Hello there

I hope this will be the last of my birthday for a while. Eight of us went out for a fabulous meal at the Jitlada Thai restaurant which never fails to deliver. So here I am with my very dear friends.

That is me with Elaine my dear friend of 35+ years we worked out, and Trish who also features in my New Year line-up.

This is Sally, my artist friend who is a constant inspiration and support in my artistic attempts.

Time for the  main course.

This is Tod - my husband on the left with Sally's husband Iain.

and John and Dave, who were at college with Tod - 

It was through Dave and Elaine that I met Tod so I have known them longer than him!

So the final course - that is a carved melon in the centre there.

So thank you to all my family and friends for a wonderful week.

Normal services will be resumed shortly.

Thank You

Well, well, well

Today is my birthday, I won't beat about the bush, I am sixty, and now officially an Old Age Pensioner. I am lucky to have been born before April 1st 1950, which means I am amongst the last group of women to collect her OAP at 60. It is a strange feeling, and although I wanted it to pass without too much fuss, it seems as if  a busy week has been arranged. Amongst the cards and gifts I received this morning was a big parcel from my sister. I had lots of crafty bits, buttons, felt, a 1950 news paper, and this...

Oh, I thought another art journal, great my old one is nearly full - but when I opened it up...

(Yes that is vintage embroidered card in the front - I had another as a card)

I will share with you a few of the pages of this amazing book my sister has put together.

First there were the two branches of my family tree, which she has researched extensively, here's one...

...that is my mum on her grandmother's lap, then my early years...

"Who is that gorgeous baby?"

1950's holidays

That's the 60's and 70's

and friends have added their 'bits'

I was moved to tears by the amount of work Janet has put into this, completely choked - and Mr T has played his part too. There have been a few sneaky phone calls going on.

I've been taken out to lunch by Mr T and on returning found a bottle of wine and a card by the front door from a friend and a lovely vase of flowers has just been delivered from my family.

I consider myself very lucky and although I wanted to pass the day quietly, how lovely it is to be thought of by so many. We are eating out with friends at the weekend, and we have two visits to our favourite venue, The Stables in Wavendon this week. Last night we saw the legendary guitarist Peter Green (of Fleetwood Mac fame) and Friends who delivered a blinding set of blues rock which set the heart dancing and tomorrow we see Eliza Carthy an English fiddle playing folk singer of the electric kind, who we saw last year and enjoyed.   So there may not be a lot of art going on on this blog for a few days!!!

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I also want to remember my Mum, who we lost in November 2006 who I miss sharing this day with. And my sisiter's husband Martin who died on this day in 1997, who we can now sadly smile about and congratulate him on his bad timing!

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Alas

The evidence was spread over the grass - black feathers, lots of them. The Sparrow Hawk had struck. Cats don't leave this kind of evidence. At least this blackbird lost its life to feed a hungry bird rather than a fat cat. I  thought he deserved a small memorial. There are a pair of blackbirds that feed close to the house where I have my feeding station. Both of them have one white feather on their back so are easily identified, I was sad to think that this was one of this pair who have been around all winter, but I saw them both this morning, not that it makes any difference to this blackbird's mate. A sad little note I know.  More cheerful next time!

Just to cheer you up here is Kate Bush singing with a blackbird from her 2005 album Aerial. I played this track to my class one year to demonstrate bird song and they loved it - I love the whole album. Very uplifting.

Flowers wot I made

This is what I have been spending my evenings doing this week. Seem to have been busy every day. Now I want to get messy - perhaps tomorrow I can get out the paint and glue.

Needle felt flower pins 

 I have been trying to make a variety of shapes and colours, embellished with a bit of embroidery and beads. This is not the best of photographs, but I really cannot be bothered to set up a photo shoot today. Do you think they work?

I have also been working on my doodle stitching

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I have been helped by the arrival of my 1p book from Amazon. Even with the P&P it was still a bargain.

I have managed to do a little bit of tidying in the garden as well, but as I have a very dodgy back I have to take it very slowly, and 20 minutes is probably enough for the first few sessions. Hope you are having a great weekend.

Spring is on it's way

What a beautiful morning - it was warm enough to be outside without a coat - as long as I stood in the sun. The birds were shouting and the air was zinging. I planted new crocuses last year and now they are coming out - and I have found a few snowdrops - in bud. I took this photograph of my established crocuses last year on February 27th. I remember I lay down on the grass on an empty compost bag to take it. I would not have wanted to do that today. The soil is water-logged and was still frozen at 11.00 am on the shady side of the garden. I really wanted to do a little weeding, but it was just too wet. If this dry weather keeps up, then maybe at the weekend I can have a go at the dandelions. I took the second photograph on the same day last year, but the purple crocuses were only just showing their colour today, but it will only take a bit of sunshine to bring them on. Oh and I saw what I think was a honey bee in the yellow crocuses, has to be the first of the year, of what ever kind - it is usually the bumble bees I see early. I will have to get my chart if I am going to start logging them. Hope you are enjoying some sun too, Jill.

Hello March, bye Feb...

A great start to the month. it is a lovely sunny morning. I'm off to the hairdressers for a long 'do' this morning, and then I have a vey busy week coming up, so I may not manage a post, but I will have time to visit and comment I hope. Lots of people have been posting their calendars on the flickr site it is great to see so many taking part.
My pages have a stitching theme and Jane (Marigold Jam), you may recognise that lovely silk swatch you sent me. I have scanned it for this.  Cannot bear to cut it up! Must go now, have a good week, Jill.