zoom in on the apples

on Saturday I went along to the local Community Orchard Apple Day - a celebration of all things apple -

there was an apple press to make juice, pressed juice for sale, bobbing for apples, pick your own crab apples (the zoomed in photo) and my Dad was in charge of the apple tasting table with samples of different apples from the orchard and committee members' gardens. Kids were also enjoying running around, watching the bonfire, the cakes and climbing the ladder provided for crab apple picking.

The orchard is on a sloping field with a stream at the bottom and walls or tall trees all around - that explains the odd angle in the 1st photo.  With low afternoon sun and lots of shade it was hard to get good photos but I do like the rays of sunlight showing in this one.

wondering where else I'll visit through your zoom shares this week

share your glorious week 44 photos here

1.	Maggie	4.	Missus Wookie	7.	Judy
2.	Prairie Jill	5.	Ruth	8.	JoAnn - SceneThroughMyEyes
3.	marsha	6.	Karen

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me on Monday with a visitor

pausing on Monday morning to wave to blogland and look back on the weekend before getting on with my week – thanks to Sian

Saturday was windy but not rainy and filled with housework; the Community Orchard Apple Day (more on Wednesday with my zoom pair); chatting to my nephew who is about to set out on an adventure to Mexico; and discovering fabulous light as I headed home.

Sunday was windy and wet and spent inside with my visitor

I’m looking after Connie the cat for a while. All her fluffy fur disguises how thin she is after some digestive problems – she has special food and a daily tablet.  She likes to be in the same room as me and has a lovely loud purr.

Hoping you all have a good week

zoom out for reflections

Fabulous light for reflections on the river at the moment - often I can see the details of the geese more clearly in their refelction than on the actual bird

don't be deceived by the lovely blue sky - I've been timing my walks to catch the spaces between rain showers

welcome to all of you still playing along, I love seeing what you all point your zoom at each week

share your glorious week 43 photos here

1.	Ruth	4.	Marsha in Winnipeg	7.	Missus Wookie
2.	Maggie	5.	JoAnn - SceneThroughMyEyes
3.	Karen	6.	Prairie Jill

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me on Monday

hello Monday, hoping it is a good one where you are

It was a blustery, reading, reflection, family featuring weekend.

Very blustery weather with some bouts of rain that were heavy enough to capture on film – I’m fascinated by trying to capture photos of rain. When it wasn’t raining it was very windy which meant plenty of time with my book (Tanya French), a coffee, crochet and the TV. 

When I did venture out to the river I was rewarded with some lovely light on the water and great reflections. I also ventured for family dinner and laughter and circulating books.

Thanks to Sian for this lovely meme to get the week off to a good start.

zoom in at the museum

one of my favourite part of the museum is the wall full of small collections - 5 typewriters; polished Scottish stone; decorative tile floors; railway station signs

and this lovely collection of blue pottery - perfect for a zoom in and zoom out on a grey rainy day

enjoying seeing a lovely range of subjects in the photo pairings that you are sharing - watching the changing seasons and life across the world - thank you for taking part

inlinkz has 'improved' their linky so hoping this works OK

me on Monday

settling down to look back on the weekend (thank you Sian) before starting on my Monday chores

it was a sunshine appreciating, but glove wearing, long legs in shadows admiring, tangerine / mandarin / clementine comparing, forum theatre event participating, sign language practicing, swan feeding, Mum visiting, scarcity of blogs to read sadly noticing, roti recipe trying kind of weekend

waving hello for a good week to everyone

5 in 5 as we craft and chat

every Wednesday I crochet and chat and drink good coffee and eat a scone or coconut bread with a group of lovely ladies.  We knit and crochet blanket squares and hats and toys and jumpers to send to charities (2 ladies also make dresses from charity shop duvet covers). The cafe lets us use the big room through the back so we can spread out around a big table with plenty of room for our wool and bags as well as our beverages.

I was taking photos of the items we had made recently but preferred the images which captured more of the feeling of the meetings – sharing 5 of them to join in with Sandie’s lovely 5 in 5 meme

The two main charities we send items to are

Knit a Square who give blankets (and hats and toys) to orphans in South Africa

Love in the Language of Yarn who are based in Turkey and give items to Syrian refugees

zoom in on the spooky

Halloween related aisles are appearing in lots of my local big shops - plenty of dressing up items and ghoulish decor

what really surprises me is the number of specially themed confectionery items on sale - I'm amazed that the market is big enough for so many of the manufacturers to create special shapes and packaging for Halloween - scream eggs was too good a name to miss out but everyone seems to be joining in now.

looking forward to the range of topics you will share this week

share your glorious week 41 photos here

1.	Ruth	4.	Prairie Jill	7.	Karen
2.	Marsha in Winnipeg	5.	Missus Wookie
3.	JoAnn - SceneThroughMyEyes	6.	Maggie

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me on Monday

a grey weekend – but seasonally correct

it was a monthly organic market visiting; German bakery enjoying; news of new neighbourhood artisan bakery rejoicing; ivy trimming; flat white (coffee) sipping; rain dodging; alien encounter reading (Ken McLeod); Strictly Come Dancing watching kind of weekend

waving to Sian for this lovely meme to start the week and hoping you all have a good week even if your weather is grey (as is forecast for the coming week here)

September summed up

season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as the poetic (in this case Keats) would say of autumn and September was indeed foggy with plenty of produce to harvest. 

We had fog for 10 days in a row which really makes you double-take on a familiar view until you work out what the fog has obscured.

I picked and enjoyed 9 apples from the tree in my garden and left 2 with the insects that had taken up residence; I received enough plums from my Dad’s trees to make 4 jars of chutney (with Shanghai seasoning mix) and eat plenty too; I picked enough brambles for 1 tasty cobbler.

I filled my garden waste bin twice with the end of summer tidy of the garden and pruning the raspberry canes and planted 5 hyacinth and 12 gladioli bulbs for even more colour next spring.

I spent 5 hours with 4 of my charity crafting group (and 2 of their husbands) at a village fair selling items that we had made.  I sold 32 of my pocket friends and enjoyed seeing lots of big smiles when people spotted the different characters.

I crocheted 1 rust coloured hat for me, using 1 ball of wool and my biggest (7 mm) hook - ready for when the temperatures drop – it has been warm but there are chill edges to the day.

I also crocheted 12 blanket squares to be sent off to charities, each in 2 bright colours which meant I got to play with lots of lovely colour combinations as I measured out the lengths needed for each (30 arm lengths). 

I joined 3,623,343 other people in going to the polling place to vote in the referendum on independence for Scotland then stayed up until 2.30am watching results then slept for 3 hours before getting up to watch the end of the results.

I read 7 novels, 5 of which were from the police crime solving genre (Tanya French, Karen Rose and Craig Russell are all excellent if you are into this genre).  The other 2 followed a woman across the Sahara and young gamers taking on exploitative bosses. 

Joining Julie for her monthly provision of a safe place to revel in counting things

zoom in by the river

A lovely relaxed walk by the river on a sunny autumn afternoon when drama unfolded as walkers noticed a dog walking around on the stones in the river searching for someone - one dogwalker tried to coax it over with treats - after some discussion another rang the local animal welfare people

who arrived after 15 minutes and eventually captured the dog (after a chase involving 4 people and 2 dogs) and took it off to the shelter - and the tranquil afternoon returned (until the geese started honking to gather a gaggle for a practice flight)

week 40 already - anticipating an autumnal from some this week

share your glorious week 40 photos here

1.	sal | allonestring	4.	Karen	7.	Missus Wookie
2.	Marsha in Winnipeg	5.	Maggie
3.	Prairie Jill	6.	Ruth

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