Wake up Garden

As much as I groaned when the clocks went forward an hour on Saturday, I do relish the light evenings.  The birds seem to agree too!  I had forgotten how quiet it can be over the winter months when you can't hear the birds singing.


Despite it being so, so wet, I ventured outside to see what plants were coming to life.  I love watching the bulbs emerge, seeing new growth on plants I thought were dead, and slowly watching the blossom erupt on our lovely trees - fancy a tour?

Here are a few pictures of my 'shed' which sits at the back of the garden.  I remember building it with lots of blood, sweat and tears!  Boy, did it take us a long time....

When we bought the house from new 10 years ago, our boundry was hedgerow and for a long time we left it and accepted it, but last year we wanted to formulate a little more structure but still inkeeping with being more 'natural'. We cleared mostly bramble and the dreaded ivy and it was surprising how much more garden we had - here's a few snaps with work in progress -

Lots still to do, but that's half the fun isn't it?

Show and tell week

Was it really Monday since I last posted?.....I can't believe it.  Thank you all for your well wishes for Toby's birthday - in his words he was 'chuffed'!

How has your week been?  It's been a busy but great week here.  Firstly there was Country Living on Wednesday - sorry, but I'm pretty extremely poor at remembering to take my camera with me, but I'm sure you'll enjoy the photo's of my purchases!  It was a lovely day and as we got in early, we managed to get round (the first time) without too much pushing and shoving.

I do like to do a quick scoot round first to see if there are any 'one-off's' to indulge in, I then go round again at a more leisurely pace!

Anyway, here are my purchases - it was great to see Sunflower Fabrics there as I managed to get some Liberty fabric (despite going to Liberty yesterday!).

Yesterday saw me back in London with a friend to have a browse round some shops, then the matinee performance of Mama Mia!  The show went so, so quickly.  It was really great and at the end of the performance, the cast sang a couple of numbers and everyone in the audience stood up and had a little 'dance' and clap to the music.

Earlier on in the day, we popped to Liberty as they had some quilts on display which I wanted to see.  I also wanted to have a touch and feel of all the lovely Liberty prints!  The fabric I bought was £10 a metre and I have seen it more expensive in Hobby Craft.  I guess it's like anything, you just have to pick and choose.

We then popped to Covent Garden as there's a bead shop my friend wanted to go in - that was good too.  I did have to resist.  Starting beading would be one step too far with all the other projects on the go!

Whilst in Covent Garden, it would have been rude not to pop to Cath Kidston, have a browse and purchase a hankie....

Off then for lunch at Pizza Express, then back to Piccadilly for the show.  So, all in all a good, but hectic week.

Right, I'm off to catch-up on all your lovely blogs. Have a good weekend and see you next week.

Happy Birthday............

Toby  - 10 today - where have those last 10 years gone!


Hope everyone's well?  I've just got back from the school run and I'm going to catch my breath with a cup of coffee before getting on with the day.


Toby along with Jack and 4 of Toby's friends went bowling, then to Pizza Hut on Saturday.  An experience I never want to repeat anytime soon.  There wasn't any bad behaviour or attitude and they were all polite, but........they were absolutely hyper, and wouldn't leave each other alone!  I've never seen a group of boys be so physical.  It was like watching monkey's at a zoo!!  Hubby at one point said I was very calm, I did explain later that day that I was a simmering fire which could have ignited.....


Pizza Hut was interesting - we had a poor childless couple sat next to us who did look in on horror at how loud they were and of course everything was bought down to a toilet humour level.  Thank goodness they went as soon as they had had their fill of 'E' numbers at the ice-cream machine............Nevertheless they all enjoyed themselves.


As soon as I got home I buried my head in some sewing - instant therapy!  and my industriousness led to a bolster cushion - (maybe I should entertain 4 10yr olds more often if I get results like this!).

It was really enjoyable to do, albeit quite difficult.  As I didn't have a bolster cushion pad the size they suggested in the instructions, I had to calculate the amount of fabric to use based on the pad I had.  I've bought another pad, slightly bigger so this time round it might be a little easier!  What did I say last week, about being cushioned out?!


Have a good day.

Time for Easter decorations???

As yesterday was dreary and damp, I decided it was time to get the Easter decorations out and bring some Spring cheer to the weekend.

Like Christmas, I get a sense of excitement when I see the decorations as I forget what I've got and I really enjoy finding temporary new homes for them.

I have bought a few new Spring decorations too.  This great 'paper' flower is just so cheery and as it was only a few pounds, it would have been rude not to have got it.

I have candle holders coming out of my ears, but this pink one I couldn't resist.

Finally, the flowery hangie had to fall into my hands as it was so pretty.  It was quite difficult to photograph but it basically hangs straight down or you can hang it like a garland.  All 3 items were under a tenner so good value I thought.

Today and next week are mega, mega busy.  My 'little' boy is 10 on Monday so today we're off bowling and then Pizza Hut with some of his friends, football match tomorrow.  Birthday celebrations Monday, Country Living on Wednesday and guess where I'm off on Friday - I'm so excited - I'm back in London with friend to the Prince of Wales theatre seeing Mama Mia no less!!!! - has anyone seen it?

So, hopefully I'll be able to post inbetween everything next week - I'm sure I'll have some eye candy to share after Country Living!!!  Till then, have a great weekend and see you next week.

At last - seeds!

How many times have I been getting round to doing this post, but never actually doing it!

I don't know about you, but at this time of year I have such great intentions to sow rows and rows of seeds and watch them all sprouting, transfer them at the right time in the right spot and take glory in all that I've done...........in reality I start off with a few seeds, they sprout, then wither and die............

Help! - any budding gardeners out there?  Do you go for the simple approach and plant seeds directly where they will eventually flourish or do you do all the pricking out business?

I try and go for the direct approach, but end up having to transfer them anyway which is so frustrating.........

I really, really want to succeed this year and I'm starting on the right foot as I've got a few on the go -

these are salad leaves which apparently you can pick and then grow again.

dill, rocket and chrysanthemums are here

I've also got all of these and don't know what to do!  I even bought a new holder to store them in, so I have such good intentions......

Maybe I should just stick to a spot of armchair gardening instead!

Hands up - who's off to Country Living next week?

Reveal - tra la la.....

Morning all!

Hope all you mummy's had a great day yesterday and were suitably spoilt?  At least we had glorious weather and just right for an enjoyable weekend.


I had a lovely card, and was treated to the Marks and Spencer 'meal for 4' deal - I did have to cook it, but it was much easier than doing a Sunday roast from scratch!


Thank you all so much for your kind wishes regarding Jack - his eye is a lot better, phew!  Drama (for the moment) is over.

Before other events took over, I showed you a little snippet of what I was working on and now it's finally finished -

It's a big floor cushion 22" x 22".  I was a little worried about doing the envelope back for it, but after reading the instructions 'properly' I actually found it wasn't too bad after all!  With my new additional skill, I decided to do another -

I think we are now cushioned out!


Last week, Emma was kind enough to award me the 'Sunshine Award' - thanks for that Emma

I know a lot of people have this award and for anyone who doesn't and reads my blog, feel free to accept it.

I'll save my post on seeds for next time 'again' - I need advice!

Have a great day.................

Seeds and black eyes.

Yes, I know - seeds and black eyes, the 2 don't really go.  Well, I was planning to do a post today about seeds, but yesterday, Jack had a 'little' accident, so I thought I may as well share yesterday's events and I'll do the seeds post tomorrow!

Anyone with a child at school dreads 'that' phonecall, asking you to come and pick your child up.  Just as I sat down to catch up on some blogs, the phone rang from the school saying that Jack had fallen over and hit his eye on the corner of a table.  Could I come along, have a look at it and if I felt it necessary, take him to the doctor's.  Aaaghhh.  Off I went, not knowing what to expect.......Poor thing, when I got there, he was half lying on a chair, pale as anything, with a sick bowl.  His eye was gradually swelling, and apparently he had dropped off - eek.  Even with my limited medical knowledge, you don't want them doing that.

I decided to trot to the doctor's to get an appointment.  3 hours later??!! we got in  and the doctor told us there was quite a lot of bleeding underneath the eye and it might be worth a trip to the hospital.  Me, being me had to establish on what basis, what did I need to look out for etc etc.  The symptons to look for were those of a head injury.  We've got some drops to prevent infection and he has to stay off school.  Fortunately he seems OK at the moment, and I hope the swelling goes down.

This was all as a result of playing tag and as Jack got tagged he got 'accidentally pushed' - em......

What a drama though!  His friend kindly did him a card - how sweet.

Out and about

Hello all - I hope you had a great weekend and the weather was kind to you.  We had beautiful weather here so we thought we'd better sieze the opportunity and do 'stuff'.

Toby was away Friday night on a sleepover up to Saturday afternoon, so 1 less, hubby and Jack were doing their thing, so I thought I would do mine too!  I can't reveal until it's absolutely complete but it involved doing a bit of this -

It is big....and I'm pleased with how it's developing.

I also had some trim which I bought off Etsy a while ago, and wasn't too sure what I was going to do with it, until Saturday.  I added to my shelf in the kitchen and I think it looks rather good.  Hubby probably think's it's a pain but hey.

Yesterday took us to Surrey to see my brother and his wife.  We met at Polesden Lacey, a National Trust property and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  Jack had a quiz to take round the house with him and beacause he's sooooooo enthusiastic about everything, the lady volunteer's were very keen to give him lots of information - not so good after spending 15 minutes in 1 room.  Toby on the other hand, thought the quiz wasn't appropriate for him - after all, he's 10 in 2 weeks time!!  Unless it involves cars or football, forget it!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the house and grounds.  Look how blue the sky is - probably the first time it's looked like that this year.  My favourite picture is the old potting shed, wouldn't you love to have a shed like it.

The above picture is a rose garden and in the summer it's apparently glorious.  You could just about see the buds beginning to grow on the bushes.

See you later in the week.