Ten on the 10th (belated)

I celebrated my birthday earlier this month, and had intended to publish these photos, taken on the day, as my ten on ten, but sadly I was poorly on the 10th of the month (as well as 8th, 9th & 11th), so here we are today on 13th, with my original ten, plus three bonus photos. As you can see, GM took me out for a picnic lunch on the top of the White Horse Hill in Westbury, which is exactly what and where I wanted, and then I chose to fix a pasty pie for my special evening meal. Alcohol was consumed.

 

A thoroughly enjoyable day.

 

May, the beginning

 The mini-greenhouses have been erected, and placed outside at the back of the yarden room, GM has subsequently attached them by means of a hook and a rope to the brick wall, so they won't be going anywhere fast.

 I planted the runner beans out quite early last month, taking a chance on there being no late frost, and thus far they've been ok, and are growing well

 It was my birthday, and on the Bank Holiday Monday we met up at GO's for a bit of a do

 

 Ginger Two and Ginger One, the youngest two of my sons.

 A "Ten on the 10th" with birthday photos will follow - I have been a bit under the weather for the last few days, so I'm all behind (no pun intended).

How is your May going so far? 

 

April, rounding off

 I did the Daily Woodoku puzzle every day

 My step count was, disappointingly, not up to target,

 but I did complete a jigsaw puzzle.

 My across the road neighbours now have two minis, the smaller of the two is a new addition.

 And here's my herbword for the week

 How was your week?

April's Monthly Photography Challenge, Spring

Many thanks to Eileen for once again hosting this monthly challenge, on the subject of Spring.

 My offerings are below

 

May's challenge is, in Eileen's own words : 

"The theme for May 2026 is 'cutlery' where the aim is to create some arty photos of the cutlery using shadows, reflections,  and/or arrange the cutlery in patterns. 

Everyone is welcome to join in. The more the merrier. Good Luck."

I'm following a tree

 January

 February

 March

 April

 

Rushing towards the end of April . . .

. . . and I'm recently back from a trip.

Firstly I went to Felixstowe, where this magnificent beast rather tacky object was sitting outside the front entrance to my hotel, and was visible from my bedroon.

 

If you stood close to it for too long, its ears flapped and its trunk waved at you. 😛

The reason for my visit was to see my best friend who lives here. She picked me up in the morning and took me out for breakfast. The cafe was in full view of the container port. These ships are huge, it was exciting to watch the tiny little tug boat pull that huge thing away from the dock.

 As this was my first visit of the year to the coast, the essentail toe-dipping ceremony took place, can you tell by my face that the water wasn't that warm?

 A walk along the sea front was quite bracing, and on a monday, out of season, was not busy.

 

Tea and cake, in a craft shop, was essential. Did I manage to keep to my "buy no more yarn in 2026" promise to myself? What do you think?

 After a couple of days with my friend, I travelled on/back to Essex to spend a brief period with my sister. We made a quick visit to the cemetary to say hello to our mum, and then, on walking to the edge we were greeted with this vista. Does anyone recognise any of the buildings on the horizon?

 Like me, Jan likes a good jigsaw puzzle, and gifted me this. Not sure when (or if) I'll tackle it

 We had a day out at Hyde Hall, an RHS venue not far from Chelmsford, it was a lovely sunny day, but the breeze was a bit nippy.

 

A selfie with Jan and Banjo before I left

 

 And a quick stop in London as I passed through, so I could meet PJ for lunch.

 

 and before you know it, I'm back home, and recovering before my next adventure.