Getting there....Paulie Cardigan

It's late, I should be sleeping, but I'm not because I'm celebrating a small victory.  I finished a sleeve!!!! I might have started it a year ago, but it's starting to feel like I might actually finish this cardigan one day!  Whoo hoo!  I'm all about celebrating small victories.

Now, must get quietly into bed, without waking the snoozing Sally who's slept the whole way through my celebration.  

Toodles...L x 

PS Don't forget make the most of the little victories!

Sharpsburg - Maryland

As with most holiday weekends these days, the past Memorial Day weekend saw the Mister join his Masonic/Shriner buddies to drive his little yellow car in a parade.   Lately I've been staying home when he toddles off to drive his little car.  To be honest, I've seen enough parades in the last couple of years to last me a lifetime, but as I've never been to Sharpsburg before and it's a good distance from our little town and close to some interesting historic places I'd decided to tag along.  

 

 (Loved the old flag stone foot paths on main street.)

 (I loved the old wrought iron fences,but as I was dodging people setting up to watch the parade, none of my snaps turned out well.  My perfect house would be an old two storey red brick with an old iron fence)

  (Library/Town Hall - if you ever find yourself in need of the 'facilities' in Sharpsburg, this is the place to head)

(Horses, the only things I deem worthy of a parade photo anymore - although technically the parade hadn't started when I took this photo)

Sharpsburg is a lovely little old and very historic town being that it is situated just a couple of miles down the road from Antietam Battlefield.  The population is barely over  700 and the town seems to have changed little in appearance over the last one hundred years.  There really wasn't much to this town I discovered after walking the rather long length of Main Street in search of a place to spend a penny.  One very busy icecream parlor, a bank and two crowded public bars.  Despite my long walk, the weather was perfect, the people friendly and I fell in love with the smallness, simplness and oldness (is that a word?) of this town. I just loved it. I have a thing for old houses, old architecture and Main Street towns. I would move there tomorrow.  And I will definitely go back for another wander around, perhaps on a parade free day (less people = better photos?) with the Mister in tow. I didn't do much other than my quest for the loo (thank you kindly lady in the library) and enjoying a nice shady vantage spot to watch a perfectly short and sweet parade. 

A lovely afternoon out.

Thank you for stopping by!

Toodles...L x ♥

Today....

Dragging yourself back into the real world after a three day weekend is never fun in my books.  After waking up late, no less than three trips back to house in our attempts to make the school run (missed the bus, forgot cream for funk on 12 year old's chin, forgot lunch money, then realized 12 year old's shorts were dirty!), being moaned at the whole way to school that he would be late and it was ALL my fault. Arriving home to find no milk, therefore no pre-work cup of tea and then finally dragging myself back to my work desk only to find the Mister had left me two surprise letters on my desk - doctors bills I'm afraid, nothing fun, just a reminder I have the worlds most expensive ankle, my mood was now pretty foul. To make matters worse, I then had to spend the day looking wistfully at the mess I made yesterday which I had spent with my beautiful sewing machine.  I half longed to continue my sewing spree and half wished I hadn't left such a mess!!!

My mood improved by lunch time when the little cardinal came to visit and my silly phone cooperated with a photo, albeit a wee bit blurry. 

 She is a beautiful little lady and I would sure love to see her man as they have the most beautiful fire engine red feathers.

 Just as my day at work was finally coming to an end, the most amazing storm rolled through.

I love a good afternoon storm in our mountains. No lightning to be seen, but a few good rolls of thunder.  It belted down for a good fifteen minutes and then it was all over.  I am thankful I won't have to water the flowers tonight!

I'd be a tab bit more thankful if Mrs Spudniski would find an alternate place to hang out rather than on top of the flowers I've just planted.  Of course I'd be entirely thankful if she could convince the neighbor cat, Skittles, to find some place other than my flower bed to do his 'business'!  We've aptly replaced the 'k' in his name with an 'h'.

Well I must be off!  I've just remembered that Shittles Skittles left me another calling card this morning and I must dispose of it!

Happy Tuesday!  Thank you for stopping by.


Toodles....L x ♥

Flowers

We went down to check on our caravan over the weekend.  Just a fleeting visit to check on the creek, more than the caravan.  We've had horrendous rains and had heard the creek was cresting it's bank.  I was anxious to see if our caravan had become a boat!  Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about.  As I wandered back from the creek to the caravan I marveled at those flowers in the first photo, hidden under enormous leaves. I have no clue what they are called.  As I walked back across the field I smiled at all the buttercups and daisies and the tiny purple flowers (no clue what they are called).  Even the mushrooms growing off the tree had me in awe.  I love these little wild flowers growing happily by the creek.

I do hope you are having a wonderful week!  The weekend is nearly here, thank goodness.  Thank you for stopping by.

Toodles...L x ♥

P.S.  Big thanks to Big J for taking these photos with his phone when I was too lazy to walk back to the car and grab the camera.

Wordless Wednesday.....

Toodles...L x ♥ 

Little Bowl - Ta Dah!

Before

After

I'm so thrilled with the way it turned out and can't wait to use it.  No photos of Little J's plate I'm afraid. I pushed him too far snapping photos and he had a bit of a grump and forbid me from posting them on my blog.  You know how those almost 13 year old boys can be, right?  Difficult.  Anyway, he loved it and immediately used it for his dinner tonight.  Can't wait to go back to Mr Toads!  Next time I'm thinking of a matching plate or cup!

Thank you for stopping by!  So glad tomorrow is Friday.....the weekend is almost here at last....

Toodles...L x

Blue Jay

 

I love this little bright blue guy who comes to our bird feeder each day.  He only comes when the feeder is quiet, no sign of the finches or sparrows or even the lovely cardinal I saw on Monday and who sadly hasn't been back yet.

 When he first starting coming, about three weeks ago, he flitted about very nervously, flying off if I so much as moved whilst I sat at my desk in the dining room. He would only pick the seed up that had fallen on the ground.

 But now he has mastered taking them off the bird feeder and tapping his beak on the fence railing as he eats them.  I tried so hard to catch him on the camera, but every time I moved he darted off.   He must be camera shy.

 As the weeks have passed Mr Blue Jay has become more relaxed, and not so shy about me watching him from a distance.  Today I was able to snap photo after photo. He must have come to the feeder at least 8 or 9 times throughout the day.  Obviously these are not the best of course as they were taken through my rather dirty window (which I had just cleaned, but it has been raining buckets here), but I do think they show up his beautiful blue feathers rather nicely.

 Late this afternoon, just as my work day was becoming beyond tedious and the end of my day could not come soon enough, I got a little surprise!

Mr Blue Jay had brought a friend with him!

Hello Mrs Blue Jay!

What a delight and a beautiful way to end my day.

I do hope all is well with you this week!

Thank you for stopping by.

Toodles....L x ♥

Something Different......

We've had a magnificent weekend here, beautiful weather and a lovely time with my family.  Mothers Day spent in the garden with my boys planting the beautiful flowers they bought me. Even Middle J, who's down in Texas at school for the Navy called me quickly before rushing off to stand watch.  

Saturday was spent doing something a little different.  Little J, the lovely girl Josslyn from next door and I spent a few blissful hours down at Mr. Toads Pottery (sorry I can't make the link work) being a little creative. 

We won't get to see our finish items till next Thursday and I can't tell you how excited I am to see them!  It was loads of fun. Litttle J was very serious, very quiet and I worried he hadn't enjoyed himself (initially it was just Josslyn and I going, but he decided he might like to try too), but he declared after we left that it was awesome!  So we'll be going back again.  Of course I will show you the finished items on Thursday!

I do hope you had a wonderful weekend and happy Mothers Day to all you Mums!!!

Toodles.... L. X

PS. Josslyn painted a Hello Kitty.  I took photos, but she is in everyone and I think her Mum would prefer I don't publish it on the www, which I can understand.

Garden Diary - May 8th

 

 

 

This week in the garden we've been digging over beds, potting, planting and watching things emerge from seeds sown late last month and little plants that miraculously survived our bitter winter.
So far we have growing from seeds -

• carrots
• beets
• peas
• kale
• kohlrabi
• cilantro
• oregano
• basil
• tomatoes
• pumpkins
• marigolds (to keep the bugs away)

We've planted beans, but there is no sign of them yet.  There are also rows of onions and garlic growing at a mile a minute and the chives survive yet another  year!  We've added sage, stevia, rosemary, catnip, parsley and citronella from seedlings we purchased at the nursery.  Big J has done a fabulous job this year planting seeds, tracking planting days, monitoring moon phases and fingers crossed, things seem to be growing well. Perhaps we're finally getting the hang of this vegetable gardening thing?

Tonight I noticed tiny pale purple flowers poking through between the bricks. I don't know what these flowers are, but they are a welcome sight.  Another lovely surprise this evening was the tiny violas that, by some sort of miracle survived the winter.  So fragile and yet so strong to survive.

We might only have a tiny patch in the city, but I'm determined this year to make the most of every inch.  Hopefully, like the beautiful weather today (85f), life this year will treat me kindly and I'll be on two feet all year! 

I hope your Spring or Autumn is as beautiful as ours.

Take care and thank you for stopping by.

Toodles  L x ♥

P.S.  Trying to stay positive, it's working, even when blogger decides to flip my photos around!  ☺