Random Harvest....and Instant Karma

.....pick of the crop...but I better add that I didn`t grown them, they`re from The Work`s Garden, grown by The Big Hairy Gardener.....it`s a bit like having a dog but not actually having to bark yourself.....and a lot less work for me which I suppose makes me very lucky indeed! I also get to harvest loads of fruit and turn it into......

....or

(that`s Gooseberry!)......

......and then I might go and collect some of these, laid by some new Chickadees, bought after Mr. Fox ran off with the old ones! I always wash and date the eggs but this one was so big, I couldn`t resist marking it accordingly!.....

....then the second batch of rasps (much bigger and sweeter than the ones earlier in the season) are ready for picking and jammin` - if they last that long - sooo tasty!....

.......then there`s always the odd cauli lurking around just waiting to come home with me!....but that`s enough of `Gardener`s Corner`.....let`s turn our attention to some lovely stuff before you get too.....

.......to pay anymore attention!
A few weeks ago, I was tuning into my great Bloggy Chum Shaz`s (aka TheShabbyChicBohemian) latest post to see what wonders she had performed in her very own inimitable and extremely artistic fashion, when I read that her next project was going to be an Indian themed journal. Well, it just so happened that my Sister was about to depart for a month to India, where she would be teaching in a villlage school near Mumbai and before you could say, Madhur Jaffrey, I had emailed Shaz and asked her if I might buy the Indian themed journal from her as a going away pressie for said Sister. She very kindly obliged and here are the fruits of her labour (no pun intended!)......

....look at the beautiful cover and the beautiful pages within....

.....feast your eyes on those sumptious colours....

....all made with the greatest attention to detail and with the loveliest materials....

....fancy a cup of some lovely Indian Tea? These are the little touches which Shaz adds to her work which clearly shows that she is a Master of her Craft. Needless to say, my Sister was overwhelmed with her gift and asked me to order another two journals from Shaz.  A `Peony` themed one for our Mother and another one for herself with a `Hemingway` theme, which Shaz obligingly set herself to do and you can see the fantastic and spectacular results over on her blog. My Mother was so enthralled with her journal that she refused to write in it - she didn`t want to spoil the beauty of it! I`ve since persuaded her that that is the reason for having a journal!!! Thanks once more, Shaz, I`ve already let you know how grateful I am to you but there`s no harm in `one more for the pot`!

....continuing on with the `lovely stuff`, my other Best Blogging Buddy, Betty over at http://betty-thewoodfairy.blogspot.com/ is a fantastic silk painter and she sent me the dearest little lavender sachet which she made from some lovely silk covered in her beautifully painted roses...

....love the colours, don`t you?

....and it smells fantastic too!

I`m very lucky to know such gifted folks and for that I`m extremely grateful....just like I`ll be extremely grateful to you if you`ve managed to get to the end of this very looooooong post (that`s what I get for staying away so long!).

Until next time.......

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Got a Head?......

......get a nice new hat just like this one here which I made for my friend (no, I`m not paying her to wear it!).....

....and which I`m showing off to the entire universe because I`m so chuffed with it!

My friend will find that her new hat is so versatile, she can be Miss Jean Brodie one day as in the pic above...

....or Nurse Gladys Emmanuel the next....

or maybe...

...Ingrid Bergman in the Inn of the Sixth Happiness!....or at a stretch....

....either Laurel,Hardy or Chaplin....I`ll leave it up to her!

Whatever she decides, I think it`s a very nice hat indeed (you can all stop giggling now!) but sorry about my mode-ls face! She got a bit mashed up in the scramble to evacuate for the recent renovation work to be carried out. I`ll fix her up though once I`ve finished my latest new hat ...yes, I`m on a hat kick because after all, I`ve absolutely NOTHING better to do with my time and energy but sit around creating things.....you know how it goes?! I`d offer it up as a giveaway but I don`t think you`d all be tripping over yourselves to put your names down!lol.......so...

...here are some more pics if you`ve a mind to look at them.....if you don`t just hit your `back` button and me and the hat`ll be gone from view faster than you can say `who`s she kidding?!!`...

.....so it`s Goodbye from Me...

....and ta-ta from The Hat...

We Hope that you are all having a good and stress-free weekend.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It Ain`t Over `Til The Fat Lady Warbles.......

.....and she`s just warming up her tonsils!
Progress has been slow since my house was turned inside out,upside down and I`m a long way from finished but at least I can see the light (I swear at one point, I could almost see a Heavenly Light calling me upwards!) so all the little annoying jobs that can be done when the weather inevitably turns to Autumn have been sidelined until then and I`m off to enjoy what`s left of the Summer and a little playtime....here....
http://www.eif.co.uk/
....and here....
http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/
and hopefully a little R and R beside the sea....
http://www.aboutdeal.co.uk/deal-seafront.php
...here.
During the upheaval and when it finally all got too overwhelming...and because I was on holiday from work at the same time, I took me a little road trip to England.....well, ok, I only got as far as Berwick-upon-Tweed because my time was limited but it might have been London,Paris or Rome ....I had a lovely day out, just like Joan without a Derby!or Thelma without a Louise! Sooooo.....

......up,up and away...

...or rather I was driving...but isn`t that a nice bit of coast road?!....

...stop and say 'good morning' to some nice sheep...

....looking back to the county where I live ....nice, innit? (though I won`t tell you that the large white building in the background is our very own local nuclear power station!)......

....stopped off at St. Abb`s Head in search of coffee but I was a bit too early for everyone!The one and only coffee shop was closed!.....

....no that`s not it....that`s a quaint little hut for a fisherman!...

......complete with quaint little reel!

.....quaint little houses....the lady from one of them was out pruning her climbing roses and I thought to myself how nice it would be to be able to get up in the morning and the first thing on your mind would be 'Oh, I think I`ll go and prune my St. Swithins`! I wish!!

......and I`d always been meaning to visit this lovely wool shop and finally, when I got there, guess what? Yes, that`s right... it was also closed!...

but I was able to have a little peak in the window....

......then finally managed to track down a lovely frothy coffee at the gallery next door ......

.....and sat outside to savour both coffee and view.....

......just kidding, it was much prettier than that!.......

Short trip on to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a rake around the charity shops but bearing in mind that for weeks I`ve been getting rid of my own junk, I was very selective and left other peoples` treasures on the shelves! Phew, the sacrifices we make! After lunch, it was time to hit the road, this time homeward bound.....

....that`s not my feet on the dashboard, it`s one of those car freshener thingies!

I won`t trouble you with any pics of the state of my house on my return.....you`d only have a touch of the vapours and I`ve used up all my smelling salts!

Thanks for popping-in and hope you`re all having a great weekend and did you know that tonight at 7.00pm was supposed to be the happiest time of the year? Well, I waited but......?lol

Bye for now xxx

ps The pic of the Lovely Lady atop is not me - just sayin`!