It's PINK SATURDAY For Me Today!

Well, I've just about recovered from all the Royal Wedding celebrations, and I hope that all those who watched it thought it was as wonderful as I did.  For those of my little bloggy friends who aren't at all interested, please forgive me.  I just thought it was wonderful to have an event that brought so many people together with such a feel-good factor about it, when you think of all the doom and gloom that is around us at the moment.  There! I promise that I won't say any more about it, but just couldn't resist sneaking a little photo in!

Today I decided to link up with Pink Saturday. 

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

 I have never done that before, but realized that I do like the colour pink, and I have chosen just a few of the pink things that I have around me.

Pink money box and Royal Doulton figurine in the background.

Pink Camera Case

Pink Washbag

Pink Travel Clock

2011 Pink Diary

Pink Tissues

Pink Radio

Last, but by no means least, my lovely little pink Laptop, complete with pink mouse!

Gosh, I didn't realize quite how many pink things I do have around me.  Can you tell that I'm quite a 'girlie'  sort of girl?!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Hope You're All Safe & Sound!

We have been hearing about the terrible storms in parts of America, and the awful loss of lives and homes.

I do hope that all my little bloggy friends across the pond are safe and well.

Prayers for all those affected.

You take care y'all !

The Excitement is Mounting!

Well, it's nearly here, the wedding of Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton!

Tomorrow morning, I shall be sat in my armchair from 8.30 a.m. for the rest of the day, just glued to the television.  One of my friends has invited herself along as well, but I've told her that she's got to be very quiet!! We've had such glorious weather over here in England for the past couple of weeks, that it's just a shame that the weather forecasters are saying  there could be some showers over London on the couple's big day.  Still, I don't think that will dampen the spirits of the thousands of people that are expected to line the wedding route to cheer William and Kate on.

On BBC news this evening, they interviewed several people who had just flown in from America especially for the celebrations!  They were just SO excited to be here.  I must admit I love how Americans can get so excited about our very British events, with all the pomp and ceremony that will be on show to the world.  The British are generally much more reserved, although the barriers did come down when Princess Diana was so tragically killed.  The outpouring of grief was absolutely incredible.  I sat down and watched the funeral with one of my daughters, and as the coffin came out of Kensington Palace, there was this weeping and wailing that carried on all the way until the coffin came to Westminster Abbey.

I'm sure William will be thinking of his mum on this very special day, as I will, and Princess Diana would have been so proud of him.

There is talk in the media here that on his marriage, William will be given a Dukedom.  I do hope that's not true, and that they can just be Prince William and Princess Catherine,  for a while at least.  They seem far to young to be called the Duke and Duchess of .......

It does seem to be a genuine love story and I pray that this will be one royal marriage that will truly last.  I hope, also, that the media will not put too much pressure on Kate, as they did with Diana.

Warmest congratulations to the happy couple!



Outdoor Wednesday

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

Today I am linking up with Outdoor Wednesday, as I wanted to tell you about one of my favourite flowers in the garden, the Scabious flower.

I love the colours here of soft lavender blue and lilac.  Apparently, there is a species with a creamy flower, but I have never actually seen that one.  They are perennial, so will come up year after year and, most importantly, they will flower from April to the end of October.

The photos here were taken in the garden a couple of days ago.

To me, they are a real cottage-garden flower and I love to have lots of them in the garden, either in the borders or in tubs.  

Do you have any particular favourites in your garden?

Cherry on the Top!

One of my bloggy friends, PencilGirl over at Conquering the World has awarded me the Cherry on the Top Award.  This is another new one to me, and I am absolutely thrilled to receive it.  Thank you so much PencilGirl!  Yours is one of the blogs that I always enjoy reading.  If you haven't met her yet, please do go over and say hello, and say that "thisisme" sent you!

I know, without any hesitation whatsoever, who I am going to pass this Award on to, and it is to our dear SkippyMom over at I Make Soap.  Along with Bouncin'Barb,  SkippyMom was one of the very first to welcome me to this blogging experience, and she has been Awesome (with a capital A!) ever since.  I hope she won't mind me saying that life isn't always easy for her healthwise, but her posts still manage to inspire us or make us smile, and I, along with lots of others, am very glad to be able to call her my friend.  She absolutely adores her family and that love and pride always shines through.  You don't have to do anything to receive this Award, Skippy, just enjoy it and know that you are loved!

I've been putting this off for a long time now, so I really must get down to listing five things about me that you might not already know about.  Here goes :

1.  I have lost three very good friends over the last few years, and they were all taken far too young  (the youngest being 47, one being 59, and my very good friend who passed away 18 months ago, was 64.

2.  In the 1960's I collected beer mats, and my hubby found my collection a couple of weeks ago.  I wonder if they might be worth any money now?!

3.   My faith is very important to me.

4.  I left school at 15 without taking any formal exams.  (I hated school!).  I then went to a Business College for two years, learning shorthand and typing and general admin work.

5.  I have been  rushed to hospital in an ambulance with the blue lights flashing!

Sorry that I couldn't make these more interesting for you, but I do find it very difficult to think of things, and, in my defence, I have done this on quite a few occasions since I started blogging, and it's difficult to come up with something different each time.

Sunday Snap!

Here is my cool little dude - we were enjoying the warm sunshine in the garden yesterday and having an 'au revoir' barbecue.  Suddenly the house is very quiet again with just my hubby and I here once more :( 

I did try to hide in the car when the family were leaving, but they found me and had to drag me out again!!  Even little Alfred looked sad to be leaving us.

Hot cross Bun

Finally, I have asked my special man if he could make you all a chocolate egg as a treat for Easter.  Here he is busily mixing the chocolate :

And here is the finished product - especially for all of you, my dear bloggy friends!

Wishing You All A Joyous & Blessed Easter

Whatever you might be doing this Easter weekend, I wish you all a time filled with laughter and love.

This is the last day this visit of the family being here, as they will be leaving in the morning.  This is the longest time that they have stayed with us and it has been a lovely time with lots of memories to keep us going.  This afternoon, we will be having a barbecue and, yes, I expect photos will be taken! 

Do you all have Hot Cross Buns at this time of the year?  I had mine this morning with Devon Clotted Cream - gorgeous!  There was a time when you could only buy these buns at Easter but, like everything else, you can buy them all year round now.  I do think that we had more to look forward to in years gone by (look at me - sounding like Methuselah!!) as you did have these treats to look forward to at certain times of the year and it just seemed to make things more exciting somehow.  Anyway, enough of that, I don't want to turn into a Grumpy Old Woman!

Hee Hee!

In case you do have any hot cross buns left over (and it doesn't matter if they are a bit stale), I thought you might like this recipe for Hot Cross Bun Bread & Butter pudding, which is a twist on the original Bread & Butter pudding dessert.

Prep time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Skill level: Easy peasy

Costs: Cheap as chips

Method

Pre heat oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas 4.

 Grease a 1 litre baking dish with a little of the butter.

Spread the halved hot cross buns with the remaining butter .

Arrange them in the prepared dish.

Whisk the vanilla extract, sugar and eggs together.

Gently heat the milk and cream in a pan until warm, then remove from the heat and add the egg mixture. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Strain the warm egg mixture over the buns in the baking dish and leave to soak for 15-20 minutes.

Sprinkle the lemon zest over the surface of the pudding.

Transfer the baking dish to the pre-heated oven and bake for 25-30 mins until puffed up and golden brown. Serve at once, with custard or clotted or double cream.

Enjoy!



Ingredients : To serve 4.

4 hot cross buns.

2 medium eggs.

half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

15 g (half an ounce) of caster sugar.

25 g (l ounce) of butter.

300 ml (half a pint) of milk.

150 ml (quarter of a pint) of single cream.

half a teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest.

Haven't Seen This Award Before!

Hi there my little bloggy friends.  I do hope that you are all keeping well and behaving yourselves!

I must apologize once again for not always making my usual comments on your blog posts recently,  although I have been trying to keep up with reading them. 

Whilst the family have been visiting here in Devon, the weather has been quite remarkable, with temperatures in the 20's, bright sunshine and clear blue skies.  I am just hoping that this isn't our summer, because that has happened before when we get a glorious spell early on.  BUT, I am going to think positive thoughts and just think that it will be a lovely day for the wedding.

Talking about the wedding, I thought that my daughter would probably have worn flowers in her hair, but whilst her sister has been home, they went to the local bridal shop and she has bought a full length veil.  I haven't seen it, but I have been told that it is absolutely stunning.  I am sure that she will look gorgeous, but of course, I am rather biased being a very proud mum!

With the wonderful weather, preparations have been continuing apace in the garden and I have selected a couple of photos of the new arch.  I love the colour that we have painted it - it is called Seagrass.



I love the colour of the flower heads on the chives at this time of year!

I received an e-mail from my lovely friend Melody-Mae and she asked me to accept the I Love This Blog Award, which she has also recently received.  This Award is new to me, and I was thrilled to be able to accept it.  If you haven't already read Melody-Mae's blog, please go over and say hello.  She is a very gentle soul, and I think that you will very much enjoy reading her blog.

Isn't this a sweet Award?!

I am just going to pass this Award on to one person.  To this end, I put the names of all my favourite blogging friends into a hat, and my granddaughter picked the winner, who is ..........

Colenic over at A Smile A Day - Colenic is more than deserving of this Award, and, again, if you haven't visited her blog before, please pop over and say hello!

As a recipient of this Award, I have to tell you five things about myself that you don't already know.  This is going to be hard, because I honestly can't remember what I've already told you about myself.  I will tie these things about myself in with The Versatile Blogger Award which was given to me by Caterpillar a little while ago.

I would like to award The Versatile Blogger Award to Desiree at Driftwood Ramblings.  This is another 'must read' Blog and I urge you to pay her a visit.  She can do with some bloggy love right now.

This post has gone on a bit, so I will list the five different things about myself in a post next week.

Wordless Wednesday!

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others,
cannot keep it from themselves."

Hopefully these little cartoons made you smile at the beginning of the week!

Sunday Snaps!!

As promised, here are some photos from this past week.  The family told me yesterday that they have decided to stay for another week (Yay!), so they will now be travelling home on Easter Sunday.

At the Beach

Birthday Lunch

Ruby & Grandma

Flowers from my Gorgeous Boy!

The Birthday Cake

Alfred & Ruby - they follow each other everywhere!

Wherever you are, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

Time Is Passing Too Quickly!

Well, it's Saturday again already.  Can't believe that another week has gone by.  It's been so special having the family here again, but they go back on Monday :(  Never mind, they'll be home again in early June for the wedding!

Daughter who is getting married was on the phone this morning, very excited, as they have booked a vintage camper van to take the bride, her dad, (hubby!),  Ruby, Eli and my  eldest granddaughter, to the wedding venue.  The camper van is called Ruby, so they thought it was very appropriate.

Ruby the Camper Van!

My eldest granddaughter and I went out to lunch today and then we went to see the film "Red Riding Hood".  If any of you have ever seen the Twilight saga, then it was a little bit like that.  I really enjoyed it! 

It was really interesting to see Julie Christie, the 60's screen icon, playing the grandmother in this film.

On Thursday evening we held a quiz evening for Children's Hospice South West where hubby was once again the Quizmaster.  About 80 people attended and it was a real fun evening.  We always provide supper and at the end of the evening we had raised £635, so another good result.

Last week we held a Fashion Show in aid of Save the Children and raised £1,000, so it all helps.  It really is wonderful how people support us again and again for these functions.

I have been trying to keep up with all your posts during this past week.  The saddest one was from Desiree from Driftwood Ramblings who told us that her daughter, Linda, had lost their much loved puppy, Romeo.   Apparently, Romeo was out for a walk with the family dogs and inexplicably bolted through a fence onto a road and was knocked down and killed.  

The good news is that I have just read today that Linda has turned this into something positive and, first of all adopted Coco, a rescue pup from the same Animal Shelter, and, secondly, she has taken to raising funds for this very worthy cause.

It's amazing how with our blogging family we share the ups and the downs of family life.  I don't know about you, but I feel that I know each and every one of you.  I know I can say with confidence that if I ever needed it, you would all be there with your support and encouragement.

I was going to post a few photos for you today, but I think I will save them for my 'Sunday Snaps' feature if that's alright with you.

See you tomorrow!



Wordless Wednesday! (And Alfred's First Visit to the Seaside!)