Purr fect surprise

A parcel came today with Grace and my name on

All the way from Marcus in America

You know how to please a couple of girls

we both love the ginger kitty on the card

 Grace is pretending not to love her toy

but she has played with it for ages

we all know how older sisters can be

 I have mine on my favourite mat

I have made up a game where I throw it in the air

but it does not fly away

 We have put mum's pot scourers where she can find them

thank you so much for our parcel

we don't often get post.

Marcus has a lovely lady called Paula

I got to go now someone is coming..............

Love Purdy xxxx

Up close

We went for a walk on Bank Holiday Monday to

The Forest of Bere

I played with macro shots

 Wildlife

 Flowers and depth of field
I love bluebells

 Simple subjects

 Cow slips a real sign of spring

 Blossom, so pretty and growing in the car park 

I did take more photo's but they have been entered for our end of course competition, and can not been shown anywhere on the internet. I am not expecting to win, I will be happy just to get a few likes against one or two photo's. Tonight is our last meeting, we will all go for a curry next Thursday.
I used the Pinesol last weekend, I made the mixture 50/50, and sprayed our wooden fence, normally a place where there are loads of flies, we sat and ate our meal and was almost fly free, so for me it is working, I will need to spray each time we sit outside. It does smell divine, nice and clean, I want to soak some fabric in the Pinesol and hang them up to see if that works as well.
Just a four day working week, and Tuesday has already gone, it will soon be the weekend again. On Saturday, we are having a day at the Lulworth Cove, stunning location, and hope to learn alot more about our camera's.
The wind is very strong today, no problems in the garden, just loads of petals from the Magnolia tree all over the lawn, but I don't really mind picking them up.

Flowers

Peoney time

first flower, but there are loads more buds.

 My Acer, it's a few years old now

I will renew all the compost in this pot later this year,

not bad for a 99p end of season purchase.

 Strawberries doing well

 and tucked behind the neat little fence, 

I have added this fence around the herb garden as well,

 it stops the cats just walking on to the beds.

 This Blueberry was purchased last year, loads of flowers

hoping for a good first harvest

Gooseberries new plant this year, 

my other plant is much slower, 

I am thinking about putting it into another pot 

if it does not have too much fruit this year. 

Blackcurrant bush, 

second year still rather small, but very nice to see flowers/fruits.

Raspberries, they have taken over their section of the garden, 

My Blackberry bush, 

well not really a bush, 

planted last September, the new growth is strong. 

 A much better start this year for my Hosta

 Aquilegia's doing well, 

I have two yellow and this huge purple plant

and loads more small plants which will be removed when they get a bit bigger.

 In other parts of the garden

flowers are forming on the Tomato plants

my Chives, which grow around the tall pot with my bay tree in

are looking great, I love to see the flowers on chives.

So far this weekend I have been in the garden, weather permitting.
The lawn is settling well, I do walk on it, the Magnolia tree is still dropping petals, so I clear them every day and yesterday twice, we had a strong breeze all day.
My vegetable seedling have been thinned, they will need doing again, but I will use some on salads, I love baby beetroot leaves.
The flower seedling in the greenhouse are coming along well, it's now a battle to keep the slugs and snails off, I don't have so many as last year, I'm learning my lessons and growing just what I have space for, plus just a few extra for daughters garden.
The swapped plants are doing well, the amount of rain we had Sat/Sunday helped and they are all standing upright, I hope that's a good sign.
Below is my swaps from Chris, she says they spread, she does have loads in her gardens, so I have placed mine where there is room for them to grow. I am hoping they will help fill my side garden, all I want there is green all summer and loads of flowers.
I have two photo's here, can anyone give them a name, I can not recall what they looked like in flower, I must have seen them on one of my coffee and chat times in Chris's garden.

 I have not done much stitching, I have found a large piece of linen and I'm formulating a plan of action, I know what stitching I want to do, I just need the design.
Today is bright and sunny, not that warm, normal temperature for this time of year, but we were spoilt in April with the warm weather. I have been outside already, checking every thing is doing fine. I have turned into my dad, he checked his garden everyday before going to work.
We are planning a day out, not decided where we are going, but as it's a Bank Holiday here we will avoid the beaches and The New Forest, traffic will be horrendous.
What are your plans for today?

Bank holiday weekend

I have pulled out Carrie Rose

I am able to get on with some before the next section is published using other sections, this is another design with repeat patterns. I really could not find anything new to start, I really fancy stitching with loads of colour and filling the whole canvas with stitches, much like patchwork. I'm going to get my thinking head on. 

 I have also to finish these santa's

 We popped to our local nursery this morning

I wanted a few Alpines and herbs

I did not buy any extra plants

I really don't have any room in any of my beds.

 The Alpines planted, I pulled two apart and have another plant of each,

The third went in my china pot, I had this pot since the 70's

I love to see a group of plants on this old table.

 This photo is so full of promise

all three fruits have flowers and some fruits.

I have spent most of the day outside, Sam, Josh and mummy came to visit and stayed, Sam playing in the garden and asked a million questions.  I have created some football cards for Josh, he can fill them in how he wants, he loves them and was putting together his dream team, I have saved the template so I can always print more.
I really did not have much to do in the garden, alot of my Aquilegia had self seeded in the side garden, so I dug out loads of plants, I have used 4 around our garden and gave another 7 to Chris across the road, who came back with two huge clumps of English bluebells and 7 'plant them and see what they are plants'. I have also planted another 5 Aquilegia's to pass to Win next month. I love this time of year, we all plant swap. Tomorrow I want to pop into Wilko's, I require another 2 little black fences to finish around the fruit garden, and I want a small arch for the veg plot and my climbing French beans.
I also spent an hour thinning the seedlings in my veg plot.
Hubby is watering the new lawn and all the fruit around the plot and the best bit we still have another two days off together.