Time is flying

Here we are already at Wednesday, I decided that I would pack last weekend because I could not see me having too long to do it during the week. We will leave around 9am on Saturday morning so I want everything sorted by Friday night.Its starting to feel as if its likely to happen now, although Dad had a fall over the weekend, which he said was as a result of not picking his feet up. It was scary as he tripped over the entrance to the greenhouse, that could have been awful, luckily he only bruised his knees and hand.
I had a nice meal out with my girl friends on Monday night, we were celebrating Sues 59th birthday (waves to Sue!!!)
Off to work now, will update with some photos later!!

The Big Clear out.

Today is the day of the big cupboard clear out. In preparation for going away next week I need to sort out my clothes and dump the ancient stuff, and rehome the reasonable stuff to the charity shop and I am ashamed to say that I have found some stuff that still has tags which I no longer like, so I will eBay them. I am on my third load of washing (Carl home from Uni!!)
I hope it continues to be a good drying day!

I am starting to get quite excited about the holiday, its now only a week away, the only down side is that I will miss the general election.I really enjoy watching the results come in on the telly, so this once every four year event will see us at sea. I have just received my postal vote which is a whole lot more complicated than just putting a tick in the box, there are origami like instructions about how to fold the forms and return them. Best I start practicing today!.

Beth is practicing for a new production at The Barn, this time its a play for adults (rather than a pantomime) The cast is huge and Beth has a variety of little supporting roles. Its been great experience for her and she is looking forward to the run which starts in June.
They have made a short promotional film for it so check out Inherit The Wind

I'm Back!!

Well it seems to have been a very long week, usual busy times at work which has meant I am getting home later and later, some evening this week I have still been out at 7pm which is a bit much, but I have to get the job done. I have also been getting the new PC up and running, when I say 'I' I actually mean the nice PC repair man who has recovered all of my old hard drive and transferred it all to my new PC. He has also cleaned up the old drive and I now have that as a portable storage device. So should I ever have a failure, everything can be stored in two places. This means that once I have them I should never lose my photos again!! (fingers crossed)
The last weekend before the PC died I took these photos, the blossom on the trees has been fantastic. There are loads of pretty trees around and I have noticed that some of my friends are already effected by hay fever. I am so glad that I don't suffer from that!


This tree is stunning, I am sad to say I have no idea what it is, so I will have to do some Internet research.

It felt like I was standing under a huge bouquet of flowers, slightly fragrant blowing in the warm spring breeze.

This weekend I am going to make an effort to get myself sorted out for my holiday. We are due to go on a Mediterranean cruise on the 1st of May. I have bought a few new clothes, but I really need to sort out my wardrobe and do a load of ironing to get things in the case. I don't feel I have had time to dedicate to getting ready. I also want to pack up a small craft bag to take with me but that seems to get harder and harder to do!!

Have a happy weekend!!

Beeping nuisance......

I have been plagued by PC problems, it started a couple of weeks ago when I was trying to connect up my PDA, it tried to connect but threw a wobbly and froze on me. The nice fixer man thought it was fixable so he took it away got it up and running and returned it. The problem is that it did the same thing about a month later, again it was fixed. Finally the same again yesterday. He thinks its a failure on the motherboard, so I am cutting my losses and I have ordered another one. Fixer man is going to rescue the hard drive and I will be able to access it from the new computer.
Its all ordered just have to wait for it to arrive, as usual I end up getting a new pc just as they introduce a new operating system, which is meant to be the best thing since the last wonderful operating system, which usually means it will be pants and full of bugs and glitches, can't wait to be the 'tester' for Windows 7!!
I really can't wait to try and load up my printer, camera and all those programs that will not be recognised by windows 7, Grrrrrrr.
Who knows I might have some photos to share soon!!!

Big Boys and their toys!!

Last weekend we got working in the garden, Tom had been leveling out the earth and preparing the garden for the arrival of the new trampoline, so on Saturday morning we went to the local tool hire place and hired a compactor. It was quite exciting to use, petrol driven and really heavy it thumped the ground and compacted the earth. It did have a mind of its own and it was a bit of a struggle to keep it on the straight and narrow!

I had a go, but its definitely a Boy Toy!!

This past week the computer has been playing up so its been away having its guts looked at. Seems it was over heating so the man that knows has done something technical and it seems to have settled down again.

I am looking forward to chilling this weekend, I want to get out with my camera and try and get a few shots of the beautiful blossom, I have counted 14 different types within walking distance. If the weather holds I want to reseed the grass in the back garden and start off a few sweet pea plants, looking forward to a colourful summer in my new garden !

Happy Weekend.

It has been a busy week, I am glad its the weekend but I have been busy today as well! We have been sorting out the bottom of the garden, Beth has has a new trampoline which has been sitting in the box for around 6 weeks, she is desperate to get the new one up. We wanted to move the garden around and put it in a different corner, so Tom has spent ages shifting earth. This morning we hired a 'compactor' from the local hire centre, came back with it and went over the bottom of the garden making a firm base for the trampoline and the gravel that we intend to finish the area off with.

So we have the weed membrane down and we have the the trampoline up, we just need to make sure its level and to clear up the rest of the rubbish in the garden. Just stopped for a well earned break and a bacon roll!!

A new Puppy!

On Easter Sunday we had mum, dad and Laura around for lunch. Dad cooked a Chicken and I cooked a pork joint complete with luscious crackling! I never got around to making an apple pie for pudding, so we had to make do with cheesecake and Ice cream. After dinner we decided to visit my brother and his wife and more importantly their new puppy!

Keith and Nicky had recently lost a dog, he had been having fits and after a lot of treatment they had to make the hard decision to have him put to sleep. Keith really wanted another dog, so for a complete change they found themselves a German Shepherd.

This big ball of fluff, is seven weeks old, weighs 16lbs and has been named 'Chewy' I think he does look like Chewbacca from star wars! He has huge feet and when he grows into them, he will be a whopper!!!

Keith and Chewy, father and son!!!!!!

Easter Bunny Time.

Sunday morning and the Easter Bunny had arrived, bearing gifts of chocolate eggs. This year there were a few eggs in the 'nude' part of the push the for the reduction on packaging. We have recycled boxes, tin foil and plastic. The trouble is the eggs are so tempting, they call to you from the shelf. 'eat me, eat me,' We are not one of those families where there are eggs in the house months later, a shelf life of a week would be good in this household!

The holiday has flown by and we are going to take a trip to Dunstable downs this afternoon to fly our kites and then before you know it, it'll be time for work again tomorrow.
Happy Easter!!

I have found a new button!

I have had my new camera for a few months now and I am still amazed by the number of 'things' it does. It seems every time I take a few minutes to look at it I find a new button or a new function. Today I found 'super macro' which allows you to take photos right down to 1cm (according to the instructions) So I have given it a go. These photos of flowers I am pleased with. I did take some extreme close ups of my keyboard, I was disgusted at just how filthy it is, so I won't be showing that one!

The Forsythia bush is in full bloom so I have attempted a few shots of that, although it was windy not easy to get a steady shot!

I do love the bright cheerful colours of spring!

I have been pranked!!!

For years and years I have been the practical joker in the group, I admit to many jokes. In the past I have sent my mother an invitation to join the 'Budgens' retired members social club,
so that she can avail herself of bungee jumping for beginners. The thing was she only worked for them for around 4 hours!!
I have also sent letters to people regarding their use of pressure washers, illegally! I sent one to my friend Karen asking her to attend a trial for Enfield town ladies football team, I even promised her a free kit and the names of her kids embroidered on her boots if she was successful.
Its been a long time coming but I have been done, I very nearly fell for it!!! Its a very good effort. The letter came complete with proper logos and very official looking wording. But you have to get up early to prank a pranker!!
I bought a laser torch a couple of months ago, I don't know why, but it amuses me. at night it picks up every single speck of dust flying around in the room, it reflects off of lots of things and its mesmerising. I have shone it at a few things, (houses, trees, fences, ) but I have never been tempted to shine it on people, cars or AIRCRAFT!!! So I was certain I had not carried out the offence mentioned in the letter.
Whoever has sent it has gone out of their way to make it as realistic as possible, it is from the Civil Aviation Authority, who have an office in Gatwick, the letter has a Gatwick postmark, very slick!! There is even a CAA logo on the envelope.
I might have fallen for it if it hadn't been for the signature, Mr Harri Otter. When I put the telephone number I was supposed to call into google, it confirmed my suspicions, London Zoo!!!!

So step forward, its a brilliant effort, I take my hat off to you!!

If you click on the photo of the letter, it enlarges.

The easter Bunny has BEEN !!

Beth and Megan organised an Easter Egg hunt for the little ones in the road. They spent ages buying the gifts, preparing clues, wrapping, hiding and generally getting ready. They decided that 11am would be the right time to stage the event. Last minute they decided that they needed a pair of bunny ears each, so we took an emergency trip to Morrisons!



I love this picture, they look so proud of themselves. They made a really good Easter egg hunt the children were so excited and happy to run around looking for their gifts. Right at the end the hid a basket in the hedge and they were jumping up and down when they noticed it!


Beth, my cute little bunny!!!

Phew, its a long weekend.

I am ever so glad we have reached the long weekend that has been such a long time arriving. I am disorganised and lacking in Easter eggs, which is a shame. I think I am celebrated out which is a shame for Beth being the third child!! Still there is a bonus, its the end of Lent and Sunday mass will have chocolate eggs which will make it more exciting for her!!
I don't really have any plans, I would like to get the garden sorted, we were thinking decking, but perhaps I will revert to plan A, Gravel, quick easy and cheap. We can do it ourselves if the weather holds out.

Today is April fools day and there were some good 'jokes' around. Our local radio station reported on the latest David Blaine stunt, he was trying to eat his way out of a giant chocolate Easter egg in Stevenage town centre. Seems lots of people fell for that one.

I was convinced that I had been pranked by my dear hubby and daughter. Over the past few weeks the council have forgotten to empty our recycling and rubbish bins. When I got home our front garden had been mowed. I was quite surprised as its been fairly wet on and off today and the grass wasn't that long. I asked why Tom had done it? and he told me he hadn't it was the council!!! That's when I thought I was being pranked, why would they do our garden? So I went back out and sure enough, our garden and all the communal lawns and verges had been cut. So should I call them and say thank you??

Have a happy weekend everyone!