Well Wimbledon is over for another year and to be honest I did not watch as much as I normally do.  The Women’s draw I had no idea who most of the players were and had never heard of the two finalists.  I was actually out when they played their final.  I did see the Men’s final yesterday, a repeat of last year, and also the same winner, Alcaraz.  It was not the most thrilling of matches to watch.  I also got a little fed up this year that the reports of Wimbledon were more interested in who was attending and what they were wearing rather than the tennis!  I despair sometimes at the media’s attention of so called celebs!  It was great to see The Princess of Wales there though.

We don’t watch or follow Football but England lost in the final of the European Cup to Spain, so Spain had two celebrations yesterday!

DH and The Boys were at Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend and the event was on this year, after the high winds last year meant it was cancelled.  This is when they arrived first thing in the morning waiting for breakfast! 

The Start of the Uphill bit.

In the Paddock looking at them preparing the cars for the Hill Climb

“The King” From Cars

Ferrari – Lewis Hamilton’s Team next year!

A great picture from one of the Grandstands opposite the House

Partner, Girlfriend and I had a lovely evening together on Saturday, with Little Man of course.  I decided rather than getting a Takeaway I would have a go at making some Chinese dishes.  I made Chicken Chow Mein. spicey beef, sweet & sour chicken with rice.  It was good but I have respect for Chinese takeaways every where that produce all these meals in ten minutes when it took me about four hours to make all the dishes!!  Next time we will have a Takeaway!

The Boys got back about 1.00pm on Sunday and we got a few jobs done and then had an early dinner and went to bed as we were all shattered!!! 

This week is a quiet week work wise.  Jayne and I are going for lunch to a new pub tomorrow and then we have friends coming for dinner on Saturday night.  This weekend and next DH is not at any swimming events so we can get a few jobs done and also have a couple of days off too.  I am hoping that the weather is going to be nice so we can do a bit of gardening and also have some time to sit outside.  The weather this summer has been awful, with quite a bit of rain and cloudy cool days and it looks like it is going to be like this for the rest of the summer.  We are away soon on vacation and although it is great to have sun and lovely weather, I am not that bothered I just want to be away for two weeks from work!  Youngest & Girlfriend unfortunately are not able to come up and see us but they will be home sitting for us and looking after little Coco.

Now I have my sewing set up in Eldest’s Room I won’t be taking that with me but I will be taking lots of books to read.  It will be great as I won’t get too many interruptions!  I will show you the books I am going to take with me and also do Book Club Friday this coming week, it was a little busy last Friday!

Have a lovely week. 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

As DH was not here for two nights, Madam made use of his side of the bed!

Well after a bit of a wrangle and a lot of finger pointing WordPress did eventually sort out the issue with my Blog, which was of their doing not mine!!!!  I like how whenever you are dealing with Help Desks that the first thing they say is well it is your equipment/software/how you are using the thing!  It happens often here when you ring British Telecom the first thing they say is that it could be your telephone and if so then you have to pay!  Like not being able to make calls is anything to do with a handset I have in our home!!!!  Give me strength!

Anyhoo it looks like it is back to normal for the moment!

We managed to get some more jobs done in the garden and here are quite a few pictures from the weekend.  We look as if we are going to have one of those summers where we get a few nice days amid lots of rain again!  It helps the garden because as you will see the plants are loving it and are very green, not so good for us who want to sit outside and enjoy some sunshine.  We did sit out on Sunday for a while which was nice.  Eldest, Partner, The Girls and Little Man came for Sunday Lunch and then Youngest got back too.  It was lovely afternoon and Coco played ball with her two Boys which she loved and did not have a sleep at all during the day, so by Sunday evening she was absolutely wacked!!!  Here are the garden pictures.

My Lavender in its pot.

This is my Clematis which flowers during the Autumn/Winter.  I thought it had died last year but left it and it has gone mad this year and now looks very healthy!

My Tomato Plants

This is Coco’s Viewing Point!

My third Rhododendron in flower

This varigated tree, above and below,  started off as a little stick which I planted and it has now grown into this lovely tree.  It is not very big but provides a lovely dappled shade on our patio during the summer.

The Squirrel always tries his luck on the bird feeders but they are squirrel proof so he ends up sitting on top of the feeder hanger.  Treacle used to hate him so much and yet Coco does not bother about him in the garden, she just watches him running around!!!!

My fox glove.  Love the pink but I did have a lemon coloured one but it did not seed itself!

I love Hydrangeas but they do not like our soil, so we decided to put one in each pot and I am hoping they will do well in them.

This week our weather is a bit of sunshine but still lots of rain.  Saturday is the same and it is Eldest’s Partner’s Birthday so they are coming to us and we are having a Takeaway!  We were hoping to sit outside but that does not look like it is going to happen!  It is my Birthday next week so we are combining the two events and Sunday is Father’s Day, so celebrations all round.  My Mom thought it was great when my Birthday was June because she thought I would have all my Birthday parties outside.  Well over the years I had parties I think I made two or three outside the rest were inside because, you guessed it, it rained!!  They call it “Flaming June” but for us it is the annoying kind not the hot kind!!!!

Latest picture of Little Man, the one above I love.  He has started to roll.  The one below is when he rolled in his sleep!!  When I put him in his Moses Basket on Saturday he was starting to roll!!!  Won’t be long before he is up on his knees and crawling.  Eldest was walking properly well before his first Birthday and I think Little Man will be taking after him!

I have done really well with home and work jobs this week; got them all done and am keeping up to date with them too.  It always stresses me out when I get behind with things so at the moment everything is a-okay!!!

I will show you pictures of Saturday next week.  Still have some jobs left in the garden to do but of course it is an ongoing job!!  I hope you lovely lot had a good weekend and a good week to come. 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Finally it is all done, well a few things left that I need DH to help with, mainly the light fittings.  Being 5’4″ tall I cannot reach them but DH at 6’2″ who also has long arms can get them down without a step ladder!!!  Also the pictures we have on the wall up our staircase even DH needs a ladder for that, they still need cleaning but everything else is done.  It has been polished, dusted and washed to an inch of its life, here are a few pictures of our home and although you can’t really tell it is very clean!!!!!

Our Dressing Room, the bag on the stool is waiting for the winter dressing gowns to go in to store for the summer.  The weather over the last few days has been nice and warm so time to swap over.

My hanging rail which looks so much tidier now.  The pink hangers are new and fit the rail so much better.

Our Room and the tail of Miss Floof!

Youngest’s Room with Miss Floof’s bed.

Eldest’s Room, now my sewing space which I have had a tidy up of but still need to do quite a bit.

This is what Coco does, when I am cleaning she follows me round from room to room!

This is the airing cupboard which, like the room, needs painting which we will hopefully get done this year. 

Our Den, which is our office, and in particular my desk with Miss Floof’s basket next to it. 

DH’s desk which is not as big as mine, but he does not spend all day here like I do.

I spent quite a while in here decluttering things and tidying things up especially these shelves.  I did do the filing cabinet but need to get all the papers from the business year out to store so will have a second go at tidying those then.

It is a nice day today so Miss Floof had her lunchtime biscuit outside.

Our Dining Room.  Everything has been polished and all the glasses and pots in the dresser have been washed.

Our Sitting Room, again everything polished, dusted and washed.  As it is nice I have the windows open to let in some fresh air, something we have not done for a long while due to it being cold and very rainy.

DH and I went through the books and donated quite a few to the Charity Shop and the above shelf is my TBR!!!  I know, I need to get reading!

This is looking into our Laundry and those are my quilts which I have on display which are going to be washed and the winter dressing gowns. 

Our Breakfast bar and one side of the kitchen.

The cooking side of the kitchen and the door into the garden is open so Miss Floof can run in and out!

This is my spice rack and where I cut vegetables and things.  I bought the new spice jars which fit better on the shelves and they can hold one jar of herbs and spices.  I saw them on Instagram and liked them but the while labels they did not have all the names, so I used Eldest’s label maker.  DH is going to take the white labels off and I will replace them with the black labels so they are all the same.

You will notice that the kitchen, laundry, den and downstairs bathroom are very white! This is the painting we did over Easter and it now looks very bright and clean! 

We did do quite a lot of decluttering and must have taken over fifteen bags to the charity shop and still have quite a bit to do espcially the attic things.  Our Garage is the next big project and we do have a few weekends to get that, the garden shed and of course our garden done and sorted.  All four of us went through clothes that we had stored in the attic in the vacuum bags and got rid of quite a lot and now only have things that we are definitely going to wear in there.  Still there is quite a bit still to do.  During our Village Carnival week when DH is out every evening, I will be sorting boxes and things out.  My plan is to move our sofas back in the sitting room, one to the window and one to the bookshelves and create a large area to have the boxes stacked and plan to go through them all then. 

I also have other things to sort out like old pictures from both sides of our families.  They are currently stored in a clip box to keep them safe but I am thinking about getting some albums or scrap books to put them into, but that will be a job for winter I think.  As the weather is getting better the garden will be our priority.

I still have curtains and cushion covers to wash but want to dry them outside and am waiting for a nice warm, sunny day so they can go out on the line to dry. Also waiting for a lovely sunny, warm day will be all the baskets and bins and Coco’s baskets which I wash outside and again let them dry in the sun. 

I need to clean and tidy my car and give it a wash too and our driveway and front garden need a little bit of attention but again I am hoping that the weather getting better I will be able to get a lot done.  I hate doing the Spring Cleaning but love it when it is done!!! 

Last week passed in a flurry of work and hopsital/doctor appointments. You get there early because of parking issues, then early for your appointment but then they are over an hour late!  So it takes up almost half a day! Today is a Bank Holiday here in the UK and DH is still at the swimming event (!) and I am just doing little bits and pieces at home.  DH also has a few weekends coming up for other swimming events so they are being set aside to do some more quilting.  I have a spa and hair appointment this week as well as work here and at Eldests and the usual home jobs and grocery shopping to do.  DH is at home all next weekend so I am keeping everything crossed that the weather is going to be good and we can start the garden. 

Have a wonderful week you lovely lot. 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xxx