Saturday at home...

We have been enjoying some really beautiful weather and as we were planning a day at home I wanted to get out and get some fresh air and blow the cobwebs away.  We currently have a new neighbour (in every sense of the word) as there is a horse in the field next door.  This is not BigFoot.  This is a mare though as she appears to be in foal or has recently had a foal.  She looks to be in beautiful condition and when we realised she belongs to Andreas we knew she would be well looked after because he is an animal lover with dogs, cats, chicken, ducks and geese as well as his various horses.

This year we have been blessed with a great display of freesias which are a favourite of both my Mum and John's Mum and as Mum is coming up tomorrow for lunch I decided to pick some and have them on the table.

This year has also been good for the bulbs and Mum had given me some for Christmas so now we have been rewarded with some tulips which are a vibrant red colour but with very stumpy stems - great that they wont get broken off or blown over but everso slightly strange in appearance.

I have seen the leaves of crocuses (croci?) coming up but would have thought it was too late for them to flower although they could just be the late flowering type in which case I would have expected them to make an appearance in the autumn.  We shall wait and see what happens.  I have planted the hyacinth bulb which was in the sunroom and will soon have to put away the daffodil bulbs from the pot which Elaine gave me.  We are hoping to save these and maybe plant them on Dad's grave.

On that subject we have checked it is all clean and tidy for when Mum goes tomorrow.  Some of the flowers still look good and I removed any that were dead.  John and I bought a beautiful apricot osteospurmum in a pot to place there and we have put up that lovely photograph of Dad that we used on his Order of Service and which was taken when he and Mum got engaged.  The grave looks loved, as it is, and we will ensure it never looks otherwise.

The cats are loving this weather and the sunroom is a favourite spot for them and us.  Today Charlie was zonked out on the sofa taking in the rays.

Chivers, on the other hand, decided to go and supervise John whilst he was up on the roof giving the photovoltaic panels a clean after all the recent dust storms.  Popsy is most definitely John's cat, he loves him to bits and follows him around.  When we return home having been out Chivvy Pops will come to greet us as he recognises the sound of our cars and then John can get him to jump on his back and he will carry him to the pathway that leads to our front gate and deposit him on the wall so he can then race along Bramall Lane and down the wooden ladder to meet us at the front door.

We found a home for the second half of my birthday present from Di and Rob which is a little ladybird made from metal and cheerfully painted - I love it.  I loved being able to get out into the garden and we have started to tidy it up after the winter months of neglect.  Unlike last year everything is raring to go - even the bougainvillea is sprouting whereas last year I thought it had died.  We washed off the garden furniture and had a good look at what is ok and what needs to be replaced, there have been a few casualties mainly through age but with a bit of TLC the garden will be back to its normal glory.  I am so glad we have the garden - I can lose myself within it.