Thankful Thursday - Jim back, I'm off. Jason is 40

Son One's 40th Birthday

I am off to visit Sam, Jason, Jack and Kitty in about an hour's time. It is Jason's 40th birthday tomorrow (18th) so we shall be celebrating (and watching the football).

I am so proud of my big son. He was the most gorgeous, happy and smiling baby. Always cracking jokes (as he does now) and keeping his class at school entertained. Sadly he didn't do much work there!

He hardly went to school at all in his last year and I was always going to the local cafe, which had games machines in it - (he's very good at them even now) to drag him back to school!

I split up with his Dad when he was 9 and he never got on terribly well with my next husband. At 16, he moved down to London and lived with his real Dad. I missed him terribly but it was the right decision. After a variety of jobs (don't ask), he worked for Hays in London and worked his way up from the warehouse to a managerial position. Suited and booted he called it!

He moved to Canada Life and trained in Financial Services. After a spell with a large bank as one of the best salesmen of Financial Services ever, he set up his own company, Green Rose Financial Services, which he runs from home.

I always had faith in him and he has not let me down. He is of course also married to the lovely Samantha (Sam) whom I love like a daughter. You all know about their adorable children Jack and Kitty. Jason is a super father and not a bad husband! I am very proud of him.

I am very thankful on this Thursday for my first son Jason and love him to pieces.


Jason in his pedal car.

Ever the joker!


A recent photo of Jason with his Dad Ken.


The Green Family, Sam, Jack, Jason and Kitty. Happy 40th Birthday Jason for tomorrow.

ATCs

I have joined an art community for women online, Called Milliande and here is the link:

Helen, one of the ladies there, liked one of my ATCs so we have done a swap. This is the cute ACT she sent to me:


Helen also enclosed these 2 lovely tags and card.


Our ABC/ATC Group, Second round is drawing to a close. We have now reached X and here are my latest ATCs received:


This one opens up to show this:


Whoosh.......

Mim sent it in a lovely envelope:


Isn't it just lovely?

Marianne. from Sweden, sent the gorgeous envelope above, made out of handmade paper and the ATC for X - otic! On this side is a fox, on the other side is a rather saucy picture of a chap with a Anthurium flower in a cheeky position! Are you all ready for this - I hope it doesn't offend anyone, it certainly doesn't me:


All Marianne's ATCs have had a circle on them somewhere. I have printed it 'small'!!

Phew, now to move on....

I did a W for Weaving of course, which went to Mim:


Jim went to the UK for a meeting and extended his stay so that he could visit Sonny and Poppy and of course his children - not just the Grandchildren. Here are a few photos so you can see how they have grown:


Sonny.


Sonny has discovered grinding his teeth! I remember my daughter used to do that and it sounded as though they would shatter!


Still trying to smile with a mouthful of banana!

Poppy


She is such a little doll!


Poppy with her rabbit


Sonny on his front - he still isn't crawling!


Sonny with a hairbrush and Poppy 'loving' her balloon! Apparently Poppy did Sonny's hair with the brush, but with the hard side - not the bristles!


Jenny with Sonny and Poppy in front of dad Joe.

Jim's son Russell and wife Caz have 2 new cats! So we mustn't leave them out. They were both rescue cats and one of them has a dodgy hip, which has been operated on - thus the big white shaved area. She is one year old and called Peppa.




The kitten climbed onto Jim's lap and fell asleep! The kitten is called Mitten!

What a lot to be thankful for.

I went to the airport to pick Jim up after his trip and his flight was delayed. I decided to find the 'viewing area' and watched a glorious sunset from there - and Jim's plane come in finally.


Before the sunset - a skinny moon and whispy cloud.


Sunset at Shannon Airport.


A close up of the amazing cloud formations.


The airport tower is on the left.

In the centre of this photo - in the sky, you can see Jim's plane coming in!!

Then one more plane took off:


See you all next week, I'm back on Monday late.

General Catch Up. Flower Photos. Rockery.

Hmm, I wonder who General Catchup is? It sounds funny, doesn't it??

Rockery

The rockery has come on apace and is almost finished. It still has some 'holes' for planting but they will have to wait until I can buy a few more small rockery plants.


If you click on it you can see the individual plants and little trees I have planted. Jim moved the purple acer from the bed above as it was getting rather swamped up there. There is still a bit of sorting to be done. The steps up to the 'road' need clearing and making good and the big rocks in front of the rockery need organising too. I must say I'm rather pleased with it.


This one will make you laugh! I fetched some of our compost in my motorised wheelbarrow and here I'm mixing it with some bought compost. It was raining a little bit, thus the coat and fetching hat!! I also wear my old glasses when I'm gardening so as not to spoil my new ones.

Arboretum lawn extension and Arch

Oh yes, we now have an arch at the entrance to the arboretum! A bit twee, but it will look better when a few plants have grown up it.

The new grass has grown well. It still has some bald patches but is getting stronger all the time. Jim's even mowed it lightly.


Do click on it if you have time. You can hardly see the arch against the trees! Look at those lupins. They are so splendid.


This photo of Jim's shows the new grass better, and the arch. And the heaps of stones we have everywhere!!

On the left of the photo is a 'rough' area. It was covered in brambles and nettles and, worst of all, convolvulus. I spent a long while clearing it to be grassed but Jim had other ideas! He has planted it up with , squash, courgettes, sweetcorn and sweet peas!


I don't think they will grow very well there as the soil is just clay! It'll be fun if they do. I guess we'll have to plant the grass seed in the Autumn! The convolvulus keeps popping up where I've missed a little bit of root, but I'm gradually getting on top of it.

Flowers


Lots of roses are now blooming.




I love this orange one. It has really dark, glossy leaves too.


Jim grew the delphinium from seed last year and they're getting taller and taller.


These red lupins look marvellous against the black sambucus 'Black Beauty'. We also have sambucus Black lace which has much finer leaves, almost like an acer. They both have pink flowers and I love them.

I didn't mean to press 'publish' then!


These delicate iris have bloomed in the front wall garden.


While these dianthus are just pure show offs!
The Rest


I popped up to our gate and took this joiner of the view across Martin's field (yes, THAT Martin) across to Lough Graney. I love that view.

BlackJack was looking a bit scraggy and I wondered if he had mange. I took him to the vets and apparently it's ear mites and he's been scratching himself which has made his fur look a bit thin. He now has some super stuff to put on his skin which kills both inside and outside parasites. Excellent stuff. I got some for Sandy too, just in case.

Jim and I have painted the front of the cottage white (well, half of it) and the windows are going to be red. Here it is, half way there:


It's certainly looking cleaner. Compare it to the wall round the corner! The hanging baskets are coming along too.

I think that's about it for today. Jim is in the UK again until tomorrow night. Then I'm off to the UK on Thursday late for my son Jason's 40th birthday. Now how old does that make me? VERY old!

Love to everyone. Have a good week.

Dublin Bloom Part 2

Dublin Day

As I couldn't fit it all in yesterday, here is the rest of our day out.


This rather super garden was called 'Urban Idyll'. It was chosen by the Irish tv viewing public out of several gardens with the same subject, I understand. I loved the live ducks. They looked a bit confused! If you click on it, you can see the detail much better. There are 2 beehives too. The funny thing was, while we were watching, one of the helpers opened the top of one of the beehives and took out her rather large handbag!!


Here are the well behaved ducks. There was also a metal sculpture of a duck.


Jim took this one of me in my new 'Specsavers' glasses!


It was far too hot for this! She must have been cooked in trousers and a dress.


This trio was playing classical music - they looked very hot too and were in full sun. It was lovely to hear the music drifting across the park. The dark blood red flower is obviously one of the new ones out as several gardens had it on display. It's an astrantia major. I have the common one in my garden. I must have one of these.


The water ran up the side and along the front of the patio area. Very cooling.


This one of course was just 'me'! It was along the theme of re-use and recycle. The idea was to put cardboard down as a mulch and newspaper! The lady who designed it wore a marvellous hat!


What a marvellous characterful face. She took a photo of me in her garden!


This one showed a very economical way to use water, which ran down the chains shown here. It also had some more of the lovely foxgloves and large campanula in the foreground.

Jim took a rather better photo showing the 'rusty heap' sculpture in the centre. He is tall and can take shots from higher up!


So many ideas...


We had a walk round the walled garden, which had some gorgeous perennials on display. I loved this poppy.


Super colourful lanterns above one of the stalls.


Jim queued up to get 2 cups of 'Barry's' tea, our favourite. It was delicious.

Children were having a great time climbing this magnificent tree....


and swinging in these colourful hammocks.


There was a Fiat stall at the show and this Doblo stood alone - a little away from the rest of their cars. It looks almost luxurious, nothing like our old model - which is orange for a start!


This little girl looked so pretty all in her red outfit.


Me in my usual position! Camera in hand.

Time was getting on, so we headed to the bus stop to catch the shuttle bus back to the Galway bus. The queue was massive and when we did eventually get on the shuttle, it crawled along as the traffic was horrendous. We missed our bus, but one came along every hour, so we waited for the next one. I think I slept most of the journey home!