You know when you have lots to do and yet the days seem to whiz by, well the weekend whizzed by!!!  Saturday and Sunday it rained all day so we didn’t get any gardening done!  We did get some odd jobs done round the home and then Saturday evening we went out to dinner with our friends, Tricia & Kevin, who are now home after their sojourn living in Jersey!

We went to The Cock Inn at Muggington for dinner and then back to their home in Ashbourne for coffee. If was a great evening to catch up on all the news since we last saw them at Christmas.

Sunday was family day with The Boys and Fiancé and we had a lovely day, although it rained the whole day which put paid to us BBQ and eating on the patio!!!!  Youngest left at 4.30pm to go down to the Head Office for his training week and Eldest and Fiancé left around 7.00pm. 

Today has been really busy with work which is typical when I am trying to do ten other jobs before we go away at the end of the week!!!!  I will get there!!

I hope your Monday is going well!

Hugs, Susie xx

Now I know we Quilters have to be organised with quilted projects for Christmas so we start planning and sewing things from now, but some people just take it too far! 

Christmas in July was first mentioned in a French Opera “Werther” in 1892 in which a group of children are rehearsing a Christmas song in July.  One of the characters says “when you sing Christmas in July, you rush the season” and I cannot agree more!  Especially as Movies 24 here in the UK have been showing for the whole of July Christmas movies!!!!  Now I love Christmas, don’t get me wrong, but even I could not bring myself to watch Christmas movies at this time of year!!!!  #

I love each and every Season, as they all have something to offer and you get to do different things depending upon the weather.  So when people decide to interupt that as with Christmas in July it just doesn’t go!!!!

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Girlfriend loved her gifts, especially her bags I made her and she is now on holiday using them!!!  Her Mom has asked if I can make something for her to give to a good friend of hers, as that friend always gives her homemade gifts and Mom wants to give the same!

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We have had rain overnight and the temperature has dropped back down to 63°F, much more comfortable.  we are due for rain all day today and tomorrow.  Monday is back to normal summer temperatures and then thunder storms on Tuesday!!!  But not the intensity of Thursday which is such a relief.

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The final business week before we go away next weekend, so I am going to do all I can to keep on top of work and home jobs this week, so I don’t get to the weekend feeling frazzled!

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Thursday!!!!  Can’t wait!  I can also spend my MoneyBox Savings from the year too.  Also I am going to see:

Yes Jenny Doan is doing a two hour Trunk Show and I got a ticket!!!!  She is also doing a meet and greet afterwards so I am hoping to get some pictures!!!!

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Friday will be packing day!  Hopefully I will be all organised and everything will go smoothly!!!  Youngest is away all week at the Head Office for training so at least it will just be DH, Treacle and I.  Although I will still have the shopping to do for him for the following week as he and Treacle are here on their own!!!! 

Must dash now as I have lots of little jobs to do, as well as breakfast to get.

Happy Weekend Everyone.

Hugs, Susie xx

If only we were at the beach but not, and it’s HOT!!!!  93°F today (I use Farenheit as Centigrade just doesn’t convey the temperature at 34°C!)

DH is out and about visiting customers and that’s okay as he has air conditioning in the truck but answering Susan’s question earlier in the week, we in the UK don’t tend to have air conditioning in our homes and the humidity is currently 40% but increasing as the day goes on! So we just end up closing our curtains and blinds, switching everything off we can electrical that produces heat in any way, live on salads so we don’t have to cook and don’t sleep until the weather breaks!!!!

Tomorrow it will still be hot but only 70°F!! so we will all be wearing jumpers!!!!!

I am busy trying to keep up to date with EVERYTHING as we go away in a weeks time so don’t want to have to rush to get things done!  It’s a plan and at the moment I am sticking to it!!!!

#TBT today is our wonderful Boys.  The one below is from 2005 OMG fourteen years ago!  They were, and still secretly are (tee hee), great fans of Thomas The Tank Engine and our local steam railway always had several days during the year where Thomas came to the track.  Youngest was five and Eldest nine.

As we are away to Scotland I thought I would include this picture of the Boys at the Loch the cottage overlooks.  This is from 2009 so ten years ago and they were nine and thirteen. 

Also thought I would show you a throwback of a bit of our garden and what we did last weekend.

This is the bed on the right hand side of the garden and things had gotten a little overgrown and the blue spruce was only alive on the ends, so DH decided to “trim” everything back.  This means take things out and chop everying back hard!!!!!

Here it is now and we bought some plants last weekend that were on sale and have put them in.  We need to buy a few larger plants to fill the big gap or some four footed person will be up there if we are not careful!!!!!  It does look better!

I have already done the house jobs today before the sun was up and it got too warm and I have finished my work, work as well so am just now pottering around doing odd jobs, Treacle and I are just trying to stay as cool as possible.

Happy HOT Thursday everyone!

Hugs, Susie xx

Despite being up early every day and working for lots of those hours I am still trying to catch up.  I don’t know where the weeks are flying to!  We are away on vacation from August 3rd so am trying to catch up on work and home jobs before then.

It doesn’t help that today and the rest of this week we have high temperatures, not like some I know, but hot for us!!!!  Tonight they have forecast thunder storms but it won’t make it any cooler!!!  I have a basket of ironing to do so may get up really early when it is a little cooler to do that!!!!

The children finished for the summer last Friday and although our Boys are not now at school it still feels like it is not summer until the children finish school!  DH and I had some errands to run in Nottingham on Friday last and it was quiet so we got round quickly, I suspect it won’t be now!!!  We also got to see his two Cousins for lunch which was great, catching up on everyone’s news.  We also have a new edition in the family at the end of the year as Elaine’s daughter is expecting again, a little girl.  She is actually due on Youngest’s Birthday but of course that probably won’t happen.

As it is so warm and Youngest is going to be looking after Treacle whilst we are away, she is going for a spa day tomorrow!  I have actually managed to time it right for once as it is so warm at the moment!  She will be with you tomorrow for her Wednesday Wag.

I have had a few new Followers over the last few weeks, so I wanted to say Welcome and thanks for Following.  Also to Sue and Susan, all their lovely comments make me smile and make my day so thank you.  Welcome to Susie’s World.

I will try and get the Friday Book Club up for this week, sorry it is late but as I say it has been manic here!!!! 

I am off now to get dinner ready and I think, because of the heat, it will be salad and cold meats or possibly spaghetti bolognese!!  I hope your Tuesday is going well.

Hugs, Susie xx

I think I have actually met myself coming back these last few weeks.  It is always the same at this time of year.  We have been busy work wise which is great, but then it was Carnival, then busy with the Swimming Club as well as all the normal things that we do in the week with home etc!!!!!!  So sorry it has been a while since I posted anything, as it is I have a few things to show you.

Last Tuesday I went with Tangent to a very good friend of ours home, Chris & Anne, who keep honey Bees and Chris gave us a talk about them.  We saw the hives and then he showed us how they extract the honey from the combs.  The Bees are fascinating creatures and the honey was lovely.  You might not think that is a strange comment but for me it is because I hate honey, however this honey tasted really nice!!!!!

One of the hives under their apple tree.

The trays in the box where the bees make the combs and store the honey.

The perfectly made combs.

The comb ready for the wax to be taken off to get to the honey inside.

The comb in the centrifuge,  Two go in at a time to be spun.

Hand spinning to get the honey out, a two person job!!!!

The wax off the combs, which can then be used to polish your furniture!

The wax melted into a tub ready for use.

The combs are now empty and ready to go back for the bees to fill them again.

The honey from the centrifuge being strained.

Here is the honey ready to be poured into warm jars and sealed.

The honey is only collected for a short period of time in the summer and then the rest is left for the bees over the winter and suplimented by sugar water to ensure that the hive is healthy and happy.

We had a great evening, everyone had brought a dish to share and it was good to catch up with everyone. 

I know I missed Book Club last Friday so it will be on this Friday.  Sorry I have not been posting but it has been really hectic here!!!

Hugs, Susie xx