I have moved!

Due to continuous problems with this blog I have moved here

France remembered!

These would have to be some of my favourite photographs taken in France. It is in the village of St. Christophe, home to our good friends Dorothy and Keith. We arrived at their home on the Wednesday. We had spent the previous Monday and Tuesday riding the bikes through Holland, Belguim and then France. Normally when Jon and I go away on holiday on the motorbike we have fantastic weather, but whether this only occurs when we go alone I can oly guess! Our neighbours and friends John and Trish had wanted to come along for what was to be their first biking adventure. On route on Monday the weather had been ideal for biking! Not too hot and not cold. Tuesday however was a different story! The rain came with a vengence and we rode for 5 hours through torrential rain. I had given Trish some tips on packing, one being to pack all clothes inside carrier bags. As we drove through the horrendous conditions I kept asking myself why I hadn't followed my own advice? When we arrived in Clemecy we were all thoroughly soaked, worse to come was the luggage! The entire contents were soaked through. We secured rooms in a hotel and I set off on a mission, to locate a launderette. The hotel owner spoke no English, I spoke no french, but by pointing, showing wet clothes and smiling we managed to communicate. I worked out from where he pointed there was a launderette under the flag of the castle. We dried our clothes, had a shower and were soon sitting in the square drinking a well earned beer. We have come to the conclusion that at the end of any biking expedition a bath/shower and a beer makes a bad day into a good day! After a good night's sleep, a lovely breakfast we made our way to meet up with Dorothy where we spent 2 fantastic days. More to come, for now, enjoy the flowers!

For more flowers visit here

Revealed! My New product!

 

Well I am hoping I have finally cracked the problem with Blogger, by composing this in Windows Livewriter! I have tried this before but the pictures did not show, so I have experimented by uploading the picture into a photo album, here in WLW! I will only know if it is a success after I "publish" so here goes! Yes, I have a new product, a 3D Heart Seating Plan! I will be launching this at the Gisborough Hall Wedding Fayre on October 18th! Her is the very first one, at the Reception of Andrew and Katie's Wedding, August 29th. This was the night before we left for holiday and whilst I was attending here with Maria, an order for some Thankyou notes were being collected from our house. Talk about working up to the last minute? Would appreciate your comments!

Friday allready?

Blogger seems to be playing up right now and my posts are not appearing as they should. All spacing, justifying etc. seems to have gone out of the window, so I will be on the case, when I have a minute. Have had a very very busy few days. Yesterday we travelled to Huddersfield, Baradford, Pudsey and Leeds re Jon's business, so we were very late home. Just managed to collapse in front of the TV for a couple of hours before bed. I had an early start because one of the hens, Mabel had decided NOT to go into the henhouse at bedtime. Needless to say I worried, but early the next morning there she was, strutting her stuff in Jo's field. Eventually I encouraged her into the right side of the fence but last night would you believe she managed to persuade Olwyn that the branches of the tree were an ideal place to sleep the night! I will make sure they are both within the folds of the henhouse tonight. I think it is because the nights are drawing in so quickly! Although yesterday was a very warm day the night was colder than normal. The weekend seems to be a busy one, but I will sort out my holiday pictures and get some here to share!

ABC Wednesday....H!

Phew! We arrived home early Monday afternoon. This is where we toured. Monday A Rouvignies Tuesday B Clamecy Wednesday & Thursday C (St. Christophe Nr Limouges with Dorothy) Friday D Saint Witz Saturday E Dordrecht, Holland
View Larger Map Over the next few weeks I will be sharing the events of the holiday, I worked right up to the last minute of Saturday on various wedding commissions and yesterday on my return there was an e-mail waiting for me referring to the current wedding commission I am working on. I also have some table designs to develop for 2 wedding fayres in October as well as promotional and marketing work for Jon's business so straight back and picking up the reigns of business! Watch this space!

Nearly there!

Thought for Today:- To be accommodating, like the ocean requires a flexible mind, a humble heart, broad thinking and unlimited love. Be so full that you can accept whatever flows in - absorbing and giving without losing any part of yourself.

This was the view as we left Newcastle last year, heaing towards Ijmuiden, Holland. On Sunday we'll do the same journey again as we head for France. I guess this is the last time I will be writing in my blog as there are still lots of jobs to be done. Tomorrow I will assemble my masterpiece, ready for Katie and Andrew's wedding on Saturday. I have some Thank You cards to make for Helen and John. Wilma and Elsie have to be taken to their luxury kennels, Ella to the Hilton cat hotel. Arrangements have been made for the hens and goose to be cared for, oh and there's packing to be done. WE are all excited and it will be great to see our great friends Dorothy and Keith! The camera will be packed so we will record the whole expedition! For more skies, visit here.

F is for...France!

On Sunday teatime we will make our way to Newcastle Ferry Terminal where we will sail over to Ijmuiden, Netherlands.

On Monday we will make our way through Holland and Belguim, arriving teatime in Lille

On Tuesday morning we will ride from Lille towards Limorges, depending on the distances we may well stop over night somewhere along the way! We are travelling on the motorbike together with our friends Jon and Trish! We will be staying for a few days in Limorges at our firends, Keith & Dorothy's home. We are so looking forward to it all! I am sure we will have fun!

Tuesday!

On Sunday we decided to go for a SatNav adventure. This time it was Jon who typed in the post code, knowing where we were going and I was driving. It was a complete mystery tour but we ended up here. As we were making our way down towards the road these sheep were actually running infront of the van. It was all so comical as it was as though they were racing! Sat Nav adventures are real fun. We take it in turns to find interesting places of interest or in this case of astounding natural beauty and put the co-ordinates into the SatNav. Wherever we go in Yorkshire, it is always a good place to be! Yes, I am a proud yorkshire lass! For more Worlds visit the badge on my sidebar.

Today's Flowers

For more lovely flowers visit here

This is another of my begonias which sits proudly on the patio table immediately outside the kitchen patio doors. It is a wonderful greeting, each morning producing more perfect flowers.

Back Soon!

Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. Cecil B. DeMille (1851 – 1959) We leave for France on Sunday 30th August, returning on Monday 7th September. On Saturday 29th August, Katie and Andrew get married, Sunday Vicky and Craig and on 4th September Samantha and Ian also. I am currently working on their respective orders of service, seating plans, place cards, menus etc etc. I want to get everything delivered this weekend so I can then focus on holiday plans and start making lists and preparations. Watch this space!

ABC Wednesday.....E is for...Eating!

This morning as I watered my tomato plants in the greenhouse what should be there to greet me but 2 ripe tomatoes! Timing as ever spot on for ABC Wednesday! Our lettuces were ready too!

Hmmmm! Looks like something else enjoys home grown veg!

Lunch was served!

Nothing tastes anything like it! E could have been for eggs, but the girls haven't obliged yet! Watch this space! We are! To see more eclectics visit the ABC blog via the badge on my sidebar!

View from my study window, yesterday.

Quote for Today....... "Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value " Albert Einstein

Our house looks out onto a farm. Here I can see Mike the farmworker. In the distance we can see other farmland. We are at a very busy time at the moment as the farmers are making the most of the good weather to harvest their crops. We have a variety of farms in the village and we see the comings and goings, the ups and downs of the farming industry. We have been here since 1991 and have seen many changes affecting the farming community. What do you see from your window? For other perpectives see here.

Today's Flower

To get different results in life, we have to rethink our thinking. This is not just a matter of positive thinking; it's about reconnecting to our well-being. We then recapture our vitality and resilience and have greater capacity to change the way we think.

Thought for Today For more flowers visit here

Monday Monochrome

I enjoy joining in various projects (memes) in the blogging world and would like to take part more often, but what with my own business, and Jon's business (my responsibilities are customer manager and company secretary) I seldom have the time. Not so much to contribute but to visit other contributors as well. Today however I can share a couple of the photographs I took yesterday at the railway museum at Shildon, County Durham. We were trying out our new Sat Nav ready for Wednesday when we have 2 important new customers to visit in both Bradford and huddersfield. To add an element of fun to the day I typed in the postcode and Jon simply followed the instructions not knowing the destination. We really enjoyed our visit and I would recomend it whole heartedly! For other monochrome enthusiasts visit here

Pottering!

I have been quite busy of late with wedding commissions that need 110% attention. Yesterday however I had a walk round the garden and caught the hens investigating an old wooden pallette which we thought would be of interest to them. We were right!

Every morning when I go to open the henhouse it is always the same hen who comes to me...Eva!

This is my latest table & chairs from freecycle! We can now have 15 people comfortably seated at tables in our garden. To be honest it is becoming quite addictive seeing piles of chairs stacked against the wall on the patio! The weather has been very changeable of late. Jon's prediction that it would be better after lunch yesterday proved correct. We had to go over to Stockton to collect a textile motorbike jacket for Jon, ready for our tour of France in a fortnight. We went in the van, trying out the new sat nav! Well impressed! We had to travel to York for my jacket, the usual story.....men's jackets everywhere but a tour of the globe necessary for the same for me. We went on the motorbike and the weather was glorious to begin with! The A64 was a nightmare York to Scarborough route. We could just see miles and miles of traffic going in the opposite direction, so we came home via Thirsk. Ofcourse I was watching the blue skies turning grey and we got wet but hey ho that's the name of the game. Today with the skies looking deffinately rainworthy we are going to go on a mystery tour! So I may be a while! We will put the sat nav to task! Watch this space!

I really should write more poetry!

August 13th is well and truly etched in my memory as it was on this day in 1986 my dad died. Every year I find myself thinking back to the day when I was standing at a bus stop in Nottingham and the policeman told me he had a message for me to contact Guisborough Police Station. I knew straight away what had happened as Dad had suffered a major heart attack some years before and we lived with the worry that one day it wold come back to take him, which it did.

I returned home immediately and my life changed dramatically. Being an only child I knew my job was to look after mum. I got a new teaching job and a few months later I met Jon.

I always wanted Dad to be proud of me and I know he was. I still miss him and mum enormously. I still feel their pressence and the values and expectations they shared with me remain in the very marrow of my bones.

Something happened yesterday which I feel is significant to the time and date right now.

I dont wear much jewellery as I usually have my hands in some project or other, but normally I wear my Dad's signet ring on my little finger of my right hand and my wedding ring in the usual wedding ring place. Jon does not wear any jewellery at all as he operates machinery and feels it is not safe to wear anything which could cause a finger r a limb to be in danger. Last week we collected a filing cabinet through freecycle, as we were lifting it upstairs I dropped it onto the stair and it bashed my little finger so hard that it bent my ring in such a way it could have stopped the bloodflow to my finger. I panicked and as Jon ran to get some tool or other I managed to use soap and get the ring off which Jon then straightened. A few days later, in Jon's workshop I was on one of the machines, just lifting something up when I felt the ring snag on something. I felt it pull my finger. The thought ran through my mind that really I shouldn't wear the ring when at the workshop. Two or three times during this past week the same thing happened.

Yesterday whilst helping my friend Steph with some bedside drawers she had bought at the salerooms I suddenly noticed my ring had gone.....Both Steph and I felt it was meant to be, for my own safety!

My best friend Maria returns home today after a bellydancing holiday in France. Maria has recently lost her partner, Phil. A few weeks ago Phil's daughter Elizabeth graduated and Maria attended the ceremony. Ofcourse it was an emotional time for them both as we all know the pride Phil would have had as he looked on to see this wonderful achievement. Maria had told me how the whole event had been wonderful and had caused her to feel overcome with the emotion. She e-mailed me the picture and as I looked at it I found some words just sort of came along.....so on this day as I am thinking of my Dad and the pride he had in his family I would like to share the words....none have been changed.

Elizabeth with my best friend Maria

I can see why you cried, as you looked on with pride.

Into the eyes of the child.

I can see the pride in your eyes, of the dad who sighed, with pride.

I can see the pride in the eyes of the child of the guide.

I can see the strength of the child of the dad who sighs with pride as he sees his guide and his child.

Both his pride and his joy!

Both he can enjoy as he looks on with pride.

ABC Wednesday....D

As many of you will know I design wedding stationery! My website is here I thoroughly thoroughly enjoy what I do and it is an important part of the contentment which I have in my everyday life. I am currently working on a seating plan which I must say is the most dramatic commission I have ever undertaken! My client wanted her guests to walk into the reception and be wowed by what they see! Well today I have been so so excited as the concept started coming together! I will be working throughout Wednesday and Thursday as my clients are coming on Thursday evening! I so so so enjoy a challenge! I will share photographs after the wedding as I know many of my clients and friends read my blog so I do not want to spoil the surprise! Watch this space, There is a guestbook on my website, so do feel free to leave a comment!

My World

Sometimes on a Tuesday I take part in My World Tuesday. I was wondering what to do for it today but as I walked outside to collect the post my choice was obvious! In the field over the road from our drive we seem to have some new neighbours. I haven't seen them before so by the end of the day I hope to find out who they are and who they belong to!

Odd or what? Camera Tales!

Following on from my successful experiments with nasturtiums last year I decided to plant some begonias as companions in my hanging baskets. As you can see the colours work wonderful together and I am absolutely delighted with the results.

I did not buy any new seeds this year, all my nasturtium seeds were harvested from last years plants. Here you can see this years flowers producing next years seeds!

Something is attacking the green leaves and if anybody knows a natural repellant which I can spray on my flowers I would be very grateful for the information!

So the camera........................................

I have a Samsung digital camera which uses re-chargeable batteries.

I also have a Nikon which I found when on holiday in the Isle of Man!

I did make enquires as to who it belonged to, contacting the police etc but it seemed destined to be mine.

Now I have heard that some people have jinxes on watches, I think I am jinxed with vameras....today was a typical example.

We went to Pickering Traction Engine Rally, I took along my Nikon camera.

I took a small number of photographs when it flashed "Memory Full!"

I had forgotten to put the memory card into the camera!

Returning home I loaded the memory card and took the few pictures above from round the garden. Error message flashed..."Battery Exhausted!"

Now the Nikon has a lithium battery

so I had to plug the charger in.....will be a few hours,

by which time the moment will have passed.

No worries......my Samsung camera was at hand.

I loaed up the recently charged batteries and off I went.

This time more flowers and some of my chickens.....

or so I thought!

After 1 photograph "Low Battery" and then the camera switched itself off!

Loaded up more recently charged batteries and again after 1 photograph

"Low Battery" and then the camera switched itself off!

So enjoy the photographs! I am away to do some thinking!

Is it me?

For other flowers visit here!

A Sky for Friday!

The open gate is just over the road from our house, part of a local farmer's land. It shows the animals have been moved to another of his fields. The weather forecast said everywhere was going to be warm and sunny except the North East Coast which is precisely where we are so I will be watching the skies very carefully. Today the weather is very pleasant, not too hot and there is a lovely cool breeze....ideal as I am tidying up my study and having a re-organisation. Many I know are moving and sorting and it has made me realise I need to sort out a few bits around the house. I received a filing cabinet from Freecycle so this will bring about great changes, for the better in my study! One day I just may show you my study, after it's re-decoration, but dont hold your breath! lol it may be a while. For more skies visit here

All is well......almost!

Well thanks to everybody out there in Blogland I am now back to normal, well as normal as I ever will be! Had to make some changes and have lost a few things....but hope to get everything back, including my blogroll later today. I am approaching my 900th post so want to do something special! Watch this space!

Help!

My sidebar has disappeared from the righthand side to the bottom of the page! I have tried creating a new template but no way will it let me have any sidebar to the left! I do not like this layout! All my pictures are not central! Any ideas PLEASE?????

C is for........guess!

Chickens!!!!!!!

Tomorrow we will have had the chickens for a week! They seem to be getting along just fine.

Eva

Margie left, Beverley on the right

May

Mabel left, Olwyn Right

The henhouse could have been improved. I considered painting it but as the wood is all treated there seemed little point! When the bees leave the shed to the right of the lean-to I may consider giving it all a coat of paint, but I just wanted to get the chickens in and settled as soon as possible, so they could set a routine, feel at home and get ready to lay eggs. The nesting boxes are to the left, covered in orange plastic to prevent rain affecting the structure. Wednesday last week I placed the crate inside the henhouse. Thursday when we checked on them they were all perched on the window ledge of the shed, home to the bees. We lifted them into the henhouse. Thursday, the same. Friday, the same. Saturday the same. Sunday I managed to usher 5 hens into the house. I could not see the other one, but 30 minutes later there she was sitting on the ledge, so I lifted her in. Monday, I managed to usher all 6 hens into the house. This morning when I opened the door I heard each of them jump off the perches and make their way out into the paddock where they set about scratting around! Success! I feel they know this is their home, they sleep on the perches, they are drinking water from their feeder and the same with their food, a mixture of wheat and layers pellets and finally ground egg shells to act as a grit type substance to aid their digestion and help form shells on the eggs. We go on holiday at the end of August neighbours and friends will be looking after them, ie letting them out, putting them to bed and topping up their food, so I feel confident they will behave! (the hens not the neighbours and friends! lol) Their personalities are emerging too. Olwyn and Mabel seem to stick together as do Eva and May, Margie and Beverley..... it will be interesting to observe these friendships as they grow older.

The Bench Today!

On the bench from the left, Mabel, Margie, Beverley, Olwyn. Next to the bench May, Behind the bench Eva. I think the bench will feature in forthcoming posts! For more Critters visit here

Skywatching Chickens!

"Keep your face twards the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you." Walt Whitman

I collected the chickens last night. It was raining heavily and as I drove home in the pick up I kept looking in my mirror and seeing six little pairs of eyes peering out of the crate which the farmer had allowed me to borrow. I thought the best thing to do was to put the crate inside their new temporary house and open the lid, ensuring the house was secure. This morning the hens were out of the box so I opened the roof and left them to their own devices. I kept checking on them every hour or so and each time I could see they had gained more confidence as they became more familiar with their new surroundings. It wasn't long before 2 of them found a gap in the fence and made their way to the goose hut where they spent most of the morning. Later this afternoon they had worked out they wanted to be back with the others so I caught them and gently put them back, making sure the gap was sorted. I think they are going to be quite at home! For other skywatchers visit here