Mother's Day and a new bunny

I hope all you mummys had a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday. Mine was a day late as I was at the seaside!

But I had lovely messages on the day and presents and cards today :-) 

A beautiful bouquet from my son and family and lovely new scarf from my daughter Hannah, I just love those birds in the cage, the colours are gorgeous. 

And now for my new rabbit.

 I have been following Vivienne's Blog

for some time and have been coveting her beautiful hand made bunnies for ages. I even had my children on the case trying to buy one for me, but they are so popular you have to be really quick. 

Well the lovely Vivienne had a draw to celebrate 5 years of blogging with a beautiful rabbit as a prize and I won. 

Her name is Verdi and I can't wait to meet her. 

Thank you Vivienne. 

New lawn and more seaside

Remember this....

Well, with a lot of work raking and levelling by father and son, and expert turf laying by father, it has now turned into this....

 

What a lovely transformation, well done both of you. 

Grandad and grandson were so exhausted ( grandson having spent so long standing at the French windows shouting encouragement) that they had to have a chill out before bed. 

Looking at the wildlife pics on the laptop.

We decided to make the most of our visit to Wales and head off for the sea side, the weather was cloudy and the wind was brisk, but it was bracing and relaxing.

A panorama from Burry Port. 

And yet more rocks..... Well I do love a bit of texture and pattern! 

 

So how about this for a bit of design magic. 

The beach has been protected with rubble from an old power station and this has left all sorts of wonderful lumps of concrete and bricks that have started to mesh together with the weathering process of the sea. 

Sand sea and a city

 This last week has been a family extravaganza.

It started last Sunday with a visit to the seaside with our eldest daughter Pru and her family, which included her new spaniel puppy, Roo!

This was my favourite pic of the day, ears blowing in the wind, thoroughly enjoying her first seaside adventure.

Pru's youngest son was thrilled to have a chance to enjoy the funfair. 

I wonder which was more fun, the static motorbike or the electric one, which do you think? 

And of course he couldn't leave without a 

ride on the roller coaster.

What a lovely day we had, especially the fish and chips :-)

So that was the sea and sand, now we're back in Cardiff with our son Dan and his family. I'm not a big fan of cities, having been bought up in the country, but the more I see of Cardiff, the more green space there appears to be.

We did the 'grandparents in the park' the other day, guess who commandeered the push chair, sorry buggy, or is that old fashioned too. 

It was quite a busy trip...

What with the geese to see...

Delicious jam scones to be eaten in the cafe by the lake. 

Unless of course you'd rather have chocolate, no contest I think.

More green space was to be discovered on a lovely walk into the city centre along the river.

What beautiful carvings.....

And drifts of daffodils 

 

And of course I had to add a bit if patten, what gorgeous shapes.

 

And lastly this magnificent magnolia tree in full bloom, just before we got to town.

 

I don't know what these lovely buildings are but I'm sure someone will. 

Maybe I'll have to revise my opinion of cities after all. 

I didn't want to do that!

I only went down to the allotment yesterday to enjoy the sunshine and somehow I ended up weeding the beds and laying a path, well the idea of a path would be more to the point.

Well it all started here in Cardiff where my DH was helping our son take up some of the decking that was covering almost all the back garden, and he wanted some lawn.

Of course the old veteran had to show the young whippersnapper how it was done......

......to which he replied by digging up a pair of secateurs ..... he did move a few stones later :-)

They dug up 2 patios, 1 was buried under the other, plus a load of clay and the result was an enormous heap of rubbish in the garden.

Oh how I wish I could have taken some of those crazy paving slabs home.

But finally after all their hard work it now looks like this, waiting for our next visit when father and son will lay the lawn, just in time for the spring sunshine.

We had a lovely stay and had lots of cuddles with Pippa and lots of play time with her little brother Sam.

No green stuff please we're cake eaters

We're taking a break from looking after our little grandson while his mummy and daddy settle his sister into family life.

I think he's getting used to the idea

Him and grandad think she's champion.

We decided we would take a bracing walk along the barrage in Cardiff bay and reward ourselves with a lovely cake and hot chocolate when we got to the gallery.

We passed the posh yatchs, just for a taste of how the other half live.

And then went on to the walk....

Saw this big working ship coming into port, it wasn't meant to be a black and white image, I just tapped on the wrong filter as I couldn't read the tiny writing on my phone.....hmmm!

Ah back to colour, got the glasses

out of my handbag.

Couldn't resist a bit of colour and texture.

And finally nearly at the haven of homemade cakes of every flavour, chocolate, apple and walnut, carrot with squishy icing, oh how will I choose this time.

And then...... We opened the door to the cafe of delights, a strange awesomely chatty young lady greets us, where is the lovely owner we know so well? 

The above young lady stuffs a menu in both our hands and announces that everything is green and calory counted, oh goody! We said 'do you do cakes' and she said 'oh no we're totally green here', 'super' we said 'we don't think we'll bother' and left!

I had a mini tantrum and stomped about the gallery hating everything on show and vowing never to come again. I will of course, it's not their fault that the greenies have taken over and spoilt our fun.

Pippa

Congratulations to our son and daughter in law on the birth of their beautiful daughter and our new granddaughter......Pippa Felicity, what a lovely name!

She arrived in a bit of a hurry so was glad of a catch up nap.

Hobbit Heaven

We seem to be spending almost every day at our little bit of Hobbit heaven at the moment. It's so lovely to have somewhere to go and play, with the doors open and a warm stove to keep your feet toasty.

I made current bread the other day, just right for the Hobbit hole size of the pot belly's mouth. We used the toasting fork given to us by our grandson Ben. It didn't last long, too many hungry Hobbits about.

I made a sponge cake with home made blackberry and apple jam.

Not much left, well there isn't when you have visitors...... but then again they did bring presents.....

Lovely tea in dainty boxes..... 

I had a change around so I could see my grandson, Alfie's birthday plaque, when I'm washing up.

I've welcomed an old friend home, it never felt right in a house/flat, now I can look at it when it's getting dark and I'm still sketching....

We feel very lucky to have this little home, we could so nearly have lost it on Sunday......

This is what happened to our 2 neighbours' plots, I think it's superficial damage but very disheartening. I feel very sorry for them.