beautiful day/beautiful evening

sundown

At last - what a gorgeous day it has been today and such a lovely evening that i just nipped out with my camera and took these pics

Another

my camera is only a little digital one and unfortunately doesn't do the scene justice, but you get the picture, so to speak!

had good pickings from the garden today too

was well pleased with this little lot!!!

Molly decided today was too hot to play all day, so had a little nap with her head resting on the foot part of the chair

all in all a good day - just as well really as i understand the weather for tomorrow is heavy rain - nothing new there then!!

xx

dentists!!!

what is it about dentists that brings me out in a cold sweat and fills me with dread - i am supposed to be a grown woman for goodness sake! however i have put up with what started as a slight 'niggle' last saturday, then turned into a steady throbbing and finally yesterday painful throbbing! instead of making an appointment straightaway, although had to wait til tuesday cos of bank holiday, i was trying to convince myself that it would all settle down eventually!

well it has not settled down and so i have an appointment for tomorrow. i know when i wake up there will be the familiar stomach lurch and gradual panic! i don't know why - my dentist is a lovely kind woman, who takes her time with me and tells me what she is doing every step of the way - i should think when she sees my name on her appointment list she must think 'oh here comes the gibbering idiot' cos thats what i turn into!

thank god my children can't see me!

i think actually i would rather have a baby than go to the dentist! really i would!

gonna go and have a soak in the bath tub in some relaxing bubble bath - hopefully to send me to sleep - although i rather think a gin and tonic might be better - or any alcohol for that matter!

xx

lots of bits and pieces!

the hen house!!!!!!

finally! after waiting four weeks the hen house, flat packed of course, arrived - so here it is duly assembled and painted by me (the painted part that is!) - i did ask the guy at B&Q if they did pink paint - he just gave me 'a look' and said 'no madam we don't get asked for pink very often' - so i had to settled for , pardon the pun , duck egg blue!

and, wait for it.... here are the girls

they sort of have names, but its a bit soon to tell the difference apart from one who is much bigger than the others - and i am assuming its her, lays huge eggs- for some reason known only to my son, she is called skywalker! after princess leya (not sure i've spelt that right!).

egg production started straight away next morning - we had two, since then its been a max of 4 per day but mostly 3 which is fine for us, with some for mum and dad and friends later!

its now time for the next festival - Reading! seems to have come round real quick - so off i went yesterday talking emily and two of her friends to Reading - was fine until we got near the site, blooming signs everywhere! anyway we found the drop off point and off they went :-

the first pic was taken at home, and the second at drop off point before they hauled all their luggage out! rather them than me! I think Gina's son has gone too (sorry Gina, i dont know how to do the highlighting thing yet - perhaps you can help?!). as they are coming back on bank holiday monday they are catching the train as the thought of trying to go up and back on that day was horrendous!

small point - why is it that i never seem to come back the way i went! went all round Reading, it seemed and finally got back on the road i wanted! ah well, i haven't given in to having a 'sat nav' yet, but it might be time soon!!!

NEXT - have been allotted my swap partner in the angel stitchery swap - am sooooo excited but also a bit worried that i might not come up to scratch! i have never done a swap before, and i gather we are supposed to leave clues - so here's something i may, or may not, be including in my parcel for my swap partner - i would add that its an extra item i thought she may like -

its made from handspun yarn from my sheep, but i'll see how it turns out before i decide to include it or not!

update on my quilt- its going a bit slow but here we are so far:

this is the middle panel, if you like, of the quilt so have a way to go yet! sewing that lot together seemed to take ages!

even though its going slow i am really enjoying it, seems ages since i made one this big!

on the knitting front, well have done the back and front of this jumper:-

only the sleeves to go!!!!!

well thats all for the mo, i'm sure there was something else but i just can't remember it now, but am sure to once i've posted this!

Molly is behaving herself for once and just snoozing in the sun , much to Lilly's delight, as she gets a bit fed up having her ears chewed and tugged at!

well am off to make a cup of tea and watch a bit of the olympics!

EXAM RESULTS!!!!

Oh my word! A'level exam results day dawned today! i had watched my daughter getting a little more anxious over the last few days although she had not said anything. we have always told her, and her brothers, that whatever their results we would be pleased because we know they had tried! but even though i had told her this many times i could see she was getting a little stressed!

luckily she had a driving lesson first thing this morning so that helped take her mind off things, as she could not get her results from school until 10.30. i picked her up and off we went, i said in the car that her dad and me would be proud of her whatever happened, and i had already given her a gift before she got her results because she had worked so hard. that was it, we were both in tears - not good when you are driving - and that was before we got to school.!

we got to school and could see lots of her friends were going in to get their results and she just wanted to go in and get them and look at them by herself for a few minutes. i sat in the car and waited.....and waited.....! I saw her come out briefly and could see she had been crying and then a friend put his arm round her shoulder and i thought, oh my god and in my head i had mentally got the 'never mind, there's more to life' speech! she disappeared again and then about five minutes later came back to the car - i had no fingernails left!

she was smiling! she got in the car and told me her results

A in psychology

B in english

C in sports studies

C in general studies

well as you can imagine that was us off again, more hugs and tears! lots of phone calls to dad and grandparents and friends.

what a morning! i am just soooooo proud of her.

well i'll stop going on now but i just had to let it all out!

nb: am just finishing painting hen house and hens arrive on sat - will do some pics soon!

xx

two lovely and very different days out

well last week went in a bit of a blur, which is why this post is a bit overdue - let me say firstly that I FINISHED THE QUILT! hurrah! i was so determined that my friend was going to get it for her birthday, in the end i was stitching with plasters on my fingers and looked like the hunchback of notre dame! but it was worth it as she loved it.

anyway, i was lucky enough to go to the new forest show last week, and it actually stayed dry! i love this show, its a true agricultural show and nowhere near as commercialised as some. right, enough talk, here are some pics

aaaah, i hear you say, these donkeys were from a sanctuary and you can adopt one, so needless to say, we took the appropriate form as emily, my daughter, wishes to do so!

in the rare breeds tent were some lovely bunnies and guinea pigs - just had to take a pic of this one, sooooo cute! (i remember when mine were young i didn't dare go in these tents as all the way home it would be 'can we pleeeeeease have a bunny/guinea pig'!

and there's more:-

these alpacas were gorgeous and, even better, there was a stand with some of their yarn - it was soooo soft, but i restrained myself from buying any (if you could see my stash you would know why!) and took one of their leaflets instead!

i have to show this pic again (in previous tiny post) as it made us roar with laughter (though we did not do it directly in front of the chicken so as not to hurt his/her feelings)

a really good caption for this pic wins a prize! silverpebble has already come up with a good one - anyone else! the prize is either a pack of fat quarters, some yarn, or the latest book by gil mcneil called 'needles and pearls'!

on the following sunday emily and i and my mum went up to london - my cousin from germany (mum is german) was over with her daughter and we were going to meet up - we had not seen each other for 25 years (although my mum pops over on the plane once a year to stay with her sister)

we met on westminster bridge, i suddenly heard this voice yelling my name, and there they were on the other side of the road! it was lovely to see them. we took them to covent garden as they had never been and had tea and wandered round the craft stalls - lots of lovely things - i did find the button lady and succombed to some lovely buttons (have not taken pics of those yet, sorry!). we watched some street performers, i always love these-

this guy was a statue, and then, of course, suddenly moved, he nearly gave one lady a heart attack! did some more touristy things, trafalgar square, piccadilly, then shopping ensued - regent street, hamleys, where some cuddly toys were purchased (never too old for those!) and finally ended up in the restaurant Planet Hollywood - that was fun - my mum's face was a picture as the music and film clips you can watch whilst waiting for your meal were a bit loud! also when asking for a drink she ordered a lager and they brought her a pint! she nearly died, 'i can't drink all that' she said

when we left i asked emily how much granma had drunk - at least three quarters she said! i thought there was a spring in her step!

anyway, after that we were all cream crackered so we got a taxi to waterloo and then said our goodbyes - it was a great, but exhausting day. its always so nice to get home after all that hustle and bustle - i just love the contrast!

well thats all for now, have to catch up on housework, washing, cooking, cleaning, the usual things!
just caught molly chewing a basket - i think she just waits for me to get on the blogoverse - a minute ago, well it seemed only a minute, she was chewing on her bone!

xx

coming soon!

time to blog has been almost impossible the last few days, but will post a new one soon - have been to new forest show and also to london and will hopefully get round to posting pics and chat tomorrow!

as for dearest friend's quilt - drum roll please, ta da! have finished it! have plasters on my fingers as they are very tender from stitching at breakneck speed!



chat soon!
just thought i'd leave you with this pic! best caption wins a prize! i did think 'do ya like my new hairdo'! but i'm sure you can do a lot better!
x