Kind of Indian Summer starting here.

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, after a week or two of rain and cloudy weather most of the time I think we are heading for a very nice week. It started already yesterday with a day mostly filled with sunshine, at times some small clouds, but wonderful weather, temperatures around 18C, so not too much but enough.
So I decided to take a walk yesterday afternoon, just walked to an area of our town, where I don;t go too often, but where they have a lot of beautiful houses and gardens, a lot of greenery and some smaller woodland area's to take a stroll.
And gosh, I really enjoyed myself there, and all together I was out for about 2 1/2 hours!
On the way back home I passed a little garden centre and yes, you can guess it...I went in, of course.
But I was a really good girl and didnlt buy any plants, well, almost none LOL. I just bought a nice blooming begonia for Jan'indoor plant collection and a tiny little "leaf-begonia"as they call it, Ths one just has beautiful foliage, but doesn;t get flowers.

I though this begonia had such happy colors, and just in fron you see the tiny little one I bought too.

But when home i really was glad to sit down on the couch. Jan already had left for his volunteerwork, so I watched a bit tv and then made myself some dinner and sat down at the couch again LOL.
The rest of the week was filled with a bit of the usual stuff, some things done in the house, some laundry, some ironing, some grocerie shopping, also had a trip to the market, and always must be careful not to buy too much veggies and fruit.(prices are rather low at the moement for a lot of things).

Just looking out of the window and see lots of sunshine but also dark sky, funny combination. Hope that it will not rain. I must go for some small things to the supermarket, so it better stays dry.
And i think I will stay home for the large part of the day. Oh, not a bad thing, I can work on a knitting project and also perhaps on a new kit for you and in the afternoon I can watch a few of my favourite programs on tv, these are on the BBC, and one is The Harrys Biker Food trip (I have a link for you to check them out and you will also find some great recipees there:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chefs/hairy_bikers) I just love those guy, because in their program they cook some not too difficult things of the countries they are travelling through, but also you learn and see some cultural about those countries. You could call them kind of unconventional LOL
Just after that is the Great British Bake off, just love to see that, no baker myself at all, admire all that creativity and yummie things. Then there is Flog it and just after that Gardener's world.
Then it's about time Jan comes home and we watch the news and then a new detective serie that just started last week. Very interesting one, and kind of fingerchewing too at times, LOL
here's a very short story line:
Inspired by the story of a real couple, the  four-part drama begins when Eccleston’s character Robert and his teacher wife Katy (Marsha Thomason) are asked by close friend and police officer Mark (Paterson Joseph), to turn their remote Lake District B&B into a safe house for protected witnesses and crime victims.

Their decision to say yes means Robert revisiting the memory of a tragedy from his time as a policeman when a witness he was protecting was shot and killed.

The first family that come under Katy and Robert's care also cause the couple a few problems...

So we have a busy tv evening ahead, hahaha.

Only thing that could be somewhat better is Jan's cold he has at the moment. Mine is almost gone, thank God, but he is still coughing a bit too much to my liking. Well, perhaps he needs a few more days of good sleep and sme sunshine of his body!

Do I have a freebie for you after all this rambling by me? Yes, I do! it is named "Fallicious", meaning it has a bit of autumn in it in a soft way.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Download     HERE

Too bad we have to live in a paranoid worl!

Goodafternoon everybody!

Kind of late yes, but I woke up in the morning at a nice time and just sat on the couch with my coffee and watch a few programmes on tv and suddenly it was afternoon LOL.
Never mind, it's the weekend and there is no rush today.
Perhaps you wonder about the post title?
Well, that has to do with the news break we had yesterday. On the railwaystation of Rotterdam a Thalystrain(heading for France) was held up, because a young man jumped on it on almost the last minute and shut himself up in the toilet. No big deal, you would say, but several weeks ago there was about the same incident in Northern France I believe, and there really was a weapon involved (an Ak47!)and just because a few men were brave and overpowered him, a real tragedy didn't happen.
So of course when the incident in Rotterdan took place, all passengers were removed from the train police, military, search dog, helicopters, everything was there.
It took some time( Ithink too long,) to captured the young men, but then it showed he had no weapon or bomb or whatever and porbably had no harm in mind.
We still don't know whjy the young guy acted the way he did, seems there is a problem with language, so may be we will hear some more in a couple of days.
But I find it a terrible thing that at every corner of the street something could happen to you.
I am not walking around with that idea cnstantly in my head, but thinking about it it is kind of frightning. And these things make people paranoid, and sometimes too much.

Then we have another problem going on in Europe at the moment, and that is the huge amount of refugees coming to mstly Western Europe. Lots of them are refugees from Syria, escaping the terrible war that is going on there already for about 5 years,
In the surrounding countries of Syria, there are enormous camps, most with bad conditions, because those countried cannot cope with 3 or 5 million people extra!
So in a hurry several european countries take measures to recieve a lot of refugees, but it isn;t always so easy to give them a place to stay. it is a tremendous problem, but the politicians are to blame too for it. They could see it coming already for many years and as long as we don;t try to solve the problem at the roots, we will have to deal with large numbers of refugees. And I mean real refugees, running away for wars, life threatening situations. Yes, I feel really sorry for those people, leaving everything behind, not knowing if you will be able to start a new life, all you want is peace and safety and being able to live your life. And yes, we should help, even if it's  not always easy, but we never should forget the word " humanity". If we loose that, we aren't worth anything.
As long as there is a weapon industry there will be wars and that has its consequences.
Kind of funny really how the world works. On one side "we" spend millions on help to countried and charity organisations and on the other hand "we" deliver the means(read: weapons) to them.
Well I better stop moaning, I wouldn;t know a quick solution for the problem neither.
But that there has to change something is obvious.

Is there some more chearfull news to tell? No, not really, life here is pretty quiet at the moment, and I must say I love it, after all trouble we had the past months.We still have not all too bad weather, although it is not the kind to sit in the garden. we still have some sunshine, some rain too, you can notice autumn is coming near, you also can see it in nature. Trees slowy are changing their leaf-colors,
more and more plants finish their bloom, so in a few weeks it might be time to think about Christmas time again. Hahaha, no, I am nt up to it yet, but as soon as september is done with it seems that Christmas time is hurrying towards you.
For now I don;t want to think about it yet, I'd ratherr have some more really nice autumn weeks or even months, with not too much rain and wind and not too drastic dropping temperatures.

So time to finish the post, and leaving you with a freebie from Arlene, made with the Mode du Passé kit.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Download    HERE

Should a bit of luck smile upon us. LOL?

Goodmorning everybody!

No, I am not desporate, we just had some tough times this year and I think we deserve a bit of easier one for the rest of the year, hahaha.
May be it started last week. at least we had letters from the tax office that we get a little bit of money back, hoorray, now it has to come on my account, I hope next week it will be done.
There also was something wrong in the social benefits payment, we got that sorted out buy a guy in a social centre(where we come at times to see our volunteer coach), he made an ever so important phonecall, wrote a letter for us, it's on the mail now and now we cross fingers that soon we will receive some money back from that too! And we could do with an extra "reserve".
So perhaps a bit of luck is sprinkled upon us?LOL

Then  didnt hear for already a longer time from Heidi and I began to worry a little bit. We often have weeks, that we have no contact, but it lasted a bit too long now. I tried to phone her, no luck, then finally shed called back, but it was the day before yesterday just at the time I was serving out our dinner, so it wasn't the best time. I called her back later that evening, and her daughter told me she was having a nap. finally yesterday( after still several tries), we got in touch, pfffff. I wasn;t feeling at ease yesterday all day long, just hadn;t a good feeling, and it showed I was right about her. Lucky she hadn't trouble with her lungdisease, but she suffers from mouth ulcers which is very annoying and painful. She is under control for it and has several medicins for it, so it will disappear after a while again. But you can imagine that it is hard to eat something or drink (which is the easiest, with a straw). So the poor girl isn't feeling very great, then with all kind of things of "normal"life getting in the way too(those things can "grow over your head" at times ), she was in no mood to have a chat with me( and  think she didn't want to worry me either).

Our weather isn;t too bad at the moment. You could call it kind of unsettled, some sunshine, sometimes a bit of rain, one day wind from the west, the other day from the east, but still temperatures are not bad, they stick at around 20C and that feels okay, specially when the sun is shining.
I spent a little time in the garden yesterday, pruning some of the ivy, which grows like mad, grin.
Our dahlia's still are blooming and they are just wonderful, only have to put them on another spot next year. And as I have so many I can give Heidi a few of them(you can easily split them up after you dug them up in late autumn).
Now I will have to think of something to eat this evening, as Jan is working, it should be something qick and easy, I will have dinner earlier and then I will prepare a plate for him, that he can just warm up in the oven. 

This evening for sure will be detective evening at tv again, LOL. Oh, we also watch other things, but our heart is for a big part at the detectives, specially the British ones, but also Danish and Swedish ones are great! And sometimes our neighbours, the Belgians have some good ones too.
We also love to see some good documentaries, about all kind of subjects, or films about nature.
Then we follow some sport, and the news, of course, and here and there a good quiz, pfew, we have busy times in the evening ROFL!
And then we register on dvd and video also some programs, because they are broadcasted at the same time, yeah, it demands  a good planning, and usually that is Jan´s task, grin!

I think I covered all that I could share, and it is time for your freebie. A kit, that I named `Mode du Passé. Hope you can do something nice with it.
Have a wonderful weekend, thanks for the visit!

Download    HERE

Time slips away like sand

Goodafternoon everybody!

It's early afternoon, but as I am used to post early morning, I feel I lost half a day LOL!
Well, loosing time seems to be quite a "normal" feeling at the moment. The days pass by in a kind of rush, and when I look back at them, I just cannot remember with what time passed. I know there are things I achieved during those days, but I am "missing"also moments hahahaha. No, don;t worry, I think my brain is still working okay, but days sometimes are filled with all kind of little things to do and they aren;t all worth remembering.
This week I finally got to the hairdresser, and what a relief that is, believe me.
Also had an appointment with my "volunteerwork coach", which was nice as always. He gave me another two weeks to orientate myself to volunteerwork I might like to do( this coach is very nice to me, and gives only positive reports to the guy of social service benefits, ), but also I might be taken in in a group for language lessons to non-natives, specially women on another location. They know I am not a teacher, so giving lessons myself already, hmmm, I don;t know if that is a good idea, but I can help perhaps in setting up language course, in getting material for it, calling around, typing things if needed etc. etc. I hope to hear from the starting group soon, they will have a meeting and I am invited to it, to brainstorm with them. Might be nice.

It hasn;t been the best of weather to go out for a longer time last week, we had lots of rainshowers, some real heavy ones, at times also some clearing up and sunshine, but the temperatures dropped enormously to about 16-17 C daytime. And that is really several degrees lower than usual temperatures in the beginning of September.
But may be later this week it will crawl upwards again a bit. I really hope so, because i am not ready yet for low autumn temperatures and such. I am crossing my fingers for having a loooong Indian Summer, short autumn and winter and early spring again.LOL!
I will have to spread my dahlia's otherwise in the garden next year. Oh, they are doing very well, but they grew much bigger than I thought, so they will need more space between them and another place in the garden.
The tomatoes are doing okay too,  we had several times a salad containing a few of our own tomatoes.
Just need to cut them down a bit, remove more of their leaves, so that the tomatoes at the plants will catch more light and sunlight specially. And we have to hope for a week or so of much warmer temperatures, so all my tomatoes will ripen at time.

Today Jan has his last day of social work this week(no, it hasn;t ended, just this weekend LOL,) but I wonder if it isn't a bit too straining, 3 days in a row. I asked him, but of course he denied it, still I see he is rather tired after 3 days from 16.00-19.00 a.m., which may not seem a long time, but he misses his after-dinner nap like this. He comes home around 19.30 a.m. drinks something then after some time he has to have his dinner, and of course then it is too late to take a nap.
He helps people of age with their evening sandwich and drinks, preparing it, clearing off, getting the little kitchen in order etc. for a group of about 15-20 people. Most of them are at that department for

medical rehabilitation, after an operation of e.g. a hip, or a fall at home, something like that.

So the larger part of them are still capable of eating themselves, but have sometimes a bit of trouble making their sandwich, (and sometimes they just like to be pampered a bit, hahaha). One day there is much more to do than on another day, there are evenings he has time to take a pause, even take a cup of soup himself if there is some left over, then is isn't so straining of course.

It's a kind of work Jan likes to do and does it well, it also helps he has his background of nursing, so he has a keen eye to see where real help is needed and so. Plus he is easy in little conversations with them. 

well, I will keep an eye on him, so to speak and if I think it is just a bit too much  will try to convince him to perhaps spread his 3 days differently. May 2 in the weekend, then a day od rest and then another shift. But that will be hard work for me to get his that far hahahaha.

 

And.... did I do some designing this week? Not too much, but I did start another kit again.

I am spending time at the computer though, but it is filled with other things at the moment. Have to keep up a bit with a few blogs I follow, and now again I will have to spend some time searching for a nice volunteer job if the language thing will not blossom, and slowly Jan and I have to spend some time in the garden, preparing it again for autumn and winter. We still have a bit of time but with the weather changing to less good all the time, we'll have to pick the moments.

 

But there is a freebie for you, made by the wonderful creative Arlene, clusters and a quickpage made with the Seaside Sunset kit.

Leaving you now, with wishes for a lovely day and good start of the week.

 

Download    HERE

 

My Freebies of Jan,Febr.March 2016

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 DOWNLOAD  HERE (SUDDENLY YOU WERE THERE KIT)

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