whoever said.......

...it's as easy as riding a bike?
I want a word with them.
Cos it's not easy. Not when you haven't ridden one for 30 years!
I have finally ventured out in the cutway behind our home on the bike rescued from our neighbours skip. It had belonged to her daughter, nothing wrong with it, just didn't want it anymore and so it was being chucked out.
It's been sat in our shed waiting for me to feel confident enough about trying it out for a very, very long time.
Towards the end of last week I gave it a go and oh my, oh my, I was more than a bit wibbly wobbly to start with but after a couple of practices and G very kindly buying me a jelly saddle cover to help make the whole experience a little more comfortable, I'm getting the hang of it again. Slowly does it.

weekend smiles

There were lots of things that made us laugh this weekend.
Saturday morning I bounced with T on the trampoline, something I haven't done for ages and that certainly made us laugh. When S came out to join us in the garden I set up a mini obstacle course for them. Nothing strenuous, just hit a beanbag up in the air 3 times with a badminton racket, throw a ball into a bucket, balance a tennis ball on a spade, do star jumps and a few of other things. T insisted I have a go too and we took turns timing each other. Stopping for a quick biscuity break of course.




In the afternoon we picked up my mum and the 4 of us spent an hour at a garden fete. The children got to hook ducks, throw wet sponges and eat ice creams. Me and mum had a rummage through the bric-a-brac. My two best buys were the tiny perfume bottle for 10p and the glasses case for 30p.




A 5 minute walk away from the fete is a little wooded area. Now owned and (not so) maintained by the council, it was once the garden of a large family house. We hadn't been there for ages and so wandered along. We found that the swings had been removed but the helicopter climbing frame is still there. So along with a bit of scramble over that the children also played with some marbles my mum had bought for T and the bubble wand S had won on the tombola. We were there ages just running around, laughing and larking about. It felt so good to be out in the sunshine being silly. There is a huge tree in the middle of the grounds which would be perfect for picnicing under. A plan for the summer holidays I reckon.

Thank you all for the ladder loving comments. Whilst watering the plants on Saturday evening I noticed this white rose had begun to bloom so on Father's day I snipped one off to bring indoors

and although I thought of him many, many times during the day each time I saw this rose I thought of my lovely dad and smiled some more.

garden goodness

On Saturday we popped to visit my sister. In her new home she has a lovely decking area just outside her back door which is a perfect little sun trap and she has filled it with plants.
These pansies look fab in a pink bucket.


She has made some very pretty labels for some of the plants.

At a church sale a few weeks back we both bought a morning glory plant. Mine was devoured in days by a slug or snail, being on the safety of the decking hers is doing well. She told me she had actually bought this cheery red bag for me as part of my birthday present but has now decided to keep it for herself. What a meanie, I would have loved it!

This rose was one from our dad's garden. He really loved his roses.

And here is my Freecycled step ladder. These plants were already in the garden, I haven't got round to buying more as yet, I was just having a move around to see how things looked.It's the perfect place for my cuppa to go on too!

Another new addition to this area is the bunting. I'm not blessed with sewing abilities and so don't have anything like a fabric stash to raid and so I cheated and bought this off of ebay. And shock horror, it's plastic and not fabric, but the colours and patterns are so pretty and zingy! I love it.

holiday round up

Our week away was blessed with blue skies apart from the morning we left. We were very lucky.
This is the view from beside the pool outside our apartment block. I quite liked the look of the little row of houses across the water from us.



And this is the view from the pool at the apartment block next to ours. There was a narrow causeway you could walk along to reach an tiny island. G is the minute figure making his way on the path towards it when he went off for a wander one afternoon.

Another view of the row of houses I liked but this time from our apartment balcony.

One particular evening T and S discovered their own new types of eyewear.

One day we went for a wander down to the beach and as we ate ice creams and walked on the sand we had a good nose at all the beach side homes!

I would like to be curled up with a good book in this hammock RIGHT NOW.

Now for some floral prettiness.

I LOVE this first plant and actually bought one just before we went away. Unfortunately our house sitter mamaged to take good care of every single plant in the garden apart from this and it was bone dry and very frazzled looking when we got home. I'm hoping it'll be ok with a good drink.

This last batch of photos are of things that pre-blogging I would have noticed and they would have made me smile and then I would have passed by.

Now with a blogging diary I have a good reason to indulge in obscure photos of plastic beach paraphenalia and a stranger's exotic trouser wear!

Happy days.

holiday antics

Pedalling.

Licking.

Lounging.

Splashing.

Burying.

Playing.

Walking.

Smiling.

Joking.

Being a family.

home again

And this was before my evening quota of Sangria!
We had a wonderful week.
Less scary and more picturesque pictures to be shared soon!

we're off on

Word'>photo source


Cases- packed.
Passports- found.
2 children- excited beyond words.
Tomorrow morning we are off to Majorca.
See you all in a week.
Have fun. xxx