GARDEN FLOWERS - ALTAIR

You may realise by now that we enjoy gardening. My lupins have been splendid this Spring but some were blown down by the recent winds. We have spent a lot of time in the back garden this week and I will take some photographs of it next week. Until recently we used to open the garden at the end of July to raise money for the Hurst Church Projects and also raised money towards finding a cure for Parkinsons Disease from which my mother suffered. I really enjoy growing anything scented and at present the perfume from the pinks and carnations take a lot of beating. The honeysuckle is also highly perfumed on the evening air. I also have a collection of scented geraniums.

BACK TO LYTHAM - LITTLE WHITE RABBIT IS REUNITED WITH DAFFODIL

Last weekend we visited Lytham once again as Little White Rabbit had missed Daffodil who had been away visiting her relatives. It wasn't long before he found her.

"Hello Daffodil, good to see you" says LWR

Look at those Canadian geese following one another

 

 

Lots of pretty wild flowers

What a lovely old rose

 

 

We walked past the home of the late George Formby

Another large home in St Annes

Convolulus growing in a wall

Swan's nest, can you see her eggs

Anton's Cafe in St Annes

  

CANADIANS VISIT TO CHESTER

The Midsomer Parade coming through Newgate

Town Crier

Mosaic floor in the Roman gardens

RECENT VISIT TO LLANGOLLEN AND LLANDUDNO WITH CANADIAN VISITORS

We certainly got around with our Canadian guests. We visited Llangollen and Llandudno.

Lunch at an old tea room in Llangollen

'Don't stay here too long Little White Rabbit'. Peeping into the Taxidermists window!

 

 

Richard & Rose on their way into Llandudno

On the tram up the Great Orme

  

It was very cold and windy!

 

Pier under repair

 

Dinner at Home Cookin

 

'You'll get fat Richard!'

THE LISTENERS - MORNING POEM

One of my favourite poems is The Listeners by Walter De la Mare and it sprang to mind on visiting the old family homestead recently.

'Is there anybody there?' said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses,

Of the forest's ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller's head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;

'Is there anybody there?' he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplexed and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller's call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

'Neath the starred and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head; -

Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word', he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.

FAMILY MISC

We took our Canadian relatives to The Pheasant Inn at Burwardsley for a meal, a very lovely place to eat and stay, out in the Cheshire countryside near Beeston Castle

The Pheasant Inn, Burwardsley where we enjoyed a meal

Rather overgrown path at Wanlows Well Cottage, old family homestead

The poor old family cottage lies sadly derelict

This is the house where George's father was born