Hi there

Went for a walk up on the forest early this morning, before the sun burns through. No cars, no planes, no humans, just lots of birds – bliss.

Oh. And some Exmoor ponies. They bring them onto the Ashdown Forest for vegetation control, because they help to keep the bracken and scrub down by grazing. This saves mechanical intervention.

Beautiful animals! The main point of this tale – or should I say the mane point of this tail – is to explain why they were standing head to rump – as you can see here. Dave explained… They use their tails to flick the flies away from their neighbour’s eyes and face. Hence the head to rump positioning. There were other pairs doing the same thing further along too…

Maybe you already knew that. But I certainly didn’t! Dave says that cows do the same, but not quite as much. If it gets a lot hotter in the garden later, Dave and I now have a plan!! 😂 😂 😂

Spot the ponies….

Carpets of heather, too. You can see here, that Crowborough – the highest point in East Sussex – still had its head it the clouds at 8am

The trees up there are magnificent, too. A perfect chestnut tree….

I have an App on my phone, called Picture This. It’s superb. I do pay about £20 a year for it, but to me it’s worth every penny. I just open the app, point the camera on my phone at the tree, flower, plant (indoors and outdoors, and it tells me 1. what it is, 2. if it’s healthy, 3. if it’s sick, 4. what I can do to help it. So if a houseplant is looking a bit poorly, or there‘s a plant in the garden that looks like it needs help, then this app is like having a plant doctor on tap. Especially with this erratic weather we‘re having.

But it’s also great out in the wild, and all over the world, for identifying trees and plants etc. Every day‘s a school day, eh?!

There was one tree in particular today, which we couldn’t help but notice. It was so loud!!

Dave went to investigate with our other favourite App, Merlin, the bird identifier….

Just look at how many birds were hiding in the one tree!! A whole village of different birds! Amazing.

So yeah. And all that before 9am!

Now it’s time to get ahead of a very busy week at Clarity. I am in design mode this weekend – and it’s coming along very nicely. A week away with Grace in Paris seems to have done the trick. Whilst I NEVER actually switch off from work entirely, the benefits of travelling and opening the mind to other things, other flavours, other worlds, are huge. New vibes, new stimulus, new colours, new energy.

We have a superb stampset which sums it up. Let me see if I can fine it… ah yes. Clean out a corner and others…STA-PA-11060-A5

Now I fancy making a little card with one of these sentiment stamps. And why not?! I spent a few hours yesterday, just doodling something and nothing in particular. Result? A whole new product range! Exciting times ahead for Clarity. We’re on a roll!

Love always,

Barb x x x