New Bathroom, ATCs and Stuff. 25th October 2009

Artist Trading Cards

In the group of 10 to which I belong, where we are swapping ATCs and going through the alphabet, we have reached the letter X so we're almost at the end. We're going to take a break after Z and start again in the New Year.

Here is my X for X-Rated

It has a door on the front, which opens to reveal:


I'm not sure whether I showed you my W for Wacky Wellingtons. Just in case, here it is:



I have also been in receipt of some of the ABC Club's swaps. I have my letter V for Violet from Marianne:


This was inside a lovely mandala card of a cat:


I also received A wonderful U for Upside Down Fish from Mim:

This was enclosed in a beautiful card by Mim:

Finally I received my Q from Laure a little while ago. I have just found her card and it was so appropriate:

'Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom'. Isn't that lovely?

I have already done my Y for Yellow, ready for next week:

I have plans for my Z but I haven't started it yet.

New Bathroom

Jim and I have been working hard on the bathroom. Jim finished the last bits of tiling today and I grouted all but around the inside of the window. Here area a few photos:

The basin and toilet, towel rail with towels on it!

The end of the bath and storage rack for my towels. Propped up on the end of the bath is my Winifred Lucy Atwell Plaque, ready to go up on the wall. We also have a cabinet to go on the wall by the towel rail and a glass shelf to go above the basin. Oh, and a toilet roll holder!

The shower end of the bath, taken through the shower screen so it's a bit 'flashy'! It's wonderful to be able to have showers again:

The end of the bath again! All very exciting to us anyway. It's a pity it hasn't a door on yet. Jim has rigged up a curtain for the moment.

My Playroom

As I mentioned, I now have my computer and desk in my new studio/play room, even though it hasn't been decorated yet, nor does it have its wooden floor or door! It's still worth being in here, even though I'll have to move out again when the floor's being done.
Here I am, grinning away as usual.

The weather's not been good for the past couple of days. It's been wet and windy, so it's encouraged us to sort out a bit indoors. Yesterday I emptied and cleaned our Welsh Dresser from top to bottom and moved the jam from there into the glasses cupboard, and the glasses onto the dresser.

Blossom

Jim bought one of those Airwick automatic sprayers that sprays an attractive aroma into the room every 35 minutes. The funny think is, when Blossom sprays, she makes a funny noise. Sometimes it sounds as though she's swearing at us and other times as though she's sneezing!! We find ourselves turning to her and saying 'and you can shut up too', when we're trying to discuss something. The plumber was standing there last week and Blossom let rip and just about sprayed into his ear!

We were without internet all yesterday. It was very strange not to be able to use the computer. I kept thinking, I'll just look that up on google, then realising I couldn't. Plus I couldn't blog of course. Thankfully it's working again today. I think it must have been the weather as it really was blowing a gale yesterday.

I did get to watch a film last night though, 'The Rainbow' by D H Lawrence. It was a real '60's' film with Hywell Bennett and Glenda Jackson plus other stalwarts of the time. It was the early days of showing people naked, all very naughty but with distance shots and people running! It was rather dated but the story was still excellent and the acting.

Tonight Jim and I watched The Constant Gardener, which is relatively new, 2005 and starred Ralph Fiennes. It was mostly set in Kenya and the main theme was the way pharmaceutical companies exploit the African market for their own ends. It was beautifully photographed and exceptionally well acted too. Fiennes's wife came too close to discovering the truth and was murdered at the beginning, then the rest of the film played out how and why she came to such a dreadful end. It's well worth watching should you get the opportunity.

Finally, Jim's daughter Ali sent this lovely photo of her husband Joe and daughter Poppy. Poppy was highly amused by the noise this goose was making!

That's all for tonight. I hope you've all had a good weekend.

Don't Forget My 'Raggy Bag' Give Away, still time to enter on 20th October post. Open until 2nd November.

Super Skies, Poppy Visit, 3th July 2009

Sunrise

As Jim set off for the airport on Tuesday, he took this photo of the dawn over Lough Graney:






It's much better enlarged (click on it) to get the full effect.






Poppy

He managed to see Poppy for a short while on Thursday at Ali and Joes' house. Below is a lovely photo of a flying Poppy:







Grandad throwing Poppy around












Isn't she just adorable? She's getting some pretty blond hair too.

Jim also visited Alexander Palace, affectionately known as Ally Pally! He took this rather good photo of the front with the old BBC mast:








I love all those arches. A friend of Jim's is now in charge here.










He also went on a mission to the National Archive at Kew to try and find out a bit about his Father. No luck on that score, but it's an impressive building:













I bet many people wished they could jump in this as it was sweltering in London.

Today in Ireland
Dark Skies

From a dismal start, the day improved vastly and this afternoon was just lovely. It was sunny most of the time with a light breeze. We did have a bit of a scare when the sky went black and thunder rumbled around the sky:




Dark sky at The Deenery























This was a different bit of darkish sky earlier on. We were lucky both times as it all came to nothing and passed over us. The view above is of our top barn.





Buster wasn't quite sure about the noise of the thunder so he hid under the table, not very successfully.






In the Garden

Jim did some mowing of the allotment area and the Fairy Hill. I tackled the side of our house. There are 3 long steps there and they were all covered in moss and weeds. It's very damp on that side, which is the wall of our bedroom at present, so I cleaned them up so they would dry. There are 3 contorted willow trees there enclosed on 3 sides by a living willow fence. The trees were taking most of the light from the bedroom so we decided to take them down. No sooner said than done, Jim wielded his chain saw and ~zip~ they were gone. I then trimmed down the living willow fence and did some weeding around it. It looks so much better, really light and bright. We have lots of other contorted willow trees and can soon grow more from cuttings. I'll take a photo soon as it was a bit dark by the time I'd finished out there.

I took another 'joiner' photo of the garden while the sky was still a bit threatening:


The building to the left is the cottage this time. Please click on it to enlarge, then you can see the flowers too.

A little butterfly landed near us when we were having a tea break and Jim photographed it.

We later identified it as a 'Ringlet'. How exciting, it's certainly a new one for me. The eyes on the wings are to fool birds so they can't see where the delicate body is. Clever.

Builders

Yesterday, Joe and Martin finished plastering 'my' room and it looks splendid, but it has a loud echo! Today they have been preparing to plaster the sun room and we also have one inside window sill. It looks smashing. They think the rest of the plastering and step making will take about another 2 weeks then it's time for the plumber. It'll be great to have a shower again. In the meantime we have to buy some tiles for the bathroom floor and walls and Jim will lay them, before the plumber comes. We did buy some tiles a while ago for the old bathroom, as we were going to put a shower over the bath (but didn't), they are blue and silver, but Jim thinks we may not have enough to do the new bathroom. In any event, that will be the colour scheme, with a white suite of course. Today I dyed 3 towels a dark blue so that's a start.

Sunset

I was just about to come in and realised the gates were still open. As I closed them, I saw the beautiful sky over the field. I retrieved the camera from inside and Buster came with me - he doesn't like to miss anything. I think he thought, ah, camera, it must be walk time. Hard luck Buster:




He sat waiting patiently while I took photos













The first shot









This was just two photos joined together.

So, from sunrise to sunset. I hope you've enjoyed it. Tomorrow we're off to Galway to a car boot. There aren't many here in Ireland so we thought we'd have a break from the garden and house and have a day out.