie Stitches .

So in my large handbag I am carrying this crewel project and three bags of crewel wool and in my DMC Embroidery Travel bag I have packed another project that my clever little grandson designed .....and that I am stitching up as a little surprise Christmas gift for my daughter . I,m having so much sweet fun stitching this in perle cotton  embroidery threads , in the colours of his original picture .

             I love the way children pretty much all do these radial , big headed ,  happy  stick people !

We found a few fossils , tiny pyrites ammonites , broken belemnites , a broken piece of Ichthyosaur tooth and a bag of rocks for further investigation when we get home .

Did some more , then added lots of yellow French knots to give it a bit more sparkle .

On the way home , we drove out of our way to go and see Stonehenge....I,m glad that I took this photo as we approached it on the motorway , as when we got there they were closing and you cant see it from the new entrance . Fed up !
Then briefly rejoiced as we approached my favourite ring of trees on the hill , my heart sinking to see another bloody windmill ruining the view . How come the people here allowed this  , in such a beauty spot ? !!!

.......and then this ...so much of Bodmin Moor is now being ruined ...this is the Temple Fishery and Dozemary Pool area ...and as you are driving out of Cornwall the view of Rough Tor and all the surrounding  ancient moors will never be the same again .

 So then I took pictures of the trees.....thinking maybe to embroider a tree ....

......or thirty trees on a hill....without a windmill  : )

Aah ! ...good to get home and find my Schlumbergeras beginning to bloom . Yes , I have a thing for Gasterias too !
  Then to finish off that embroidery ....

 Yes I used a vintage arm chair cover  , flipped it over to iron on the wrong side down over a towel . Cut off the excess with the useless scissors that I bought cheap on ebay and wont make the same mistake again .

                  Press down edges over the cardboard  backing of the frame ....

                      lace up the back and neaten by stitching a scrap of fabric over.

                   
                                          another quick press with the iron......

                                                               Ta daah !
               Thats  another Christmas present done ! Very happy me !
Well tonight Storm Barney is on the way . I,ve closed up the cold frame and moved plants into their shelter zones....I hope my old greenhouse will still be there in the morning ,or else I,ll have to bring the entire cactus collection indoors !
  Hope you are cosy and warm where you are !   love Daisy Debs  : ) x

Egyptian Onions and Amish ones .

This morning was spent sorting out some Egyptian Walking  Onions for a friend on the forum Allotments4all  ....I have learnt so much from everyone on this wonderful website.

Actually these are the more sought after ones ..the Amish Egyptian Walking Onions.
There are several different varieties ..I also have the ordinary white one .
The Amish ones are red. It produces bulbils on the top of the flower shoots ..which eventually fall over and deposit the bulbils some distance away from the mother plant.
I usually leave them for a bit , then when I see a few little white roots appearing , I separate them and replant them....some I leave together if it looks like they might be damaged if I pull them apart ..or sometimes I just leave the whole little clump of them on the surface to put down roots and separate them the following year .

Yes they are edible ! Bulbs and shoots .... I know you can grow bigger and better onions ..but with these..you know that you will always have some on the go .
Ancient little creatures these ! If anything grows on Mars ...it will be this odd looking thing !

Although quite tough ..I always move mine into a sheltered zone if we get a very cold winter. They die back and come up again in the Spring .
 When they get bigger you can plant them out or grow them in large pots as I do .

   They do have flowers too , just not so many .... and this little bee is loving it !
             If it is good enough for the bees , then it is good enough for me .

Sweet Peas ,Sparrow Hawks and Shopping Bags .

The weather is changing , so today I am rushing to weed out this bed and finish planting up the remaining onion sets . My friends Derek and Moira gave me a huge envelope full of Poppy seeds at church this morning... well , after filling that wheelbarrow full of weeds..I raked the whole lot in ..so last year , I created the White Foxglove Orchestra....next year , this will be The Poppy Parade ! There will also be a few white foxgloves and that wigwam should hopefully be a delightful display of fragrant  sweet peas .
The green grids that you can see, are what I use to cover the onion sets , just till they get their roots down. The little shoots look like worms to the birds , who pull them up and toss them away in disgust ! lol !
I will also be planting some Primroses along the front of this bed  , including some delightful  pink  primulas  that my good blogging friend  Stasher ,  kindly sent to me last year : )
I still have some white foxglove seeds left over if anyone would like some ?
 We can all have everything we want in our gardens , if we all ......share  .

I have been thrilled to see this handsome bird . He is quite bold and visiting even when I am working out in the garden . I think he might be a Sparrow Hawk ..maybe someone can tell me for sure . It is much bigger than our usual Kestrel .
  The fields around us have just recently been cut , I think this is why he has been attracted here .The Buzzards and my Ravens have been chasing him away . This is their  territory ! I also hope that my regular Blackbirds will be keeping out of sight of him !
  The Swallows ...well I have been watching them over the last few days ....I didn,t see any today .. so maybe they have gone .
The weather is changing and the wind is really picking up as I write this .
 Rain is forecast for the whole week ahead ....which is good for my onion sets and sweetpea seeds .
Goodbye to plastic bags ! Now we must all make an effort to remember to take our own bags with us when shopping .  I wish that shops would give their customers brown paper carrier bags like they do in America .

                            Tired old aching bones me.....off to put my feet up .....