A slow news week

I wanted to have another go at growing tomatoes this year and also some courgettes, so yesterday we went to the garden centre to buy plants and grow bags. 

  

While we were there Mark saw some pepper plants and decided that he wanted some of those too, this wouldn't be too strange except for the fact that he has not the slightest interest in what goes on in the garden, he will help if I ask but if I don't he is quite happy to let me get on with it.

He will probably forget all about them by next weekend, and to be honest he is away all week so the watering and feeding will fall to me.

Apart from these additions nothing much has changed in the garden this week, everything just seems later this year.

 I do have my first rose though, I noticed it yesterday, there are many more buds so perhaps next week more will open.

The only stitching I've done this week is on my Hands On Design Seasons in Chalk Art.  I really would like to get this one done before the end of the month so I can display it for the Summer.

On Wednesday I picked Oliver up from school and we went to Stourport and had a picnic tea by the river.

The weather was lovely, he ran off some of his never ending energy in the park and we had a walk along the river and of course when he knew the arcade was open in the fair we had to go and have a look

Stourport was always a magnet to anyone in the Midlands in the summer with it being only about a 20 minute drive and having a seaside feel without actually being by the sea.  It's quite pleasant by the river and there was always the attraction of the permanent fairground for the kids.  There is now an enclosed children's park one side of the bridge and the fairground is still there on the other side of the bridge.

 I think we both had a lovely time although Oliver was disappointed that none of the ice cream booths were open, oh dear, you can't have everything, lol

I hope you have a lovely week and If you are in the UK, a lovely Bank Holiday tomorrow :-)

-X-

Summer with Suzannah

Normally when we go away I don't take any stitching with me, but as we were staying in the UK and knew the weather was going to be mixed I took Suzannah with me.

This is how she looked before

And how she looks now :-)

Good progress eh?  Amazing what stitching you can get done when housework and cooking don't get in the way!

As Suzannah had got so much attention last week I worked on Seasons in Chalk Art by Hands on Designs on Sunday afternoon.

I think this Is the first outing of this piece on my blog.

Ops, I left a needle poking through!

It's hard to get a good photo with it being on the q snaps, the light is showing though too much

These charts are a collaboration between Cathy of Hands on Design and Priscilla, Priscilla does these amazing chalk board pictures and Cathy has turned a lot of them into cross stitch designs.  All four seasons were in Just Cross Stitch magazine a few years ago.

You can still purchase the back issues as downloads, which is what I did.

This is the first time I've stitched anything on black fabric, so I opted for Aida hoping that I wouldn't have trouble seeing the holes, and so far I've found it ok.

I've been catching up on tidying the garden this week, our garden definitely looks it's best in the Spring but I've planted some of the pots up this week which should hopefully give us a bit of colour soon.

Some Bizzie Lizzies

Sweet Peas.
I've never grown Sweet Peas before, so fingers crossed

I grew the Lillies from bulbs, can you believe that these were all planted at the same time!

 And my Hostas

I just love these so much!

You can't really tell from the photo but these are about 4 feet across.

I put copper tape around the pot about four years ago and since then I've had no trouble with slugs or snails

That's it for today, I hope you all have a good week

Until next time
-X-

Mountain walks and steam train rides

We're back home, rested and raring to go, well, sort of, lol  

It doesn't take long to get back to normal routine after a holiday does it.

We unpacked as soon as we got in, before we even put the kettle on, and I had some washing on the line in the afternoon, the rest of the washing was done and hung out on Sunday morning, and as Mark put it, stretched as far as the eye could see, lol

And so normal service was resumed.

We had a great week though and visited some lovely places, the scenery in Wales is just stunning and I think even though Mark would have liked to go somewhere warmer that involved getting on a plane, he enjoyed it and was able to have a proper rest from working.

We were quite lucky with the weather really, we did have one day when it rained more or less all day, but we just stayed in the flat that day and watched films, (something we don't really do) and I got a whole day's uninteruptedbyhousework, stitching done, which is unheard of!

We saw and did everything that we intended t, Snowdon is 1,085 metres (3559 feet) above sea level and is the highest point in the British Isles, it has been on my list of things to do for a while, I would love to try walking up Snowdon but Mark wouldn't be up for that so I booked us on the Snowdon Mountain train.

Actually when I booked this trip It didn't register how far it was from where we were staying, which turned out to be a 90 minute drive, Ops!  Still the drive there was through the most beautiful scenery and it was a lovely day, so that was ok.

I only found out about Talyllyn Railway through a google search and although neither me or Mark are steam train enthusiasts we thought it would be a nice trip out.  The trip takes you through some of the wonderful Welsh valleys and some beautiful scenery.  You can get off at a couple of the stops and we had intended to get off at Dolgoch and walk the falls, but then decided to just go to the end of the line and then do the return journey and have something to eat in the station cafe.

We decided to drive to Dolgoch Falls in the afternoon, it wasn't far and we would be able to spend more time than if we had got off at the train stop.
This is such a beautiful place, neither google images or my photos do this place justice, it was a lovely sunny day and the light through the trees was just amazing.
Surprisingly we only saw three other people while we were walking.

Looks like someones been having fun building a camp :-)

When I post about holidays or trips out I'm doing it for my own record to look back on more than anything else but even so, I hope you have enjoyed a little bit of the Welsh scenery too :-)

See you soon

-X-

The view from here

Were having a week away in Aberdovey, Wales, this week.  We drove down yesterday and are staying in a flat overlooking the estuary.  The flat is absolutely lovely and the view from the window is just perfect.

I've bought along some stitching and the socks I started last week, I got to the heel on the first sock but I want to do both heels together, so I started on the second sock, I'm almost done with the leg on the second one now.

Maybe this time I will get socks :-)

Over the last week I only stitched a couple of times, I got Suznnah's hair done.

We haven't gone very far today, had a lazy morning then walked to the pub and had a lovely Sunday roast followed by a long walk on the beach while the tide was out.

Looking out towards the Irish sea.

Looking back at how far we walked

I loved looking at the patterns the tide made in the sand

And we saw quite a few jelly fish

 And looking back towards the colourful houses.

We are staying in the last coloured house (next to the block of white ones) on the right as you look at the photo

 We might take a trip out tomorrow, we'll see what the weather is like when we get up as to how far we venture.

That's all for now folks, see you soon.

-X-