Allotment

"Allotment (gardening) in the United Kingdom, a small area of land, let out at a nominal yearly rent by local government or independent allotment associations, for individuals to grow their own food." (Wikipedia)

We have begun to take care of some allotment strips this winter, on behalf of the charity that Annie does work for. Fantastically, these strips are located just across the field from our house and so take us under 10 minutes to walk to. My Dad also had an allotment until a few years ago and this was always known as "the plot" and I notice that I have slipped back into using that term.

Our good friends Colin and Manda are also involved and the bulk of the work so far has been digging over the soil, in which Colin has been our local hero. However it has been excellent, now that the weather is slightly less freezing, to wander to the plot and do a bit of digging ourselves.

Millie is now quite used to trotting over in that direction, when we're on a walk around the field, just to see how things are looking. Though we do tie her up when we're working on there as she's otherwise prone to run around like a mad thing, over everyone's veg patch .

Last weekend saw our first planting of the season, some broad beans, so here I am - in action! So, hopefully, there will be more to report on this, as the growing season gets warmer (we hope!)

Dessert hearts

This post concerns hearts and cakes. I have some friends and family who have very loving hearts and this has been as clear as ever to me, over the past few weeks. Whilst my mum has been ill, I have kept on being sent simply gorgeous flowers as well as text messages, emails, facebook messages and phone calls. All of this helps a huge amount, when times are tough. Here's a couple more images of some of the flowers.

Right now my mum is home from the hospital and doing fairly well, though it is not that easy for her to do very much for herself, as yet. She came home on Friday 13th, which turned out to be a really tough day for her, although in the end I know she was glad to go to bed in her own bed.

The next night, we were invited out for Valentine's to have dinner with
some friends. In true Midwest tradition we had offered to take dessert. So here is our dessert heart for Valentine's. I'm sorry you can't taste it (as it truly was scrummy) but I know you'll like the picture. It's a chocolate torte with hazelnuts, covered in chocolate frosting and with chocolate swirls and chocolate dipped strawberries, as decoration. I was fed up that I couldn't get the glare out of the picture but Annie assures me that the cake just *was* that glamorous! lol

My beloved also sent me flowers, for Valentine's, so here are my pretty red tulips. Flowers shaped like hearts :-)

Flowers and other happy thoughts

Today Millie and I went to Worthington Park again. We often go there on a Monday as Annie's voluntary work is nearby and we generally give her a lift there on Monday mornings. Today there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground and some serious chill in the air.
However, we had good news before we set out, that the hospital are considering letting Mum come home pretty soon, and there were flowers waiting to be photographed at the park. So, we had a lovely walk around, and took some better shots of the snowdrops; found a few early crocus in flower, some primroses and some blossom on a tree (maybe almond, but that's a guess). Millie is never that pleased with me for stopping to take pictures, but she did seem content with her walk today.

Mum has been taken to try out stairs today, by a physical therapist in the hospital, and apparently did fine. She's also made a cup of tea and some toast and did well in the kitchen too, so she's quite happy with how things are going. My lovely cousin, Janice and her husband Martyn came to visit today, so they found us all in a good frame of mind. There are a few more meetings to take place (I think) but all being well I think we'll have Mum back to her own place pretty soon.

Somehow the triumph of spring flowers on a cold day seems the perfect accompaniment to this news :-)

Running

We went out to Wythenshawe for our walk today and took Millie's ball and throwing device (plus the new camera, naturally). The thrower is like a huge spoon that helps the mere mortal to throw a decent distance. Here's Annie, hard at work with the throwing. So these shots were taken with the telephoto, whilst Millie ran back towards us in triumph, having collected her ball.

She generally finds the ball pretty easily and runs back, tremendously pleased with herself.

On the whole though she does not think it is proper for a terrier to give the ball back to a lady afterwards. So a decent level of bribe is usually offered, if one wants to get the ball to throw again. This is usually sniffed for quality, before a decision is made about swapping ball for treat!

The picture below was actually earlier in the walk, before we arrived at the throwing field, but I've saved it for last as I think it's just gorgeous. The muddy pup, heading for her pack. lol

This line of trees is along one side of the field we do ball throwing in and you'll know the shapes just appeal to me.

Hope everyone is well. Much love, K xxx.

Good things

We'll start off with the news that Mum is doing better and that I have yet nore totally beautiful flowers. These are from my wonderful Sheila and Andy and pose nicely for their picture, I feel. Millie had one of her good things today too. Heinz Tomato Soup. She really does love to clean out a tomato soup cup, should there be one on offer, around lunchtime. So here she is, hard at work.

Some of the soup has been known to stick to her beardy bits. As you'll doubtless notice. And then, on a good day, there might be a second cup too!

After which, it is possible to pose for some further photos, though Millie ahs found the papparazzi very annoying these past few days!

Drinks and flowers

Amidst the hospital visits, we did go out for a drink for my birthday last night. Obviously, the new Nikon went too, so here is a shot of me and my gal, in a pub :-)

I've been sent some truly beautiful flowers for my birthday and this picture is a close-up with my lovely new telephoto ... you know already how tedious this is going to get, right?

No post complete without the pup shot. (Telephoto, ... )

Biirthday, camera and cakes!

So here's the pretty pup, taken with the new camera! It is a lovely thing and I am so happy to have a digital SLR now :-) Watch out blog! And here's the beauty who found this for me!

Today is my 49th birthday (egads) and it's a complex day as Mum is in hospital and had surgery yesterday. As a result of this my sister has also been to visit, and got up early to fix me some cupcakes - aren't they something!

The long shadows are just there to show you that the sun shone on my birthday. I'm just back from the hospital now and so very tired and will stop now - but I did want to share the good stuff with you today.

Lots of love xoxoxo