Proud to be British

I was inspired by this post to include news items in my blog.  In fact, I do add big events into my annual scrapbook.  Last year I included the general election because it ended in a coalition, and the volcano in Iceland stopping all air travel for 6 days!

So how can I not include this?

Photo courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  Prince William is second in line to the throne and has married a ‘commoner’.  This is unusual, most heirs to the throne marry from the aristocracy.  I am not very well versed in constitutional matters, nor have any great knowledge regarding the history of the monarchy, but I do admire our Queen Elizabeth II.  I admire her devotion to duty and her impeccable style.  She and Prince Phillip looked fantastic hopping out of the car as they did and both well into their 80s!  I know that they are both still very active in their Royal duties, even at their great ages.  Long live the Queen!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13231282

I like the ‘pomp and circumstance’ that goes with state occasions such as Royal Weddings and State Openings of Parliament etc. I expect it was wonderful to be there in person today, near Westminster Abbey or on the Mall (there’s no way I was going to try and get to London, or sleep out on the streets as many did).  The atmosphere all over the country is one of rejoicing, lots of street parties and hog roasts!  I think we may have considered a street party here had our children still been young, but all our neighbours children have grown up too!

Having said all that I didn’t watch it live on TV this morning.  I waited until Kate arrived at the Abbey so I could see her dress (which was indeed very elegant) but then went out!  It was nice and quiet on the roads as we drove to Southampton to visit Ikea (more about that in a later post).

I wish the new Royal Couple, now bestowed the title Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, all the very best for a long and happy marriage, and will raise my glass to them later on!

I am surprised at just how much coverage this wedding has all round the world.  Our Royal Family is so well known and loved, over 1/3rd of the world’s population watched on TV!  It makes me feel proud to feel British!

Introducing…..

My very first Guest Post!  May I introduce my son, Nicholas:

 

He has just returned home after a placement job in Oxford, and is going to spend the next few months working locally before going back to Bath University in September to complete his final year in Computer Science BSc.  He is quite a good photographer too!

 

On Tuesday I bought a new bike, after my (hand-me-down from Dad) old bike got stolen in Oxford, and the replacement bike Dad dug out for me turned out to be a bit naff.  It’s a Scott Aspect 40 Mountain Bike, with 24-speed gears, disc brakes and front suspension.  I also got some really comfy ergonomic handle bars which provide a nice comfy pad to rest my palms on.  I took these photos on its inaugural trek to Littlehampton.

A Day in Photos

See more photos here

Glorious sunshine!

(For the benefit of my new blog reader, I live in a small town called Worthing on the South Coast of England, about 50  miles away from London.)

 

What fabulous weather we are having this week!  It is not yet the end of April and we are in shorts and t-shirts, everyone is on the beach and having barbeques.  Our normal average temperature for this time of year is around 15 degrees Celsius, and here we are in the middle of a heat wave (25 degrees +) that we would be happy to have in June or July!  It is even really warm in the evening – warm enough to sit outside until it gets dark.  What a fabulous surprise for our long Easter weekend!

 

So we took a walk this afternoon down to the beach, through the park where they were playing bowls:

Along the beach…. there goes the safety boat!

Right into the centre of town where the safety boat was back on the ramp after it’s patrol along the shore!

Reflection

I am participating in ‘Picture Inspiration’ over on Big Picture Classes.  It is a year long class of weekly prompts by the very talented Tracey Clark. 

This prompt is to photograph a reflection plus the object reflected.  Hence the sun and it’s reflection in the wet sand.

I am a little bit behind, so am intending to catch up this Easter weekend, and see if I can entice DH to join in too!

What are you catching up with this weekend?

A Scrapbook Page

A page for my ‘52 walks’ album 2010.  This is my favourite page so far!  I love the muted colours of the paper and the design – thanks Shimelle, it’s one of yours!

 

• I started this page with a selection of photos, background cardstock and then chose the sketch.  As it is a 2 photo sketch I discarded 1 other photo, which will not be forgotten, it will go in the 6 x 4 pockets on the facing page.
• Next I sorted through my pile of patterned paper which are ‘leftovers’ from my Cocoa Daisy kits, and chose 2 pieces.  Sorry I can’t remember which manufacturer they are, maybe Crate Paper?
• I chose the pink Thickers  (foam letter stickers) for the title.  I have loads of ‘part’ sets of alphabet stickers left, most of them without the letter ‘e’ now!  So this ‘e’ is made from a ‘c’ and a hyphen.  Originally the title was just ‘Beach’, but I thought it looked better balanced with ‘walk’ added down the bottom.
• The red and yellow flower is included in the sketch, and I was considering adding more flowers across the top.  Playing around with them, I realised how well they go with the paper and added them down the side.
• Journalling reads ‘Down West Avenue, south towards the sea.  Through marine gardens.  The gardens are looking good this time of year – I love the red crocosmia!  Along the sand at low tide, Merlin running about with glee!

What’s on your worktable Wednesday?

Or WOWW? I thought I would try and join in with this blog theme. It’s a way of showing off my ‘in progress’ craft projects, or UFOs as they are affectionately known! (UnFinishedObjects)

I saw this gorgeous quilt at the Quilt show at Ardingly back in January.

It is a ‘Block of the Month’ quilt from www.antiqueangel.co.uk. I loved the cute appliques and gorgeous colours, so I signed up! each month I get a block to complete, including the pattern and all the fabric required for that block. I am about 1 month behind, so am trying to catch up. Hence this little beauty on my worktable:

Here are the two blocks I have already done (except for the embroidery). Aren’t they gorgeous?

Spring

The weather is just gorgeous at the moment!  It has been dry and sunny and dare I say it – warm- for several weeks now.  I’ve had to get t-shirts out from their winter quarters!

On my walk down to the beach each morning I see this:

I absolutely love the red flowers of the camelia, especially how they have dropped to the ground.  A week or so ago, the magnolia tree behind was in it’s glory and the pavement was white with fallen petals.  Lovely!

 

And here’s where I like to go best of all:

Beyond Blogging

Today is the start of another fabulous online class from Shimelle!  It is my mission, with the help of this class to improve my blog! 

One of my goals for this year is to begin to write, which to be honest, I have not done too well at lately!  However, I think this class might help.  After all, I WRITE my blog don’t I?  So it will be some writing practise

The first thing I’d like to ask you – my readers  - is to say hello!  If you do happen to drop by, please leave a comment and say hello.  Please tell me what you are passionate about.

Me, I am passionate about:

• my family
• my home
• my garden
• photography
• scrapbooking
• sewing, especially quilting.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

My handsome Beast!

Paper Clutter

I have been updating my filing systems over the last few days.  After LOAD and Garden a Day, this has become known as PCAD (Paper Clutter A Day LOL)

A couple of years ago I did Aby Garvery’s Paper Clutter course on her website www.simplify101.com.  I reorganised and labelled and filed and the paper clutter now looks great!  But it needed a bit of an update and tweaking.  One of the things I realised was that I don’t ever go back to old magazines!  I had boxes of photography, craft, and family history magazines.  Well I am afraid they have all been tossed.  From now on if I buy a magazine, once it has been read it is going in the recycling bin!  I might rip out the odd article, but even that file is not looked at much.

When we sorted out the loft back in November, I threw away whole boxes full of old school books!  I had kept nearly every one I had ever written in!  Now I have a large bin half full with a few English books, topic books, and early ‘news’ books.  Plus a file of essays I wrote when I did my degree at Sussex University 10 years ago:

Picture is of the putting up of the Christmas decorations.  What about those arms!!!

All my drawings look like I traced them.  Remember tracing paper?  Either that or I never sharpened a pencil!

Essays from 4 years of studying neuroscience at Sussex University.  I can’t understand many of them now!

Tulips

The sun was shining in on my vase of tulips so I just had to go and fetch my camera!

Arundel Castle Gardens and Mother’s Day

I went to Arundel Castle gardens with Sarah on Friday.  We had decided that we’d go to a garden and decided on Arundel as it was a bit wet and overcast and our other choice might be muddy!  We were hoping for some Spring colour, and we weren’t disappointed:

 

It was Mother’s day yesterday.  Neither Nicholas or Lucy were at home until later in the day, as Lucy had gone to visit friends in Oxford.  I had suggested to Nicholas that he contact Lucy to arrange to meet her and give her my mother’s day and birthday presents to bring back (teehee!)  Unbeknown to me, Lucy had done the same thing!  She came back with chocolates for my birthday and a gorgeous handbag that they bought as a joint present.  Poor Nicholas!  He is going to get nagged silly when he comes home in a few weeks!  He’s coming home at easter to work in Horsham, until he goes back to university in Bath for his final year in September.

 

Mum came to dinner and we had a lovely roast dinner – all posh in the dining room!  Maurice took some pictures of Mum, me and Lucy but he used flash, and Lucy always blinks!   This is the best one: