Rainy days and Mondays

I've had that song going through my head for the past couple of hours, especially the first line ...."talking to myself and feeling old", probably because that's how I've been today but rainy days don't get me down, in fact I love the rain on my face (as long as it's not cold rain) and since I've retired, Monday is just another day to do as I please, within reason.
Last week when we did have some sunshine, me and Lily made the most of it and got the paddling pool and play mat out and went for a splash.
She really enjoyed getting me and her mum wet! I can't wait for her to get her first words out, she is trying so hard to tell us something and she "talks" for ages in her own little way. She is so comical. Last weekend was my sister's 70th birthday party and it was the first time that Lily had been on a dance floor. She kept trying to catch the flashing lights that were on the floor and she just went round and round in circles until she was dizzy She didn't want to give in though and she got quite upset when it was time to go, but with kisses from everyone and a balloon to see her on her way she was smiling by the time she left.
On the stitching front I have finally finished LHN Natures Beauty, I say finally because when I'd put the last stitch in and sat back to admire my work I noticed that I'd stitched the flowers on the left of the verse half a stitch lower than the other side. Tony said that it wasn't noticeable but I knew it was there so I had to rip it out and start again.
I started another LHN called Starlight Sampler and I've also put a few more stitches into my Beatrix SAL so I'm happy to say that I'm feeling good about my stitching.
The garden at the moment has a mind of its own, some things are growing and some are definitely heading for the compost bin.
These are my first tomatoes of the season, followed by a sweet pepper or two.This is how the garden looked a couple of years ago; last year we decided to get rid of the drive down to the shed so that we'd have more lawn. Tony has decided to get rid of his old kit car that lives in the shed so we won't need the driveway down there any more once it's gone.And this is how it looks now, it's looking a bit bare but we intend to put some more shrubs in when we get round to it. The borders are filling up nicely thanks to all the seeds that Chris sent me, even the seedlings that she sent through the post survived and grew.Some days I wonder what I've done with my time but when I look back at these photos I know where my time went and I'm quite pleased with the results. Some days it's been hard work but I love being out there, it's so peaceful.
And finally, this is my old Persian cat Chester; he's twelve years old now and this is how he spends most of his day. Wouldn't it be nice to be so relaxed.

Hugs,

An up and down week

Well, it seems ages since I wrote anything on here yet it's only two weeks but time has a habit of slipping away from me lately and I haven't felt the best either. But, hopefully, now that the sun has made a welcome return, I shall start to feel brighter again.
I've not done a lot of stitching as even that didn't sem to pull me up from the black hole that I was in but I do have a little progress from last week of LHN Natures Beauty. I have done a little more of this but not enough to make a difference so I didn't bother taking another photo.

I also stitched a scissor fob for a friend and I liked it so much that I made one for myself.
It's a freebie design by The Drawn Thread and I didn't stick to the colours on the chart but I think these go well together anyway. I've done a little more, and I mean a little, on my Beatrix Potter but a picture of that can wait until the end of the month.
We have been busy in the garden, taking down all the wire and fencing that we put up to keep Rachel's cats from getting out on to the main road and tomorrow we have a load of turf being delivered so that we can extend the lawn nearer to the house so another busy few days.
The garden is looking very green at the moment as everything seems to have finished flowering and the summer flowers aren't quite ready to show their faces yet.
We have a few roses in bloom that brighten the place up, this is one that my friend Diane bought us for our pearl anniversary last year, Sharon my eldest bought us the same one but it's not quite as open as this one yet.
This is my old bench where I like to go and sit and grab five minutes peace and quiet; the flower borders are actually beginning to fill up again after being either pulled up by an over enthusiastic husband or an ever growing army of slugs and snails last year.
The greenhouse is thriving; the tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and aubergine have all started to grow well and we even have some tomatoes on the vines and three or four cucumbers growing already. I love watching everything grow, especially when it all goes right for once.
This was taken last week and I swear everything seems to have doubled in size since then, it's amazing what a bit of sunshine can do.
I think I'd better head off to bed as the vegetable garden needs weeding tomorrow as well as all that turf coming so I'd better get some beauty sleep in......
hugs,

Never a dull moment

It's been a busy week what with looking after Lily and making sure that the garden is well watered now that everything is planted and growing. I can't wait for all my bedding plants to bloom, there's certainly enough in the ground now to give a good show.

I must thank Bev for the award that she gave me over a week ago and I've still not managed to put it on my blog but here it is now.Thank you so much Bev and once I've found my list of blogs to give it to I'll put it on here.
I have managed to do a bit of stitching, this is the scissor fob that I stitched for Janice on the Exchange Heaven blog, it was a quick little stitch and I really enjoyed doing it.

It's not a very good photo as it was taken when my camera was still playing up, but I think I've got it sorted now.
I've only managed a little on my Beatrix Potter this month as other things have taken priority and I do find it hard to keep the fabric from flopping around everywhere, but it's better than nothing.
I've even put a few stitches into my LHN Natures Beauty and hopefully before long it will be finished, but I've been trying to finish a bookmark that I'm doing for a Threads of Friendship exchange before I do anything else of mine.

I was looking through an old box with some of my earlier stitching in and I came across a UFO well hidden amongst my sewing stuff. I started this years ago and I loved doing it at the time but somehow it got pushed to one side, I think it's all the different colours in the garden that put me off. I was stitching it to make as a fire screen, maybe I ought to give it another try.
It's a Teresa Wentzler design called an English Garden Sampler, I've stitched the middle section with the alphabet and the potted trees and to be honest it looks a lot nicer than the picture of the kit above, there's a lot of green and gold in it which looks lovely.

And finally, I can't end the day without putting up a photo of Lily; she fell over today just after I'd taken this picture and she has a slight chip on her front tooth. I don't know who cried most, me or her. I felt so guilty that I'd let her fall over and I asked Rachel, her mum, to come over in her lunch hour to check her over. I'm so glad that I'm past child bearing age !
And just one more, here's baby Joshua just before he left hospital.
hugs,

Home at last

We went to see baby Joshua last Sunday and while we were visiting at the hospital Sharon was told that they could go home. Unfortunately Joshua didn't settle, he wouldn't feed and never stopped screaming which he had done a lot of in the ward but everyone thought that he just had wind. By 3. am Monday morning Sharon and Carl had to take him back to the hospital as he was still screaming and since then it's been one long round of tests until he could come home again. Poor little mite had canulas in both hands and a feeding tube up his nose; he had to have a lumbar puncture and heel pricks and lost a pound off his birth weight which was very worrying.

Hopefully now that he is home he will be able to settle down with his mum and dad and enjoy his new home. I'm longing to go and visit but we've said we'll leave it until next weekend so that they can have some time together without constant visitors. This is the only photo I have of him and it's not a very good one but I can keep having a look at it until I can cuddle him again.


hugs,

I'm a grandma again

My daughter Sharon has finally given birth to a gorgeous baby boy named Joshua. He was born around 1.00pm this afternoon , not quite sure of the exact time, but he weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces. He was eleven days overdue and yesterday they found out that he was breech so she had to have a c-section as the hospital thought that trying to turn the baby at such a late stage would probably upset both babe and mum.

They are both doing fine as is Sharon's partner Carl who is over the moon that his first baby is a son. I can't wait to get up to Chester to see them all but especially to have a cuddle with their new arrival.

It's been a lovely sunny day for most of the day though we did have the occasional drop of rain and I had my friend call round with her grandaughter who is only ten weeks old, so all in all it's been a rather lovely day.....

And finally, my lovely granddaughter lily with my old gardening hat on, I love her to bits.

Thunder and lightening

There's not been a lot of stitching going on apart from the exchanges that I've done but I can't show those as I've not even posted them yet! I really want to get out in the garden but with the rain and storms that we've had today it's easier to stay indoors and put another few stitches into Beatrix.
Tony is still remodelling the greenhouse but he's not having much luck getting the glass back in with the rain, it's a bit of a delicate operation trying to fit big sheets of glass with wet hands. Anyway I thought I'd share a few photos of the garden that I've found on my camera from last week.



The first is a rhodedendron called Grumpy, how something so pretty can be called that I don't know, but I had to buy it for Tony because that's a name I call him sometimes, not always to his face, lol. The second is of my lovely potato plant that goes mad every year growing over my pergola, it's a lovely sight from the bedroom window.



This is one of the many aquilegia plants that grow so well in my garden, I love how they keep
coming back year after year, and a lovely iris that used to grow in my Mum and Dad's garden.


Just a few of the little plants that are coming up and a view of my greenhouse when everything had been taken out ready to extend it. The aluminium greenhouse has gone now and the wooden one is extended where it stood. I hope that it's up and running for the weekend because there's so much that needs to go back.

hugs,

Another exchange received

I am so behind with posting that I nearly forgot to show my exchange from Michelle on Exchange Heaven. This months theme is a scissor fob and Michelle made me this and sent me a little pair of scissors to go with it. Thank you Michelle, I love it.
I am still in the process of finishing mine, it won't take long but I'm making the most of the sun while it shines this weekend.
Tony has a week off work which means that he'll either be taking things apart or building something, why can't he want to go on holiday like anyone else. I enjoy these weeks together though, as with him working permanent night shift I don't always see a lot of him. All that will change when he goes back after his week off as, after working the night shift for over thirtyfive years, he's had to go on afternoons due to cut backs. I've still not worked out when we're going to eat as we've always had an evening meal before he went off to work. I'm sure we'll fit it in somewhere.....

hugs

Two more exchanges done

I think that I've finally got my camera going again though I still can't get it to focus properly, where's the instruction manual when you need it?
My first exchange is from Chris M on the xstitch monthly group. The exchange was a lavender bag but with a hobbies theme.Isn't it lovely, and I love the little pair of scissors added to the ribbon. This was my exchange to Chris. I think that she liked it.

I also heard from Lucy on Exchange Heaven that she had received my colour exchange to her, this is what I stitched.Lucy's colour choice was purple or black so I stitched her initial for her.

hugs,

Lovely postie day

I had a lovely postie day today; first was my exchange piece from Exchange Heaven. The theme was a colour exchange and this is what Maddy stitched for me.

I asked for blue and greeen as my colour and this is stitched in a lovely combination of both, it looks so much nicer in real life.
I also had a parcel from Chris with some seedlings in that she had popped in the post as my rudbeckia hadn't even sprouted and she had a few extra to share, wasn't that kind of her. All in all it's been a good day though I've been dozing on and off for a great part of it, I think I overdid it a bit yesterday in the garden but at least you can see where I've been so it's been worth the effort that I put in. With any luck I can get a few hours in tomorrow and finish my planting as the weekend weather doesn't look too good, and then I won't feel guilty sitting stitching....

hugs,

Back to blogland but nothing to report

Last week should have been an easy week with Tony off work, but then I had to have Lily an extra day but I thought that as Grandad was at home she'd be no trouble, she wasn't, it was me who was the trouble.
I was so frustrated at not being able to go out and help in the garden that I was getting a bit down, but never mind, I thought, I'll play with Lily and help outside when she has a nap. This was the week that she decided that naps were out and running up and down the garden was in!
By Wednesday evening I was shattered and I'd not managed a thing in the garden; we'd played with those big lego bricks for most of the day and we'd made a big tower to show her mum when she came to collect her which was duly demolished as soon as Rachel walked through the door. Then one of those daft moments happened when although you want to cry, you try and hide it with a smile. Yes, I tripped over a lego brick, bouncing on to the door frame and ending up in a pile on the hall floor. Tony came running when he heard the bump, took one look at me lying there and when he realised that it wasn't Lily who'd fallen over he walked off laughing. He did come back and pick me up though so he's not all bad.
All day Thursday I could hardly put my foot down and I'd also jarred my wrist so I've not been able to do much at all, not even stitch as it was my sewing hand that I fell on.
It did give me time to sit and think about how life is going for me at the moment and what I need to do to get out of this ever deepening rut that I'm digging for myself. I'm hoping that the higher dose of my thyroid tablets will kick in soon as I'm still so tired and I don't want to feel like this all the time. I have made a list of what I need to change to make things better and the top of the list is to get myself more organised as, with looking after Lily, any routine that I used to have has gone out of the window.
My plants are growing like mad in the greenhouse and if I don't get round to potting them on soon all the effort of growing them will have been wasted, I just hope that the lovely weather that we've had today carries on through the week, I need to get out there...

hugs,