Watery Wednesday

This is one of the frogs in our pond. He posed for me to take his photo, but wouldn't smile!



For more Watery shots please click here.

Sky Watch Friday

A local sunset



For more views of skies around the world - click here.

Hopefully up and running again!

Many of you know I have been having difficulties with my computer for some time now and comments on my last post advised me that Firefox was the way to go! A big thank you to all of you. I have now downloaded Firefox and - so far, so good!

I have really missed blogging and visiting blogworld friends so I'm hoping that in future I won't be having the trouble encountered recently. I know too that some of you have been having problems with my site. I honestly don't know if things will improve for you now - I do hope so.

Anyway - I have been taking some photos in the garden recently so here is a photographic update. Don't forget you can enlarge any photo by clicking on it.


There has been a lot of activity in and around this nest box and we are very hopeful of seeing some baby blue tits any time soon.




The beautiful goldfinches are still visiting although this picture is a few weeks old (the tree is still in bud in the photo)



Here a pair of young blackbirds are sharing some apple - I always feel sorry for the young birds when they first visit the garden as they stand around, seemingly wondering what to do next!




squirrel tries to get his balance




before getting into the birdhouse for breakfast



but sometimes just likes to sit in the basket




In the pond the tadpoles are doing well



and the kingcups put on a wonderful display




We have had some primula




some orange flowers (don't know what these are called) and in the winter lovely orange berries



and this flower is always lovely - I think it is called ajuga (bugle) - an excellent ground cover plant




these little roses have a delicate scent and are so pretty



For me seeing aquilegia in flower is a real sign of summer on its way



With a bank holiday looming again and an assurance from the weather man of some sunshine I am hoping to get some more work done in the garden this weekend. Next week I have two celebration cakes to ice and decorate so then any work outside will have to wait.

I've been knitting an ice-cream!

Once again my bleep bleep computer has been giving me problems and there is only so much advice my son, 10,000 miles away, can give me! Main problem is that when I am trying to visit other blogs "Internet Explorer" decides to keep on opening other windows, very quickly, so that I suddenly have about 20 + open all at once!! So I just have to turn the computer off and begin again. Very irritating. I run the spyware thingy and hope for the best but it has put me off using it very much lately. At the moment all is OK! I shall have to get it looked at though.

So instead of blogging I have been trying to be more creative. I made our 5 year old grand-daughter's birthday cake (an alien space craft - her choice) and OH and I went up to Stratford on Avon on THE DAY and delivered it. I have another birthday cake to do next week and a couple at the end of the month. In the meantime I started to knit a blanket to use up some of the stock of wool that I have accumulated over the years. It is mostly in blues and white and cream but I thought I would add colourful motives to some of the squares, the first being an ice-cream and I'm quite pleased with the result! We live in a sea-side town so I decided on holiday/leisure theme.

I have a long way to go to finish and I have a feeling I may be sidetracked into making something for youngest grandson as I have already begun looking through my patterns. Have also thought that maybe I could knit my daughter an Aran sweater. We'll see.

OH has been working away quite a bit lately and this week is away playing golf! So, although we were disappointed about not selling our house recently, I have decided that I must make a real effort to sort through all cupboards and drawers and discard where necessary and that has kept me busy too. One of these days our house will sell, so it is a job that has to be dealt with and sooner rather than later!

I have missed being able to blog on a regular basis and do hope to catch up a bit now. One of my first tasks is to get over to Anne at Retired and Crazy who very kindly cooked me a chicken when I was a bit fed up over the loss of our house sale - I have thanked her but not collected it yet. I wonder if it is still OK?