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contactwithcreation.com
Nancy 💚✍🏻
@contactwithcreation.com
2.4K followers 1.9K following 2.5K posts
Writing, creativity, nature, intentional living, food, gardening, adventures, wildlife, mindfulness, wellbeing, bujo, little joys.
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SE UK. Pics mine.
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Morning Bluesky! Got much on today? 😆 I'm on veg and alt-puddings duty for tomorrow (Mum's doing turkey, stuffing and gravy) and there are gifts still to wrap... Wishing you a joyful day! 🎄
An advent calendar (by Roger la Borde) in the form of an open-fronted card house, with furniture, children and Christmassy things added gradually. On the roof is Santa and a reindeer. The whole thing sits on a shelf with Christmas cards and houseplants around.
December 24, 2025 at 9:56 AM
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Preparing to brave the supermarket. Making it my mission to smile at as many people as possible! 😃🎄
Close view of the edge of my Christmas tree, with fairy lights, gold tinsel and baubles, and a misty grey garden through the back window beyond. You can sorta see my reflection in some of the baubles.
December 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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A collection of patterns from my local patch, for #LentoAdvent
An animal-made pattern: cabbage moth eggs closely packed around the veins of a leaf. Each one has fine ridges from top to bottom, a brown line around the middle and a brown spot on top. A sky-made pattern: a mackerel sky with closely packed small white clouds in a single layer, and blue sky showing between them. A plant-made pattern: the bare red stems of, ummm, Virginia creeper I think, mainly branching outward from a point top centre. They're covered in blue berries, and their shadows crisscross all over the fence behind them. A man-made pattern: bright white fairy lights in vertical lines adorn a gold-coloured metal grid, against a backdrop of dark buildings at night.
December 23, 2025 at 1:08 PM
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I'm rather fond of this early small white butterfly 😊
A small white butterfly, with pale yellow underwings, perches on strappy upright daffodil leaves. Little blue forget-me-nots brighten the lower left corner.
December 22, 2025 at 3:52 PM
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This year I did a little study of the visitors to the globe thistles in my garden, and counted 11 species of bee, 4 species of wasp, 3 species butterfly, 2 species moth, 11 species hoverfly, 8 species other flies, 4 species spiders, 3 bugs and 2 beetles - 48 total! 😄🪲🐝 #LentoAdvent #Invertebrates
A mauve-blue globe thistle, with two different bumblebees and a honeybee foraging, and another honeybee and a furrow bee coming in to land.
December 22, 2025 at 1:17 PM
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Some favourite photos from a magical late November walk near Ivinghoe a few years back - I dug them up while looking for something for #LentoAdvent 😊✨🍂
Hillside bathed in golden autumn sunset light - a grassy path stretches straight ahead and a few sheep graze. Bare branches frame the top of the pic. Misty fields and lines of trees in the distance. Another grassy hill bathed in golden autumn light; bronze highlights on the ground, wispy clouds near the misty horizon. Long shadows of me and Husband on the gold-bathed ground, with lots of red-brown autumnal trees ahead and a blue sky.
December 21, 2025 at 1:25 PM
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At a hilltop campsite in Shropshire in August we were blessed with huge and beautiful skies most evenings. Much better than watching the telly with dinner! 😄 #LentoAdvent
The sun sets on the horizon beside a silhouetted tree, casting gold rays upwards in front of a heavy grey cloud. Same horizon, different sunset. Glowy orange with mixed clouds above. Same horizon, clear sky with just a couple of tiny uplit clouds as the sun's glow dims at the treeline. Same horizon, orange glow, wispy clouds and blue sky above.
December 21, 2025 at 11:29 AM
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Cinnamon clove Christmas candle is GO 🎄☺️ #TinyJoys
A two-wicked candle burns in a fluted red glass jar.
December 20, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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Uh huh 🧐
Screenshot cropped from an Amazon app page, showing info about a Peppa Pig book. Centrally, a Product Safety notice reads "Warning: not suitable for children OVER 36 months. Warning: not suitable for children UNDER 36 months."
December 20, 2025 at 5:53 PM
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Maybe I didn't get out much this autumn, but I think the place that has given me most autumnal joy has been my garden! Even though it's been a bit of a mess lately, the hawthorn, the cotinus and the cornus can't be beat for colour 😄 #LentoAdvent
View up through a small hawthorn tree, with leaves from green through yellow, orange and red. Blue sky above. Wet cotinus leaves on paving. They're roundish and veined, and in a variety of dark reds, oranges and yellow. Pale yellow dogwood leaves hanging on a mass of red and orange stems. Roundish cotinus leaves on grass. They're bright yellow, with an orange blush here and there, and vivid coral veins.
December 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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Aaaaand some hairy poop fungus. #Fungi #FungiFriends 🌱

Every day's an education. 🧐
Fungus which looks like a thick tuft of black and grey fur, growing straight up out of a suspiciously grey patch of soil in a wooden raised bed. Many of the 'hairs' have tiny beads on the tips.
December 20, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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More of my misty morning 😍💚🌱
Spider webs sparkling with moisture in the garden, in sunshine filtered through mist. Verbena seed head with strands of spider web draped in all directions, gleaming with moisture in sunshine filtering through mist.
December 20, 2025 at 10:30 AM
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Misty garden 😍💚🌱
Garden in mist, the sun glimmering through the branches of a central tree. Two benches and a small round table in the foreground. A slate path runs up the left-hand side.
December 20, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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Morning, Bluesky. The sun is beginning to glow through the fog and my tummy is rumbling. Today is very much a rest day with some light Christmas prep and some writing, and I am feeling #grateful for grocery deliveries!
Foggy treeline and rooftops under a sky trying hard to clear. The sun is a faint white disc behind the bare branches of a central tree.
December 20, 2025 at 9:23 AM
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Incredible new work from my croton 😍💚❤️🪴 #HousePlants #TinyJoys
Long, round-tipped houseplant leaves, bright green with red edges and central veins, yellow and red blotches, and amid a large red patch, a small green rectangle with a red heart in the middle. Yep.
December 19, 2025 at 10:19 AM
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I spend SO much time stopping to look closer at small things! I couldn't possibly choose just one... 😄 Details in alt text. #LentoAdvent #TinyJoys #SmallWonders #LittleThings
A little animal skull on a concrete path. I think it's from a rabbit. A knopper gall cluster on my jeans. These acorns from a pedunculate oak are distorted and look like a bit like they've exploded, after a certain tiny wasp has laid its eggs in them. From Sussex Wildlife Trust's website: "The larvae pupate inside and spend the winter tucked up in their galls before emerging as adults the following spring. Interestingly, every single one of these emerging adults will be female. They form the first phase of the Gall Wasp’s two-generation life cycle, and the freshly-emerged spring females need to seek out a Turkey Oak to initiate phase two, by laying their eggs on its catkins. These develop inside a second type of gall, from which both male and female wasps will emerge." Fascinating! A common lizard sunbathing on a rock, with a backdrop of rushes and other wild plants. A brown mayfly, on a greenish t-shirt. Its wings and three long tail filaments are held proudly behind it and its striped eyes look a bit like a tiny helmet.
December 19, 2025 at 9:53 AM
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Finally! 😍🎄🕊️

After years of tiny Christmas trees, it's nice to have one that properly imposes on the room again 😆
My Christmas tree! Bright warm white lights, red and gold baubles, gold tinsel. On top, a gold star and a sparkly white dove! It's on a desk next to a curtain in a purple/blue Indian peacock pattern, and a record player and hifi. Card star garlands hang around the edge of the ceiling.
December 18, 2025 at 10:31 PM
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No recent rain pics! Here's a surprise winter 2022 rainstorm on the Long Mynd - which led us to a hasty wrong turn, an epic walk down into the wrong valley, & a risky jump over a very swollen stream to avoid going all the way back again as darkness approached 😱 #LentoAdvent #Shropshire #BePrepared!
A grassy hilltop with a grey path, big puddles, and brown patches of bracken. It's very dark, owing to the very heavy cloud above. In the distance, other hilltops bathe in hazy sunshine. Hilltop, looking across a sea of browned bracken. Above, a dense swathe of cloud passes over, with heavy rain falling in the centre of the pic and blue sky both sides. Wet hilltop, with surface water trickling along the grey path, reflecting the sky. Blue sky and broken rain clouds now above.
December 18, 2025 at 10:31 AM
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A brilliant night out with friends yesterday - tacos and tots followed by a Christmas carol singalong in an absolutely packed pub garden 😊🎄🍽️🎵
Part of a town centre at night, featuring a very old timber-framed building (now an Anthropologie store) and string lights over a narrow street beyond it to the right. Plate with tacos (beef shin and cheese), tater tots, pots of sauce, slice of lime. Around the table, more plates and pots of sauce, glass of water, pint of beer, sauce bottles. Pub garden at night, with at least a couple of hundred people standing and sitting around, mostly under bright white gazebos, drinking, chatting, and singing with songsheets in their hands. Beyond them are the two white gable ends of the historic pub building, a shadowy roofline with chimneys, and the lit-up tower of a cathedral. Street at night, with old timber framed buildings, all black and white, and string lights zigzagging between their tops. The wet road reflects the light.
December 18, 2025 at 9:36 AM
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Quite often, tent views are just of a hedge, or a lot of other tents, so I always make the most of it when we get a good one 😄 This was a very quiet midweek trip to Martham, Norfolk. #LentoAdvent
View from the triangular door of a bell tent, across a very green meadow with clover and daisies, to long grass and trees beyond, and a blue sky with white clouds. In the foreground, my sandalled feet are stretched out in front of me, and a red tartan rug lies on the grass just outside the tent.
December 17, 2025 at 9:04 AM
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Spring flowers! 😍 They're getting closer again every day... #LentoAdvent
Close on purple crocuses with orange cebtres. Delicate white 'Thalia' daffodils among greenery, with fencing behind. Close on flowering currant (Ribes) flowers - pink-edged with yellow centres. A mound of violets - low growing purple flowers with bright green leaves.
December 16, 2025 at 8:52 PM
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Gladly! But there may be a language barrier here - I think our dumplings are a bit like your biscuits...? Let me know! 😄 They traditionally use suet but I've been making them with olive oil for years. The herbs can be whatever you like - I use roughly 2 tsps thyme for 6 dumplings (for 2 people). 🍽️
For the dumplings: 175g (6oz) plain flour 1 tsp salt 1 rounded tsp baking powder 1 tbsp olive oil Small handful of chopped leaf parsley 3 tbsps snipped chives 100ml (3½fl oz) milk Meanwhile, make the dumplings. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil, herbs and milk and mix to form a soft dough. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead briefly. Then divide and shape into 12 dumplings. After 1 hour, turn up the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Season, then place the dumplings on the surface. Cover and cook for another 25-30 minutes, or until the dumplings have risen.
December 16, 2025 at 6:29 PM
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Beef stew with red wine, root veg, and olive oil thyme dumplings from yesterday 😋 Husband's favourite! 🍜🍽️
White plate with beef stew - beef chunks, carrots, mushrooms and swede in a brown sauce - and three shiny steamed dumplings on the side. A glass of wine nearby, and another plate and a pint across the table.
December 16, 2025 at 9:08 AM
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Morning, Bluesky. Nope, I did not decorate my Christmas tree yesterday. They just don't make Christmas lights like they used to, do they? Back to the shop I go...
Blue-grey sky with an intense pink glow coming from behind a black treeline and rooftops.
December 16, 2025 at 8:43 AM
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Here is maybe the nicest map among my photos this year. But we thought it was a damn shame it didn't include the excellent Blue Boar pub on Goddards Lane, where we had a very good lunch 😋😁 #LentoAdvent
Chipping Norton town map. In a full colour hand-drawn style.
December 15, 2025 at 11:10 PM