Bells

As this is one of the prettiest times of the year to visit ‘my park’ I thought I would take you on a little walk. Everything is so green and as the theme of my post is ‘bells’, it is a good time to show you all the bluebells that are now in full bloom!

I really don’t think my photos do them justice as the sea of blue is just amazing!

The blue and green together is so beautiful.

Weddings ‘bells’ next and as it’s now less than seven weeks to my daughter’s wedding, the invitations have been sent out. They have been designed by my graphic designer son in the style of a vintage French postcard.

I’m afraid this is a very tenuous link to the ‘bells’ theme but as I promised I would share it, this is how the ‘Bell’s’ kitchen now looks after the revamp!

I don’t have a huge kitchen but much better use of the space has been made and as the decorator has now finished painting it is all now complete, thankfully!!

So it’s the weekend again, can you believe it!!

Thanks as always for visiting me here in my little space, I love it when you stop by and say hello and please know that your comments are much appreciated.

Wishing you all a happy, sunny, springtime weekend!

 

Saturday Already?

Just thought I’d pop in before the week completely disappears!

It’s been a bit of a crazy week around here, I’ve had a painter in the house and absolutely nothing is in it’s correct place, in fact I’m ready to run away!!! We have had quite a few rooms painted and furniture, cushions, curtains and ornaments have been moved from room to room and to be honest I’m not quite sure where to start to put things back in their place! It’s all such a mess, on the plus side though I do have lovely freshly painted walls!

We have also been seeing to some wedding things this week too, just over 8 weeks now until the big day.

So with all that has been happening garden time has been in short supply but there are still lovely things springing into life out there.

Crafting time has suffered as well with not one bunny finished this week!!!

Anyhow we have a long weekend here in the UK and with my Hb here at home for an extra day, I’m sure between the two of us we’ll knock this house into shape again.

Hoping the sun is shining on you all and from the handsome Charlie and myself, happy weekend!

 

Easter Preparations

I know I’ve said it before but I’m going to say it again, I do love this time of year.

I’ve spent this afternoon getting all my little Easter decorations displayed around the house, I think I may have over done it a bit but I don’t care, never can have too many rabbits in my book!

I have bought so many bits and pieces over the years, I just like to get them all out on display.

Of course there are always bunnies on display in this house all year round, I’ve just got the more Easter-y ones out.

I hope to be back tomorrow with another little lady who is suitably attired for the season!

It must be time for more chocolate, see you tomorrow!

 

Flowers Of The Moment

Little tete-a-tete on the kitchen window sill!

My poinsettia still thinks it’s Christmas.

More daffs, bigger ones this time, brightening my dining room!

Crocuses, grape hyacinths and more tete-a-tete bringing the garden to life.

And finally my little crochet flowers have now got little sparkly centres, they’re almost finished!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

 

China

That’s teacups etc. not the country!

As you all know, because I’ve gone on endlessly about in the last few weeks, I’ve been spring cleaning. This week it’s the turn of the kitchen. Today I’ve been emptying the cupboards, washing everything and tidying it all away again. A lot of my cupboards are full of china which to my shame is taken out washed and put away again until the next big clean never being used in between. Most of it was given to us as wedding presents over 30 years ago now but some of it we bought ourselves and some belonged to my mother.

This was a wedding present and even though I’m not a ‘pink’ girl is one of my favourites. It’s Royal Albert ‘Lady Carlisle’.

This piece of Carltonware belonged to my mum and it is a piece that I do use as I’m very fond of it.

These pretty little sandwich trays also belonged to my mum, in fact I remember buying the one with violets on for her birthday many years ago.

Glass this time, which again belonged to my mother. I must say I have a re-newed love for these little butter dishes.

Other bits and pieces received, purchased and gathered up over the years!

This coffee set is another Royal Albert set ~ ‘Lavender Rose’.

Royal Albert again this time ‘Cottage Garden’, we received quite a bit of Royal Albert as wedding presents obviously the present of choice 30 years ago.

Finally one which I bought for myself, it’s Queens ‘Virginia Strawberry’, now I really love this china and unlike some of the others I do use it from time to time.

So there you have it the tip of my very large china iceberg which is now all washed, dried and neatly stacked in my clean kitchen cupboards until the next big clean!!

Thanks for ‘visiting’!

 

Christmas 2011

Well I hope like us you all have had a lovely Christmas!

Probably like us you’ve had too many of these!!

I received some beautiful presents, as did everyone in our house, resulting in this ……….

………. huge pile of wrapping paper! You’ll be pleased to know it has all been recycled now!

Boxing Day saw our up-to-that-point quiet Christmas very quickly take a different direction. When our daughter phoned from Paris (the trip was her present from her boyfriend) to announce that they were engaged. They flew out out on Boxing Day afternoon and they return home tomorrow (Thursday) evening, then I’ll be able to get a good look at the ring which I’ve only seen from an iPhone photograph but looks absolutely gorgeous. So I think busy times are ahead!!!

Before I go I just want to let you know that I’m having a little sale over in my shop! There is 15% off everything, just enter ‘WINTERSALE’ at the checkpoint.

I hope you continue to enjoy what’s left of Christmas and 2011.
Thank you all so much for joining me in my little space of blogland during this past year, I hope to ‘see’ you all again in the new year!

I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year!

Here’s to 2012 and the Springtime (whoo hoo)!

 

Hope

Today is the Winter Solstice, this year it falls on the 22nd December.
I love the Winter Solstice, I think I may even prefer it to the 25th (I know some of you will find that shocking)!!
The shortest day of the year is such a hopeful day, after today we will gradually regain our daylight and my heart skips a beat at the very thought of that!
I think it’s something like 2 minutes a day, so by the end of one week we’ll have gained almost a quarter of an hour and in a month’s time we will have an extra hour of daylight to call our own.
The above photo is of my daffodil bulbs just look how they are growing! We do have much milder temperatures than last year, today it was 12 degrees C which is about 30 degrees higher than last December. The weather forecasters have said we have no chance of a white Christmas but I don’t think I’ll lose any sleep over that!

This is what my greenhouse looks like today, we haven’t had to put the heater on at all this year and some of my summer plants are still blooming.

Now I know that you know that spring and summer are always in my heart but don’t worry we really do celebrate Christmas in this house!

Everywhere has been decorated, the house has now been cleaned from top to bottom, the presents bought and wrapped, the food shopping done except for fruit and veg and I think we’re now all ready for the festivities.

This will be my last post before the ‘big’ day. I want to thank you all so much for visiting me here during 2011, I really appreciate every single comment that has been left for me. I cherish the friendships I have made through blogging and I love visiting you all in your blogs too!

I hope you all have the most wonderful Christmas with the ones you love and I’ll see you all on the other side!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!! xxxxxxxxxx

 

Making Winter Brought To You By The Letter ‘C’

Joining in with the ‘Making Winter’ project started by Silverpebble and Thriftyhousehold I thought I would bring you some photos of the things that have been making my winter so far. Going through my photos I was surprised by how many began with the letter C!

Firstly Candles, an absolute essential at this dark end of the year!

Cakes, of all shapes and sizes, these are rock cakes but there have been many varieties.

Candy Canes, mmmmmm!

Chilli, not terribly festive but warming all the same and most definitely vegetarian!

Christmas trees (this is just one of three) and Christmas Cards the number growing by the day!

Cookery book and Cat journal, a lovely giveaway win from Poppycock & Other Creative Nonsense blog. Thank you Sally!

Charlie the Cat, my gorgeous little man.

And finally Christmas Crochet, well I couldn’t do a post like this without squeezing in a bit of crochet now could I?

Have a look here for links to more blogs taking part in ‘Making Winter’ and check out the Making Winter Flickr Pool too!

Thanks as always for visiting me here this week, have a wonderful weekend and for those of you waiting for Santa only 9 more sleeps!!!

 

What’s New ?

A new bunch of flowers on the table.

A brilliant giveaway prize from the lovely Pomona. Thanks so much Pomona I love it!

Two gorgeous new craft book purchases.

Pretty new fabrics.

Yummy new yarn. I love new balls of yarn, they look so perfect, so much so that I sometimes don’t want to use them. Crazy I know, does anyone else ever feel like that or is it just me??

A new bag in the making.

Lots of new blooms in the garden.

And new babies…….

R.J. (Rocky Junior)

Polly

Lily

I have explained before about our cat friends. Well earlier this year a new one arrived, who we have named Kitty. It took us a long time to earn her trust and find out whether she was male or female by the time we did she was already expecting kittens. Eleven weeks ago she gave birth to five babies in my next door neighbours garage, sadly two of them died. We weren’t sure who the daddy was until the kittens were born as there are a couple of tom cats about but when we saw them we knew that Rocky was the father! R.J. (Rocky Junior) was named after his daddy and he is quite friendly but a work in progress, Polly named by my daughter is the most friendly and quite enjoys a cuddle and Lily named by my neighbour will not come near any of us and to be honest we’re not quite sure if she really is a Lily or not!

This is R.J. with his mum, Kitty. They are so adorable and I have to say we spend hours just watching them play, they are such fun!
We have contacted the Cats Protection League who are happy to neuter mother and kittens, my neighbour and I are happy to look after them and see that they are all fed and get any medical treatment they ever need. They sleep in my neighbours garage, it’s where they were born and to them it’s their home. I don’t suppose they will ever be house cats, Kitty still won’t be picked up and just allows a quick stroke.

This is Polly and Lily enjoying their lunch. I think getting them to the vets for their operations is going to be a stressful time for animals and humans but it must be done.
As for all our other cat friends they are all still visiting with the exception of Patch, who sadly is no longer with us. Patch did have his own home but always dropped in for a slice of ham, he was lovely and we miss him.
Our neighbours are on holiday at the moment, so we have sole responsibility for looking after them, seeing that they get fed and that they are all safe and sound, believe me it’s a full-time job!!!

Goodness this post ended up being much longer than I intended, if you’re still here, well done!
Beautiful day here, hope it is with you to, happy Tuesday!

 

Easter Decorations

The Easter tree is up, well it’s really a decorated bunch of pussywillows!

All the little bunny and egg decorations have been hung on the branches and others have been displayed around the house.

I love Easter, it’s my favourite holiday season of the year. Now it’s quite like Easter in my house all year what with all the rabbits about the place (and the chocolate ) but Easter is a good excuse to get a few more bunnies on display!

Over the years since my children were small we have collected quite a few Easter ornaments and of course add some new ones every year.

This little green rabbit lavender sachet arrived in the post this week. I bought it from the lovely Etsy shop Mooncalfmakes, it is so pretty and it smells wonderful. Mooncalfmakes also has a lovely blog which you can find here.

I managed to get a bit of Easter baking done as well, some more bunnies in there too.

Well that’s it, decorations up, baking done, nothing left to do but eat the chocolate now, it’s a hard life!
Hope you too are enjoying some Easter preparations and treats!