Every Brilliant Thing

annieb64

Going out foraging and coming back with a bag full of sloes and a few wild apples. Looking forward to sloe gin and sloe and apple jelly. Love looking at a full store cupboard and it was a beautiful day for a walk

Rosa_Damascena

@maman - I believe yours is a hybrid of #5 and #6.

#12 - the joy that pets bring (infinite outlay and ongoing costs - vets bills aren't cheap!)
#13 - freshly laundered sheets (labour to strip, wash, hang, iron and re-make the bed).
# 14 - foraging (free plus a fun activity)

purpleivy

Rosa_Damascena said:

#10 - the seasonal fruits of summer, particularly when sold at reasonable prices
#11 - the generosity of others in sharing their harvest (free);

I've been blessed with free fruit this year. Next door has two different apple trees, MIL has two, we have a Katy eating apple (not brilliant for preservation, but mix in with the others) and there are Bramleys over hanging daughter's carpark.  Victoria plums from my Bro today, came home with 8kg.  

This was the year I bit the bullet and bought myself a steam canner. I now have about 30 half litre jars of stewed apple for use over the winter. I love it on yogurt or with custard.  

CapricornLass

Seeing tiny shoots emerging from the seeds I planted, which were collected from elsewhere in the garden.

Rosa_Damascena

@purpleivy - I love a good plum! Sadly I had to get rid of my President plum tree as it was diseased, not a single fruit was unaffected 

#15 - canning the fruits of summer (expensive outlay but a sunken cost, plus the ongoing costs of materials - but the more its used, the better value it delivers).
#16 - enjoying said preserves on yoghurt or custard (cost of preferred base dessert)
#17 - successful propagation from a mother plant (patience and nurture!)

Rosa_Damascena

annieb64 said:

Going out foraging and coming back with a bag full of sloes and a few wild apples. Looking forward to sloe gin and sloe and apple jelly. Love looking at a full store cupboard and it was a beautiful day for a walk

Apologies @annieb64, I initially missed the detail of your post. I totally agree with both, of course.

#18 - the sight of a full store cupboard (costs vary but it will involve spending money upfront to enjoy over the course of months)
#19 - a walk in the outdoors, beautiful day or not! (free but does require suitable footwear - which is a given the older and wiser we get....no muddy stilettos for us OSers!)

kimwp

Singing at the top of my voice to (free) YouTube or Spotify in the kitchen or bathroom (great acoustics and no adjoining walls with the neighbour)

Rosa_Damascena

#20 - free karaoke in the privacy of your own home (an additional use of tech purchased for non-karaoke reasons)
#21 - kitchen disco (ditto, but enhanced with a glass of your favourite tipple)

ShinyStarlight1

Watching closely the bees, bugs, and beetles that visit our garden.

When we bought our house, the garden was quite prim, ordered, and only catered for humans. As nature-lovers, that didn’t work for us so we changed it to a wildlife-friendly garden.

Many plants were free as we simply emptied our shoes of the seeds that had fallen in there during a walk. We also added plants deliberately but only those in the garden centre that were already attracting insects. By doing that throughout the year, we’ve now got a garden with something for pollinators most of the year.

All sorts of lovely insects I’d never seen before began to arrive, including the fat-thighed flower beetle, the ruby-tailed wasp, Plume moths etc (all very beautiful).

Now our pond contains tiny frogs that sit on the water lilies. In early spring they croak in tune with my beloved’s snoring.

twopenny

Naughty really. Met a man trying to photograph a special dragonfly.
I gave him the name of somewhere I spotted a beauty and he wasn't really interested.
Got home and found I had the photo of one in the spot I was trying to tell him.
Nah nah nah naa na 😈

Really I was just pleased I'd got the beautiful one 🙂