Wall Art...

I have the best niece and nephew in the world and I miss them every day.


Just before Easter I received a squishy but very light package in the post. I knew it couldn't be Cadburys eggs as a) it was too light and b) I had received an enormous supply of Cadburys chocolate delights the week before. As you can see - my package revealed a couple of very life-like self portraits - one from Livs and one from Josh. Perfect! They now adorn the wall in our kitchen so I can look at them and smile every day! I love you Livvy, I love you Josh!

I love Duncs....

....I really do! We had the opportunity to re-connect with my 'virtual' baby - who is no longer a baby! Janine and Brian invited Mikey and I to have dinner and paint eggs with Duncs and Theo a couple of weeks ago. It was as wonderful as ever - although a little unnerving to hear Duncs chatting up a storm!
I don't know where my head was at, thinking that he wouldn't remember us; I got the biggest hug and 'Kaaaaaate' when we arrived plus a couple of 'I love you Kates' during the evening which was enough to melt my heart and keep me going until the next time we are lucky enough to see them!

Tomayto, Tomarrrto...

We have our first tomato....woo hooo!!! It's our first attempt at growing edible plants in our new garden. We agonized for far too long over the placement of our tomato pot but I think we got it just right. Thanks to my green-fingered Vati-bobs, I have now learned about pinching out rogue shoots, limiting flower 'sets', feeding once the fruit is set and weeding out superfluous foliage. And apparently tomatoes are supposed to be one of the easiest veggies to grow........ yikes!

Hanging Baskets

I decided to bite the bullet and buy and plant my own hanging baskets this year rather than buy pre-planted ones. It seems I timed it just right as the weather has been alternating between sun and rain ever since they were hung. Here's the before and after pics. In bloom pics to follow!

Chalk and cheese...

We love our garden! It was one of the main reasons we chose this house. I have always lived in a house with a garden and this house had such an English cottage garden feel to it - it was hard to resist. The biggest surprise has been how much the garden has 'de-hermitized' my wonderful husband. It's hard to get Mike in from the garden now - especially on these lovely summer evenings. I'm not sure how it happened but somewhere along the line an unspoken assignment was made; I tend the back garden, Mike looks after the front. Needless to say - we have different gardening styles. I'm going to leave it at that and let the pictures tell the story! Maybe yin and yang would have been a better title for this Blog entry; despite our different approaches/priorities - the end result, I think, looks pretty good!

Spring has sprung....finally!

It was a long, hard winter and it felt like it would never end - but one sunny morning in April (has it really been that long since I last Blogged?) the crocuses finally forced their way through the rock hard earth to add a splash of colour to the garden. Despite having owned a garden for most of my adult life I am still learning the nuances and tricks of the trade. When I planted my bulbs a year last winter I made two bad decisions; I chose spots with too little sun for my miniature daffodils and some of my crocuses. The result, as you can see was sad, withdrawn blooms in the shade and happy sun drenched flowers on the right! Live and learn!