Our first picnic of the year.....

 

     .....took the camper van for an outing to Chasewater this afternoon.....eating his sandwich in the sun, still wearing a coat though....

         

        Watched over by a not really hungry dog, but always happy to share....

     .......a walk along the waters edge....so many swans and birds....and dogs, hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes.

      ......and a quiet few moments enjoying the warm sun in the bare treetops.

All seems well after the long damp winter - nice and dry inside and no problems with the engine.  

Now all we need is for things to warm up a bit more and we will be off, must try to actually sleep in the thing this summer, instead of just taking it out for days and picnics.

     Good job that dog can't read, he absolutely hates camping....

      .....a few days out...... but always heading back home to sleep in his own basket.....are far more to his liking.  He is absolutely terrified of the roof been raised on the van, and we always make sure he is fastened up away from the vehicle before we raise or lower it.  He panics, just as he does if we take him in the tent and the wind moves the canvas.  

        Not a brave outdoor type of canine at all!

     We have suddenly gained a squirrel in our back garden, haven't had one at all for a couple of years and now all of a sudden, this one appears, same time every day, between 3 and 4pm.  He sits in the pine trees until he is certain Joe is inside, then a quick raid of the bird table and away until tomorrow.

     Speaking of things in the garden.....

       .....four pairs of sunglasses as he tries to see the eclipse!

Oh dear....

    .....it has been a beautiful sunny day.

       I opened the doors, greenhouse and shed to let everywhere have an airing.  Other years Joe has been ecstatic at the chance to have his first mousing session of the year.  I have known him to spend the whole day in the shed, bum in the air, barking loudly at the smell of mice.  This year, not only is he not interested, but he never even went into the shed for even the tiniest of sniffs.

  He wandered round the garden, and laid on my jumper when he found it laying on the grass, but really he is far more inclined to snuggle on the settee and snooze amongst the cushions, and once he has had his tea he soon wanders up to his bed, often settling down for the night by about 8pm.

      Found him laid on my bed and using my pillow as his pillow as he enjoyed the afternoon sun.

So much for a nice weekend......

      .....I think everyone in the country was looking forward to the good weather we were promised over this weekend.  As hot as Athens we were told.  Well Saturday was good, but not that warm, I got a bit of gardening done, rather disheartening when you get out there and realise just how much there is to done.  However, I thought, at least I can get some more done tomorrow....

    .....Pah....it's rained and rained all blinking day.  I've even got the heaters on, sat in my study sticking stuff on Ebay, reading blogs, drinking tea a doing a bit of embroidery learning.

 

      .....being messing around with the macro button on my camera.....

          ......fascinating how different some everyday items look.

     Joe was not playing, his nose is his nose, and he is not going to let me get that close to him with any camera....so there.

What to do.....

     ......with all those hundreds and hundreds of photographs that we have taken over the years when the children were tiny?

         Stick them on your blog, thats what.......bet this will embarrass her when she sees it.
John, such a shame I haven't any of your younger days piccis.......come on Mummy Woods lets all have a giggle...

      ........What a frosty sky we have tonight, its going to be cold one.   The dogs been in bed for the last half hour and its only just 7pm now.
  Guess he doesn't want a walk tonight then.

A Sunny Morning.....

     ......got to make the most of those...

   
    .....my tulips....Paul bought them for me nearly 2 weeks ago, and they are still going strong.  I keep putting them in a cool room (that's very easy this week) and... "a 2 pence coin to stop them from drooping" Paul says...and it works too!

     .....last of a bunch of roses Charlotte's friend- Sally- bought me almost a MONTH ago!  They were kept in the same cold room.

     ......Crocus....growing in my garden, despite the tiddling dog and greedy mice.

           How come these have managed to survive?

                  "TA-DAH"
          ....but they were all dug out several times by over-ambitious magpies early in the Autumn and I kept shoving the bulbs back into the soil with my thumb.  The little violas have flowered all winter long.  Maybe they were kept warm by sitting above the outlet pipe from the dishwasher.

     I found this one lonely crocus in a dark corner of the garden, I carried it into the greenhouse and went to fetch it a drink....

         .....two minutes later.....

         .....I wish I had a time lapse camera, I couldn't believe how quickly it had opened.

     .....Things are beginning to start up in the greenhouse, I seem to have quite a lot of survivors too, considering I didn't bother with any heating  Though I can't figure out what this one is, its in the Begonia box and it's definitely not a Begonia.

Oh well start watering and wait and see...

      ......As for this one...if he's in, he wants to be out, if he's out he wants to be in....if he's in, he wants to be....Oh give me strength, he's impossible and he's walked in so much mud...
      I put a box of old cereal on the bird table, the birds love it, I put some more on the grass...... they won't eat that, but we know a dog who will....so I've had to rake it all up....and put it on the bird table...GONE.

Catch up time....

    ......half term weekend, Paul and Ben came to stay and we went for a day at the zoo..... Tycross.  We were all wrapped up and spent a good while walking round.  It seems to have changed a lot since our last visit.  There didn't seem to be as many chimps as I remember, and some of the pens are well past their use by date.
      So saying, they seem to be in the middle of a huge rebuild, so it was a bit of a mud bath and very busy too.  With lots of new attractions, our favourite been the Lorikeets walk-through.  So many of these pretty birds free flying in a huge dutch barn.  They were noisy, messy and keenly looking out for visitors coming in with pots of nectar to feed them.
        The snow leopards were particularly impressive, but it was late in the day and the only pictures I have are badly reflected in the glass, I have a glorious video, can I post it...of course not.

We also had a trip to the city centre on Saturday, just for a bit of a look round.  Ben bought himself a tiny remote controlled helicopter and we had supper in "Ask" to celebrate Paul's special birthday.....

      Sunday was Chinese New Year celebrations, also in the centre of town, we got half way there before it started to rain, heavily, so we had a quick change of plan, a wander round "One Stop" a McDonalds and dripped home.  We were so pleased we had gone to the zoo on the best day of the week!

Darsh, Charlotte, Selina and Pete have gone to India, so it is pretty quiet round here, and likely to stay that way for another week yet before Darsh and his phones get back.