End of month, end of 'Spice of Life' blanket...

Cheating time, as time has run out on me. There's no way that I'll be able to do a real post, so I'll squeeze this in, for the end of this month. I finally finished my crochet project - the Spice of Life blanket. As this was a first for me, I'm quite proud of the result, although I wish I'd been more adventurous with the colours.
For every crochet session, the cats were firmly latched onto the wool, the growing blanket and the crochet hooks, but needless to say when I wanted to take a photo of them on the finished work... nobody home. So here it is anyway!

Beautiful blooms in Canterbury...

Each year, I go to Canterbury for the day, around mid-April; this year was no exception. During the last few visits, I've noticed this beautiful plant, whose blooming coincides with the my day-trip. Apparently it is a rather toxic plant, and can be an skin irritant, so I'm glad that I didn't actually stroke those feathery leaves, as I had been tempted to do.
Known as the 'Pasqueflower' (therefore linked to the Easter period), or the Latin name of Pulsatilla vulgaris, it is said to grow in areas that had once been drenched in Viking blood. Marauding Vikings did indeed lay siege to the city of Canterbury over a thousand years ago, burning down the cathedral, so there may be an element of historical truth in this, although in theory it was Vikings who were spilling blood, and not their own...

Snake Dance...

The Snake Head Fritillary has grown back, and this time I was able to see it emerging from the pot on the balcony; quite mysterious and exotic. The mesmerising music to the clip is from Manav Singh and the ceramic dish from Turkey...