Come With Me

About 5 minutes drive from where we live there is a very reasonably priced flower shop and it's here I tend to go when I want some plants for the garden.

The window boxes at the front of the house need sprucing up and there are a  few pots in the back garden I wanted to plant up too.

Today the sun was out and it seemed a good day for spending time in the garden and making the most of being outside. So instead of nipping to the shop in the car I decided to walk to the shop.

I took my camera with me and here are a handful of  things which caught my eye on the way.

I love honeysuckle. The heady scent, the shape of the flowers, it's rambling nature. When I worked for Royal Brierley I bought a few pieces from their honeysuckle crystal glass range.

This honeysuckle is growing over my neighbour's fence.

We've been to many a summer fete on the green outside the local church. And many a jumble sale inside the church hall. 

What is it about old post boxes set into brick walls which is so appealing?

Graffiti on a wall by a railway bridge.

I knew I wouldn't be able to walk home again after buying the plants, but that wasn't a problem as just across the road from the shop is a train station.
Loved the chipped and stripped paint on this door at the station.

I only had to stay on for one stop and then hop off at my local station. Lots of stations on the local lines have this oak leaf motif on the metal work.

Once home I found the postman had been and continuing the floral theme of the day, he had delivered a CK catalogue in the prettiest envelope ever.

VE Celebrations

Saturday afternoon G and I went into town for our city's VE Day celebrations.

The local website held details of a party arranged by the Royal British Legion to be attended by veterans and anyone else who wanted to come along was invited too.

The event needed to have trestle tables, chairs and bunting and this was the job of the army cadets.
One of the cadets was my cousin. I've never seen her in her uniform before and I didn't know she was going to be at the event so it was great to see her.

The swing band played all the great Big Band songs you would hope to hear, In the Mood, Pennsylvania 69000, Little Brown Jug and many more. Just before they took a break they played The Conga. Huge long snakes of us wound our way around the square. The local newspaper photographer was there and he took a great photo of my cousin and her nephew, just ignore me behind them!
It was really good fun.
When the band returned after their break a singer joined them. She sang A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square so beautifully.

Lots of people were up dancing, but this couple were the first ones and they looked great.
There was a really lovely atmosphere at this event and I'm so glad we went.

Time to Meet

Yesterday was a real treat of a day.

One that was possible because of the wonderful world of blogging.

I have been reading and enjoying Penny's  blog for years. We live fairly close to each other and kept saying we should arrange to meet up.

Then a couple of weeks ago she wrote a post about being busy readying herself for a special event.

Penny is co-manageress of her local charity shop and they were taking over the community centre for a day to hold a Here Comes Summer sale.

Well the lure of a long awaited meet up combined with day out and a rummage was too good to miss.

Me, G and S met Penny at the community centre where after a browse around the sale (and a purchase was made) we were able to sit and chat a while.

Penny was so welcoming and friendly and completely lovely.

Like good bloogers we had G take our photo together at the community centre, Penny looked fabulous in both and I looked well, quite frankly, hideous. 

Thankfully we saw each other again later in the afternoon in the charity shop, where we also got to meet Penny's daughter Jess, and she took another much nicer photo.

The charity shop is a real little treasure trove full of all sorts of goodies and all three of us left with something. G with more vinyl, S with 3 books and me with a lavender scented heart to add to my sister's birthday gift.

The community centre is only a short walk away from the shore so that's where we headed next. By now it was nearing lunchtime and so the  Needles Eye Cafe was our next stop. Here S discovered cheesy chips for the first time, we shared a bowl between the three of us. A welcome addition to our very tasty baguettes.

Yesterday's wasn't filled with blue skies as you can see, there was a blustery breeze as we walked along the front

but we could still make out the Needles over at the Isle of Wight.

Although this version of the Needles in one of the shop windows was much clearer!

S kept busy clambering over the rocks where possible and practising some shot put moves with another much smaller one.

After we had waved cheerio to Penny and Jess we made our way to Lymington.

G was looking forward to visiting a vinyl shop he had heard about but was dismayed to find it closed.

However there was a branch of Oxfam and in there he found a copy of  an album he had been wanting. The strange thing about that is that the sleeve inside belonged to another album.

An album he owned already but which was missing this original sleeve.

He was really chuffed with that find.

We all liked the window of the Marie Curie shop. The mannequin was clothed in a dress made from an old map

and hanging up next to it was a swimsuit. Again made from a map with added floral decoration.

People of a certain age may know who I am talking about when I say this bird sculpture we saw reminded us of Professor Yaffle.

We did our day trip by public transport. One bus and three trains each way. It does sound a bit convoluted but it was incredibly straightforward. 
There was much more to see in Lymington and we plan to go back in the summer, on a day when the record shop is open.

We had a great day out exploring somewhere new and meeting up with Penny was the cherry on the top.
We hope to meet up again at some point, this time in Southampton for a perusal of the art gallery or maybe the Sea City museum. 
Thank you Penny for meeting up, it was a treat to meet you, and for introducing us to where you live.

Watching and Reading

Saturday morning I woke up at the normal weekday time which isn't good for the beauty sleep I need but was helpful in getting me out the house nice and early to go on a birthday gift buying mission.

We have a branch of The Range quite close by so this is where I headed and found this metal jug.

My friend I likes very pale and muted colours and when I saw this I knew it was something she would like.

I thought it had the look something you would easily find in Laura Ashley and as she is a big fan of that style I thought it would be ideal.

Her reaction today when I gave it to her told me it was, phew.

G needed to make up some flexi and decided he would go into work for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. I pottered about doing this and that and then when the ironing could be put off no longer I put on my new DVD and did every last thing from the pile whilst getting caught up in the stories of the 4 ladies who had gone to spend a month in a castle in Italy owned by Michael Kitchen. I have never read the book, but have watched the film countless times and I love, love, love it. I used to own it on video and recently bought the DVD so I could own it again. What better movie to watch in April than Enchanted April. And Michael Kitchen is in it, have I mentioned that already?

A while ago I was trying to recall the title of a book I had read and enjoyed as a young girl in Junior school. All I could remember was it featured a girl who found half a coin on the pavement which granted wishes and there was an adventure on a flying carpet. I googled various words and phrases and found Half Magic. Well there is no flying carpet and although the girl finds a coin it is a whole one which grants the wisher half of their wish. I must admit the odd thing from this book was vaguely familiar but I think my memory must have muddled a variety of books I read as a child. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I shall give it to S to read now and see what she makes of it.

Sunday started with a leisurely breakfast in bed whilst watching the last episode of Wolf Hall. We recorded them all and have watched them over the last fortnight. What a superb series it was, totally captivating. 

The reason we could have a lazy breakfast time was because there was no car boot for us to go due to the weather.
When it was time to get dressed the change in weather influenced my choice of outfit. Due to the drop in temperature out came the warm stripy tights which were a perfect accompaniment to my new brown cord skirt, a 50p purchase at the car boot the week before.

Day Tripping

Yesterday G and I had a little jaunt out together on the train.

We went to Petersfield.

It's somewhere I've been waiting to visit for a while and G suggested he book a day off and we go on our own.

Just down from the station I spotted this sculpture and said 'oh look at that lovely sheep'. In my defense I was looking at it head on at first and it is only the size of a sheep, it's not proper cow size. When we got closer and I got my camera got G said 'here goes the start of many photo taking stops for the day'.

Petersfield has a very pretty and bustling town centre

and in the centre of the centre is a statue of William III dressed as a Roman Emperor.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Petersfield was to pay a visit to the museum and the Flora Twort art gallery. I checked online at the weekend and unfortunately both are closed on a Monday, so I have to save these for my next trip there.

Snippets of things which caught my eye during the day.

After a brief stop for lunch we made our way to the Heath and then took a very slow amble round the 22 acre pond. 

The sun was out and the sky was blue and being in such surroundings made a perfect end to a relaxing day out.

A Proper Day Out

Here we are at the end of the school break. It feels as if the children have been off for ages. 
Not much happened the first week. G and I had to work more or less our normal hours which meant S went and spent a couple of afternoons with my mum and in between times she had friends round to play and a sleepover. T met up with friends, spent some time plugged in the xbox and did an extra shift volunteering at the charity shop.
The second week was full of the same, the children saw friends when it was possible, we had to make an unscheduled trip to the vets as Malcolm was unwell and then magically better after two injections from the vet and as a bonus I had an extra day off and we had a day out.

The weather here in the South has been exceptionally warm and I thought a little trip to Lee-on-the-Solent would be ideal.
As I dislike driving we made the journey by taking a train to Fareham and then a bus to Lee. By buying the tickets online the night before I was able to add in the plusbus tickets which made it so much cheaper than purchasing the bus tickets on the day.

As a thank you to mum for helping us out over the holiday we asked her to join us and S was thrilled when T said he would come out too.
There aren't many shops in Lee and shopping isn't the reason we went, but it does have 5 charity shops which we had a very quick look in. One was another branch of the charity T volunteers for which he was keen to explore and then declared wasn't as good as his!
The next stop was the chip shop for our lunch which we took down to eat sat on the pebbly shore

looking out towards the sea which as you can see was partially covered in a hazy mist.

After eating S and I played catch with the ball she had recently bought with some of her birthday money. I love the look on her face in the top picture when she realised she had thrown the ball towards me with a bit too much gusto and it went way over my head.

There was much giggling when S filled up the back of T's shirt with stones and they began to trickle down the back of his trousers.

He got his own back afterwards though, pouring stones down the back of S's dress. So many were put down the dress that they bulged out and made her look as though she had a shell on her back like a turtle.

The water was chilly but it didn't stop mum, T and S going in for a short paddle. Just after this photo was taken T splashed S and got her dress very wet and although she complained loudly to him there was a big grin on her face too. 

I could have stayed for longer but by mid afternoon the children were ready to go home and so after we had had an ice cream we made started the journey home. A lovely highlight of the holidays.

Our Easter and S Day

 Today is the day 7 years ago we travelled home together from Norfolk and became a family of 4.
It's known as S Day (T Day is in August) and each year we try and mark the occasion for each child. Due to both G and I having to work today and S going to spend time with a friend we celebrated S Day over the Easter break. It started with a trip to the cinema to see Home, a new animated movie which she really wanted to see. Good family fun movie.
At home in the afternoon we set about prettifying the dining room for Easter, S decorated branches of forsythia with eggs

whilst I hung up our bunny mugs on the dresser.

We had invited my mum and sister over for a roast in the afternoon and to follow I made a hot cross bun treacle tart. I cheated and used ready made pastry but it was very simple to make and the recipe is here if you fancy giving it a go. The perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea I guarantee it.

Saturday was a mooching around the house kind of day and then Sunday we were all off to Salisbury for a family celebration. G's brother will be 60 tomorrow and so we all gathered together for lunch at G's mum's house for a birthday lunch. 
G and I had complied a little quiz about events, people, sport and film from 1955 and after lunch the family divided themselves into two teams and played against each other. I'm happy to report the birthday boy was on the winning team.

Yesterday we popped along to the car boot sale for an hour.
G came home with a couple of singles and an LP and my best buy was this Royal Albert milk and sugar bowl. There was also a smaller sugar bowl, for the coffee set I'm presuming, and for the 3 items I paid £2.00. I checked on-line yesterday and this shape and design are from the 1950's. It's been washed and packed away until December!
Our day was topped off with a Chinese takeaway, another part of our slightly early S Day celebrations.

Another Pinterest inspired spring craft was completed at the weekend.
I have made a wreath for the front door using a ball of lime green fun fur yarn. It looks like lush spring grass. I am really pleased with the way it has turned out. Instructions are here if you want to give it a whirl.

I couldn't end this post without including a photo of S, after all it is her day, but as she has already gone out and I won't see her now until I come home from work this evening I will have to use a photo of her from January.

We are incredibly lucky to have such a beautiful, kind, funny and generous little girl as our daughter.