Tuesday 13 April 2010

Through my Kitchen Window


We don't have a dishwasher - our previous one "died" just before we moved here 6 years ago and we've not yet replaced it. So I spend a lot of time standing at the sink looking out of this window while I do the washing-up. One of the first things we did in the garden was to make a flowerbed outside the window so I would have something interesting to look at, and I really appreciate it every day. So far this year I've enjoyed hazel catkins, witch-hazel, cornus, snowdrops, daphne flowers and now hellebores and aubretia.
And I get to spot quite a few animals and birds while I wash up - pheasants, partridges, moorhens, blackbirds, robins, dunnocks, great tits and blue-tits, various finches and once a woodpecker. I watch rabbits and hares - once a young hare even took up residence in the flowerbed for a while, and occasionally Mr ( or is it Mrs?) Fox - a magnificent creature, but not a welcome sight when you're a henkeeper...
This morning it was a tortoiseshell butterfly and some fat bumblebees working over the Aubretia flowers.
Maybe one day we'll get a dishwasher: but if we do I think I will miss my washing-up sessions too much...

7 comments:

  1. A little quiet time in the day to stand and think and take in your surroundings can be a very good thing indeed. What a lovely flower bed!

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  2. Aren't you lucky you get to see it all don't you? It's a busy time of year out in the garden. I love watching the birds and up until this year we had a family of foxes living next door it was lovely to see the baby foxes jumping around in the grass.

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  3. Well I normally hate washing up Gillian but somehow you've made it so appealing!

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  4. I'd love to see all those animals! At least you have things to take your mind off washing the dishes! I agree with Ally too, you've made washing up sound so wonderful! LOL

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  5. What a lovely post :) ... ok, I'm not getting rid of my dishwasher but you did make me think maybe I'll wash up by hand sometimes and check out what's happening in the garden :)

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  6. Such a lovely post, Gillian. With heart and hands—it perfectly express the title of your blog—hands and heart working together, whether in the act of creation of keeping is always a good thing. Thank you for this.

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  7. oops...creation or keeping I meant, but you probably got that ;)

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