Blogs I Love

In no particular order, I am going to discuss these. (NO particular order, y'all!)

First off, By Sun and Candlelight is one that I check in the morning and if there is a new post I am pleased all day. I first skim the post to see what it's about (not much time online in the morning) then I come back later when I have time to savor it. And savor it I do. I have gotten so many ideas from Dawn that I can't even list them. So much wisdom in her blog. I love her cheerful attitude and her deep love for her family and her overflowing faith. I am a convert to her file crate system (although I am not so good at keeping up with it). So far it is the only "system" for home ed organization that I keep coming back to.

This blog is the reason that I now put my nature observations here for you to see. In fact Dawn's style of blogging is sort of how I model my own blogging on. I love that she is so down to earth and honest. She often talks about how she blogs the good and happy things about her life and that's my intention here.

(Whoa! Huge rook at the neighbor's birdfeeder! Darn! Flew away before I could get a picture. I wonder if the fact that seeing a rook gives me a sound in my head is a sort of synesthesia type reaction? )

I love this blog so much that when I didn't have internet here in Wales and was very homesick for America I would download pages from her blog onto my desktop when I would go out for my weekly computer time (wifi at a local restaurant/hotel/pub) and chew on them when I got home. When I was at the end of my pregnancy with Miss Mousie, I went through and read the whole thing. It helped distract from the pain.

So, there we go. I hope you enjoy Dawn's blog as much as I do. I have begun commenting here and there and once she even responded to my comment in a post. I felt a little bit famous for a minute there.

Thank you very much, Dawn, for all the time you put into your lovely blog and for permission for me to jabber about it here.

More British wildlife

We'll begin with rooks. These are fascinating birds to me. It took me forever to figure out the difference between a rook, a jackdaw, a raven, and a crow. To be honest, I'm still not 100% at first glance (except for the jackdaw). But I do know that the birds that make a bunch of racket and big twiggy nests in my yard (In British: Garden) are indeed rooks. Despite their scowling beak and grumpy sounds, they seem to be a very sociable bird. At sunset especially they hang out in their nests and holler and gossip at each other. It sounds like this:


While I was outside, I decided to take a few more pictures to share.
On the left is a tiny little daisy (many thanks to my foot model, Miss Mousie), and on the right, our dear friend, Nettles.







These are English primroses.









And what would a Welsh blog be without a picture of Wales' national flower, the Daffodil.

British Birds

I have this fascination with the birds here. Greeting me as I came off the airplane when we got here were 2 magpies. Now, around here, they are kind of pesky, but they are so breathtakingly beautiful to me. I also love the big black crows/ravens/rooks, or whatever that gather in the bare naked trees in my yard at dusk. (I can't tell what they are...yet.)

But, it is always a treat when we spot one of these in our yard. It is a pheasant, and yes I know they have them in the states, but it isn't often you see one and never so close.

Wow.