flamingo's elbows

My blogs these days seem to be full of holidays and days out and, indeed, life has had more than its fair share of such things in the last couple of months or so.   This is mainly due to the fact that my dear husband is on a lengthy sabbatical from work.   Much deserved, it has to be said.  So, last week, with the sun beaming down from blue skies, I wheedled my way into a trip to Coton Manor nearby in Northamptonshire.   I think I'd seen some appealing photos of it maybe in Country Living.   We arrived in time for a lovely lunch in the dappled shade of a huge tree in the courtyard and afterwards set off with our map to wander round the gardens.   The first thing that struck me was the amount of vibrant colour still showing in the herbacious borders.   They were stunning and awe-inspiring.

There was some very relaxed wildlife strolling in the grounds with us.   I couldn't get over the way these flamingoes kneel down - aren't their elbows funny!  

These preening funny-footed bantams are called Mille Fleures d'Uccles - they've got huge great ungainly feathers sticking out at right-angles from their feet, but have beautiful detailed plumage.

Our tea-table.   Unfortunately some children had rearranged all the cans so the waitresses were having great problems delivering the meals to the right tables!  

Spanish spoon from a few blogposts ago - couldn't show it sooner because it was a hen-sitter's pressie and she's a faithful reader of this blog!

So that was last week - this week I have been mostly making birds/calendars/hearts for two craft stalls I accidentally agreed to do in November.   On the same day.   I thought I was just manning a stall at one of them, but, no, it turns out I'm also providing the wares to sell.    I have a vague memory of promising never to do any of these again!   Am I completely mad?  

ribbons & ricrac

Calendar tags

birdies

stars

waiting for hearts

Lots of love,