two steps forward and then back

on Saturday morning we woke up to a covering of snow

albeit very wet snow

that left the birds hunting for food

We had about a centimetre and by the next day it had gone.

However the bottles will be nice and warm next time it arrives


Guess which one is mine.


This week is half term and as usual I have not accomplished as much as I hoped. Bright and early Monday morning I went to the surgery have my blood pressure check. It was higher than it should be (whitecoat syndrome) hopefully.
Although healthy eating and exercise has been a bit sparse since Christmas and "the foot". I have got to go back on Monday for blood tests for high cholesterol. Once upon a time mine was OK but they keep lowering the level. Wont it reach a stage where you can't lower it any more? I am gong to see the doctor to about the aforementioned foot. Just in case! The appointments are even more bright and early and I should be back before I am normally up and about. Just as well it is only over the road.

Mother Nature Spring version is coming along nicely. she is in various stages of stitching and stuffing. Some very nice stash fabric arrived yesterday ( I did not have quite the right colour!) I was out when it arrived luckily it went through the letterbox. i treated my self to a new outfit yesterday. Nothing very surprising, a pair of khaki trousers and a stripey top from M&S. I am not very adventurous nowadays.

I think I have seen a glimpse of the sun. It is supposed to be warm today.

Thanks for visiting

Much as I love them...

.... the local cat population is beginning to annoy me some what.


My friend's cat now spends most of his day in our yard awaiting the arrival of the birds and it seems the others have decided it is their preferred place to use as a toilet. I have been sprinkling cat repellant but it wears off after a while. Most of these moggies are lovely to look at but I just do not want a disproportionate amount of visits to my yard. I suppose the main problem is that we are the only ones with earth. All the rest are concreted over. Nearly all of them are made to stay outside all of the time unlike a certain other puss


who rarely goes out.
So it seems that I shall be spending time cleaning up before I can plant anything this year.


This is the honeysuckle that grows in a pot by the kitchen door. I live in hope that one year it will flower.

Still no allotment pictures but the seed potatoes arrived yesterday at John will be putting them on top of the fridge this weekend so they can begin to chit.

The knitting is growing

It is half-term so I am hoping to get to grips with the tree over the next week. I have all the leaves and flowers to turn, it is a bit fiddly.

Thanks if you pop along

Today...

... is a dreary drizzly day so I thought I would cheer it it up with another little hint of the spring day we had on Tuesday.

These are taken a few days apart can you see the difference?




The birds have been busy nibbling the fat slab

The side facing the kitchen window has not been nibbled at all. Yesterday there were three different species of bird in the cage eating together, a sparrow, blackbird and a blue tit. Not so surprising to those with a well established garden, but pretty exciting for our little backyard. Sorry did not get a photo of them.

The first bottle cover is knitted. I made a small mistake and so the first colour change is not as wide as it should be so on the second side I had to fiddle it a bit. I misread the pattern. It has all worked out though.

However I have delayed the stitching up. The instructions say you do not need to stitch in the ends but I expect I will!
So I have started the second one instead, it is a bit more girly


I have not mentioned the allotment much recently. John has been very busy marking out beds and when he sends me the photos I will be able to show the progression. I have not been down for ages. certainly not recently because of you know what. I am not going to bore any one with how it is at the moment.

Thank you for all the comments I am very remiss in replying.

February...

...has began wet and windy. We had 20mm of rain overnight. However I am not grumbling having seen the cyclone in Australia and the amount of snow in North America. The earth is complaining. Although I found one little hint of spring. I only ever seem to have one snowdrop no matter how many I plant


This week has has been interesting and I am watching events unfold in Egypt wondering about the outcome.

Last week I gathered together these


which grew to this


The hot water bottle cover is growing rapidly. I am pleased with how well the colour look together. I have a selection of colours ready for the second one.

I have plenty of machining ready for tomorrow. I have drawn around leaf and flower templates. I will need many more though.


The foot is annoying me that is all I shall say.
Thanks for stopping by sorry I did not reply personally