Wednesday 31 May 2017

The Last Day in May.

My rose garden is looking spectacular and it brings me much joy.  The scent in the front garden is just gorgeous and when the sun shines on the roses all looks good.


Every time I walk either up or down our front path I take time to 'smell the roses'


I don't think I have ever seen this rose looking more splendid.




This yellow rose just smells divine and I think is probably my favourite.






This rather large and fierce looking creature flew down our chimney the other day - gave me a right fright.  I am afraid she got sprayed and then trapped under a glass.  We can't have these nesting in our house/loft space that is for sure.  In the past we have had huge wasp nests in our loft - pretty scary stuff, so now we keep on top of them.


She is longer than shown on here as her body curled up.





I don't like them, but I have to admire the 'engineering' of such an insect.

I believe this is either a Queen Wasp, or possibly a Queen Hornet, either way she was not at all welcome!

I have been 'sort of' busy in the house this week...at times I am sure I have ADD as I can't seem to focus on one task until it is completed before starting another...or it just could be that I run out of steam and of course the pain sets in...  Anyway, perhaps a first for blogisphere...but one of the tasks I achieved was long overdue and that was changing our toilet seat!  Actually our whole bathroom could do with a revamp, in fact it needed one nearly 20 years ago when we moved in, but I have learnt that 'Rome Definitely wasn't built in a day' as far as my husband is concerned anyway!  I did do some 'before' photos but am not going to expose them on here.   We went with a nautical theme, as I wanted something to just brighten up the space a bit.


We visited the new Bunnings that opened up near us earlier this year.  We hadn't had a chance to go before.  Bunnings has been in NZ for quite a number of years now, my friend used to work for them before they retired, so I was interested to see what they were like here.  I found two new lime-scale removing cleaners that I thought I would give a try, everything else having failed on our toilet over the years.  Well they worked!  I was very impressed.  The chunks (yes chunks) or limescale fell off easily and we now have a toilet I will be able to keep clean with minimal effort.  See small achievements/triumphs can amuse me.


Of course I still need to finish the rest of the bathroom!  Oh we also got a new shower hanging frame 'thingy'.  Not sure what you call them.  I can't show a picture of that, even though it is nice shiny new, because the tiles behind it are so horrid!

My son and his Fiancee came home from the garden centre the other day with a few 'bits and pieces', were busy outside for a while and then came in and presented us with this:


A fun fern fairy garden that sits on the window sill in our hallway opposite our bathroom door.


Quite cute!

I knitted some dishcloths for The Sailor and his lady, in readiness of their new home.


Quite apt I think!

The other two have their initials on.




Now back to the garden...


The mystery object!

This was originally on our house...it was taken down about three years ago when it was painted and I thought it had been thrown away...I then discovered it, so put it in the dustbin...sometime later I discovered it had 'reappeared', so this time I 'hid' it in our dustbin...and thought it had gone.  The other day I re-discovered it again!  I asked DH, WHY he kept retrieving it, only to leave it lying around in the garden anyway and to what purpose it was.  He said he 'quite liked it' and I said, yes but WHAT is it for, and what USE does it have.  He agreed none, and put it in the bin...or so I thought.  I heard the dustbin lid go up and down.  Well blow me down, but I found it 'hidden' beside the bins!  WHY, oh why, can't it just be thrown away?  I feel like it is a continual battle to try and get rid of things.  It wouldn't be so bad if it had a purpose or was taken away and put out of sight!

Still have no idea what it was for.

Lastly some more photos of my garden...and of course the roses.














So that is it for May it seems!

All the best for June.

Saturday 27 May 2017

Checking Weights.

The new piggies are settling in well. I weighed them all the other day.  When breeding and showing, I used to keep regular checks on the weights of my cavies, but haven't done this for a long time.  As these guys are new I thought it would be interesting to see what they weigh now and note any changes.


Bailey is the heaviest weighing in at 2 lb 5 ounces and Felix is 2 lb 3 ounces 


Sylvester, is only 2 lb 3 ounces, he should really weigh more than this considering he is older than the others, so I must keep an eye on this.  I thought he was a little underweight.  Could have been a result of him losing his friend Rocky.


Little Jeremy is 1 lb 4 ounces.  His eyes look red as I used the flash to take these photos.

I am going to dig out all my old cavy records and see if I can work out an approximate age for this lad.  I am guessing about 16 weeks old, so it will be interesting to compare with others I have had over the years to see how close my guess is.

Rochester Castle, Kent.

The other day we enjoyed a day out at Rochester Castle.  

Just a few photos that I took while out.  The day was lovely and warm and we had a nice time exploring the castle and the old Rochester Town which has a great range of charity, vintage, antique and second hand book shops!





















Fantastic views from the top.
















Just look at that leaning wall!


Waiting for lunch in a garden courtyard.


This is where we had lunch.  It was quite pleasant out the back in the garden.