Photo Scavenger Hunt - June's Pictures

Here's this month's selection of pictures for the June Photo Scavenger Hunt. I had no idea what was going to feature when I initially read the list, but I hope you like the variety and liberties I've taken to cover the themes.

"A Farm Animal"
Gobble Gobble! 
Although they aren't the most attractive birds, I was fascinated by the array of colour on its face and neck.
 


"Tree Branches"
Taken at Hatfield House by their children's play area.



"Architectural Detail"
One thing I love about Rugby is the variety architecture...there are some lovely buildings, but you have to look up to see them.



"A childhood memory, toy or food"
Pop Rocks!  We have an old fashion sweetshop in town and recently I took the kids and let them buy £1 worth of sweets.  We came home with this, some edible money and some dip dabs.



"An Elephant"
Taken at the Bramble Patch during their exhibition earlier this month.



"Cutlery"
How about this lunch bag!?  Spied the cutlery and thought it was a good take on the subject :o)



"Night"
Taken while standing in the backyard.  My DD1 wasn't overly impressed as we were watching TV when I spied the moon through the curtains and abruptly stopped what we were doing to take pictures!



"Cheese"
Stilton anyone?  Not my favourite, but a suitable option on a cheese board.



"The view right outside your door"
The back door...
This is the view into the garden...a lovely place to sit and have lunch.



"Something with your towns name on it"
Three guesses where I live and the first two don't count :o)



"A Wheel Trim"
I was trying to be clever with this...and also trying to avoid taking a picture of my car's feeble wheel trims!



"Something beginning with Z"
Zippers...

Until next time...

An Exhibition, some Happy Blocks and a "Big" Number...

With a title like that I'm bound to have raised your curiosity if not your eyebrow...

A few weeks ago I went to the Bramble Patch with my friends Liz, Mo and DD1.  It was their annual Strawberries & Cream Exhibition and as per usual it was a feast for the eyes and the stomach.  The scones and cream were delicious and the quilts inspiring.  I grabbed a few pictures to share with you.

I love the simplicity of this blue and red quilt and the repeated star shape in the quilting works incredibly well.  Just goes to show you don't need anything fancy to get a spectacular quilt.

This wall hanging with the feathers is so striking.  It took ever bit of control not to reach out and stroke the feathers.



Again another simple, but effective quilt.  I keep thinking I'd like to do something like this with my scraps.  The repetition of pattern and the plaid make this a very synchronized quilt!



Do you recognize this pattern?  It's of course the disappearing nine patch.  I love how the quilter put it on point and used the soft green as a "background"  It gives the eye a place to rest and makes for a sweet quilt.



In other news I managed to finish my Sew Happy Blocks for June.



I'm not sure about the apple fabric in one of those blocks below but hopefully it will work in the overall quilt.



Lastly I celebrated a milestone birthday last weekend...and here is my sorry looking cake!  I used Posie's Gets Cozy's cake recipe which worked like a dream, (honestly the BEST cake recipe ever!) but my icing didn't exactly turn out like hers.  It was suppose to be light and fluffy and cloud-like..which as you can see it wasn't.  I made sure to follow her instructions to the letter even insuring that I let everything cool off completely before whipping the ingredients together but it did didn't work.  Luckily it tasted great, but I sure wish I knew why it didn't work.  Any ideas?

P.S. - I've been doing some reading...apparently you need to beat the icing for 7-8 minutes...ooops didn't do that!  Bet that was my problem.

Until next time...

A school trip to the farm can lead to some interesting moments...

Last week I accompanied DD2's class to a local farm.  It was a really interesting visit as the farm belongs to one of the parents from the school and we were allowed exclusive entry.  Unlike when you go to a farm which is open to the public this was a much more relaxed environment.  I think I enjoyed the visit even more than the children did and it was fascinating to hear all about the feed for the cows and the milking routines.

Here was their rooster who was keeping a watchful eye on his "ladies".  He wasn't too sure about all these children visiting his home!



DD2 just loved seeing and petting all the new arrivals.  Oh they were so cute!



These little fellows were having a little snooze, but in the next pen two young males decided to get a little frisky with each other (if you get my meaning).  Of course the timing of their amorous encounter sent the children giggling and asking, "What are they doing!!?"  The teacher was slightly embarrassed and the farmer was laughing along with the children...when one bright spark at the back (who happened to be my DD2) quite confidently said, "well it's obvious...he's giving him a piggy-back ride!"
I think the teacher gave her a gold star when they returned to school as the answer satisfied the group and no further questions were asked! Phew!!

Until next time...

A Day out with the Butterflies

Earlier this week we went to Stratford upon Avon and had a wonderful time exploring the Butterfly Farm.  It was a lovely way to spend an hour or two and was very affordable thanks to the 2-for-1 vouchers I found on-line (from Vouchercloud).
As you walked up to the entrance the path weaved its way through these massive concrete circles.  They are obviously some sort of interconnecting drain pipe, but I loved how they positioned them and the visual interest it created. 

Once inside there were masses of butterflies fluttering around and one felt transported to a fairy-land...It was quite magical and within a few minutes we had them landing on our arms.





You had to watch your step and keep your eyes peeled as they were on every surface.  The magical and wonder of these little mini-beasts was everywhere.



Not only did we see the butterflies, but also some baby quails!  They were way too fast to catch on "film", but I spied 2 cockatiels having a snooze in the trees.



As you can imagine there was a wealth of photographic opportunities!  I only wish I'd brought my pocket camera too as it is much better at macro photography.



This is just a sampling of the pictures I took.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them.

Until next time...