New Life Amongst The Allsorts Doings!

Hello folks!

Hope you all had a good weekend - we had a nice couple of days.

Saturday evening saw our little community coming together to witness new life emerging in the field just across from our cottage.

One of the children had seen 'something sticking out of the horse' - Stuart (next door - all round 'good egg sort'a guy) rang the horses owner and he came along to see all was well. Good job he did - she struggled a little, and he had to give a helping hand.

By this time we - as in the neighbours from our little huddle of houses and anyone and everyone passing by, were standing in a an encouraging huddle Oohing and Haring - and willing mum and baby on - riveting Saturday night stuff!

All was well and baby was/is a girl - a little mare, with the most amazingly long legs!

Eventually she managed to get on her feet and we all gave a collective Cheer!

Just a pretty picture of the old windmill in the same field as the horses.

Photo's By Stuart (good egg) Kirkham!!

Not a lot of Treasure to be found at the carboot - but it was nice to have a mooch about.

I did manage to pick up this little house - very shabby, but with a certain charm - maybe someone will take a liking to it.

Its only small, and rather 'basic', I've fastened it to the trellis 'along the street' from the other houses. We thought this was rather more 'affordable - a starter home - ideal for youngsters wanting to get on the property ladder' kinda housing!

Rooting around in an old box at the carboot - something that I must say I do, do rather well - I came across an old paper bag. now paper bags always excite me - for one thing nowadays no one ever gives you paper bags, they are just not used - so my reasoning is - anything in a paper bag must be old and therefore interesting (at least a little interesting anyway - worth a look!)

This bag was full of oddments of vintage-y fabric. Someone had made something and saved all the offcuts and stored them safely in the bag for future projects - a nice thrifty sort of woman no doubt - wonder what she made?

Anyway nice pretty bits of fabric to be used on some project or other - it cost me pennies.

You can see on the bag the 'New Development' in the Geoffrey Fan club, Hubby P desperately wanted a Geoffrey Badge - and it was mooted that it would be nice to have a Fanzine - but that would be just too much work for me (I'm no journalist) and anyway- I pointed out to him - people have Facebook page nowadays!
Anyway - just to keep him happy I made him a badge - we haven't yet had feedback from the Geoffrey's on the Badge - I just hope its to their liking and they don't feel their personal life/space is being compromised - or indeed exploited in some way.




Not to disappoint Hubby P I gave him the choice of two - very similar badges - but slightly different colours. He has made his choice - and wears it with pride.

Sssoooooooooo that leaves the other badge without a Geoffrey Fan to wear it!

How do you fancy a Geoffrey Giveaway?
Leave me a little comment - something I can discuss/relate with the Geoffrey's - they always like feedback, and I will put your names in a hat - draw the names next Monday.

xxx Take care for now - bedtime for me! xxxx

Marsh Marigolds of Childhood, bags and Bunnies!

Hello there lovelies! Hope you've all had a nice day!

The sun has been shining here on Anglesey - dare we hope summer is on the way!

Ahhhhhh Marsh Marigolds - or king Cups which ever you prefer.

My pond is coming alive with the glorious buttercup yellow flowers. They are so special to me, every time I have moved house I have taken a cutting of them, they remind me of my childhood home.

We were brought up on the wild Pennine moorland of Lancashire, it could be a wild inhospitable place during the Winter months, a cold somewhat grey landscape where Spring came rather late. I would wander the fields all year round looking for the subtle changes that herald the changing seasons. Marsh marigolds grew along the banks of the many streams and were amongst the first, with a real blaze of colour.

I remember gathering them by the armful, huge bunches of fresh, cheerful golden cups!

Forever they will mean home to me.

~~~~~~~~~

So - what have you been up to ?

I've not been just lazing in the sun - its not just warm enough yet.

Sewing as always, has been on the cards. I found a nice bit of fabric at the carboot. A lady had been making curtains for her 'shabby chic' room, and had a length of fabric left over - it was pretty so I bought it - know of a better reason?

It screamed out 'Bags'!! to me so I had a couple of days making some simple tote bags - I thought they would do as Gifts - or whatever.

I thought the fabric looked a bit Cath Kidston-y - so I put a couple on ebay, well - you never know someone might take a fancy to one. I made two sizes - Mother and Daughter? Sad I know - I do these girly things, it must be some kind of yearning in me because I didn't ever have that Mummy and little Daughter thing.

So a heap of bags!

Hubby P is talking about standing/selling at the carboot, so maybe I will try them there as well - or everyone will get one for Christmas!

We hope to stand carboot on Sunday but Hubby P is hobbling up and down like the walking wounded - somehow (goodness knows how he manages it!) he has got a nasty sore on his leg - I've told him 'if he was an old horse He'd be shot by now!'

So maybe hauling boxes for carboot will literally be a step too far!

All is well with everyone else - I think, bunnies are coming on a treat.

They like to have a little snuggle.

They are nicely rounded, nicely chunky - whats not to like. Lets hope I can find some good homes for them in a few weeks.

The Geoffrey's are all well, I've just been watching them come for their supper - bit boring tonight, just bread, peanuts and seed - we had kippers for dinner and I really didn't think the Geoffrey's would appreciate a kipper supper.

Righty ho - nearly bedtime - we are making a determined effort to go to bed earlier - we sit up talking to ridiculously late hours, and I think we need more sleep, especially after this flu we have had.

xxxx Take care for now xxxx

Just A Quick Geoffrey Update!

Just a quick update from the Geoffrey's.

Much activity around the Geoffrey acres this evening, although not much sighting of Geoffrey himself - although he has been to the treehouse for his supper.

These are photos of the Young Geoffrey's - we can tell because they are smaller than Geoffrey - they are getting very brave visiting the garden bed just across from the door (lets hope not too brave, or stupid!)

Hubby P thinks Geoffrey now sees his job as 'Done' - he has fed them for many weeks - now its time they fended for themselves. On a par with us sending our Teens to the Chippy for their Tea!

This one has ventured onto the old chair, enjoying the peanuts and seed I put out earlier. Do you think she looks like a little Girl? Miranda perhaps? Miranda Mouse?

Can you see the two of them, brother and sister may be? Miranda and Malcolm?

More Tales from the Allsorts Garden soon! must be bedtime for me!

xxxxxx

A Little Birdhouse For My Soul !!

Everyone Jolly? Enjoying the Sunshine? I do hope so!

Well!! Very exciting Treasure at the carboot sale today!

I couldn't believe my luck - I could have sold it again three times over, people (obviously women) were sighing, and exclaiming over it, and wanting to buy it! - although I did get some funny looks too.

What do you think of my Little Birdhouse - it feeds my soul!

Its ever-so battered and shabby - I think it was taken out of a rubbish skip - but I just so love it for all its faded beauty. It fits in so well in our garden, amongst the other interesting, fading, shabby pieces - living the last of their lives, among the flowers!

I managed to haggle the seller down to a reasonable price (£4) luckily he knows me well and knows I haven't a lot of fancy money - he smiles at me (an I just know he's thinking 'what on earth is she going to do with that old thing'! ). Hubby P was just as 'thrilled' for me as the seller - he had to go and pick it up from the seller - too heavy for me to carry, and he lugged it all the way to the van.



Again, appreciation of the birdhouse was somewhat 'lukewarm' when I got it home - Richard's remark was - 'well when you have painted it, tarted it up a bit - you ARE going to paint it?' - what is wrong with these people??

Anyway needless to say Hubby P set to and put it up on the fence - I wanted it nestled amongst the Honeysuckle - this involved Hubby P being 'nestled amongst' the Honeysuckle too, hammer in hand - things got a little - Umm Heated?
Hopefully the Honeysuckle will grow up and around it, making it a really romantic little hide-away!
Thinking about it, its a bit Swiss chalet meets Dallas, rather Grand! It has two compartments - one either side - so two families.
Of course at the moment both 'homes' are vacant, we had of course thought of the Geoffrey's, they may wish to upgrade to something a little smarter, although I think it may be a little too ostentatious for Geoffrey, he comes from Humble stock - never-the-less, we may yet be surprised!

On to Crafty News!

Do you remember I mentioned the big curtain I bought last Tuesday, well I took it apart (the lining had 'gone') and washed it. I got one full width - and a decent length too, which I may try and sell on ebay, and a half a width, which I will keep for my own crafting.



I found some pretty little bamboo handles, and cut myself a rough sort of bag out of 'my piece' - made a newspaper 'sort of' pattern.




I wanted a lightweight, but roomy bag for carrying the necessities (purse, phone, tape measure and stacks of tissues at the moment!) around the carboot sales.

I think its turned out quite well - it does the job splendidly!

I lined the inside with some of the bright and breezy, yellow cotton fabric that Hubby P brought home the other week. An altogether comfy, roomy (its amazing what junk/treasure you can get in it - everything but a Birdhouse!) - snazzy little bag!


And last, but not least by any means Thankyou Soooooo Much to Twiggypeasticks, Solsticedreamer, and JuicyFig for this lovely Award!!

You are all so kind to an Old Girl who sits here in her little out of the way corner of the world - waffling on about the nonsense of her life!

Thankyou again, you know 'Simple Things' !! an all that.

I know I am supposed to pass this on to other people, but it does seem to have done the rounds quite swiftly - perhaps I should widen my circle of Blogs I follow, but you know how it is when you get comfy. Still I should browse a bit more - there are wonderful blogs out there and I enjoy finding and 'meeting' new bloggers - I am waffling now. If you would like the Award and somehow have missed out, Please do take it as a gift from me, paste it up on your Blog and

enjoy!

xxxx Take care for now xxxx

A Load Of Old Rope!! Treasure Indeed-y!

Hello there - hope everyone is enjoying the spring sunshine.

Just thought I would share my 'treasure' with you - although I got a few funny looks snapping up this bargain at the car boot sale yesterday!

Yes indeed-y - a load of old rope! Saw it and had just the place for it.

Its the kind - I think anyway - that is used as 'fenders' (is that the right word?) on boats and quay's and things. At least in my mind they do - you folk who live in seaside-y places may put me right - anyway its chunky, knobbly and real bit of eye candy as far as I am concerned ( you know me by now - bit of a lost cause!).

Well I wanted it to hide the ugly edge of the woodshed we put up last year. I wanted it to look something like our summer house - of course I cant find a photo of the summer house right now to show you - now when I want one (note to self - label the photographs!) Anyway if you really want to see the summer house there are lots of photo's on past posts.

The rope weathers and fades and ages really well, giving a home to lots of interesting wildlife and the most amazing moss and lichens.

Here it is fastened to said woodshed - with some very big nails ( please don't look at all the 'stuff''! I know it looks like a junk yard - not very Country Living I'm afraid!

Here's Hubby P grappling with my 'little bit of rope' - give him his due, he didn't complain, and he put it up when he came home from work - tired and rather frustrated! (work - another story!!)

Mind you we both agreed - it is nice now its light enough to mooch in the garden.

Another 'eye candy' kinda pic - I just love the texture, the knobbliness of it - just need get some interesting climbing plants to grow through it now. I will keep an eye out at the car boot - there are usually some interesting plants at my kinda price.

Another 'find' yesterday was this huge curtain - so pretty. The lining was torn, so I removed that, and washed the fabric - and its come up really well.

Its made in England by Cravendale - a print called Louvaine, anyone know anything about it?

Its a heavy cotton - curtains and soft furnishings weight.

Think I may do the usual keep a bit for me ( make an interesting bag I think ) and try to sell a bit on ebay - cover the cost of my habit!

The colours of the fabric, hanging on the washing line echoed the colours emerging in the garden beds - I just had a mooch about with the camera.

All the blues are coming out, quite lovely set against the fresh green of their foliage.

Some little hyacinths planted in a slate box (made years ago by Hubby P)

Pretty delicate Borage - flowers throughout the year.

A pretty Periwinkle climbing up the rock.

Forget-Me-Nots the garden is full of them.

And just pushing their way through - the Bluebells - not long until they give us a mass of brilliant blue.

And last but not least one fat, podgy baby rabbit! You can see his eyes are just about open - I will start cuddling them now - get them use to 'people'. So cute and squirmy - not be long untill they are running madly about and driving 'Mum' nuts!


xxx Nite nite xxx

Bunnie's, Babies, and Teatowels!

Say 'Hello' to Whitney - she's very friendly when you cuddle her, but just a bit shy of coming forward.

Whitney is a first time Mum, and she is doing very, very well.

The babies are very well looked after in a nice big warm nest, she needed no help from me, and they appear to be thriving.

I haven't disturbed them much - just peeked in to see they were all ok. I looked today and Mum had uncovered them a little - she must have thought it a bit too warm for them, anyway I think I could count five little heads.

I will keep you posted.

Teatowels! - well you know my thing at the moment - making teatowels out of interesting old fabric, well I did it again.

I found this old sheet at the carboot - lots of excellent, good strong fabric - and wonderful colours! Again I wanted to be able to 'use it' and look at it - so I made a couple of teatowels.

I made them double thickness, and kind of quilted them a little - to help hold the two sides together, and it looks pretty.

I love the whole Retro flowery look to it.

And of course I shall try my luck with one on Ebay - may get some pennies back to cover the cost of the fabric in the first place.

Isn't this sunshine so nice - doing my flu the world of good!

Here's a pretty little flower for you - it made me smile today! x

xxxx Take care xxx

Just an Allsorts mostly Picture Blog - Sickness Prevails!!

Unfortunately these have been my constant companions these last few days - a bit desperate I know, but its all that's got me through - this Flu thing has laid me out!

I'm feeling a little better tonight, I'm sure i will be fine in a couple of days - what a pesky thing this little bug is - its amazing how unwell it can make you feel.

Anyway enough of that.

I took these photo's last week before I was slain - afraid its mostly a Piccy blog - I'm not at my best!

Firstly - Yes, I remember - it was Easter! Hubby P treated me to a visit to the plant nursery and a few flowering bulbs for Easter - they last a lot longer than a chocolate egg, anyway I got to share his egg - too much chocolate you know - not good for Hubby's!

I thought these looked so nice, and just the ticket to go in my new trough. I got loads well 17 pots of flowers for £10, some were only 50p a pot - (I know - a bit of an expensive Easter egg, but 'He Love's Me' - Sigh!!!). Just goes to show it pays to go to the Nurseries rather than the posh Garden Centres - although the latter do have cafes - and cake!

Spring is officially here at the Allsorts Garden -




We have Toad spawn in the pond, and lots of it - yes, all that Romancing did do the trick.

Little Blackie has started sunbathing -yes I know - original name!

The Aquatic shop swore he would change colour to a nice orangey colour - but he has steadfastly refused to do so for the last couple of years - so who are we to say!

His mate in the pond - Elvis (he has a black quiff! ) is not so friendly - although being orange easier to see!


Hawks!

Yes great excitement here, we have been sitting outside watching fantastic aerial displays, we think they are Buzzards - very big Hawks!

You can hear them calling and amazingly all the little birds disappear, you can see them hiding in the hedges, and they are ever so quiet until the Hawks have moved on.

I managed to get a pic of this crow in the tree - he's probably a bit big for the hawks to bother with, but like hubby P said ' He probably thought - I could do with a breather, I'll just sit here for a while - very still!'


Crafty wise - Birdcages!

Don't know why - I think I may have seen something similar on a blog, and then I found this amazing reel of wire!

Don't you just love this old battered reel - just imagine if it could talk! What tales it could tell!

I have no idea what it was used for - have you?

But I felt it would make a nice birdcage - the sort with the ever open door - a refuge for the fluttery little ones - if they have a mind to share a little of their lives with us!

I put some red silk bindings to the door and hoop - for luck, and made a dangly little swing inside!

I just feel it needs a couple of sweet little felt birds - perhaps one on the swing and one fluttering on the outside, when I can get my creative brain to think outside this flu-ey fug!



BOOTS

Hubby P has worn out another pair of boots - so the old ones get planted up and 'planted' in the garden.

I put them at the front of the house with some of my flowering bulbs in for now - brighten up the front a bit!

Having lots of men means quite a few boots, the big Tree Surgeon ones are great - big and roomy they hold lots of plants and don't dry out the same in summer. I like having something as personal as my families foot wear scattered around the place - maybe I'm odd - okay well I am! I know other people make do with photographs!

Pretty though!

These are the big Tree Surgeon boots waiting to be panted up with something colourful for the summer - just look at that wonderful moss growing on them - it sparkles like jewels!


And Here's Geoffrey!

Everything is 'hunky dory' in his world - he's having Chinese for supper tonight - Hubby P brought us Chinese for dinner, so The Geoffreys are having rice, prawn crackers and wholemeal bread

He's been this evening to have a 'catch up' with Hubby P, Mrs Geoffrey is up and about - it must be said she is looking very well and has done wonders to regain her slim figure - maybe we could sell her post baby diet to a Celebrity!

Earlier this evening we had a visit from two of the tiny Geoffrey's - un accompanied by Mum or Dad, they were a but nervous and didn't hang around too long. Hubby P will try and get some pics once they have settled a little.

So all goes well here - or it will do once I have shifted this flu!

Another happy event - we have baby rabbits! Still in the nest but doing well - will post some pics next time -

Oh! Yesssss! S'alll Apinin Ere!!!! Springs come!!

xxxx Take Care xxxx