Tag: animals

Closer to Nature · Photos

Closer to Nature – A Photography Linky

Jayne8 Comments

After I put this up two Tuesdays ago, I had a really healthy response to the idea and had 14 or 15 people link up, which I was completely thrilled with, so as promised I thought I’d do it again. Welcome to Closer to Nature!

As with last time, there are no real hard and fast rules other than your photo must be something nature related, but that leaves a heck of a lot of scope for your imagination to go wild (pardon the pun…!). Also, don’t forget to visit the others and leave some comment love, we all like a bit of that 🙂

There’s a linky widget below and button code in the sidebar, I can’t wait to see your photos, here’s mine:

Wild flowers.

This was taken on the day that Husband and I decided to take our daughter to Hadleigh Country Park, home of Hadleigh Castle and now the site of the Olympic Mountain Biking track. While we were there, there were loads of fenced off areas and mysterious portacabins dotted around the place, so I’ll be curious to see what it’s been left like after the Olympics. It’s been a site for mountain bikers for many, many years, Husband and his friends have spent many a happy hour hurtling down those hills, but apparently once the Olympics has buggered off, people will have to pay to ride the trails, which I think is a bit of a cynical move by the council, to be honest. Hopefully the flowers will all still be there to enjoy for free…

Mum's the Word

Closer to Nature · Photos

Closer to Nature – A Photography Linky

Jayne19 Comments

On this week’s Silent Sunday entry, my friend commented and said “You guys are very Attenborough on a Sunday, love it!” and I realised that I really do love taking photos of nature, creatures weird and wonderful and generally anything that makes a good macro shot!

I decided that, in honour of the school holidays and the good weather we’re having, that I’d do a little linky where you can get ‘Closer to Nature’ and post your best nature photos. There are no rules other than that it must be a photo of something nature related, but it can be just a photo or have a story with it. I’ve made a little badge too, that you can add to your post, which is in the sidebar and will link back here to everyone’s posts.

Have fun, I can’t wait to see your photos! If enough people link up, I may do it again throughout the holidays.

Here’s mine – Husband took it using my Canon Ixus compact camera with the macro on:

Mum's the Word

Grab the code in the sidebar to link up

Review

Schleich Farm Life

Jayne5 Comments

When Sausage got to a certain age, she started to really get into animals and was keen to learn everything she could about them. My little sister is 8 1/2 years younger than me and I remembered that when she was about Sausage’s age, she too was mad about animals and collected miniature rubbery plastic models of them from a particular childrens toy shop. She’d go in there once a week and get a new species for her collection and it was the highlight of her week.

This shop is still around so I went to see if I could find the same toys, and the toys were still there but the range was hugely diminished and seemed poor quality.

A few weeks ago, I was asked if Sausage would be interested in receiving some toy animals from Schleich, a German company who specialise in animal toys and action figures, so of course we agreed.

We were sent a selection of farm animals including a couple of horses, a cow, some bunnies, a puppy, a sheepdog and a giraffe. I’m not sure how the last one works on a farm, but nevertheless we were happy to receive it! We also received a water trough.

One thing that struck us about every single one of these toys is that the attention to detail is superb. The animals look almost lifelike, the painting is beautifully done and the toys have a certain heavy quality to them that makes you think that these toys will last for many lifetimes. I certainly intend to save them and give them to Sausage’s children, in a couple of decades time!

One thing that I didn’t realise until I started looking for pictures to go with this post is just how  extensive the range of toys really is. There are no less than 34 breeds of horses available, with several models within each breed, and that’s not to mention the dozens of different dogs, humans, vehicles, buildings and hundreds of animals available. I’m impressed and overwhelmed by the amount of choice available and recommend these toys to just about anyone.

Go over to the Schleich site and have a butchers at wants on offer, I can guarantee you’ll be as impressed as I am. Sausage, of course, loves the toys and has set up a farm on her bedroom floor that no one is allowed to move! I think we can safely say that these toys are a hit with us.