Hi Everybody

Well it has been quite peaceful after the helicopter incident and I have made good progress with my Seasonal Quilt top, in fact I have completed the central piece and just have to start on the borders.

I am very pleased with how it looks but it is smaller than I thought in total.

As I have been off this week and no great plans in store I have played more with Hetty and we had a lovely snuggly time

and she enjoyed playing on the remodelled toy I put in her cage to shred.

Have a lovely rest of week and I will see you again on Sunday.

Daisy

Hi Everybody

Well you might be aware that it was my birthday on Sunday and today to celebrate we visited Gunns Bakery( which is celebrating 50 years) in Sandy, Beds where they make the Bedfordshire Clanger – a suet pastry crust filled with a meat or veg. dish at one end and your pudding in the other (I chose Gammon, Potato and Onion and Roasted Apple  – which was the traditional one – and my husband had Beef steak and Potato with Rhubarb and Custard).  They were smaller than I thought but so so tasty.  Definitely recommend a visit if you are down this way anytime.  Mr Gunn personally served us and he was so polite and attentive and we had a little chat with him only to find out that his wife originated from the village where we live.  Such a small world.

Settling down back at home, my husband was trying to have a rest and I was attempting to sew my quilt when a helicopter appeared and landed in the field at the rear of our garden.  Now it was very strange because the field had been left fallow for a few years – I mean the grass was 4ft high at least and the owner yesterday and this morning flattened it down and removed any small shrub that had took up residence.  Then this afternoon this happened – now I don’t know whether it was serious or whether it was training (must watch local news tonight).

The crew got out – took of helmets, leaving them on the ground and loaded their packs on backs and walked down the lane at the back of our property.  It all looked very official and real.  Yes it was the East Anglian Air Ambulance

A little while later the pilots got out (sadly not Prince William) and walked down the lane.

Ten minutes passed – pilots returned but not rest of crew –  started helicopter up and left amidst tremendous noise and dust/grass everywhere.

Hoping it wasn’t anything too serious.

Well that is my excitement for the day.  What have you been up to?

Daisy.

 

 

 

Hi Everybody

Today is my Birthday and what a glorious sunny day it is (well in Bedfordshire it is).

This  is part of my present from my husband, as seen in a previous post he bought me some boots and one day this week, as I am not at work, we are visiting Gunns Bakery to sample a Bedfordshire Clanger.  For those who do not know what I mean it is basically a pie with a meat or vegetable filling in one end and your pudding in the other.  Traditionally a food that farm workers would have and very similar to a Cornish Pasty.

On the sewing front, I have half sewn the white border between the Autumn and Winter Seasonal Quilt (no picture) and have been sewing Audrey in the evenings.

This is where I was …….

and this is where I am now ……

Well that is all my news so far this week – I’m sure that I will proceed with vigour and determination in my time off work.  Hopefully will also have more time to read and drink tea.

Bye for now

Daisy

Hello Everyone

It has been a little warm for concentrating, but I have managed to finish the Pirate Quilt top which I am quite chuffed about as I kept forgetting about various seam allowances with the various shapes involved in this quilt.  It is not perfect but I am happy with it in general.  Now all I have to do is sandwich it all together and quilt it.  I will be quilting it through ditching as I am new to this and that seemed easiest.

Here are some closer images

the centre piece

top corner.

It needs an iron.  What do you think? and any tips on pinning or laying out?

Daisy

Hi Everyone

I do not whether you remember, but I stated that my mother had given me an aubergine plant to keep and look after.  It got off to a really bad start due to snails eating the leaves and it being the most cold and windy week.  Against all odds that plant has survived and now has it’s first flower.  Because of the above – mum gave me a second plant and that has faired much better – it has had three flowers that dropped off but it has now produced the first aubergine ……..

I’m really pleased it has produced because I thought it maybe wasn’t warm enough for them to grow outside of a cloche or greenhouse.

That’s all on the garden front.

Daisy

 

Hi

Hope everyone in the UK is enjoying this sunny bank holiday and that everyone else is happy sewing whatever the weather.

Well it is too hot to sit and sew a quilt but I managed during the preceding week to complete a border for the Autumn Section and attach it, and also prepared the Winter Section ready for a border.  When they are attached it will be sewing the black hexagons for the final border and then the delicate art of piecing the backing, the middle and top layers all together – another new for me.

I have also been sewing Audrey at evening time and this is the progress I have made to date …….

This is where I had got to on 18th August …..

This is where I am now.

I also have to confess that I relented and purchased some more goodies which I have had to wait for as they were not in stock at the time but worth the wait.  The first is another cross stitch of a fawn …. bambi!

Is it not cute!!!!

Secondly, I purchased some long stitch kits which will become part of a quilt which I have been slowly building in my mind.

I am going to have a busy winter when it arrives – but not just yet.

Fair thy well for now

Daisy

Hi my friendly bloggers

Just some sunny flower pictures …….. couldn’t resist these in the supermarket, so cheering in the morning when you come down

Bye

Hi Everyone

This is quite a picture heavy post but none the less interesting with several subjects.

The doves have made a nest in the cherry tree …. Juliet on her nest.

and whilst I was in her area and not wanting to scare her off I quickly took a photo of the gorgeous yellow begonias and managed to capture a sunbeam

me thinks the only gold is the colour of the flower.

Next I took pictures of the maple tree and pieris which keep on producing flowers and more leaves in a beautiful burnished orange/burgundy colour (Maple tree) and loads of flowers ready  for over wintering on the Pieris Forest flame.

Finally I took some pictures of the oak tree in its new pot.  Cutting its roots off when we replanted doesn’t seem to have harmed the tree and it has acorns in abundance.

then I took some pictures of flowers mingled in with the fern fronds – it almost looks like a jungle in miniature …….

lobelia, rhododendron, and fern fronds

white fuchsia and ferns.

Last but not least more fuchsia, pink and purple variety.  Is it me! or does this not remind anyone else of the Little Swans dance in Swan Lake. (I know there are normally four dancers but just use your imagination as they dance delicately across the stage.)

Final picture for this post

Gorgeous!!!!

Bye for now

Daisy

 

Hi Everyone

This is just for fun – does anyone remember Johnny Morris- who used to do a talk over with animals.  Well this is my version

We have two ring necked doves who frequent our garden and have laid eggs these past two years successfully raising one chick and unfortunately losing their baby earlier this year.  I have named these birds Romeo and Juliet as they continually coo to each other.

Today, Romeo was very brave and came quite close – within a metre of us to feed from the little bowl we put out

His mate Juliet is not so brave so we moved the bowl further away

but she quickly changed her mind and went to the water  in the little pond and to our surprise jumped in getting her tail and bum feathers wet.  Her mate went wandering over to see what she was about (didn’t notice the blackbird come scurrying down the garden for the food) ……….

“What are you doing, Juliet” “Bathing” she replied dunking her head and giving it a shake.  “Do you mind if I drink your bath water darling?”, he quizzed.  “No feel free, my love”, she responded dunking her head and splashing about then she quickly jumped out, and leaving footprints all over the patio went back to the food tray and then up the garden squatted down to sunbathe. ………what a life!

The End.

Daisy

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone

In England it is our August Bank Holiday, so 4 days off work.  For the school children it signifies the holidays’ are about to end and school will start.

On to other things, the garden is looking good, but the Bank holiday weather is looking to be a scorcher. (29 – 31 degrees C) – so I have taken some pictures of different flowers before they wilt in the heat.

Firstly the little Patio Dahlia that my husband bought at a local supermarket.  All of a sudden it developed a ring of flowers and just by chance it is the same colour as the one in the chimney pot at our back door.

There are geraniums planted around the bottom of the pot on our little front garden

My husband loves his lawns.

Next I photographed the beautiful hibiscus flowers that look so delicate but such a beautiful shade of pink.  Shocking I think.

Sitting down with a cup of tea after doing the weekly grocery shop, a friendly bee kept visiting the fuschia plant so I tried to capture it collecting the nectar.  They have all been white bummed bees – no yellow bums which is a little worrying.  I love how on one plant you get so many different shades of flower as they open out and then go through the process of dying changing colours deeper and deeper.

Well that’s all folks for now on the garden.

Thanks for reading.

Daisy