It’s that time again to find and dust off your binoculars!

To fill up the seed trays and bird tables with a variety of goodies that your feathered friends will enjoy, and take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend.

You know you will probably attract Mr Nutkins, but his cheeky ways always makes me smile

Image via Wikipedia

There is something about birdwatching that brings me a sense of calm.

I delight in the beauty of the birds that decide to visit my garden banquet.

I get outraged when the title -’ little brown jobs’ get thrown their way!

I love the design of each bird, whether they are brown or multi-coloured.

I have had debates with my husband’s gran about who the nice birds are, and the ones who need a wake up call; apparently the robin and jay are on her naughty list.

I grew up on Beatrix Potter stories, so I can’t help but imagine what the birds story may be as they feast, chatter, play and fight…

Perhaps that’s why I wrote a children’s story involving a runaway pigeon – called Percy.

When I was at school, I started a new family tradition that if I saw a kestral or a buzzard on the way to school – it would be a good day!

I love the robins, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, doves, pigeons, starlings, woodpeckers …that regulary visit my garden. I find peace at night listening to the call of the barn and tawney owls, in the woods opposite me … on my wish list I still have to see the amazing starling displays!

Will you be taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch?

Take part with thousands of people across the county and discover the birds that visit your garden, to help research into how best we can help them.

For more details please visit the Big Garden Birdwatch to register and download a recording sheet. It’s only for one hour during the weekend of the 28th-29th January 2012.

I would love to know what birds visit your garden, so please leave a comment and share with me

Related articles

• RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2012 (thegardensmallholder.wordpress.com)
• Take Part In The Big Garden Birdwatch 28th or 29th January 2012 (femaleimagination.wordpress.com)

Just for a giggle, hope you enjoy the below video

Last weekend I had a very special evening out. I had been looking forward to going since last year, and has now become  a must see event each year for me and my family, as well as many others.

This special event takes place at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset.

I have mentioned this garden in several posts here and on Birds on the Blog, as it is a favourite garden of mine. Many of the plants are similar to Heligan in Cornwall. So if you like Heligan, I would definitely suggest a visit.

Each year this lovely garden has an event called – Enchanted Floodlit Gardens. This year it has been running since the 13th October and ends on the 30th, so there is still time, if you want to visit.

We first had a lovely tea of butternut squash soup and tomato and beef soup between the three of us, The butternut squash was spicy, spicy enough to keep you warm, for hours!

As we wandered around the garden with my camera and tripod, you couldn’t help but feel that you were back in your childhood. I was mesmerised by the glowing yellows, greens, oranges and golden hues of the specialist lighting, placed to give you a whole new understanding of plants and their beauty. I am not particularly keen on bamboo, but I have appreciated it so much more, since I have seen it highlighted at night.

The garden paths are lit by lanterns, which really add to the atmosphere. Not only did I enjoy the experience, I felt so utterly peaceful in my place of beauty, sharing it with my dad and Matt – not forgetting our little dog Brinkley, who (as usual) made friends where ever he went.

Listening to the call of owls across the moonlit sky, appreciating the detail of the hydrangea, cosmos, palm, bamboo, acer and old oak tree… makes you lost for words, as it is just beautiful!

Many times I sat on a bench and just let myself be there in that moment – I felt so blessed!

Have you been to event like this?

Related articles

• A Visit To A Beautiful Subtropical Garden In Dorset (handmadegreetingcards.info)

Aka Teaching the girls how to garden

The last month the house of Arrow has been even dirtier than usual.

My daughters aged 4 and 5 have been planting. Cue lots of soil, lots of seeds and even more soil. Have I mentioned there was some soil involved in this gardening project? And mud. No garden is complete without mud it would seem.

We went to Asda to chose our seeds. Jasmine (aged 4) chose tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, runner beans and corn on the cob. Kira (aged 5) chose Strawberries, cress and Lobelia. We also bought some propagating trays and several bags of soil. Kira declared she wanted sunflowers so we added those to the trolley as well.

The journey home was quite fraught, driving and trying to explain that they couldn’t plant them in the car, that the dirt should stay in the bag and that sunflowers are also planting as well as eating and we had got the planting variety and not the eating variety! Is there a difference? I have no idea but they were not going to eat them before we got home.

It was all a bit much for poor old mum (me), who only has green fingers when she paints her nails…

So dad took over and soon the dining table was unrecognisable, soil, plants and seeds where everywhere and then Jasmine proudly plonked down a propagating tray on the window sill, with such a gentle touch that half the house shuddered. They’ll never grow I thought. Never in a million years as I watched her use the equivalent of the Hanningfield reservoir to water them.

But they did.

The Tomatoes shot up! followed by the runner beans and cress. I don’t think the sweetcorn has made it or the sunflowers – but Jasmine doesn’t care. The strawberries were lovingly transplanted by Kira into hanging baskets and then water very heavily by Jasmine. They are also growing like wildfire.

We made egg and cress sandwiches, Jasmine was not impressed. Kira turned her nose up as well and no amount of persuading would convince her to eat the cress she had grown! Jasmine has declared she is going to grow things when she grows up. I believe her. She says she is waiting for her ‘martos to grow and she checks them every day, she is a very determined young lady and heaven help them ‘martoes if they don’t grow!

Next year I will be more prepared. I shall go out for the day and leave Kev and the girls to it

Sarah

……………………

Anita would like to thank Sarah Arrow for her guest post!

Please follow sarah on twitter -  http://www.twitter.com/SarahArrow

I have been mainly focusing on personalised cards using my flower photography for the past two years.

My floral gift collection includes personalised totebags and notebooks, as well as coasters and candle holders which will be available to buy through my website soon.

For those who enjoy gardening we have the lovely ranges – Pocket Garden and Bee Good candles from Canova

Within the last few months we have been working towards providing a larger complementing gift range using my flower images.

Many customers and friends have asked if my flower photography was available as framed or canvas prints, so I have been working to expand my range. The below image is an example of the prints available to buy. They would make a lovely Easter or Birthday gift, bringing a touch of nature to your living space.

As well as my special collection of floral art prints, I am pleased to be able to tell you that we are now able to provide a range of personalised mugs, t-shirts, aprons, baby outfits, shoes, tote bags and so on through our zazzle shop.

I am particulary excited to have my floral prints available on shoes.

I hope you will like my collection.

If you are interested in our gift range please visit my website for further details. – www.sendafloralgift.com

I shall hold my hand up and admit that I don’t know the first thing about flowers, yet they are the things that connect Anita and myself . Thank you flowers, am very grateful. I was thrilled that Anita invited me to write her a guest blog and then spent the next day wondering what it could be about!

Anita suggested blogging, so here it is

In nature everything has it’s place, predators to prevent anyone species running amok and areas of complete beauty where you least expect it. Blogging for me is like that, predatory with unexpected beauty, but everything in it’s place.

I shall explain the predatory part. The internet is used by trillions of people (is trillions even a number? if it’s not, it is now ) and some of them just help themselves to your copy, to your images, to your ideas.  Some people will give you credit, others will just pass it off as their own and some are just oblivious to the rules!

So many people start blogging and give up at the first sign of a predator or a perceived predator.

I recall doing so myself. I would visit a forum and there would be another company posting up links to their website, asking for the business and generally making a nuisance of themselves. I didn’t know that wasn’t the way to do things, I assumed mistakenly this was their pond and I was the unwelcome fish in it!

As Qui Gon Jin says “there’s always a bigger fish”.

You cannot avoid doing something because someone else is doing it already. Just because someone else is blogging on your subject, it doesn’t mean you can’t. We all have our own unique flavour, and even if people blog the same topics as I do, they will sound, look and feel different.

I set about finding my own pond and my own places of beauty, and in finding those, I found Anita .

So what do a flower girl and a courier girl possibly have in common (aside from being brunettes with an aversion to having their photos taken?). We have friendship. We visit each others places of beauty and respect what we find. Many bloggers do that too. They visit your blog and look, and if they like they may do a few things

• leave a comment
• subscribe to your feed
• subscribe by email
• Share your work on Facebook / Twitter / Bt Tradespace
• Social bookmark your post

And it’s your job to make it easier to do these things, it’s making your place of beauty accessible to others. Don’t think that a comment or 27 is the only indicator of it’s popularity, it’s not. Many petals go to make up a flower, many actions make up a blogs readership, some of which are not visible to the naked eye.

If you like this blog, do me a favour and tweet it.

Thank you

Sarah Arrow

Sarah Arrow works for the same day courier company Arrow Light Haulage, she is the most followed courier on twitter and also the editor of Birds on the Blog, the home to UK Business women bloggers.

My three great loves are flowers, butterflies and creating cards.

Here is an idea for a cold winters day -

Last year I attended a great event at Wisley called – Butterflies in the Glasshouse it was so popular that the RHS have brought it back!

From the 16th January to 28th February you can enjoy Wisleys winter garden and gorgeous butterflies! Sounds perfect to me!

There are no extra admission costs, just the usual garden entry price  -

• £9.50 for adults,
• £3.00 for children (6-16)
• Children under 6 is free.
• For RHS members it is free.

You will see exotic butterflies, this will give you a great opportunity to see these beauties upclose as you learn about them.

This event is open from 10am and closes at 3.45 pm with last entries at 3.30pm ( I would suggest that you arrive as early as possible, as this is a popular event.

Extra family events: –

• 13th-14th February Make your own grass head butterfly
• 20th – 21st Create a caterpiller puppet

These are held in the Clore Learning Centre 10am – 3.30pm

How to get to RHS Wisley

Above photo is of the amazing exotic Owl Butterfly.

If you love butterflies, how about planting nectar rich flowers in your garden to attract them.

The English Cottage Garden Nursery provides a fantastic list of wonderful plants to plant in your garden to encourage our butterlies.

A handmade Valentine gift

I thought I would share a handmade Valentine’s gift suggestion with you.

Flower bouquets can be very expensive for Valentine’s Day and I thought this lovely gift could be given to your loved one, handmade by you at a great price!

The above image is the finished image that I designed for one of my Valentine Greeting Cards

Here is what I did -

I bought a heart shaped oasis from eBay (size 9″), (you could buy a square one and cut a heart shape out, if a heart is not available.)

I then went to Tesco’s and bought several bunches of roses in various pink shades. (I used 40 roses in total)

Complementing colours and shades work best.

Are there particular roses, colours that your valentine likes?

I soaked the rose stems in a bucket of water with flower food added, as well as soaking the oasis in water overnight.

The following day I cut the roses and placed them in a pattern into the oasis.

Last but not least, you can buy some waterproof ribbon in a matching or complementing colour to add around the edge of the oasis.

To present your gift to your valentine, buy a gift box, place the oasis inside on some tissue paper and close. To finish add a pretty ribbon to tie around the box with a gift tag.

The cost of the oasis, roses, waterproof ribbon came to around £15.00

Finished Valentine gift as above.

The following image is our Valentine’s card for this year using the above method.

I hope you like the suggestion and that it will inspire you to give a handmade gift this year.

The above Valentine’s card is available through our website -

www.sendaflowercard.com and our BT Tradespace for £1.75 free P&P.

We can personalise the card with your message on the front and / or inside the card for free.

All images © Send a flower card – Anita Hunt

We have been looking for some extra quality gift item to go with our floral cards.

Recently we came across the lovely ‘Pocket Garden’ and ‘Bee Good’ range from Canova.

Pocket Garden:

The idea behind the Pocket Garden is to choose the occasion, such as happy birthday or congratulations that is associated with a given flower/plant. The Pockets come with peat free soil and seeds to grow your chosen flowers.

The range that we are stocking are -

* Cosmos – Happy Birthday

* Sweet William – Congratulations

* Cornflower – Many Thanks

* Lavender - Get Well Soon

* Forget-me-not – We / I will miss you

* Gerbera – Nurture me – tell someone they are special

* Mini Sunflower – ‘Let me blossom’ a gift of encouragement

We think these make a wonderful gift for gardeners, those who love flowers and so on.

At £4.99 plus p&p they make a lovely gift for all occasions.

Bee Good:

We also loved the Canova’s range – ‘Bee Good’ wonderful beeswax candles, made from 300gms of natural beeswax with a lead free wick. Once you have finished the candle, you can then use the terracotta pot to grow flowers in to thank the bees. Each candle gift comes with your chosen flower seeds.

The ranges we are stocking are -                    

* Aster

* Cosmos

* Sweetpea