Lazy Sunday

It's been a lovely day today, just pottering around, set off to have a wander in the local garden centre and maybe find some little succulents for my kitchen windowsill. Imogen stayed at home, groaning about why old people like garden centres... cheeky little miss, we're not old people and I've always been rather fond of these places with all their different departments, plants, gifts, small animals, furniture and a place for a nice cup of tea.

It's a lovely drive, there are masses of wildflowers growing in many of the grass verges along the road sides. I've noticed them throughout the city and they're a pleasure to see.

We were surprised when we arrived to see lots of Christmas displays. They are still busy putting more out and there's still quite a bit of space to be filled. We could see where Father Christmas' grotto is going to be and are looking forward to taking Zack a bit closer to Christmas, not that I think it'll really mean anything to him this year.

There were lots of displays and decorations with the theme of pink and white, quite pretty.

I liked these Father Christmas figures and the girls with their long swinging legs.

More trees

I found some baby succulents in tiny little pots, so repotted them for the kitchen when we arrived home just after peeling all the veg and potatoes for our Sunday dinner.

Just the thing for this chilly day, a nice hot roast chicken dinner with steaming hot gravy, it was delicious. After dinner, Imogen filled the dishwasher while Andrew stripped the chicken carcass for the dogs to enjoy their chicken dinner too.

With my cup of tea, I went to sit down with my crochet. I started this a while ago, but it was set aside while I continued with other projects (always so many things on the go). With the turn in the weather it's quite nice to have the weight of the blanket over my knees. I'm enjoying using different colours and stitches. Here it is folded in half.

Oh I shall have so many ends to sew in, I have to face facts, I'll never be a stitching in as I go person.

I'm going to watch the Strictly results now and the last part of Vanity Fair tonight. There's been lots of good dramas on recently, my favourite being Killing Eve. It's showing on BBC1 at the moment, but we watched it on Iplayer, kept up a really good pace, definitely recommend.


Take care
xxx

Welcoming Autumn

Firstly I must begin again by thanking you for your lovely comments and well wishes for my parents. I'm happy to report that they are now settled back in at home and dad, although still very thin, is looking so much better and feeling much more like his usual self. This type of operation takes around 3 months to recover from, so hopefully by Christmas dad will be feeling much better.

Here in the northern hemisphere, we're welcoming autumn in with open arms after a rather hot and sticky summer. I love the changes in season, adoring them all for their different attributes. We started off by giving the garden a good old tidy up. Emptying and cleaning some of the tubs, weeding and lots of sweeping up. There was a bit of a bargain to be snatched up in our local garden centre with their Cyclamen, just the thing to brighten up the garden.

 I put some in the back and a pot in the front to bring some colour.

Some of the other flowers are still going strong, a second Foxglove appeared from nowhere, which we were quite thrilled about. It makes me wonder about what will spring up next year!

Lots of deadheading and weeding helped show off some of the summer's marigolds and geraniums that are still looking quite vibrant.

Some heather and violas dotted about

The physalis is at it's best this time of year, I love the bright orange lanterns

Honey, Alfie and Gary sat outside with us enjoying the September sunshine, but just couldn't be persuaded to pose for photographs. I think this was the best with Gary (in the middle)

Honey in the middle here

this isn't too bad of Honey and Alfie, but Gary wasn't having any of it that time!

After sorting the garden out, I thought it time to update the mantelpiece too. Brought out the Halloween globes so we get the benefit of them for a little while.

I think this little chap may be my current favourite, I don't tend to use him as a time piece as my slowly ageing eyes need to get quite close to him to make it out, but he does carry the correct time.

 Hope you're enjoying your seasonal changes wherever you are.

Take care
xxx

My Time in the Sunshine

I feel like I'm getting back in the swing of blog writing and have been posting on Instagram regularly, look at me getting all on top of everything! I've noticed I have a couple of new followers, I'd like to say hello (waving), please leave me a comment so I can come back and say hi to you to if you have a blog, and please come and say hi on Instagram too if you have an account

Wow, the weather has been amazing here in our little piece of England, until today when the clouds came. A bit overcast, but perhaps can be welcomed as a break from the intense heat we've had (we're just not used to it). It's due to return by the weekend, though we could really do with some rain, perhaps during the night when we're all in bed.

We've been eating outside and I think salad has become a staple in our diets, it's just been too hot to spend too much time in the kitchen. It helps that we have our own cucumbers from the greenhouse to add to them

I've been spending an hour or two reading in the garden on the days we don't have Zackary (impossible to do on a Zack day, far too much playing for us to do). I'll do a separate post about the books I've been reading recently on another day

A tub of sunshine, these Marigolds are really coming into their own now and are good for keeping little midges at bay as they don't like their scent.

This clump of Californian Poppies are from last year's crop, they just appeared at the side of our pond and look lovely they way they've naturally sprung up next to it. I may have to keep my eye on them next year though, don't want them to take over the area. I love watching how they change through the day, slowly closing in their petals as the day wears on.

The city centre looks quite beautiful in the sunshine too. This photo looks like it has a little statue of a child playing in the fountains, as lovely an idea as I think that would be, it's even better to watch the real children running back and forth and screaming with joy as the fountains change their patterns and soak them.

 There are seats all around too, and I you can see people smiling as they watch and listen to the little ones running about.

It's been so hot that the garden pond has needed topping up as it's level got lower and lower. We use water from the water butt as it's the closest type to what's already in the pond. It's a good job it's only a small pond!

I hope everyone else has been enjoying this glorious weather, I know it can get a bit much at times and we're just not used to it. I have felt sorry for Alfie and Honey with their thick coats (Gary's less dense, smooth white coat means he can enjoy the heat a little more). We put ice cubes in their water to help them keep cool and they sit in the shade away from the hot sun.

Take care
xxx

What's on my Needles?

What amazing weather we're having, the sun in shining and the garden is in full bloom, I think June is the best month in our garden.

I love all the colour, I think it's impossible not to be out there and smile with gratitude for how beautiful it all looks.

Thought I'd show you today what's on my needles... sometimes it shouldn't be... look at this cheeky little boy, he often comes and perches on the needles or my fingers, bringing any knitting to an abrupt halt.

I'm currently knitting a cardigan for Zackary. It's age 18 months to 2 years, so will be ideal for the autumn as he is growing at such a rate! I'm using Knit craft 'cotton blend plain' from Hobbycraft, it feels lovely to work with, 50% cotton and 50% acrylic. I'm using Denim and Light Blue and there was quite a few different shades to choose from.

I also have some crochet on the hook too. I don't know if you can tell yet from the shape, but it's going to be a budgie!

I've posted this next picture on Instagram, I absolutely love it. Adam and Holly were going to a wedding and popped in on their way to show us little Zack in his suit. Isn't he a little stunner the little darling  with his little dickie bow and quiffed hair, I love this little man so, so much.

As I've been posting dog and budgie photos, I thought I should show off Mitzi too, but she was too shy to turn round for the camera.

Take care
xxx

A Catch Up

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post. I've been a bit sporadic with my posting this year, so do really appreciate you all hanging on in there.

Half way through April already, it amazes me, but at least the better weather appears to be coming... I'm so ready for the summer, I hope we have a lovely, long summer this year (not too hot though) and can spend lots of time outside in the garden and at the park.

We've been a bit slow on the garden side of things this year, mainly because of the weather. Andrew went out the other day and used the jet washer on the patio after getting rid of all the bits of grass and weeds that grow between the slabs. He also found this plant growing in one of our containers. We didn't plant it, but it seems to be thriving.

I tried putting the photo into a reverse picture finder and it identified it as Impatiens even though it didn't actually look like the pictures it showed. I know a lot of you have beautiful green thumbs so if anyone can give me any information about it, I would love to know.

My boy has had a birthday since I last blogged. Big year for birthdays this year, Adam and I have had our big ones (Adam turned 30) and Imogen will be turning sweet 16 a week on Friday, then little Zackary will have his very first birthday in August.

Not impressed with Daddy's birthday

I didn't get to see my boy on his actual birthday as he went on a 24 hour fishing trip with a group of friends. He had lovely time even though it was very muddy.

I haven't done as much baking as I planned to, but did use up some left over bananas to make our favourite banana cake the other day.

I treated myself to a couple of new eggcups the other week, I think they're rather cute.

I recently read this book by C.L. Taylor, The Fear. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself picking it up whenever I had a spare moment. A good, pacey thriller, I recommend it.

I thought it'd be nice to round off with the flowers on my mantelpiece that my lovely Andrew brought home from the shops today.

It's quite late, so I'm off to bed and will make a start on catching up with everyone else's news.


Take care
xxx

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