Table Topper, Formby Point

Messy Karen showed me some ideas of what you could do witha charm pack. This is made with some red and “Isn’t Christmas Jolly?” by Mary Engelbreit. I lined it in fleece and backed it in red.
Fancy a trip to Formby Point before Autumn finishes wearing her best jewellery?
It’s a wood and field area on the coast run by the National Trust. Red squirrels like Beatrix Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin live here usually but many were wiped out this year by squirrel pox.
Bronzed beech leaves.
Pine trees
Beautiful greens.
Rabbit
Crow. The Roman Emperor Domitian had a pet crow according to Suetonius in “The 12 Caesars”.
I think this is the female great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) which doesn’t have the distinctive red head patch of the male. Hubby took this with his zoom lens- she was very shy.
Another crow watched our walk. In “Crow Country” by Mark Cocker he describes having witnessed a “crow parliament” where they all gathered round one rook in a circle and spoke to one another, then on his way back, in that place was the body of one rook. I was fascinated to hear just how hierarchical rooks were. Presumably this rook had infringed on the rules? A good read written by a keen birdwatcher and not as stuffy as a lot of nature books.
Can you imagine this being a home for all sorts of Molly Brett creatures or even a fairy? 🙂
Tree roots. I was fascinated by the textures and colours I was seeing.
“D” left their mark in these beautiful subtle colours. It’s a lot like the Japanese textured fabrics Patched Pumpkin has in.
Cotoneaster and silver birch.
A brick pathway being eroded.
Willow trunk. I think willow bark goes into making aspirin. I know that ill rats will eat young willow sticks.
Rotting silver birch trunk- colour and textures.
Beech trunk and lichen.
The base of a silver birch tree with lichen.
Another beech trunk.
Blackberry leaves.

More subtle colours of beech leaves.
We’re now at the edge of the woods by the sand dunes. Look at how the wind has shaped the trees’ growth.
Precious and Angel in this Rackham-esque landscape.
A sceletal hand shape on this silver birch.
Such wonderful colours on these blackberry leaves.

Closed fircones have a very conical shape.
The opening fir cones.
This fir cone had been trodden on so you can see the seed and it’s whispy tail which ensures the wind will blow it away from it’s parent to a place where it can grow.
Moss and mushrooms tinier than my little fingernail. It was like seeing a mini forest of fir trees with these 2 orangey brown deciduous trees.
A few lone trees on the dunes. Yes that really is how the wind has shaped them. It wasn’t gusty when we were walking.
A car park area in the dunes. The next post will feature a series of pics hubby took with his camera of what happened here. It was breathtaking.
Bronzed bracken getting ready to die down for Winter. In the Spring it’s green shoots will appear then when tall enough, the fern will unroll like Cleopatria’s carpet.
back home the cotoneaster bushes are changing colour too.
Eileen you asked about my dreams. They are usually in the landscape of where I grew up with rolling hills and little cottages tucked away out of the wind and villages nestling in river valleys. There’s always a sense of history whether it be round barrows or the carelessly disguarded Roman oyster shell turned up by the plough. I’ve never dreamed in black and white always glorious technicolour.

No Pat we didn’t get anything made at the Smithy- it was somewhere we’d passed many times but never gone in. I was curious. I did love that gothic patio set though. 🙂

The fish pie is easy to make: onion, dill and whatever fish you have to line the dish (I use cheap white fish with a little smoked haddock for flavour) cover in milk thickened with a little flour. When cooked add mashed potato. Sprinkle a little grated cheese on top and brown it back in the oven.

My future craft room floor will get varnished this weekend. Sanding is nearly finished. It will be a relief to get in there- I’ve been camped out all around the house for the past 2 months. It will be great to have an organised house again.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I’ll pop in soon


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