Books ......

Books have always been a large part of my life.  I can remember loving books for as long ago as I remember.  Life was so much simpler when I was a little girl growing up in the early 1950's (yes, really, that long ago!!) and we certainly didn't have the amount of toys that the little ones have these days.

I can still remember going to bed on the eve of my birthdays, and being SO excited, because I knew that I would be getting an Enid Blyton book as a present in the morning!  I loved all The Secret Seven and Famous Five series.  Gosh, lashings of ginger beer!  The books below date back to 1955 and 1957.  

I am delighted to say that my two daughters read as avidly as me and my three grandchildren absolutely love books as well.  It's lovely to see little Eli being able to start to read for himself now.  I often regret not keeping a Book Journal so that I could look back on all the books that I have read.  I guess I would have filled quite a lot of Journals by now!

I have just finished reading The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick, and I absolutely loved it.  This was her first novel, and I'm now eagerly looking forward to reading her second book which has just been published, called A Cornish Affair. (I can see a theme going on here!).  I adore books that feature Italy or Cornwall.

I have belonged to a Book Club for the past couple of years and I think this is a good idea, because it really takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you read books that you otherwise wouldn't bother with.  It's not always easy, because, sometimes, I'm struggling through a book and thinking to myself, "why am I doing this, when I could be reading something that I really enjoy", but, overall, it has been a good experience.  

The next one for the Book Club which I am just about to start, is called The Midwife's Daughter and is based in Cornwall in 1900.  The reviews look good.  The author is called Patricia Ferguson, who is a new one to me.

I'm delighted to say that the sun is shining in a very blue sky here in Devon as I type this post, and it seems to be set fair for the next few days. Tomorrow will be the first day of June - incredible!

Tomorrow morning, hubby and I are setting off to pick up the caravan.  Wish us luck, especially getting it up the garden!!  Wishing you all a happy and sun-filled weekend my friends.  Take care.

Apart from my own books, other images courtesy of Pinterest.

Only Me Again ....

Just a short note. ! Several of you asked me questions on my latest post , so I have entered replies under your comments! xx

My New Little Baby .......

Sorry peeps - I'm a bit late in getting round to see you all again. I promise that I will do the rounds later on today!!

Well, did the title of my post today get you wondering what your friend 'thisisme' had been up to!  I am so excited, as I have just purchased a vintage/retro 1960's caravan, and she is called Sandy.  Don't you know that Eli and Ruby are just going to love her, and I think that Eleanor (aged fifteen and a half) thinks she's pretty cool too!

The only problem will be for hubby to manoevre her into the position in the garden where I would like her to be - might mean moving a few gazebos and arbours!! Eeeek!  I have every confidence in that man.

Would you like to see her? Again, apologies to my facebook friends, because you will already have seen these photos.

Sandy has been renovated in a shabby chic beach hut style.  Don't you think she just has MY name on it?!! She has been rewired with a new hob, oven and fridge, so I could well be camping out there this summer.  What fun!

You will remember that I did a recent post on retro caravans - see here - and this inspired me to go a-looking.

Today I am thankful - thankful  for all the blessings in my life, and even though I am "a woman of a certain age", thankful that I can still get excited about things and have the good health to be able to enjoy them.

By the way, I wonder when "a woman of a certain age" becomes an "old woman"?!  

Take care everyone, and see you all again soon.

Sunday Snaps!

Wishing all my little bloggy friends a very happy weekend and a blessed Sunday!

Last evening, hubby and I went to the 90th birthday party of a friend of ours.  It was lovely evening, filled with friendship, love and laughter.  Joan really is an inspiration to us all.  The wonderful thing is, I have never heard any negativity from her in all the years that I have known her.  She is always full of joy, love and joie de vivre (I knew what this meant, but I actually looked up the true meaning and it says "to express a cheerful enjoyment of life.  An exultation of spirit".  I honestly never think of my friend as an 'old lady' because of her zest for life, of still learning new things and just making a person feel happy just by being with her.  Perhaps that is something that we should all aim for!

Of course, with getting older, I realize that your health is everything and if you haven't got that, then life is so, so much more difficult.  Joan still drives everywhere and enjoys her holidays abroad, so, in that, she is very blessed.  She still lives in her own home and loves to tend her garden.  The one thing she doesn't like, is having her photograph taken, so I had to do some persuading to get this one!

The full moon has been amazing in the sky this week.  I don't know whether anyone else has noticed it.  We are fortunate to be surrounded by fields and no other lights at all, and it really has been magnificent just hanging in the sky!

Here are a couple of photos taken of Eli and Ruby in the garden this week.  Whilst Eli was at school, Ruby was helping me plant up some planters, from the seeds that we have grown on in the greenhouse, and she was taking the whole thing very seriously indeed.

Here is Ruby having some refreshment after all her hard work.

Well, I think that's about it for now.  I see that I have gained a couple of new Followers, so I would like to give you a warm welcome and I look forward to getting to know you.  For all my 'old faithfuls' (!) I would just like to thank you once again for all the lovely comments that you always leave for me.  On my last post, some of the comments were really long and I do appreciate them all, and all the love that you give me.  Sending HUGS to you all and I hope the week ahead will be a good one.

Afternoon Tea ....

Good morning, Good evening, Good afternoon! Hopefully that will cover all the time zones!

Do you ever go through a phase of losing things?  Well, in this past couple of weeks, I have lost/mislaid two credit cards and a lovely ring with a turquoise stone that I bought in Sicily a few years ago, when I was holidaying with my good friend who is no longer with us.  The ring has just got to be in the house somewhere, because I never took it off outside, but I have searched everywhere.

I felt sure that the two credit cards were in the house somewhere but, although I hunted high and low (also asking St Anthony for his help), nothing turned up.  So yesterday I decided that I had to phone up and cancel both of the cards.  You've guessed it, last evening I found one of them! Grrrrr! Although the other one is still missing.  It is also in the house somewhere, because there hadn't been any untoward transactions carried out on the cards in the past couple of weeks.

As you know, we held our Afternoon Tea here on Wednesday afternoon (I'm afraid I was far too busy to take any photographs!).  The day dawned pretty cloudy, but at least it was DRY and, as most of you know, that was a little miracle in itself.  Anyway, at exactly 2 p.m. the sun broke through and it was an absolutely glorious afternoon.  People were walking around the garden and just sitting and relaxing.  I had Dean Martin playing outside, which people also seemed to enjoy! 

I suppose around 35 people turned up, and we raised £300, so I was pleased with that.  As we always say, every penny really does count, as it all goes directly to the Charity.  The Head of Fund Raising for this area always turns up to support our events and she gives a brilliant speech every time, which really helps to rally the troups.  The good thing is that on the first Monday of every month, the Hospice shows members of the public around and everyone who has been to visit the Hospice comes away thinking what a wonderful place it is - for the children, for their siblings, for the parents and grandparents.  

I realize every day just how blessed I am with my healthy children and grandchildren, so this is a cause very close to my heart.

The weekend is almost upon us once again, and very soon it will be June.  No! Stop that clock! The year is zipping by far too quickly once again.  At least the month of June will bring all the roses out in the garden, so that will make me happy.

I hope that you are all in fine fettel and that, amidst the hurly burly of the world, you can find some peace and relaxation.  Once again, we have had tragedy, with the terrible devastation caused by the tornado in Oklahoma.  My heart goes out to all those that were affected, and I thank the Lord that we do not have such events over here in our country.  

Just a couple of days ago, we had the 25 year old soldier (wearing his Help for Heroes top) who was killed over here by two crazed men, in broad daylight.  Then one is filming the other on his mobile phone and he is addressing the public.  My friends, the world has gone mad and we must make sure that we continue to shine our own little light in our own little corner of the world.  

I thought the following prayer was quite appropriate for the times that we live in.

Gracious God,
We pray for peace in our communities this day.
We commit to you all who work for peace and an end to tensions,
And those who work to uphold law and justice.
We pray for an end to fear,
For comfort and support to those who suffer.
For calm in our streets and cities,
That people may go about their lives in safety and peace.
In your mercy, hear our prayers,
now and always. Amen.

See you all again soon.

.

Sunday Snaps! ....

Hi everyone.  Here I am again with a few more Sunday Snaps for you.    A little bit of a mixture this week!  

We have been blessed with fantastic weather over the past couple of days, with lovely warm sunshine and cloudless blue skies.  Oh my, you never thought you would hear that from my home in the South Hams of Devon did you?!  Long may it last I say!!

Here is a photo of Plymouth's historic barbican taken yesterday in the sunshine.

Here is a similar view taken at night. I love it how the buildings are so well  reflected in the water.

  
Well, in this lovely weather, hubby and I have been very busy in the garden, as we want it to look good for Wednesday afternoon when we are holding an Afternoon Tea on behalf of Children's Hospice South West.

We have been painting the Summer house and cleaning it out after the winter (found lots of spiders!)

Cleaning out the pond 

Cutting lawns and generally tidying up

Power washing the patio, which, as you can see, really needed doing!

Hanging bunting in the conservatory

I can tell you this dear friends, holding an event at your home/garden, can really focus the mind! I think hubby and I will probably be lying down in a darkened room for a week once it's all over.  Please pray for a nice dry day for us.  We shall be providing a cream tea, tiny sandwiches and home made cakes. It's always very difficult, because we have no idea how many people will turn up.  We have advertised it widely locally, so we could have 20 people turn up,  and, on the other hand, we could have 150!!! Eeeek! Watch this space.  Hopefully we will make a nice bit of money for this very worthwhile cause.

Some of these photos have already been shown on my facebook page, but I just wanted to include these two of Alfred saying hallo to Shady!

I hope you all have a lovely week and let's hope that the sun will shine on all of us.  Sending blessings your way my dear bloggy friends.

Retro Caravans ....

I realized that I hadn't done a Pinterest post for a very long time, so here goes!

I have been thinking of retro caravans and how lovely it would be to put one at the bottom part of our one acre garden. Imagine how Eli and Ruby would love that! Here are some images that I found on Pinterestwww.pinterest.com

I hope you enjoyed this look back at these pretty little homes.