TODAYS FLOWERS 2

A bunch of tulips to brighten any home

A single tulip  beautiful in it’s own right.

The Photoshop treatment turns it into a beautiful pattern.

And here into a beautiful picture to hang on your wall.

So our bunch of tulips may die but their image is captured for ever.

Click on this link to see more of natures beauty.

http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

TODAY'S FLOWERS TEAM

LUIZ SANTILLI JR. - DENISE IN VIRGINIA - LAERTE PUPO - VALKYRIEN

GARDEN BIRDS

A couple of weeks ago I bought a bird feeder and Mike fixed it up on the deck right outside our sitting room windows,

It has been one of the best things I have ever bought.

Here are just some of the birds who visit -

BLUETIT

GREENFINCH

GREAT TIT

 

BLACKCAP

LONG-TAILED TIT

HOUSE SPARROW

ROBIN

WOOD PIGEON (OR AS PHE PHE CALLS THEM – PERCY PIDGE

CHIFF CHAFF

BLACKBIRD

BULL FINCH

NUT HATCH

AND THAT IS ONLY AFTER TWO WEEKS AND IT’S STILL FEBRUARY.

WHAT OTHER VISITORS WILL WE GET I WONDER.

PICTURES COURTESY OF RSPB -

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/

WHERE YOU CAN ALSO HEAR THEIR SONGS.

jj

Today’s Flowers

 

I thought I might change tack and start posting some of my flower photos.

 

Lilies – Love ‘em!

These were bought for  me and were perfect.

Perhaps you would like to see these in more detail?

 

Have you ever seen a more perfect pink?

My interpretation -

Hope you like the above – many. many more to come.

 

Click on this link to see more of natures beauty.

http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

TODAY'S FLOWERS TEAM

LUIZ SANTILLI JR. - DENISE IN VIRGINIA - LAERTE PUPO - VALKYRIEN

 

JJ

 

 

SUNDAY, SUNDAY

"Best laid plans" huh!

No school trip today so we were going to find tiles for the kitchen - well, that was the plan.

However ....................

After a hectic (for me) day yesterday

[quote]What did you do JJ?[/quote]

Funny you should ask, Up early for a Sunday to return number 2 grandson to his mum as number 1 grandson playing football ; left Mike behind to cheer him on which meant I had to drive Ooh err.

Right JJ adjust seat - check

  Adjust mirror - check

Adjust seatbelt - check

Adjust wing mirrors ...................................I know there's a knob (no rude jokes please) somewhere. O well, can see Ok if I stretch my neck and - off we go.

This is only the third time I have driven this car so it was nerve racking. Why do they put 2nd & 4th gear right next to each other? Instead of slowing down gently I virtually ground to a halt when negotiating roundabouts!

Home first to get the steak & kidney in the oven and make a chicken casserole for those who won't eat S & K (don’t know what they are missing).

After putting everything in the slow oven it’s off to the supermarket for a few things.

Right, where is reverse? Slowly up the drive onto the road - I DID IT!! Wow.

An hour later return home and get Mike his lunch and then prepare the veg for the evening and a nice fresh fruit salad.

Take the meat out of the oven - smells fab and make the cauliflower cheese.

Right, time for a break - where's my laptop?

4.30 - back to kitchen to make the pudding, all goes quite smoothly except too much boiling water in the saucepan - burn my fingers & drop the pudding into the pan. Great!

Heat the chicken casserole & put back in the slow oven then cook the veg. So far so good. Family turn up 10 minutes early & starving so skates on – get serving JJ.

Umm, remember that pan of boiling water? Yes, still boiling & still too full. Can I get the pudding basin out? Can I hell! After using 3 tea towels as well as the oven gloves and with very red finger tips I end up draining the water over the sink & praying it doesn’t go in the pudding.

               

A glass of red appears on the breakfast bar & disappears down my neck pronto.

Eventually dish up and watch the people I love enjoy their dinner. Think I enjoyed mine too but that bottle of Merlot was going down a treat.

So, that was yesterday– nothing much out of the ordinary you might think but for me & my depression the stress was just too much. Consequently, we did not go tile hunting today – I went for a nap at 2p.m.and I’m still in bed!!

Tomorrow??? That just might be the day we get our kitchen tiles ………………….. Or not, as the case might be.

JJ

THE YEAR OF THE TIGER 2010

A Happy Chinese New Year to You All

 

Just what is Chinese New Year? There's actually a lot more to it than lion dances and firecrackers, although these two pieces of tradition are integral and more visible, Chinese New Year to China is like Christmas to the West. In essence, Chinese New Year is spending time with family, gift giving and, the all important, food-fest.

While Americans, if  lucky may get Christmas Eve day and Christmas Day off, and Europeans may take a whole week holiday, Chinese New Year festivities officially last for fifteen days. Businesses and factories usually only take about one week off.

Characteristics of those born in the year of the tiger are -

• short tempered
• adventurous
• suspicious
• emotional
• sensitive
• risk takers

 

Famous Tigers:

Sun Yat Sen, Queen Elizabeth II, Emily Dickinson, Isadora Duncan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Marilyn Monroe, Marco Polo, Beatrix Potter, Karl Marx, Ludwig van Beethoven

 

 

 

        Dragons and Fireworks feature heavily in the celebrations.

Dragons are mythical creatures.  But it is all right to believe in them, just as long as you don’t go out looking for them. It’s fun to dream about dragons because of all the amazing powers attributed to them!

Oriental dragons are associated with water.  They live underwater and in burrows inside of mountains. Some oriental dragons are born as fish. Oriental dragons spit water out of their mouths and are good, unlike their western counterparts, which are evil and breathe fire. They enjoy eating roasted swallows. They are nocturnal, so they only come out at night.  They represent power and excellence, valour, boldness, heroism, perseverance, nobility and divinity.  Dragons also represent sin in the Christian religion, and evil and destruction in old legends.

fireworks light up the sky with colourful lights on the Chinese New Year. Fireworks are burned to symbolise the end of the old year and welcome the new year. Fireworks represent many customs and traditions in China. .

Chinese Symbol for Happy New Year

新年快樂

PINK SATURDAY - Valentines Day ( Episode Two!)

Having jumped the gun  and posted this celebration day a week too early – what can I think of today?

Last week was all about my modern day designs so lets look at the history of Valentines Day and what was in vogue in years gone by.

Valentine’s Day first became associated with romantic  love in the days of Chaucer in the Middle Ages who wrote about LOVE BIRDS .

However, it was in Victorian times that  lovers embraced the day by expressing  their love for each other with flowers, chocolates and other gifts.

  Valentine cards were originally hand made and, in Victorian times were embellished with lace and ribbons

       

 

Today our cards are manufactured in huge numbers and cater for every need but, the beautiful old cards made with love and affection will always be the real thing.

Here is my computer made card for you all.

 

 

 

 

Now go and visit our hostess Beverley and see all the other Pinkies.

 

JJ

 

 

 

Recipe for …………KNITTING?

1. Take four knitting needles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.Choose some pretty wool

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Choose A pattern

 

4. Mix together and -  panic! It must be 30+ years since I last knitted anything. I loved knitting little bonnets and matinee jackets (umm, why matinee?? Makes no sense to me –do you know?)

Matinee is used to describe a theatrical performance - or a movie showing - that takes place in the daytime, usually the afternoon, confusingly enough. Why confusingly? The word is actually French, matinée, meaning morning rather than afternoon, but morning in the sense of a time period with a definite duration, as compared to the French "matin", meaning "morning" in a more general sense. The French often do this with words describing time when they want to add an implication of duration, cf. jour and journée (day and whole day long), also soir and soirée (evening and an evening party that lasts some time).

I would guess therefore that a matinee jacket is an item of clothing designed to dress the baby in once you've got it out of its cot, maybe to keep it warm - infant day-wear, if you like.

Back to the knitting ………

Anyway, I did enjoy making these for Emma as a baby and she did look so cute.

Here is Phe modelling a loopy bonnet and eating an apple!

 

 

But, back to today. Casting on – do I remember how to do it? Of course, easy peasy just go in between the stitches on the needle to create another. OK that’s done – how many stitches have I got it should be 53. Five minutes later I had between 48 and 55 – different each count. I was going bonkers – I can count, honest I can, I went to Grammar School but these stitches had me beat. The problem is that there are several threads making up the wool and it splits so it is very difficult even after a a cataract operation to decide what is & what isn’t a stitch.

O well. I will start the rib then I will know if I start & end on a plain there are at least an odd number. Guess what? Started on a knit and ended on a purl – so yet another recount – this was worse than a by-election.

I decided one stitch wasn’t going to make much difference so I ploughed on – Knit one, purl one to the end of the row. Then back again – looked OK there appeared to be the beginnings of a rib

but……………. it was supposed to be moss stitch. GRRRR

O well, no one would know would they?

Then it was time to change to the BIG needles and do stocking stitch – I could cope with that. One row plain & one row purl. Need to do this for 19.5 cms ( whats that in English?) Well, after 7 hits on various Google sites I finally found out that

19.5 cms = 7.677 165 354 3 inch. HOW PRECISE IS THAT?

Knitting now returned to the bag by the side of my chair – for quite a long time I think