A few "restful" days in Rutland

Spending a few "restful" days in Rutland with the children......! except the iPhone is still hanging in there!!!

I noticed the image below, as l was sitting reading in the garden, in glorious sunshine and blue skies..(weather men got it wrong again..hurray!). I don't know if l am right or not, but these blocked in windows, could be to do with the Window tax, we once had in England in about the 16th Century! Will have to check to see how old the houses are.

Andrew and Gemma's garden is full of butterflies and bees and unfortunetly..wasps! But Tony and Gemma devised a plan...after a few trial and quite a few failures..this turned out to be the answer..once they had licked all the jam of the top! More news on how it worked tomorrow!

Below are two of the butterflies, l managed to catch an image of...quite a few, like a beautiful blue one, l spotted, kept escaping my lens. Fingers crossed for more luck tomorrow! The first one, l think with the black dot on, is a Cabbage White. Then to make sure, l went to a butterfly identification site and now l am completly confused! So l will not try, you check for yourself! Ha!

The next image is one that makes the kids very cross...wasps eating their fruit. The wasps are destroying the fruit , even before they are ready to drop or be picked!!! This wasp was in this pear for ages, it was a wonder it ever had the energy to fly away..it must have been SO full!

There are just hundreds of bees and  honey bees in this garden..great to see and hear. Andrew is seriously thinking of getting some bee hives for next year. Hope he does. Just been watching a TV programme called, l think, "A Year in a Victorian Farm". It was amazing, one woman and two farm hands ( played by real people not actors)..it was one of the most fasinating and educational programmes l have seen for a long time. One of the things they covered, was bee keeping...wow it was amazing how they used to catch a swarm of bees and all that went after that one act. I think if l had a garden..l would have bees.

The image below is of Gemma, spending quite a lot of the day, picking up fallen apples from all the apple trees in their garden! If you don't pick them up, they attract even more wasps, they get trodden into the earth and go rotten and then they are useless. She is picking up two or three boxes a day!

Below is my very handsome son Andrew, and then the image after that, is his gorgeous new wife of one year, Gemma. They went off for a bike ride on Sunday...quality time on their own, well that was the plan! Tony had to go and rescue them, as once again, poor Andrew had a flat tyre on his bike!! Good job we didn't drink the champagne we were going to drink but decided to be sensible and have tea instead!!

Tony worked out that we could use the Mexican fire to warm up our bread, as well as us! The glass of Champagne in the hand, was the final addition, that made the whole thing work!

Andrew BBQ the best chicken  l have had for a while...well done son!x

Look into the fire and see your dreams....!

Nightx