The Real Wedding Cake.

I know, I know, it's supposed to be a secret. BUT I thought that you bloggy people should be the very first to see the real weddiing cake. All those guests at Westminster Abbey will only be allowed to taste the alternative cake...... (and none of them will know what we know).
I have been invited to watch procedings with friends. I am delighted with this arrangement as hubby and children are being very ba-humbug about the whole affair. They are going off to do their own thing and I am taking the real cake to our tea party. Would you like a peek? look away now if you don't want to see...

Whatever you decide to do tomorrow I hope you have a great day. xx

Easter at Acorn Bank.

We decreed a family outing was required after lots of effort in the garden over the past few days. More of which later.
K and I drove down to Acorn Bank whilst the much more athletic / motivated Y cycled and met us there for tea and cake. D was, of course, much too busy doing his own thing and so didn't come along / missed out.
It was a beautiful day and we wandered around the herb garden which, reputedly is the biggest collection in England. There was also an Easter egg hunt which K took part in (her main reason for wanting to go) and of course came away with a chocolate egg.
The tulips and other early flowers were out in abundance and after fiddling with my camera for ages, I eventually found the macro options, hence today's photo offerings.....

Arachnophobes look away now...

A peek inside this tulip...

Fern fronds just begining to uncurl...

Curled bark....

Yellow poppies..

Spot the pollen..

Blowing in the breeze..

Fennel fronds....

Forget-me-not..

I'm back. K and I had a lovely few days "up north". As you may remember from my last post, one of the reasons that I wanted to go up (apart from seeing family) was to take some pictures. The idea was to create some Moo cards for my Brother-in-law. Actually my sister would like some as well but one set at a time please. With a birthday coming up and the spring light at its best I snapped away in the garage and poked around in the shed. Isn't it amazing what you find in sheds....
I wanted the cards to reflect his interests, hopefully he will agree. Here is a selection of what I came up with. I didn't think you would want to see them all as I took full advantage of the different image on each card offer..... They are displayed pretty much as they will be on the cards as I really like the mini cards, very cute and a bit different.

Spring really does get going a bit later on Royal Deeside which is great as we can see it all again. The displays of daffodils in Aberdeen are ledgendary but these were on the road-side just outside the house....

The garden pond has a real spring in its step too. There were literally hundreds of tadpoles, tiny newts, pond skaters and new plant life abound....

K and I came home "over the top".. past Ballater and Braemar. The roads weren't too busy as the tourists are probably waiting until any chance of snow has gone, there are still wee pockets up on the tops. The weather was fabulous and we stopped a couple of times to admire the view (and visit cafes)...

This cottage is in Braemar, just look at the view....

The burns up this far are still quite high with melt water although further down the rivers looked less full as there hasn't been any rain for quite a while (in Scottish terms I mean).
The last stop on this part of the journey was to call into a house that I stayed in when I was very young. The owners were out but as the gardener was there, no pictures.. I thought it might seem a bit odd. There was no gardener when we stayed there and I have to admit it looks a bit sanitised now. The trees have been replaced by lawn and flower beds. The grass has been taken over by a swimming pool. (In a wooden house, probably a bit chilly for an outdoor one). Don't know what was wrong with the woods and burn personally but there you go....

To pack or not to pack.

Tomorrow K and I are heading over the border. It's a bit of a girly adventure, staying with my sister and just doing stuff. As I have to go to work first we won't be able to leave until about 5pm which means stopping to eat along the way. How does Dundee sound? Have you any idea how long it takes to drive to beautiful Royal Deeside from Carlisle? Nearly forever... well at least long enough to ask "Are we there yet?" about a million times..

What to pack? No I'm not organised!  Here I am blogging away when I should be packing. How about some of these?..
.

They may well be needed. But then we might go shopping... And visit my parents, and be nice to this fellow who is really much more friendly than he looks....

Chester


Perhaps I need to be more organised and should have bought some of these to take....

Actually much as I love my sister she wouldn't  have a hope as I took this photo outside Liberty's in London last week and I was too frightened to look at the price although they were THE most beautiful colour. Still it's the thought that counts.
Must go and put the camera in as I've been asked to do some piccies to use for Moo cards. A project... exciting! Have a good weekend Xxx

That'll be an oops then....

First of all thank you to Susan for my very special blog award. It was waiting for me when I got back from my little break in the BIG SMOKE. I will have to cosider who to pass this on to as the award is to be given to blogs that are either new or have less than 100 followers. I will think about this and post later in the week, watch this space...

What else? ... Agnes has been sick... it all started with a cold kitchen one morning and escalated ino having to do a re-light several times over a few days. Not convenient and quite a lengthy process. Yesterday it all came to a head and the doctor was called...

As you can see this doesn't look good..... However she was rebuilt and looks as good as new, especially as she was much easier to clean when a bit on the cool side. She can be a bit hot and fiesty at times...

Now we are all set, except not quite, as her thermostat is gone and a new one needs to be ordered. At the moment we are on manual control, a bit of a dodgy business.
The BIG SMOKE was fabulous.. no children, lots of good food including a visit to Maze. no photos though as  I thought it wasn't quite the done thing. We went for the early evening Wine -Flight menu. A safe option perhaps considering that the most expensive bottle cost a mere £1600. Needless to say we didn't try that one.

Oggled all the mad shoes in Harrods and agreed that even if we had the money we would probably give them a miss....

This pair was mild, honestly....
Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather....Speak soon love Helen xx