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

Spring Blessings

 Just dashing in to wish everyone a Happy Spring Equinox. This was last Saturday at Nymans.

Mr GBT has had his surgery and is now recuperating. We've had a lot of love and support from friends and family and there are already small signs of things improving. We still have to await the results of the biopsy, but for now we're taking things one day and one hour at a time. The sunshine and warm Spring temperatures are certainly helping us to raise our spirits and keep them lifted🌸🌸🌸

Arilx

An elven day

Scarlet Elf Cups in which the fairies bathe and from which the wood elves sup the morning dew. An absolute dream find for me. We had such a beautiful day on Sunday. 

Arilx

 

Harmony

 

It's good to see the early shoots of Spring appearing. We spent a peaceful hour pottering around Nymans in the sunshine yesterday. Those wavy lines in the hand-made gate..... Thank you very much for all your kind comments. 

Arilx

Beauty Routines

 With things being so up in the air at the moment I am drawing great comfort from the small daily routines which bring a measure of normality to my days and keeping my eyes open to the glimmers of joy. You might not anticipate finding beauty in a hospital, but there it was staring me in the face in one of the outdoor spaces. Mr GBT will be having his surgery early next week. The NHS staff have been amazing.

Have a good weekend.

Arilx 

Denmans

 I've been getting some practice in today using my new phone. We've been to a Sussex garden called Denmans which is new to both of us [that BBC Gardeners 2-4-1 voucher is still coming in handy]. It's a four acre site with relaxed plantings of all sorts mixed in together through drifts rather than the more traditional borders with which many of us are accustomed. 

We needed this place of calm today. It's been a worrying few weeks with medical appointments and we received some difficult news yesterday about Mr GBT. I won't go into further details, but it's set to continue this way for at least the foreseeable future so please bear with me if posting is sporadic or brief.

Arilx

Dazzling

 

When we bought a new computer a few months ago it came with a very shiny sticker on it. You may quite rightly wonder why I've opened this post with such a mundane sentence. However, this rather unremarkable shiny sticker has bee hiding its light under a bushel it would seem as this is what happened when the lower level of sunshine that we get at this time of year hit it. The funniest thing about this revelation is that I was out at work so missed ot. Instead these are my son's photos who just happened to be here...he's normally very low key, but this time he'd shown them to me before I'd barely got through the front door🤣 Have a great weekend folks. We're going to be trying to fathom out how to make a wren mask (don't ask)😁

Arilx