Fish, Farming and Flowers

Last Thursday I was up very early to go to the Westmorland Show at Crooklands near Kendal. This is a very popular agricultural show with lots to see.
This is a cow skull. Cows teeth grow in layers and as they get older they build up several layers of teeth.

Cow skull, look at the size of the eye socket

The sheep skull is a lot smaller.

Sheep skull

This cow is unusual in that it does not have a skull.

A rare breed

The were a variety of rural crafts being demonstrated. Coopering ie. barrel making is a skilled art.

Beer barrel construction

These are skep beehives that are a very early type of hive. You had to be careful when you lifted them up to collect the honey.

Bee ware

The Wensleydale Longwool sheep have a fleece that is a mass of tight silken ringlets. For the first year only the fleece is so long it almost touches the ground. Unlike many types of fleece this fleece is valuable and is bought by spinners as far afield as Russia and China. There is also a breed of black Wensleydale Longwool sheep but for traditional reasons they are not allowed to be exhibited in shows.

Does anyone have any hair straighteners?

This beautiful Longwool fleece won a prize in the show.

Fabulous fibre

This Ayrshire is wearing his champion sash of prize beast.

A right champion

Highland cattle can be both a sandy colour and also black. They have a very long coat to withstand the climate.

Och the moo

Pigs come in all shapes and sizes. The pig coat is very coarse and they look as though they are going slightly bald as the hair sparse.

Tamworth pig

Pigging out

This little pig went to market

I made some flower arrangements for the visit of the Bishop of Lancaster.  

Pink splendour

Sunny sunflowers

Yellow sunshine

There are still a few flowers that are having a second flush of growth.

Rosy geum

Pretty pink clematis with russet foliage

This dahlia is one of the flowers that is flourishing at this time of the year.

Starbright

In the Artful Garden we have pruned the blackcurrant bushes as you do this after they have finished fruiting.

Short back and sides

The leeks are beginning to swell.

A line of leeks

This deadly nightshade flower is so pretty but beware the berries are poisonous.

Beware

Poisonous nightshade berries

The briar rose has such a delicate perfume.

Simplistic beauty with a delicate perfume

This lovely white seat I found in the grounds of Hexham Abbey I love the shape and style. 

To sit and contemplate

Some Koi kites have arrived in the Artful Garden to brighten up the Autumnal days.

Fishing about

Carping on

A shoal of fish

Fish dancing with dragonflies

This is the time of year for moody skies.

Mysterious

A view from Alston moor looking to the Lakeland hills

Ode to Autumn

Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatched-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

Extract from Ode to Autumn by John Keats 

This week it has been very autumnal. We have had some deluge rain that unearthed the sunflowers in the Artful Garden so that they were lying across the path. I managed to stake them back up again and their sunny faces are once again shinning from up high.

I visited Croft House farm at Houghton last Friday and they had a young orchard ladened with fruit.

Apple tree loaded with fruit

Scrummy pears

These lovely white geese kept waddling away from me when I was trying to take a photo.

Waddling geese

This begonia flower is so vibrant when you see it from both the front and the back of the flower head.

 Glowing Begonia

Sunset pink on the reverse

The carthamus are bright orange pom poms in my front garden.

Spiky orange pom poms

The hedgerows are all looking dull. Many of the plants have gone to seed and berries are now forming.

Bright red rowan berries on the rowan tree.

Rich rowan berries

The hawthorn berries are also red and good food for the birds in the winter.

Hawthorn beads

The leaves of the horse chestnut tree are very large. The horse chestnuts are just beginning to ripen.

Horse chestnut leaf

If you look close you can see the chestnuts

An unripe horse chestnut

The Rosebay willowherb has gone to seed.

Rosebay willowherb spires

The thistles seeds look like little ballet skirts.

Thistle ballet skirts

Farmers are gathering straw in the fields. The bales are oblong and round.

Square and round

I visited Penrith Cooperative store and found these lovely exhibits from a time gone by.

How many of these do you recognise?

How many of these have you used?

Pretty old china

Lovely old biscuit tins

My Autumn raspberries are starting to ripen and I am collecting fruit every other day.

Scrumcious

We are still getting fleeting milky sunsets.

Golden haze

Sun, Plum and Garden Fun

The 1 September is the first day of Autumn. This week we have had some gloriously hot days, misty in the morning, very hot after lunch time and cool at night with the nights drawing in and sunset about 8pm.

I have been busy weeding, tidying the lawns and harvesting.

I have been watching the Victoria plums all week and the warm sun was just what they needed. We are now starting to get a plentiful supply and I am running the gauntlet of the wasps who are gorging themselves.

How about this for a plum harvest?

So tasty

The apples tress are weighed down with fruit so they have needed a helping hand. You need to be careful when walking under the trees as you could have the Newton effect where an apple could land on your head.

Ripening crab apples

This tree needs all the support it can get

The runner beans are producing a steady supply and it is like climbing into a jungle as the two rows of beans are very close together.

Beananza

Why is it always no matter how hard you look you always miss a courgette until it grows into the size of a marrow? These little yellow courgettes are very tasty.

Tasty in yellow

My row of sunflowers along the Artful Garden wall are looking very bonny. One flower head is the size of a dinner plate.

Sunflowers always make me smile

The purple of the helitrope flower is intense.

Purple sensation

We cut our beech hedge once a year. We planted it over 30 years ago when we moved into our house.

An evergreen beech hedge

I have been picking quite a few twin raspberries.

Cheeky

Looking out of my kitchen window the sky was a milky orange as the sun was setting. This only lasted for a few minutes.

Golden wonder

When you look at the clouds you can see some amazing shapes that are always very transient.

A tree or not a tree that is the question

It is amazing what you find in the most unlikely places. One morning I found this on my doorstep.

A peacock butterfly wing

Cherie the Ooh La La Bird had got her feathers ruffled and is now back sitting amongst the onions.

Bird in a basket

My curtain rails are getting full of drying flowers.

Hot colours

Delicate shades of pink and red

This is a view of Rose Castle the palace of the Bishops of Carlisle, it is near Dalston in Cumbria. 

A castle with a chapel

This is the view from Hartside summit 1904 ft. The view is forever changing which makes it so special.

A view from the top of my world