Special Places

Hello Friends. 

How has your week been?

In this small corner, D and I have been having fun with some items we bought last weekend at the doll house show. We already had this little bare wood dresser unit and decided to paint it up to blend it in with another dresser which had already been dressed by a lovely lady called Julie. 

We used a mix of copper pans, tins, jars and bowls to fill the unit and dirtied up one of the dishes as though someone had just used it. We still have many other bits and pieces in the kitchen to complete, and when we have finished, we can continue our tour of the house.

Our son has been in Scotland this week, and while he physically travelled there, I have been armchair travelling again. My thoughts turned to a place and a person whom I never met. The place is Scapa Flow, and the person is my paternal grandfather.

Scapa Flow is an area of seawater that enjoys the protection of a natural harbour and has a long history of trade and conflict. 

During World War 1, the Royal Navy chose Scapa Flow as the main naval base of the Grand Fleet. Admiral John Jellicoe, concerned with the possibility of submarine attacks from enemy lines, ordered reinforced defences, submarine nets, and chains to protect the valuable fleet. Block ships were sunk at strategic points to make the waters almost impossible for enemy traffic to navigate through them.

By World War 2, these defences had fallen into disrepair. On the night of 14th Oct 1939, a U-47 German sub, commanded by Gunther Prien, slipped through the weakened defences and sank HMS Royal Oak with several torpedoes. The ship sank quickly, losing 833 men out of a crew total of 1400. The wreck is now a protected war grave.

This Youtube video tells the story much better than I ever could and brings a lump to my throat each time I have watched it.

Why is this point in history important to me? My paternal grandfather was a CPO cook on HMS Royal Oak. He never talked about his experience in the icy, oily waters of Scapa Flow, but he had survived, unlike many of his shipmates. He lived for about another 20 years with those personal memories, but I am so proud of him. 

Returning to our small corner in the West Midlands:

In other breaking news, the frogs are back! New frog spawn have been appearing in the last few days, and this morning, I spied ten frogs in the pond. They have clearly forgiven us for disturbing them! A pond is such an easy win to attract wildlife into the garden. Even a few inches of water is quite acceptable to them. We are going to be adding more plants, but for now, I am happy to see the frogs. We have started to add some turf around the edges of the pond which feels more natural than the slabs we had before and a small Hazel has been added in the near corner.

Frog spawn in top right corner

A little rain is forecast this week, which should please the frogs and encourage the rest of the garden to start growing. Some sunshine would also be welcome. 

Sending best wishes to you all from this small corner.

B and D

xx

In the Garden

Hello Friends

Having just watched the first episode of this year's Gardener's World, I feel motivated to do more garden jobs. The lead presenter, Monty Don, tells me I need to chit my potatoes ✅ and continue to mulch and weed the ground ( both ongoing for most of the year). Some of the other jobs I want to do are planting my onion sets and sorting out my herbs. 

  

Last week, hubby and I started renovating the pond at the end of the garden. It is smaller than before but will be more manageable for us. We have seen frogs about and hope they will soon forgive us for evicting them for the short term. There is still much work to do, but it is coming together slowly. Hubby needs to move a few of the shrubs, and we can also add more planting. In my head, I can imagine a seat for the two of us to enjoy the wildlife and the woodland planting.

First thing this morning, with camera in hand, I found all these lovelies. Some are flowers, and others are new shoots and bright stems. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did.

Over the last few months, I have slowly rekindled my love of reading. If you have been here before, you might remember that D and I started reading Shakespeare's plays in 2024. This week, I finished the last of his historical plays. I am surprised at how much I have enjoyed them, as I would never have read them by choice as a teenager. D still needs to catch up a bit, but has almost finished the last play. Here are the plays I have read since January:

Henry IV Part 1

Henry IV Part 2

Henry V 

Henry VIII

I also enjoyed reading:

The Killing at Badger's Drift - Caroline Graham

The Crooked House - Agatha Christie

Alert - James Patterson

I. Alex Cross - James Patterson

My dollhouse is another hobby that needs more attention this year. D and I have been working on the kitchen, but it is taking longer than we had hoped to get it right. Today was a fun day for us as we visited a dollhouse show. There are always many lovely things to see and tempt us to buy. Here are the tiny things we bought today. 

So, it looks like a busy week ahead, with new books to read, a crochet blanket to be continued, gardening as often as possible, and lots to do on the doll's house. How is your week looking?

Whatever you do, I hope the sun shines for you, and you enjoy good health.

Best wishes from B

             X

The Garden Shed

 

Hello friends

Today has been bright and sunny, and hubby and I have spent the day working and sitting in the garden. The big job we tackled was the garden shed, complete with a few resident spiders! It is amazing how much accumulates in the shed in just 12 months. We/I have been quite ruthless in the clearing out, and by the end of the day, this is how it now looks. At least we can get in there now without breaking our necks trying to reach the far corner for that rarely-used elusive tool.

It has been dry and sunny for most of the week here. It was my birthday on Tuesday, and a real treat to enjoy the unusual seasonal warmth. The night temperatures are still low, so I won't be planting much in the garden yet, but it is good to have a cuppa outside during the day. 

I do, however, have potatoes sprouting indoors, which will be ready to plant out in a few weeks.

Also, these bright daffodil blooms are enjoying the sunshine from my kitchen window.

From our small corner to yours, wherever you live, all three of us, hubby D and myself wish you a happy and sunny week as Spring begins to unfurl her beauty.

A Day in Oxford

Hello, and welcome to our small corner. 

 

The sun has been shining much more this week, although the night temperatures are still dropping below zero. It has been good to get outside more, and Spring is very nearly here.

Hubby has had another couple of annual leave days to use up, and we took advantage of that and the dry weather to visit Oxford on Friday. We drove down in the morning and then used the park-and-ride into the city. We wanted to see as much as possible in the short time we had available and used the hop-on-hop-off bus. It was very cold on the open-top bus, but the audio guide and the views made it worthwhile. We will be back when the weather warms up, and we can visit more specific places. 

Oxford is known for its prime university status, but it comprises nearly 40 colleges, all with proud heritages. There are beautiful grounds hidden behind heavy oak doors with neat lawns and large paved areas for the students and staff to enjoy. As we drove past, we saw the occasional teasing glimpses of these hidden places of utopia. 

Alice's shop is somewhere I would love to visit. It was supposedly where the real-life Alice of "Alice in Wonderland" bought her sweet treats. Many well-known writers have connections with Oxford. It is interesting to think that C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien may have shared a drink in the ' rabbit room ' of a public house called 'The Eagle and Child '!

Another prominent landmark is The Martyrs' Memorial, which commemorates three Protestant churchmen, Archbishop Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer,  who were burnt at the stake in the 1500s. 

There are many other wonderful landmarks to see around Oxford, perhaps the most famous being the circular, domed Radcliffe Camera. The word" camera" here means chamber or room. It stands in front of the Bodleian Library, whose book collection is world-famous. (There are no images this time, but you can find plenty on Google.)

However, I did manage some pictures of the Sheldonian, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The stone head carvings are based on Roman designs.

A more modern structure is the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1913 and linking two parts of Hertford College. It is similar to other famous bridges in Venice.

We visited the Museum of the History of Science, which had a fascinating display of instruments used to study the stars, a story about how penicillin was developed, Marconi's radio work, and Einstein's blackboard from one of his lectures. 

We enjoyed our first visit to Oxford very much and while nobody was punting on the river, we will look forward to that entertainment on a warmer day. 

Meanwhile, back home, after several weeks of working on the kitchen flooring, hubby has done an excellent job, and it is now finished. This has prompted reorganising the space and finally giving the dresser that belonged to my mum a new lease of life and pride of place in our kitchen. We all agree that it is now a good place to eat and enjoy being together. Here are a few pictures taken from both ends of the room.

Finally, you might like to see this picture after last week's post on Coventry Cathedral. The cathedral reopened in 1962; this is the guidebook's cover from that year. I found it amongst some of my dad's books that I kept. The cover has an additional jacket in acetate with the angels etched onto it. It is a beautiful and very unusual cover.

The weather forecast is good for the next few days here, and I hope that wherever you live, you enjoy some Spring sunshine too. 

Have a lovely week x