Goodies through the post - Post!

A Good Read Award

I mentioned that I had been given this award from Pam's English Garden and I forgot to pass it on. I would love to nominate Mildred of Mildredsmenagerie at Nalley Valley. Mildred lives in North Georgia and always has lots of interesting things to chat about including her 'menagerie' and some great photos of the area in which she lives. It's certainly a good read. Mildred, you also have to write 10 things about yourself. This is the address of Mildred's blog:

http://mildredsmenagerie.blogspot.com/

ATCs

I did a swap with Soulbrush of 2 Artist Trading Cards. Here are the 2 super ones I received from soulbrush in London:

A lovely collage of 'Autumn Leaves'.

I love the green and white background and the razzle dazzle leaves sewn onto this ATC.

Thank you so much soul, they're delightful. Soulbrush also enclosed some bits and bobs for me to use:


Our ABC/ATC Group has now reached the letter 'S'. Teri, the group founder, sent me this lovely S for Sand Dollar made using acrylic paint.

The ATC was enclosed in a pretty pop up card:


Giraffaway from Raph G Neckmann

I entered one of those give aways more in hope than expectation and - guess what - I won! Anyone who knows Raph's amazing blog will realise he is from a family of giraffes! He has just started a new venture, selling his giraffy cards and I chose four of them which I liked the best. As the winner, I received all 4 cards plus the card from Raph.

The very strange thing is that the card Raph wrote in has a picture on the front of a giraffe eating Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa' or the twisted willow tree. In our front garden, we have the very same tree, about the same size as the one on the card. Sadly no giraffe though. Spooky.


This is the card to which I am referring above.

Here are the four cards I won in the giraffaway!


Title: ' Durham Goes Giraffe'


Title: 'High Altitude Toothpaste'


Title: 'Giraffe Among Tall Raspberries' (The Giraffe Method of Stress Release)


Title: 'Awakening'.

I hope you agree that they are just superb. I love the giraffe print clouds in the last one.

You can buy Raph's cards here:


Do visit Raph's blog, it's well worth it.

This is his blog address:

http://raphs-ramblings.blogspot.com/

I have tried to make links but they didn't work. Sorry.

Belated Birthday Card

Sam, my lovely daughter in law, is always spot on time with birthday cards and presents. Sadly, this time my cards and present hadn't arrived by the time I had to go off to the UK. When I returned, the parcel was there but 'Doorus' had been spelt incorrectly. Aha, that explains the more than usually slow delivery by the Irish Postal Service.

Jack, my adorable 4 year old grandson, had made me a birthday card:


Very subtle, I think you'll agree!! I was covered in glitter all day.

Inside, he had written his name himself:


Lucky me.

Flowers

Jim brought home a super bunch of flowers on Wednesday. It consisted mostly of sunflowers and lilies and I added 2 gladioli stems from the allotment.

I made a montage of them.

Buster


What an endearing face he has.


He became interested in my sculpture 'The Woven' today. His head disappeared inside....


Then he appeared with the bee in his mouth! Luckily it was tied on with string, so he had to let it go.


BlackJack, feeling superior, was watching Buster from on top of the wall. He didn't realise how silly he looked with cobwebs on his head!

Here, Buster is trotting towards me down the path. I love the way he walks and runs as he hardly seems to bend his legs at all, unlike most dogs.

The Rest

Today the builders made a hole through our extension roof for the boiler chimney. I photographed them up through the hole they had made!

Joe came out a bit blurred!


Martin, always smiling! The boiler chap is coming to bring and fit our new pellet boiler next Friday. I can't believe we'll actually get it connected up.


Jim has done about three quarters of the tiling in the bathroom.


Buster wanted him to play ball.

That's it for today. I cleaned the old bathroom and then did some more gardening and watched Joe and Martin scratching their heads over fitting the boiler pipe!

That's all Folks!