Friday 15th April

Dear little Rebekah is 2 years old today

Happy Birthday

Here she is in a picture I took last week when visiting

She just refused to look at the camera and ran so fast that this was all I managed

I can put up my own chair thank you!

The card I made for her

The present

Then Janie is celebrating her 12th Wedding anniversary

This is the card I made for her and Chris

Alan and I popped to Leigh-on-Sea in the afternoon to visit a very sick friend. It was sunny but misty on the estuary

And lastly some shots in the garden today

The Heron keeps coming back and we are not seeing any of the mature fish now but there are a lot of babies so we are hoping they will survive

London on an April Sunday Pt.1

The Mellenium ferris wheel known as the London Eye

We have had a short unseasonal heatwave and with temperatures yesterday hitting 73f and knowing we will be back to 55f by

mid-week, we decided to spend  Sunday walking in London. We arrived about 10.40 am and apart from a few breaks for tea and snacks, we walked until about 4.45 pm

I took 230 photos and have kept 166 so plan to post most of those over the coming weeks

London has a very different atmosphere on a Sunday

For this post we will concentrate on The London Eye 

We have parked the car and are walking along the Embankment on the north side of the river Thames

In the distance we see the wheel

We come to the footbridge running along the railway bridge and walk to the south side known as The South Bank

(no, that is not us in the photo)

Lots to see before we get there but that's for another post

The queues are enormous and  I am glad that I am not joining them

The Houses of Parliament on the opposite side

A mixture of different views

The last one being from Westminster Bridge

Going to take me a while to sort my photos but I'll get there

Must be Spring - It's April

Spring is in the air!

If you look closely, especially if you click for a full screen,

you might just see Mrs Blackbird sitting on her nest

It takes me back to a time which I call one of my "Memorable Moments" when one of my cats took a baby Blackbird in it's mouth, ran into the  house and up into a bathroom.

The memorable bit is that Mother Blackbird flew into the house after her and perched on the shower rail chirping so hard until my cat let the baby bird go, whereon the Mother immediately herded it back downstairs and out into the garden.

One of those moments when one wishes a camera had been close.

It was amazing to see.

It's good to see the garden awakening from it's winter sleep

even though it is a time of hard work outside

The sticks are  not very photogenic but they are there to deter the Heron from taking more of our fish
We had about 70 last Summer but so far this year have only seen
5 at one time. Hopefully there may be more  hiding

Sky from my window last evening as the sun set lighting up the clouds



Nothing to do with Spring but a fun photo

Taken on a ramble in the village of Goldhanger

To get water from this village pump one has to work hard as seen on the right of the photo

 

It's True!

I do have lots to post about but time has been in short supply recently with so many things on the agenda so just a little 'snippet' to keep in touch.

Yes, it's true I began this embroidery before I was married over 50 years ago and I have not even finished one corner.

It is a beautiful large linen table cloth

bordered with Nottingham lace.

I would like to finish it but do not know if I ever will.

I have given away a number of half finished tapestries and embroidery projects in the past to people who have been keen to finish them but did not want to part with this.

The napkins are bordered in the lace too

Changing the subject!

What happened to plain old fashioned Easter eggs

Do I buy what to me are 'real' Easter eggs

or do I buy what Oliver and Rebekah will love?

Yes, I succumbed as you see

I did not even understand this one but apparently when watching the programme one is not supposed to know who Stig is.

The egg is full of chocolate racing cars and racing cars are Oliver's favourite toy at the moment

Lunar Perigree with Sky and Faith

Out came the camera last night to capture the Lunar Perigree (the moon being it's closest to earth) and fortunately the sky was clear so got a great view.

As I so often say I like all kinds of clouds and sky

The following was taken a little while ago and having taken  the photograph I read in the media that this is a new form of cloud

Aspertus Cloud apparently

As a house church we again had permission to meet in the Christian chapel in our local hospital today for a time of praise and worship and prayer, praying for the hospital, staff, patients and visitors etc.

What was different this morning was that a patient in the hospital who had given birth 3 days ago to a sick child who was on a ventilator had woken on the ward with a strong sense that she was to go to the chapel at 10.0 am. She told the medical staff that she was going no matter what was happening on the ward at that time. She did not know why but of course 10.0 am is the time that we commence our time of praise and worship there.

She stayed with us for the whole time, joining in and receiving prayer for herself and her baby.

Very encouraging - we want more of this Lord 

Card Making and Signs of Spring

With my card stocks depleted it was time to begin to build up again

At least I have made a start

There is a little colour beginning to show up in the garden and I have begun to do some Spring pruning but the weather has not been co-operating. After one beautiful cold but sunny day, this week has so far been dull and foggy 

Every sunset is different so it was good to catch this one last week

Life has been particularly busy and Saturday being our first free Saturday since January, I was looking forward to having

Kate a blogging buddy visit. Unfortunately Kate who was staying with a friend not too far away had to cancel as she had a bad cold and sinusitis. We both look forward to meeting next time she visits the area.