Taking it easy

Thoroughly enjoying the holidays so far, quieter starts to the day, don't have to get up at 6am but trying to get up by 7 - 7.30am. Took the dogs for a walk first and then had breakfast sitting in the garden. Spent the rest of the morning doing things that needed to be done in the house ie. washing, ironing, tidying. Fun!! ;o) This afternoon the girls and I went into town - Claire and Emily wanted more books from Waterstones (who had a 3 for 2 offer starting today), Jon needed a new watch battery and we wanted to pick up a couple of DVDs to watch tonight (Emily and I have The Young Victoria and Inkheart - not so sure about the latter). We've finished watching Series One of House and now need to start on Series Two. I do like Hugh Laurie's character in House! Since we got back from town we've been reading :o). I finished one of the books I got out from the Library yesterday and will have to decide which one I start on next. And, because I like to have photos on a post, a couple from Sunday - when Claire was making bacon for breakfast and how Sunday morning was spent by Claire and Craig - on the computer Finally, a photo of one of the yellow roses opening in our garden at the moment. This photo was taken yesterday and I've taken another one today because they are so pretty - I just wish you could smell it too, it has the most beautiful scent. Makes me happy!

xx

Sunday morning

When my computer goes on to screen save it starts showing photos from my Pictures folder in random order. You will often find one of us standing in front of the computer watching the slideshow and it brings back all sorts of memories. Last night while I was watching, a photo of my sister Norma came up - it was taken last April when she was over on holiday from South Africa. It made me think about how she just fits in with our family when she comes over. We love having her here and have really missed her this year. I decided to do a layout, started thinking about it last night and finished it off this morning. Here it is If you click on the image I think it'll enlarge it so you can read the journaling if you want.

This photo of Jon was also taken yesterday. We couldn't decide what to have for dinner and then when the sun came out it seemed like the ideal opportunity to have another braai (bbq). We have to make the most of the weather when it's nice ;o)

Another photo taken yesterday. Emily will have to learn during the holidays that it's easier to just let me take her photo occassionally otherwise she's going to end up with photos like this on my blog - I know, mean Mum! She was playing her DS and tried to move it quickly to cover her face so I wouldn't get a shot but wasn't quite quick enough!

And finally, on a trip to the library the other day I picked up a load of brochures to give me some idea of where we can go for day trips. As we are having a "staycation" this year I thought it would be good to go to some places we haven't been to before. Now that I have my SatNav it makes things a whole lot easier. Hopefully you'll soon see photos from some of these destinations.

Enjoy your Sunday

xx

Random post

As the title says, this is a fairly random post but I want to try and blog more regularly during the holiday and still need to start taking more photos. First up, I would like to wish our nephew, Henry, a very happy 13th birthday. I don't have any recent photos of him, as he lives in Chicago, so he's going to have to put up with me being an embarrassing aunt ;o)

This first photo is of Emily and Henry and was taken when we went to Chicago on holiday in 2001. We have always tended to go around the time of Henry's birthday - and wish we could have been with him this year too :o( Henry was born 9 weeks before Emily and in 2001 they would have been 5. How cute were they both! Henry again, in 2001

This 3rd photo was taken on our last trip to Chicago in 2006 when we were there for Henry's 10th birthday. I think this photo was actually taken on his birthday when we went out for dinner.

Hope you have a fantastic birthday Henry, we're thinking of you and wishing we could have been there to go to Bob Chins with you. Enjoy!!

My next topic is one I don't think I've really posted about before but was brought to mind by some mail we received today. Before I met Jon he was in the British Army, as were his brothers. His Dad, Hugh, was in the Bristish Army during the Second World War and later, in the Australian Army. His Mum, Dorothy, was in the ATS during the Second World War. As the conflict continues in Afghanistan and Iran we thought we would like to show our support in some small way. That's where the mail comes in - today we received our Help for Heroes wristbands. I realise this may not make a huge difference but it shows our support for all the men and women fighting for our Country. If any of you would like to get your own wristbands and show your support, they can be ordered from the Help for Heroes website.

Finally, we are certainly getting into Summer in our house :o). Yesterday, while Mum and I went into Crawley, Claire and Emily caught up on their 90210 viewing. I've got the washing and ironing up to date for now and Emily and I have been watching House. My friend, Sarah, has let us borrow the first series and to date we've watched the first 12 episodes. Thanks Sarah, we are certainly getting into it and love being able to just watch one episode after the other.

Don't know what we'll watch once we've finished this box set ;o) - I've been thinking perhaps Private Practice could be next - only problem being that we've missed the first series. Anyone reading this watched it already? Is it worth buying the first series? Look forward to hearing your comments.

For now though, I guess I'd better go and think about what we're going to have for dinner.

Have a great weekend.

xx

From the Garden

Another week has gone by and time for another post. I do hope to post more regularly but will have to see how the summer pans out. Emily broke up for the summer holidays yesterday and we are looking forward to six more relaxing weeks and not having to get up at 6am. Yesterday afternoon Emily and I went in to East Grinstead, after she got home from school, to look for a couple of bits and ended up in Nero's having a celebratory end of term hot chocolate with lots of cream for her and capaccino for me. This morning I woke up at 6am as normal but went back to sleep until 7am when I got up for my shower. I took the dogs for a walk at 8am and then took Claire in to work for 9am. I stayed in town and bought some fruit and vegetables from the Fruit and Veg stall that sets up in the town on a Thursday and Saturday. He goes up to Covent Garden in London every morning and his produce is delicious, always very fresh, good quality and reasonably priced. I then met up with my Thursday morning coffee group (at Nero's) for a later coffee today. It was nice to be able to sit and chat without worrying about time. I got home at 12 and then Emily and I went to Prezzo's for end of school lunch. Just the two of us, the food was excellent (as always) and I didn't have to worry about cooking for us tonight (even better!). Emily met up with her friend Davina when we got back and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening with her. I love that she has a friend near by now (Davina lives just behind us) and will be able to spend time with her during the holiday. So, this afternoon, Jon and I were having a look at all the plants in the garden when a butterfly landed on the buddleah (sp?). We watched it for a while and it didn't seem to be in a hurry to fly off so I went to get my camera. I honestly thought it would have gone by the time I got back but it hadn't and seemed quite happy for me to take some photos. These are the ones I liked most.

I then carried on taking some photos of the irises .....

the fuschias ......

the garden ......

our window box :)

and the tomatoes (which we're looking forward to eating!)

Now, I know those weren't very exciting photos (well done to those who scrolled all the way through) but I am hoping that we'll be going out and about a bit during the holidays and I promise to try and remember to take my camera with me. So, please come back again soon and see if I've updated ;)

xx