For #TBT picture this week a photograph of our whole family in the “Mirror of Erised” at the Harry Potter World Tour from 2012.
If you saw the films or read the books you will know that the Mirror of Erised shows you your hearts desire and according to Albus Dumbledore “The happiest person in the world would look in the mirror and see a reflection of them, exactly as they were.”
In my photograph the mirror is showing me all I desire my family; DH and our Boys, Eldest and Youngest. I love this picture and have it as my background on my computer I use every day, so that wherever they are they are always with me.
I hope everyone is having a Thrilling Thursday. Because we had Monday as a holiday we seem to have got to Thursday really quickly this week! I have house jobs to do today and have done some work as well.
Youngest’s second appearance on the BBC1 Drama “Doctors” aired today, here he is in a screen shot :
Tomorrow I have some errands to run and I am hoping to get on with my quilting as well.
I have been very busy at home helping with the gardening. Mom and Dad spent all day outside on Monday and I was busy pulling sticks out of the pile and then I heard about if you plant things they will then grow and flower so I did this and am now patiently waiting for a new tree.
I am sure I will have a tennis ball tree very soon!
I was also very busy helping Mom with her quilting. As you can see I did not want to see what she was working on so turned my back to the work table!
But then I just had to turn round and see what she was up to.
I did help a lot in the garden but then it was all too much and I just had to come inside and have five minutes rest! I did sleep very well that night, all the fresh air you know!
I think Mom and Dad will be out in the garden again at the weekend so I am making sure I get plenty of sleep in before then so I can help. It is great fun as they do stop and play tennis ball with me!!
We did it! What you ask? We managed to get the garden sorted. Sunday we got some plants put in and did some tidying but the weather was not with us and we had thunder storms and heavy rain. Fortunately yesterday was better and warm but cloudy which was ideal for gardening. Later on in the afternoon the sun appeared but we had got most of the work done by then.
Here are some pictures of a walk around the garden to see what we have done. Quite a few pictures here.
The vegetable planter, things are starting to grow and we put the summer plants into the pots.
These are the new plants we put in and surrounded them with a new organic barrier to hopefully stop slugs and snails eating them. At the moment it is working but I don’t want to tempt fate!!!
This mass is growing along our garden wall and contains a hardy Fuchsia, flowering, a Lonicera “Sweet Sue”, Wisteria “Lawrence” and the Rhododendron which is just beginning to flower.
We tidied up this area which is a favourite of Treacle. She loves the shade made by the conifers and loves going underneath and hiding in there!
The steps up to the top part of the garden had become a little overgrown so we got all of the weeds and plants out and tidied up the edges. We need to get some more decorative stone to put down on them. This picture does not show how steep this bank actually is. On the right we tidied this area up and are going to transplant some of our Primula to here as they will like it underneath the existing plants.
The above is Weigela Florida busy flowering.
We trimmed this Berberis as it gets out of hand and cleared underneath. Again we will try to grow some Primula underneath.
We cleared these areas and around the Boys Den. We are again going to put some week suppressant down and some stones around the Boys Den to stop the weeds growing.
This is the biggest change and where all of the work was done by DH. There was an old Forsythia plant on the right next to the Boys Den. It had grown out of hand and was only carrying flowers and leaves on the top most branches. We had cut it down before but it was just too far gone to make it behave properly so DH decided to cut it down completely. If it decides to grow again we can then train it properly.
We have decided to put some new plants in and are looking for a hardy rambling rose to grow along the fence and then put in a couple of my most favourite plants Rhododendrons in the gaps between the ferns.
Below is what we cut down and it is on the top deck waiting for our brown recycling bin to be emptied next week for it to go in there. It is very, very full now with all the rest of the gardening we did.
This is the other side of the garden and as you can see there is not a lot of weeding to do but it will all need trimming in Autumn.
As you can see this Rhododendron is flowering well.
We did tidy the deck before we put all of the old Forsythia on it!! We need to get some more stones for under it to cover the weed suppressant. A pair of blackbirds are nesting in the conifers to the left.
Finally we got the patio sorted and tidy after the rain the day before which had made a mess!
Treacle spent all day with us outside and had no sleep, so was very tired last night. We also spent a lot of time throwing tennis balls for her!!! It was amazing how many we found under the bushes!!!!
We didn’t get anything done last year and it was great we managed to get all the jobs done in a few days and it was not as bad as I had imagined. When we get the new plants in and stones etc it will only take a couple of hours to keep it looking as great as it does now. Autumn will be a good time to get everything else sorted and trimmed before we go into Winter and hopefully it won’t be such a big job next year.
It was a long day and I must admit I was very tired at the end of it but so pleased with all DH and I had got done. I hope you liked the walk round and I will show you how things develop over the summer. I am hoping if the slugs and snails don’t put paid to them to be able to show you some more flowers in the summer.
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend whatever you were up to and going to have a great week. It is a short week for us but plenty going on of course.
I can show you this now, as Sue has received it. Molly (http://northfordmaggie.blogspot.co.uk) and her Mom moved house last week and so I sent this as a welcome to you new Home and some Bonios for Molly. It arrived safe and sound and she loved it.
One of our best friends their daughter is expecting her first child in October, their first Grandchild, so a baby quilt is needed, It is quite surreal really as their daughter used to babysit the Boys when they were little and now she is having her own baby!!!!
Anyway they don’t know what they are having so here is the fabric I have chosen?
I think it will look great whether it is a Boy or Girl. I couldn’t take the pictures outside today as it has been raining, although still warm. Tomorrow it is due to be back to sunny and warm which I am looking forward to.
DH and Youngest are out for most of tomorrow filming for his final assignment for college so I will be working on my super secret quilt. So it will definitely be a quilty weekend.
Whatever you are all up to I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
We are having come wonderfully warm weather at the moment but tomorrow it is due to rain of course but then the weekend, which is a long one for us again, is due to be warm and sunny. So DH and I will definitely be in the garden getting jobs done.
I always love looking through our photographs on the computer to show you a Throwback Thursday Picture and found these from May 2013.
This was Eldest and Girlfriend before the Sixth Form Ball in May. This was just before they took their A’Levels.
So although it was only five year’s ago (the above picture was taken a few weeks ago) they look so much more mature now.
The new Duchess of Sussex was at Prince Charles’ 70th Birthday Garden Party on Tuesday and looked every inch a member of the Royal Family. There is still a lot of talk about the wedding and those for and against the dress, I am “for”. I saw the florist interviewed at Chelsea Flower Show who did those fantastic flowers and she explained that the couple wanted a very natural look and I thought they were stunning. Of course the weather helped.
I have been going through my diary trying to arrange to see our friends, amongst all the swimming/carnival events and have managed to find eight Saturdays between now and end of November when we are not doing anything!!!!! I am hoping that our friends are going to be able to do some of these dates, otherwise we will be having them all at home in one go!!!!
No it is not a new disease although it sounds like it! It stands for General Data Protection Regulations and comes into force from the EU tomorrow, May 25th. Here in the UK we are being bombarded about privacy messages and a few friends in the USA have had them and are concerned about it.
The new regulations are coming into force to try to stop data breaches and people using data held by companies etc for other means. Companies collect your data such as emails, addresses, telephone numbers, date of births etc when you buy something or enquire about something and then retain the data to be used again by them. There was also a time when some companies would sell their email list to other companies and the new rules are stopping that.
If a company holds your data they will now have to encrypt it so that if there is a breach the data cannot me used. If you do not want the company to retain your details then just opt out when they send you can email and they have to then remove it.
Through our business we are having to encrypt our data despite the fact that the data we hold is about our customers or prospective customers and they have given us their data but it is to stop any breaches. The swimming club are of course have to do a lot to keep the data safe and encrypt that because of the information held about the swimmers and their parents.
A question was asked about Blogs and this falls under a different section of the regulations
Article 4(18) defines enterprise as ‘a natural or legal person engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form, including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity’
Most blogs have a follow button and that is then linked to an email address. This is stored by the platform you are using ie not stored by yourself on your personal computer. However if people are not happy about their email being stored by the software then they can un-follow the blog but that means they will not receive updates when the blogger adds a new post.
Therefore you have to take a view on how you are seen on the World Wide Web. I will say that with all the social media platforms out there and the amount of data that people share on that, having your email address out there is probably quite a small thing, but that’s my view!
To my Followers if you do not wish to receive any further blog updates via email because of the new rules, then I completely understand if you wish to un-follow me, although I will be sorry to see you go. However I will never use anyone’s email address for anything other my posts.
Hugs, Susie x
PS Sorry that was a boring post! I will put something else better up later!!!!
Why is it that some actors make a programme and then some actors completely ruin it. In fact when you look back on all their performances they are actually rubbish at acting and wonder why they are ever offered another part!
I was scouting round on Netflix for a series to watch whilst I was ironing and I found “Person of Interest”. I know I am late to the party as it began in 2011 and ended in 2016 but it has five seasons so I have plenty to watch and I do like Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson and Taraji P Henson but then came across the episode in Season 1 with Amy Acker in. She is just awful. I remember seeing her in Angel when I watched that and then she was in an episode of Grimm and she is just the same in every part she has. I once read an article about her and the critics lauded her and said she was the best actor of her generation, I think they were watching the wrong person! However these bad actors make you not want to watch the programme!!!!!
I skipped the episodes with her in and still got the gist of what was going on!
It is that time of year again for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The Queen attended yesterday and looked lovely in pale pink and the weather has been amazing.
My favourite of the Show Gardens is this one below
This is the “Welcome to Yorkshire Garden” above by Mark Gregory and it won a Gold Medal. We saw it on TV last night and the colours were wonderful and very much a cottage garden. It was also awarded Best Construction. The little hut is actually making cheese during the show. Have a look on-line at all the flowers. One of my favourites is featuring a lot this year, the Lupin. Unfortunately we cannot grow them here although I always try because they get eaten by the slugs and snails!!!!!
Tonight I will be doing some quilting for my super secret quilt and I also have some planning to do of things which I need to get done and things I would like to get done!!! You know I love lists!
What a great wedding and although we were only invited via the media I think we all enjoyed it. I loved her dress, I thought it suited her (please mind the pun!!!!) down to the ground. I am sure that there will be a little one on the way before long.
On Friday after running errands I went to our local garden centre for a couple of plants and some other bits. As you can see from the sky it was so hot the sky is just a very pale blue.
I also went up to our local farm shop, Croots, where they have horses and sheep. Here is the new foal who is a month old now. It was so warm he was asleep!
The lambs are growing fast and were busy grazing despite the heat.
This is the view from the farm shop across the valley. It really was a beautiful Spring day.
In between watching the wedding DH and I managed to get a few jobs done in the garden, although it was too hot at the top of the day to be outside.
The furniture came out and the umbrella, after a good clean we set it up on the patio.
I got some more seeds put in the my grow house and gave it a tidy.
I emptied the pots and put new compost in and planted the summer bedding flowers. They will take a little while to fill out but will look good soon.
DH tidied this corner next to the shed and wall and put some new gravel down. It is where we store the compost and sticks and the watering can. We found the frog hiding behind the compost bag but he moved to behind the vegetable planter.
This pot has sweet pea seeds in and will hopefully get going soon.
Here is my vegetable planter with a couple of tomato plants in and some cucumbers and lettuce and also some herb seeds. It will be interesting to see what comes up. All a little bit of trial and error at the moment.
It is a lovely warm day again today and the sun is shining, unfortunately I have a basket of ironing to do as well (!) having finished my work this morning. One benefit of becoming a new Duchess is that Megan will never have to clean or iron ever again unless she wants to!!
Tonight I will be working on my super secret quilt. My machine came back from its service and it was all okay just needed a lot of clearing out of bits of cotton and fluff. I have been told I need to bring it in sooner rather than later next time! Oops!!!
Don’t forget to take my picture Mom. (I love this picture as we have an Airedale shadow!!!)
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