Pages

Sunday 31 March 2013

March Scavenger Hunt

. . . organised by Greenthumb, over at Made With Love, you can see the other entries by clicking here.

1) and 2) on the list were Green and 3, so I've got a two-in-one entry for this one


3) A person in uniform, this is one from the archives back in November when the Yorkshire Thirds paraded through town to receive the freedom of the town after their successful tour of duty in Afghanistan.


4) Bubbles in an empty beer glass


5) Shoes. I really, really love these shoes, but I've had them for so long they are now relegated to work shoes, I just wish I could find some more.


6) Toys. With no small children around, here is a basket of my toys instead


7) A gate. This one had been pushed over for access to a field, probably by travellers.


8) Eggs, or rather egg-shells, which I've saved to break up and put in the garden to deter snails.


9) Dessert - we dont do dessert in our house, so here is a picture of a picture of my favourite, banoffee pie


10) Water, it's raining outside


11) A bridge (magazine)


12) Empty. As I doubled up on 1 & 2, I now have two entries for empty to make up the numbers, an empty orange and an empty wine glass.




Thursday 28 March 2013

Five months on

From this


To this


 and here is my lovely new dresser


Tomorrow we move the table and chairs into the new dining room, and have a celebration meal.


Tuesday 26 March 2013

Following on from yesterday's post . . .

. . . about Google reader and Bloglovin, the consensus seems to be wait and see. In the mean time I've added my blog list to a gadget at the side of my blog, if I'm a follower of yours then your updates will appear there, so never fear, I'm still stalking you.

As to my readers, well I'll just have to hope you dont desert me, apparently I'm already on Bloglovin, although no idea how that happened!

Back soon with a proper post, I'm around Tattenham Corner and galloping along almost to the Grandstand with the wallpapering (Surreyites and racing followers will know that means I've almost finished) in the dining room, I hope to be ready to show by the end of this week.

Happy Tuesday

Monday 25 March 2013

Google Reader

I keep reading on various blogs that Google Reader is closing down. I do have Google Reader, but I dont use it to read my blogs, I just go to my Blogger dashboard and there they all are (all the ones I have "followed") in reverse chronological order, i.e. newest first, so I just scroll down until the last one I've read and move upwards from there. So, what I'm saying is that for me, personally, Google Reader closing down wont make a difference to my reading habits. But, and this is a big BUT, how many of you out there read my blog on Google Reader, and will you miss me when it closes? Did I ought to do what a lot of others are doing, and register with Bloglovin'?

Please, please if you read this, comment below and let me know, I would hate to lose any of my readers, I value you all, even those of you who aren't actual "followers".

Happy Monday x x

Friday 22 March 2013

A week through my window

Sunday, snowy


Monday, misty


Tuesday,grey


Wednesday, hazy


Thursday, wet


Friday, almost sunny


Linking up with Green Day Friday
at Raindrops and Daisies

Monday 18 March 2013

Seed Disks

I've never heard of these before, but I saw them in Poundstretcher the other day, £2.50 for a pack of 2, so I thought I would give them a go.


The idea is that you fill your hanging baskets almost to the top


and then place the disks in position. I decided that rather than have one blue basket and one yellow basket I would have two mixed baskets, so I cut the disks into quarters and placed them thus.


You then cover them, water, place in the greenhouse or somewhere warm, and wait. I guess if you come back in early June, I might be able to show you the end results hanging in my garden.

I am so desperate for it to warm up a bit, as these all need sowing, but its just too cold right now.


It is dry though, so I may venture outside this afternoon and do a bit more preparation on my second veg raised bed.

Please pop over . . .

. . . and take a peek at my other blog "Wanda with me".

Wanda feels a bit lonely with not many followers. Ahhhh, bless.

Sunday 17 March 2013

Sting in the tail

Can this really be St. Patrick's Day, 17th March?





Saturday 16 March 2013

Time to retire . . .

. . . from proof-reading, I think.

One day last week we decided to return to Candle Hill, which we visited back in September of last year and you can read about here.

We drove up there, had a picnic lunch in the car, a little stroll round, took some photos, and then made our way back home. Wanting to look on the map to see where a particular byway led to, I noticed that the name is Cradle Hill, not Candle. Whoops.







Friday 15 March 2013

Daffs




Linking to Green Day Friday  Raindrops and Daisies

Thursday 14 March 2013

A sneak preview

Ever since we decided, last autumn, to turn the snug into a dining room, I've had the idea at the back of my mind that I'd like a nice dresser to stand in the alcove between the chimney breast and the patio door wall. GM kept asking me what I had in mind, but in fact, apart from knowing it needed to be a dresser and that it needed to fit the space, I had no pre-conceived idea. However, he kept on asking, so in the end I thought I'd have a quick look on ebay to see if there was anything that I liked that I could show him.

Well, what do you know? The very first one I looked at was absolutely perfect for the job, it was in Thatcham, which is just over an hours drive from here, and the bidding finished that very day. I showed it to him, he liked it, we decided on a budget (to include transportation, as it wouldn't fit in the back of my car) and I placed a bid. You may remember from an earlier post (here) that I seem to be pretty lucky with ebay purchases, again on this occasion I was the only bidder and by 9 o'clock that evening we were the proud owners of a quite fantastic piece of furniture.

I dont want to show it properly until it's in it's intended location, and we aren't quite ready for that yet, so here's just a sneak preview.






Wednesday 13 March 2013

Springtime/Easter swap


. . . organised by me.

I was lucky enough to be partnered with Jille, over at Love to Craft, and my package arrived a couple of days ago. Jille was very generous, the whole thing was wrapped in a lovely pink fabric and tied up with green ribbon, the ice cream tub was overflowing with gifts




. . . here are all my goodies laid out.


Jille obviously took the time to find out my likes, as she has sent me a couple of bits for the garden, one of which is a grow-in-the-tin Morning Glory (I've never seen these before), which I had mentioned I might put in the garden where I'd removed a rose, and the other a pack of Gloxinia.


As well as the green ribbon around the parcel itself, there was a whole reel of beautifully patterned green ribbon, a handknitted cloth with a gorgeously delicate crocheted flower embellishment, and a quite fabulous embroidered bookmark.


Also included were a chocolate Easter Bunny, (which lasted all of two minutes after the photo!), a lovely Bronnley exfoliating gardeners soap, a butterfly clip and a Happy Easter toast marker.


Thanks Jille for my lovely gifts and for being a great swap partner. Here is what I sent to Jille,



and you can see her post here.


Tuesday 12 March 2013

Book Review, Quick & Simple Knit Hats & Scarves

I was sent this book by F+W Media for review purposes


It more or less does exactly what it says on the packet, it features 14 designs by up and coming designers. You would think that with something as basically simple as a hat or a scarf it would be difficult to come up with new and interesting designs, but this book proves me wrong on that count.

As I started to read through the book I was a bit disconcerted, as it was obviously aimed, initially, at the US market, there were one or two terms in the instructions that I was unfamiliar with. But I need not have worried, as I got to the very back of the book, pages 34 and 35, there was a double spread of General Knitting Information which gave all the necessary translation of terms, and conversion charts for needle sizes, yarn weights and metric measures - it was just a pity that this information was at the back, I would have been happier had it been at the beginning of the book, but that's just nit-picking, really.

Put that initial criticism to one side, and what you have is an interesting, well documented pattern book with lovely colour illustrations, which I would recommend to all knitters, both beginners and those more experienced.




R.R.P. for this book is £6.99, but you can buy it here for £6.06 (plus postage).