A fragrant and colourful Saturday.

This morning we went for a walk in the woods and spotted fungi all the way around as is usual for this time of year.
There are just so many this year, presumably because it has been so warm and wet recently. The colours of the fungi range from some beautiful pastel rose pink, to creamy yellow, sea green and almost lilac to grey, ochre and the wonderful speckled effect of the parasol mushrooms. We also saw a stinkhorn in all its white and dark green glory and a whole trail of curvy, funnel type ones in light brown.
Then home to put a couple of tops that i haven't been wearing because of the stark white/cream colour of them. I chose a terracotta brown from the local hardware shop. Ok, so it isn't a natural dye, but at least I bought it locally!!
Well, needless to say, as I should have well known, that as there may have been slightly more than the weight if material reccomended, they turned out salmon pink!!!! Oh help!!!!
At least the other projects that David and I have been working on have turned out the right colour....purple and amber, with wonderful fragrances of lavender, sandlewood and honey.
The house smells lovely. But the washing machine is on again :-( with my attempt to rectify my ridiculous error! Dark brown dye this time....fingers crossed!!!

Because there are times that only blogging about the good things will make you feel better.

Will on our walk this morning. We snuck out with the dogs by ourselves to walk around the reservoir. It was lovely being just the two of us. We don't often get the chance.



These are sitting beside me right now on the table. Hazel wood threading blocks and buttons. Cut and drilled by Jonathan, sanded by myself and David and oiled by me with a little help from Will.



A rainy morning spent doing puzzles on my bed under the watchful eye of the cat. He likes to oversee these things!


Wooden pieces with lovely pictures. Will did the whole boxful. About 12 in total, I think.
Ok, so this next one isn't wooden, but it's great isn't it? Hands up, who remembers 'Ivor the Engine'? Didn't he have a little dragon that lived in the funnel?

And these. Compare bears. I bought them last year and they get played with quite regularly. Will loves to line them up!

And some fungi pictures. I love fungi and can't resist taking photos of them. Like noone has ever done that before! The first two are the ears that Will found on a trunk. Remarkably like the BFG I thought. The same type as the mouse ears we found last autumn but a different shape for some reason?

And look at the vein like markings when the sun is shining through it!

Jonathan's brain fungus.....hmm, slightly smaller than last year. Should I be worried? Maybe I should inform the LEA? What do you think?!


David and Will doing cave paintings in front of the fire on another grey day. See? Rainy days are definitely good for some things!!

This picture isn't quite so good but it holds the memory of a lovely walk with David one Saturday morning not so long ago. It is a beautiful big oak that has lost a branch in the wind. And what a branch!!!

And David's ladybirds he found on yet a different walk. I've never seen so many in one place like that before! Any ideas why?

So I can push those negative thoughts that keep crowding my head space out of the way, so that these good ones have room to spread out, because there are many. Its just that the negative ones are so much more powerful and strong.