Bluebells.
The bluebells are out at the moment - and they are quite impressive this year. I am not any good at flower identification - I can recognise 'it is a bluebell' but I really do not know how to tell a native British bluebell from the interloping Spanish ones, which are apparently trying to take over Britain, a bit like a fishing fleet really.
So if anyone on my FL does know how to tell the difference, I would be interested to know whether the island is likely to be one of the last bastions of the British Bluebell, or whether we have already succumbed to the incomers.
Here are some of the bluebells in the Sulby Valley, aka Tholt-y-Will.
And two close-ups -
Are they Olde British ones? Or Spanish ones muscling in?
The weather today is nice - sunny, not terribly hot, but warm enough to take cake and coffee out and sit in the garden
The cake came from a cake sale at church this morning - the children talked parents into making cakes, I took 50 tiny, tiny cakes (made in sweety cases rather than even fairy cake cases) for them to ice and decorate, as well as some peppermint chocolate brownies, some scones, and some gingerbread, and then the children laid it all out, priced everything up - some were a bit underpriced by mistake(!) - and sold them after the adults finished church. We raised about £70 for Drop Inn Ministries work in Rwanda which we are supporting for the year.
We had some wonderful news at Church - our Minister, a batchelor of 64, is engaged to be married! To a lovely lady who is a Methodist Local Preacher who we know and really like, as she has sometimes taken services for us when the minister is on holiday - won't have that option any more! They plan to marry in the spring, which is when he is due to retire. We are all really, really happy for them both!
Other observations I have made over the last couple of days.
Observation 1. - basic unleaded petrol is now £1.15.5p per litre at our local garage - that would be £5.28p per UK gallon, or about $8.25 per American gallon.
Observation 2 - it is amazing how much of a kitchen can be covered by molten chocolate when you drop a pyrex bowl of the stuff onto the floor from bench height...
So if anyone on my FL does know how to tell the difference, I would be interested to know whether the island is likely to be one of the last bastions of the British Bluebell, or whether we have already succumbed to the incomers.
Here are some of the bluebells in the Sulby Valley, aka Tholt-y-Will.
And two close-ups -
Are they Olde British ones? Or Spanish ones muscling in?
The weather today is nice - sunny, not terribly hot, but warm enough to take cake and coffee out and sit in the garden
The cake came from a cake sale at church this morning - the children talked parents into making cakes, I took 50 tiny, tiny cakes (made in sweety cases rather than even fairy cake cases) for them to ice and decorate, as well as some peppermint chocolate brownies, some scones, and some gingerbread, and then the children laid it all out, priced everything up - some were a bit underpriced by mistake(!) - and sold them after the adults finished church. We raised about £70 for Drop Inn Ministries work in Rwanda which we are supporting for the year.
We had some wonderful news at Church - our Minister, a batchelor of 64, is engaged to be married! To a lovely lady who is a Methodist Local Preacher who we know and really like, as she has sometimes taken services for us when the minister is on holiday - won't have that option any more! They plan to marry in the spring, which is when he is due to retire. We are all really, really happy for them both!
Other observations I have made over the last couple of days.
Observation 1. - basic unleaded petrol is now £1.15.5p per litre at our local garage - that would be £5.28p per UK gallon, or about $8.25 per American gallon.
Observation 2 - it is amazing how much of a kitchen can be covered by molten chocolate when you drop a pyrex bowl of the stuff onto the floor from bench height...