A new start and a finish

The sun is shining here in Derbyshire and doesn't it lift the spirits. I have felt so much better this last week probably because I have kept myself busy and not dwelt on the things that get me down. Thank you for your kind comments and welcome to my new followers.

I have another finish to show.

Sunflower Inn by LHN

I so enjoyed stitching this with the lovely ladies over at Needlecraft Haven, lovely bright colours after sewing so much red on Beatrix.

I have a new start, this is one for DH. He doesn't usually take much of an interest in what I stitch but he saw this when we popped into Hobbycraft the other week and said that he liked it so hopefully I'll get it done for dare I say Christmas, the way this year is flying by it will be here before we know it.

Fragile Miracles by Joan Elliot.

And I've decided that I need to finish Celtic Christmas, she has been on hold for far too long. This is how she looked last time I left her.

Once again it's mostly red but at least it's different shades this time.

We had a lovely Saturday last weekend visiting Lullington Open Gardens, so much time and effort put into the gardens and of course I couldn't come away without buying a few plants.

I think it's called a Galaga or it's common name is Goat's Rue, there's also a Sea thistle to replace the ones that the slugs and snails dined on

These are a few photos from the garden.

This is a self seeded nicotiana plant growing in the greenhouse, it is huge but it's not in the way so we left it.

It's Lily and Callum's summer fayre at school tomorrow, always a nice afternoon out. Catching up with old school friends tomorrow evening and a trip to see our eldest daughter in Ellesmere Port on Saturday so lots to look forward to.

That's all for now.

hugs,

Time to catch up

I thought that it was about time that I caught up with my little blog and posted a few pictures before I forget what I've been up to. Sadly for quite a while I have been feeling like this

and nothing that I did would make it go away. Not every day has been bad, just enough to make me feel low and try as I might I couldn't snap out of it. But today is a good day so here I am playing catch up.

At the beginning of May our youngest daughter Rachel got married, it was a lovely day and the sun shone just enough to be able to take some outdoor photos, but as I haven't got my copy of the wedding cd yet I can only show a couple that my nephew took.

Rachel and Darren

and a very rare one of me and hubby together.

I have been stitching and believe it or not I have actually finished Beatrix.

I put our initials and our three daughters on instead of the charted ones, I thought after all the hours I'd spent on it I was allowed to make it mine.

Sunflower Inn is also coming along and hopefully it won't be too long before there's another finish.

And this was a present from DD Rachel who also likes to stitch.

Grandma and Grandpas house, a Lilliput Lane kit.

The garden is lovely this year, well the flower garden is. The vegetable plot at the bottom of the garden has been left as I just didn't have the heart to do it but we have decided to grass it over at the end of the year and just extend the flower garden, one less thing to worry about.

Before I go here are just a few photos of the garden.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, hopefully I'll be back soon,

love and hugs,

It's been a while

Aren't the weeks flying by, I can't believe that it's April tomorrow and such a while since I last blogged. I have still been stitching and knitting but at the moment a lot of my time has been taken up with preparations for my youngest daughters wedding, only five weeks to go and I've still not found any shoes or a bag to match my outfit. I'm also trying to make a jacket to go with my dress just in case the weather isn't as warm as we'd like it to be. I just hope that it's not anything like last night or today, I hardly got a wink of sleep the wind was howling so much and the rain was heavy too. Think it might be time for a nanny nap this afternoon.

We've also spent quite a bit of time out in the garden when it's been fine, only one flower border left to do and then the veg plot has to be seen to. The green house is full of little seedlings ready to be potted on, it's just finding the time to fit everything in. The old couple next door cut all of their trees down last year which made our garden very open so we bought a few things to fill in against the fence until we decide whether to higher the fence or just grow taller plants.

I am still plodding on with Beatrix Potter, I'm determined to finish it soon. There's not a lot left to do.

This is what I started over a month ago but had to put it away as I had so much else to do but I got it out again at the weekend and didn't want to put it down. I think I'm enjoying the pretty colours after sewing so much red. 

Sunflower Inn by LHN.

And finally a picture of my flowers and tea pot that I had for Mothers Day.

I have been so good and not broken in to it yet but I'm afraid its days are numbered as it is getting very tempting to just have a nibble.

Well that's about it for now, I have done more on my Celtic Noel and another two tea pots are stitched on the shelf but they can wait for another day. It is absolutely throwing it down outside, I hope that it picks up for Easter. My two grandchildren Lily and Callum have gone to Scarborough this week with their other Grandma and Granddad, I so hope that they've got better weather there.

Bye for now, take care

  xx

A new year

And already three weeks have passed, my how time flies. I hadn't realised that it had been so long since my last post but for a couple of months before Christmas I felt really down and didn't feel up to doing anything. It's been a while since I've felt like that and hopefully now that Spring is on it's way I shall get back into the swing of things.

Today is my eldest daughter's birthday, it certainly doesn't seem like 36 years since we bought our first little bundle of love home. She has become a beautiful person and I just wish that she and her family lived a little closer to us but we can't have everything can we.

I do have stitching to show.

This is what I sent to RoseMary for the Winter exchange that we do each year.

And this is what I received from Cathie, lots of lovely goodies.

I have managed to do a bit more stitching,

Country Cottage Needleworks, Morning Song all finished.

And this is taken from a Readers Digest Book,

It's much brighter in real life and it's hard to take a good photo when the batteries are on their way out.

I am still stitching away on my Beatrix Potter Sampler, it's got to be finished this year it's been hanging around too long.

I am so longing for some good weather so that I can go outside. The garden is looking pretty bare at the moment but I have some ideas that I want to try out. Just hoping that DH is in the mood to help.

That's all for now,

take care,

An Autumn catchup.

It's been a while since my last post and what have I been up to, well not as much as I'd have liked to have done. The garden has kept me busy as have the grandchildren as well as two weeks jury service which was interesting to say the least. I did kind of enjoy it but I don't think I'd want to do it again in a hurry. Birthday barbecues when we picked the only day in the heatwave that the heavens opened and DH and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. Middle daughter has (almost) moved in with her boyfriend so we are nearly empty nesters again.

Tony bought me this lovely standard rose named "Red Romance" for our anniversary,

and the lovely bouquet was from Rachel.

Hopefully tomorrow will be my last day of the school run as Callum will be in full time school as from next week so I should have a bit more time to myself to potter round the garden and try and fit in a few more hours either stitching or knitting, well that's what being retired's all about isn't it!

Oh how I love this season, the gorgeous colours of the leaves and the feint smell of wood smoke in the air and happy days bringing in the rewards of all the back breaking gardening done in early spring. Although the garden hasn't been as successful this year, we have still managed to have some lovely vegetables to eat. The potatoes were a bit of a let down but we are still getting enough to provide dinner for us all, the climbing beans have been a huge success and we have been able to freeze a lot ready for winter. Blackberries have been made into pies and jam and we are now picking the autumn raspberries and apples.

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to win Gaynor's giveaway on Facebook, I thought that I'd won one of her lovely charts but it turned out that I'd won a stitched piece.

Isn't it lovely.

There has been some stitching going on but not an awful lot, I thought I'd have a go at something different so I made this candle mat, all ready for Christmas.

and this is CCN Blueberries finally finished.

I think that's about all for now, I've still got a few more bits to show but it's getting late so I'll do them another day.

Take care all,

July already!!

This year is flying past, June went in a flurry of gardening and looking after my grandson but now hopefully it's time to sit back and enjoy watching everything grow. Across the road from where we live used to be allotments years ago but sadly neglected over the years. Last year someone bought the land and turned it into a smallholding with pigs and chickens and geese but the downside was that he chopped most of the trees down which left a lot of the birds homeless. Luckily for us the birds have nested in our very large hedge this spring so we've had lots of visitors that we've not notice before but along with the pretty birds came a pair of magpies which seem to think that our garden is theirs and theirs alone.

picture courtesy of www

 They are terrorising my three cats and that takes some doing and even the pigeons have been chased away which means that the veg plot has been left to flourish this year if it hadn't been for the abnormal amount of slugs and snails this year.

The fruit garden is doing well, although the rhubarb is almost over we are picking blackcurrants and raspberries by the bowl full, it's lovely to have so much fresh fruit and the blackberries are laden with fruit so much so that I think I may have to switch on my extra freezer to cope with it all.

Stitching took a back seat last month though I did manage to get a few stitches in. July 1st was opening day for the Gift of Friendship exchange. This is what I sent to Gail (no blog)

and this is what I received from RoseMary,

CCN Count your Blessings is finished,

and LHN Blueberries is almost done.

I've also put a few more stitches into Celtic Noel and made a new start on something else but they can wait until next time. One last thing to show, I received this mandala from Chris the other morning and it really brightened my day.

Isn't it pretty!