Today all my pictures fit in nicely with the Year of Colour themes for May and June - green and yellow
I've been away for a week to my family and then camping on a farm near Hollacombe, Holsworthy, Devon while hubby was away working!
The weather was very hot and I enjoyed walking through the fields and countryside with my sister. The fields were full of buttercups and rapeseed flowers, hawthorn blossoms and flowering wild fruit trees. The walk brought back a lot of childhood memories of making dens in tree lined ditches, chasing dragonflies and picking and pressing wild flowers
Fields of gold
There were some good charity (thrift) shops and I've had some very lucky book finds this week:
All these for £6:
- A Field Guide to Wild Flowers
- Four Seasons - The Life of the English Countryside
- The Plant Kingdom
- Botanical Atlas
- Stumpwork - New Designs in Raised Embroidery
- The Secret Garden and Countryside in Cross Stitch
- Minerals and Rocks in Colour; and
- five Colin Dexter/Inspector Morse paperbacks too!
Today's mosaic has a buttercup theme for Mosaic Monday ...
Do you like butter?
... and my walk inspired this little poem
Meadows and Hedgerows
Buttercups and Daisies
Celandine and Haw
Dragonflies and Cowslips
Dog Rose, Vetch and more
Dandelion and Foxglove
Honeysuckle sweet
Saxifrage and Hearts Ease
Groundsel and Knapweed
Hawthorn blossoms
My sister took these lovely photos of hawthorn blossoms. I was able to use my field guide to wild flowers book to identify them and then on the internet I discovered that they have useful edible and medicinal properties too. Tea can be made from the dried leaves and the autumnal berries can be made into wines and jellies/jams
I also discovered that "hawthorn" means "thorny hedge" in old English and the trees are often planted as agricultural hedges
More buttercups
On Wednesday I went to stay at Headon Farm near Hollacombe, Holsworthy, Devon. The farm is in the middle of nowhere with beautiful countryside all around
It was very quiet and peaceful though and, as the weather turned into torrential rain and gusty gales, I stayed in and got some hand stitching done
Now, I've lots to catch up on again after being away - housework, laundry, work, post, etc. and many blogs buddies and flickr friends to visit ...