Birdjoy

These starlings  were making a very pleasant noise sat amongst the trees, tweeting & chirping, it was quite a moment to be in and savour.  There were many more birds than what you see in the picture, but they began to fly away as I slowly approached.

What they were doing in such large numbers I have no idea....they couldn't be pre-roosting as it was too early in the day. This led me to look up strange starling activity on the internet but couldn't find anything to explain this.

What I did find however, was an article on the RSPB website warning  that we're not the only ones that will have a shock in store once 'winter' as we know it, finally arrives with a vengeance this week.

Garden birds will have a rude awakening too the wildlife charity says, but they don't have the luxury of turning up the heating or putting on an extra coat.
Instead, they will start to rely on the goodwill of gardeners and householders, and the RSPB is asking everyone to consider putting out extra supplies of food and water.

So, if like me you enjoy your feathered friends, please remember to feed the birds.

The Big Knit 2011

For the Big Knit, Age UK and innocent ask knitters of all ages to get creative and come up with their own designs for mini-woolly hats to be placed on top of their smoothie bottles and sold in Boots and Sainsbury's stores throughout November. For each hatted bottle sold, 25p is donated to Age UK to help make winter warmer for older people across the UK.

I've been busy knitting for the past few months and donated all my wooly hats to Age UK in October.  Imagine my surprise on Friday night whilst shopping in my local Sainsburys to find one of the hats I knitted sitting proudly on top of an innocent smoothie bottle!!

That's My Hat!

I felt compelled to buy it, now its sitting at home in my fridge.  I wonder if any other big knitters out there have found their own hats sitting on a supermarket shelf?

Nature always delivers

Some photos from my afternoon dog walk, observing patterns in nature

Beautiful Autumn Leaves

Flowering Ivy

Berries

Heart Shape Leaf

Pattern Love

After much ummming and ahhhing, followed by crystal dowsing, I decided to sign up for the Beth Nicholls's The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design -  featuring Rachael Taylor.  I'm pleased I did. Although my eyes are getting boggled as you quickly start to notice patterns & textures everywhere!  Here's a selection of squares and patterns I noticed around the house this morning:

Partial pattern from a fairy picture

Mosiac t-light holder

Negative Squares

On a totally random theme, I noticed a shadow on my bedroom wall this morning, couldn't resist taking this and applying a few photo edits!

It's a nice sunny day today, so I will be taking my camera out with me on my afternoon  dog walk, can't wait to see what patterns I see in Mother Nature.