Mother's Day Flowers

Just when I thought he'd forgotten (no card yesterday), the door bell rang at 9am this morning, yes, this morning, Sunday and there stood the lady from the local flower shop with my 

Mother's Day flowers.

I am the happiest Mum in the world.

Happy Mother's Day.

Lesley

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Photos From The Weekend

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the lovely comments, they're very much appreciated.  Welcome to my two new followers too.  I'm enjoying reading your blogs, it's really wonderful to have so many really gifted people who inspire me on a daily basis.

Here are the photos I couldn't, for whatever reason, upload to my blog earlier this week.  Not sure what I was doing wrong but I feel it was probably me and not my Mac, as that seems to know what it's doing.  So, here are just a few visitors we get in our garden.

This squirrel is a frequent visitor.  Now, The Col would be happier if said squirrel wouldn't visit but I quite like it.  AND, I suspect that when I'm not at home, he chases it away.  He or she never eats all the fat balls and is always ready to pose for the camera.

That's the washing line going through the top of the photo, I really should move it.

The Col's favourite, Goldfinches.  Hard to believe that such a colourful little bird is native to England, they look like they should come from the tropics.  At the weekend we counted nine of them on the feeders.

Badger's never keep still, they're always on the move.

And then, one of them hears something and they stay completely still for about as long as it takes me to press the button.

And then back to the business of eating peanuts

Another noise!

  This time they did hear something.  Just managed to catch this and then they were gone.

Until next time, thanks for dropping in.

Lesley

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Yippee!

Thank you, thank you, thank you

to Gill from Gillyflower who has given me a Liebster Award.

I am absolutely delighted.  The Col is just ever so slightly amused and bemused by all this blogging stuff and doesn't really get it, but I do and I'm chuffed to little mint balls, as I didn't think my warblings warranted an award.

I will of course, pass on the award but you'll have to bear with me.  I don't really have a clue how to link things or get things to be in places I'd like them to be.  It's just taken me an hour to work out how to get the Liebster Blog logo thingy to be on this new post.  I've probably done it the hard way but it's there and that's an achievement.  Not bad for 0818.  Right, I'm going to get a cup of tea in celebration and then I'll be back.

Ok, I'm back.  I was going to post some photos I took over the weekend but for some reason I can't get to them from the insert image button.  Never mind, I'll try again later.  Do come back later and I'll see if I can sort the photos out.  Thanks for dropping by.

Lesley

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A Cold and Frosty Morning

Wow! It's frosty out there this morning.  Well, at 0700, it was.  The sun is shining, it looks just fabulous and it's going to be a good day.  So I got outside and took a few photos.

I've always wanted to catch those little diamonds on the grass as it sparkles in the frosty sunshine but have never really managed to capture it.  This is this mornings attempt.

These poor little tete a tete are looking a bit sorry for themselves right now.

Our magnificent magnolia, obviously slightly more magnificent when in flower.

These were taken a couple of years ago but here's Tilly, doing what Tilly does best, finding sticks and having fun in any water she can find.

Tilly, August 2010.

I have a free afternoon, so I'll be catching up on my patchwork.  Whatever you're doing, I hope you have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine.

Until next time .....

Lesley
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Flowers and Patchwork

Hello again,

I love these little flowers, they grow all over my front garden.  I had no idea what they were called but Abby at Vintage Tea Time obviously knows stuff about plants and says they're called Scillas.  I have a garden full of "I'm not sure what that's called".  I may have to post more of my photos of plants and weeds in the hope that Abby knows what they are.  Thank you Abby.

A few weeks ago a lady arrived at our quilting group with a big bag of furnishing fabric saying she didn't want it and we could take what we liked.  Never one to turn down free fabric, I found three bits that I thought would work and started to think about what I could do.  So far I've made twenty five blocks.  I've run out of the patterned fabric but have plenty of the blue and pink left.

Have a good week, whatever you're doing.

Thank you for stopping by.

Lesley

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I Have Been Inspired

Today Gillyflower became my very first follower, hurray!  I had almost given up on blogging and then Gill came along with her encouraging words and advice at just the right moment.  Do have a look at her blog, she makes lovely things and loves vintage fabric, oh yes, and takes great photos.  She also has a gorgeous little dog, who is really cute.


So having been inspired, here are some photos of what I've been up to lately.

This is a quilt I made for my Mum.  She had major heart surgery in January, is now making steady progress but was in need of some happy colours in her life.  

Christmas place mats, did these really quickly one afternoon.  

This is what cranberry muffins look like if you don't have a muffin tin!  Fresh cranberries, very tangy but The Col said they were ok with a cup of coffee with lots of sugar.  I thought they were delicious but he does have a very sweet tooth.

One of my walks with Tilly

The spring in the woods

One very frosty morning

An interesting fallen tree

And of course, Tilly.

I couldn't get Tilly to sit still for this photo, there was something in the woods that had grabbed her attention. A second later she was off after whatever it was she had seen.

Thanks to Gillyflower and thank you for stopping by.

Lesley

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Look Who Came For A Visit

Hello again, thank you for stopping by,

Hope you're enjoying this week and you've found some peace amidst the chaos that reigns on the run up to Christmas?  For me, this is the best week, the cooking has been done, there's loads (and by that I mean too much) food in the house.  I really don't need to think about what to cook and there's lots of really lovely treats to munch.  The house is clean and reasonably tidy and I don't feel guilty about just sitting down for the afternoon and watching a jolly good film.

The Col and I are doing all the family visits this week.  It's really good to catch up with everyone and actually have time for a chat, find out what nieces and nephews are up to and eat too much wonderful Christmas cake.  Talking of cake, the wonky, booziest cake has gone down very well and tastes good considering I tried to cremate it.

The snow has melted, the temperature has risen and the garden looks green (and brown) again.  I'm actually sorry it's warmed up.  I like the real cold temperatures and snow, although it did almost stop the senior members of the family arriving for Christmas Day.  

We live at the edge of a wood and in the evening we get some special visitors to our garden. Back in the spring we had five of them arrive each night, parents and three babies.  

This is one of the babies, he or she (we haven't quite worked it out yet), is now bigger than his or her parents!  The very cold weather and the snow didn't stop them coming for peanuts.  As the snow has stayed for so long we've been able to see where they come in and out of the garden by following their tracks in the snow.  I know there are mixed opinions about badgers but these are not near any livestock or a main road.  There is no doubt that if cornered, they are fearsome creatures and will be extremely aggressive.  Tilly has to have an escort to the garden after dark, just in case they are around but if they are, they scamper off and come back when it's all gone quiet again.

Until next time.....


Lesley