Beautiful Barn Owls

I have just come back from my afternoon dog walk. What a wonderful walk it was. First I saw the Buzzard, then as I came back through the meadow I spied the Barn Owl, flying low over the grass, as I watched he came nearer and then perched on a post. It's only 3.15pm, rather early for owls to be out. Then as I stood and watched another owl appeared and flew across the meadow. They seemed oblivious to me as they flew in tandem over the grass searching for prey. it was such a beautiful sight and such a lovely surprise. I've not seen 2 together ever before. Maybe it was an Anniversary Present from nature. Better than any flowers !




Ps No I didn't take the photos, but found 2 very similar to those I saw.

A day out to London

Yesterday Lucy and I had a trip up to London. After my last unfortunate experience with trains I was very anxious to arrive early at the local station to secure our tickets to travel.
Fortunately for us, we were able to park easily and the ticket office was open.
It's actually very good value taking a child out for the day to London. I bought a One day Travel card for £14.20 and Lucy's ticket was just £1.

A couple of days earlier I'd been wondering what we should do in London, all very well saying lets have a day out but thinking of something that would might both mine and Lucy's approval is another thing.

If it had just been me, I'd have loved to have gone to the Royal Academy to see the Russian collection, the Matisse etc, but when I suggested that to Lucy, she gave me that look of horror, "no, not an art gallery, please!"

I was browsing the Saturday Timesand saw a section of what to do in Half term, it's mentioned an exhibition of Space age travel at the V & A 's Museum of Childhood.
I thought that sounded interesting and to be honest I'd always wanted to go to the Museum of Childhood, so looked on the website:
www.vam.ac.uk/moc

It looked good, so told Lucy and she seemed quite keen.

So we took a packed lunch and headed up to London Victoria and on the Underground to Bethnal Green. Found the Museum very easily, it is very close to the station, we had our sandwiches sitting in the park next door to museum. There were a couple of pigeons pottering about so I throw a piece of crust, and suddenly we were engulfed with pigeons, where had they all come from? How did they know a little piece of bread had been dropped? Lucy was in a panic as they came so close , flapping and fluttering at us. decided it was time to move on, gave rest of crusts and darted off towards the exit!

The Museum is FREE, that was a big bonus, to actaully go somewhere for nothing.
It was fascinating, full of old toys of all sorts and all ages.
My favourites were the Old Dolls Houses, some were massive, copies of real mansions, made for the children of the house.
Lots of Teddies,including Paddington Bear,



Other Dolls,cars and games, it was packed with interesting things to see and do. Lucy wasn't that bothered about the Space Age stuff, probably more for boys, but she still enjoyed all the other things.
We stayed for about 2 hours and then headed back to Oxford Street and hit the shops . I needed to find an outfit for Lucy to wear to her Grandparents Golden Wedding Lunch. Gosh, she is soooooooo fussy, won't wear pretty dresses, I found so many lovely dresses and tops but "no way!" was she going to even try them on! Which was a great disappointment to me. Eventually she settled for a checked skirt and top with a little matching waistcoat, very nice in it's own way, but not really dressy enough, I don't think. This is what comes of having Fashion conscious elder sisters. When they were her age they would still wear what I suggested, Just about anyway!!

We headed back to station and back home to sussex, it had been a good day , tiring and we both had head aches, ( What is it about going to London? Always end up with a headache!)but most enjoyable.

"Have a nice Trip, see you next fall".....................

Once was careless, but twice was just humiliating!
What am I talking about? you ask, I'm talking about tripping up, falling over, slipping down.
As a child I was constantly grazing knees and elbows, falling off my bike, running on gravel and slipping over, the worst was when the tarmac was hot and I fell on the road, I'd get covered in tar and road chippings in my cut, the agony of having Dettol rubbed into the wound and Mum having to pick out the grit! As an adult it doesn't normally happen very often, but isn't it so humiliating and we have further to fall.
Twice in this last week I've taken a tumble. This is just ridiculous. I'm I just clumsy? Or is it something more serious? I think the former.

The first time was on Wednesday morning as I walked back through the garden with the dogs, we have a grassy slope, I usually take the lower path to avoid it, but today the dogs took me through the slope way, it was damp and very slippery, I lost my footing and slid down the bank, landing on my posterior, really jarred my hip . I looked up to see the dogs just standing over me, looking at me in that starnge way, "What are you doing down there" they seemed to say. I got up, shook myself down and wadddled in with very wet trousers, yuk! Had to change.
That was ok, no harm done, and no one except the dogs saw me.

Then on Saturday I'm in my local village , getting a few bits of shopping, going to the library and getting a DVD for Lucy from the rental shop.
We are just walking back to the car, I'm wearing a pair of boots with a small heel, I step off the curb, the next thing I realise is I'm falling, I cannot stop my self, my heel has caught in the paving and I can see myself in slow motion falling forward on to my knees and I put my hand out to break the fall, I land heavily. I'm shocked. I sit in this position for a few seconds, a woman comes over and kindly asks if I'm ok, I say I'll be fine. Lucy is with me and looks worried, but i really am fine, just feeling very silly, the woman stands by me and says she will stay until i've got up. She's sees my elephant keyring has fallen off my keys so she picks it up for me. I get up, I've grazed my hand and it's bleeding, my knee is throbbing, but i'm ok so I gingerly walk to the car, I thank the woman for her concern. I get into the car and feel quite sick and shook up.

Last time I wear those boots! I must be more careful!

Has anyone else fallen lately? Any stories to tell?

Valentine's Tradition

Valentine's day was always something to look forward to as a child growing up in North Norfolk. I didn't think of it in terms of "Love" and Boyfriends or Girlfriends, no it was far more exciting than that.

It was the night that Valentine would call at the house and leave little gifts.
My sister & I couldn't wait for it to get dark, because Valentine wouldn't come if it was still day light as he didn't want to be seen.
We'd keep pearing out of the window, watching the sun set and the dusk coming down.
Then at last it'd be dark.
We'd wait.
We'd wait a bit more, then a "Knock, Knock" at the door, we'd stumble over each other to get to the door first.
Look down on the mat and see 2 small packages, one named "E" ,the other "A", we'd pick them up and excitedly take them into the living room. We'd quickly undo the packages, and find a colouring book and pencils.We'd rush to show Mum or dad who ever was in the kitchen.

A few minutes later there is another knock at the door, again we rush off, this time there was 3 packages, one for me, one for my siaster and one for Mum!
Dad had gone to the shed, so mum was in the kitchen and we took our packages to her.
Boxes of smarties for my sister and I, Box of Black Magic for Mum!




This knocking at the door and finding little parcels would happen 5-6 times and we'd end up with a delightful pile of little pressies.

Such a joy!
It was many yeasr before I realised who was "being" Valentine, it was so cleverly done, that i didn't miss the parent who was out side doing the knocking, and in fact sometimes my grandad would join in too, he lived next door, so Mum and dad would be with us and Valentine would still knock!!

I have carried this tradition on with my children and they love it.

I think it is a Norfolk thing, My mum says valentine came to her as a child, but many people have never ever heard of it. Have you?

A surprise Visitor!

A Long Tailed Tit.
As some of you will know I am a keen bird watcher and get very excited to see certain species.

At my old house in Reigate I saw flocks of Long Tailed Tits on a regular basis, they were always such a delight to watch but we've lived in this house for over 6 years now and I'd never seen one at all. Seen lots of other beautiful birds, Nuthatches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches,Marsh tits, Great Tits, Blue Tits to name but a few.

Then 10 Minutes ago, just as i was sitting here at the computer, a bird flew across my window and landed on the BT box just on the window ledge, it was a Long tailed Tit!
What a lovely surprise! It looked at me. I looked at it. Just for a few seconds we were just inches apart and then it flew off.

That has made my day!!

Mwah! I've been awarded an "Mwah!" Award!!

This is so exciting, DJKirkby has sent me an Air Kiss "Mwah"!
This is a good time of the year for awards. What with the BAFTAs, happening yesterday, Congratulations to Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard for their Best Actor/Actress and to the wonderful Anthony Hopkins for his Academy Fellowship Award.

Soon it will be the Brits, Live, again I believe!

So It is my understanding that I must now pass on this "Mwah" award to other wonderfully outstanding bloggers. I find this so very hard as you all have such talents and what came to my mind was that i would like to make the award to all of you who have contributed by posting your "Day in the life of..........." in the Purple coo forum, because they have been such a joy to read and it's so good to get to know more about our varied lives and of course the similarities we all share!
This award therefore goes to Grouse ( for having the idea in the first place)
and all those who have written so far:
Cait
Bodran
Blossom
Cowgirl
Camilla
Elizabethd
Casdok
@the Mill
Elizabethm
CountryCraft Angel
Crystal Jigsaw, (I think DjKirkby has already given you one)
Ivy
ChrisH
Bradan
Lampworkbeader
Kat
Fennie
Faith ( A Big Thank You for keeping the ball rolling by putting up the post of names)
Grouse
Himalayan Blue
Happy Snapper
Fern
Frances
& Last but not least The one and only Glamouros Kitty!!

Sounds like my old School Prize Givings, as we used to queue to collect our prizes for all subjects, it went on and on and on!! But it was worth it for the £5 book token.
I'm afraid you only get the "Mwah" But Congratulations to you all , well deserved for allowing us into your lives. Do collect it and take it to your blog site.

Muddie XX
PS If you've completed your "Day in the life of.. " after this list you are still entitled to collect your "Mwah", so in case I forget to tell you, just come and collect it!!

Book Meme Tag

This one is a Book Meme, and I've been tagged by Mary at the Dear Little Red House! It sounds like fun, so here goes:
Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.
Drum roll, please...

I've picked up : MAEVE BINCHY's SCARLET FEATHER

This is page 123
I found The fifth sentence which says:
" Absolutely not,I think we'll end it like this; we can't expect to think that you'd ask me to give up my whole life's work and dream anymore than I would ever expect you to. Was it something like that?"
The following 3 sentences:
"It needs a lot more though and discussion," he said
"You're right, " she said and they went to bed, where they slept so far from each other that not even a toe touched, and cathy pretended to be asleep when he left Waterview early next morning having totally ignored his promise to take the twins to school.

If you haven't read this book, you must , it is a joy to read. Full of love, heartbreak and laughter set in Ireland .

Now I have to tag 5 other people.
Just to change the rules slightly I will say that if you have arrived here at my blog you are duly tagged.
Well, that worked for three of you, but as we are into a new day now I am going to tag 2 others........wait for it .........
Lampworkbeader
CamillaIt's a fun one! Enjoy!