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!

Mostly Willow Cutting and Wood Chopping

Since our return we've been trying to get the willow fences under control. We have now finished the long fence and have started on the one at 90degrees to it. We didn't manage to get to that one at all last year so the growth is pretty thick and much of it needs sawing. On the bright side, it will provide wood for Stanley.

Buster seemed to have had a good time at the kennels but he did smell! I think dogs always do after a stay in kennels. It seems to have worn off now. He has stayed with us a bit more since his return. Maybe he thinks of it as a punishment.

The biggest woe is that my new computer has stopped working. It hasn't worked at all since our return and the old one (the one I'm using now) is very unreliable and gives up with monotonous regularity. So if I disappear again, blame the computer. Jim's trying to get it sorted but as it came from the Internet and was delivered to our UK address, we may have to take it there and post it back to them.

We did receive a phone call from the builders who have threatened to start work on our alterations/extension. Mind you, they did say this week and it's Friday now with no sign of them! The Irish!

I have managed to get most of my Christmas presents made but still have the cards to do. I've also finished the 'raggy bag', which has turned out quite well I think. I'm taking it to my daughters in December and it will be collected from there.

Good news on the Luisa front. She is over her nasty asthma attack and home and improving all the time. Phew! Don't do that again Lu.

Our neighbours Pete and Sandra appeared yesterday for a cup of tea, so that was a relief. We had had a bit of a row a few weeks before and Jim and I had both been to see them but this is the first time since then that they have come up here. I hate it when bad feelings smoulder on for months.

Jim and his sister in Canada have been tracing their family tree. He's discovered relatives all over the place in the UK and one couple own a rather smart restaurant and have invited us there. Emails are whizzing all over the place between the new found if rather distant relations. All these are on his late mother's side as when ever they try to find out anything about their late father they hit a brick wall.

Life goes on as ever, it's turned rather cold so we're trying to keep warm in spite of Stanley's foibles. I have taken a few photos so will post them if the computer holds out.


Before we went away, Buster just wanted to be left to sleep
















A closer view







The finished living willow fence:

















From the other side with Buster












Buster couldn't work out how to get to me!














This is the longest fence we have to trim, also you can see how thick the growth is on the top.









I wandered around the garden and took a few shots to see what was growing or in flower:




The Kafir lily still flowering and the campanula thinks it's spring










A beautiful red autumn leaf trapped in a bush










The mahonia is looking splendid covered in yellow flowers. It was a horrid tall spindly thing when we first arrived. Much better since Jim pruned it.













The Mahonia close up












Fascinating Fungi











BlackJack escaping from Buster


















A pretty perennial geranium


















Buster decided to investigate my wool! It took some sorting out.















Lastly, Jim and Buster happily cuddled up on the settee

Sunrise on a Dewy Morning, 12.10.08

Buster in the long grass of the meadow. He didn't appreciate the cobwebs.










Yesterday was a bad day. I have my ups and downs and take antidepressants daily. This was a down - into the slough of despondency. I went to bed in the afternoon and woke up feeling a bit better and headed off up to the meadow to light a bonfire and burn the brambles accumulated over the past day or so. I was up there until it got dark and managed to burn most of the piles, plus I demolished a few more while I was at it. Gardening usually does it for me.

I couldn't sleep last night and was up early as the sun was just rising. I thought that the fire would probably be still going and was about to walk up the meadow when I realised my camera was a must. The cobwebs were beautiful and as I looked across the meadow they looked like cotton tail grass. I don't think I've ever seen them as clearly. Then, as I reached the 'crossroads' of paths, I saw what looked like snow on the gorse bushes. A sight to behold, they were covered with cobwebs. The sun was now up and shone on the cobwebs making them glisten in the warm light. It was just beautiful.

Buster and the cats accompanied me most of the time and I also took some pleasing photos of them. I almost went and woke Jim up but decided he probably wouldn't be best pleased if I had. A morning to treasure indeed.
This was the first cobweb I saw on a slow growing evergreen. On its other side were lots of rather 'messy' ones.



















They look rather like net curtains in a deserted house


















Still in the front garden, this splendid cobweb decorated the flat headed achillea









The sun shone through the trees on the arboretum.









You can see some cobwebs in the photo on the right of the picture



How pretty the scabeus look in the morning light













Probably my favourite. The long shadows of the morning sun fall across the arboretum










The white fluffy cotton grass, actually it's all cobwebs. Amazing.








A cobweb amongst the 'hard heads'

It really is worth clicking on the photos to see them at their full size











a cobweb amongst the sedge














I thought these looked like washing lines, maybe for my fairies









Just like tiny jewels













I mentioned the gorse. This, to me, is the most stunning of all





















If you have the time, do click on the photos then they really come alive.


These shimmered in the sunlight










Like lights at the seaside down among the sedge and grasses











Who would have thought this little holly bush had so many cobwebs on it?






















While this solitary loose strife stem is in a cocoon












One lone thistle flower, even that is decorated with tiny dewy beads
















I took this view from the meadow 'crossroads' towards Tipperary. What a strange landscape it looked. This was when the clouds had started to gather




A beautiful thrush watched me from the telegraph wire

























Sandy, BlackJack and Buster were playing on the way back to the house. When Buster gets too boisterous, the cats go up.



BlackJack
































Hey, that's not fair. Come Down!!











Sandy














Sandy about to leap from one tree to another. He's much more agile than BlackJack, who was stuck up one of our big trees for 2 days.







Just looking out at the world.






I hope you've enjoyed this morning's photos.

This evening it was 'Strictly Come Dancing', the results show, which Jim and I both enjoy. A lovely dinner of roast bacon, potatoes, broccoli and butter beans followed by fresh picked apples from the orchard, all cut up and ready to eat. Lovely.