and the winner is.......

me wearing the Hat

the names in the Hat

the list

the winner

congratulations Fanny
please email me your address and The Philosopher will be on his way to you, all that remains for us here is to bid him farewell, a safe journey and lots of adventures in France

to all the rest of you: rest assured another gift-round will occur, in the mean time the shop is open (ha)

saskiavanherwaarden@gmail.com

could not resist sharing this: we encountered the Arctia caja otherwise known as Garden Tiger moth/Grote Beervlinder on our Sunday morning walk and he decided to come with us; what a sight to behold!
a story is in the making...... 

the philosopher agrees to travel

have been busy in the garden, amongst many other chores have tackled the hazel shrubs out back and end up  with a useful collection of hazelwood sticks, I love their smooth, shiny bark; they also look very sophisticated as they stand so straight, proud almost

solidago, bullet thistle, soapwort and hibiscus

I felt it was time for a present to you, my dear followers, whether you comment regularly or not doesn't matter, as long as you do so now, then we'll know you want to participate in the tombola; entries open till next Sunday 30 July; I will then write down your names on snippets of paper, throw them all into one of my hats, shuffle and shake, close my eyes & pick one at random....

'the philosopher' contemplating the world as it unfolds before him, before us all, withholding judgement, eating a fresh plum from time to time; after careful deliberations, weighing the pros & cons , he has agreed to be given away, he feels it's a great opportunity to see more of the world and perhaps even experience it more hands-on; he is quite the cerebral type and not one for getting his hands dirty, so maybe now he might do just that. 'If nothing else, it'll be my adventure' he explains to me

He won't take up too much of your space, he's reasonably clean, not a picky eater, has a tendancy to wander off on his walk-about-musings, a lousy sense of direction so it might take him a while to arrive...other than that, important to know he likes his sleep and will only wake up to coffee; a friendly character who enjoys intelligent conversation, he will be missed, however we will be happy once we know he's going somewhere he's welcome

my poster for the nearby campsite, inviting folks over to come and visit the studio

the eldest is experimenting with smoking wood pigeon breasts in this contraption, he's using the old plum tree wood, from  the one we had to chop down earlier this year as it was dying, useful now; much like the hazelsticks in the picture below: support for the dahlia that had survived the snail onslaught and barely managed to stay upright after the bindweed had been dragging it earthwards

happy Django in the water a couple of days ago when the weather was really hot and sunny

there they were again 

these orange insects enjoying their annual orgy on the common hogweed, they were at it all over these plants in particular, fascinating

our niece recently gave birth to a second son, time for a small gift for the young family

dogs, a hare, dreaming bird and a tree-of-life, on it's way to Texas

birds & beasts in the garden

a dead shrew; picked him up yesterday, a rainy Saturday morning, that's why he's all wet; notice the tiny hands and feet, those tiny nails! all so absolutely perfect

there are many dead shrews these days, on our regular Sunday morning* walk we saw 4 dead ones lying on the path into the woods; I have not carried them all back home, hoping they will serve as food for others.

Is it the rain I wonder, do they wander to far from their homes and get caught off guard in the rain, cooling so fast they die from hypothermia? Who would know the answers to these questions?

Once we returned with the poor critter the Dwelling inhabitants soon organised a small wake was organised in an old lantern, he doesn't have to be alone on his journey to wherever it is shrews go once their hearts stop beating

 * D and I always go for a walk together with Django on Sunday mornings

the Sun decided to show it's face this afternoon, so I pottered about for a bit in the front garden, pulling 'weeds' and moving back and forth in quite the disorganised way I seem to do most of my gardening.

I heard a voice, more of a croak in fact :
"hey, you, gardening person, could you do me a favour please?"

I looked around, up and down but couldn't figure out where the croak came from

"Over here, to your left, I mean right, yes here"
Aha, now that I looked up and then to my right a bit I did see the meditating frog half hidden in his green sanctuary

"I'm sorry, what was that? " I asked

"Whilst you are so busy with your shears, could you cut away some of the foliage that's blocking my view and keeping the sun from shining on my good friend the garden gnome here?"

"Ah, yes I see what you mean" I replied

"Thank goodness for that! Now hurry along then, snip snip....quick as you like then"

And so I cut back all of the offending foliage, letting sun and light in once more; the meditating frog and his good friend, the garden gnome are now able to bask in the sun and enjoy the view of the garden