Spring has finally arrived or has it????

As you have all probably worked out I am 'time poor' at the moment and struggling for some 'me' time to do the things I love - blog, read blogs and craft among the most important! I took this photo a week ago of a beautiful bunch of lavender SH brought in from our garden which put a real smile on my face. It and the warmer weather with the sun actually out was good for the soul and assured me that yes Spring had finally decided to arrive!!! Roll on a week and it has been lovely weather if not in fact a bit too warm for some (I'm not complaining , I found winter cold, wet and grey this year).

The 'horsey' one plays women's cricket on a Friday night so off we went yesterday afternoon, set up the chairs in the shade, the girls tucked into the refreshing watermelon, got the game started and it began to hail. No rain just hail the size of peas which got bigger and bigger until without exaggeration they were the size of large grapes (I'd love to say they were golf ball size but they weren't!!). They intensified and continued for about 15 /20 minutes. The oval we were on was on the bottom of a hill and they were rolling down at us and also hitting us and hurting as they landed. The thunder and lightning began then so the executive decision was made to call the game off. It also began to rain heavily so by the time we got home we needed a change of dry clothes. It was such a bizarre storm !

I've got mail!!!

While wading through the huge pile of mail that had come for us while we were away I was very excited to find a parcel for me and even more excited when I realised it was from the 'Washcloth swap # 2' that I signed up for with Jodie on http://jellywares.blogspot.com/ .It was a lovely very achievable swap (very important when time is precious!!) a handmade washcloth and a packet of seeds for our spring gardens. I received a beautiful parcel from Carol at http://thepatchcraft.blogspot.com/ .It was wrapped in fabric (what a great idea and one I may use myself) with a gorgeous tie of little pink pom poms, inside was 2 washcloths - a pink one with a butterfly design (that I have used myself for others - I am so happy to have one of my own!!) and a blue one with a star design, there was also 2 packets of seeds which I am going to enjoy, I have just the right spot to put them, some Impatiens and some Gypsophila. Thank you so much Carol , it is perfect.

My apologies for not blogging about it straight away but it has taken me this long to work out how to get photos from my new camera to the computer, slow I know , think the grey matter is still on holidays!!!

Back to the real world with a thud!!!

Where has the last week gone? This time last week we were still in Santa Monica enjoying our last day, breakfast, lunch and drinks on the hotel's veranda overlooking the beach! Now we are home and have hit the ground running. The 'horsey' one didn't have much time to acclimatise before heading off to camp on Friday for 8 days. It is a proper camp, they sleep in bivies / under tarps, cook for themselves, dig their own toilets and carry all their own gear. They do some hiking, biking, and surfing so some fun. I cannot believe she was looking forward to it - obviously those genes are not from my side of the family!!!! HS was back to school on Friday, not overly happy about it, think he would be happy to be on holidays permanently!! Saturday saw me return to work at the boarding house, luckily the girls were all on their best behaviour although the alarms went off at 1am - grrr - I need my sleep!!! SH was back to tennis Saturday and HS baseball so the summer sport season has well and truly started. SH and I are back to our proper jobs this morning so guess that means the holiday is well and truly over. We are still to fully unpack and this evening will be opening the huge mound of mail that arrived while we were away. We came home to a 'dead' washing machine - not what we needed with the amount of washing we have but we will deal with that tonight too along with a trip to the laundromat!! There has been crafting since I've been home but its a secret so no photos yet!! Hopefully in the next day or two will be posts about the trip as I sort through the 1200 photos we took!!

Home sweet home!

We arrived home today safe and sound, exhausted but having had an amazing trip! I am sure I will drive you silly with stories and photos over the next few weeks!! (We had a lot of trouble finding access to a computer to report in while we were away - next time I am taking a laptop!!) We are about to eat, shower then sleep so will report in tomorrow!!!!