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Diary – 2009 January to April
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All my diary pages going back to 2009
DRAWING & PAINTING:
This is my Diary from January to April 2009. I have included 2 entries from December 2008, when I started my Diary.
5 December 2008
I painted this because I wanted it to snow. You don't actually paint the
Snow Bear but you paint the sky all round, and then do the face and
bits. Someone might not have any snow, so the best thing to do is
paint a Snow Bear card and send it to them.
(I know Yellow Teddy did this painting because I saw him holding the brush and pencils at the time. Brown Teddy signed it as well because he helped - Webmistress)
I'm glad someone took a photo of this icicle at the end of the garden hose
last year. The second one was taken in February 09 on the garden
shed roof. The water drop didn't escape in time before the night
frost came.
If you go back and measure an icicle, it will probably be longer or shorter. I have hear stores of whopping big icicles on the gutter at the old house long ago, but here we have loft insulation so we are not heating up the roof snow any more! They even used to have ice inside the window sills. Arghhh!! And guess what, once they even had piles of snow inside the loft that the wind had blown in through a hole. I like snow only when it is outside.
25 December 2008
My best and favourite Christmas tree. The
lights keep changing so you can't really count them. I don't like to
give up so I'm calling the number Tree-illion! When I look at the
picture I can almost smell the hot mince pies. I always have vanilla
soya yogurt on my mince pies.
3 February 09
All the pegs on our washing line had long snowy tails. I was
wondering why the snow did not fall off, but I think it is because
of the air bubbles between the flakes, and the flakes all freezing
together. I am guessing it's 200 flakes per peg. I thought maybe I
could melt one and count the water drops but I don't want to lose
the tails!
I have been helping to sort out the snow pictures. I like the robin
in the snowy branches. He always sings when someone is in the
garden, and then you know that he is there. You just have to turn
round very very slowly and follow the twittering sounds. He got some
crumbs so he is all right.
There was a robin singing in the tree, even
though everything was covered in snow.
4 February 09
This is where the ducks swam through the snow
that fell on their pond in the park. Then it froze solid and left
these patterns. The ice is like a photograph of what they did,
so I am calling it an icy-graph.
7 February
Today it rained ice cubes on me. Yesterday's slushy snow on the trees froze in the night, and then today the wind blew the ice lumps out of the trees and down my neck. But I didn't let it stop me from enjoying my crunchy walk in the snow.
This robin was sitting under the bush and singing, watching us
moving around the garden, in case any insects were disturbed.
12 February
Day out at Rochester. Checking out the swings
before going on to the Castle. Rochester Castle has a big wall all
around it with grass in the middle.
This window in the surrounding wall has been
filled in to make an arrow slit. The castle looks so tall when you
are standing near to it. How did they get the stones to the top? It
all looks very draughty and I prefer my warm room at home! There
were some smooth stones near the car park which was ideal climbing
practice for someone my size.
Brown Teddy always reads instructions,
especially when visiting rivers. It was high tide and we saw three
swans on the river. This postbox in the High Street is much more fun
than the ones at home! It started snowing on the way home.
16 February
13 days after it fell, this snow is still here!
It was a big pile when someone cleared the path, but now it is about
10 cm wide by 4 cm tall in the middle. I really think it should melt
away now so that it can come back all fresh and white another time!
Bedtime update: all melted now. If the meltwater dries up, then falls as rain on a mountain, and gets down into the rocks, and gets bottled as mineral water, you may be drinking my garden snow one day!
17 February
Brown Teddy is always looking round for plant
treasures that are hiding somewhere, and here he has found a very
determined crocus that has won a battle with a rotten old dead leaf.
I am glad to say he took the leaf off.
19 February
Today we had the photo-shoot for my Colouring page. My painting table was surrounded by lights and tripods. I thought it would be difficult doing my painting in front of a camera, but it was really easy, because I enjoy it so much. Everybody sat on the bed waiting for their turn. I am going to bed early tonight so I can think up some new pictures.
24 February
Dino has been very good lately, tidying up and
helping to open envelopes with those claws of his. As a treat his
picture is adorning my desktop for a while. He has moved his beanbag
nearer the computer so he can lie and admire the screen.
1 March
We have made some islands of straw in a corner
of the pond so that the fish do not eat the frogspawn. The frogs are
so delighted they have been laying even more spawn and croaking all
the time. But when someone goes past they all go quiet and dip under
water. They soon come up again and I can get the camera in very
close.
5 March
Update on Frogs Corner: spawn all has dots,
which Brown Teddy and I shall be watching closely. There are no
plants for the tadpoles to hide in yet, so I am hoping they will
hide in the straw. Dino says the eggs are just like his marbles,
only more interesting!
6 March
We can't stay indoors when it's
sunny so we went to Gravesend. I like to watch everything from the
car window and if we pass something interesting, I make a note so
that I can find out more about it. Sometimes I just take a photo to
remind me. In Wilmington there was a long delay at the roadworks. I
like to see things repaired so I didn't mind.
Behind the shops at Gravesend is St George's
Church where we found a statue of Princess Pocahontas who lived 400
years ago. In the park near the river we saw two swans preening.
They are very big and they are quite used to people walking past.
As usual Brown Teddy read the notice
board so that we knew what we were looking at. We saw the ferry come
across from the other side. There are two ferries for when it is
busy.
The people on the jetty had been feeding the
swans. I don't think I would like to go out on that jetty very much,
it must be very slippery. The seagulls were finding lots of worms in
the mud. The pigeons hang around to see what the visitors are
eating.
8 March
I found just the thing for Dino at the boot
fair. Dino only counts to four and these giant beads are all in
fours - 4 yellows, 4 blues, 4 greens, 4 wooden, and the reds are in
4, 2, 2 and 2. He always plays with his toys on his beanbag so that
they don't roll off. He is so happy that he even forgot to ask when
dinner was – but he remembered eventually when he smelled the hot
toast being made.
13 March
We took a walk to the riverside
garden in St Mary Cray. I found a good climbing rock. Brown Teddy
got to the top before me. Unlike the one in Rochester, this rock has
been put there by the Parks Department gardeners.
There were not a lot of ducks today.
We will come back another time and see if there are more. I like to
watch the wave patterns as they swim along. I saw lots of daffodils
by the riverside – all miniature, so just the right size for me. We
did NOT go down the big grassy slope to the river because it is
steep and slippery, but there are good views from the bridges.
22 March
My tadpoles have all hatched and are in lots of
clumps in the corner of the pond where it is shallow and warm. I
have put some netting across to keep the fish away. In the close-up
picture you can see their breathing gills. There are some baskets of
irises in the other corner where they will be able to hide. They eat
the green algae that grows on all the surfaces. When they start
growing legs, it will be more difficult to get a photo because they
will be in all the hiding places. Frogs are gardeners' friends
because they eat flies and slugs.
We have made a new nestbox from a plank that
was left over from repairing the bathroom floor. I marked out the
wood and screwholes, and afterwards I checked all the screws were
tight. The hole is just the right size for bluetits and there are
five drainage holes in the base. We can unscrew the base to clean it
out at the end of the year. I hope the birds come and use it soon.
They will fill it right up with moss and the baby birds will be safe
and warm near the bottom. Dino thought they needed furniture so I
told him that they have moss instead. He says that their mossbag
will be as good as his beanbag!
P.S. Never put a perch on, because it helps the big birds who try to poke around.
24 March
Our new pond vacuum pump was delivered today.
It is for getting the sludge out of the bottom of the pond. It works
by pulling the handle up and down, and the mud and water come out of
the side piece and into the net. This will be a smelly job so I will
just watch and take photos.
25 March
This robin flew down to grab a worm just inches
from the foot of the person with the camera. There are two robins in
the garden so they must be nesting somewhere. I hope they are in the
robin box under the yew bush at the end of the garden. But I can't
go and check because that might frighten them away. I will have
watch carefully and see which bush they keep flying into.
4 April
Here is the pond pumper in action, and you can
see the muddy water coming out into a bottomless long plastic bag
that we attached. It was quite hard work but a good bit of mud was
removed and the plants got a good watering. I zoomed in the camera
from the far side of the pond and so I remained fresh as a daisy,
unlike the boss who had to spend quite a long time in the shower
afterwards.
7 April
The tadpoles are quite big now. They are eating
all the green stuff. You can see the water surface moving, as all
the tadpoles wriggle around. I think the fish may be getting a few,
because they keep sucking at the net that I have put round the
tadpole corner. That is why frogs lay so many eggs.
10 April
This lovely flower is a dandelion but it
spreads too much to be a good garden plant. Dandelion is French for
"Tooth of Lion" because of the leaves. I don't particularly want to
meet any lions! Brown Teddy said that when he wants to do a painting
of the sun, he copies a dandelion.
21 April
Tadpole update: growing bigger, and
fewer. I think a lot have swum into the other corners and underneath
plants. They are very difficult to see unless the sun is shining on
them.
23 April
Day out in Maidstone. Brown Teddy enjoys
whizzing down the motorway. After shopping in Maidstone, and sharing
our banana, we went round Mote Park.
Brown Teddy says all the big grassy fields
means you can run and run and run. I thought I could run round for
at least half an hour, but five minutes was enough for me. I climbed
a little way up this tree branch to get a better view. I wanted to
see how far we still had to go, so that we could decide how much to
walk, and how much to get carried on the backpack.
At the top end of the park we crossed a bridge.
The water was flowing over the little shallow bit, so everyone went
across on their heels. Brown Teddy and I had no problems because we
were on the backpack!
The muddy hole is a spring where water comes
out of the ground and flows into the lake. We saw some molehills in
the grass but the moles were probably asleep underground, missing
all the lovely sunshine and blue sky!
This tree trunk was old and broken, but there were still new branches coming out. I think it was a very big tree before the top broke off. It's a "Never Give Up" flowering cherry tree and I will especially look out for it next time I am in Mote Park.
You can use the space on your 404 page to help find missing people by embedding info from notfound.org See Yellow Teddy's 404 page
Where to report a lost or found teddy or
toy in
the UK:
https://www.facebook.com/LostboxTeddyBears
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