Lots of rain, it goes on!

Goodmorning everybody!

No, the weather isn;t yet how it is supposed to be. Too much rain and it is cold. Sometimes we have a moment of sunshine, but even then it is not really nice to be outside.
Grrrr, what is the matter with the weather all over the planet?
We still hope for better times, but if it goes on like this, we surely ill have a short summer.

Sometimes you can find the most nice things along the street, did you know? People do change their homes, or do some cleaning up and they put all the stuff along the treet(when you have a lot you can call the city hall,where there is a department for "big stuff garbage"and they come to collect it.
Wednesevening Jan put out the normal garbage sacks on the street for collection and came into the house and called me to come with him. Oh my, we found some great lovely planks we could use, and some other full wooden ones, so we took them home LOL!
The planks are now in the bedroom to serve as book shelves. We had shelves there, but they weren;t quite the ones needed. Now it looks a lot better.
The other ones we probably will use in the garden, they have a little upstanding side, so I think we will put them on some bricks and they will do fantastically as nursery for seedlings and also I will put some pots with flowering plants on them. If you have to buy them in a shop, you have to pay a lot money for those kind of shelves.
We still have a spot we want to make nices in the garden. That is against the wall of the little shed. It is mostly in shade, so I will have to look for plants that will do well in shade, but there are lots of them, also flowering ones, so I hope to have that finished soon.
Also want to put there some nice flasks or pots or other fun things in between, to bring even more color. We only need a bit nices weather.

Our street is now becoming really messy! They emoved almost all the tiles of the sidewalk and the digging will start soon. It isn;t easy to get to the front door anymore LOL.

This weekend, starting today, there is again a fair in our shopping street near to our house. And every year again(some exceptions you always have) they have not good weather. Amazing, but true! poor souls that have to stand 3 days in their stands, in the wind, rainshowers and that together with low temperature. Not something to become very happy! I cross my fingers for them that along the day may be some sunshine will appear to make it a bit bearable.

That's about all I can think of to tell you, not very exciting, I know, but that is life.
Better I make you happy, perhaps, with the freebie.
Perhaps this one can bring a bit of summerfeeling to you, Blossom on the Wind. And I am certain that Arlene's contribution will help too. She made two lovely clusters and also a wonderful quickpage.
I will stay at the computer for a little while longer, perpas work a bit on a new kit I started yesterday, and then I think some dust bunny hunting is necessary with some vacuum cleaning LOL.
And meanwhile I will cross my fingers, that we will be able to see some sunshine, at the moment it is very grey and rainy outside.
Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe!

Download    HERE

Download   HERE

Autumn is back, grrrrrr!

Goodmorning everybody!

It is really unbelievable, but it is almost autumn weather. We had a lot of rain, and real cold temperatures, about 9 degrees lower than it should be this time of year.
Jan went out the other day to look if he could find some mini diving equipment for the seedlings and other plants, but there weren;t any to find! Such a shme, I would have loved to see them all with the diving mask on and then take a picture LOL.
Not too much happened the past days, well, it was not the weather for it, we stayed in a lot, I did some things in the house, and yes, it looks as if Brodski is on the mend.
He is eating better again, even goes out for a moment, and yesterday evening he came sitting on the couch again. He isn;t sneezing a lot anymore, so I have good hopes.
I will try to put on some more pictures I took of the garden, the one lovely spring day we had on Sunday.

No, still impossible via the Picasa, so i will do it via Tiny Pic.

Here the right side of the path.

Above you see some seedlings of herbs, slowly they are popping up, the front two should become poppies.

This one I took from the back of the garden, looking a bit direction terras.

And here a close up from a gerbera we bought lately, couldn;t resist it, just a lovely color!

And this is a Lewesia, you can find them in all sorts of sweet cany colors, they should be perennials, well, I hope they will survive this winter. We planted them around the little rock garden( we have three different colored ones)

Hopefully you can feel a bit better, despite of all the strange weather circumstances. Like the tornado's that are sweeping over the US at the moment. Then we here must not complain, those poor folks have to endure a lot, and sadness too with all the casualties.



To end on the bright side, I want to show you a quickpage Linda made from a kit of mine. You can download the freebie on her blog. This lady is a real artists, don;t you think?

Now the freebie for today. That will be a Nutshell kit again, named it Il Passato ( the Past).
Have a great day.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Had lovely days and I have photos

Goodmorning everybody!

First weather talk. Weather was improving a bit and yesterday it was just lovely. We reached about 68 F, and it was enough to sit in the garden and it was lovely. We had good hopes the improving would continue this week, but as we saw the weather forcast for the next few days we were really disappointed. Temperature will drop to very low for this time of year, not much more than 53 F and the days will be rainy! You sure get a bit discouraged seeing that! I don;t know what is the matter with the weather but it isn't acting normal.

Oh my, I had a busy day on Friday. After the posting and a it playing around on the computer, I got dressed and went into the kitchen. And I baked the pie, the "pirog", it took some time but it turned out well. Only next time I just have to let it stay in the oven a bit shorter time. he top was slightly too dark. I didn;t make a photo of it but I have an example I found on the net.

On this picture it is filed with cabbage, I made the filling with minced meat, lots of onions and hard boiled egg ( cut in little pieces). And I sure can tell you it tasted wonderful!
In between the making of the pirog(the dough had to rise twice), I started also making the soup, all with fresh veggies, little minced meat balls and a bit of vermicelli).
I can assure you that when you have a bowl of soup together with a piece of pirog, you have a good filled stomach! it was yummie.

I also did some dustbunniy removal and swept around the vacuumcleaner. When all that was done, you always have quite a lot of dishwashing to do ) I was a bit pooped out, but oh so satisfied!
Saturday Jan and I just went out to buy us two sacks of soil, and yes, we also came back with 3 very sweet plants for the garden.
Yesterday we did't do much, we just enjoyed the lovely weather, although Jan went out for a ride on his bike, to see how that would go, he went to Scheveningen,to the beach, where there was a regatta.
I wasn;t really in the mood for it, I just wanted to to stay home, have some reading in my garden magazines in the sun and keep an eyeon our cat Brodski.
The poor thing surely catched a cold last week, it started on Friday, he sneezed at times and also sometimes he had an attack of "coughing"you could say. It was morean urge to vomit out some slime that troubled him. So of course I was worried about him. He didn;t do much more than lying on a chair, sleeping a lot. I already was thinking about going to a vet on Saturday, if there wouldn;t be any improvement. But on Saturday he was looking much better, he reacted again as we approched him, he even did eat a bit, didn;t sneeze as much as before, also the slime couching was less. So even though I still wasn;t re-assured, Jan said we should wait a bit and see how it goes. Till now it looks as if he improves, so we give it some more time.
( Not that I am completely happy with it, but I am always quicker "in panic"than Jan is LOL)

as it was such nice weather yesterday I took my camera and made you a few photos from the garden again. Last week or so I posted a few, when you compare you can see really changes.

Sorry Ladies, suddenly Blogger won't let me upload pictures anymore. Probably has to do with some changes they made again. I found another option, yeah! I upload them on tiny pic and paste the url and now it shows the picture. Something isn't working at the moment from the Picasa.
Anyhow, I can show you some pictures, I think I will post some today and some on wednesday, okay?
In the back you can see my azalea, in full bloom now.

On this one the little "rock-garden"in front still quite some open space, but if all goes well, some seedlings will have to grow there.

Here some chives, that survived winter and how lovely it can bloom!

That's all for now, I hope next time I can upload more easily the rest of the pictures.
( could upload the preview of the kit, but pictures don;t work yet on Blogger, very strange)
On to the freebie then.
Not too big kit, but a sweet one, I think. Named it "Hug someone today", with 3 nice clusters from Arlene.
Oh, yes, almost forgot. If you have time for a quick visit go to Mat's Memories and wish her an awesome birthday, which is today! She has wonderful layouts on that blog, but is also posting lots of freebies on another blog, on Miriam's Scraps (and Miriam herself offers freebies too!)

Have a fantastic day!

Download   HERE

Download    HERE

Today i plan to have a bit busy day LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Spring has left us a bit, at first the little and big plants in the garden were jumping of joy because of some rain. But now they don;t look too happy anymore, there are getting too wet feet LOL!
It is about time we got back some of the nice spring weather we had some time ago and then it should stay for a longer period!
wednesday I went to the annual appointment for my lungs, and oh my, that has taken time!
I was there on time, even before, but had to wait for more than an hour till I was received by the doctor. Such waist of time. I can understand that there can be a little delay, but I think that an hour or more is too much. But, once I was in his chamber, I was out quickly too again. As all goes well, we didn;t have much to discuss, he listened too my lungs, they were as they were, so I got my prescriptions and for next year I will get an appointment for a lung photo, just for control. Now I just have to go to the neurologist in June, and then hopefully we are done with doctor visiting.

After I finally got back from the hospital, Jan had done some floor cleaning in the kitche and hallway and toilet. So sweet of him. So I took a cup of coffee and then went to the market. I found some nice fresh veggies, like a bunch of 5 courgettes, some paprika, leek, garlic, new potatoes, mango and apples. Apart of the potatoes and garlic, I didn;t pay more than € 1,00 for the each of the other things. That really is a big difference from supermarket prices!
Back home again, I put on the meat for a stew, where I used some of the veggies too, and potatoes and after a couple of hours of the stove, we had a good dinner with it. And as dessert a bit of yoghurt with some fresh mango, yummie.
So yesterday I and Jan too, took it a bit easier, after I did a quick shopping of things that were needed in the fridge and Jan went to the city council to give them the papers for the good-conduct declaration he needs for his work. For some professions it is required to produce one. It's rather easy money earning for the council, Jan had to pay € 31,00 .

Today I want to spend a bit of time in the kitchen, making a "pirog"for the weekend( kind of Russian pie) and make a soup too, so I don;t have to bother about dinner today and also not for tomorrow.
The the house can do with a bit of dust bunnie clearing and a vacuum cleaner tour, well, I can do that when the dough has to rise, and hopefully this priog will taste about the same as the one my mother made!
Tomorrow we probably will watch the Eurovision contest. Although it is not the same anymore as it was years ago, it is nice to watch and even there are sometimes some really great songs.
Jan and I always have fun with it, we make a list of the countries that compete and we give them a figure from 1 to 10 and at the end we'll see if some of our favourites ended up at the first places. I must say not verymuch of them got a figure above an 8 and then we already think it is a really good song LOL. But often some of our favourites end up at the end of the list. Oh well, as long as we had our fun, I cannot be too bothered with it. I must say that for once in a loooong time The Netherlands have a not bad song, it is a bit different from the others( we did see some of the semi finals already), but I don;t think it will be a winner.

Enough bla bla for the moment, I want to start my activities not too late so I will be done with it in the earlier afternoon.
The kit for today is one I really like, it's a bit romantic, perhaps you could call it even a bit Vintage, love the way the colors turned out in the pages. It's named "I Remember You"
Oh and Arlene, made a super add-on for you. two frames and one quick page!
Have a wonderful weekend, have fun doing some scrapping, see you on Monday!

Download     HERE

Download    HERE

Have to do a quick posting today

Goodmorning everybody!

It will have to be a short post this morning, I will have to leave soon to be at time at a doctor's appointment, don;t worry it is just the annual control for my COPD, so it will take more time to get at the hospital and wait to have the chat than the actual time I will spend with the doctor LOL.

Let's see, what did i do the last couple of days? Oh yes, Monday I the sheet chaning on the bed. Did a little bit of re planting in the garden. We have had some rain(it is raining now again), but we arestill a bit lucky, there are moments that the sun is coming through. Now we only need the temperatures go up again. Yesterday I did a bit of food shopping, and also did a laundry, etc.
On Monday I also shortened Jan;s other new pair of trousers, once started it is done rather quick, but I am not a great fanatic in sewing, glad that it's done LOL.

The mess at the street I talked about some time ago has started today. They started to remove the tiles of the sidewalk, so I gues the digging will start soon.
It's for replacement of the sewer pipes, sigh! First we had the gas pipes, now this one again.
But we will survive it, I guess.

If it will become a little bit drier later today, I want to go to the market. We could do with some fresh veggies and some fruit too. And there is a lot of difference in price between them buying them in the supermarket or at the market. It's a lot cheaper at the market!

Have to finish now, have to get ready to leave soon.
Today I have another Nutshell kit for you, named "Bella Notte" (beautiful night), all in blues.With a marvellous quickpage and also a clusters from Arlene.
Have a fantastic day!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Spring has left a bit.

Goodmorning everybody!

We were looking forward to a bit of sunny weekend, with some nice temperatures, so we could catch some sunbeams in the garden. Well, that wasn;t the case. Temperatures have dropped considerately, there is a too strong wind, and we have had some rainshowers, so not too bright all together.
still there are moments with a bit of sunshine and on Saturday there was such a moment, so we decided to take a bit of fresh air.
On flyers there was announced to be a Antique/Curiosa and bookmarket close to our street, so we thought that might be nice to look around  a bit, you never know what you can find.
But when we got at the street where all this should take place all we saw was just an empty street!!!
It was rather a disappointment, and we encountered more people who came to see this market and were disappointed too! Perhaps it was cancelled due to the weather, or perhaps they didn;t have enough stands, I don;t know, but it sure would have been nice to let the public know.
so we just made a little walk, bought our weekend edition of the newspaper and went home again.
This was about all activity that we had for the whole weekend LOL!

It was no garden weather, so I did a few little jobs in the house, and then I spent a lot of time at the computer. Jan had his new crossword and the newspaper, then some sports to watch on tv, so we had enough to do to pass the time.
Nevertheless I did make a quick round in the garden on a dry and bit of sunny moment, we have to keep an eye on all theseedlings and other plants that start to blossom or are developping buds.
Some seedlings really seem to start growing, and the climbin rose is making lots of buds, so in June I hope to have a lots of roses flourishing.

Today I have a fantasy kit for you. It's been a long time ago that I made one, and may be it's a nice one to make some layouts with little children? It has some gnomes, and fairies and such in it, and Arlene made some sweet clusters for you.
It's named "The Legend Lives On", and we should keep our fantasy alive, because at times we just are for a moment a child again. At least, I have those moments and I have no problem admitting that LOL.
Have a great day.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Unbelievable those wonders of nature

Goodmorning everybody!

we still have rather good weather hear, although temperature has dropped again a bit. The most annoying about it all is that the wind is a bit strong. The other day we had some rain, I could hear all the plants and seedlings sing from happiness LOL!
Yesterday we watched a couple of nature programs on tv, and you know, it doesn;t matter how often you see them, nature still keeps amazing us.
One program was about all different clouds that appear in the sky, and I must say, I never knew there were so much shapes and sorts of them.
I found you a link where you can see about 30 different kinds of clouds and with a short description of it. Really beautiful pictures!
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/33-creepiest-clouds-on-earth/1515

Then we saw some program about spiders, how they are so differnet, and how they make such diffenerent kind of spiderwebs, to catch some food.
Oh my, it were real micro clos ups, amazing!
I believe this last one was in the BBC, with comment from Sir David Attenborough, the best of all!
He now has already 87 years of age, and it is amazing how he comments all the different documentairies with a ever going on enthousiasm and knowledge, I like the tone of his voice and he will be missed extremely, once he will pass away.
Found you one of the many documentairies on line, and if you can spare some time during this weekend, take the trouble to watch it. You will see and hear extra-ordinairy things, and then you realize that we should be more careful and also thankful for all that nature still has to offer and how important all the different species of life are. One cannot do without another.
http://documentaryheaven.com/david-attenboroughs-madagascar/

So, this was the "educational part" of the blog post LOL!
Not too much happened the last couple of days here,we took the days on "low-profile"LOL, meaning we didn;t do too much, most of it was a bit of garnening, what else??
Some weed pulling was done, and a few plants got a different spot, and some of our seedlings seem to start growing, they are still very small, but there is a start.

You might have noticed I changed my blog layout again. All with spring/summer in mind, I thought a bright looking one would be appropreate. It's made with a Nutshell kit, not posted yet, because it is nr.12 I think, in the serie. Wow, you will have to wait a bit on that to be posted.
But do not fear I have another one for you today, also  Nutshell, named "Eleganza". I really like how this one turned out. And Arlene has done some marvels with it, one fantastic page border and a quickpage for you!

So ladies, that's all for today.
I will have to do a bit of house stuff today, may be the sun will come out later today, and then it might be nice to be around in the garden, despite of the wind that blows to hard.
Have a marvellous weekend!

Download    HERE

Download     HERE