happy birthday martha

Today it's Martha's birthday. Happy Birthday Marf! 

I've know Martha since September 1995 - we met in the first week of University. We were on the same course Visual Communication Design, I studied Graphic Design while Martha studied Illustration. We lived in halls together and in our second and third years we shared a house. She's one of my best friends. These days Martha lives in Ethiopia, a long way from me, and I miss her being around. I miss that we'd go out for dinner (something we've always done) - that's how we'd celebrate her birthday if she were here in the UK. Instead D and I will make a toast to her while we eat our dinner tonight. 

hoard or collect - doilies

I haven't been collecting these for that long, I had some which mum had given me at some time and I've bought a few more here and there along the way. I'm quite particular when it comes to them and I certainly don't like them all, but I do like these. I'm not sure I can explain what it is about these that I like in particular. Though more often than not I prefer the off white to the pure white and I prefer the finer stitched. Not only useful when you've lots of wood around (that you don't want to stain and scold) but also each made by someone, sometime, somewhere - I like that a lot. 

P.S. I don't really do ironing, some people are shocked I know, I just don't have time for everything and something has to give. 

pottering and pootling

This morning looked like this. Thankfully the weekend was much brighter and we got out and about a fair bit. We pootled round a couple of car boot fairs and bought ourselves some little treats: a doily, a vase, a nice big tin, a couple of plants, a tasty homemade lemon drizzle cake, and D found some nice old tools to tinker with. We also spent time in the garden tidying round, clearing the dead away, with our two little helpers in tow - they love rooting through the grass and pecking at seed heads as you clear the old out the beds. 

Pie is starting to fly now, I haven't seen her yet, but D and my mum have both experienced her fly over their heads! Here she is having a good old flap.

Enjoying a dip. My mum and dad have been hard at work this week, re arranging things in the duck pen, and we've bought some more turf to lay so they'll have grassy bits to root about in. 

Our veg patch is coming along, we've one more raised bed to make and then we'll fence round the edges to keep those pesky rabbits out. 

So that was our weekend. What did you do?