Titchfield Haven

On Saturday we drove down to Titchfield Haven on The Solent. My eldest son purchased a super-duper long lens for his camera not too long ago and wanted to try it out at the Nature Reserve and get some close up photos of some of the birds there and it is always good to walk along the shoreline with its stunning views across The Solent to the Isle of Wight.


Surprisingly you can park right on the edge of the shoreline and there is no charge for parking - always a plus! We made our way around the little harbour where we always spot these gorgeous little birds, they are turnstones and are fascinating to watch. They don't seem very worried about people so even with my little camera I could get some close-up views.

As the name suggests these birds turn stones and seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates. These birds are strictly coastal and prefer stony beaches to sand.


We then crossed the road and made our way into the Nature Reserve which lies behind the beach and contains a range of natural habitats (river, fen, pools, reed beds and meadows).


Following this link will take you to a map of the reserve. We started off by visiting the River Meon side of the reserve and although there wasn't a great range of birds to be seen from the hides on this side I did take this photo of a magpie whose colours were stunning with the sun shining on him.

I was fascinated by the size of these fir cones, they were enormous, see the photo below where I placed a coin on top of one so you could get an idea of the size.

These little fairy doors that someone had taken time to create in the fallen tree trunk must fascinate the younger generation. There was one that had been opened and some little notes for the fairies had been left inside!

These gorgeous Marsh Marigolds were so bright and cheerful.

We then decided to split up for a bit, I wanted to fit in 10,000+ steps on my Fitbit so decided to go for a walk along the seashore while the menfolk walked around to the other part of the reserve where I would join them later.


There was a lot of sailing activity on The Solent and lots to look at as I made my way along the shore towards Stubbington.

After quite a brisk walk I went to join my DH and son at one of the hides on the reserve. This was the view from the first hide, mainly gulls but some waders and ducks to be seen as well. The noise from the gulls was quite something. 

My son got some cracking shots with his big lens from the three hides we visited on this side but I am quite pleased with the few I managed to get with my camera.

These shelduck were looking magnificent

There was a very special bird in amongst the common black-headed gulls, the gull just to the left of the twiggy bits with the jet black head and the red beak is a Mediterranean gull - a new species for us. When you see this bird you realise that the heads of the black headed gulls are not black at all but a chocolately brown.

Beautiful avocets (the symbol of the RSPB)

A lapwing feeding on the scrape

These are stunning birds with beautiful colours, they used to be so common when I was young but have become a lot less in numbers in later years.

Another view of an avocet with their unique upturned bill, it is fascinating to watch these birds feed. They skim the water moving their bill from side to side.

We spotted another couple of species that were new for us but I didn't manage to get photos of them, a black tern and some bar-tailed godwits - thanks to the informative man who I sat next to in the hide for help with the identification!


It did get quite chilly towards the end of the afternoon so we decided to call it a day but not before I had taken a few more pictures down on the coast, the sun was sparkling on the water and the light was stunning.

We rounded the day off by stopping for a meal on the way home - a perfect end to the day.

Five On Friday

Five On Friday time again and as usual I am joining with Amy at Love Made My Home.  


It has been another busy week and once again I am apologising if I haven't visited your blog and left some comments, I am still endeavouring to catch up and I would like to thank everyone that has left comments on my posts recently.


So what have I been up to this week:-


Firstly I finished my latest charity blanket, this one is again part of SIBOL (Sunshine International Blankets of Love) and will be donated to a local residential care home at Christmas.

I have now made a start on my next one, this one is made using the Maybelle flowers and making them into squares, I am sure I will be sharing my progress on this sometime soon.

Still on the crochet front I have also joined many hundreds of crocheters in honouring a well known crochet designer - Marinke Slump (known across the crochet world as Wink) who very sadly lost her battle with severe depression last year. In her memory a crochet-along (CAL) has been created, this CAL was the last thing she was working on at the time of her death and a group of friends decided to finish designing it - it is called Last Dance On The Beach and comes in three different colour ways. I have chosen Dance in the Rain, beautiful colours are used in this kit and this week I crocheted my practice tension square and the first square which was released on Wednesday. I have three more of these squares to complete this week and then it will be back to my charity blanket until the next square is released.

Yesterday was a lovely day, we combined some retail therapy with a lunch out at the Brigadier Gerard at Horton Heath where they have the most bright and cheerful floral displays.

We followed lunch by taking a walk in Stoke Park Woods (I apologise if you are tired of bluebell pics but I couldn't resist taking yet more, my excuse is that it is in a different wood from last weeks pictures)!!! 

Please go and visit Amy's blog where you will find links to more Five On Friday posts.

Spring Flowers

I am really behind on blogging and reading and commenting on blog posts for which I apologise, I will endeavour to catch up over the next week but I am making an effort to keep up with Five On Friday, as usual hosted by Amy at Love Made My Home.


This week it has been a delight to see some beautiful Spring flowers when we have been out and about.

These violets were growing in profusion on a roadside bank - wish now that I had taken a wider view so you could see just how many there were but I was trying to get the detail of these delicate little flowers.

Primroses - it does seem to be a fantastic year for them in my part of the country, most of them growing in great clumps on the side of busy roads where you cannot stop to photograph them!

Yesterday we visited this lovely bluebell wood at Micheldever, is there any more beautiful sight than bluebells growing in their natural environment?

After visiting the bluebell woods we stopped off for some lunch and these stunning tulips were growing in the pub garden, I think tulips rank as one of my top three favourite flowers.

And last but not least we came across this stunning magnolia. I visited what was for me a new wool shop in Basingstoke, after visiting the woods and enjoying our lovely lunch, and this magnolia was growing alongside the shop.

Please go and visit Amy's blog where you will find links to more Five On Friday posts.

A mixed bag!

The days seem to be speeding by at the moment, I cannot believe it is the end of another week and time to join Amy at Love Made My Home for Five On Friday.


I haven't really done anything terribly exciting this week, mainly due to the unpredictable nature of the weather we are experiencing at the moment. Tuesday was a glorious day but guess what - I had to work that day so didn't really get to enjoy it.


We did manage to get out on Saturday and enjoyed a lovely lunch at one of our favourite pubs - The Vine at Hannington and then enjoyed a walk over the delightful village green and out into the downland countryside. It was a real treat to see and hear skylarks, a bird that seems to have declined rapidly in recent years.

As you might remember we had the garden refurbished late last year and finally I had the chance to get to the Garden Centre to begin buying some planting and containers to turn it from a blank canvas into what I hope will be an enjoyable space to sit out and enjoy when the warmer weather comes. It is early days yet and there is still a lot more I want to achieve but at least it is a start - the little collection in the photo below cost me an arm and a leg so cannot buy too much at a time.

I am trying to choose mostly plants that attract bees and butterflies and I was lucky enough to be given the planting container below with butterfly friendly seedlings. I planted it up last weekend and already the growing rate has been amazing. It is indoors on a windowsill at the moment but will go outside to join the other pots when danger of frost has passed. If any of you know any plants that can be container grown that are good for attracting birds, butterflies and bees please let me know, I am very much a novice at this so any tips will be useful.

I have been mainly been entertaining myself by reading and crocheting this week, this is my latest charity blanket underway.

There are a lot of colour changes in this one so it might take me awhile, lots of those dratted ends to sew in!


Well that is my five pics for this week. Please pay a visit to Amy's blog where there are links to lots more Five On Friday posts.

The Year In Books - April

I am once again linking with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees to bring you my April selection. If you love reading and wish to join in please visit http://circleofpinetrees.com/year-books-information/  where you will find all the information you need.

My planned reads for April are:-

The Simon Armitage book has been one I have been wanting to pick up for some time, I have made a start on it and I think I am going to enjoy it. Erica James has long been one of my favourite authors so am looking forward to this one, she weaves such a great story and never disappoints. The JoJo Moyes is a new author to me but the book has been recommended by a friend who says it is really hard to put down and the Jane Struthers is one I downloaded onto my Mum's Kindle and she has said that she thinks I will find it interesting so I think I have some good reads lined up for me this month.


Now for a review of my March reads:


Firstly I finished off one of the books I didn't quite manage to finish in February.

This was an interesting read for me as Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey) is somewhere I know well and have lived close to all my life. I have met the current Earl of Carnarvon and also the previous Earl so it was interesting to find out more about the family through the generations. 

I then moved onto a book by Santa Montefiore, I have read several of her novels and she didn't disappoint with this one. This book is set in the wild countryside of West Cork, Ireland in the early part of the 20th century and is an epic tale of three very different women who have one thing in common, a fierce and unwavering longing for Castle Deverill and the memories contained within it. I was pleased to hear that there will be two more books in this series as there were lots of ends left untied. 

My next read was The Sea Change. This was a debut novel for Joanna Rossiter but the synopsis sounded interesting.

Yesterday was Alice's wedding day. She is thousands of miles away from the home she is so desperate to leave, on the southernmost tip of India, when she wakes in the morning to see a wave on the horizon, taller than the height of her guest house on Kanyakumari beach. Her husband is nowhere to be seen.

On the other side of the world, unhappily estranged from her daughter, is Alice's mother, Violet. Forced to leave the idyllic Wiltshire village, Imber, in which she grew up after it was requisitioned by the army during the Second World War, Violet is haunted by the shadow of the man she loved and the wilderness of a home that lies in ruins.

As Alice searches for her husband in the debris of the wave she is forced to face up to some truths about herself she has been hiding from. Meanwhile Violet is compelled to return to Imber to discover just why she abandoned her great love . . .

I have to say that this book took me a long time to get into, I almost abandoned it but I am glad I persevered. It does leap about a lot between the generations with lots of flash backs to previous generations and it was a bit confusing at times but after reading about a third of the book I did get fully engaged with the story and began to be gripped by it. Some unpredictable twists as the book unfolds make it worth sticking with.

My final book in March was The Lake House. I loved this book - an epic piece of storytelling. The main plot line concerns the mystery of baby Theo Edevane who disappears from the family home in Cornwall during a Midsummer party in 1933, a mystery which has never been resolved. The book does jump about a bit between three different time lines but is easy to follow. An intriguing story with an intricate plot with many twists and turns. Several times I thought I had solved the mystery to find my theory was incorrect but in the end the threads weave together in an interesting and satisfying way.

Corfe Castle

It's Friday again which means it is time to join Amy at Love Made My Home with a Five On Friday post. 


Yesterday my DH and I enjoyed a brilliant day out on the Isle of Purbeck visiting Swanage and Corfe Castle so today I thought I would show you some images of Corfe Castle. This area is one of our all-time favourite places and we have visited many times over the years but we haven't actually been into the Castle itself for a long time so decided it was time we revisited.

Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above a village with the same name which was built to guard a gap between the Purbeck hills. The first castle buildings were built of wood and it is here in 978 AD that young King Edward was reputedly murdered on the orders of his step-mother so that her son Ethelred the Unready could become King of England. 

In the latter half of the 11th Century the castle was rebuilt in stone by William the Conqueror and it grew in importance in the reign of King John for whom it became a favourite hunting residence. 


























It was besieged by King Stephen in the civil war with the Empress Matilda and later in the Civil War of the 17th century when it was famously held for the Royalists by Lady Bankes, her husband Sir John Bankes had purchased the castle in 1635 but he died in 1644.

Lady Bankes led the defence of the castle for weeks until February 1646 when an act of betrayal let Parliamentarians into the stronghold. After the siege the castle was blown up with gunpowder so that it could never be used as a stronghold again. 

The Bankes family continued to own the Castle until 1982 when it was bequeathed to the National Trust.