Motoring down to the museum

Kattegat's husband here again, let loose with another guest blog post. That's because BB and I were allowed, whilst on holiday in the Cotswolds, to venture into that boy's own domain, the motor museum.

From the outside it looked, well, modest is a good word. As in, maybe too modest to fit a whole car inside. But much like the TARDIS, it must be significantly bigger on the inside, because its seven rooms house a fantastic collection of vehicles and motoring memorabilia.

All the cars had 'drivers'

The rooms are themed according to age, with the earliest cars in the first room, so following the winding route through the building is like traveling forward in time. And although there were, necessarily, a limited number of cars, there were some crackers and every inch of available space was being utilised.

Ooh, I do like a nice Jag!

As well as cars, there were motorbikes and even some caravans, kitted out inside with appropriate period fittings and paraphernalia.

Inside one of the caravans

All in all, both BB and I were very impressed, and it was fun to go round with him comparing notes on the relative merits of the various cars.

'Mod corner', in the 60s and 70s room

I had one of these! Same colour, too.

Ford cars through the ages, both British and American, in miniature

If you find yourself in Bourton on the Water, check out the Cotswold Motoring Museum & Toy Collection - well worth a visit.

Down on the farm in the Cotswolds

Last week we had a few days away from Sussex and headed towards the very pretty Cotswolds. We stayed at a farm - a rather large farm!! That's it at the bottom of the hill on a rather frosty morning. We had lovely sunny weather for our stay, but, boy, it was cold.

The farm is run by the 3rd and 4th generation of farmers, and there was also a tiny 5th generation son about, so perhaps one day the farm will pass down to this little chap too.

There were five horses of various sizes. Zaf was a little worried, not being used to such huge creatures.

The main area of barns and outbuildings, with a view of the farmhouse at the rear.

The road prone to flooding was lined by trees festooned in mistletoe

Lots of evidence of recent flooding, many fields still under water

I've never seen so much mistletoe in one area!

Lots of pollarded crack willows

The neighbour farm. You don't see many farms this size in our part of Sussex, but there were plenty around Tirley

Walking Zaf along the narrow lanes lined with pollarded willows

Town Street Farm

BB really enjoyed jumping around the bales of hay in the huge barn! Think this was one of the highlights of our break.

The little piggies on the farm were very sociable

The farm produces beef and lamb, and although we didn't see any sheep on the farm there were plenty of cows

Think Dad enjoyed the bales too!

Sam's looking at the rows of cows munching on their lunch

Look! How sweet is she? Love the expression on her face!

Of parties and paperchains

I decided on a tartan theme for the Christmas party we held for a couple of very lovely people that help with Sam.

Paper chains are an easy decoration to make and can be themed for any occasion and topic. I searched for various tartan colours and patterns and got hubby to print these out before cutting into strips.

A bit of glue or (staple them together) and hey presto, a lovely garland to decorate your room. Here I added a few pom-poms in matching colours.

 

Below are some other examples of lovely chains. They could also be made out of other materials too, such as stitched fabric, knitted or crochet wool scraps.

stitchlily.blogspot.co.uk

 from belladia.typepad.com

from spottedcanary.com

We had a fun evening with much laughter, a rather loud rendition of the 12 days of Christmas (goodness knows what the neighbours thought!) and few vociferous rounds of  the game 'Animal, Vegetable or Mineral'!

Santa decorations from the Knickerbocker Glory dessert having a Xmas hug!

Wishing you a lovely Christmas!

xXx

The wildlife of Kefalonia

Today's post is a little about the marvelous wild - and not so wild - life of Kefalonia; being a tad nature crazy, we try not to miss an opportunity to photograph it! And there was plenty to shoot. Surprisingly though, a lot of it was rather fast moving in the heat!

Beautiful Scarce swallowtail butterfly. They fluttered around the whole Greek island. The British subspecies is confined to the fens of the Norfolk broads. This is partly due to the distribution of the sole larval foodplant, Milk-parsley. The continental subspecies is less fussy and will feed on many kinds of Umbellifer, such as Wild Carrot.

There were lots of lovely wild cats, very curious and very hungry. This was one of the downsides to the island, there is no spaying or castrating, so the numbers of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies grow in the spring and summer, when the tourists feed them, and then die of starvation and/or disease in the winter months. Shame really to think these lovely cats are doomed.

Ants are everywhere, in great numbers. Worldwide they are a very successful species. BB found a large dead centipede in the swimming pool and wanted to bring it home. However, as it was dripping wet, I laid it in the sun to dry and within minutes it was being carried off by these ants, using 'co-operative transport'. Love their little pointy bottoms! The Mediterranean Tiger centipede is the largest in Europe and can grow up to 150mm in length. They are nocturnal and venomous and can give a nasty bite.

Lots of damsel and dragonflies

And bee hives, seemingly everywhere. No sight of people keeping just one or two in their back garden, more that a few kept 250 plus hives. Interestingly, by late August most of the wildflowers had been burnt to a crisp by the Mediterranean heat, so what were the bees foraging on?

There weren't many wildflowers at this time of the year, but here's a honey bee on a thistle

The beaches of Kefalonia are nesting grounds for Loggerhead turtles. They spend most of their life in saltwater and estuarine habitats, with females briefly coming ashore to lay eggs. Along some of the local beaches these nests were cordoned off to prevent disturbance. Loggerheads are considered an endangered species and are protected by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

We saw several turtles in the sea when we were out swimming

The island pollinators are heavily dependent on the exotics planted in gardens and hotel grounds

Sleepy head!

This brown butterfly fell into the sea :o(

Little rustlings in the undergrowth turned out to be these small brown lizards.

Cats, cats and more cats!

This is Cheeky, who every day lived up to his name.

The ants provided much amusement; this was a 30 feet long trail (before heading off into the bushes) of Harvester ants.They carry amazingly large loads of seeds and such back to the nest.

Cicadas everywhere, the noise so characteristic of the Mediterranean!

This is the European hornet, Vespa crabro.

Caught up with a local beekeeper who kept 250 hives in his 'spare' time, he's also a mechanic! I bought some of his excellent Thyme honey.

BB feeds a bite of apple to our neighbour horse

Pretty livestock, being looked after by the traditional shepherd, who each evening herded the flock from one field to another

This is Spotty, he's very sweet natured.

This is Jasper, getting a little too comfy on our table!

Xylocopa violacea, the violet carpenter bee, is one of the largest bees in Europe. It is a solitary bee and makes its nests in dead wood. They are incredibly pretty bees, but a little intimidating when they fly close by.

The Oriental hornet, Vespa orientalis, is a hornet which looks very similar to the European hornet, and is quite common  in the Mediterranean area. It is a rather large specimen!

Lots of pretty bugs and beetles hiding in the foliage.

A group of 'our' kittens arrive to dine on left-overs!

So there you go, a sample of the amazing non-human life on a very special island!

Hope you are having a peachy week!