Long Overdue Return To The Blogging World

Wow oh wow, I'm not quite sure how I managed to forget all about blogging since October last year and we are now in February already, crazy! I have spent the last few days having a huge catch up on everyone's blogs that I follow and do hope you're all well.

I am determined to get back into blogging as I found it a great way of recording what I had been up to as well as a good way of spending some time to relax and read everyone else's lovely blog posts.

Since my last blog post where I mentioned that Jack and I got engaged, I haven't done much in the way of wedding planning, I'm actually rather terrible at it and need a kick up the butt! Jack and I have done quite a bit of discussing about what we both like and have said that we would like to get married in June 2018, so a good 16 months away but that will soon come around and I like to be organised so I'm hoping we can get a lot sorted out soon. We're sticking to a budget and don't want some big fancy showy wedding as that's just not us; we're all about love, family and food quite honestly! So if we have all of them at the wedding then that would be perfect! I'm also terribly shy and I'm already feeling sick at the thought of everyone looking at me but I suppose I will have to get over that, or that's what everyone keeps telling me anyway! As and when we have more plans I will of course share them with you on here and any advice is greatly appreciated from your own experiences of planning for a wedding!

I have also changed jobs since my last post. I was feeling incredibly unhappy in my previous job even though I had only been there for eight months, but it just wasn't for me and it started to really make me question whether I want to do accountancy for the rest of my life - the thought actually made me feel rather depressed in all honesty! I was however approached by a local community-run village shop & cafe about whether I would like to take on their accounts. I thought that this may be a little more interesting than management accounting that I had been doing (analysing, budgeting, forecasting, blah blah - no offence to anyone who enjoys that!) and the shop also asked whether I would be interested in taking on the assistant manager role in the shop and cafe. I did a couple of trial days to see what I thought of it (it's been a long time since my days working in the retail giant Next but I think these came in handy) and I really enjoyed myself. And so I accepted both roles and have been working there since late November. I'm absolutely loving it there. The shop is wonderful and the people I work with are all so friendly and helpful. It's a busy little shop an cafe for a village but word of mouth means a lot and I think it's beginning to become better known now. It's in a very pretty location too so if you do happen to be in the West Berkshire area then do pop in, the shop is called the Hampstead Norreys Community Shop and their Facebook page is here; https://www.facebook.com/Hampstead-Norreys-Community-Shop-157054151020624/ The website is currently going through a re-design if not I'd have given you that. It's a great little place anyway and does a lot to support the local community and stock local produce. We have local artists and crafters that sell their wares in the shop too and they have already asked me if I would like to sell some of my crochet items in there, so I really must pull my finger out and get busy making things! To say I'm a lot happier job-wise is an understatement, it's just so good to have the variety of working in the shop for a couple of days each week and then my other days I work from home completing their accounts, plus it is only two villages away from where we live, happy girl I am! The accounts side has given me a lot of stress initially as there was no accounting software used so I'm in the process of setting this up and getting a better system in place, at the moment it feels like I'll never catch up but I'm really enjoying the challenge of it all. Jack is very relieved to see me much happier about work these days too!

Life at home is all good; we have continued with decorating jobs and I did so much glossing one week that I think I gave myself a throat infection from all the fumes! I have painted the hallway and landing magnolia instead of the white it was previously as white just shows up every little grubby mark, especially with animals in the house! We have been busy filling in the holes and cracks in one of the hallway cupboards which Jack is turning into a pantry for me. It sits right next to the kitchen and I have so much baking and cooking equipment that I'm rapidly running out of space in the kitchen cupboards so I'm very excited at the prospect of my very own pantry! I've shown Jack some photos of pantry ideas on Pinterest and he says I always like to pick the most complicated of designs, but I'm quite sure he loves the challenges I give him! The back garden is looking rather dull and drab which is always the case at this time of the year. I'm counting down to when Spring arrives and there's a little more colour and a little less moss out there. I've just treated myself to some vegetable and flower seeds and I plan on sewing some seeds in the warmth of the conservatory when I get a spare weekend.

Spare time at the moment isn't in plentiful supply because a new bundle of fluff joined our household at the weekend, everyone meet Nigel!

Nigel

He's a gorgeous and playful Border Collie, currently eight weeks old. We first met him and his siblings at four weeks old and really fell for him. His markings were gorgeous and his Mum had such a lovely personality. We always intended on getting a Border Collie this year and had been researching for ages to find the right breeder. The breeder he came from is wonderful, a lovely family with a passion for Border Collies. They only breed to continue their own lines and show their own as well as do some judging too. Nigel's Dad is a very handsome chap also from showing lines and he has show champions in his bloodlines too which is why I'm now considering giving showing a go when he's old enough as an extra activity. Barry adores playing with other dogs though he is initially nervous around bigger dogs, which is why it will be nice that Nigel will grow up here with us and Barry will no doubt be boss! We brought Nigel home on Saturday and Barry absolutely adores him! They play lots and Nigel is a real live wire! A fearless explorer in the garden and wants to eat EVERYTHING!

Sleeping Buddies

Puppies are certainly hard work but so rewarding too. I'm sure both Barry and Nigel will continue to feature heavily on my blog as they're such big parts of our lives! Just as my tortoises are too; they successfully hibernated for 7 weeks over December and January and are back to running around now and chomping away on strawberries and the extra goodies I have been giving them.

I think that's enough in terms of the updates for today; keep all your blogging too as I so love to read all of your posts, I will get around to some comments later on.

Speak soon!

Em x

What We've Been Up To Lately

Apologies again for lack of blog posts!


We've been enjoying the sunshine and garden lots just recently and all our hard work in the garden seems to be paying off. Jack's shed is all finished, painted and shelving sorted inside. It's looking neat and tidy and we finally got the sign up that I bought for Jack at Christmas.

The wheat was harvested last week, straw has been baled and now there's just a stubble field left; that brings back memories of galloping across stubble fields on ponies! Our house has been filthy with dust thanks to the combines but I don't begrudge them too much as I can never get bored of our beautiful view and watching them work.

We have visited the Garden Centre a couple of times just recently and picked up a few brilliant bargains. Almost everything at this time of year is at least 50% off at our garden centre and so far we've picked up a raspberry plant for £5 a Blueberry plant for £6, a large Hibiscus for £4 which is now flowering as well as a few other Alpines and bedding plants for the borders. I got some beautiful Dahlias too with this giant pot's worth only setting us back £3! It's nice to add lots more colour to the garden, especially as a nice contrast to our newly painted back fence. I've just got a few more panels left to paint this week if I can.

We finally got around to replacing the two rotten fence panels in the back garden with new ones (more painting for me!) and we've taken out the redundant smaller panels that sat in front, so the garden seems even bigger now for some reason. That's the last of the big jobs done in the garden anyway, other than re-laying the patio at some stage but I think we wait until next year to tackle that job. It was very windy on Saturday when Jack and his friend fitted the new fence panels; Grandad's Rhubarb plant in the garden was almost a victim, one of my beautiful National Trust pots got knocked over and smashed and they managed to break all of the Sweetcorn stalks, never mind! Jack does however realise he owes me a new plant pot and they're not cheap!


This week is all about getting organised for our holiday next week, so lots of tidying, sorting and packing to do. We made a nice £150 on eBay at the weekend for the purpose of some extra spending money in America so I now have lots of parcels to take to the post office, the chore part of selling on eBay! It's good to get rid of things we didn't want anyway. I've also been busy making more crochet and other items ready to start selling on Etsy once I'm back from our holiday and I've been making a birthday present for my brother's girlfriend too - I'll show you photos soon.


It's going to be hot hot hot today so I had better get on with painting these fence panels - no doubt Barry will keep me company, he's usually found somewhere nearby up to mischief!


Em x

Kitchen Tiling Is Finished!

My parents were back from France for a fleeting visit at the weekend and it was lovely to see them. While Dad stayed with us he very kindly finished the tiling in our kitchen and just left me a little bit of grouting to do which I got finished the other evening; I can now add grouting to my growing list of DIY skills!


I was quite worried that the 'Pistachio green' tiles would be too bold but now they're finished I love them! The contrast with the 'soft stone' coloured walls and the white grout is lovely and is made the kitchen feel jazzy, modern and clean. These are what they call subway tiles and were from Wickes, surprisingly good value too and came in an array of colours (subway-style tiles seem to be rather expensive). I love it!

The house decorating is really starting to make a difference now; it might seem a bit slower than I'd hoped but work and other commitments as well as finances mean you can't do everything all at once! The house is starting to look like we had imagined anyway; cleaner, tidier and full of the things we love. Jack still looks exasperated when I bring out the list of all the other things to do on the house and garden... it's about three A4 pages long! Thankfully there's not a lot left to do in the kitchen; I bought a new roller blind from Dunelm yesterday so that needs putting up, I'm yet to finish sprucing up a plain cork notice board that hangs in the kitchen, then we just need a few accessories like a display shelf and clock, and then it's all finished in there. It already has a nice tiled floor so it's easy to sweep and clean - I love tiled floors!

I'm yet to silicone around the bottom of the tile line (before anyone points it out!)

Onto the next house decorating task!


Em x

Lovely Weekend With Family

We headed over to my Brother's on Saturday afternoon to spend the night at theirs along with my Parents as they're back from France for a long weekend. It was lovely to see Mum and Dad, Simon and Jenna and Barry of course came with us too.

Just a quick family photo we got on Dad's ipad while we were all in Si and Jenna's garden


Jenna and Si have settled into their new house and they're making it look lovely and homely. The garden is looking great too and it's lovely to see them so excited at making a place their own just like we've been doing with our house. Barry seemed to enjoy exploring a new house and it's nice to get him feeling settled there as he'll be staying with my brother and Jenna when we go to America in August.


We treated Mum and Dad to a dinner out at the local pub as it was their wedding anniversary on Saturday; the portions at this pub are gigantic and the food is very tasty - just far too much and I never thought I'd say that! I had a steak, Guinness and mushroom pie, while Jack had steak.

It's certainly been a weekend of eating; Si made us all bacon sarnies on Sunday morning before Jack and I headed home with Barry. Mum and Dad followed on to ours later yesterday afternoon and are now staying with us until Tuesday when they return to France. I cooked a huge toad in the hole yesterday; tasty traditional Newbury sausages from the local butchers and I like mixing sliced red onion and fresh sage leaves into the Yorkshire Pudding mix as it goes in the oven to give it extra flavour. We had it with Rosemary roast potatoes, green beans and a pork and cider gravy I made a couple of weeks ago and had in the freezer. I love real gravy!

Spending time with family is my favourite, just as much as eating a bacon sandwich is also my favourite!!

Em x

More Gardening

We spent Saturday morning working on the back garden which had been somewhat neglected while we'd been busy transforming the front garden. Everything had got a little unruly thanks to the regular supply of rain and sunshine.

The bees are loving all the different Lavenders in my garden

Jack has fitted guttering onto his shed so I now have a water butt slowly filling with rain water.

I weeded all of the flower beds, gave the herbs a bit of a tidy and admired 'Grandad's Rhubarb' which is growing really well since we planted it late last year.

Jack mowed the lawn, I edged it, Barry christened it (you know what I mean..)

I gave the Tortoise's run a tidy up; Squirt and Lola love the little cave I created for them with some slate and bricks. The Fuchsia in their run is full of flower buds too.

I weeded the whole patio - back breaking but looks so much better again

We packed up all the gardening tools just as the sky got incredibly dark and a big thunderstorm arrived, hence the 'moody' looking photos below!

Have a good week everyone!

Em x

Having A Go At Amigurumi

I've had a nice quiet weekend at home getting on with various jobs while Jack is away. He's not back until Wednesday so it's just me and the Dog. I had a lovely long catch up with my best friend (Jess) on Friday afternoon; she had a wonderful honeymoon and we chatted about life in general for ages (the ups and the downs - you can always rely on your best friend to listen to your troubles and help in any way she can). I got lots of housework done on Saturday which included sorting 'that corner' and 'that drawer' out, surely everyone understands me when I say that - we all have a corner and a drawer where things get dumped for sorting at a later date! I then spent the rest of the weekend either taking Barry for walks or doing some crochet and have a go at Amigurumi.

One of Jess' friends is having her first baby at the beginning of August and Jess is putting together a hamper for her of various baby gifts. Jess has asked me to crochet some baby booties and I'm quite excited by my first official project, rather than using the excuse that I'm 'just practicing' all the time! I've been doing a lot of practicing to make sure I get my stitches and tension right and have discovered that they're actually not too difficult to make. I popped to the local wool shop a few villages away, called YarnFest and bought some gorgeous yarn to make booties with. Progress photos to come soon (I forgot to take any photos - a first for me!). Please do have a look at YarnFest's website and if you are this way then do visit their shop. It's in an old telephone exchange building in a village not far from me and they have a fantastic choice of yarn and other knitting and crochet accessories. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful too which I really appreciate when I still feel like I have so much to learn and the prices were very fair for good quality yarn.

I've also been practicing my Amigurumi recently and it's really good fun, if a little fiddly. I'm determined to make a teddy bear and other animals but my first bear attempt looks more like an alien! Oh well, practice makes perfect. I am however very pleased with how my cute little donut turned out (complete with sprinkles!) and a cute little whale too. I love whales; I intend to make another one out of a nice blue yarn that I have. Have any of you had a go at Amigurumi or (what I call) 3D crochet? I'd love to see what you've made and if you have any useful websites, books etc. that you can recommend then that would be great.

Little Whale in progress...

And the finished item, so cute!

And I love my little donut, looks so cute and tasty! I want to make some bigger versions now!

I bought these lovely stitch markers too from a shop on Etsy; they're handmade here in England and I like to do my part at supporting small businesses.

I'll hopefully have more projects to show you soon!

Em x

Front Garden Transformation

We've been living in our house for almost 18 months now and I can't believe how quickly that time has flown. I feel like we've achieved quite a lot in terms of decorating and putting our own stamp on the place but one job we've been meaning to do for a while is neaten the front garden area. It only consists of a small garden sat next to the driveway but it was very overgrown and mostly full of weeds (which the tortoises really enjoyed!).

So I just thought I'd share a few photos to show the transformation; we weeded the bed, some of the wildflowers I've dug up and re-planted in my wildflower bed in our back garden. Once the bed was weeded I created a flower bed under the Buddelia and we levelled out the remainder of the ground and prepped it for turf.


After a trip to the garden centre to purchase turf and some plants for the newly created flower bed we went home, laid the turf, planted the new flower bed up and laid slabs for the wheelie bins to sit on. Ugly though they are we don't have anywhere to hide them away, but at least they're now sat on slabs so they're easy to move. There was a flower bed in front of the kitchen window too. It was full of a type of Valerian (I think that's what it is...?) and although it is pretty it was very invasive and growing through the gravel, not to mention soaking us each morning when we had to brush past it to get to the car. Therefore I pulled it all up and again have replanted a smaller amount in the back garden where I can better manage it. This newly emptied bed under the kitchen window was then planted with Osteospermum I bought from the garden centre and with Gaillardia that I have grown from seed. I love Gaillardia and they're great for spreading across a bed and are covered in bright orange and yellow flowers each year.


We both worked very hard anyway and we're really pleased with the finished look; a pretty front garden that's nice and easy to maintain (because all the hard work is in the back garden!). Just a small lawn to mow, Privet to trim and a few flower beds to keep happy. The only jobs we have left out the front to do is pull the remainder of the dead ivy off of the house and re-paint the brickwork. We also desperately need a new front door before the next winter approaches (this one sticks terribly in the cold weather). We'll get there eventually :-)


Before...

After...

And because of the pesky cats I've had to protect my new flower beds

The downside of all this gardening? My hay fever is extremely bad at the moment, but I'm determined not to let it get the better of me!


Em x

Just a Few Photos & Exciting Holiday Plans!

It's been a busy time just recently here; we've spent any spare time gardening, tidying and busy with DIY jobs around the house. In between that we've been enjoying the lovely light evenings taking Barry for an extra walk most nights. Barry loves his walks and already gets two or three each day, but we've had some beautiful sunsets just recently and been going out for a final quick stroll around the nearby field at 9pm. I like to make the most of the light evenings and I'm convinced that extra bit of fresh air not long before bed, helps you sleep better. We certainly don't get any complaints from Barry! We've had some amazing skies too though; hailstorms in between sunshine etc. (as the photo below shows... more photos on my Instagram account; @handmade_em).

I love stormy skies

The back garden is looking good; the Alliums are just about to start flowering, the wildflower bed is full of greenery (soon to be full of flowers I hope), the Montana Clematis is going mad and covered in buds and flowers that are just emerging, the lawn is like salad cress and grows so quickly, my runner beans are covered in pretty scarlet flowers and we've already been enjoying dinners with home grown pak choi, peas and mangetout. I love pottering in my garden!

Tasty young Mangetout

I spent all of yesterday afternoon cleaning the conservatory; the windows were filthy and I now realise it's because the conservatory roof is leaking in particularly torrential downpours, which means over this past winter it's been getting quite damp in the room. We're going to have to look at what we're going to do about the roof leaks but in the meantime at least it's all clean again. We popped to Ikea at the weekend and bought two Poang chairs and a footstool, which means I've got somewhere nice to sit in the conservatory and read a book - Barry has already claimed the footstool as his! We bought a lovely corner plant holder too and my handmade Terrarium now has pride of place on the top shelf. I've bought another pretty glass jar to make another terrarium, I'm a little addicted to them now.

 

And finally I bring you onto my exciting holiday plan news... very exciting actually! Jack and I went on a special holiday 3 years ago to New York with his family for his Dad's 60th and then we flew onto Vancouver, Canada to visit my Aunt and Uncle who live out there. We had an amazing two weeks exploring new places (I completely fell in love with British Columbia) and vowed we'd do more 'exploration adventure' holidays in the future. Jack then told me a week ago that he wanted to take me away for my birthday and that we both deserved a special holiday away having not had one since saving very hard over the last few years for our house deposit. Jack made various suggestions of places we've both said we'd like to go, but in the end we've both decided on..... a California road trip!!

To say I'm excited is an understatement! We're going at the end of August/beginning of September and will be out there on my birthday. This holiday will be very enjoyable for the both of us and we've had great fun so far researching where we'd like to go and what we want to do. One of my dreams for a long time now was to go whale watching in Monterey, California and to know that we're now going to do that is so exciting! One of my favourite animals is the Blue Whale and it would be a dream come true to see just a glimpse of one. We were very lucky to go whale watching in Vancouver three years ago and see 8 Transient Orca, it was fantastic, so I'd love to see some again but this time in a different place. Jack is a car lover so is also very excited for this holiday as we're hiring a Mustang convertible to drive along the Pacific coast highway in California. We fly to San Francisco, have a few days in San Francisco, drive onto Monterey to spend a few days there (including my birthday), then we're spending a night in San Luis Obispo, then a few days in Los Angeles, before finishing up with a few days in Las Vegas and flying home from there. It'll be a tiring but fun holiday and one we're both super excited about.

We've booked our flights and hire car, and saved ourselves some pennies by organising and booking hotel stays ourselves; we're staying in a total of 5 different hotels during our stay and it took us two evenings to decide and book them all. I'm also very pleased to say we've earned over £200 in cash back thanks to Quidco. Anyone who doesn't use cash back sites I really do recommend Quidco! Since moving into our house last year we've earned over £300 in cash back and it's so easy to use and free to register. It's paid for a couple of night's of our hotel stays anyway. I've also been busy sorting out unwanted things in the house to put on eBay to make us a bit of extra spending money hopefully. Every little helps as this won't be a cheap holiday (America is expensive!), but we know we work very hard and deserve to treat ourselves and we also know just how lucky we are that we get to go on a nice holiday like this. I've already ordered a couple of guide books and a book on wildlife too; I'm itching to get tonnes of photos and have been busy practicing with my camera!

We're most excited about;

• Whale watching in Monterey
• Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
• Driving along the Big Sur
• Driving through the Californian wine region
• Walking along Rodeo Drive (I'll try and resist the temptation of quoting my favourite film of all time, Pretty Woman!), Los Angeles
• Watching the famous fountain display at the Bellagio in Las Vegas
• Seeing the Grand Canyon, Nevada

I will stop rabbiting on about it for now, I promise! It's still 3 months away after all, but I'm sure lots of photos will appear on here when we're back!

Have a good week everyone

Em x



Handmade Gift; Scrabble Artwork

Just a quick post about a recent project I worked on, making this simple but fun piece of artwork for my brother and his girlfriend as a moving in present. It was very cheap to make and quite easy too, though it was fiddly making sure my angles were nice and as straight as can be. The scrabble pieces I bought from eBay a while ago as I was going to make something similar for our home.


It caused a few light hearted arguments on Saturday over who's name totals the most scrabble points!

Em xx

Newly Tiled Conservatory Floor!

How can one be so excited by floor tiles?! I am though! Two weeks' ago my parents came and stayed with us and I put my Dad to work tiling our conservatory floor. Don't feel sorry for him - he loves it! My Dad is a 'can't sit still' kind of man and always has to be doing something, be it walking, DIY, gardening or tasting local real ale! Like most men he's also partial to watching a football game or ten..!




Dad has done a fantastic job anyway and I'm so pleased with the conservatory floor; we went with a nice plain taupe-coloured tile from Wickes and black grout which helps them stand out. Dad's done a lovely diamond pattern too which I think looks fab in our square conservatory. As yet we haven't put anything back in the conservatory as I need to wash down all the windows and frames first. Jack was such a help to Dad too :-)

Poorly Pup (Again)

Barry has been a very poorly boy again and it's been such a worry. It was only mid-March when he last spent three days at the vets due to sickness and tummy upset and it's now early May and we're back again with a similar thing :-( Sorry if this post is a little graphic to read!

Visiting Barry at the Vets yesterday in an attempt to persuade him to eat

It started on Thursday afternoon with almost constant sickness and for the first time ever Barry refused to eat any food. This is very out of the ordinary for him, especially when he was only being offered plain boiled chicken (because of the sickness) and usually he eats this with glee. He didn't eat anything at all that night and started to look very sorry for himself by the next morning after a night of sickness too. He still wouldn't eat the next morning and when diarrhoea started which was mainly just blood I got very concerned and took him straight to the vets (it was very startling and scary to see). The vet couldn't feel any obstructions and so it was put down to severe gastroenteritis like last time, only this time called Haemorrhagic Gastroenteritis because of the blood. The vet said that fresh blood in stools isn't too worrying compared with 'coffee granules' dark blood which pinpoints problems much higher up in the digestive system but it was advised he stayed in to get him straight onto fluids and medicine to try and get him feeling better. Off he went out the back with the vet and they rang later to say that he was bright, but still some sickness and diarrhoea and therefore they wanted to keep him in overnight to keep him on the drip. I rang a few times the next day and it was the same story, though the sickness had finally stopped. On Sunday morning the vet rang and said he was much brighter but still not eating and therefore they asked us to come in and try and persuade Barry to eat.


Barry was very happy to see us and we managed to persuade him to eat a tiny amount of chicken which at least was something. Saying goodbye to him again was horrible and he howled and cried. They managed to get him to eat a small amount more yesterday afternoon and the vet rang this morning to say that it had successfully stayed down which is good. He isn't interested in eating again this morning but the vet said she's happy for Barry to come home in the hope that he'll start eating at home. So I'm off shortly to go and pick him up and I can't wait to have him home, we've really missed him this weekend.


As to the cause of his tummy troubles, it's very hard to pinpoint it as frustrating as that is. The vet says he obviously has a very sensitive digestive system and she herself has terriers and that they are more susceptible to sensitivities and are also extremely fussy (which I can vouch for with Barry!). Barry is already on a very good food (Arden Grange) and has been on that for 4 months now having changed it from James Wellbeloved a while ago to try and help his sensitivities to an even better hypo-allergenic food. The vets advised we stay on Arden Grange for now to see how he gets on and then we'll have to consider what to try next if not. Deary me, they're such a worry! I'm just glad he's ok and hope he'll be much better soon and not have anymore flare ups for a while, it's horrible seeing him so poorly.


In other news (no sickness or other messy stuff!), my parents arrived yesterday to spend a few days with us. Dad has got stuck straight into the tiling here at our house, with Jack's help. Jack and I madly spent Friday evening clearing the conservatory and ripping up the old laminate wood flooring as well as moving items off of the kitchen worktops ready for Dad to tile the conservatory floor and the kitchen walls. My parents are staying with us until tomorrow so hopefully the tiling will get finished, there may just be some grouting for Jack and I to do. I certainly can't wait to see the finished look in both rooms. I cooked a barbeque yesterday with Jack's help and it was very tasty. I made a tasty salad too and we of course had to have corn on the cob on the BBQ as that's my favourite.

Quickly took a photo last night; Dad & Jack have made a good start on our new kitchen tiles!

It was lovely spending the day in the garden with Mum while the boys were busy tiling. The tortoises have spent all weekend in their run and are very happy in their outdoor home. We just missed having Barry running around too.

We had to share our strawberries with the tortoises yesterday! They're very dusty in this photo as they've been busy digging into the little 'cave' I made them in their run

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the hot sunny weather; I can't wait to get my boy home, spend the afternoon with him snuggled up on my lap while I read your blog posts!


Have a great week all!


Em x

Lovely Bank Holiday Weekend With Family

Morning all, I hope you've enjoyed a lovely bank holiday weekend where I think the weather was pretty good considering it was a bank holiday and they can be a total wash-out.

Beautiful sunshine on Overstrand Beach, Norfolk

We loaded up the car on Friday afternoon and set off to North Norfolk to spend the weekend with my parents, brother and his partner. Usually the car journey from home to Overstrand is around four hours, but it took us well over five hours due to the volume of bank holiday traffic on the roads. I think Jack (who was driving) was rather frustrated with the constant crawling towards the end, but we did eventually reach Cromer where we picked up fish and chips for everyone from Mary Jane's (best fish and chip shop ever!) and took it back to Mum and Dad's where we ate it alongside champagne (we're not posh people, I think Mum and Dad were just very pleased to have their 'babies' home so it called for a celebration!). My brother Simon and his partner Jenna had arrived prior to us so it was lovely to catch up with them too and hear all their good news about the house they're in the process of buying. They are first time buyers so all the stress and excitement is new to them, but so far the buying process seems to be going smoothly.


We spent Friday evening having a good catch up and then we helped my parents with various jobs on Saturday to help them get ready for the garden party they had planned for Sunday. The weather on Saturday and Sunday was amazing and we can't believe how lucky we were! We all had pink faces by the end of Saturday where we'd caught the sun and it was so nice to feel warmth instead of an icy breeze. My parent's garden is so pretty at the moment; full of bluebells, tulips, blossoms, Camellias and Rhododendrons too. Jenna and I took Barry for a walk on the beach in the afternoon and it was beautiful down there and great to see lots of people enjoying the beach and sunshine. We spent Saturday evening having competitions with the Shuffleboard. I'm not sure if any of you will have heard of it, but we're all rather addicted to it now and it's great fun to play! It's a wooden table game where you push wooden discs down it and the aim is to get them through the different holes at the end of the board. I'm not too good at it but then I'm not very good at many games (I'm a sore loser!)

Sunbathing Barry - his fur is growing back slowly but surely

Shuffleboard in the sunshine

Beautiful colours in Mum and Dad's garden

The weather on Sunday was even better than Saturday and it made the party extra special for my parents. They had invited a big group of friends to come for a bbq for the afternoon and I think they all had a great time. I helped Mum with the food and we put on quite a spread. Mum's lovely friends Annie and Jenny made amazing desserts too which went down very well along with Dad's home brewed beer. Their close friend Hugh even played a few songs on his guitar including one he used to sing to me when I was very little called "The baby went down the plug'ole", look it up, very funny (lyrics here, but there are different versions and no-one is sure of who wrote it originally)! I'm glad that Mum and Dad had such a nice time with their friends and that the weather was kind to us all too. Barry was such a good boy around all the people at the party and he was very popular.

It clouded over and got a bit chilly as 6pm approached

Jack and I got up nice and early on Monday morning to take Barry for a final walk along the beach. It was low tide so you can get around the ends of the groynes rather than having to climb over them nearer the back of the beach. A fairly deep pool is always left at the end of the groyne though and Barry completely mis-judged this and ended up disappearing right under the water much to his surprise! Luckily he loves water and is a good swimmer and shook himself off before setting off again down the beach at 100mph! We then said our goodbyes to my parents, Simon and Jenna and endured another 5+ hour journey home (this time I gave Jack a rest and I drove). We eventually made it home all very weary. Sadly Jack had to go into work for a few hours so I just snoozed on the sofa in between putting on a few washes. We have a very tired pooch after all the playing, beach exploring and attention this weekend and Barry looked mighty pleased last night when we said good night and went to bed, I think Barry was asleep before we even reached the top of the stairs!

We've got a busy week ahead of us in terms of jobs to do around the house; I emptied the loft of nearly all of its contents the other weekend in order to sort through everything, throw things, bag things up for charity shops and sell other things on EBay. I've kept it all in the guest bedroom and slowly been sorting through it but now my parents are coming to stay with us this weekend I had better get a move on and finish sorting it. We've laid more loft boards in the loft so you can now walk around more easily up there and as I'm slightly obsessed with being organised, I don't want anything to just be thrown back up there and instead want to know what is in each box. My parents are coming to stay this weekend for a few days as my Dad is kindly tiling our kitchen splash back area and also tiling the conservatory floor. So he'll have plenty to do but have Jack's help too. The weather looks good this week so I'll be able to move my plants out of the conservatory too, more space again!


Finally, just a photo of my two very happy tortoises on waking up this morning to find a whole windowsill box full of home grown lettuce for them to devour! I've tried to leave it growing as long as possible and had better get some more planted ready - I'd quite like to enjoy some too, but it is a lovely treat for Squirt and Lola!

Have a good week everyone!


Em x