Spring fever!

Finally I feel I can say that springtime has reached us here in our corner of Lincolnshire. I am excited really, but the week would have been miles better if I had not caught a cold. This is a mighty one. I think the bugs have been saving themselves up for me! All through Christmas when the family were home & they all had colds , I was fine. When we went to Austria & came back to the outlaws in full swing of colds , I was fine then. In fact , this is the first cold I have had in nearly 2 years. As a cold on its own , its not been too bad. I can cope with sniffles. The sore throat however & not being able to speak or even squeak at times has been the worse thing! Mr T however has been in heaven!!! Cheeky monkey even said that it was bliss with me being so quiet!!Moi?!!!
Anyway, apart from me dying with germs the sun has shone. I should be out there in the garden, getting seeds sown & plants dug in ,but no, I have slept the days away.Today though , I feel a bit better & I have been outside already to let the chickens out . Poor Archie Rooster has been itching to go out since 6 am. I just don't dare let him out much earlier than 7.30 am as his crow is getting so loud. Although I ply our neighbours with the odd half a dozen fresh free range blue eggs, a lay in on a Sunday morning , cannot be paid off with any amount of eggs!!I think he is so happy as spring has got to him too. Everything has started to burst into leaf , blossom & flower.Our house is almost surrounded by fields of daffodils, as far as the eye can see.They were so late to bloom & now Easter has gone, no one wants to buy them in the shops. Normally we wouldn't see them in full colour in the field but this year they are left standing & the colour is amazing!

I took these pictures this morning on a stroll to the end of our lane. If you look at the picture above you can see our house . The one on the right is ours. As you can see the daffs are amazing & this is just the field at the back of our house. If you are out driving , the scene is amazing , with lots of farm workers & pickers out in the fields.

I hope you have enjoyed these pictures. I have been using my new camera to take these. We enrolled on a camera course this week , so hopefully you should see an improvement by the end of it.

Enjoy your Sunday. 

xxx

My favourite things, Mollie Makes, & the Great British Sewing Bee ,& lets Knit Socks.

Its been a glorious day here in Lincolnshire. Its been so warm that the shetland cardi I put on first thing this morning had to come off at about 11am. In terms of weather, that is amazing!
The day started off well with a lay in bed until the postman knocked. Poor guy was totally laiden. Mr T had ordered some new tools for his new job he started today. It seemed they were all delivered today via Royal Mail & I had my newest edition of Mollie Makes delivered to me & a new book I had ordered form Amazon. Its called Knit Socks by Betsy Lee McCarthy. The book is lovely & has some superb patterns for hand knitted socks which I adore making. The socks depicted on the cover are the ones I really want to make.

I really need to go through my yarn stash to see what I can use or need to order for them. The book contains 17 sock patterns. There are some great instructions on how to cast on for stretchy sock tops & how to use circular needles to knit in the round. There are also other great tips for knitters to use. I certainly would recommend this book if you are interested in making socks.

Mollie Makes is a regular through our door. There is always something I am interested in or want to make. This month is no exception! 

Look at the puppies on the front cover. They are finger puppets! Inside this month is an array of articles I cannot wait to read.

One thing I will be making is a similar fascinator to this one.

I think the placement of the rosettes will be different .We have another wedding to attend later in the year & with a posh frock , I think it will be perfect!

The rest of the day was spent outside in the sunshine, doing a bit of gardening. When Mr T had finished his job , we even sat outside & had our lunch of homemade soup with rounds of crusty bread , tomato ,ham & melted cheese. Mmmmm!!!

I have managed to get a great deal planted today. The garden is starting to come along nicely & in a few weeks we should be getting salads from it & have a few flowers growing as well. 

The chickens got moved today as well to their permanent run. They have been very helpful , turning over grassed areas for me so I have not had to work quite so hard at getting rid of turf when we have created planting beds.

Nothing is flowering yet & still the daffodils have yet to emerge. The cold weather has put everything so behind & with a very late planting of my bulbs this spring , they are even further behind everyone else. Having said that , I will have blooms in the garden after everyone else s have faded!

I am off now to watch on catch up this weeks episode of the Great British Sewing Bee.   I am so hooked !!

Spring greetings

Its been a while since I last blogged!
No this is not going to be a confessional, but it has been a while! I have got quite a bit done in that time & have also been with Mr T over to see our son & his girlfriend in Vienna. It was a lovely visit for 8 whole days. We had sunshine & snow as I think the UK also had,e but it felt so much warmer over there. Silly me didn't take the right sort of clothing with me & my shoes were the slippy slidy sort! Not much good for going out walking the city in Vienna. We stayed inside for 3 days whilst it snowed  & just popped down to the local shops when we needed food or wanted a break form 4 walls & each other. I got another couple of rabbits made as I had some requests from our adopted Austrian family. This certainly kept me busy whilst we were there.

 The kids were working most of the time so it was nice to have something to do while we waited for them to come home.During the evenings we mainly went out , eating our way through lovely cuisine in the city. Succulent roasted pork in the Prater washed down with beer chocolate,was the highlight of our visit, yummy!
Eating roast pork joints below with our Austrian family.

No 1 son & the finished meal, yummy!!

One of the evenings we went to the shopping street area. Here I came across this yarn bombing outside a shop called  Sewa.  Its a weird shop really as it does little in the way of sewing items & mainly kitschy household bits & some yarn.Sadly they were closed when we went back after our meal in the sushi bar nearby.

As usual I was so sad to say goodbye to the kids. Funny how I will always call them that no matter how old they get.
After a long drive through Germany , Holland , Belgium & France , I was glad to get home.
Waiting for us at home were the dogs along with No2 son & the outlaws. Its a long story but No2 son was supposed to come with us & at the last minute was without his passport. I had a few lovely days with him before he had to return to Sussex & the last leg of his degree course.How quiet the house now seems without him.
My days will now be filled with getting back to creating. Art group resumed yesterday & I have started playing with soft pastels.
My knitting is now at the finish stage for the very last rabbit & I am planning what to knit next. I have a new book from Lucinda Guy called Northern Knits Gifts . I treated myself to it from Amazon the other day & there are a few projects I am looking forward to doing.This will probably be the first one to do.

Go take a look & enjoy!!