Deblyn

In Kensington Gardens Under the almond tree Room for my love and me! Over our heads the April blossom; April-hearted are we. Under the pink and white Love in her eyes alight; Love and the Spring of Kensington Gardens: Hey for the heart's delight! Arthur Symons 1865 - 1945

We had burgers tonight Which somehow was right Because of the heat of the sun. It was too hot to bake For my sanity's sake So I stayed out in the sun and had fun. I then washed the dishes (Wish I had three wishes!) And sat myself down in my chair. The food for tomorrow Will cause me no sorrow - It's salad - which really seems fair! Or we might have Chinese If to hub I say please Or an Indian dinner for four; If he gives me a sub We could go the the pub And go back on Sunday for more.

Too much for my sun-addled brain! I look forward to the trick answer. I'm not too good at this sort of thing........

We had spanish omelette with braised red cabbage followed by fresh fruit. Washed down with some of last year's gooseberry wine!

Yes - isn't your quilt batting cheap at Walmart?!!!!!!!

I'm afraid I have no idea about planting zones! It's not something we use over here at all. Where I live in the south of England is one of the mildest parts of the UK; most things are easy to grow and a lot survives over the winters. The coldest it's ever been in the sixteen years I have lived in dorset is -7 which isn't cold at all after you've lived all over Scotland!! Today was hot like summer and I'm wearing t-shirt and shorts again and it's only April. it was too hot to work outside or paint up at the village hall so i did some housework and cleaned the sitting rooom which was badly in need! tomorrow i need to tackle the bookcase again and weed out the ones I no longer need to make space for the boxful I brought home on Sunday! And all the library books I picked up at the mobile today.......

We went for a day out on Saturday as the weather was so wonderful. We started off by driving down to Hampshire where they have a n excellent surplus bargain shop. I got some things for the garden (surprise!) and Mr Lowie kindly bought me some paints and brushes as I want to gt back into painting - so that was a nice treat for me! On the way I managed to purchase a dark red lobelia and a passion fruit plant at a couple of roadside tables we found. Whe I got home later I found that the pot actually contained three passion flowers so i separated them out and now have three - a bargain by anyone's standards! We then went to the village where we used to live and had a look at our old house - thank goodness they are looking after it well! It does seem very small now though! Then on to lunch at a 17th c pub called the Stocks Inn; they have the original stocks out in the pub garden where the wrong-doers were put as punishment; the children enjoyed that bit! Then on down towards the coast to Kimmeridge Bay. it was very sheltered here so it was lovely down on the shore. The bay is part of the Dorset heritag Coastline Site; it is one of the premier fossil sites (ammonites dinosaurs etc) in the world. You are not allowed to use a hammer and break the stones to get fossils but you are allowed to pick them up off the beach. Because the cliff face is constantly being eroded by the weather there are always new fossils coming down. We found quite a few small ones to bring home and I got some white pebbles to make a spiral in my tiny water feature. On the way home we stopped off at Thomas Hardy's cottage which site up the end of a lane in the woodlands. he was born here and wrote several books here before he moved to Dorchester. I took a tiny honeysuckle shoot off the garden wall to try and root at home. I know it's naughty but I couldn't resist it! So that's what we did on Saturday. As they say in England - a Grand Day Out!

I forgot to mention how wonderfully packed my parcel from Westbrook was. So much effort and concern to make sure everything arrived here intact - and it did; all that way and not one dent or bump - amazing! I now have a big stack of tissue paper which has been smoothed out and folded; this can be used for the next exchange we do! The plastic bags have all been put together; I will cut them into strips and knit them up into a new strong shopping bag and will think of Westbrook every time I use it! Plastic bags from abroad always seem quite exotic and mysterious somehow with their unfamiliar names etc. Great fun.

..... I certainly was yesterday morning! The parcel delivery van pulled up outside the gate and emerged with a very large long parcel. I thought it was for next door but it was for me!! It was from my Secret Pal Westbrook! I wasn't able to open it straight away because I had a visitor. As soon as she had gone I took it upstairs to open. so much thought had gone inot what this extremely generous lady had put together for me: a beautiful vegetarian cookbook measuring spoons and jug so I can make the US recipes in it! flower-themed fridge magnets butterfly ornaments for the garden fairy ornaments for the garden (the real ones will like them!) a novel by her favourite author a tape measure to measure out the squares for the quilting exchange! garden seeds - Californian poppies - one of my favourite and a big bundle of seeds to grow ingredients for Mexican cooking - luckily I have some knowledge of Spanish so will be able to work out what is written on the back! an oven thermometer - useful as I don't know how accurate the dial on my old Rayburn is! a lovely little teapot for one with stacking milk jug and sugar bowl - it will look beautiful on my Welsh dresser when it's not full of tea! A lovely letter from the lady herself So thankyou thankyou thankyou Westbrook; it's been a bit of a difficult two weeks for various reasons and your parcel cheered me up no end. Thankyou so much for your generosity and big heart. Love Lowlander

Funnily enough mine has! Exactly. All Iever really wanted to do was to have a home and family and stay at home and look after it. And here I am! In between leaving school I did a year of Fashion Design then took a degree in politics and economics. I then worked for charity, in a bookshop lots of admin work secretarial knitting and hotel cheffing. I never lost the desire to have my own house and family and garden and keep chickens etc though. I know that I am very lucky to have a wonderful husband and children a nice house (or it will be when it's finished......!) garden animals and am able to stay at home.

I will! Still haven't finished Peter Jenkins but that is in hand. Mobile library somes today so will put in a request for it. Thanks dee.

Brilliant news Lois - all the best!

The exchange I am currently in requests that two squares are sent to the name at the top of the list. Their name is then removed and everyone else moved up one space; you add your name underneath. You then send two squares and a copy of the new letter on to six others. I don't know if this is the same exchange or not though !

Very good Deb!!! But what did you cook for dinner??!!!!!!!!

They are what you call eggplants - just the same thing. Didn't matter what they were called this time - lost all four to frost in the greenhouse on Wednesday night!!!

Like it Dee!

Does that mean I have to have my own home page on my own web site then?

Thanks Caveman! But you will have to wait until Bethany is out of the bath and can help me!!!

Even if we had coyotes here they wouldn't get much of a meal off them - they're really wee!

I start tomatoes peppers and aubergines late February in a heated propagator on the kitchen windowsill. All my tomatoes are now potted on to 3" pots and in the greenhouse. Same with the peppers and aubergines. it was so cold last night I lost a couple of peppers in one greenhouse and some beans in the other with a couple of tomatoes gone the night before. Weather is difficult; it is warm enough for t-shirt and shorts during the day but down to -3 or -5 at night. Everyhting vulnerable is covered up tonight. I think I may have lost the buds on my paulownia tree and the leaflets and baby fruit on my fig; I am slightly concerned that the plum and damson got it too! Time will tell. I have lots of flowers and perennial plants started in the greenhouses too also herbs such as dill and basil. April is usually the busiest month for sowing for me.

I have since learned that Peter will come out even if the colour cartridge is empty; as long as the black is OK it will print. Will be attempting this later. As I said on another post - no wonder I need a computer course!!!!!!!!

I'm a bit of both - the hard bit is trying to work out which bit I should be when!!

How do I open the web baseed server? We couldn't work that bit out. I printed out the instructions you gave to happygirl and this is the result!!!! No wonder I'm doing a course................

Trying to get the picture up! Please be patient!!!!!1

chicken test! [image]http://C:/Sarah'sFolder/hen3.jpg[\image]