Five on (a Fine) Friday

Joining in with Amy for her weekly Five on Friday (scraping in at the last minute, thank you, Amy!).

One  I begin or end of most of my dog walks by standing here and admiring this view, noticing whether it’s low or high tide, whether the sea is rough or calm, watching the ships and ferries, listening to the birds. Up until last week there was a waist-high froth of Alexanders and cow parsley in front of the gate but it’s been cut, along with the verges around the junctions on the main road to keep sight lines clear for drivers. The coastal path and clifftops are safe from the cutters – over the next few weeks there will be pyramidal orchids, viper’s bugloss and other gorgeous wild flowers.

Oxeye daisies are beautifying the lanes and roadsides round here. I’ve been admiring this patch near the station for a week or so and took a quick snap this morning.

Two  What a difference a week makes – the first photo was taken last Thursday, the second was taken yesterday. More daisies, more hawthorn blossom. It’s as though someone has shaken white petals all over the place with sheer abandon. I can’t remember ever seeing as many daisies and buttercups as there are this year. It’s quite thrilling.

Three  I made this Rhubarb Shortbread. Let’s just say it’s more-ish and leave it at that. I saw the recipe recommended on CT’s blog and she got it from CJ. Sharing fabulous recipes is one of the many wonders of blogging 🙂

Four   There was no school today (it was a teacher-training-day). The younger two were at home but my eldest still had to go in for the second half of his English Literature GCSE (you can imagine how delighted he was about that). My youngest managed to persuade me to take her in to Canterbury to meet some friends and I decided to stay there while they went off to look around the shops. I do like Canterbury. I sometimes miss the anonymity of the city, crowds of people and hustle and bustle, and Canterbury is where I get my quick fix. While I was waiting for the girls I decided to have a mooch around the cathedral grounds. The bells were ringing as there was a wedding in the crypt, there were large groups of tourists looking round, gardeners and builders working away (the cathedral is undergoing major repairs at the moment) and a definite air of purpose about the place.

Five  The wild patch at the bottom of our garden where we sowed a chalk wildflower mix last spring is suddenly thigh-high. We have our own oxeye daisies! Loads of buds and some in flower. I’ll have to dig out the list to remind myself what else there should be.

Have a splendiferous weekend.