Minehead

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Our visit to Minehead really follows my recent post about Dunster Castle, as we went there directly after wards.

Minehead in Somerset, is on the Bristol Channel, just before it opens up into the Atlantic Ocean and starts getting really rough.

Minehead takes me back to when our children were young and we had several family holidays there. A small rather old fashioned town with it's own steam trains and a holiday camp.

The sea goes out quite a long way, all along the Bristol Channel coastline, but the tides are high, rapid and treacherous. Not good for bathing, but the children enjoy the sand.

After Minehead, we visited the lovely little town of Watchet very nearby. This is the lovely little harbour with it's own light house.

I love to see the little boats taking refuge there.

Now here is the *Ancient Mariner* himself, holding his albatross. Do you remember the poem by Coleridge?

If not, go here.

And this man...... well I really do not know who he is, but he seemed a friendly sailor. I even had a photograph taken of me sitting on his knee, but you are not seeing that one! Too cheeky!

As usual, the ordinary things in life seem to grab my granddaughter's attention and this little cat was no exception!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek. Look them up for more photos and stories.

Mystery of the Hidden Eggs

I know it has been Easter and people expect to see all sorts of chocolate eggs about but I have had a mystery in my garden and so far *it* has happened twice!

Not far from here, I was pottering in my garden and I noticed that there had been some disturbance in a pot of chives! Looked like an animal had scraped some of the soil off the top of the pot and had thrown it on the patio. There was a little mound on the edge of the pot and I dug my hand in, hoping it wasn't cat's mess and found an egg! It could have been laid by a bird but it was a brown hen's egg and to make matters worse, there was a sell by stamp on the side of it! I know what you are all thinking. It's a joke! The family are playing a prank on Maggie May!

Well let me tell you, it isn't a joke. I had watered that pot of chives the night before and there was no sign of the egg then. My son and family were on the south coast having a break and although my older grandsons had been here one of the weekends previously, the eldest has an aversion to eggs and certainly wouldn't handle them (one of his autistic traits) and the younger one could never have kept a secret like that. Besides....... no one has been outside the back door but me because of the nesting wrens.

My daughter would have thought it was a waste of an egg and I would have set her off laughing when she saw my puzzled expression if it had been her, so I know it had nothing to do with Deb.

Harry is as mystified as I am and he really isn't good at jokes. What you see in him is what you get..... he couldn't have anything to do with it I am one hundred per cent sure. So my family has been ruled out!

My garden is fairly secure though I suppose anyone could get in anywhere if they really wanted to.

The first time it happened was some weeks ago when I noticed an egg in the gravel by the side of the kitchen, following the underpinning work. It was sucked down tightly into the wet gravel and when I prised it out, it broke. That was also a brown hen's egg with a stamp on the side of the shell.

So it looks like an animal deposited the eggs. What could it be, do you think?

Could a cat have carried one without breaking it? Could a squirrel or a rat? A magpie? A fox?

If they could, why would they do it? Why not eat the eggs? Where did they come from?

All you people who live in exotic places, need not tell me it was a raccoon or a posssum or anything that we don't get here. I want to know what British animal could have done this?

Any ideas gratefully received and it really is not a joke!

In case any of you are wondering why I have a photo of pansies and not chives, well it is raining today and I already had a picture of my pansies but not of chives! Saved me getting wet and I am also a little scared of going out and finding another egg!

Not sure why but my Blogroll gadget didn't show up my last post The Main Attraction on anyone's blog.

The Culprit!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This is the photo of my little shed that I painted blue. I was wandering round Wilkinson's and spied this little snail in the exact colour of blue to match. Well I have enough real snails in my garden without adding artificial ones too. I bought it, though, for cosmetic reasons and it lived on the top of the shed roof and looked like it was meant to be there.

Meanwhile, all the real snails get thrown over the fence onto the service lane behind! This gives them the chance to "scuttle off," in a snail like way, if they survive their flight! If not and they get run over.......... well I didn't have to kill them did I? They had a chance!

I went down to the shed the other day and noticed something was different! The plant had obviously grown a bit but the snail was gone! Had it crawled off in the night? Hardly likely! The real culprit from next door was sitting on the shed wondering what I was going to do about it! Well it might not even be him! There are four of them living next door and they all like to curl up on my shed!

The snail was found lying behind the potted plant with his horns broken off! I will not be taking a photo of him as it is too depressing, but he won't be sitting on top of the shed any more!

This is my story and these are my photos for Photostory Friday.

My Quiet Place..........

This is part of my little garden. My retreat where I sit in the middle of the city but in total peace and calm. I read or think out new posts or just look at everything. The above photo is of a clematis which is growing amidst the passion flower plant, which has buds that are about to flower. 

Always watching me is this stone cat on a wall, surrounded by campanulas.

I put a small cutting of campanula from my Dad's garden many years ago into a crack in the wall and I can remember him saying that it would never take! I carefully watered it and it settled very well. Now it covers the whole wall and has to be trimmed back regularly. Some things just have to be tried out!

This is the place where I sit near to the bird feeders. You can see my chair in the corner. The ceanothus  (tall blue flowering shrub) has done really well this year and helps to make our garden private. I think every one needs a little place where they can sit and recharge their batteries! 

The garden was filled with butterflies a couple of weeks ago, but just because I wanted to take some photos, they seem to have disappeared. The butterflies were Skippers. I don't know what plants they live on but they come for a few weeks every year. Obviously I have missed them.

Well, now on to a meme!  Lady Thinker  who has a blog called "Who Cares..." has given me a book meme to do.

She asked me to pick up a book and open it at page 123 and read out the 5th sentence!  Well this is very simple but what book shall I choose?

I will pick up the last book I read, which happens to be" Vegemite Vindaloo" by David Mcmahon from authorblog

I found this book to be a really good read. In places it was sad, but in others very funny. A sort of bouncing between two countries and two different cultures. Anyway, I enjoyed the book, so recommend it. Here goes.........

"The next time Bablu and his grandmother appeared, he asked the old lady if she would pass on a message to the boy's parents."

Well, there we are. Doesn't mean much when its just a sentence. However, it is at a place in the book where there is a struggle for the extreme poor to get an education. A Catholic priest decides to give a gifted child a chance of learning to read. A child that would otherwise be doomed to a life of poverty. This child grows up to have a very privileged  job and inspires some one else to give another needy child a break. By breaking through the boundaries of a caste system, a whole series of events lead to a change in the circumstances of two families!

I am now supposed to tag someone! However, I am going to leave this open for any one who wants to do this meme  and let me know if you decide to and I will come over and read it. I know that many of you have already done this one. Here's hoping that some of you haven't!