Without reservation

The newest bat bothy at our local nature reserve and our first ever sightings of Gadwalls. A blissful afternoon spent yesterday watching butterflies and photographing more Spring flowers. For us this is a return to the early years of our relationship before we became parents when we spent many happy hours together doing exactly this. Two weeks on and David managed to walk easily round the whole route unlike our first visit when he couldn't make it past the first hide. We are back at the hospital on Saturday for the removal of the thing which restricts how far we can go and then all being well we can start to stretch our wings again. I'm back in full scheming mode....have a fab weekend folks.

Arilx

 

Wild about the town

 In the part of Horsham where I live there's an ongoing project to rewild as many of the green spaces as possible no matter what their size. I've made a conscious decision to really pay attention to what I'm seeing when I'm out walking. There have been several butterflies and some really beautiful wild Spring flowers. Although the butterflies may not play ball, thankfully the latter are stationary so I have a chance to capture their magnificence and it enriches my experience while I'm out.

Green Alkanet aka Evergreen Bugloss. It's related to Forget-me-nots, borage and comfrey. It was believed to be helpful for healing wounds or snake bites and the root can be used both as a coffee substitute or you can extract a red dye from it which was used by weavers and cloth-makers. Alkanet apparently is derived from the Arabic for henna and the plant is thought to have originated in the Mediterranean.

Wood anemone aka Windflower, European Thimble Weed and Smell Fox because of its sharp musky scent. Anemone comes from the Greek God Anemos who sent the Spring flowers before him. It's the county flower of Middlesex and a symbol of good luck if you carry some about your person. Fairies were believed to hide in them and close up the flowers to protect themselves from the rain.

Cowslip aka Plumrocks, Fairy Cups and St Peter's keys supposedly from the look of the flowers to the bunch of keys that he carelessly dropped. These were traditionally picked on May day to decorate the boughs and bushes that those celebrating would have carried with them. It's a very fragrant flower [smells slightly of apricot] and many years ago it was regularly made into a country wine.

Ground Ivy aka Run-away Robin, Creeping Charlie, Devil's Candlesticks and in Sussex Lion's Mouth. Its other name of Alehoof alludes to its use by the Saxons to flavour and clarify their ale before hops were favoured. It smells of blackcurrant [and tom cat!] and is a good remedy for nettle bites. It was believed to be a protection against sorcery and milkmaids would wear it to stop the cows from being enchanted when they milked them.

Lesser Celandine is part of the buttercup family and is not to be confused with Greater Celandine which confusingly is not related as it's part of the poppy group. It's claimed that it was Wordsworth's favourite wild flower, but maybe it might not have appealed so much had its main name been Pilewort [relating to its use for treating haemorrhoids]. Other country names relating to its sunny yellow colour are Goldy Knob and Golden Guineas.

This final one is, of course, Forget-me-nots. If you've got to the end of this post without losing the will to live you might be relieved to hear that I've already covered this little wonder in an earlier post here https://gnatbottomedtowers.blogspot.com/search?q=forget-me-nots. I figured that there was no point in covering old ground😁

Weirdly for the second time in as many weeks I found myself accompanied by another friendly feline guide who showed me round the redundant Victorian graveyard which was one of my hunting grounds. I hardly ever encounter cats when I'm exploring let alone ones which are hellbent on having a cuddle and come over of their own volition. Life's funny how it works sometimes isn't it.

Arilx

Tulip Festival

Today is the start of Arundel Castle's Tulip Festival. It looks stunning and I've popped up a link from a few years ago to give you a flavour.

Due to certain practical reasons we're currently not travelling beyond Horsham unless it's for a medical appointment, but that should hopefully change within the next couple of weeks. However, I used this event to inspire the route of my walk yesterday to see what jewel coloured blooms I could find in the garden of the Unitarian Church and our sensory garden within the park. All things considered I don't think I did too badly on my scaled down free version....

Maybe next year we'll go along.

🌷Arilx🌷

Galileo's Thermometer

For the past five years I've spent every Tuesday afternoon dusting a smaller version of one of these for one of my former clients [I can't tell you how weird that is typing that] and as far as I was concerned, it was just another ornament. However, I must have caught something on television because I found out that it is actually some sort of scientific instrument, but I didn't take on board what. When I first met David he was working as a design engineer for a scientific instrument company [he started out as a physicist] and he loves this sort of thing. Normally I don't go on our local free FB group unless I'm offering something and that was the case on Friday when this popped up. From the owner's post I learnt that it's called a Galileo Thermometer so I called Mr GBT in and asked him if he'd be interested. Turns out he was and now it's come to live with us. I enjoy it as an attractive piece of decorative piece of glass.

The outer glass case is filled with clear liquid and the glass globules within are different sizes with varying amounts of liquid within them. As the temperature changes the spherical things slowly rise up or down according to both the density of the liquid within them and around them. This is the bit where Galileo comes in as he discovered the scientific principle, but his followers translated the theory into practice with the thermometer design after his death.

Actually we've done rather marvellously with the Giving-Away Gods this weekend as we also picked up a second massive free slow cooker [we're going to make bread in it and use it when we have visitors for cooking a dessert in like a steamed pud or bigger quantities of the main course] and 40 History magazines. Once we've read them they'll be donated to the free bookcase in the shopping centre which I have benefitted from on many an occasion. Thrilling as these bits are for me they don't make as an attractive photo, so have spared you them!

Arilx

 

What a plank

I have looked at this piece of wood in Horsham Museum on many an occasion and wondered what its backstory was. The only thing I knew for sure was that the carved initials and date were for an inmate of the old  Sussex  County gaol which used to be in Horsham (it was later demolished). Jean Baptiste,  from Italy, was committed on 13th September 1764. She had apparently stolen a parcel of snake-root, rhubarb, cochineal and gentian root from the owners who were Elizabeth Roberts and May King. I'm relieved to report that she was discharged on 25th March 1765 having been declared legally innocent. The plank itself is part of one of the gaol's oak floorboards.

Hope you all have a cracking weekend.

Arilx

 

Cool Dude

 

We have good news. Let me first introduce Mr GBT by his proper name...he's called David and he's been my lovely other half for almost 35 years. Firstly the tumour has been completely removed and it hasn't  spread either in its original site and the CT scan has shown that there isn't any elsewhere. He now will have a follow-up procedure and some specially targeted doses of chemo. They are going to hit it hard this year so that the little b*gger hopefully doesn't put in another appearance and then six monthly lots for the two years after that. It was an aggressive form which doesn't show itself until much later, but the universe was on our side and two chance things came together and it was discovered purely by chance when they were investigating another issue. I've always held my Pagan beliefs dear, but this has cemented them and they've been tested like never before.

Speaking of magic and how I seem to stumble across quirky things on a very regular basis, this rather natty little mobility scooter tootled past me and then drew up round the corner on Monday. The minute I clocked the 'Cool Dude' on the back I couldn't resist having a quick word with the vintage driver. He made me laugh and when he explained why he's got it and how it's given him back his independence following a life changing accident last year he most definitely lives up to his moniker. He very kindly let me take a photo of it. 

Arilx

Reed Bunting

 Another beautiful day and enough time to flash those new nature reserve cards of ours. This time Mr GBT managed to walk out to the first hide where we spent a few joyous minutes watching some of the woodland birds coming on to the feeders and then had the pleasure of viewing a Great Crested newt on the live feed from the pond camera whilst we had a cuppa. Earlier this month we saw our first ever Common Reed Bunting at Woods Mill. It's a rather snatched photo as it wasn't exactly hanging about to have its photo taken.

All these things add to the richness of our days.

Arilx

Saunter on a Saturday

 Our world has dramatically shrunk to twice weekly visits to the hospital. We had what felt like a major setback this week, but we did know beforehand that it was always going to be a possible result of the surgery. Thankfully we've always been decent lateral thinkers and good at coming up with practical solutions using what we've already got in to meet unexpected challenges. By the next day we had dusted ourselves off and had worked out that we could enjoy an hour of birdwatching whilst sat in the comfort of the visitor centre at our nearby nature reserve. It was so relaxing and we even stopped for a cuppa in the cafe. Spying on the antics of a grebe, grey wagtails and the egrets was magical and we have now invested in an annual membership.  Going forwards it's within walking distance of home and Mr GBT is a keen photographer so we'll cover our outlay in no time once he's fully up and running.

With the level of caring I'm doing at the moment it's very important that I keep myself well so that I can do my best and remain vigilant about my anxiety. I realised a few years ago that walking and taking photos of beautiful or interesting things is a very important tool in my armoury. On some days when Mr GBT is resting and my energy levels are high enough I go for a saunter. I've been out in the sunshine today enjoying all the new Spring flowers and admiring that Aston Martin!!

If I get the opportunity I'll turn back the time machine this week and write up my post about my wee Pre-Raphaelite adventure I had at the beginning of March

Arilx

Pals

 These two pals were hanging out together in a field that we passed on our recent Cuckfield walk. I don't know what it is about donkeys, but I always find them so cheering.

Have a great weekend folks.

Arilx

Off duty

All the small, but significant steps Mr GBT has made over this past week meant that today he told me he would be happy for me to walk into town on my own for an hour to pay in the last of my earnings to the bank, for, as of yesterday, I am now retired. There was no way that I could have gone back with everything that's happened and then announce at the end of April that I was going to be stopping anyway in a month's time. My clients have completely understood.

Before I left I worked out that I had time to have small window where I could be off duty [I had my phone with me] and take a 15 minute breather. Many times I've been to the Horsham Museum garden, but today it felt like a peaceful oasis and I had it all to myself.....except it turns out that it wasn't the case as this rather fine fellow swung past me looking haughtily back over his shoulder.

As with small children I'm a great believer in just hanging back and letting them decide whether they want to befriend you or not. This one had a change of heart and turned back. From there on in he was my furry bestie and every time I moved I had company with a demand for a cuddle if I tarried even for a moment. He gave me such a boost🐈 Update...he'd like you to know that his name is Jasper!

This rather odd thing is a locally made protype concrete beehive which was made during WWII when the demand for wood and bees was high. It didn't catch on so not many survive.

This dark leaved version of Euphorbia is rather striking and the Japanese quince blossom gave a lovely shot of  unusual colour in the sunshine. Beyond a few daffs it rather feels like the garden is still holding its breath and will burst forth into colour within a couple of weeks.

I can't but help and stop to admire this piece of work by Janine Creaye. You know me and my love of greenmen!

To finish this was my view from the bench where I sat and gathered my thoughts before returning home feeling a little lighter of spirit refreshed by the change of scene and the buzzing bees.

I would say that today has been a good day.

Arilx

PS I now know that this cat is a frequent visitor and belongs to one of the neighbours. He took himself along to one of the meetings inside the museum this week!!

Uckfield vs Cuckfield

 Ah the vagaries of this language of ours. Over in East Sussex we have Uckfield, which as you might rightly assume, rhymes with duck and here in the West we have Cuckfield which is pronounced Cookfield. 🤔 With Spring beckoning (I take it on a day by day basis weather and temperature wise) and the mercury rising I risked a chill by removing my vest (I jest) and we trundled over to Cuckfield for a gentle wander a couple of weekends ago.

We are now almost a week past surgery and Mr GBT is improving in small ways each day. It has been and continues to be exhausting in ways I'd never anticipated before everything went awry. I'll simply let the images do the talking, but it feels like another small win and has given me a boost being able to put a post out.

Arilx

Vase

 A stunning piece by William de Morgan which I was lucky enough to see a couple of weeks ago out on a jolly with my friend Eloise. I will write a blog post about my visit in the coming weeks. The colourway of this particular vase stood out to me because it's so different to the iron red or sea colour palettes he so often seemed to favour. Have an amazing weekend.

Arilx