Three 'R's' and an S. Rest, Relaxation, Reading and Stitching

Well!!!! What's happened to the weather? From glorious sunshine it's now grey skies and rain. It tends to make me feel a little 'gloomy'. I know the field and gardens need the water so I'm not being mean honest, so that snipit of sunshine that manages to sneak through is a bonus. These last couple of weeks or so since I last 'blogged' I have been reading some books that my sister lent me. The author is Bernard Cornwell, the series, 'The Grail Quest'. It consists of three books, 'The Harlequin', 'The Vagabond' and 'The Heretic'. It is a super series and I couldn't put them down. After those I have read another couple of books by Fidelis Morgan ,' Unnatural Fire' and 'Rival Queens'. My DH and I have also been visiting my sister and her hubby again. While at my sister's I actually volunteer at a castle where I dress up in Tudor Costume and tell children about Tudor Times when they come on school trips. I also take my cross stitching with me and spend quite some time sewing. I always get home feeling relaxed. While there my DH plays golf, well at least that is the general idea except this last visit he forgot his golf shoes so no golf. Instead he helped my brother in law chop down a tree that had succumbed to the winter weather and then started reading a book by Elizabeth Chadwick called 'Lords of the White Castle', I am now reading it too.
As well as reading we have still been working on the garden and here are some pics of the fruits of our labours

I think we will have strawberries for quite a while this year, at least I hope so.

The picture above shows the mixed salad that my grand-daughters sowed when here at Easter, We are looking forward to being able just to pop outside and pick fresh salads.

So having been busy doing all sorts of different things my stitching time has been less. I have really tried to keep my 'Mojo' going so get ready here's my WIP progress,...
First here is Agneatha, I'm starting now to 'get into' this and although I'm still having thread problems it's growing

Next is 'Looking Back' my evening stitching, the feet are done (scout's honour) but I decided not to roll it back for the picture. There another two panels to complete her and then the back-stitching.

While at my sister's I did some of 'Looking Back' and then decided to do some of the small Christmas Tree decorations. Some of these need beads but as yet I haven't put any on at all. I'm trying to find some material to back them with that has just a small pattern as anything too big will look silly.

Some time ago I started Jim Shore's 'Western Snowman' and then put him away and more or less forgot about him.

Anyhow I found him out and started to do some more. I was going along quite nicely when I discovered I had miscounted part of the first bit I'd done ages ago, so, after the dreaded 'frogging' I re- sewed the part I had done wrong and then I found I'd managed to sew some in the wrong colour. Goodness knows what I was doing at the time. Evidently daydreaming.. Still never mind it's all sorted now, Here's how he's looking now.

Well that's the end of my stitching updates for this time. Here's a question for you all... Am I the only one having trouble 'Blogging'? It's taking an age.

AH well. I'm now going to put my feet up. We have taken two of our grandsons back home to day. They stayed with us while there Mum, Dad and Big Sister were on Scout Camp. So we've been out feeding ducks and geese at the park and they've been enjoying themselves on the new climbing frames and rope bridges that there are now. Along side watching a selection of DVDs and munching their way through our fridge.

Until next time....May the Mojo be with you . Thanks for popping in