Trust

On days when it is fine enough one of my greatest pleasures is sitting out in the garden.  Over time I have found that if I am quiet and relatively still the birds who frequent the garden gradually begin to trust that I will not hurt them and start to come closer.  It will begin with a rustle in a tree or perhaps in the holly bush just to the left of the bench.  There are little twitterings, whispers and clicking sounds as they consider me and wonder if it is safe to venture to the seed feeders.  Then one adventurous soul, generally one of the robins - they are the boldest of our garden birds - will break cover for a moment, grab a piece of seed and retire with it.



The robin often loves company and will come to see what I am doing, there will be scufflings in the holly bush and a beady eye will peak out and sing softly.  Of course his favourite time of all is when my father is out gardening, he and his partner have spent entire afternoons following him around within inches, sometimes getting perilously close to the spade or fork as my father digs.  Over time I have learned to tell the two robins apart by their behaviour, for example the less bold of them hovers close to things rather than land and this robin also likes to fly across the garden narrowly avoiding my head to announce his or her presence.  Our current robin's new trick is to bring whatever he has found, small grubs, caterpillars and the like to show us, before flying off to eat them or take them to his nestlings.

The day before yesterday one of the robin even had a bath while I was standing a couple of feet away, a sign of trust that brought me such joy.  Indeed it has struck me that perhaps this is how God feels about us when we trust Him?  When we dare to approach, or show Him something we have done or just come to see what He is doing, does He feel that same joy? Is my joy at the robin's trust and company a small echo of what happens in God's heart when we come to Him and trust Him?  I do hope so.  Certainly it makes me more determined than ever to try to trust God more and to keep coming to my Father.

Ceanothus

The ceanothus was only planted a few years ago but is already taller than me and is just, finally creeping into flower, slowly flushing with blue.  The air around it is full of the buzzing of bees and hoverflies and its honeyed scent and it has added a wonderful splash of colour to the garden.





I even managed to get a picture of one of the bumble bees feeding on the flowers, it is a little blurred, but my camera does not seem good enough to capture them, as they move so fast.  That or my skills with the camera are not good enough!

Anyone for cake?

A rare bit of baking, Nigella Lawson's Coca Cola Cake from How to be a domestic goddess.  Tastes rather good, even if I say so myself.



On the knitting front I'm a bit more than half way through my first London Underground sock and I am on the first front of my Double V cardigan, having done the back and one sleeve so far.  Both enjoyable knits, I love how effective the cardigan's lace pattern is for such a simple pattern.

Later: I went back to that "simple pattern" to find that I had gone wrong a number of rows back so I am only just now past where I was yesterday, having spent a considerable time unknitting (also known as "tinking" - knit backwards) and reknitting.  Hopefully it will go better from here on in, but that will teach me!

Sheep!

Of course, an important part of our visit to the farm was seeing the lambs while they were still little and we took endless photos.  At the start of the week the lambs were still very much at the tottering stage but by the time we left they were venturing further from their mothers and beginning to career around the field, jump and play.  Not much more to say, but here's a selection of photos, you can see the full set here on flickr.






I love how their tails wag when they feed.







Lastly not the greatest picture, but I feel it is very expressive.

More of our holiday

Despite all my best intentions I did not get any more blogging done while in Sussex, so here belatedly are a few highlights of our holiday.  I may split the posts up into subjects.

First some pictures of where we were staying and the view from our dining table:



And there was a lot of visiting wildlife including a very sweet rabbit and two strutting pheasants, watching a male pheasant run makes me laugh every time, there's something most Captain Mainwaring or Mr Pooter about a male pheasant.





There were well visited bird feeders on the trees fairly close to our dining table window, we saw a robin, blue and great tits, a nut hatch, greater spotted woodpecker, magpies (alas) and chaffinches.  While I thought we had problems keeping our feeders filled, there it was a several times a week job!  My sister got some great shots of the blue tits bickering and feeding - she has more great photographs on her flickr photostream.



The farmers are delightfully welcoming and encouraged us to walk around the farm as much as we liked, an invitation we took up eagerly.  This is one of my favourite views out across their land, looking vaguely north across the Low Weald.



Most evenings there were the most wonderful sunsets, it is truly a lovely, if windy (being on top of a rise in the landscape) spot, I was so sad to have to leave.  Next time: lambs!





For those who are interested, we stayed at Heath Farm near Plumpton Green, they are comfortable, spacious cottages and the farmers are lovely people, I would definitely recommend them.  They are quite disabled friendly, being on one floor with flat access and wet rooms.

Arrived

Magnolia

We are blessed with a beautiful magnolia tree outside our house in the front garden and in front of that on the kerb some variety of cherry tree and right now both are blossoming magnificently.  It's a wonderful sight and the bees seem very keen on it all although they show a marked preference for the cherry tree, partly I think because of the profusion of flowers very close together.  Anyhow, I managed to get some photographs today and I thought it might be cheering to see them.







Expect the next post to come from deepest Sussex as I am off on my holidays to a farm - with sheep!