MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 51

 

 

Christmas! It’s that special time of year. I think as you get older you treasure Christmas even more. It’s a time packed with memories, of loved ones no longer with us, of long ago happenings –opening stockings, making decorations from crepe paper, shaping milk bottle tops round a lemon squeezer to make bells for the tree and enjoying enormous family get-togethers when my Dad and Uncle John played festive songs on their harmonicas.

 

Small Roddy fairy lovingly passed down from the 1950s

 



1930s' celluloid fairy

This is the one time of year that I have an excuse to make my dolls the centre of attraction. At Christmas they can be incorporated into the general festive scheme quite legitimately. First and foremost of course is the Christmas fairy. I have a selection of these, mainly vintage, so they take it in turns to be the fairy on top of the tree. Have you noticed, incidentally, how difficult it is to buy a traditional fairy doll nowadays? Angels are easy to find – but Christmas fairies? They all seem to have fluttered off. I can remember as a child seeing shop counters massed with little plastic fairies. A special Christmas treat was to buy a fairy doll for the tree; after Twelfth Night she would be my ‘extra present’. Did you know that in the 1920s and 30s, fairy dolls were often made of celluloid, which is highly inflammable? As the trees often had lighted candles clipped to the branches, it must have been very hazardous.

 

This year my fairies are clustered together in a large festive bowl. They look delightful together, and they can gossip about the one who has been chosen to grace the tree. (You think I’m joking? Fairies might look sweet, but I’ve often come downstairs in the morning to find a fairy or two on the floor while the others, tinsel wreaths over one eye and wands akimbo, peer gleefully down at their victims.) Tableaux are fun to make – all you need is a roll of white packing fleece, some blue or black card for a background, maybe a mirror (if you want to make an ‘ice-rink’) and plenty of glitter, and your winter dolls will make a super display. You can have them skating, skiing, sledging or even building a snowman, depending on the props you include.

 

Two 'Vanity Fair' dolls from a local garden centre



A 1930s' styled Patsy toddler

Last week I visited one of our local garden centres and discovered a couple of porcelain dolls that had been marked right down in a sale, and were dressed in coats, scarves, boots and mitts – perfect for a winter display. They are now ensconced in the living room on a ‘snowy’ table, with a sledge laden with wreaths and a mini Christmas tree. They look very festive. A favourite doll of mine is dressed as a ‘Snow Baby’ in a fleecy white coat with matching hat and leggings, looking very 1930s, whilst another wears a brightly coloured jumper and hat with a pair of quilted trousers. She has skis and ski sticks, an excuse for making a cotton wool ski-slope.

I make a point of going to as many garden centres as I can in the run up to Christmas, because so often they have stunning Christmas displays with coloured lights and animated effects, just as good, if not better, as any department store. Van Hages this year has a life-size animated camel! Garden centres are also a good source for unusual or quirky gifts, often featuring handmade or craft items, while of course a pot of bulbs or a Christmas Hellebore make lovely presents. I’m not so keen, though, on the ‘themed’ Christmas trees – one centre I went to last year was proudly displaying white trees with black decorations, while many have trees all in purple, gold or even brown. Our tree always has a mishmash of decorations, some that I inherited from my parents, some my husband and I bought for our very first Christmas together, some that my children have made, and some that have been purchased on shopping sprees over the years. Of course, I always have to give pride of place to the paper snowflake made by my son when he was at nursery school thirty-something years ago, and the red cardboard Father Christmas that he made at infants’ school. This Santa is very unusual as he has no beard. Or arms…. (My son once told me he had no arms because his hands were in his pockets.)

 



A large camel at Van Hages Garde Centre, Amwell



 Just like everyone else, we have our own family traditions – a sparkler in the Christmas pudding is a ‘must’,as is blowing the ceiling decorations to see who can make them spin the most. We always put up a paper owl (it is very tatty now, but we’ve had it almost forty years, so can’t complain) and however it is hung, it still insists on facing the wall so all we see is its back. And a local tradition is – or was – children in our area being told that Father Christmas keeps his reindeer in the woods near the Hastingwood roundabout! (Okay, they might be fallow deer, but to a small child they are magical.)

 

Happy Christmas everyone, and please don’t forget to put out some seed, nuts and a dish of water for our feathered friends, especially if it’s really cold. I’ll see you in the new year– I’m just off to decorate the bower with fairy lights!

To get you into the festive mood, you might like to venture to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-wOkBnx71Q

where some of my bears and toys are acting out their version of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas!

Two 1920s German bisque fairies in a decorated sleigh

 

 

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 50

 

 

 

Well, the desk is now looking respectable, and though it isn’t as green and pretty as the bower, there are shelves and notice boards for useful and favourite things.  I mentioned recently that I had rediscovered my Furby; I have now found Furby’s friend, Shelby. Shelby is noisier than Furby, sings and tells ‘Knock Knock’ jokes, so I will have to make sure his shell is clamped down or else I will never get any work done! By my feet, curled up on his red tartan rug, is my cat Tigger. Unfortunately, due to the fact that our garden is too small with a main road at the end, I can’t have a real cat – and anyway, our garden is a bird haven, so I can’t risk disrupting that. Therefore Tigger is the next best thing, a sleeping toy cat, perpetually curled on his red tartan blanket.

We do, however, have a lionhead rabbit, called Moppet, who is seven and a half years old. Lionheads seem to be particularly laid-back rabbits, very gentle and placid. Ours tends to relax by lying in weird un-rabbit-like positions, such as almost on his back with his legs in the air – which was quite worrying at first! His soft fluffy coat needs a lot of brushing, and tends to attract wisps of hay which he trails through the house. He is quite vocal, too – he grunts happily as he runs along the hall, or when sitting under the kitchen table.

 

I’ve had so many pets over the years – cats, tortoises, hamsters, mice, guineapigs, gerbils, terrapins, budgies, canaries, zebra finches, fish, lizards, stick insects, axolotls, clawed frogs and giant snails. Many of them I have bred. I have only ever had one dog, way back in the 1950s and 60s. His name was Rex, and he was a cross between a spaniel and some kind of terrier, but his fur grew so long he resembled a small Old English Sheepdog. Rex was very friendly, a great companion for a child, and he adored running through the woods near our home plunging his nose down rabbit holes or seeking out sticks. Rex thought big. He never brought home a small stick – oh no, he dragged home fallen branches! He almost did himself an injury once when he misjudged the size of the enormous branch he had in his mouth. It was wider than the width of the door and he ran towards it only to be brought jarringly to a halt as the branch caught in the ornamental trellis of the porch. It was a wonder that his teeth didn’t fall out.

 

Fire Bellied Toad

Asian Painted Frogs

 

White's Tree Frog

 I’ve always been drawn to small exotic creatures, especially amphibians, and managed to breed several species in the 1980s and 90s, writing my experiences in various fish and reptile-keeping magazines. Creatures such as fire-bellied toads with their beautiful orange tummies, and the even more beautiful Oriental fire- bellied toads with bright scarlet undersides, as well as the no-less colourful yellow-bellied toads – all these provided hundreds of tadpoles, and, in time, tiny froglets. Then there were fire-bellied salamanders who were meant to give birth to live young (rather than lay eggs) by immersing themselves in shallow water, although in the case of my female, shunning the shallow water and giving birth in damp moss so I had to quickly save the young before they dried up. I bred various types of newts, too, but my favourite frogs, so-called ‘Asian painted frogs’, never bred for me though they called for hours. And I never attempted breeding with my enormous green, grinning White’s tree frogs. These enjoyed being out of their tank, liking best of all, for some reason, to sit on top of a clock in the dining room! My favourite amphibian ‘pet’ was a big black axolotl (like a large newt larvae, with feathery gills) which I called Fred. I bought Fred when I was about ten or eleven, and he lived for around fifteen years.

 

MacLeays Spectre Stick Insect

Then there were Indian stick insects, which sprayed their thousands of eggs all over the floor of the tank and which soon hatched into minute replicas of their mothers (the females were so liberated they didn’t need a male to breed) and delicate pink winged stick insects which tended to hang from our ceiling. I also kept Macleays Spectre stick insects, which were enormous, about 6 inches long, and very spiny, resembling something from a science fiction film. They laid attractive marbled brown eggs, like small beads, which hatched into scuttling little nymphs and it wasn’t till they had moulted several times that they suddenly made the dramatic transition into a spiny monster.  Giant land snails were interesting; they are hermaphrodites (they have both male and female parts). They had a weird love play which entailed them simultaneously firing a ‘love dart’ at each other, and they would stay entwined, mating, for several hours before gliding off to bury their clutches of pearly eggs in the damp soil.

Alpine Newt

 Perhaps by now you’ll have guessed that during my desk clear out, I came across plenty of photos of my ‘exotic pets’, and so I was inspired to write about them in my blog. As I do so, Moppet the rabbit sits on my feet grunting softly, to remind me that he’s there and that he would like his ears stroked. And that is one of the drawbacks of toads, frogs, snails and newts – fascinating though they are, you can’t really pet them!

 

Moppet enjoying the snow

 

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER  49

 

 

I have been busy the last couple of weeks having a Grand Reorganisation. A few years ago I had a desk in our hall, built into a kind of cubby hole, but after a while I decided that I felt a bit cut off working down there when everyone else was having a good old gossip in the living room or dining room, so I moved my computer onto the dining room table – ‘Just for a few days.’ Those days became months, and then years, and it was only on very special occasions – such as Christmas – that I moved the computer and printer off the table. We eat our meals in the kitchen, which actually is more practical and also more cosy.

 

Dining room clutter



My desk, the cubby hole and surround became a dumping ground for ‘things’ – magazines, files, books, craft materials and boxes of all kinds of stuff, until it threatened to topple if anyone dared tiptoe past. Eventually I thought ‘enough is enough’, decided I wanted my desk back and consequently have been sorting through the chaos. In a way, it’s quite exciting – I have found notes and letters that I thought I had lost, and only yesterday unearthed a Furby and a small doll. The doll promptly shed its head, arms and legs in all directions, so that’s another job that needs doing – finding a new elastic band to hook her together again! But the heap is at last going down, and I have found heaps of paper for recycling. Tomorrow my daughter has volunteered to help me shift three plastic filing cabinets lurking in the far corner of the cubby hole – it will be interesting to see what is inside. Then, once more, I will be able to work at the comfort of my desk with its comfy swivel chair. And we will be able to use the dining room for its proper purpose!

 

I found a furby!

 


 

On the winners' podium at Silverstone!

 Just like an express train, Christmas is rushing towards us, creating a whirlwind of ‘Things To Do’. Get the turkey, bake the cake, decorate the house, put up the Christmas tree and buy the presents.  Present buying is always difficult, and sometimes I must admit I take the easy route and get tins of biscuits, or bath products, or novelties. Recently I have been buying ‘Experience’ days and have received some too. They are wonderful, and provide plenty of memories. Just a couple of weeks ago my husband and I were hurtling round the race track at Silverstone. Okay, it was in a mini bus, but even so……! We saw the racing car workshops, stood in the pits, visited the media hub where banks of television screens showed every bend and straight of the circuit, and even posed on the winners’ podium for a photo!

 

A workshop at Silverstone

 

 

 



With a Harris Hawk at the Raptor Centre, St Ives

Some of the Experience sites sell really exciting gifts. You can travel in a speedboat up the Thames, take a helicopter flight across London, ride in a hot air balloon, have a flying lesson, drive a tank or, um, even have a cream tea!  You can do other exciting things like driving a train or being a zoo keeper for the day, or just have a leisure experience involving being pampered in a spa.

 

In September, as I’ve mentioned in a revious blog, we were at a raptor centre where rescued hawks and owls are taken. There we helped with the weighing of the birds and ended up, with thick leather gauntlets for protection, flying owls and enormous hawks. The feeling as a barn owl glides on whisper-quite wings towards you and lands on your hand is amazing. It's exciting flying the big hawks. There are centres in many places of Britain where you can experience these special days.

 



Tiger milk feeding at the Isle of Wight Zoo

A couple of years ago I did a tiger milk feed at the Isle of Wight Zoo, at Sandown. This entailed me standing next to a wire mesh fence, with no other protection, squirting milk from a pump into a tiger’s mouth. Well, actually, five tigers in all. It was the most incredible experience to be so close to these magnificent, stunning creatures, to feel their hot breath and look into those beautiful, liquid eyes. Of course, before I did the feed I had to sign a form to say that I wouldn’t sue the zoo, should the tiger decided to take a bite of me through the mesh….  The two tigers shown here are Ayesha and Diamond. Diamond has a lovely sandy coloured coat as he carries a white gene.

 

Feeding the handsome Rajiv at the Isle of Wight Zoo



Feeding lemurs at Paradise Park Zoo Broxbourne

In the summer, my husband and I took part in a ‘Meet the Lemurs’ day at a different zoo, Paradise Park at Broxbourne. We entered the cage carrying bowls of fruit and were soon surrounded by elegant grey lemurs with ultra-long black and white striped tails. They sat on our shoulders, arms and heads as they reached for the fruit with their long fingers, and bickered with each other if they suspected one was taking more food than it should.  We have also done a monkey tour there, which covered other creatures too, and I was able to stroke an armadillo.  Yu can buy gift experiences from many attractions, or alternatively visit a site, such as ‘Buy a Gift’ on line.

 

Next year my husband will ride on the footplate on a steam engine in Devon, and then return in the observation Pullman coach. He is really looking forward to that experience; it was the gift I gave him for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. Much better than a pair of socks!

 

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 48

 

Casper

Yet another excursion has been made from the bower – last week, I spent a few days alongside my daughter in Hampshire.

Diamond

We had expected bad weather as our journey down on Sunday took place in continual heavy rain, but next morning we awoke in our motel at Stoney Cross to skies holding a hint of sunshine. By 9.15 am we were waiting at the ferry at Lymington, ready to cross to the Isle of Wight, because we wanted to visit – for the umpteenth time – the zoo at Sandown, which is run by Charlotte Corney, the girlfriend of naturalist Chris Packham, and which has been owned by her family for several decades. The zoo is particularly noted for its tigers, many of which are rescue or retired animals, though some have been there since they were cubs. Amongst them is Zena, the white tiger, Diamond  (whose parents carried a white gene, making his coat a superb pale gold colour) and Rajiv, who was once a ‘star’ in the entertainment world.  There are several others too, and on the day that we visited we were fortunate enough to see one of the handlers training the tigers, using a clicker and a pointer, to present their noses to the wire, or to sit or lie down – this all helps if they need veterinary treatment at any time.

Rajiv

 I have a soft spot for Rajiv. A few years ago I did a milk feed of the tigers at the zoo, and Rajiv loved it so much he was practically grinning! When I reached his enclosure on Monday, though, I couldn’t see him anywhere. So I called, ‘Rajiv, Rajiv’ – and suddenly this enormous, gorgeous tiger came lolloping towards the fence from behind a clump of bushes. And to my absolute joy, he began ‘chuffing’ at me. Chuffing is a bit like purring, tigers do it when they are happy and trying to communicate. So I chuffed back and, I think, we had a conversation, though I’m not sure what it was about! Amongst the other animals at the zoo is the magnificent white lion, Casper, often to be seen lying on an enormous rock in his enclosure, monarch of all he surveys. Recently, his sister, a white lioness called Frosty, came to live at the zoo, too.  Charlie Brown is a ‘normal’ sandy- coloured lion who enjoys lazing on top of a safari vehicle that is parked in his enclosure. On Monday he seemed to be getting bossed around by the beautiful lioness Nahla. Naturally, there are many other creatures at the zoo, including several breeds of lemurs, jaguars, wallabies, meerkats, porcupines, monkeys and a beautiful raccoon. There is also a collection of domestic animals and various reptiles. We caught the 5pm ferry back to the mainland – there was a stunning sunset on the way back, as well as a double rainbow.

Fly Agaric

The following day was so lovely that it was difficult to believe we were almost half-way through October. The dew was so heavy on the grass that it looked like frost, glittering in the sunlight that filtered down between the trees. It was slightly misty, too, adding an ethereal feel. Everywhere we looked, we could see fungi; there was one spectacular scarlet Fly Agaric the size of a tea plate. Other fungi were yellow, purple, pink, cream and brown – I’ve never seen so many.

 

 

Red Deer

We walked along the Forestry Commission land by the Canadian Memorial cross in the New Forest, admiring the autumn colours in the sunshine. The sky was blue, with no clouds at all. As we walked we kept stopping to photograph yellow trees, golden bracken, pretty fungi; there was so much to see. There were lots of chaffinches and long-tailed tits, too.  After walking for half an hour or so up the hill, we veered off to one of the smaller paths to look through the trees across some rough, bracken-strewn ground towards a wood in the distance. Suddenly, we realised that we were being watched!A magnificent red deer stag, together with several hinds, were in the bracken. We stood and watched them for around ten minutes, before the stag bellowed and the herd moved off – then, far away, we saw another stag and some hinds, and then all the deer melted away into the woods. Just magical!

Beautiful autumn colours

Fungi on fallen tree

When we finally reached the car, we drove to Bolderwood which is where Fallow deer are often seen. There is a viewing platform there. Sure enough a stag and a few hinds were there, though quite a long way away. We also went to Millyford bridge where there is a fallen tree that we first discovered last year, all covered in fungi and moss. Very atmospheric! Later we went to Burley, a pretty village in the New Forest and we were surprised to see a herd of spotted pigs crossing the road led by a farmer! We ended up at Mudeford Quay, just as the sun was setting. The sky was bright red and looked stunning seen through the masts of the sailing boats.

Sunset at Mudeford

Now, back home – though not in the bower today as it is definitely chilly out there – I have been busy writing, I’m pleased to say that two of my books have been listed on Amazon Kindle this week. The first book is volume three of my collection of short stories; ‘Twisty Ends and Tangly Tales 3’. The second is a full length romantic novel, ‘Tintagel Fantasy’ – and for three days only it is FREE to download onto your Kindle, computer or ipad.

Tintagel Fantasy

http://tinyurl.com/poa7h4d

 

Twisty Ends and Tangly Tales 3         

http://tinyurl.com/ner8xsw

 

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 47

 

Surprisingly, as we are now into October, there have still been days warm enough to sit in the bower. There have even been butterflies, dragonflies, newts and frogs around, to say nothing of a small wood mouse who has discovered that by climbing up a conifer it can leap onto the bird table.

Wood Mouse visitor to bird table

 We visited the Raptor Centre in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, for an experience day. It was quite a family affair – my daughter had treated my husband and I to the event (as a wedding anniversary present) and as there were two of us doing the experience, we were given two free tickets, so not only daughter came along, but son did too.  He made a swish arrival in his ‘Back To The Future’ De Lorean, which always seems to intrigue people. It’s a nice-looking car, even if you do have to sit low on the ground in a semi-reclining position!

 

With a Scops Owl ready to be weighed

With a Burrowing Owl

Practically all of the birds at the centre are foundlings, unwanted pets or have been rescued from unsuitable homes. We were each handed a leather gauntlet, because most of the birds have extremely sharp talons. First we took a pair of Scops owls for weighing. These are small owls that, in the wild, feed mainly on insects and caterpillars. They also take small mammals and frogs. It is important to regularly weigh the birds to check that they haven’t lost – or gained – too much weight, so that they are in optimum condition. We moved on to the Burrowing owls; these small owls seem to have extra-long legs. They are often active during the day, unlike many other owl species. I was handed one of these, while my husband was given a Little owl. We were told that owls weren’t wise like legend would have us believe; in fact the brain of the Little owl is around the size of a peanut. However, its Latin name, Athene, is the name of the Greek god of wisdom  (Athena/Athene) – and this owl does do one very clever thing. When Little owls catch mice, they only eat a tiny part, leaving the rest hidden in a tree near their roost. As the mouse decays, it attracts flies and maggots – a built-in food source for the owl, who prefers insects. So instead of regularly having to hunt, it only needs to hunt every week or so. It is either clever, or lazy! These two were weighed as well.

 

A beautiful Harris Hawk

Next we went to a large aviary which contained two huge Turkmenian eagle owls. My husband was given one of them to hold, but apparently both are rather naughty, one was prone to baiting (deliberately falling off the glove and fluttering upside down), the other tended to grip the glove very firmly. He carried the baiting owl (yes, it did bait!) to the weighing shed. Then we each held a Harris Hawk while the keeper explained about their habits. Most hawks are loners but these had learnt to hunt in flocks so that they could attack larger prey if they needed to. They could down a small deer or a fox, or similar-sized creature. The females of the raptors are invariably much larger than the males.

I so loved this young Tawny Owl!

We were told that we could have our photo taken with (practically) any of the birds at the Centre. My husband went for the biggest, most spectacular he could see (he would!) – it was a Bateleur snake eagle. I wanted to have something British, so settled on a young Tawny owl. I have always been fond of Tawnys, they seemed to feature in so many of my childhood books. Soon I was holding one, and, I might add, was most reluctant to hand it back! Now it was time to meet something larger, so we were given Lanner-Saker  (hybrid) falcons to hold. These were very large and beautiful birds with exquisite markings. A short break followed, which we spent photographing some of the dozens of hawks and owls that were on display. Then it was time to do some flying. Well, not us personally, but the birds. First we flew the Harris Hawks – there were five being flown at once, so it was very exciting. The birds seem to rush at you, yet land so perfectly onto the glove. They were gentle hawks, despite their huge beaks and talons. We watched many other birds being flown, including kestrels, which demonstrated their renowned hovering technique.

Hovering Kestrel

Flying a barn owl

By now the wind had increased a bit, but the barn owls were brought out, and we flew them between us, going from one to another as we enticed them with a chick’s foot (!). Even when an owl flew right overhead there wasn’t a sound from its wings. Most amazing of all was standing there just watching that beautiful, white heart-shaped face looming towards you – what a magnificent sight, although I doubt that a mouse would think it so wonderful!

I really enjoyed that visit to the Raptor Centre, and, just like many others, have always been very fond of owls. Itis a shame that we don’t get owls around the bower – very, very occasionally I have heard a Tawny owl in the distance. If only one would roost in the nearby oak tree, then that would be really special!

Some of our apple crop

 

 



It might look weird, but it works brilliantly!

Changing the subject completely, the apple crop has been amazing this year. We have one apple tree, which is at least 50 years old. It used to be at my parent's house, but after they had it for ten years or so, the decided they needed the patch of ground. So we carefully dug it up and transported it to our garden. It has thrived, but this has been the best year ever for the crop. I don't know the variety, it is an eating apple with a soft sweet flesh. As we have nowhere to store a quantity of apples, we decided to peel them, stew them and freeze them. We used our Heath Robinson-like apple-peeler, which works excellently, and soon had piles of apple rings ready to freeze. We can look forward to lots of apple pies and crumbles this winter!

Eagle Owl