A very busy...

.... week! With the glorious weather and intermittent thunder storms, I have been slowly working my way through the garden. My son and I went halves on some shrubs and plants. We know what the shrubs are,they have labels, but the plants we are not sure about. They were delivered while son was out so DIL took delivery of them and took them all out of their packaging. We know the names ...but not which is which. So it will be a case of waiting and see till they grow bigger and flower so that we can investigate. The weather has not played nice with me though. I bought some lupin seeds and planted some straight out and some I started in trays. Not sure if the ones planted out are doing anything though...everything looks the same at the 2 leaf stage. The ones I planted in trays thrived and were put outside in their pots to acclimatise before going into a plot that I got ready. Well now they are no more. We had a thundery downpour and they got zapped. After all my careful nurturing! I've got some poppies started and I just hope they will survive when they are ready to go outside. I never have much luck with seeds....you'd think that a mixed packet of 6 varieties of annual scented flower seeds couldn't be hard. Well it is in my garden. The marigolds and Michaelmas daisies have disappeared, and the night scented stock has finally given up due to the heavy downpours and Theo laying on them. The others are fighting a battle and I may manage to get something out of them. Today started overcast..brightened up and then started raining about lunch time and it hasn't stopped. Hope it clears up for tomorrow though, I'm going shopping. Not our usual day for shopping but I have to work round other peoples schedules to be able to shop at all...unless I do it all on the Internet.
I've not done much crafting and didn't get any of the challenges from the blogs done. I have done 3 lots of ATC's though...Imag-e-nation forum, Crafts Beautiful forum and ATC Swappers.....and the Imag-e-nation forum card challenge.
Right..I'm off to watch Torchwood....ooh heaven....Captain Jack 5 days ina row. (Yes... I know he's gay and attached..but he is still gorgeous!!!)

A change of scene..

.....today. I went with eldest son and family to the place where I grew up...Rivelin Valley. I lived just round the corner from the park and spent many happy childhood days there. Over the years it has been developed and for a few years now it has been a beautiful nature walk. You can go whatever distance you want. A gentle stroll..following the river....or a serious hike up to the dams. We sat by the river under a willow tree and ate a picnic lunch, followed by a slow meander...and a nervous crossing of the stepping stones in the river...(not easy using a walking stick!). I remember as a child we used to put or own stepping stones in. The local council has now put much bigger and more stable ones there now. We then finished back at the park with a Cornish ice cream...with a flake! It was a 2 buses journey but well worth it. I shall probably pay for it health wise for the next few days. The weather we are having at the moment..hot and sunny.. is forecast for the rest of the week. I doubt that I will get much gardening done, but it might mean that I get to do some crafting.

I don't know if there is a problem with blogger or just my blog, but my feedjit, counter and adsense widgets are not showing. They should be at the bottom of the right hand sidebar. Can you see them? Anyone else having this problem?

Two lots of blog candy....

...up for grabs. First.......Jak has some Christmas candy on offer..(is it ever too early to think about crafting for Christmas?..answers on a postcard..lol).
Kristin is celebrating her blogaversary with some lovely candy.

Another week...

.....gone by. Again for the past week I have been in the garden. Almost got the top part done...well sort of. I bought some seeds from the pound shop last week and got them sown. There were 6 varieties of scented annuals , so I thought they would be fairly easy to grow and would fill out a few empty spaces, and add a slash of summer colour. The sowing went ok, but now I'm worrying because we've had some very heavy rain that just might have drowned them. If any do manage to survive and grow it will be a bit of a bonus. I've managed to get some lupins started on the windowsill and I've decided where they will be going in the garden. I did sow some directly out, but again I don't know if they will take with the heavy rain. Time will tell.
I'm hoping to concentrate on a bit of crafting this week. My mojo for cards has deserted me a bit. I've put that down to being able to get out into the garden. I've got 2 ATC's to do, a forum challenge card, and I want to try and do a couple of blog challenges. I haven't done any of those for ages and I do miss them. I've got a new stamp that I won in the Bootiful Stampz draw....and a new stamp just has to have some ink on it; so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to get going with the challenges again. The more I look at the stamp the more possibilities I can see for using it. I've got it stamped and coloured....just need to get it on a card now.

I'm getting very lax...

...with posting on here. I do have a good reason though. With the weather being so up and down at the moment...glorious sun for a few days then thunderstorms and torrential rain....I have spent quite a lot of time in the garden. I've started what is for me a mammoth task. The very top of my garden has been used as a dumping ground for years, is very stony, has been covered in brambles and nettles, and in shade for a good part of the day due to neighbouring trees. I've always shied away from doing anything with it...but I've made a start. Knowing myself as I do, I've only been actually going out there late in the afternoon. This way I'm limited time wise to how long I stay out there. If I could, I would spend the most of the day lost in my own little world I call gardening. I haven't had much time for crafting or blog hopping either.....managed a card for the Imag-e-nation challenge and some ATC's. Still got a few ATCs to do but they are all in hand...just got to actually make them now. Off to do them now!

Some more post...

...and some ATC's. Postman brought me some more crafty stuff this morning....nothing to get too excited about though...tweezers and DST.

Going to show you some of the ATC's I received this week..I will put them on my Picasa album later. Hoping to catch up with some of the blogs that I have neglected for a couple of weeks as it is raining, so no gardening today. Good thing though really 'cos the garden needs some rain and my wrist needs a rest. I think I may have done some damage to it. I'm getting shooting pains up my arm and one spot just below my wrist bone is tender to touch. Hopefully it's just a sprain and will be OK with some rest. At worst I've probably got a cracked bone....not good as far as the osteoporosis is concerned though. I'll give it a couple of days and if it's no better I will have to take myself off to the hospital....(groan!!)

Here are the ATC piccies. The first 3 are from the ATC Swappers. A Rak from the organiser Paul ...... 2 Purple& Cream from Paul and Michelle.....2 Black&Blue from Hazel and Angel.

This last one is from the Foggy Friends spring ATC swap....Rachel and Lou.

A big thank you to you all....I love receiving them.

I'm late with this...

......Bev has some more blog candy up for grabs to celebrate 300,000 hits! Have to be very quick though to be in for a chance.

Sally from Bootiful Stampz has been in touch to tell me that I won her May draw for a free stamp..whoohooo!!!! It's been a crafty week all round. Got 3 lots of ATC's delivered, and some stamps I bought from ebay arrived..crafty post is sooo much nicer than bills.

Well, it's been....

..quite a while since I last posted. I've been taking advantage of the glorious weather and doing the garden. I've decided to try and sort out the very top of the garden. It is full of bricks, stones, bed springs, various metal objects, bits of plastic, broken glass and weeds galore! The main weeds are nettles and brambles, which come from next door but ones garden, they don't garden at all. It's been used by me as a dumping ground for my grass and hedge cuttings for years...but it has been a bit of an eyesore. I was going to fence it off, but I've made a start and already it is looking better. Some great compost I've got now....makes up for all the stones. I reckon I can use some of the larger stones to make some sort of rockery (to hold the soil back..it's on a slope) and get some hardy perennials planted in there. I will need plants that don't mind the shade because of the surrounding trees though...not mine but in neighbouring gardens. And Ive made use of more bricks and stones by building a little enclosure for a compost heap...getting organised.
Anyway...just popped in to let you know that I'm still around and haven't dropped off the planet..you can't get rid of me that easy!!

A good couple of days..but..

.....I can't get on the Imag-e-nation forum! I can get on the site so I'm not sure what is happening there. I had a real job trying to get an Internet connection Saturday and eventually got on by doing one of AOL's "fix it for me." That worked OK. Tonight as soon as I turned on the computer I got the message that the database index (or something technical like that) was damaged and I had to reinstall AOL. Not a problem there except for my favourites list. I had them all neatly categorized in little folders and in alphabetical order. They are still there, but all jumbled up into one long list. Aaaargghhh!! Will take me hours to sort them out again. So those of you who's blog I regularly visit..if I don't visit your blog for a while you know why.
The weather has been glorious for a few days now and I've spent the last two in the garden. No housework done. It's taken me hours to do, taking plenty of breaks in between. My garden will never be in the top class, as it were, but I'm very proud of it. It's looking good and all my hard work is showing results now. I just wish I knew what most of the plants I have in there are called. Not the fancy Latin names...just the ones that most people know them by. Think I will have to do a bit of googling. Hopefully, as the forecast is for good weather tomorrow, I will be out there again to finish off a couple of jobs.

Debbie has blog candy.

The lovely generous Debbie has some super candy on offer to celebrate her birthday on Saturday. It really is a must have.

Sally from Bootiful Stampz is offering a free stamp to one lucky person this month.........and.....she's reduced her prices by 30% !!!