Meet the animals.....

Last night we went to Mum and Dad's for a barbeque to make the most of the sunshine, so I went armed with my camera to get some pictures of the animals (well the chickens and next door's two horses).



Here are the girls in their enclosure, right next to the vegetable patch (you can see the runner beans to the left - and they look very good too!) The chickens are let out into the garden during the day if Mum and Dad are home, otherwise they stay in their pen as its safer. They are well trained now and put themselves away at night all on their own! They've got quite a bit of room in their pen, but I think they prefer being let out :o)

here you can see their hen house a bit better - Dad decided to paint it green and I think it was a choice well made. if you look closely inside the enclosure you can see the fruit trees that the chickens can eat any of the windfall apples and pears that they want. There is also another tree to the right hand side outside the pen.

Today we let the chickens out but had to get them in sooner as Mum and Dad were going out. We had fun catching them as they didn't want to go in and they were running up and down between the beans! I had fun catching two that were running round and round the tree! Lucky that as soon as you put your hand on their backs, they squat down and let you pick them up.

Here you can see the girls a bit closer. The lightest hen on the top right is the only ex battery hen they have and since she arrived she is top of the pecking order - most likely as she is the oldest one. They are all friendly and always run over to you when you go to see them. If you walk alongside the pen they always follow - probably as they think you have goodies for them!

The horses wanted to go out in the field, so I let them out (wasn't I daring, especially when wearing sandals!) Bonnie ventured a bit further afield (you can see her in the background) than Brooklyn, who didn't get much further than the gate before putting her head down and munching away! its a hard life being a horse!

She was nice enough to pose for me in this picture - as I said she didn't go far from the gate, hence the lovely picture of her next to the dung heap (where dad had the endless supply of manure for the vegetables).

We have a budding gardener in the making ('scuse the pun!)..

Children of Leah's age learn things so quickly and copy EVERYTHING you do. I must have been watering the potted plants in the garden, because someone decided that they wanted to do the same thing with the watering can!

There is no water in it (can you imagine the mess that would cause?!?) but looks effective all the same! Next year I think I'll grow some fruits and vegetables in the garden and Leah can help. My beans this year didn't grow at all - you can just about make out their sorry pot in the back right hand corner of the garden, just behind the geraniums. I have grown tomatoes before, but I didn't get any from Dad this year.

Next year we plan to have some strawberry plants as Leah LOVES those. She would eat them until they come out of her ears!

I think she looks so sweet here :o)

Thursday's mail

I received a wonderful letter and some FBs from my dear friend in Holland. It was great reading what her and her family had been up to :o)

Hello dear, if you are reading this *waving madly at you!* You know who you are!! LOL! hahaha!

Wednesday's mail

I received this lovely swap of fbs from my dear swapper in France. Thanks for that, I enjoyed signing them all!

OTNs.....

I had a look through my knitting basket last night and here are the projects I have on the go at the moment....

1. A lacy cardigan for Leah in yellow Sirdar Snuggly 4ply (on to the last sleeve now)

2. A wrapover cardigan in Sirdar Snuggly daisy DK (I have to do the last borders and sew up)

3. A Mohair cardigan for me in Sirdar Blur - brown, beige and turquoise stripes - have sleeves to do (I hate those for some reason)

4. A pair of socks in a basket weave type pattern from the August issue of knit today magazine in Bergere de France caline yarn (4ply I think)

5. a bunny rabbit with only two legs knitted so far - this is going to be for my nephew William and I will make him (the bunny) some cute dungarees too.

I've got some knitting to do to finish everything - hahaha! Guess what I'm doing tonight? I will let you know how I progress :o)

I see a seal.....??

This was taken last Thursday in St. Ives when I was TRYING to get Leah to have a nap before dinner. Everyone else was going for a drink so I volunteered to walk around with her in her pushchair to see if she would nod off.

We (well I) decided to walk along the pier/harbour wall to see what I could see and I spotted a seal! I have seen them here before and it is quite common for them to swim into the harbour when the tide is high.

They really have cute faces, don't you think? Anyway this one was following in a fishing boat (clever little seal) and he did manage to get a few mackerel thrown his way!

You can see him (sorry, or her) waiting in anticipation here, almost like a dog! So cute!!

Jasper - Cornwall on a wet and windy ride!

Here I am horse riding last Tuesday, looking dry for the moment. Would you believe that 5 minutes after this photo was taken the heavens well and truly opened! I still had a good ride and Jasper looked after me well, he was such a sweet horse.

Here I am afterwards, looking a bit bedraggled but happy - as always :o)

Cornwall '08 - boat trip part two.....

We made a quick detour to the pasty shop (of course) before embarking on our trip, but I don't think Leah was that inpressed with it. I can't make out whether she was trying to escape from the pasty or her Daddy... Richard is enjoying it anyhow :o)

Here is my little monkey (Leah, not Richard) pulling her 'face' that she finds highly amusing at the moment. She does it when she's in a funny mood, if she doesn't want to eat any more, if something tastes different to what she expected or if you ask her to 'do the look' - more or less for anything really! You can see see she is enjoying her crisps - Organic of course LOL!

Cornwall '08 - boat trip part one.....

Here is a picture of me and my Dad on the boat trip we took from Falmouth along the Helford river on the first Sunday in Cornwall. It was a little choppy on the sea out of the harbour, but nothing too bad. As you can see it was a bit windy too! We had a great trip and leah seemed to like it too, although she wanted to walk on deck, but it was a LITTLE bit dangerous, seeing as she could have fallen overboard...

I got Mum to take this picture just to demonstrate how windy it actually was. I think the picture is rather fetching, don't you think LOL! Not one of my best poses! It was worth the laugh anyway :o)

Back from our holidays!!

We are back from Cornwall now and am in a pile of ironing up to my neck! Oh the joys of washing after the holidays!

We had a lovely time, although we didn't have very good weather which put a bit of a downer on the holiday as a whole.

Nothing can be done about that, you just have to try and enjoy yourself as much as you can.

We did make it to the beach a few times and did see some sunshine, just not as much as we hoped we would have....great excuse though for ice cream to cheer you up!

Brooklyn....

I just thought I'd post a picture of me in the saddle a few months back. I'm sitting on my friend's mare called Brooklyn and she's a real sweetheart.

Saying that, on this ride out she took me down a ditch backwards!! I don't think she wanted to continue and that was her way of telling me - we got out in the end anyway and I stayed on too :o)

The stables are at the back of the house (next door to Mum and Dad's ) so we never have to go far - it also gives my Dad an endless supply of manure for the garden vegetables. The potatoes seem to like it.....

My daughter the Mod!

Here is my little pudding sitting on her Uncle Scooter's Lambretta scooter. Doesn't she look cute?

You'll have to excuse my ugly mug kneeling beside her LOL!

Wednesday's mail

This is a lovely swap I received from my swapper in Japan - she always puts the fbs in a cute Hello Kitty paper bag :o)

Monday's mail

Sorry about the quality of these photos - my camera needs charging, so the flash won't work; I can't find the charger(!) and I'm stressed about getting everything ready before going away, so this is the best I can do for the moment!!!!!!

I received a lovely letter, some fbs and some memo sheets from my lovely friend in Denmark, thanks dear!

sent my fbs....

Here are some fbs I made recently and are on their way to K. in Japan, via a group swap. The theme was 'all for her' so the theme was free.

These are Diddlina fbs and have been sent today to S. in the Netherlands. I hope they arrive soon and won't take too long to arrive!

I don't know why, but I can never photograph them very well. They don't like to lay flat, I think its the the covering I use, its rather thick.... Lucky I bought some other stuff at the weekend :o)

My book arrived!

I almost forgot to mention that my book arrived today and I can't WAIT to get started! This book features the leaf patterned socks as mentioned on Roos Knits and I'd like to make those, along with the socks on the front with the scallop lace. I may have to ask Roo how to do the cast on though as I got a bit confused reading the pattern LOL!

You can see some of the designs at the favorite socks page from Interweave press. Enjoy, I know I will...

Only a few days left now....

We've only got a few days left now until our holiday and I'm getting the holiday bug - what a shame I have to work Tuesday and Wednesday!!

I've started to pack a few things (yes! Already LOL!) only towels, bed linen, beach stuff (hopefully - praying for sunshine!) just so that I don't have so much to do later in the week.

At the moment our spare room is a sea of clothes ready to pack and I still have a massive pile to iron. The problem with the British Summertime is that you can never guarantee what the weather will be like so you have to take clothes for ALL weathers (well apart from snow!) and end up coming home with half the clothes not worn. I'd rather be prepared than to get caught out :o)

I am looking forward to when I don't have to think of taking nappies, but I can't see that happening in the short term - especially if we have more children one day (not yet though, we're JUST getting used to sleeping through the night!)

Well, not much else happening here, I'm going to put my feet up and watch some TV before attempting our sandwiches for tomorrow....Coronation chicken and salad I think :o)

had a FAT lunch again!

Today we went to my parent's house for lunch as their friends were visiting to see our little nephew - and the rest of us of course.

Mum cooked a tasty steak and mushroom pie, with beans, carrots and potatoes from the garden (yum) and also some peas which weren't!

We visited the hens (who had laid 5 eggs for us - thanks girls) and fed them some clover flowers which they seem to love.

Our friends brought their dog, Oz with them. He is a black labrador/collie cross and is very friendly. Leah was a bit wary and didn't like him coming near her feet :oS He was very well behaved whilst we ate, and left us, and the food, alone.

We had a raspberry tart and lemon torte for dessert, along with some clotted cream ice cream, and me being a little piggy had a bit of both, and it was well worth it.

We also had a bottle of champagne to celebrate little William's safe arrival.

When we got home we watched the Hungarian grand prix, and saw the finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen win his first grand prix. I expect he was thrilled!!

Just going to relax now, I made some fbs Thursday so will post some piccies before I send out.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, we sure did!!

Got my liquorice swap.....yum, yum, yummmmmm...

Yesterday I went to the post office to collect my package - and yes - it was my liquorice swap from my friend in Finland, thank you dear, sooooo much!! ( I will e-mail you too xx).

It was DELICIOUS, and sad to say one bag is already gone (with the help of Richard and my Dad!!). That was the salmiakki one which is lovely. We don't have that kind here and it is definitely my favourite :o)

I am just looking forward to trying the rest now LOL!!

Today Richard and I have been pulling weeds from the garden - not our favourite thing to do but something that has to be done every now and again.

The sunshine and showers has made the weeds go mad, and what makes it worse is that the weeds escape from next door and come through the fence - so I've been pulling bindweed like mad and it keeps coming, and coming and coming! I got it all in the end :o)

I also gave the bird bath and bird table a feed so I can refill everything later and keep the little birdies coming. Well actually, not so little as we have quite a few magpies and carrion crows that visit our garden daily, as well as a pair of wood pigeons and a pair of collared doves.

Now we have just finished lunch and am going to relax a little while Leah has her sleep....