Strength in Endurance

endurance

  1. the ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.
  2. the capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear.

(please click image to enlarge )

4 seasons collageThese two trees in a nearby field endure the different weathers of winter, spring, summer and autumn, year after year, often for hundreds of years. You have to admire their strength.

One Day One World Project: 07:00 – 08:00

6:47 AM

Sunrise in West Midlands, UK

I have been wanting to get up and take a photograph of the sunrise this week, but the weather has not been playing ball. Each morning that I have struggled to be awake this early (and those of you who have read my previous post for this project will understand that I am so NOT a morning person) it has been misty and the sky a total white-out. Not even a glimmer of colour in the east.

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As we are coming to the end of this time-frame, and I am already awake, I’m going to show you a bit of the area behind my house as well as the usual glimpse of in front. I live in a very quiet area in the old town of Ludlow and surrounded by quite a few holiday homes, so a lot of the time the houses nearby are empty.

At the back
At the back and not many straight lines here

Until a year ago there was a fully functioning pub to the left of me which was run by the Royal British Legion and the home of the Royal Antediluvian Order of BuffaloesLodge and things weren’t always quite as quiet then what with live music and noisy punters; talking (why do people talk so much louder when drinking alcohol? An interesting correlation between the volume of liquid consumed and volume of speech), arguing and sometimes screaming, who were outside in the smoking zone that was practically beneath my bedroom window – that wasn’t great. But there was also a well-tended allotment with runner beans, cabbages, onions etc. and a sweet little home-made lean-to potting shed against the red-brick wall which was rather nice. Sadly this year with the closure of the pub the allotment has been unused and nature has taken over. This has meant poppies have flourished and all matter of weeds wild-flowers have grown.

When I started entering this project it was May and the blossom was just beginning and it was the time of the Spring Fair, now it is autumn and colours are fading and we have just had the Autumn Food Festival – where has the summer gone?

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world.   This week is between 07:00 – 08:00.  I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

Only a few more hours left!

One Day One World Project: 06:00 – 07:00

I haven’t done well with the project during the early hours, and I am a week late with this time slot, but last weekend I was called in to look after my three English grandchildren whilst their mother (my daughter) was whisked off to Bruges for a romantic weekend. Whilst there the opportunity for a post for the project presented itself when I was rudely awakened between the hours of 6 – 7 am due to three factors:

  1. Aircraft – my daughter lives on one of the flight-paths to/from Heathrow. Fortunately it is not one of the busiest flight-paths and the planes are still quite high at this stage. But when you are not used to this it is quite noticeable.
  2. The not-quite son-in-law’s alarm clock. Set to 6:15 am so even if I could ignore the planes, the incessant buzzing of the alarm pulled me from the depths of sleep. No matter what buttons I pressed I could NOT stop that damn alarm from operating.
  3. Birds. Not just any birds. My daughter’s neighbour runs his own zoo. Or at least it seems like it. In addition to the chickens he has always kept, there are now white fan-tail doves coo-cooing away and an aviary containing cockatiels, parakeets and other screeching, squawking flying objects that start their day around 6:45 am.

Because it was warm and I always like fresh air, the bedroom windows were open. On Saturday and Sunday though, when the alarm went off I got up and closed the windows so that the noisy bird squawks were slightly dulled, so I suppose the alarm was useful in one respect. As for the children. No problem.

Cockatiel-Rico-001
By Bensem51 (Own work (own photo)) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
When the happy pair returned I was asked whether I’d be willing to child-mind again – “of course”, says I nonchalantly, “once you have moved.”

Do you have any noisy neighbours?

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world.   This week is between 06:00 – 07:00.  I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

Welcome to Gourmetville

It’s that time of the year again…

…when people from miles around converge on this beautiful little Medieval market town for the Ludlow Food Festival. They come to attend numerous workshops and tastings, visit local producers, hit the sausage trail or try the pudding tastings, listen to top chefs deliver talks and demonstrations in the castle grounds or learn knife skills and attend Egyptian Masterclasses. This town of 10,000 people will double its population over the coming weekend.

On Sunday there will be a Local Producers’ Market with over 40 small, local food and drink exhibitors on the Market Square.

And, as usual, there is a Window Dressing Competition. So I took the camera around the town today (before the hoards arrive) to see what merchandise I could find.

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What kind of festival do you like to attend?