STILL WORKING!

When we were sitting in the conservatory earlier today, I rather liked the way the sun was shining through the cosmos flowers, although the very large bushy plant was decimated yesterday in all the wind and rain.  However, I wandered into the garden and took a shot of this beautiful pink one at the top left of my collage, intending that to be my Blip for today, and getting my feet very wet into the bargain - Mr. HCB says he will be strimmering the long grass next week!

However, I then noticed that honey bees were still around the borage plant so took a few shots of those too, so felt a collage coming on - at the top right.

This afternoon we had a visit from Zach and his Mum, Mei - and what an entertaining afternoon that proved to be.  The family had been round about 2 or 3 months ago and when they were here, Zach wanted to go out into the garden and was very taken with a little hedgehog ornament out there, so as soon as he arrived today, despite only being 3½ years old, his first comment was “I want to see the hedgehog!”  We were all very surprised, and he was delighted when he went out and found it immediately.

He was then interested in the bowl of marbles, which we leave out for the butterflies and bees, but it was rather manky, not having been cleaned for sometime.  I asked Mei if it would be OK for Zach to clean the marbles and she was happy so I got some warm soapy water, and a little brush in the shape of a pig and Zach was well away.  He scrubbed about two dozen marbles, and then I got a bowl of clean water, together with a wooden spoon so that he could stir it round and he played happily for sometime.  "Manky" was his favourite word this afternoon!  As I said to Mei, it doesn’t take much to keep a child occupied and Zach had great fun.  

Mr. HCB had seen a Red Admiral butterfly, but sadly, before we could get to the other side of the garden it flew away, but then Zach wanted to see the bees on the flowers, so we wandered along the path around the outside of the grass.  I was telling him how the bees took the pollen from the flowers and then flew back to the hive with it and eventually it became honey - see bottom left shot - and at the bottom right, when Zach asked what the bee was doing, I told him that collecting all the pollen made the bee very tired, so it was resting before it went back to the hive.  He took it all in and no doubt Mummy will be asked many questions about bees and honey!

We had to come indoors after a while because it started raining and it was then we discovered, when Zach was playing with the Silly Saturday Gang, and he said he wanted to see the lamb, that Laura Lamb was missing, so I have asked Amanda T if she inadvertently put her in with her gang when they were here a couple of weeks ago?  I have promised him I will let him know!  

I had forgotten just how tiring it is constantly chatting to a toddler who asks lots of questions.  In fact, Zach wanted to go upstairs, so having taken him up there to my quiet room and the other bedrooms, I answered many more questions - so am very tired tonight.  Mr. HCB is going to our Church Members’ Meeting this evening, so I think a little nap is on the cards for me.  

Just as an aside, if you have an iPhone and you don’t have a screen protector, do think about buying one - whilst in the garden, I dropped my phone and Mei was upset because she thought the screen had cracked, but it was only the screen protector - see extra.  Good job I have a spare one.

Many thanks for your comments, stars and hearts for yesterday’s Blip, which are much appreciated.