Happy Halloween, 31st October 2009

Nothing is happening here for Halloween that I'm aware of!! But my son Jason put some photos on Facebook of the Halloween party they had. I thought you might like to share:
Jack's pumpkin, which he designed and made with his Mum Sam.
Jack dancing to 'Monster Mash'!

Kitty with her Halloween toy!! lol.

Sam, Kitty and Jack.

The Adams Family, Sam, Jason and Jack! Doesn't Sam look beautiful?
Sam, Kitty and Sam's Mum Rene.
This chap was in the graveyard!!
They walked to the local graveyard and had ghost stories. Scccccary!
Jason looking uncannily like his sister DK!

What a great time they must have had. I'm jealous!

My Bath

I had a huge bubble bath!! It was wonderful.

On Tuesday the wooden floor should be laid. Hoorah!

When Jim and I walked to the lake the other day, it was really misty. This is taken one way from the 'John Howard' Fishing Stand.

And this the other!

Yesterday and today I did some work in the garden. Jim planted up some bulbs he'd bought and I re-planted the montbretia he'd removed from where he planted the bulbs! It was a bit drizzly on and off but quite mild.

We also had a walk around the meadow, which we haven't done for a while. The brambles are beginning to encroach from the edge of the meadow, so we will have to cut them back during the Winter. Buster had a great time leaping over the grass and chasing the cats!


Towards the end of the day on the 28th, I was working outside when I looked up and saw these bright red stripes across the sky. By the time I'd fetched my camera, they had faded a bit, but still looked good:


Barbed wire and grasses taken with flash.

The lake by night.
Grasses by night.

The Deenery under a watery moon.

No, the house isn't on fire - it's the new boiler!

Today Jim was up on the extension roof sealing up the chimney from the boiler. There were some lovely clouds in the sky, so I took some photos:

I can see a teddy bear's face!! And a baby lying down.

A lady and a man are chatting here!

That's it for today. I can't wait for our flooring to be down. Now I have to move all my things out of my studio ready for the carpenters. Ah well.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Another Lake Walk. Garden Flowers at The Deenery. 29.10.09

ATC from Lynn W for Wow

As part of our ATCs around the World, Lynn sent me her letter W for WOW. On the back is written all the processes she went through to make it. These were stages in a watercolour painting lesson. Lucky me!

and the reverse:
The ATC was inside this lovely card on which was another of Lynn's pieces of art.

I think it's one of her felted pieces. It's gorgeous anyway. Aha! I've just received a comment from Lynn explaining the lovely card: 'That card photo is free motion sewing on hand dyed paper towels, repurposed dryer sheets and tulle, not felted. ' Much more complicated than I'd thought. How clever she is.


What's out at The Deenery

It's amazing how many flowers we still have out here, in spite of it being almost November. It has been pretty mild so far, with only one morning where there was a touch of ground frost.

A fuchsia in the sunshine

The Gorse thinks it's spring again!

Pretty perfect dahlia

A lovely 'Old Fashioned' Marigold.
An Annual Scabeous

And another

And another, with 2 more buds coming.

Some little yellow daisies and, below, a big one.
Osteospernum.

I can't believe these petunia are still flowering and there are still lobelia below it.
A pretty geranium.

The Liquid Amber in the sun - and again below. Please click on these to fully appreciate them.

Our gate, the Liquid Amber with a conifer in front of it.

Finally, a blushed pink rose bud.

While we're in the garden, yesterday, I crept closer and closer to this butterfly, taking a shot at each stop, hoping it wouldn't fly off. And it didn't!
Buster to the Lake

I won't bore you with too many of these as I know I've taken many photos of the lake. It was miserable as we set out, dark cloudy skies and dull. On the way, we met Kevin in his tractor, with Merriman, his dog, running in front. Buster thought this was a huge game and joined in!
Kevin has an older tractor in his barn, so I photographed that too:

In black and white:

This little Alder had catkins on it already!


Old reeds and leaves were stacked by the lake side.


There appeared to be a 'Lough Graney Monster' in the water! Buster went to investigate:

And tried to drag it to shore. It was a bit too heavy, so he just had a chew at it instead, then gave up!

As we walked back to the fishing stand, a strange thing had happened. There was some blue sky!

The sun was just trying to break through.

As we walked up the lane, a pool of sunlight lit up the hills on the other side of Lough Graney.


Then the blue skies really appeared. I love aeroplane trails.

Martin has put his cows in the field next to us. That's all very well, but it hasn't a proper fence around it:

Buster went to inspect them and took a shine to this calf! I love this photo.

One evening, we were inside and I just noticed that our security light had come on, which is inside the gate. I knew Buster was inside so wondered what had set it off. Looking out, a large cow was standing on the lawn, and several others were investigating our flower beds! AAAAH! We rushed out and chased them into the lane, Buster came out too, barking like crazy. Jim had forgotten to shut the gate when he'd returned home. Apart from a few holes in the lawn, there didn't seem to be any other damage.

The Extension

Martin the builder turned up today and delivered all the wood for the flooring in the extension. Amazing. It seems it may be put down some time next week. I can't believe it. We really will be almost there then. We were discussing buying paint this evening. Oh the excitement.

I hope every one's enjoying a good week.