Blooming Lovely.......

 
Son came over on Sunday with his father's day card and prezzie for Hubby.

Daughter phoned him later in the day as she was working up in York.

Lovely on-your-own-drive coffee morning on Monday as it wasn't too cold, too hot, too windy, just a little bit noisy due to road works of some sort in the road behind ours. 

Tuesday Hubby with the guys F and P went back to finish off F's garage removal. Turned out to be a harder job than last week as they had to move all the debris into the new skip and break up the base and get that into the skip too. 

And the rest of the week just seems to have plodded along with nothing worth reporting on until Friday when Daughter came to load the car with all her Kentwell stuff and brought over the dog who is now with us for the 10 days. Of course R will be living here too but she's working most days so needs a lift there and back and feeding afterwards each day. 

To save this from being a totally boring post I'll add some of my beautiful garden photos. 

Enjoy your week ahead, exciting or relaxing or whatever.

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Sewing and Sun (lots of both).....

 
It's mostly been a week of sewing as Daughter needs two large semicircular cushions to complete the mattress for the new two-man tent (that's going inside the Tudor tent) as it has an oval base. 

Daughter made a paper template and I needed Hubby to help with cutting up an old double duvet. The weights worked well, however the Stanley knife, the craft knife and my rotary cutter didn't, but Hubby with my long wallpaper scissors did. 

Managed to get five layers for the first one and two for the second packing all the offcuts between those two to get the right thickness. All from one duvet. 

Next it was using the template again to cut the cover, two full size and two a little smaller on the curve as the tent leans in around the edges, plus a 5" strip to sew all the way around. Managed all that from one double fitted sheet, avoiding the worn bit. 

Onto the sewing machine, which of course jammed up on the first stitch! Grrrrr had been going so well till then! 

So with a struggle the bits all came apart, cleared, cleaned and with an even greater struggle finally got put back together. 

Cases made and contents well and truly stuffed into them and that front seam on each hand sewn. 

Can't stop seeing these as giant pasties 😂

Wednesday morning Hubby with P and F (our three men from our band of six) all took down F's garage. He had been wanting to for years but was nervous because of the asbestos. P is a builder so told him what's needed and Hubby pinned them all to a date and F got a skip, plastic wrapping, full white cover suits and masks for them to wear and it was all done in four hours! All six of us out as usual Wednesday night and F paid for it all to thank them for their hard work. On to the pub and our three men have now been recruited into the pub pool team. League starts in September but there will be regular practice nights before then. Team name is "Pissed and Broke".

Met with friendsL&K Thursday for lunch, which was great as we haven't seen them for a very long time. They have a new grandson, their first grandchild, so very exciting. Oh I can show you the gift I made as they've received it now.

We had lunch at the pub, sitting outside, then came back here for tea, cake and lots more chat, all outside but in the shade as it's a very hot day. 

Friday, yikes, even hotter! 32°C here according to the app, however Daughter's thermometer is showing 42°C so Hubby took our thermometer around the garden and in full sun it was 42°C as well! 

I'm sitting in my garden in the shade and there's very little breeze! Phew!

And I'm still trying to find which neighbours would like these back,  unclaimed from the street party! 

As well as staying careful as they are still talking about rising covid numbers I'd also suggest staying covered in suntan lotion, in the shade, with a hat on and drinking lots of water to stay hydrated....... and if I haven't totally melted by then I'll be back here next week.

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A Very Social Week........

 
Of course we started this week with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations which for us and our neighbours meant bunting up ready. 

Saturday Son and fiancé came over for the day. He was worried his camper van would wipe out all the bunting, thankfully it was high enough. Their little dog took a shine to Hubby's chair and even made it rock a few times. 

Sunday morning, with the forecast of rain all day, three gazebos went up and with the empty space in the middle of the garage there would be instant shelter if we needed it. 

The garage also had the hot drinks stationed at the back and the food table along the side.... which actually had to grow to two tables and then another table was added over the other side! Nobody went hungry. 

We were so lucky with the weather, we started before noon and it was a bit chilly but stayed dry right up to about 4pm but the light drizzle didn't send anyone home or even under the gazebos. It wasn't until it got heavier at nearly 5pm that we all packed up anyway. So many people helping to put away tables and chairs that it was done quickly. Team work is good fun. 

These photos were taken quite early on and lots more people joined us as the day went on. 

Monday morning the usual gang still gathered at the end of the drives for coffee morning, which gave me the chance to share the few leftovers and give back some unclaimed containers/dishes/glasses/etc. Started raining so we only managed about an hour. 

Monday evening friendM had eight of us over for dinner to celebrate with friendHBW on her birthday. We were obviously having too much fun as nobody took any photos. One couple left about 11:30ish, Hubby and I left around 1am and apparently the other four carried on till after 3am!

Tuesday morning with the sun shining the bunting came down, the gazebos opened a little and dried and packed up, and life gets back to normal. (Although I've still got jubilee TV stuff recorded to catch up with).

In the afternoon Daughter, O and the dog fancied the walk to ours (takes them 30-40mins) and it was still lovely enough to have tea outside. Hubby took them home via picking up R from work. 

Tuesday evening was a girls catchup meal and to celebrate friendHM's birthday. Five of us (me and two others from Monday on our second night out) tried a restaurant we'd not been to before La Cueva Restaurant Easy parking nearby and in Ipswich most carparks are free after 6pm. Restaurant wasn't busy as it was Tuesday so we got lots of attention and the food was lovely. Even the ladies toilet was decorated quite elaborately

Wednesday evening and of course we were out again (and yes same three couples as Monday so us three girls on our third night running together!). 
Nice meal first in Prezzo where we are always well looked after as regulars. Then onto the pub. So good to see friendV there as we haven't seen him for ages. Not so good when our men found out the pool table had been booked out for the whole evening so they couldn't have a game. 

Friday Daughter, O and the dog came over for the day so she could sort out the best way to erect and make use of her Tudor tent. There was a bit of gluing and taping to make our spare pond liner into the right shape for a sturdy ground sheet. 

A new curtain went up to halve the seen space so behind she could add a small pop-up tent to give then warmer, dryer and more secure sleeping area. 

Their caravan cushions which would normally be their mattress only partially fitted so I've offered to make the two semi-circular ones to fill the gaps. Fingers crossed eh? 

Not much on the calender so far for the week ahead but we shall see. 

Enjoy the good weather.

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Oh So Colourful.......

 
Daughter and O came over on Saturday and we all had a lovely walk through the park. The dog (who can't be trusted off lead) now has a ridiculously long long purple lead and she loves the extra freedom although often gets tangled around trees or human legs. In this photo Daughter has about 75% of it gathered in her hand and needs that purple bag to carry it around in 😂

British Gas came on Tuesday to service the boiler etc and discovered (after lots of testing and tweaking and retesting) that the gas:air mix isn't good enough so turned it all off, added big sticker to the boiler and came back Wednesday to fix. 

Isn't this the most beautiful double rainbow right outside our house. This was the view from my front garden. 

And this was the view from the back garden.  Shame I couldn't capture it whole. 

I'm ready for the platinum jubilee weekend. My Union Jack artwork is dreadful, especially painting my right thumb with my left hand. Hubby said they look fine from a distance.... wonder how far 😂😂😂

The street is getting ready too. Here's Hubby up a ladder. 

Lovely seeing some neighbours come up to help. 

Looks good doesn't it? 

During the Trooping of the Colour they have the flypast, which we were told would again fly over Suffolk on its way to London. So Hubby and I joined neighboursA&D with binoculars and cameras. They used to fly right over our house...... but this time they were way off in the distance. This photo is on a lot of zoom! 

We are enjoying all the Platinum Jubilee TV coverage, however it's all recorded so we don't have to sit longer than we want to. Trooping the Colour was amazing although we had to watch it in three parts. When everyone else has long forgotten this weekend we may still be catching up. 

Today Son, fiancé and their dog are coming for lunch and to collect their blankets that I did for them (I must remember to give him the two little rhubarb crumbles I made for him waiting in the freezer) and tomorrow of course is our street party so hopefully I'll have some photos to show you next week. 

Have a fun weekend too.

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