Poppy Cottage Garden

Afternoon All,

Hope everyone is well - the nice sunny weather seems to have deserted us this weekend........so much for Summer - plus now we've had the longest day it's all down hill to December!

I always think that when the Proms start on the T.V. - well that's it we're truly into Summer now and the last night of the Proms means we're in to Autumn.

Life's still pretty busy her but 'good' busy - My Hubby and Son have spent some time up at the allotment this weekend playing with the rotavator and making a big difference to our heavy clay soil.

When we were down in Cornwall we went to a garden called Poppy Cottage Garden - it was only £3.50 each to get in which was reduced because I'd got the 2-for-1 card from the Gardener's World Magazine

It was a beautiful garden - it was sectioned off into 'garden rooms ' and each time you turned a corner there was yet another beautiful small garden  - the lady who owned it sounded like she came from Lancashire or Yorkshire (I'm not the best with accents) but I couldn't get to speak to her - there were 2 rather elderly butch ladies who were monopolising her time - but she really sounded as if she knew her stuff when it came to this garden

We spent a lovely peaceful hour or so just wandering round and it was just that 'peaceful'

She only opens on some afternoons each week - we brought some plants back with us -  and they were reasonably priced too so if you're down there on holiday this is one garden where you get value for money

And finally - Hubby said that he wouldn't mind a water feature like this one in the garden (can't imagine why!!!)

Speak again soon

Byeeee xxx

A little bit of this and that!

Afternoon All,

Oooops went missing a while there didn't I? - life just seems to have taken over and I've had little time to spend in blog land - not for bad reasons - all good - so until I have a little more time here's a quick update

Garden and Allotment
We have worked so hard on the garden and you can really tell - the decking has all been re-stained, and all the garden furniture painted white, cushions, seating pads and bunting has all been made very cheaply from a pair of CS curtains. I would love to have a white painted garden rocking chair sitting under the overhang of the summer house but at £100+ that's not going to materialise any time soon - so I have brought a rocker off ebay for £12 and when time and the weather allows I will paint it white - but all in all the garden is looking good now. The allotment is still work in progress but that will truly come into it's own when Hubby retires next year.

 

The view from the top deck -You can see Flossie's bench at the top of the garden and the new log store on the right (presently work in progress)

 

Pimms o'clock! - You can just see my new rocking chair waiting for it's coat of paint



Work
As I went off work poorly in February the Aye Aye Captain (he liked to say 'I' an awful lot!)  took his leave and redundancy money and scuppered off into the great unknown. What a difference it has made at work! yes I am working harder but without having to worry about someone stabbing me in the back, if I gave him an instruction that he didn't want to do. The atmosphere is so changed you wouldn't believe.

In 2005 I was managing this team and going through a massive review of the service - I went for 2 days to a service conference and came back with the ideas (borrowed form another provider) for the service we operate now. Lots of work followed and the new service came into being in 2006. In the middle of May, this year we went back to the same conference and this time delivered a workshop - it showed that in our field we are now one of the leaders and I was so proud - only problem is since I've come back of my hols - I've been given another new large project to undertake which will certainly see us at the top of our game.....but it means even more work.

Holidays
We went away to Cornwall and had a brilliant week, the weather was good if a little chilly at times. the chalet was absolutely beautiful and the view from there was to die for. But Cornwall seems to have lost a little of it's magic,  especially St Ives, it appeared that the shop owners in St Ives think that only young people have disposable income - it was all either food shops or these modern designer type shops selling clothes for the youngsters - it appeared that they don't think that the over 50's have disposable income - Don't get me wrong I don't have that much but when I'm holiday I do like to wonder round the shops and bring a few nice items back to remind me of my holidays - the only really decent shop there was Cath Kidston (yes - new handbag, purse and matching key fob later, which I'd saved hard for, for the last 3 months so a treat for me!).

I went into one shop and they wanted £14.00 for a wind chime which must have only cost a pound at the most to put together - I may have a few pennies to spend but I don't have idiot written across my forehead.

Plus St Ives seemed to be filled with people walking with their Cocker Spaniels and it made us miss our Flossie - we took her to St Ives so many times and she loved the Tate Gallery beach - we both shed a tear, when we walked round the church on hill and down onto that beach. I'd still give anything to have her back with us.

We spent an enjoyable hour or so sitting outside the Sloop Inn watching people pass by and spent 2 afternoons sitting outside the The Goldophin Inn at Marazion with a couple of pints, watching the sea come in over the causeway. We also visited a beautiful garden called Poppy Cottage Garden. (photo's to follow)

 

The view from our chalet

Days out
We've had a few days out, one up to Montgomery and Welshpool, before our holidays. We went to BBC Gardens World on Friday for the last time - it's something that we won't be able to afford come next year - we worked it out with the price of the tickets, parking, and the toll road, it had cost us £65.00 before we set foot in there.

The show has had it's day - the gardens were really poor - you could have got a double decker bus round the plant marquee, there was so much space between the exhibitors. We took the flask and sandwiches with us but stopped for a cup of tea each..........£4.40 later......yes £2.20 for a cup of tea.... can you believe it!

We did spend a fair bit whilst we were there but the majority of it went on a rotavator for the allotment - the ground is so heavy up there and it will pay us back in time - It will certainly save Hubby's back, that's for sure! 

Yesterday we spent the day in Ludlow - it's such  a lovely market town, we had a mooch round the shops and the market and had another pint sitting in a courtyard just off the market square

Crafts
I'm still doing loads of knitting each night - I've done a cardigan and hoody jacket for the new arrival which is due in early August. I have also started on the Xmas knitting for my Grand daughters too.

We spent a day in Mullian whilst we were in Cornwall and went to the Chocolate Factory Craft Farm - there is a lovely lady there in a little cabin selling wool and I brought quite a bit from her as her prices were reasonable and the wool is beautiful and soft, she also sells beautiful buttons and all reasonably priced  - I'm saving up for when we go back down to Cornwall in October so that I can stock up on some more wool from this lovely lady - So if you're down there - it's well worth a visit as the craft farm was nice to walk round too.

Well that's a quick catch up - time to get tea on, speak again soon

Byeee xxxx

Nothing but Cushions and Cupcakes!

Afternoon All,

Hope you are all fit and well - as weekends go it's not been so bad for the weather has it? Last weekend was my Grand Daughters 7th birthday (where have those years gone to?) and as pennies are tight now her party was arranged on a budget. She wanted a Hawaiian themed party with grass skirts and hula necklaces along with blow up palm trees   - all which were purchased thanks to ebay and a local warehouse.

As I had the Kenwood mixer last year, I said to my daughter that I thought that we could make the cupcakes far cheaper than buying them - so last Saturday saw me baking the cupcakes and then we transported them to my daughters, where my hubby piped them and my daughter decorated them - a joint family effort! (I couldn't pipe them due to the arthritis in my fingers but it appears that my hubby has a talent that he hadn't realised he'd got all these years!) They cost £6.00 to make 36  opposed to the price of a £1.00 per cupcake that my Daughter had been quoted!

The party was a great success with limbo dancing, a disco provided by their i.pod with disco lights and lots of party games

Not a bad job for amateurs!

 

 

This weekend has seen us out in the garden - re staining the decks has started - the top deck is done and we've started down by the summer house and I have made a start on painting the garden furniture - there was one bench that was a dull brown and I have spent most of this weekend repainting it white.

 

 

Plus last year I picked up a pair of curtains from the local charity shop which cost me £4.00 they were very 1980's but were really large - I've wondered what to do with them, so I unpicked one of them a couple of weeks ago - the lining is going to be used on a pair of curtains for the summer house along with the heading tape. At Wyvale's garden centre, a bench pad cost £36.00 so I picked up a sheet of foam, from Dunhelms - that cost me £12.00  and I have used one of the curtains to make a cover for it to sit on the bench in the summer - much more comfortable on the old derriere!

 



This was it before I sewed up the ends - very retro chic don't you think?

I started painting the old brown bench white yesterday and when it started to rain I went inside and used up the rest of the fabric from the one curtain and some old cushion inners  to make  3 cushion's to sit on the bench

I didn't have chance to go down the summer house and fetch the seat pad before the rain started again but for £14.00 all in, I reckon they will look very shabby chic retro cool on my white bench don't you? and I still have another curtain left to cut up and do something with - I shall probably do the same again as we have another 2 benches in the garden which are going to be painted.

I'm also going to order some oil cloth off ebay and make my own bunting to put up in the garden.

Oh well, tea's nearly ready ........ hope you all have a good week

Byeee xxx

What's your era?........

Hello All,

Hope you are all fit and well - the T.V. just lately has been dire and we have taken to putting the radio on from about 8pm onwards most nights and the 2 radio stations that we listen to are Heart and Smooth radio

Carlos on Smooth plays all the old sounds and Heart on a Friday and Saturday play dance and disco classics.

I was born in the mid 50's and I must have been listening to the radio from a young age because when they play the 50's records in 'Call the Midwife' I know most of them........songs like Que Sera Sera by Doris Day (I used to love the Doris Day and Rock Hudson films) Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como and You are my Special Angel by Bobby Helms were played in the series and I knew the words and sung along.

Then there were the 60's - I liked the Beatles, the Who and the Stones when I was young, but wasn't mad about their records, so it's strange that it's now that I really enjoy their music - then later in the 60's I used to listen to radio 1, especially every Sunday night for Alan Freeman to play the charts to hear who was number 1, ( the show before was Sing Something Simple, with the Cliff Adam Singers and it always seemed to go on forever, because at that age, it seemed so boring).

Then as soon  as the charts were finished it was straight over to listen to Radio Luxembourg, in those days I was into the Monkees, the Mama's and Papa's , any Tamla Motown sounds and Reggae was starting to get really popular by then. Sounds like the  Onion Song by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell, the Supremes, the Four Tops, were all my favourites then.

The early 70's were good, the Stylistics, and 3 Degrees, Mud, early Elton John and Barry White the late 70's and early 80's brought UB40, who I've seen (and sung along with)  probably half a dozen times at Birmingham NEC - they are a brilliant 'live' band - Fleetwood Mac is another favourite from that time frame.

Then the 90's another of my favourite time for music, the prat (first husband) had departed so I used to go out most weekends to pubs and clubs (the children were teenagers by then and out doing their own thing) and I loved the 90's dance sounds like  Ricky Martin, the Spice Girls, Will Smith, Culture Beat, Snap, Micheal Jackson, Mark Morrison, Madonna and Boyzone. Anything with a beat that I could get up and bop to was fine by me and that's why I love to listen to the dance and disco classics on a Friday and Saturday night on Heart.

Back then in the 90's I used to go with a friend to learn tap dancing on Wednesday night, salsa on a Thursday and line dancing on Friday night - then out to a disco on a Saturday - I was working full time and in my 40's by then so it was no wonder that I was shattered by Sunday - tap was the hardest to learn it used to kill me, it was so energetic and such a good work out  - but we'd go from dancing to sounds from the 40's on a Wednesday to Ricky Martin on a Thursday! I used to love the music for line dancing because it was that little bit more slower than the other 2 nights so I would have enough breathe left in me to sing along to the country records, as I tried to follow the line in front of me!

Since the 90's I've quite lost it with what's in the charts now - half the time you can't hear what the words are - I like Adele but really give me the old sounds to listen to any day. Something I know the words to and can sing along to. Just like Carlos plays on his show each night.

So my favourite era.............well the 60's just comes a very close second to the 90's - so what's yours?

There won't be any dance and disco classics tonight - the American Masters (golf) is on all night and that's one sport that I will happily sit and watch

Have a good week

Byeee

How much wool, do you have?..........

Afternoon All,

Hasn't it been so nice to see the sun this weekend - still cold though, but at least it's been nice enough to dry the washing outside.

I went back to work this week and if I'm honest it was nice to be back - the lads are a good bunch on the whole, who you can have a laugh and a joke with and who you know will get the job done- there's just a couple who can be 'challenging' but then it wouldn't do if we were all the same.

So back into the swing - it did seem strange though cause when I was first taken poorly, I was doing the commute in the dark but now it's light and it's so nice to not have to go backwards and forwards in the dark, so even if it is still cold at least we don't have the dark mornings and early evenings.

Plus it looks like we're going to be having some volunteers coming into the service - to help them get back into 'work' and the encouragement for me is that I can do a recognised qualification  in 'mentoring'- something that I really would like to do - the majority of the volunteers were young woman who have been stay at home mums and who want to get out and earn their own money, never having had a job before in the past - so if they're up for having a go - then I'm up for helping them too.

Just to show that I didn't sit doing nothing whilst I was off - I finished off an UFO - my first double sized patchwork quilt (never again- it was so heavy to work with) - it's not brilliant but it does add some weight to the bed and will keep us warm. The first night I put it on the bed my Hubby said 'Good God - I need a can opener to turn over! (it's so heavy) I also made the sham pillow cases to match

Sorry but I'm no photographer! I'm no patchwork quilt maker neither!

 

I spent yesterday morning sorting out all the wool that I have stashed away - I didn't realise that I had so much. As I have two Granddaughters there's a lot of it, that's pink, that's been brought over the years and put away. I do have another Grandchild on the way, so I've been buying white, lemon and green wool recently - but I do seem to have acquired quite a lot and if this new Grandchild is a boy then I just know that the compulsion to knit with some blue wool for a change will take over so there could be more added to that pile..........er think I might need a bigger storage box! 

 Then I started to sort out all the fabrics, that I have that I want to use to make some 'shabby chic' cushion covers and again I filled a big storage box and this isn't all the fabric that I have - there's a cupboard full in the summer house

 

But eventually it was all sorted and I now know where everything is and I don't have to go searching when I need to find something.

Then I set to and put all the crocheting UFO's along with the different hooks into one bag and the 2 knitting UFO's in another bag......so all tidy and sorted but I do think I need to use up some of the wool and fabric I have before purchasing any more.

Just on a topical note for the moment - old backstabbing  big conk Milliband has been going on about how unfair the 'bedroom' tax is on benefit claimants,well on the other side of the coin, someone I know, turns into work everyday without fail, with a smile on his face...... his job?........... he drives a lorry and removes fly tipping, he mauls wet dirty filthy mattresses  and heavy dirty 3 piece suites on to his lorry and then takes them to the tip - then he'll go and clean a bin room out, moving bags of maggot infested rubbish that rats have run over, again putting them into his lorry before going to the tip - a really dirty job - but when that lad gets home, he has to see his teenage daughters, sharing a small bedroom - how can it be 'fair' for someone like him, to work as hard as he does and then not have enough bedrooms for his family and a benefit claimant (regardless of why they claim benefit)  have a spare bedroom and not have to pay for that luxury.

Then again, on another side of the coin (this coins got lots of sides hasn't it?) why should any British benefit claimant have to give up their homes because they can't afford a spare bedroom for an immigrant family, who have never paid into the system, to have that home.

Old 'lets jump on the band wagon' Clegg came up with his first and only good idea last week - lets charge immigrants to come into this country. At last! yes lets charge the idle buggers to come here - I think it should be around the £500,000 mark plus get them to sign an agreement that they won't claim for benefits, housing, or the NHS for a minimum of 20 years. That would stop the flow here overnight!  Just goes to prove that politicians can have good ideas sometimes - pity that it's only once every 20 years.

Oh well teas nearly cooked lets hope this weather continues and it just gets warmer and warmer - Cornwall 5 weeks on Saturday - not that I'm counting

Have a good week, all

Byeee

Some one very special..........

Afternoon All,

Well I'm still here at home after 2 months off work but hoping  going to go back on 2nd April - I've logged on from home most days to keep up with the work and my emails and have been into the office a couple of times this week - so I'm hoping that it won't be too much of a shock to the system when I do start back.

My Son and Daughter in Law are expecting their first  baby in August, so I've kept busy doing some crocheting blankets and now I've started some knitting for 'Horatio' as my son calls his wife's little bump.

We've waited a long time for this little one to come along and he /she is a very special baby - I was extremely fortunate to be able to go with my Daughter in Law J to her 20 week scan - it's just marvellous what you can see on those scans - it looked like the little chappie was raising his hand to us at one point, in a wave and then it looked as if he was about to suck his thumb. Just brilliant!

 

 

 

I said in one of my last posts that I'd had a new car - it's a Toyota Urban Cruiser - it's brilliant because you sit quite high in it and yet it's not a gas guzzling 4 x 4 - far from it - it's brilliant on the petrol - I'm actually saving money now on my petrol plus it makes it much easier on my knees getting in and out of it.

 

 

Not the best of photo's I'm afraid plus it does need a clean - but I feel so much more safer as I come through J10 of the M6. usually listening to this

Tusk from Fleetwood Mac - it's got a brilliant sound system too - plus I can use my mobile phone  (hands free - all done through voice activation!)  through the sound system - that will be so handy next year when my Hubby retires - I'll be able to phone ahead as I'm getting of the motorway to say "Put the kettle on Dear"

Have a good if snowy  weekend everyone

Byeeee

 

 



Old age = second childhood!

Hasn't it been so nice to see the sun shinning for the last couple of days - I have even managed to put washing out in the garden to dry.

One of the down sides of having an issue with your my immune system is that  I have suffered a number of lesions on my legs, which were nasty and weeping but have now dried up and scabbed over - it's just like when you was a child and had fell over in the playground and you ended up with a grazed knee   - that's just what they look like now!

They keep itching so they are obviously getting better but each time I do scratch - I can hear my Mom saying (like she used to when I was little)

"Your leg will drop off if you pick at that scab"

I used to think no it won't........will it?

I think I said the same thing to my own 3 children too!

Anyway to make me feel a little better I've been had had my roots done and my hair cut and then I tootled off to Boots and treated myself to some new No 7 make-up - something I haven't done in a long, long time. Then I went onto M & S and brought myself 2 new tops ready for our holidays (11 weeks on Saturday - not that I'm counting!)

I had a Kindle Fire last weekend with some of my Christmas money and have got to say how pleased I am with it - it downloads a book so fast it's brilliant.

But why oh why do I keep calling it my Pringle and not Kindle?!

I really must be hitting old age and my second childhood - can't get my words out right!!

I then went up to the hospital to go in for yet another blood test (this will be my 5th in less than a couple of weeks) and couldn't get onto the car park, there were so many cars on there  - so I gave up and will go again tomorrow.

Well - hope that you got to see some of the sunshine today - Roll on Spring

Byee