A year of a Tree

 I have just found this idea via another blog. You can find the full idea here at A Year of a Tree.

Basically you pick a tree and observe it regularly through out the year seeing what it is like and how it changes over time. I have had a word with Noddles and we have agreed we will do it and pick a tree in the park we walk through every day to go to school.

The photo above is part of the park taken last year in the snow. We will go over sometime this week and chose a tree, it's half-term so one of the few weeks in the year we aren't going through it daily!

This is another part of the park

and these two are a couple of big mature trees just outside the park we sometimes walk past if we go round instead of through the park.

So plenty to choose from and that's without considering the trees lining Binley Rd or the Conker trees in the other park or all the trees on the old railway embankment between the school and another public green space on the other side of the road !

Once we have chosen our tree I will post here and join the Year of a Tree group properly.

Canel trip

We have been away for nearly a week on Tom's parent's canal boat, the lovely and beautiful Apple Queen. She is 62 foot long I believe and very well kitted out inside for what is not a very big space. In the mosaic below you can see her outside and indeed about half the inside. What you can see is the sitting area, which is set as a double bed in the photo, the dining table and kitchen beyond.. In front of that is the bathroom and another bedroom. The dining table area also converts to a double bed so in all she sleeps 6.

It has been lovely and peaceful pottering along the canal and though we did have limited internet access it was slow and only really used to check for urgent emails. The boys enjoyed themselves very much though of course a 16 month around that much water needs careful watching particularly around locks which are potential death traps if you fall in one especally so when the water is going in or out.. For any that don't know a lock is a short contained area of canal long enough for a boat and wide enough for one or sometimes two boats. It is shut off at each end by a gate and you can then open various paddles to raise or lower the water level allowing canels to go up and down with the geography. There is a max speed of four miles and hour and often you have to go slower than that to avoid damaging the bank with the wash or rocking moored boats so live is very relaxed and slow..

The scenery was fantastic and I am sure you will see some more photos later though we did have to dodge the rain at times and by the time the sun was out I had run out of battery power and kept forgetting to recharge them.

I did get some crochet done in various moments which I will blog about later but for now it is bedtime for the smallest. I'm adding this post to the mosaic monday list over at Little Red house so pop over there for more eyecandy.

Madness and flowers

I have a confession to make. I missed a day this week, it just slipped my mind what with trying to make half term interesting for Noodles while looking after a sicky Treestump so I have more than one photo from Thursday to make up..

First 17th Feb.. "wearing his clothes" do you like the Knightly pyjamas?

So on to the 19th and a lovely day suggested a walk, and some ball play, in the park. We knew there were snowdrops there but then Noodles spotted a purple flower and he insisted I see it. Turned out to be the tiniest, most delicately shaded crocus I think I've ever seen which was a good test of the camera's macro function. It was at most 2 inches high. Most of the shots were blurred as the petals were difficult to focus on but I think this one worked reasonably well.
I also took some shots of the snowdrops which were easier to focus on but perhaps harder to get something looking interesting.

and finally just because...