Day 120 - April 30th

On my way to and from a training seminar today I passed these two hangers at Cardington. They were built to house Airships and as you can perhaps tell from the cars parked alongside, are huge - Length: 812 ft, Width: 180 ft, Height: 157 ft !

The ill fated R101 airship which in on its maiden voyage in 1930 crashed into a hillside in northern France, was built and flew from here.

One of the hangers is now owned by Advanced Technologies Group who are trying to revive the airship business. The other hanger is used as a super big sound stage for films. Warner Bros shot scenes for 'Batman Begins' inside the hanger, as well as a number of other films including (according to wikipedia) several James Bond films.

Day 119 - April 29th

Busy day today so only time to take a quick photo of the bluebells in the garden today.

Day 118 - April 28th

All around the village the fields are bright yellow with blossoming rapeseed flowers.

Day 117 - April 27th

I bought this plaque and two very similar plaques at the Festival yesterday. They just called to me to buy them so I just had to. I don't often buy non-functional things but these were the exception. Bought just because I liked them. They are about 4 or 5 inches in diameter and will probably end up hung up somewhere outside in the garden.

Day 116 - April 26th

We went to Wrest Park again today. This weekend was their St George's Day Festival. We try and go every year. Its a good family day out with lots to see and do and this year the weather couldn't have been better with blue skies and sunshine. The displays are all Medieval or Victorian themed and its just a lovely place to spend the day. My photo for today is of brave St George slaying the dragon during the reenactment of the famous legend.

I took loads .... and loads .... and loads of photos though, so thought I'd better post more than one today.

First a potted version of the St George and the dragon legend.

The peasants were celebrating on the Village Green .........

when a dragon appeared and demanded the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden.

Who would save the day? Brave St George to the rescue!

He struck the monster with his spear and killed it.

Hooray for St George!!

As well as St George there was lots more to see.

A display by the Redcoat soldiers from Queen Victoria's army..........

A demonstration of sidesaddle riding .................

Fire eating and juggling ...............

A living history encampment showing how people lived in Medieval times including basket weaving ..........

falconry display, traditional games, historic craft market and so much more. A really nice day.

Day 115 - April 25th

We spent this afternoon potting on seedlings ready for planting out in the garden hopefully in a month or so.

Day 114 - April 24th

"Blue skies

Smiling at me

Nothing but blue skies

Do I see"

Glorious sunny day today.

Day 113 - April 23rd (St George's Day)

"I’m only a poor little sparrow (aaah)
No colourful feathers have i ( its a shame)
I can’t even sing
When I’m nesting in spring
The turnips don’t grow very high"

(Peculiar last line I know but thems the words!)

I have been stalking sparrows for days! They have been sitting in a tree in a neighbours garden, chirping away and I'm sure they've been laughing at me. Everytime I have got near enough to take a photo they have either turned their backs on me or moved to a different branch. Today I beat them and managed to get this snap. Aha Gotcha!

Day 112 - April 22nd

"I'll be with you in apple blossom time"

More blossom!! This time on the russet apple tree in the front garden. In the last couple of years the apple trees have been blighted with pests - aphids and ants and not produced many apples. Hoping this year will be different.

Day 111 - April 21st

"How many kinds of sweet flowers grow, in an English country garden?"

5th February when we had lots of snow I took a photo of this same section of the garden. I didn't intend taking another photo from the same spot but thought it might be good to do a winter/spring comparison.

Day 110 - April 20th

"Daisy, Daisy Give me your answer do."

Busy day today with housework so I only had time to quickly pop out into the garden and take a photo of one of the many daisies on the lawn.

Day 109 - April 19th

This is one of the layouts I created while I was away. Its based on a layout by Sarah Moore (sarahlm on 2ps). I've never created the round paper flowers before, although I've seen them on other peoples layouts. I was really pleased how they came out.

Day 108 - April 18th

I'm a bit behind with my posting because I was away for the weekend scrapbooking with a group of friends. This is where we stayed. Difficult to get a decent photo of the building because of the cars parked in the car park out front. We had a great weekend - lots of laughing, eating, drinking, chatting, generally larking-about and of course scrapbooking. In total the nine of us created 96 layouts over the weekend!



There are a few more photos from the weekend on my scrapping blog too.

Day 107 - April 17th

Last month I posted a photo of some pale pink almond blossom on some trees along the main road in the village. Today the trees near those other trees are blossoming. I think they may be crab apple trees although I'm not sure - I'll have to keep an eye out to see what sort of fruit they produce. The colours are so vibrant. The flowers are only just stating to bloom and will look even more amazing in a few days time.

Day 106 - April 16th

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you"

Today is my eldest sons 15th birthday. 15 year old boys (like 14 year old boys) do not like to pose for photos so the photos I took today were not good. I spot coloured this one to try and make it a bit better.

Day 105 - April 15th

Took this photo through the kitchen window so not as clear as it could be. This little fella flew into the garden with a piece of bread in its beak and sat on the patio breaking it up. Not sure if he was going to eat it himself or if he was going to take it back to a nest for his mate or baby birds.

Day 104 - April 14th

Periwinkle in the garden today.

Day 103 - April 13th

We spent this afternoon at the Marston Vale Millennium Country Park. Its somewhere we go quite often. The park was created with lottery funding as a millennium project on land previously used for clay extraction, brickmaking and landfill. There are over eight kilometers of traffic-free, surfaced footpaths and cycle paths in the park and the intention was for us all to take our bikes. But after getting them all out of the shed, pumping up the tyres and dusting them down after the winter, DH realised that having changed his car we now don't have a cycle rack that holds all the bikes and safely fits on his new car! So we just took the two youngest's bikes and the rest of us walked round. I Took loads of photos but liked this one best. Steven climbed up on this mound - I like how the photo makes it look much bigger than it was LOL.

Here's a few more photos from the afternoon.

Day 102 - April 12th (Easter Sunday)

Easter Sunday afternoon we always have an egg hunt in the garden. This year was no exception. The weather wasn't perfect but it didn't rain.

Day 101 - April 11th

This bronze statue called 'Joyride' was sculptured by Czechoslovakian artist Franta Belsky in 1958 and has stood in Stevenage Town Square since.

Not a particular attractive town, Stevenage was the 1st of the post war New Towns (or London overspill towns), and was granted New Town status in the mid 1940's.

Day 100 - April 10th (Good Friday)

"Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns, one ha' penny, two ha' penny, hot cross buns."

Today is Good Friday so the subject of todays photos was a bit of a no-brainer - Hot Cross Buns.

Day 99 - April 9th (Maundy Thursday)

Today the children decorated our little Easter Tree. Its a tradition we started a few years ago. Its just some artificial forsythia branches set in a glass vase with gravel, but once it's decorated with the little china eggs, bunnies and chicks and stands in the sun on the table in front of the window it looks so pretty and springlike. We usually leave it there for about a week over Easter then it all gets packed away again until next year - like the Christmas tree.

Day 98 - April 8th

Today is my youngest son Steven's 11th birthday. Took lots of photos and this was the best of a bad bunch. Why is there always one candle on the cake that will not blow out? LOL

Day 97 - April 7th

Despite what the weather forecast said, today has so far been nice and sunny and the bees have been out doing their work.

Day 96 - April 6th

Struggled for inspiration today so thought I'd try a bit of still life - well fairly still - the ice cubes kept floating around. LOL

Day 95 - April 5th

This afternoon we went to Wrest Park. Its a property owned by English Heritage and whilst very little of the house is open to the public, visitors are free to roam the 90 acre grounds. Its our favourite place to go on a sunny Sunday afternoon and I'll no doubt upload other photos from here again as it is a photographers dream - lots of ornate buildings, pavillions, statues, follies, ornate gardens, bridges, lakes and ponds and wooded walks.

This is also where Lily Allen recorded the video for 'The Fear' (apols for the bad language in the video)

Day 94 - April 4th

Today we went to the Bedfordshire Festival of Food. It was a fairly small event but there were lots of local and national foods as well as and foods from around the world to taste and buy as well as cookery demos, etc.

Day 93 - April 3rd

Another weed! This one was only about the size of mt thumb nail IRL.

Day 92 - April 2nd

There was a frost this morning and as it thawed the grass became covered in these tiny water droplets.

Day 91 - April 1st (April Fools Day)

Lara was presented with another award at her gym club last night. This time it was her Bronze Challenge Award for work on the Box. She was so very proud and I had a 'Proud Mummy Moment' too.