Spring has Sprung

Spring has arrived, which means the football has finished. I have found the front yard (which means I have been tending to the garden and removing the weeds. lol.)
I am still working on the back yard, it is quite a bit bigger.
We have nearly had an average rainfall this month after so long with very little rain. The one thing that grows first and fastest are the weeds!
Here are some photos of some flowers out the front.

Daffodile, an early starter

I love Tulips in all colours.

Daphnie, My husband says when he smell the daphne, he knows that winter is over, even when we get the return of the cold spells. As a result, we have quite a few of these plants and they do smell wonderful!

Rhododendron, we have a few different colours throughout the front and back yard. This one has a couple of suckers growing which is great!

Camilla, again, we have a different colour in the back yard.

We have two standard cherry trees that were planted around 16 years ago. They are budding up and as you can see are about to burst into life so to speak. This normally means that the winds are just around the corner. Great gusting winds normally arrive just after the cherry trees bloom!

We have quite a few roses in the front yard as well, they are not ready to be shown as yet.

I will show some stitching in the next post.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day.

Grandma's Gift to Us

Hubby & I have been married 18 years in two weeks time. I was 18 1/2 when I met him but I won't say how old I was when we married. That'll give away too much information!!!! :-)

The tapestry that appears on this post was stitched by my Grandmother for our wedding present. The same Grandma whom I stitched the Russian Blue for. Grandma also stitched this tablecloth.

The tapestry depicts scenes that I love having spent my childhood on the farm with the cows and sheep and all that entails.

It hangs above our fireplace in the lounge room. I love this tapestry. I remember Grandma trying to teach me how to do this when I was a young girl...... I would get the first row right, start the next row and have the stitches going in the opposite direction!! lols.

I have chosen to post this for a couple of reasons today. One was to show you what a wonderful stitcher my Grandma is. The second is Grandma is back in hospital at the moment. She has been in and out a little bit lately. Started off with a gall bladder infection. Put her on antibiotics, watched her for a couple of days then sent her home as she was improving. Finished the antibiotics, in severe pain so back to hospital. The infection has now spread to her pancreas.
Once they have all of the infections cleared up, they will operate to remove the gall bladder.

Grandma has already survived a major operation this year when they removed a blood clot from between her skull and her brain. I am sure she will survive this one with flying colours as well!!!

Toby

It has been a while since I have shown you Toby, our Alaskan Malamute. He has grown considerably since the photo down the side.

Hubby liked Toby sitting on his lap when he was a puppy. Toby still thinks he is a lap dog, although, you don't see hubby very much anymore.

Tobi likes to think that he is human. This is him with our eldest, J. Wherever we are, he needs to be, as close to us as he can get. We sit on the coach, he should too. We need to keep reminding him that he is not supposed too.

He especially loves my hubby though. Tobi doesn't like to let him out of his sight.

Grandma's Russian Blue

I have been extremely busy for the last 18 months and my cross stitching time is suffering badly.

I thought I might post over the next couple of months show some of my stitching that I have completed over the years. I am hoping to make some more time for my studying, stitching and fun stuff on the computer, as opposed to work stuff on the computer.

The two photos here show a Russian Blue cat that I stitched for my Grandmother Bevitt. Grandma stitches and knits continously for her ever expanding family. She has 6 children, 18 grandchildren and around 13 great grandchildren!!! (still growing). Some of the great grandchildren are similar ages to the grandchildren.

Any way, I saw the chart in "Cross Stitch Gold" several years ago and bought the magazine straight away. Even though I was in the middle of something else, immediately located some nice fabric and all colours and started stitching as soon as it all arrived.

Once the stitching and framing was finished, hubby and I packed up the 3 boys, jumped in the car and drove 10 hours to where Grandma was living at the time in the Bega region NSW. She was so suprised and loved her cat. Grandma breed cats for many years. Firstly Burmese then the Russian Blues. She won many awards over the years.

Grandma has moved a couple of times since then, but the stitching still hangs in her unit for all to see.

She has been in hospital several times this year. Had sugery early in the year to remove a blood clot between her brain and her skull. Just recently again with a gall bladder infection. Hopefully it will clear up totally or she will be back in again to have that removed.

I hope you have enjoyed my Russian Blue.

Lindy

2009 Black Tie Night

We have attended our 2nd Black Tie Night with our eldest boy J. This is count the votes in the local under 16.5 afl league.

I can't believe how much he has changed and grown in the last 12 months.

Below is a photo of J and his date for the evening in 2008.

The following 2 photos are of J and his date for 2009. He is now 16.5 years and had his first shave before the evening!!!

He was definitely less nervous this year. I was a very proud mum of my boy who looked after his date wonderfully well. Opened the car door for her then closed it. We were sitting at different tables but you know how it is. You watch them as well as talk to the other people around. The meal was a beautiful spit that you go and help yourself too table by table sort of thing.
Well, J handed his date a plate, knife and fork, poured the gravy over her meat. When they got back to the table, pulled out her chair for her. My boy is growing up!!!

Oh, and he polled 3 votes for the year too!!!