Sunday Sevens #45

Phew! These weeks come around quick! It’s time for another Sunday Sevens. Thanks to Natalie at Threads and bobbins for creating the series. 🙂

Upcoming Event:

Dippy on Tour – Birmingham 2018

On Tuesday I booked tickets to see Dippy the Diplodocus on tour at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery. The ticketed event is free but booking is essential. Dippy was the centrepiece to the entrance hall of London’s Natural History Museum since the 1970’s. Recently the skeleton has been replaced by the inspirational skeleton of Blue Whale, Hope. David and I are booked to visit Dippy this August. I particularly liked the comment on Birmingham Museum’s page regarding this event: Not all dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago. One group survived and evolved into the birds we know today. It made me happy that David and I have 10 healthy dinosaurs in our aviary! 🙂

Snow:

On Thursday we awoke to a pleasant surprise here in Liverpool. It had snowed during the night and continued throughout the morning, though the snow was gone by lunch-time. 😦 While it snowed I took a video of the visiting birds to our yarden. Recently, we have not seen as many small birds as usual. I hope the predation of cats is not deterring them. 😦

#walk1000miles:

Christine and Riley at the park

This week I’ve managed to walk 36 miles. Bringing my annual total to 362 miles. On Friday David and I took Riley on a good 45 minute walk around the local park. Even the rain didn’t deter the fun we had!

Beauty: 

This weekend, while David and I were shopping for Mother’s Day gifts, I spied rainbow roses on sale at a market stall. I had seen bouquets of these rainbow roses online but never in the shops. David kindly purchased one for me. I just can’t stop looking at it. It’s so pretty!

Terracotta Warriors – at World Museum Liverpool:

Terracotta Warriors – Liverpool

This Saturday, we had tickets to see the terracotta warriors event at Liverpool’s World Museum. I was very excited to see this much anticipated event. However on the day we managed to sleep in! (Ooh!), though not too much! We were lucky to have plenty of time to get to the museum! Our visit was for the 10am showing and thankfully all went smoothly and we got to the event in time.

Emperor’s Chariot

Horse an Cavalry Man

Terracotta Warriors

Horses

Stable-boy

We watched a short video introducing the history and culture of China before the doors opened and we were allowed to see the exhibition. I have to praise the organisation as though we did not dawdle, we were not rushed through the displays of artifacts dating back some 2000 years. There was a lot of information to take in. I can see myself visiting again. Have you visited the event? Even visited the actual site in the Shaanxi province? Do share your experiences.

Mother’s Day:

Riley at Crosby Beach

Bennie and toy

David and Bennie

In celebration of Mothering Sunday, David and I both visited our mums. However we also took in a visit to the family dogs as well. We walked Riley 1.5 miles on Crosby Beach and then visited Bennie, David’s doggie nephew. I had recently purchased two Kong Squeezz Zoo toys for Riley and Bennie, as the last toy we gave Bennie, he chewed to pieces! I hope this toy fares a bit better!

So, that was my week, how was yours?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

Wild October – Week Three

Virginia Creeper

This week I have been out and about a little bit more than in previous weeks. While going for a coffee with mum, doing some temporary note-taking work and meeting up with a friend for lunch, I kept one eye looking for signs of autumn.

Slowly but surely Liverpool is becoming enveloped by autumnal colours. I took a leisurely walk around the University of Liverpool campus and visited Abercromby Square. Though still looking verdant, the tree tops are slowly turning golden. I also came across a Barbara Hepworth sculpture and one by Hubert Dalwood.

square with two circles – b hepworth

three uprights Hubert Dalwood

Abercromby Square

Since I have been getting up before the sunrise this week, I have seen some lovely skies.

Sunrise

Honey bee on Salvia

Though the days (and especially the mornings) have that bitter chill to the air, there are still plenty of honey bees visiting the salvia.

On Thursday I met a friend in town. As I was standing waiting for the bus, a robin sat atop a gravestone in the nearby cemetery and sang to me sweetly. I just wish I had taken a photo of him, his presence filled my heart with gladness.

My friend and I took in a visit of the World Museum, which boasts a planetarium among its many assets. This got me thinking of the northern hemisphere’s night sky in autumn.

http://oneminuteastronomer.com

On a clear night looking north most people can identify the Plough, (Ursa Major), which points to the pole star, Polaris.

Looking south, the square of Pegasus is deemed the main autumn constellation. However, for me, the most autumn constellation is Orion to the east.

October is also the time of year for the Orionids, the remnants of Halley’s Comet. This meteor shower ranges between 16th – 26th of the month, peaking on the 21st.

And finally, I have found some informative resources on the Forestry Commission website. Follow the link for activity packs, mindfulness poems and an interactive map, showing the changing colours of various forests in the UK.

I’ll end this week with a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Autumn Song. Have you been following the changing seasons? What, if anything do you like about this time of year?

Christine x