Saturday, yesterday and today it has been quite windy, so March is definitely leaving like a Lion this year. Although we have had some sunny days but it has been quite cold at night still.We put the hour forward on Saturday evening and I am already feeling tired! To be honest I was feeling tired anyway but not having that extra hour, oh boy! Coco is all confused of course as she is expecting breakfast and dinner at certain times and now it is an hour ahead!!!!
We had some very sad news that a very good friend and swimming colleague, Gail, passed away on Thursday last. She and her husband had just come back from a holiday in Scotland and she did not feel very well, she went to hospital and they did all they could but they found she had pneumonia and despite best efforts passed away. The above picture was taken at Youngest’s 18th Birthday party and we have known Gail and her husband, Pat, since Youngest was five years old and Eldest was nine which was when we first joined the swimming club. She taught Youngest to swim and then when he was 14 he started working with Gail on poolside when he was doing his teaching courses.
Gordon is doing really well with his training and here he is with Blaze on the bedding which was on the floor waiting to go in the washer. We can’t decide if Blaze wanted to cuddle with him or he was just holding Gordon down!!!! They are doing really well together and we think that Blaze having been with Coco for as long as he was he is quite happy with Gordon although he does put him in his place when he gets to be a bit of a nuisance! DH and I puppysat him yesterday for a few hours whilst they were out and he was very good.
DH was away on Friday night and at the swmming event all day Saturday and got home about 8.30pm. I had a lovely dinner with Youngest & Fiancé on Friday night and then spent all day Saturday quilting. I have now completed all my blocks and just need to get them put together.
As promised here are the pictures of my Spring flowers in the garden:
Of all the Spring bulbs I love Daffodils the most. I just love the big yellow flowers. My violas from winter have come back strong and I chose the lavender coloured ones last year. I am not sure how long the bulbs will last because our soil is so wet during the winter and quite often the bulbs just rot but I will plant them again this year and hope they come up.
It has been sunny again today but not that warm, Coco doesn’t mind though as she has her thick winter coat still. She is now booked in for a Spa Day on April 11th.
It was so cold this morning I had a hot chocolate in my Christmas Mug!!!!
This week is busy but quiet if that makes sense. I am at home today and tomorrow with our work and out on Wednesday with Eldest and Thursday I have home jobs to do because Friday we are babysitting Little Man for his Mummy who is going back to work. The weekend is completely free, I know don’t faint! There are loads of things to do at home so it will be pick a job and get on with it. The weather is supposed to be nice all week so we could do a bit of gardening and a few jobs inside too! In fact every weekend in April is free so we are going to make use of those free days to get as many jobs done as possible.
Also we have the Easter long weekend in which we are going to paint Youngest’s room to create the guest room. we will probably use it because we also need to paint our bedroom as well. At least we won’t need to use the air mattress in the sitting room like we have in the past. In fact we could have a winter bedroom and a summer bedroom if we really wanted to! I suspect we will be fighting Coco for possession of it!
Have a wonderful week you lovely lot and I am hoping to post every day this week!!!
We have a new member of the Parr Gang, little Gordon. He will be the smallest of us all but we will make sure he is safe with Honey, Blaze, Star and myself!!!! I am sure Mom will try and get a picture of us three dogs together when he has had all his vaccinations.
I am also in trouble with Mom. At the weekend she changed all the things in our home from Winter decor to the Spring decor including Mom and Dad’s bedding which is all white with a very nice and comfy cream throw on their bed. It has been a bit wet over the last few days and although Dad wiped my paws when I came in they were not quite dry. When Dad leaves for work I always hop up on the bed and snuggle with Mom for a bit or lie there whilst she gets ready and well you know what happened; I got some mud on Mom’s clean, white bed!!!! I was not popular.
This was me the other evening when Mom and I were watching TV. Mom keeps saying I need a Spa day but as it has been cold still, she is putting if off for a bit.
I was fast alseep!!!!
Dad got back and Mom was in the sewing room so we were both sat on Mom’s chair!
When they all came for lunch on Saturday Little Man was outside with Dad and I in the garden and on the deck. Little Man was directing operations!
You all know that I love books and of course on Instagram I follow lots of Publishers who give previews of new books to be published and I also have found quite a few people who review books and give their take on whether they like them or not, five star reads or not. Of course one of those books which some people have raved about and others who have said they do not like is Colleen Hoover’s book “It Ends With Us”. It is not a book I would normally go for because of the subject matter but I think everyone now knows about this book because of the film from the book and the hoo-ha around it with Blake Lively suing Justin Baldoni who in turn is suing her!
I personally don’t like Blake Lively, having first seen her in the film “A Simple Favor” with Anna Kendrick who I do like, which is why I watched the film. Ms Lively came across in the film as arrogant but of course that is the part, however it now seems that her personality is like that in real life! I have always liked Ryan Reynolds until I heard about the accusations being levelled at him with this whole mess of suing and counter-suing. I am sure it will eventually be a he said/she said trial but Ms Lively reminds me too much of Amber Heard and THAT trial.
It also now appears that People on Instagram talking about the situation are being cancelled or having their accounts affected because of reviewing the various articles/filings etc. If this is the case how much influence do Lively & Reynolds hold that this can be done? Going back to the book it was promoted as a love story and yet it is not, it is more about domestic issues and so some people have read the book not knowing this and have felt that it should have trigger warnings on. I believe, as I have not seen it, the same happened with the film with Ms Lively promoting it as a romance and Mr Baldoni talking about the domestic issues. From what I have read and seen about the controversy, I am leaning more towards Mr Baldoni than the other side!!!
I do have this book on my TBR shelf which is about a struggling writer, Lowen Ashleigh, who is asked to finish the remaining books of author Verity Crawford who is unable to finish them due to an injury. Lowen starts to sort through the notes and outlines of the books hoping to find enough material to complete them but then finds an autobiography which was never intended to be read, revealing secrets which need to stay hidden. Should Lowen reveal them to Verity’s husband or keep quiet? I rather like the sound of this but have not got around to it yet.
In the midst of all this of course we have Meghan Sussex’s (!) new show on Netflix! I have, again, not watched it because as far as I am concerned she burned all her bridges when they left the UK and all that she and he said about The Royal Family was disgusting. The bits of “With Love, Meghan” I have seen, again on Instagram, have been shall we say cringeworthy. Taking pretzels from the plastic bag they came in, putting them into another plastic bag which she then labels for a guest at the “fake” house. What about all their eco stuff, using plastic bags and the fact it is not filmed in her own home but a hired one I mean really?
The programme has been resoundingly given a negative by all who have watched every episode including Gwyneth Paltrow yesterday morning with her take on how to make breakfast in your own kitchen, with your dog and coffee in a cup with your initials on it!!!!!! I did laugh at that as it came across as genuine which Mrs Sussex does not!
As you know I do not read the news at all because it is so depressing but these two TV/Film things have been keeping me entertained!!!!!! 🙂
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We, of course had a busy weekend with Eldest, Partner & Little Man coming to see us for lunch on Saturday and staying for a while which was lovely to see them. We spoke to Youngest & Fiancé as they were busy over the weekend too. I did get a few jobs done but not all of them so will be doing the rest this coming weekend. DH is away Friday night setting up for all day Saturday swimming event in Leeds! I am going to have dinner on Friday night with Youngest & Fiancé and their new addition to the family:
Please meet Gordon, their West Highland White puppy who is ten weeks old!
He is so cute! We have not seen him yet but I will see him at the weekend. He is having his first set of vaccinations tonight and then the second lot in a fortnight and then he will be able to meet Coco and Honey. We now have three dogs in our family and two cats! Blaze has taken to him really well, after being with Coco for so long, which is making life a lot easier for everyone. He has been named after our friend Gordon who, with his wife Corinne, lived in Scotland both of whom have sadly passed on now. Welcome to the Family Gordon!
I hope you lovely lot had a wonderful weekend and a great week to come.
I always think of Wednesday as being one of those funny days. We have got over Monday and Tuesday is usally getting sorted day for me and then Wednesday I am usually with Eldest but he is doing some more training for being an on-call firefighter, DH is there because of some work being carried out so there was no point in my going today, I will be going on Friday instead, so I had a “free” day! Do you ever have those days and you think I will could do a million things and then end up doing nothing? Well that was me today.
Over the last few days it has been really cold here and Coco, despite having quite a woolly coat at the moment, has been snuggling up and she did this, this morning so I did not get up as early as normal! I got a lot of our work done yesterday so only had a bit to do today. I could have done some quilting or some reading or got ahead with my home jobs but I really did not feel up to doing any of it! I think sometimes you do need to rest and not do anything so decided that would be today and I have really benefitted from it.
Tomorrow is home jobs day and grocery shopping and then I will be at Eldest’s all day Friday. Saturday I am going to get those extra home jobs done with DH’s help and then Sunday he is out all day so I can do more quilting and in between all that some reading too. I am getting on well with Jayne’s and I book club book.
I did get all my washing & ironing done the other day but of course the pile is growing again as usual. The weather tomorrow and Friday is due to be warm during the day and spring like and my daffodils are starting to flower as well as my winter violas which are looking great. I will have to get some pictures to show you.
We have just over a week to go before we put our clocks forward an hour, which I actually hate. I love having the light nights but hate losing that hour, I never seem to feel the same until the hour goes back in October!!!!
I hope you are all having a good day and middle of the week, Thursday tomorrow.
To the Patron Saint of Ireland and if you celebrate I hope you have a great day!
The weekend was quite hectic and today was busy with work, although I did sneak in a couple of hours this afternoon to get my ironing done and then this evening retrieved my car back from Eldest now he has his new vehicle, so I am mobile again!
This week is busy again with work, as always, which is a good thing and in between work I will be getting home jobs done and this weekend DH is out again on Sunday at another swimming meet commentating (!) but I will be able to carry on with my quilting.
If I get an evening free I will also be quilting or reading! The quilt I am working on is a double (Queen) size so I am just in the process of making the blocks at the moment which are, when complete, 12″ x 12″. I love the process of putting the quilt block together and then I will be able to put sashing between the blocks and work out how wide and then how long it will be. I think at the moment it will be five across and five rows down, but I will see how things go.
The Baby Qullt is smaller of course and quite bright and I know that will not take me long to do that.
Saturday DH is at home so we have a few home jobs to do which I need his help with but they should not take too long and if it is nice we may even be able to get some jobs done in the garden. Thursday and Friday it is forecast to be 18°C during the day but dropping cold in the evening so that will be nice, it is absolutely freezing today!
Hope you lovely lot had a great weekend and a good week to come.
Have you had chance to do any quilting today? I haven’t, although I was planning on it but things changed yesterday so I did not get my home jobs done. Today I got it all done and the washing & ironing whilst DH and Eldest were on their day trip. Tonight we had the final round of the swimming league and our Club came third out of six and the swimmers did really well and had a great time.
Tomorrow will be my Quilting day.
I have started to make the blocks for the double bed quilt which needs to be done for May and I also need to cut the baby quilt out that is also needed for May. I also have plans for two other single bed quilts which I need to get done for September and October this year as well as planning for Christmas as well. I also need to plan for a quilt which will be needed for next year and I have about four things which need completing and yes I have about two quilts for me that I want to do at some point!!!!
Do you find that you have plans to make quilts for yourself but then get over taken by quilts required for other people? I have really enjoyed my quilting over the last two weeks and need to keep the momentum going!
Have a wonderful weekend and hope you get time to do some quilting either today or tomorrow.
This week has flown by and it has been busier than I thought it was going to be. Yesterday DH and I went to visit a long standing customer in North Wales and the weather for the drive was great; very sunny but very cold! On the way we got to see the seaside and also quite a lot of very tiny lambs! Spring has really sprung. I did take my book with me and got quite a few hours of uninterrupted reading and it was glorious.
This is my Book for March and have just finished and loved it. I have read quite a few of Edward Marston’s books now and love the Railway Detective ones.
It is 1866 and Giles Blanchard has just finished dining at his Club in Chichester and gets on the train in First Class to go to Portsmouth so he can get the ferry back to his home on the Isle of White. In the carriage is a young woman who starts to talk to him, just before the train leaves a naval officer climbs in to the same carriage. Just as things begin to be interesting between Giles Blanchard and the young woman he is attacked from behind and strangled to death by the naval officer. The woman and he leave the carriage at the next station and move to another train.
When Mr Blanchard’s body is discovered Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are dispatched from London to Portsmouth to try and discover who killed him and why. It is further complicated by a rash of women on the Isle of white, Chichester and Portsmouth being blackmailed by a woman and man who threaten them including one young woman who is companion to Queen Victoria, currently residing at Osborne House on the Isle of White. Can Colbeck & Leeming find the culprits quickly?
I love these mystery books as they are historical but also quite gentle and well written. They can be found in all formats at the usual suppliers.
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This is the book I have now started, which is the first book of Jayne and my Book Club. I already have a few of Laurie Gilmore books so I am sure I will love this one too. I look forward to hearing what Jayne thinks.
Today has been busy; my new washing machine has been delivered so I can now catch up on all the washing I need to do and I need to make a start on my home jobs too. DH has been out all day with Eldest and tomorrow they are going to look at this car. Tomorrow evening we are at the local pool for the final round of the League and then Sunday DH is out all day at another swimming event and I will be quilting.
I hope you have all had a lovely week and a great weekend to come.
Well the old saying of March comes in like a Lamb and goes out like a Lion is coming true here in the UK. It was very mild and calm at the beginning of the month and after a quite warm weekend too, today has been very windy even though it is only the 10th day of the month. After the warm weekend today has been a shock to the system as it is cold again and we are due for freezing temperatures at night all week too!
I am still without my vehicle as Eldest has repaired his but decided that now was the right time to sell it and get a different vehicle. He no longer needs the truck as his work does not really require it and ovbviously with the growing family it would be better to get a bigger vehicle so he is going for a VW 4×4. It will mean that the children will have more room in the back with all three car seats in. He and DH are going to look at one on Saturday so he is keeping mine until then.
The weekend changed from what was planned of course and Saturday DH was helping Eldest. We saw Youngest & Fiancé Friday night and Eldest, Partner & Little Man on Saturday night and then DH was out all day yesterday at swimming. I did spend yesterday quilting and I will show you it when it is done. My Engaement ring is back and they have made a wonderful job of it. Please ignore my hand, this picture makes it look dreadful!!! My wedding ring is my Mom’s, my engagement ring is in the middle and the top one is my Eternity ring which DH gave me on our Fifth wedding anniversary which has five stones in it; two rubbies and three diamonds. We have taken two other rings in to them to get them cleaned and sorted; one was given to my Mom on her 21st Birthday and the other is my Grandmother’s ring. I have plans for those later in the year.
This week work wise it another quiet one fortunately and on Thursday DH and I are going to visit a customer in North Wales. We have known him for a lot of years and when he used to visit us when the Boys were small he used to help them with their homework whilst we were sorting out paperwork!!! I am hoping that the weather is nice.
I am having a new washing machine delivered on Friday when DH is at home. Our old one is not that old, six years, but it has been heavily used by us all and I have found that on the white wash there are black oil marks appearing and it has now ruined one of DH’s shirts! Obviously these marks could be appearing on the dark clothing but we can’t see it!! DH thinks that a bearing is going and it is throwing oil into the machine when it is washing. We looked at getting it repaired but with the call out fee, the possible price of the part, if they can fix it, and then another visit it could almost amount to the price of a new machine which of course has a three year guarantee on. SO we decided to buy a new one.
Saturday night we have the final round of the swimming league that our Club is in at the local pool which I will be helping with. Sunday DH is out all day again at the big pool for another event so I will be quilting again. This week and next Eldest is doing some more blue light training so we are keeping an eye at the garage then the following weekend I am hoping to get some home jobs done on the Saturday and then Sunday DH has another swimming event so I will get another quilting day in.
My sewing things before Eldest came home! I will have to get some pictures of the room now but it needs a good Spring Clean and does need painting too. But the set up is more or less the same.
DH did suggest that I move all my sewing things into Youngest’s room now they have gone and then set this room up as the guest room. Youngest’s room is bigger but that means more furniture needed, but I do like the smaller room as it is very cosy. We could get a double bed in here as Eldest had a king size bed but then it does not leave much room for any other furniture. So I think we will leave it as Youngest’s will be the guest room and I will have this for my sewing room. However we know that as soon as the guest room is all sorted it will actually be Coco’s room!!!
Little Miss Floof likes the chair in here anyway!! Speaking of Floof she needs a spa day but it has been and is going to be so cold I am putting it off, hoping that it will get a little warmer soon. Easter is usually when we start sorting the garden out after Winter but we are going to paint Youngest’s room so we can get that sorted. We really need to paint Eldest’s room and ours as well so perhaps we can get that all done during the Bank Holidays this year. If all goes well we may be able to get some gardening done during the Easter long weekend too.
Two pictures of Little Man. Above in Grandad’s Truck. Little Man loves buttons so he had all of Grandad’s emergency lights going!!!
If that is not a cheaky little face I don’t know what is!!!! Waiting for food at their treat dinner of McDonalds.
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great week to come.
Well I thought it was going to be a quiet week but in fact it has been really busy! DH is back at Eldest’s today sorting out a few things and I have not got a vehicle at the moment because Eldest’s needs a repair and is waiting on the part, so he is using mine until the part arrives! Not that I am bothered as I have plenty to do at home!
As we have had a book theme week I thought I would carry on today with books. I mentioned about whether it is considered “reading” when you listen to a book. I know of a few Bookstagram people who not only read the book but listen to it also, not sure if it is at the same time or as well as! I have been listening to books whilst I have been with Eldest at his business and quite enjoyed it, although I am not sure about the book I am listening to at the moment.
K. L. Slater is from Nottingham and still lives there, which is DH and my hometown, so this was why I decided to download this book as it is also set in Nottingham.
Saffy gets a message from her childhood best friend Leona “Can’t speak….don’t text or call…..please just come”. She sees the message and then it disappears. When she gets to Leona’s home she is there with her young daughter, Saffy’s Goddaughter and her husband and everything is okay, well Leona tries to persuade Saffy it is. Saffy leaves to collect her young son from nursery worried about her friend but she has her own worries and needs to sort her own life out without interferring in her friends. Then she finds the Police on her doorstep as Leona, her husband and young daughter have disappeared and Saffy was the last person to see them. They begin to question her but not as a witness but more as a suspect!
I liked the first bit of the book until the Police started to question Saffy and it has been written with quite a heavy hand and from the point of view that they believe Saffy to be guilty of the disappearnce. However that really could not be the case for one women to disappear two grown adults, one of them a man, and a little girl who is her Goddaughter. It really does not come across very well. Then for the next several chapters it waffles along bringing in Saffy’s own troubled life with her ex-husband and his attitude towards her and the fact that he has full custody of their young son and is using him as a weapon over Saffy.
It is one of those books in which I will carry on to see what happens in the end but I don’t think I will read/listen to any of her other books. Of course this is just my opinion and if you look there are quite a lot of people who absolutely loved the book, good job we are all different!
One series I have really enjoyed is the above one with June Whitfield as Miss Marple. Sadly no longer with us, June Whitfield was an amazing actress, mainly comedy, but so talented on the radio too and in the theatre. I think I will be looking for more of these to listen to and getting some books on Audio that I have already read and know that I like so that I can listen to them whilst at Eldest’s.
This week the weather has been quite spring like during the day but cold at night with frosts in the early morning but at least we have seen the sun for a while. This weekend it is even going to be 17°c during the day but then next week back to normal temperatures. It means that the garden will start to grow so that will need to be added to the list of jobs to get done as well!
Happy Friday you lovely lot and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
We have a book theme going on this week on my Blog. Today is World Book Day and I am hoping to be able to do some reading later.
My Local Library, Aspley, Nottingham.
Books played a big part in my life from when I was little. Every Saturday afternoon Mom, Dad and I used to walk to our local library and get our books for the week. We all loved books and in our local library there was a room right next to the check out desk which was for the children’s library. After a while having read a lot of the books I was anxious to get my “grown up” reading cards so I could choose books from the main part of the library. I will always remember getting those tickets and as you were in the main library you got six!
These are the old type of tickets you were issued with and the Librarians used to put the slip from the book into them so they knew who had checked the book out.
The library was a great place and of course it was long before computers and Google at home so if you had homework assignments you quite often had to go to the Library to find the information to complete it! Our local library also had a room which had desks in for you to do work at. I used the library for a long time even after my parents had passed, but then I was earning and I started to buy books with my paychecks. So began my collection of books!
If you have followed me for a while you know that with the books we own I do re-read them again and again but DH does not as he has an extremely good memory and can remember the books which says a lot about my brain!!!! I also love to keep my books as they are like friends, even if I have not read them for a while.
The Boys in The British Library, London in 2005. They were nine and five.
Our Boys had lots of books when they were little and they too love reading although they do not read as much as they used to, they do read when away on holiday. They always used to love World Book Day at school as they got to choose a book each to add to their collections. We have started Little Man off on his book journey with quite a few books already. For his Birthday we bought him the Ultimate Book of Vehicles and he loved it.
We took the Boys to Hatchards, the Oldest Bookshop in London, in 2005 and here they are choosing books. Youngest managed to find one of the small seats and was quite happy sitting there going through the books, the pile at his feet are his selections!
I hope you get chance to do some reading on World Book Day.
Yesterday I was with Eldest at his business doing paperwork and the accounts and I got there at 7.00am and left at 8.00pm! It was a very long day and freezing cold although we did see the sun for a little while. Today is home job day as well as washing and ironing. Grocery shopping tomorrow and I am hoping to get the quilts cut out tomorrow so I can begin to sew this weekend.
Have a great Thursday and it is almost the weekend.
Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco Bookworm xxx
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