Guess what....The Sun's Shining.

Hi there everyone. Summer holidays are upon us. That means that for the last 10 days we've had grandchildren staying with us. Very busy cooking and doing the old cub badges with my two youngest grandsons. Must admit they did very well and duly deserve their badges when they get them. The flapjacks and oat biscuits were delicious.


I must admit it was very nice having someone to do the washing up and window cleaning as well.

You've guessed it.....rather camera shy grandson!!


The hosepipe ban is still on despite the fact that there have been flash foods and torrential downpours, You know the same old story 'WRONG SORT OF RAIN', after all it's all wet, I do know what they mean, at least the gardens are fine. Thought you might like to see a little of our garden as we are further along in the year. It isn't looking so great really but we have some bright spots.






We had a bout of strong winds which ruined the hanging baskets and 'burnt' several plants. Luckily the tomatoes are doing well whether they will eventually turn to the right colour is another matter. It's a good job that we like green tomato chutney!!




My DH and I have just returned from our 'Garden Centre' roam with another new plant for the garden,it's a climbing Hydrangea which we intend to plant on a North-facing wall that we have always had a problem with. Here's hoping that this will solve it! Along with our plant we have bought some more bird feeders to replace the ones that have finally fallen apart. Already filled with seed,nuts and suet treats .....not a bird in sight!!!.
This picture is something that cheers me up it's a patio apple it just grows in a pot and it fruits every year. The apple type is' Katie' it was bought after the death of our Mum, Kathleen, back in 2001 my sister has a tree as well.

Because of the grandchildren visits and minding, cross stitch has been a little on hold. Unfortunately The 12 Days of Christmas has fallen behind. I should have been onto the 8 Maids a Milking but my Swans are still getting their feathers so they can't swim very well yet. Still never mind as I now have a few weeks while the 'young ones'( this includes my sons and their wives) are all away on their Summer hols. That is Guides camps, Cadbury World, Longleat, Spain all in no particular order. My hubby and I are just putting our feet up at home and probably pottering about a bit. I'll get some stitching done and the odd game of golf will creep in for my DH.
Here's my picture of the 12 Days. I will do better I promise



Must admit that while at my son's with three of the grandchildren I did get quite a lot of my UFO done which is for Jen's blog...I've Started so I'll Finished....Eventually
I have quite surprised myself with this one as finally I find that I am enjoying it. I am now on the last few of the 42"inches width of this piece, the chart is very hard to read as it is a hand drawn one and several splodges are just guessed. His face is much more cheery than I expected and I have put some half stitches in around the eyelashes although they are not actually shown on the chart. ( I just have to fiddle around a bit and make it mine)



I have been trying to catch up on my reading blogs that I follow and wanted to leave a comment onRocky Mountain Stitcher to say how well I thought her mermaid was doing but unfortunately I couldn't get it to take any comment. If anyone knows Berniceplease will you ask if she can check her 'settings' as I notice there are no comments and this seems strange as her stitching is lovely. To Bernice' It could well be me being a little in my dotage doing it wrong'.


I am now away to get some more feathers on my Swans....so thanks for calling in and leaving a comment. Enjoy your holidays whatever you may be doing.
Until next time HAPPY STITCHING

Not much stitching but what a week !

It's been one of those weeks. One lot of my grandchildren, along with their friend who lives opposite them,
came up with the idea of having a Cake Stall to raise money for SPORT RELIEF on Sunday 21st.March. Therein followed the request to help them out. Now this is now what you think. Yes I did a little baking for them but mainly it was being oversee-er in the kitchen ( this is otherwise known as general dogsbody and peace-keeper), also the 'quality control' operative (making sure there's no egg shell in the mix, no licked fingers etc etc.). My Hubby and I went out and purchased the ingredients for a huge list of buns, biscuits, muffins and fudge. Their Mum filled in the gaps with paper plates, and table covers , bags plus missed ingredients. The making of items started on the Wednesday when my hubby made Fudge (as a trial) we have in the past made fudge but it's always been a bit 'hit and miss', sometimes absolutely beautiful and other times where we ate with a spoon (it always got eaten). Anyway he found a different recipe to our normal one one the 'web' and gave it a go. It turned out fantastic, so he tried another not quite as good ( a bit softer) but OK. He left it at that until I got back from my normal grand children sitting stint on the Thursday evening. Their other grandma made some ginger cake and fruit cake to sell in slices.

THURSDAY!!! The day when all went wrong!
I'd been doing the final ingredient shop and was looking for red balloons. The supermarket only had mixed bags so I remembered that a store just nearby sold 'party goods' so off I went thinking yippee. I found just what I needed Red balloons. Off I go to the pay desk when Bang! Wallop! Thump! I'm flat on face on the hardest wooden floor I've ever come across. After lying there feeling winded and shocked an 'off-duty' nurse came to my rescue. I must admit she was really kind and cheered me up a great deal. The Manager eventually arrived with associate with wheelchair( I could now hardly move my legs). At this point I was wheeled to near the door to try and collect my self and answer all the relevant questions How? What? Why? Now when you think about it HOW do I know WHAT I fell, tripped, slipped, on. over and WHY? oh Why? did it have to be me?? One thing I do know for certain( I did wonder at the time) Who needs Red Balloons when they can have PURPLE KNEES?
Any how to cut a rather long story shorter. The store gave me the balloons. I drove to collect my grandchildren from school and sat later with a bag of croquet potatoes on my swollen knees. By the time My daughter-in -law got home from work I couldn't bend my leg so no 'gear changing'. I was driven home,( about 30 miles) escorted by the grandchildren, who had done a sterling job in looking after me, and my Husband had to travel by bus the next day to retrieve the car. On the Friday I could hardly move what with very stiff legs, twisted side, bashed elbow. sore ribs. I felt a bit sorry for myself. At this point I consoled myself with a little stitching.


The progress on my Christmas SAL is coming along slowly but I'm hoping to get a little more done before the official posting day. Naughty me I haven't yet touched my Three Kings.

While visiting my sister, last weekend, I decided to indulge my self in small 'Hob-Nobbs' design. This is partly because everything I seem to stitching at the moment is quite big and I need a finish to have a 'feel good' about.




OH No. By seeing the photo I realise I have stitched all the blue squares as full blocks (16 cross-stitches) when they should have been over 2 (4 large cross-stitches) Wow is me. Now I've to decide what to do.
Frog or leave.

I did take my UFO with me on my visit and stitched that in the evening and after chatting about the UFO with someone who has seen it finished it has given a better perspective on it. Apparently it has a bit of a three-'D' effect with the non-stitched areas and is quite something to see completed. I have now cheered up about it.

Just to let you know that Spring had finally sprung here in West Lancashire, UK. I am so delighted to see just a few daffodils and the crocus to give a little colour after some of the miserable days we've had recently. The cat-kins are there on our corkscrew hazel, the honeysuckle has started to burst into green and the primroses and pink aubretia are doing their bit as well.







Now back to the SPORT RELIEF cake stall. Unfortunately the friend's grandad died so quite understandably her mum pulled out of helping and at first so did the little girl. But then she arrived in the kitchen with one of my grand-daughters so see if she could watch. Any how she soon joined in and decided she would try and use some of the baking towards a Brownie Badge. My grandson was using his biscuit making towards a 'Community Badge' at the Cub Scouts so as well as raising money for others they had a purpose for themselves. The next thing I know is that a cousin of theirs rings up (he's 4) to see if my grandson can go and play. So now comes the complicated bit. One grandson goes and returning is his girl cousin to sleep over. I now am back to having two 10 year olds and one 8 year old all wanting to bake. ( I can feel headaches coming on). But onwards and upwards having delved into my extra large pocket of patience. Dutifully taking photos for their Brown Owl for the badges.


Grandson's biscuits


On the great day My husband and myself were up at the crack of dawn, he cutting fudge and myself making flap jacks and jam tarts. When the girls fell out of their beds they set about finishing cake decorating and the elder grand-daughter(13) started to make her wild berry muffins and coconut muffins and other bits and bobs, as the day before she had been playing field hockey. A little later the friend arrived so back to four all trying to do something or other and myself now wishing I could find my inner calm. At About half past ten my hubby took the younger of our grand-daughters putting signs up on lamps posts. While the friend was busily doing price lists on the computer and the cousin was still attempting ' things'. At long last the time had come to hopefully sell their goods. The sun was shining. All were in high hopes. It was a super experience for them and they made the grand total of £142.84p and all that on the driveway of their house. Well done to them all.

Now I can do some cross-stitching. Yippee