Jiving & flowers

Good afternoon

Well what a week - everything has been slightly chaotic and the whole rhythm of family life has altered. All this because one teenager is no longer at school all the time! Am sure I'll have just got used to it by September!!The page in my diary for this week was full of names/times/places - hopefully next week will be calmer - hope so or I'll need another holiday!!

Anyhow - its been sunny today - time to sneak into the garden and take photos as so much has come into bloom and is looking gorgeous. So lucky that the lady who owned the house before us loved her garden and planted lots - all in my favourite palette of pinks/purples;

 

 

This rose climbs up the side of the house - these blooms were almost at the top of the where the walls meet the roof!!

 

 Yep the sky has been that colour for a change :)

 Irises have grown this year for the first time - neither of us can remember planting them!!

 

The love of flowers shows in my latest CS purchase - an Art Deco vase;

 

 

The jiving? A demonstration/lesson at this months WI meeting - I watched and took photos whilst the rest of the group danced - it looked such fun but I wasn't taking the risk;

The instructors were great - and very patient with all the giggling!!

I do hope the sunshine stays for the weekend but I'll be surprised if it does - am hoping to get to a boot sale on Sunday - seems ages since I've managed that.

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx

New loves / Old loves

Good afternoon

I thought I'd best sit down to blog - there's a quiet little while between the boys coming home from school and getting dinner prepared - the choices were blog or hoover - blogging won!  I'd planned to post tonight but realised I need to call my Mum and those calls are never short!

Time to catch up on the last week and the photos I've taken before the Bank Holiday weekend and probably more photos come along!

Last weekend 3 of the VV household braved the rain and headed out to a free event we'd seen advertised by the side of the road. Apache Approach - a chance to get close up to one of these wonderful helicopters that we often see & hear in the Suffolk skies. It was being held at Framlingham College (a nearby private school);

From top left - Framlingham Castle & Mere, Old Love (MrVV & I), Apache appears,

Getting closer, whipping up the leaves with the force, On the ground.

Taking off, Goodbye & Like Father Like Son.

We had a chance to get close and talk to the flight crew - I think Little Son would quite have liked a flight in one of these!!  When it arrived we were warned to take off hats / take down brollies etc - most listened! The same warning was repeated when it took off and we were told the force was stronger. Some of the crowd didn't listen and there were brollies / hats blown away!!

This past week in Suffolk has been a right mixed one - sunshine & showers. When we had a sunny afternoon I got out into the summerhouse and gave it a good spring clean. As a reward for my hard work I took my cup of tea out there and sat quietly watching the birds on the feeders.

A rainy day, a sunny tea-break, an abandoned & underused watering can.

Bluebells, watching for birds, forget-me-nots.

Alpine strawberry plants starting to flowers, new leaves on the silver birch (shame the pollen is making me sneeze!!), daisies enjoying the sunshine.

My new love in case you haven't worked out is Instagram. Whilst the Android version isn't quite as snazzy as the I-phone version, its enough to get me hooked! If you are on there let me know - am always looking for new people to follow. I am VickiMowe on there - trying to limit myself to just one or two pics a day as I could easily get sucked in totally!!

I came home from another busy morning in the charity shop to find the postman has brought me some lovely lunchtime reading;

 My WI magazine with actually surprisingly lots of interesting stuff in it - loving anything Jubilee at the moment and the new CK magazine/catalogue. Now I did fall out of love with MsKidston & Co at the beginning of the year but this current mag has some lovely things in there - I won't be buying but can happily drool. Had to chuckle there's one dress in there for nearly £80 - we have an almost identical one in the CS for about a fiver!! I tried it on but the colour didn't suit me :(

Right - I shall bid you all goodbye, wish you all a good bank holiday weekend and shall see you soon.

Ours plans - Wrap up and get on with it - hopefully out & about May Fairing, Car booting and seaside visiting - oh a little craft selling on Saturday too :)

xxx Vicki xxx

Blossom, books & birthdays

Good evening

How has your week been? We're on week 2 of the Easter hols here and tbh its been far busier than I'd planned - actually I'd not planned anything but the days have filled up rather well. Probably a good idea as the weather hasn't been the sort for just lounging around in the garden which is what the boys did for these hols last year. Instead they've been to work with MrVV, cinema with friends, visited family and big son even went to school today for a GCSE Drama revision (final practise) day.

Easter weekend went rather quickly - there was lots of rain dodging, a few walks and for the boys plenty of eating chocolate. I managed to visit the Vintage Fair in Woodbridge with Dawn and also got to my first boot sale of the year (more on that later).

There's been a daily check on the progress of the blossom and this morning I managed to get some photos - of course it would look amazing with a blue sky background but they've been a bit scarce when I've the camera handy;

I think by the end of the month the whole tree will be out - just need a blue sky at the right time for the perfect photo.

Right back to the weekend - car boot sale on Sunday - lots of proper booters not just the traders. My radar was tuned to tatty enamel for planting in the garden - got a couple of pieces of that and I was as ever on the hunt for Ladybird books for my collection - I found 3 on 2 different stalls - grand spend 80p!!

Tuesday night was WI - I don't think I told you but I've joined up - a new group which is aimed at slightly younger, less traditional WI members. This was our 2nd proper meeting and it was amazing. We had a speaker - a wonderful lady from our local florists. She'd just started talking and demonstrating when it became apparent that the main hall was being used for opera practise - a huge chorus of 80 voices - all practising Verdi's Requiem. Well any other speaker might have struggled but ours was amazing and to be honest the two complemented each other well. 

I was lucky enough at the end of the evening to win one of the arrangements - those on Facebook might have seen this - my new addiction is Instagram - I discovered that it was now available for those of us with Android phones and have been muddling through with it rather too much this week - sorry Facebook and Twitter friends - the novelty will wear off soon!!

As part of getting the WI group together we've been all making letters to be turned into a banner - I handed my first one in the other night - quite pleased with myself for mastering some simple embroidery - its made me want to learn more stitches and improve my neatness;

Handing my homework in on time meant I was given another letter to create - this time I'm attempting it in crochet - results soon!!

Today has been a hectic on in the VV household, MrVV left early this am for a day in his warehouse, Big Son headed to school and that left Little Son & I. We were joined to lunch by 3 of my sisters, 2 nieces and one nephew. As it is one nieces birthday this weekend, I decided the cake should be more girly than I normally get away with - she loved it;

Right, I think that's me up-to-date - I suppose I ought to go and see what I can find for dinner tonight - we're at the Old Mother Hubbard stage again - so perhaps I can claim its a Heston style meal tonight and come up with something 'different'!!

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx