A '300' giveaway.

My giveaway to celebrate 300 lovely followers, now 303!

There is, an Irish linen tea towel, with roses.

A pack of notelets (Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady)

Some packs of seeds

A pair of coasters

Some pieces of fabric

(click to see more clearly)

And of course, a pack of Cornish tea from Tregothnan.

I will send anywhere , but the seeds cannot go to Australia.

Please just leave a comment telling me that you would like to enter the giveaway.

I will draw it next week, Feb 4th.

Hope for Children

My lovely grandson, aged 20, and in his second year at University, has just announced that he will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in September.

https://exeter2014.everydayhero.com/uk/matthew

(Take a deep breath and stop worrying, Grandma)

He went out to Swaziland a couple of years ago and was involved in helping build a school. I think the experience taught him that young people in UK today have much to be thankful for. I remember him telling me that he found it hard to listen to the English moan about their lives when he had seen such poverty.

The group are doing this as a Charity fundraiser for Hope for children.

Hope For Children

Hope for Children (HOPE) is a UK based charity which works towards a world where children’s rights are realised and they can reach their full potential. They actively identify disadvantaged children and communities by working with local partners.

Through empowering, collaborating and learning together they aim to build a sustainable future for the children and communities they work in. Their focus is to reach as many children as they can and deliver to them the childhood every child deserves. This year alone HOPE has supported over 70,000 children in Africa, Asia and the UK.

Naturally, I am being a concerned Grandma and worrying about all the things that one does (warm clothes, enough support, organisation.........) I think they have got it all well organised. They are sensible young people.
But I still want to knit woolly socks!!

Surprised by Oxford.

Recently I won a giveaway organised by Brenda at A beautiful Life. I have 'known' her for some years and always love to visit her blog.

Amazon duly sent the book that I had won, beautifully gift wrapped.

 A copy of 'Surprised by Oxford' by Carolyn Weber.

I hadn't heard of this writer, but having lived in Oxford many years ago I was interested to read the book.

What a joy it was!

Briefly.... Carolyn Weber arrived in Oxford for post graduate studies, feeling no need for God in her life. She relied on intellect and rational thought, not faith.

The book explores the ins and outs of coming to faith,

She writes beautifully, poetically and with great feeling. She drew parallels with C S Lewis's 'Surprised by Joy'.

I have so enjoyed reading this.

And just for a change, here is a pretty vase of Freesias, sent to me by my Sister in law who thought it might help the Winter pass more quickly.

They are sweet scented and lovely.

I can only leave comments on embedded comment boxes. I'm so sorry.as many of you have the drop down ones, which just freeze, making it impossible to leave a comment. But I do read all the blogs.

Lunch in Arunashal Pradesh.

We have been to a fascinating Lecture lunch hosted by the National Trust at Trelissick today.

The head gardener, Tom Clarke , has recently returned from a second trip to Arunashal Pradesh, where he and others were plant hunting and exploring.

The name Arunashal Pradesh means Dawnlit Mountains, and certainly we were overawed by some of the slides he showed of mountains towering over river gorges, rope bridges crossing from one side to another.

This is one of the least explored states in the Himalayas. Situated at the far North East of the country it is not easy to reach, and beyond the usual tourist regions.

The people who live there were intrigued by the group of Europeans, and gave them every help that they could, carrying and cooking for them.

There are rhododendrons there that have only recently been discovered. We wanted to ask if they had been allowed to bring specimens home, but apparently they just mapped them on a GPS for other explorers to visit later.

About fifty people attended the lunch, which was very appetising.

These lecture lunches are put on weekly through October to February, and this was the first time we had gone to one.

There are some more interesting titles coming up, so we will maybe go again.

300!

I am so grateful to my followers and their lovely comments.

I know that numbers can go up and down, and that isn't a problem.

Today I reached 300!

Lots have more, some have less. That doesn't matter.

It's the quality of friendship that followers bring with them that is important.

Thank you all.

I shall be having a little giveaway to mark this very soon.

I'm still unable to comment on some blogs.
the ones that have an embedded comment box are fine, but the ones with a drop down box are impossible. I have read that some others are having the same problem.
Sorry!

A bowl of porridge.

It was such a cold morning today that a bowl of porridge seemed to be the best thing for breakfast. I have to admit that I don't usually eat much at breakfast time, but the chilly day just asked for a hot meal.

Now I have to admit to something else. I put Golden syrup on the porridge, something I haven't done for years. How good it was!

It took me right back to childhood mornings, getting ready for school.

Then, a cold morning always meant  that my mother had ready a big bowl of porridge, with golden syrup drizzled over it. You could feel the warmth inside. Fuelled, we took off, wrapped in our big coats and scarves, for the walk to school. We lived about two miles outside the village where the little school was. No transport in those days. We walked. 

We walked up the field behind our home, over the stile and through the 'cow' field where the cows used to look placidly at us, (which always terrified me). On we went, up the muddy lane until we reached a barn, where we were allowed to leave our boots and change into school shoes. The rest of the walk was on a country road.

When we reached the school , the head mistress would have the old Tortoise stove burning, the classroom would be warm and cosy, and we settled in for the day's work.

We were never bothered about walking a couple of miles. 

It's what we all did in those days.

I am finding that Blogger will not let me leave any comments. The comment box comes up, and then remains static, so I am unable to publish. I'm not ignoring anyone, and there have been comments that I wanted to leave.
Is it just me?

A cup of tea?

A cup of tea?

We watched an interesting programme on tea plantations in Africa recently, and I wondered f you know that we also grow Tea here in Cornwall?

Really.

Tregothnan, a large estate which has been in the Boscawen family for many generations, lies on the banks of the deep River Fal. Apparently the air in this little micro climate replicates the air of the high foothills of the Himalayas.

The tea bushes, the first to grow in England, were planted in 1999, and the first English tea was brewed for sale in 2005. Then it was stocked by Fortnums, but now it;s become so widely known that all our shops have it.

 Over 200 years ago Tregothnan Estate grew wonderful Camellias, some of the rarest in the U.K. Tea is of the Camellia family. I wonder why it has never been tried before?

Enjoy your cup of tea today!

Rain, more rain...

Just occasionally there are small windows of sunshine, maybe for around an hour or so.

But the rain goes on and on and.......

This seems like an eminently sensible way to wait it out.

Spring planting

Spring may not be here yet, but the seed catalogues are arriving weekly.

I spend hours prowling through and making wish lists, knowing that I haven't really got room for everything!

Gone are the days when we would happily order a dozen fruit bushes, or enough strawberries to fill a huge bed.

This year we are going to order some of our vegetables as small plants rather than as seeds. It will make it easier for my husband to cope with planting. We can order both broad and runner beans as plantlets.

Sarah Raven's plants are always good, and I have ordered some Cornflowers to arrive in May. They always look so fresh, as though they are growing in a field.

Have you thought about Spring planting yet?

Maybe not.

We have just come through a night of the most appalling storm.

Thunder raged, rain fell, lightning shot through the skies.

The wind howled round the house, but somehow the electricity stayed on.

Tea was made at intervals, but it was impossible to sleep, despite being wrapped up in my duvet like a dormouse.

So maybe Spring has decided to wait.

(photo from Google)

Maybe Spring...?

Is Spring far away?

The garden is beginning to come alive, gradually and very sleepily.

I searched today and found daffodils emerging from the stony soil.

I found a Hellebore just showing its first buds.

I'm so pleased about this, as it is a seedling that I brought back from France. They say that seedlings do not run true to colour, but this one is perfect! It came from a huge creamy cushion of hellebore which was much too big to move.

And in one of my big terra cotta pots the little Tete a Tete daffodils are putting up their first enquiring shoots.

I so hope that a frost won't drive them all back underground again.

Spring is on the horizon!

More storms.

Today in Cornwall there are 65 homes and shops that have been flooded, and at least 140 places are without electricity. We have had a couple of days of thunder, wind, rain and heavy hail.

The photo was taken in Ilfracombe, Devon, but this has been happening all down the South West coast.

Looe is one of the Cornish towns that has been hit, along with Fowey, where more flooding occurred last night.

Sadly there have been deaths and accidents, and people are repeatedly warned not to go 'wave watching' close to the water. It puts so many rescue services in danger if one person is swept out to sea. 

I think there is more of this terrible weather forecast.

We stay indoors.

Refuse collection.

It's refuse collection day.

At least, we think it is.

There have been no collections since before Christmas. Our collections are ....Bins of household waste every week, but the weeks in between vary with Garden waste one week and paper, card and glass another week.

So there is much peering out to see what the neighbours are putting out as none of can remember which week is which. This week, we think it is paper etc, so I have just taken all the different coloured sacks out to the front garden for them to be collected.

I guess refuse collection is different all over the world. Certainly in Brittany there was no door to door collection, and anything large had to be hauled to the local waste disposal area.

The week before Christmas the men carried the empty sacks back up to the front door instead of leaving them sculling round the pavement. I wonder why!!

Of course we gave them a Christmas tip.

It's not a job I would care to do, in all weathers.