Floribunda Rosa

My poor Floribunda Rosa, if it isn't drowned by Welsh Leek

in the spring, it is drowned by Bindweed in the summer.

But, this year a friend gave me tip to get rid of the wretched stuff

and if the tip works I will post it on mt blog!

Tiger Tiger........

TIGER TIGER
written by William Blake

Tiger tiger burning bright,

In the jungles of the night.

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry.

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wing dare he spire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

On what shoulder and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart

And when thy heart began to beat?

What Dread hand? And what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp?

Done its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears

Tiger tiger burning bright,

In the jungles of the night.

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry.

I'm not being funny...............

............but hasn't that table been set for ONE?

His Character is so debonair!

Ian Fleming 1908 - 1964

He would have been 100 yrs old today were he still alive.

Not only did he write the famous

James Bond 007

he also wrote

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ranunculus

Meadow Buttercup

Cold,Wet, Windy & 'Orrible!

May Bank Holiday Monday - they said it was going to rain, come on! It's like a tempest without the thunder and lightening out there. Now the are saying the temperature is going up tomorrow! The week-end in the house hasn't been too great either. Nothing at all serious, just annoying nagging things.

1) Flowers which were free from Tescos because they sent me a voucher for Spray Carnations worth 99p - yippee someone buying me flowers.......well after twenty four hours they just collapsed over the edge of the vase looking like they are on their last stalks! I checked there was water in the vase - yes there was, the 'display till' date was 27th May, I can usually get at least three weeks out of my flowers by changing the water regularly and trimming the stalks.

2) The Top-Up Freeview box has frozen, we have tried turning the box on off a few times at the mains but that did not work, all I did was to record a programme about would you believe "Midsomer Murders" well perhaps the box has been murdered, you never know.......a post mortem may be needed by means of ringing up their helpline. The programmes I have recorded to watch when I am in the house on my own may now have to be lost forever and we will have to start again this will be the second time in doing this, the programmes which were downloaded by the Top-UP people some we scrap and some we watch now have to be watched one after the other because we are following a couple of series

3) The computer is taking-on-a-life-of-its-own. It has decided to tell us in no-uncertain terms the C-drive is overloaded, and we seem to be getting adverts popping up here, there and everywhere don't know why, we have upgraded the 'virus checker'. And the keyboard is playing-up, I press the keys and nothing happens on the screen and when it does half the letters are missing, it just like using and ancient "Remington Typewriter", I used to have one and the keys did just the same thing. Very frustrating!

I wonder what will happen next...........

Never mind back to work tomorrow!

Bread & Butter Pudding

Today is a wet and dreary Bank Holiday Sunday! It is very cold and damp!

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I make Bread and Butter Pudding with Apple.

Ingredients:~

Slices of Bread spread with butter

Apples (can be eating or cooking or combination of both) Peeled and Sliced

Raisins

3 Eggs

Milk

Sugar

Put couple of slices of buttered bread into the bottom of a heat proof dish. *Sprinkle with a handful of Raisins, few slices of Apples and a desert spoonful of Sugar cover with slices of Bread* and repeat from * to * once more.

Break three Eggs into a measuring jug and beat, the pour in Milk to the 1Pint level (1/2 litre) then beat together and pour over Bread etc. Sprinkle with Sugar and wait for about half hour minimum.

Then put into the oven for about one hour on 180 degrees gas 4

Second May Bank Holiday Saturday!

Do you remember counting the hours as you blew the fluffy seed heads off Dandelion stalk. You counted the number of blows for the number of hours - or if they blew towards you from somewhere they were called fairies!

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Today is May Bank Holiday Saturday or Whit sun Weekend!

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Got woken at seven this morning by some woman shouting at next door's dog after it escaped from the garden and went after her small dog being walked on a lead. The dog on the lead was better behaved than the owner, next door called his dog in and the loose dog which is all noise and no bite went in after the first call the woman carried on shouting at the owner who I think ignored her. The dog on the lead just wanted to keep going homeward bound!

The usual Saturday shopping expedition to the local Tescos. But now shopping takes on a whole new life. Now you see husbands with shopping list in one hand and mobile phone in the other ringing respective wives - the conversation goes something like "Hello dear - there are three variety of frozen chips, there are the chunky ones and the offer of what looks like the thin ones buy one and and get one half price and the waffles, don't we normally have those?" Well if you think you normally have those why don't you use your head and buy them, the wife is probably at home having a quiet moment away from that particular weekly chore! Me, I prefer to see what I am buying! And like this morning I check my till receipt. (I don't do it every week - it is just that the vouchers would not go through properly) The offer 3 for 2 was buy any cucumber, tomatoes or peppers. Well they hadn't changed the computer in the offices because the gentleman on the till had to ring for a price check of the tomatoes (I did not have the peppers but they weren't priced either) the said item was then added as produce! No three for two offer. After paying I promptly went to the complaints desk and the face on the woman who saw me arriving at said desk said it all! She did return my 97p. for the cucumber but I wonder how many other shoppers passed through tills and not notice the item was not on their till receipt? And then I discovered they hadn't put my green points on for the bag re-use by which time it was too late to go back!

The weather doesn't really know what it wants to do, I just want to know if I should cut the grass or not! The wind is getting stronger which is usually a sign for rain, I think I'll just continue to watch the film 'The Englishman Who Went up a Hill, but Came Down a Mountain' and decide after that! Perhaps another cup of tea won't come amiss either..........but despite the wind which is getting stronger we have decided to mow the lawn. It took an hour to do so with both of us working. For some reason the box on the mower will not pick up the long grass that has just been cut only the short bits, so each of us took turns to mow or rake the grass, three black sacks of mown grass later, the grass is now cut. Watching my husband massacre a four foot high Perennial Sow-thistle was a sight to be seen - I don't know what the plant had done to him but he went at it with a shovel like a man possessed! Now for a sit down and back to watching yet another film and another cuppa - well I think we deserve it this time - mmmmmmmmm! I wonder who is going to make it?

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I think this evening I will go back to my cross stitch, but I really want to start something else, but I cannot have too many things on the go because nothing will get finished. I have on the go at the moment my Millennium Sampler, Costume Sampler, Crochet Blanket (a friend asked me to crochet because she did not understand the American terminology). This month I have restored a piece of church lace, re-strung a coral necklace for a customer in the shop - that took me five hours, made a dolls house sampler which said "Home Sweet Home" (see 22 May). I want to do some bobbin lace, fine filet crochet (I now have the bug for crochet again) make two more quilts and I promised to make some book marks for friend for a church fete but that is August but it will soon be here!

Over the hill and far way............

This is the view from my back door..........

See you cannot see the hill!

(23rd January).

Home Sweet Home

This is a commission for a doll's house room box.

I also create these for card toppers. They do not

take long to make and a good way for using up ends of threads from projects.

If using them for card toppers attach with double-sided sticky tape.

Elderflower

I see the Elderflowers are out - do you think summer is on its way?

Alpine Strawberries

As long as I can keep the birds off - I should have some sweet mini strawberries this summer!

They started off as three tiny pots three years ago - I always feed the tendrils back into the pot.

Tortoises

Today was my friend's birthday. We both enjoyed a cuppa, and cream cake! Two of the tortoises enjoyed fresh dandelions!

Thank you...........

This is a "Thank you" card I made with my new computer programme and a photograph (sorry the faces are blacked out it is for anonymity) I had to replace my Greeting Card Factory because it decided to self-destruct! It would only print the pictures pixcellated! I purchased version7 last time I bought one was five versions ago! At the same time I purchased 3D arts & crafts - I can now create "pyramage" cards too, and that is what I have created here.

The card is A5. I printed the background straight onto the card. Then on satin finished photographic paper I printed the background again but with the centre missing which is part of the programme also the 'thank you' but printed this as 'ordinary paper as per printer instructions - then in the 3D programme I printed the photograph as a 'pyramage' but as if it should be on photographic paper. Turn the paper in the printer to stop wastage!

Cut with a craft knife, and used sticky-pads and created this

card, now it is awaiting the letter to go inside!

Laburnum

One of Britians hardwoods

Did you know it is related to the Pea?

Saturday, 10th May

We left here about 1.30 Saturday afternoon, the weather was unusally hot! I had raging toothache and the paracetamols I took would not kick in, so I tried to take my mind off of the pain whilst listening to "Harry Potter" we listen rather than read the story and only in the car so it takes us ages!

We called in at Tescos as we left an filled the car with petrol and bought sandwiches for a picnic lunch on the way. I was hungry so I had to eat and try and ignore the pain!

Apart from another stop at the services for a cuppa about three and more paracetamols, we arrived here for the night, hot and tired. But after a good meal and a good night's sleep and the toothache ceasing I felt a lot better.

Woodside - Kennilworth

Sunday, 11th May

After a leisurely breakfast at 7.30am we headed off for Royal Leamington Spa Exhibition Centre for the "National Vintage Communication Fair". I actually tagged along because we were going to see Robert, and once you have seen one of these you have seen them all. Lots of old radios mostly, but other things too like telephones, pianolas etc. if you can communicate with it it was there!

When it was ended at then end of the day we re-packed our car and went to see our friends Ken and Jenny whom we were going to stay with for a couple of nights.

Ken & Jenny's fishpond with giant Goldfish!

Monday, 12th May

We met Robert today. He works at Warwick Castle in the "Ghosts Alive" exhibition. We collected him from where he lives and took him to the castle, although it was his day off Robert swapped one shift with a colleague, donned all his make-up and did his performance which was eight minutes. It was extremely good even if we say so ourselves. When the performance was finished we were given a tour backstage to see how everything worked.

The oldest part of the castle built 1068 on the orders of William the Conqueror

The 'Trebouchet'

a medieval weapon
http://www.warwick-castle.com/

You do see strange things on the motorway!

These were seen on the motorway that afternoon!

Tuesday, 13th May

After an enjoyable breakfast, and helping our hosts with their DVD recorder, we all had lunch then, us two took ourselves off to the 'Redditch Needle Museum'

"Thousands of Uses for Millions of Needles"

We were the only two in the museum. It was extremely interesting. It showed how the metal was stretched and stretched to make the thin wire, then it was rolled to make it finer. The very fine wire was then cut into short lengths and stamped in the middle with two elongated holes, and then threaded onto two straight pieces of metal and sent onto the next procedure which was usually done by women and children at home in their cottages. The needles were snapped in the middle and the rough ends near the hole were filed off. They were sent back to the factory where men who were highly paid because they were probably dead by thirty ground the points finely, the dust from the stones and the filings from the metal would get onto their chest, not a healthy job at all. They were paid one guinea (£1.5 pence) per week. They went on strike when the owner said they were going to put in a ventilation system, because they said their wages would get reduced. The ventilation went in and the wages were reduced! But they did return to their job! After the grinding the needles were packed tightly into hessian with fine sand and soap-suds and rolled till they shone.

Wednesday, 14th May

One thing I noticed there was a lot of in the Midlands, there were lots of luminous yellow fields. We left for home about 10 am and arrived home about 2.30 pm. Toothache gone and forgotten for a while! We still have not completed "Harry Potter"! We are getting near the end though - please please don't tell me the end!

Thursday, 15th May

Dunster Yarn Market - Somerset

Today is a very sad day for me. It would have been my mum's 75th birthday, but she died five years ago. I miss everyday. I meet dad once a year in Barnstable to take flowers. We travel through Dunster to get to Barnstable.

If anyone has ever seen the "Poirot" series, the episode called "The Cornish Mystery" was filmed here!

Friday, 16th May

Back to normal after our week off!

Shopping - housework...........

Holiday Time!

I will be away from my computer for a few days.
While I'm away I shall hopefully be taking lot of photgraphs!

Bridge

Packhorse Bridge

Allerford, Porlock, Somerset

Cards

These cards were made with Peel-offs that can be stitched.

I used DMC threads and beads.

They were stuck on paper and acetate.

Top right circular is on acetate, and bottom left oval is acetate on the top layer

and paper on bottom using sticky pads in between.

allium ursinum

Ransoms

Robertianum

Herb Robert

Ladybird Ladybird

Here are three, sorry four ladybirds spotted on one of my Rose bushes!

(the same Floribunder Rose)

Well balanced with two spots!

I won't go there with these two!

Black with red spots!

Tiffin!

This is my version of "Tiffin"! (There are lots of versions!) The word "Tiffin" means a light meal or snack. The word is Anglo Indian.

Ingredients ~
1lb 4ozs - 600 grms of Chocolate
(I used 14ozs - 400grms of milk and 6ozs - 200grms of plain)
6 ozs - 175 grms broken Plain Biscuits (I used Rich Tea) broken into not too big pieces
1 ozs - 25 grms Rice Krispies
4 ozs - 110 grms Dried Apricots chopped small
2 ozs - 50 grms Glace Cherries
2 ozs -50 grms Chopped Nuts (I used Pecans) chopped small
2 ozs - 50 grms Raisins

Equipment ~
Saucepan
Bowl which will sit comfortably in the saucepan without sitting on the bottom of the saucepan
Spatula
8" - 20cm Square Cake Tin lined with clingfilm


Put water in the saucepan and place bowl on top. DO NOT allow the water to get into the bowl otherwise it will spoil the chocolate mix.
Break all the chocolate into the bowl and allow it to melt slowly over a low heat. When melted add all other ingredients and mix well so everything is covered in chocolate.
Turn off the heat and carefully pour chocolate mix into the prepared tin and put into the fridge till cold.

One man went to mow.............

........well one woman!

The front lawn began to look like a meadow with wild flowers to go with it!

It just had to be cut despite it being very wet.

And, what normally takes about fifteen minutes took about an hour

because grass would not go into the grass box but stayed clinging to the mower bottom.

Cardamine pratensis

Cuckoo Flower or Lady's Smock

The Sailors Horse

This is a tradition in Minehead to see the Sailors Horse every 1st May
www.minehead-online.co.uk/hobbyhorse.htm