enjoying the (brief) sun

This summer has mostly been rain, so when the sun does come out we get out there and enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having fun in the garden with visiting family.

 

Jo x

 

 

 

 

 



butterflies

My cousin and his wife sent Faith a wonderful present for her birthday in July. They sent a pot with teeny tiny painted lady caterpillars (they were about 3mm long at first and looked like black grains of rice), and a pop up net for keeping butterflies in. The caterpillars grew really really fast to about 2 1/2 inches then made their chrysalis on the roof of the pot. I then pinned the roof of the pot to the inside of the net and we waited. It took about 2 weeks for them to emerge.

 

This is the butterfly just emerging from the chrysalis, we were just lucky to be nearby when it happened.

 

 

It then fell down with its wings still curled and immediately looked for something to climb up. This must be such a vunerable time in the wild.

 

It climbed up the wall and back to the lid where it stood for about 2 hours, unfurling and gently flapping its wings and stretching out its tongue (probiscus really but i'll just call it a tongue!). When they first come out, the tongue is in half and they have to curl and uncurl and stretch it around to bring it together. If you look hard you can see this in the picture below.

 

Better shot of the tongue stretching below. Also, I never realised they have such pointy noses.

 

We released them the day after all 5 of them had hatched/emerged/been born, not sure what the right terminology is.

 

 

 

 

 

Jo x

 

 

 

 



at our place

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week was, painting, leaf printing, unbelievable sunsets, swinging, bunny watching and hugging, spotting butterflies (this is not one of the ones we released), making paintbrushes, this is just a feather taped to a stick, we used it with beetroot 'paint'. (Just beetroot juice, boiled down a bit to make it more concentrated.)

 

Jo x

 

 

 

 



make: elder neclace

A really great way to make beads, for free, is with elder. Just get a few sticks and cut them into 1-2cm pieces. Elder has a spongy core so it is easy to get something pokey (we used an awl) to push the spongy bit out, and, voila, a bead.

 

 

We then put some of them in a bowl of blackberry juice to soak overnight and the next morning laid them out in the sun to dry.

 

 

 

The pendant is just a part where the branch split.

 

 

 

 

Jo x

 

 

 



one small change

Last time, our small change was to get our shower time under 4 minutes. That has been pretty easy actually, I think I was just lingering there before enjoying the warm water because I don't have to go any quicker really to beat my timer. Yes, I have been setting a timer (and I've also been setting an alarm just outside the door when other people go for a shower!).

    

This month my change was going to be one of getting up earlier. Before having Roghan I was usually a half 5 kind of person, with a new baby that obviously went out the window! Recently Roghan has only been waking up once in the night and usually getting up about 7am so I thought I could get back to my old routine. Unfortunately I managed to time this with 2 weeks of teething where he started getting up endless times in the night and then deciding night was over sometime around 4.30am. So, my attempts for some calm time in the morning havn't happened yet. He's starting to settle again now (no new teeth though), and getting back to one wake up, but he still seems to think anytime between 5 and 6am is a good time to get up.

 

Hopefully soon he will start sleeping a bit later (maybe when the sun doesn't rise so early), so I can get up before him. I just love that peaceful time in the morning when you feel like your the only person in the world. Having that hour or so of calm makes my day much smoother and gives my reserves of patience a definate boost. Having a calm and happy mama is very good for the health of the family!
 

horse with snorkel

Love this picture Faith drew for me. Of course every horse needs a snorkel right!

Jo x 



at our place

This week has been, impossible angles, dancing lessons (for me, faith is the teacher, she sure doesn't get her grace and balance from me!), lying down on the floor to take photos of tiny mushrooms in really public places, I get used to strange looks, speaking of which, Roghans been trying out a few strange looks of his own! Loving that rainbow that appeared on the carpet from the glass in the front door.

Jo x



moth

This amazing moth flew into the house last night. Luckily I was just standing right there holding my camra!

The flash on my camra made it look really yellow in the 2nd picture but its true colour is closer to the 1st picture. This is probably something a technically savvy person could sort out in photoshop...

I am trying to find out what this moth is called but can't seem to so far. Does anyone know? I'll update when I find out.

Jo x

Update: I emailed someone who knows about moths and am informed it is called 'the drinker' as the caterpillars drink drops of dew. This one is a female ( the males are smaller and browner ), and they usually fly in july and august.

Thankyou Liz for getting back to me so fast. Please go visit her site to see many many beautiful moth and butterfly photos as well as hundreds of other animals. My photo is going to be in the moth section now as they didn't have this species yet.

sunrise / sunset

I've been having long days recently while Roghan is teething, up before the sun and to bed long after. Its all worth it for these glorious views though...

Jo x

yesterday and today

yesterday -



today -

Good 'ole cornwall keeping us on our toes!

unravelling

I have really good intentions to only knit one thing at a time. To cast on, knit and cast off and really focus on that one item before even thinking of anything else. Of course this doesn't happen... ever. There's always that something that needs starting because its for a birthday or some other deadline, there's the projects that take for ever which need those little projects in between to keep your sanity, there's that stash of beautiful yarn in the corner of the room chanting - cast on, cast on, cast on, in a voice which it seems the rest of my family can't hear, then there's the oh so enticing 'to do' ravelry queue. This is all a long way of saying that I usually have loads 1 or 2 projects on the needles at any one time.

Sometimes though its time to face the truth. I will never ever finish some of those projects, some of them have been in the WIP pile for years. I made the decision to unravel, I thought it would be horrible (all those hours of work), but actually it was wonderfully liberating. I hadn't realise how much they had been hanging over me while they were sitting there. Now that yarn is all free again to become something new...

...andc now I have space in my basket.....

In the future I may want to do this where little helpers can't see me and get ideas.

Jo x



gorgeous colours

I took so many photos of these gorgeous leaves, here are a few. I love the time of year when the leaves just start to turn but the grass is still green and the flowers are still blooming. It is all so beautiful.