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

Thursday

Just a quick post today to show the layout that I made using the multi photo grid I spoke about yesterday. These photos are of Jon's daughter Michelle and his grandson, Joshua and were taken when they came to spend a few days with us in the May half term. Joshua is 7 and enjoyed his time chatting to Jon outside and helping with the gardening. I think he also really enjoyed the braais (bbqs) we had while they were here and Michelle told me after they'd been here he was telling his grandma that it was a braai rather than a barbeque ;o)

As for Emily's trip yesterday, it seems that they had a great time but the ferry was delayed slightly on the way home so she didn't get back until about 10.45pm. We then sat chatting about what they'd done and she showed me the photos she'd taken before finally getting to bed around 11.45pm. Needless to say, this moring she was quite tired and would have liked a day at home but she's gone off to school. I think an earlier night will be in order this evening.

xx

I'm back again :)

Time for another quick update. This morning Emily left, with her year group, on a day trip to France. She had to be at school by 7am and they were hoping to leave by 7.15am. They were taking the ferry over to Calais and then spending the day in and around Calais before coming back this evening. Emily was up by 5.10am and by the time I got downstairs, at around 6am, she was dressed and her bag was packed. The photo below was taken as she was making last minute arrangements with her friend.

Emily and Davina walking towards the school gates and you can see a couple of the coaches arriving.

As most of you know, Emily is my baby and it feels really strange knowing that she's overseas without me :o( . The weather was a bit unsettled this morning but has cleared up as the day's gone on so I'm hoping they've had a lovely time and am looking forward to hearing about it when she gets back tonight. I know she was a bit nervous before she left but I'm sure once she was with all her friends the nerves would have calmed down.

Rather than sitting at home wondering how she was getting on, I phoned Mum and asked if she fancied a morning out. We went to The Craft Barn in Lingfield where it was lovely to see Sarah, who used to work for another craft shop we used to go to. Such a surprise and great to catch up. We spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the new papers and products and I can't believe I walked out the door again not having bought a single thing!!!!

We headed round the corner for a coffee before coming back into East Grinstead where I had a couple of things to do. Mum took me out to lunch, which was most enjoyable, and it was around 2pm before we came home again. A lovely morning out, thank you Mum!

Since coming home I have been going through Cathy Zielske's tutorial on Ali Edward's blog. It is showing you how to create multi photo grids that can be printed on a single sheet of paper. I've never worked this one out but now that I've gone through the tutorial, it works!! Yippee!!! This is the grid of photos I created using photos from the last time Michelle and Josh were visiting us. I've already started assembling a scrapbook page and will post a photo once it's finished. Anyone interested in having a go should go over and watch the video tutorial. Thanks Cathy!!

And finally, more garden photos (mum, you can look away now). These photos aren't my normal ones of flowers and plants but rather of the big, fat slugs that Jon has been finding recently. I can only presume that they've been having a feast in our garden because they were REALLY big!! I don't know whether the photos do them justice but I'm glad they are no longer in our garden!

In this photo, taken from a big of a distance, you can see the orange coloured one in the bottom right corner and the brown one in the top left corner.

Brown one

Orange one

Not terribly pretty are they!!

And lastly, some of you know that I have started job hunting and had been on an interview last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get the job so the hunt continues. On the plus side, this will probably mean that I get to spend some of the summer holidays (at least) with Emily, for which I am very grateful.

I will let you know, in due course, how the French trip went and see if Emily has any photos I can share here.

Until then, take care and enjoy the (slightly) warmer weather.

xx