Spring is springing

I love to see these daffodils dancing just outside my kitchen window, It's such a cheery thing to see when you open the blind of a morning.

 And the view from outside is just as lovely, yellow is such a happy colour, especially with all the grey days we've been having.

We have seen the sun a little more this last week though and it's been nice to get outside and make the most of it. 

On Wednesday I looked through my seed tin and made the most of the sunshine to sew a few seeds, again, I seem to have a lot of yellow going on.  My cosmos didn't do too well last year, I had a very poor show of flowers so I've tried a different variety this time hoping they'll do better.

 

I bought pepper, cauliflower and lettuce plants from the garden centre this week which I need to transfer to some pots to grow on a bit before planting out.  I'll keep the peppers in the greenhouse this time, the lettuce I'll plant up in the raised bed we have in the garden and the cauli will go to the allotment.

And look what's in my little wildlife pond.

 We have frogspawn 😀 

I haven't checked it for a couple day's but fingers crossed we will get some little froglets :-)

I hope everyone in the UK enjoyed Mothers day yesterday, I was gifted some lovely thoughtful presents and Joanne cooked a fantastic Sunday lunch which I enjoyed all the more because It's not very often I get a meal cooked for me 😁  Later we went to Stevie's to help move and arrange some furniture they had bought.  The weather like today ended up rainy and windy, but the sunshine is due to reappear later in the week and hopefully I can get a bit more sorted in the garden.

-X-

Another month gone already

Another month of the year gone so quickly, but the weather has been good and a lot of jobs in the garden have been ticked off, so that's good.  I over-seeded the top lawn last week, I haven't seen many birds stealing the seeds so fingers crossed we should see signs of growth in the next couple weeks.  I also went ahead and purchased two small raised beds for the top of the garden, we have yet to fill them, but that's ok I'm not ready to plant anything out just yet.

The one last big job outside is to jet wash the path and patio, that is on tomorrow list of things to do.

We still have daffs out and for once they haven't been battered by rain or snow.

The grass just before over-seeding, there should be fewer bald patches in a couple weeks

Yesterday was Mothers Day here in the UK, we went out for lunch with Joanne and the kids, Stevie and Jenny popped round later in the afternoon.  They all spoilt me with lovely cards, flowers and gifts, Joanne also got me a seat I can use for gardening and planting, that will save my poor knees 😂, (not in the photo as it wasn't assembled)

As you know Joanne and Gavin are no longer together but he usually makes sure Bonnie and Jacob have something to give Joanne for Mothers Day but for some reason he didn't offer to take them to buy her anything this time so me and Mark took them out on Saturday to get flowers and choose a gift, they also made her cupcakes while they were here.

They wrapped everything up and when I took them home hid everything in Bonnies wardrobe, they were so excited to give her the things they'd bought, Joanne said they went and woke her up at 6am 😆

I've been for my second physio appointment this morning, I think the exercises are slowly working and he was happy that I could now do a more difficult version of one of them.  I'm still in pain most days, some days are worse than others but I'm following the exercise plan so hopefully one day everything will settle down.

Mark had the results of his prostate biopsy last week, it was benign, so nothing nasty to worry about, which was a relief.  He has another appointment in June to assess him again to see what they can offer him in the way of help as his prostate is enlarged and that's what's causing him to have frequent bathroom visits.  The letter also listed some of the treatment options, tablets are the easiest treatment, the operation for more troublesome cases doesn't sound very nice and requires time in hospital and at least four weeks at home.  Needles to say he is hoping that he will be able to have the tablets option.

I've been stitching lots this past week and made great progress on my Hoot in a Boot which I'll share next time.  

Wishing you all a wonderful April

-X-

Another week, much the same as the last but with cake

I finished and framed Curious Bunny by Teresa Kogut at the weekend.

I used another frame bought from The Range, they only sell standard sizes and I would have gone for a slightly smaller one given the choice but, I'm happy with how it came out.

I used the glass in this one as I might keep it out all the time, I did place some spaces so that the glass isn't touching the stitching.

(There is shadow on the bunny, the thread colour is all the same)

Sunday just past was Mother's Day here in the UK.  My girls treated me to all my favourite hair products from The Body Shop as well as flowers and some delicious things to eat.  Jenny made me an afternoon tea box and Stevie gave me a very artistic lemon cake, the boys also gave me several bags of my favourite Drumsitck Squashies sweets, yum!   I will have to use all my will power to not eat them all at once, lol.

Bonnie made me this wonderful art work. 

Stevie's artfully decorated cake

Lovely afternoon tea in a box

How lovely and spoiled was I?!!

Yesterday was a Bonnie day, the rain kept off so we met Jenny and Arty at the park

It's really hard to get photos of Arty, he won't look at the camera

The recent heavy rain has left some rather big puddles which they both enjoyed.

We were laughing because Arty is a good 8 months younger than Bonnie but he is so much bigger than her 😄

Bonnie wearing the hat I knitted the other week

Like I said, Arty won't smile for the camera so I had to be crafty to get his photos.

He is such a typical boy, into everything and not frightened to explore, just a perfect lovable little monkey, you certainly need your wit's about you when you take him out though!

Awww he looks so much like Jenny did at this age, except Jenny had curly hair.   Oliver is the spitting image of his dad but Arty is just like Jenny.

 💗

See you soon.

-X-

Mother's day

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in the UK. 

I always thought that Mothering Sunday and Mother's day were one and the same, apparently not.

Mothering Sunday has it's roots in Christianity and was a celebration of the mother church, people returned to their so called mother church, the church in their area, for a service.

Years later it became a day when servants were given time off to visit families, children would pick wild flowers to give their mothers.

Mother's day as we celebrate it now began in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother.  

Later, Anna didn't like the commercialisation of Mother's Day
and particularly didn't like the use of printed greetings cards.

I wonder what she would think of all the shops filled with cards and Mother's Day related items if she could see them now!

Still, after saying all that, my girls, (and Oliver) did spoil me yesterday with their lovely gifts of flowers, pandora charm, chocolates, a cute little monkey and cup (from Oliver) and some hand made presents too.

I have to show you a closer photo of what my middle daughter Joanne made me, she did a great job.

A sweetie tree of my favourites :-)
I almost don't want to dismantle it!

A letter 'M' to add to my collection

Home made carrot cake, she knows how mum likes cake!

I hope you were equally spoilt if you celebrated other's Day yesterday.
~~~~~~~~~~
I'll be back very soon with some Christmas stitching and a new start.

-X-