flowers in bloom

I've never had my own flowerbox. My MIL gave me a few bulbs  and 2 flowerboxes to work away with. All it took was a little love and a lot of patience, and about 6 weeks later, this is what I was rewarded with. Here are some before and after pics.

before

before

after

after

And finally, these are the flowers my FIL picked and put into a vase (bottom of a coke bottle) and put in the house for my MIL. How beautiful is that, after 37 years of marriage, he still picks roses for her.

my first lamb...

Had a busy day today. Got up and went to gym and then got home and went to sit in the sun with a slice of buttery toast and a cup of sweet tea. It was 17 degrees again today, and I had to take advantage of the weather, so Moira and i took an 8km walk called the bluebell walk. Its called that because all of the fields are full of bluebells. THey should only bloom in the next couple of weeks, but some of them are already out.

Uncle Jim up the road is a sheep farmer, and he said today that one of the lambs are half dead. Sometimes sheep have 2 or 3 lambs, but only have enough milk for 1 or 2 of them. SO we have to hand rear the ones that are left out, these are usually the smallest ones. 

Moira and I got the braai going, just to take advantage of the good weather. We made chicken kebabs, lamb, steak and pork sausages and burgers. 

Just as I was finishing my dinner, Uncle Jim came up the road with the wee lamb that was tossed aside by its mother, and I had the privilege of feeding it.

Everything was going swimmingly, until it wee'd on me. I want to name it so badly, but Uncle Jim says that it might not last, so I don't want to jinx it... Will keep you updated.

Spring in the Glens

I can totally feel the difference in the weather here already. Instead of the freezing mornings, its now 7 or 8 degrees and it gets up to 13 degrees in the day! Waiting for real summer when its about 18 degrees (how sad do I sound?) Anyway, I decided to walk around the Glen, which is roughly a 10km walk one day during the week. All the flowers are out and the lambs are being born, and spring is definately in the air!

a mommy sheep about to have a baby sheep

view down the Glen

daffodils growing in our garden

Birthday weekend part 1

Wow, what a weekend! I’m exhausted and at work and wish I was in bed. Friday night turned into Saturday morning. We went to pick up Sinead and Hugh, and then went over to the boy’s boss’s boss’s house for a pizza before our night out. After pizza we headed out to Belfast, to The Duke of York. Its a really big pub, and is very unusual.

The party was called a 70^th, because Hugh turned 30 and his colleague turned 40, so they just decided to have one big party.

After meeting everyone, Sinead and I headed up stairs for a bit of dancing and then joined the rest of them a bit late. We even had springboks .

 So anyway, after an awesome night out, we finally arrived home at 4am! Yes, 4am. I slept for 4 hours and got up at 8am to start a crazy day of baking. By Saturday evening, I was fed up! Harpinder was a great help and tidied up behind me and just generally kept me sane. The cake did turn out really good, despite some technical difficulties and the fact that the top 2 layers were too heavy for the light chocolate sponge at the bottom, did my best to cover it up with decor though!

Had to make a small cake for Christina, who is gluten-intolerant.

We had quite a spread: scones, quiche, cake, cupcakes, cheese and crackers etc.

I thought I had made too much food, but after the 20 or so people spend yesterday afternoon grazing, there really wasn’t much left. I invited everyone over fo tea and cake at about 3pm yesterday, an the last of them left at around 8pm.

opening gifts

 Got some really cool gifts, including these beautiful tulips!

I had a quick bath and got things ready for today, and then we headed down the road with Harps and Barry to have dinner and watch our Sunday night South African show, Wild at Heart. Been awake since 4am, probably a sugar high!

Really had a good weekend!

xx

A Different kind of Christmas

Christmas wreath I made for our front door.

We have been out every night since last Wednesday, and boy am I feeling the effects of that. As I write this, Karl is still sleeping. Those of you who know Karl, know that he never naps unless he is ill. He is totally wiped out. On Wednesday it was Karls friends party, Thursday was the grand opera in Belfast, Friday was my work do. Saturday night we went to church and then had pizza and wine with everyone, and Sunday was Christmas. We woke up on Christmas morning and Kalr and I opened presents. That was followed by many calls to and from friends and family in South Africa which took up most of the morning. I was tasked with making chocolate mousse (did you know you use marshmallows in thie recipe?) and Moira ordered some lemon and orange cupcakes too. SO on went the Christmas music while we baked. Got to parents-in-law just in time for some lunch and then went door to door down Glen Rd with the family to the rest of the Grahams. Had an awesome skype call with the people of 14 Fleur Rd, and tried hard not to cry and SUCCEEDED! :)
We had our Christmas dinner at 6pm and it was delicious!! Everything with all the trimmings.  And of course our Christmas chat with the Klaasens put a HUGE smile on my face.

After dinner we headed to a friend's house for a few drinks, we stayed there til 3am!!

Geraldine thought that the floor would be more comfy (its not because she fell or anything! lol)

Carey Floorcare

I think we slept till about 11am yesterday and then got up and came back to the in-laws for round 2! We had another dinner with all the trimmings and then we went visiting family friends and the day ended with us all going up the road to the Graham cousins and we played trivial pursuit, cranium and articulate, a game similar to 30 seconds. We laughed and played til well after midnight.

Christmas was definately different this year, missed my family, missed the sunshine and missed the beach. Instead of the usual sun dressy thing, I was well-wrapped up. Hopefully next year I'll have some of my family over for the holidays and hopefully this time we'll have a white Christmas!

We are sitting around the fire, waiting for dinner # 3 before heading off to a pub quiz :)

Sofas and flowers

Our sofa finally arrived. Was a bit worried about the charcoal colour, but I actually really like it.

Went to the flower arranging class with my mother-in-law yesterday, and really enjoyed it, everyone was so creative! Looking forward to the next one.

It Karl's aunts birthday tomorrow, but we are having her bday dinner tonight, and I promised her a victoria sponge cake, so I better get on with it, still need to do my hair :(