Monthly Archives: April 2012

The Sun is Out!!!!

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The bee’s head just emerging from the tube.

The bee has pulled himself out.

He has turned round and within a minute had flown off.
Well the sun has finally come out, but it won’t be with us for long.  It has been the wettest April since records began and we are due for more rain tomorrow, so the sun is very welcome today.
I posted a picture on another post of my bees and because of the sun today quite a few have been appearing.  I managed to get a couple of pictures of two of them emerging from their tubes.  These bees are really cute, they don’t sting and are great for the garden and we are being encouraged to give homes for them to increase their numbers across the country.
I would really love to have some honey bees (my grandpa had them and I used to help him with them) but as we have Treacle who does not get on well with bees and the boys I don’t think it would be right.  I would also like to have some chickens but again Treacle and chickens!  I don’t think so.
Susie x
 

Better Day :)

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My new sewing box.

It opens out and then are places to put things in the top and then the bottom.

The glow are little led lights to make the inside brighter.  I love, love, love it.
Today has been a better day.  Girlfriend passed her driving test, yeah!  I got most of my jobs done, just need to finish them off tomorrow morning and a few pieces of work and I have caught up which makes me feel better.
Eldest brought home his project for his A’Level Product Design exam and it is a sewing box for me!  It is lovely and he made it for me! I have already filled it with sewing things and it is sitting next to my machine.  He then took pictures of it for his design folder and then said it has to go back to school tomorrow for marking!  Oh well I will get it back eventually 🙂  We are so proud of him.
The weather has still not been good, my garden has gone from looking quite dry to sopping wet.  All the plants look as if they have had enough water for the rest of the year, although they are saying that we are still in drought and will still have a hose pipe ban this summer.  I cannot decide whether it’s worth changing the plants in my pots and putting in any seeds for our little vegetable area, if we can’t water.  I will see how it goes.
Tomorrow evening I am going to be cutting out Eldest’s quilt and try and get some blocks done as well.   
Happy Thursday
Susie x
 

Miserable :(

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I have been having another one of those weeks!  We have only been back from vacation for just over a week now and it feels like we were never away!  

Last week I had to go somewhere and a person where I was at managed, in very few sentences, to make me feel a useless mother!  I won’t go into the boring details but I came away feeling dreadful and then of course I started to think about other things and anyway one thing and another and by the end of the week, I felt completely blue.
Things are difficult with work at the moment too and then with the weather, rain, rain, rain and more rain, it is making me feel dreadful.  
Then I thought of Winnie the Pooh and his little black rain cloud and it made me smile 🙂 

I’m just a little black rain cloud
hovering under the honey tree,
Only a little black rain cloud,
pay no attention to little me.

Everyone knows that a rain cloud
never eats honey, no, not a nip.
I’m just floating around over the ground, wondering where I will drip.

Then it made me sad again as I used to read this to my Boys when they were little and they are no longer little and don’t need me to read to them any more!  
Are you getting the feel of how I feel this week!  I think this weekend I need to do something for me.  Youngest is out on a two day camp this weekend where he and four other Scouts have to find there way to a camp via the train!!!  As you can imagine I am having kittens about this (there is a leader with them to get them in the right direction if they need it but…..) and Eldest is working on Saturday evening waiting on at a function at the Golf Club and The Girlfriend (who is lovely and we all love her a lot) is taking her driving test tomorrow and well that’s about it.
Sorry to moan but oh ………
Susie x

Nottingham Patchwork Group

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Despite Monday last being the first full day back at work/school etc I still went to my quilt group in the evening.  The theme for the evening was antique and old quilts and several members had brought in quilts that had been handed down in their families, or they had acquired from thrift or antique shops.  
They were all fascinating, especially those with a history and one of our members has a fondness for Welsh quilts and had done a couple of workshops on how to create them.  I only managed to get a couple of pictures of the quilts she had made at the workshops, but they were lovely.
Susie x

Friday!

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Our Ornamental Cherry Tree in full bloom

The Ribes now full out.

My beautiful wisteria just coming out.

These are the eggs from our friend’s chickens in Inverness where we stay.  They are great for baking.
Yep I spent Friday running around doing errands.  Eldest to school to work on one of his A’Level projects, Youngest went to the dentist, then on to the grocery store and then to the dry cleaners.  Lunch I hate to say was at McDonald’s (this was a bribe for the Youngest as he was getting to spend his whole day off school doing all the jobs with me!), the Bank, the Chemist and finally the Post Office!  I got home in time to unload the car and then go back and pick the Eldest up from school, again!
I didn’t get the cleaning or the washing done so that had to be done today!  As well as The Boys getting haircuts.
They are off to a swim meet this evening whilst I do the ironing!  I said to DH a while ago “Do you remember when we used to go out on Saturday night for dinner and dancing?”  now I spend the evening ironing and he is at the swimming pool!!!!!
I took some pictures of our garden as things are starting to bloom and if now looks like spring, despite the hail storm we had for over fifteen minutes earlier in the day.
Have a great weekend.
Susie x
 

Thursday – A Productive Non-Productive Day!

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Treacle clipped and shampooed and looking great, holding on to her toy!

Today was one of those days when I got lots done but still had lots to do.  

After getting The Boys off to school, I then took Treacle to the groomers for an overdue haircut and bath.  She had been in Kennels whilst we were away so it was great for her to be clipped and washed this week.  I dropped her off at 9.30am and then went on to my friends house, Avis, who is going to quilt the one I finished last year.
I thought I would have a go at doing it myself on my small sewing machine but having done my Linus quilt I did not think I could get this small bed quilt through the machine well.  Avis said she would be able to do it and we talked about the pattern and cotton to use.  I can’t wait to see it. Of course we got talking about quilting and Avis showed me some of her other quilts and before I knew it two and three quarter hours had gone by and I was late to pick up Treacle.
Fortunately she was not tied up outside on her own and we got back for her lunch!  I then called round to drop a card off at Eldest’s friends house as it is his 17th Birthday tomorrow.  My friend should have been at work but wasn’t, which was a nice surprise so had a cup of tea with her and then by the time we had caught up it was 3.45pm and the Boys would be home in half an hour!
I hadn’t been to the shops for food, or to get a new pair of Scout trousers for Youngest, or to the Bank or to get a postal box or to the dry cleaners!  So I had a great day but not completed all my errands.
Tomorrow The Boys are off from school as it is a teacher training day but Eldest is going in to do some work on his assignment for one of his subjects and Youngest has to go to the dentist, I also have to do the jobs that I should have done today and the cleaning and washing and ironing.  How many hours are there in a day?
I have almost caught up on work from the last two weeks we were away so that is one good thing.  
Hope you have a good Friday, think of me whilst I am running around!!!
Susie x
 

Easter Vacation

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Snow began falling about 4.00pm

This is outside the front door of the cottage – pristine snow!

Looking out of our bedroom window towards Invergordon.

An arty picture!

Another arty picture with the local train going past.
 
Here are a few pictures of whilst we were away for Easter in The Highlands of Scotland.  We have been going up the The Highlands for many years now and at Easter have had every sort of weather, really warm t-shirt and shorts weather and very cold but never have we had as much snow as this year!
It was quite a shock but great fun.  
Susie  x

Homeward Bound

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Tomorrow we are heading home, all 420 miles of it.  We will then get Eldest home on Sunday and Treacle but as I said yesterday work starts with a vengeance and DH and The Boys are heading off to The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham (about an hour a way from our home) to help set up the exhibition on Sunday, which he is going to be at all week!
Of course with all The Boys out of the house I can carry on quilting, in between doing the washing, and getting ready for School beginning on Monday morning!  I also have to go to the hospital on Monday afternoon for a dreaded check up and a “poke around” to make sure everything is okay since last September.  Quilt Club is Monday evening but I don’t know whether I will have the energy to drive the hour to and then the hour back from the club.  I think I will see how I feel on the night.
I hope everyone has a great weekend whether you are quilting or not and think of us on our travels.
Susie x
PS There is a Quilt Shop we pass on the way home and you just know I will have to stop and look and even buy!!!!!

Best Laid Plans

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We are away at the moment on vacation and I had loaded a post to go on Easter Sunday and of course it did not work!!
So To All My Readers, Followers and Fellow Bloggers  I do hope you had a lovely Easter and that the weather, where ever you are in the World, was kind.  
I will show the pictures when we get back as I do not have a good internet connection but if I tell you we are in The Highlands of Scotland and got snowed in last week you can probably imagine what it was like.  This week has been a typical April here with heavy rain one minute and then glorious sunshine the next!  At least it will hopefully “bring forth May flowers” as the saying goes.
I will be back next week, back into work with a vengeance as DH is away all week at a business exhibition and the Boys will be back at school!  
I have been quilting while I was away and will post some pictures of that too.
Susie x