Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to my lovely Grandson who is nine today!


Still no photos, what a shame. I must try to get that fixed.


A birthday treat for me today as well. 'Love Patchwork and Quilting' arrived direct to my door. A birthday present from my daughter, son, grandson and relative partners. What a lovely thoughtful gift. It's brought a smile to my face, and will do so every month I'm sure.


Now I'm off to try and 'fix' the photo issue. Or shall I read the new issue of 'Love Patchwork & Quilting, hmmmm?

Seven Up

A very Happy Birthday to my Grandson!

Seven years old today!

I can't be with my grandson today, but I'm sure he's enjoying his special day.

The photos I've used on today's post were all taken last June when my daughter and her son visited us here in Germany. I was very proud of my daughter for making the visit as she isn't a keen air traveller. In fact she's had to overcome a fear of flying to make these visits, all the more remarkable that she makes them with her young son. And of course I was very pleased and happy to see them both, excited even. Yes I do still get excited at my age, especially if it's to do with seeing the family.

 The first two photos were taken on a local visit, but these two were taken on a day trip to Eltz Castle.
A great day out.

Maybe I will celebrate an unbirthday day with my grandson this June, or the next time I see him. It will certainly be worth celebrating whenever it is.

Flood Water

Just to show how much rain we've had lately, I went out with the camera on Friday just to see if I'd won. (See previous post). Yes I did! The river was indeed higher. The river is coming up through the bridge on the road that leads down to the river.

Then again for more pics on Saturday.

Well, there'll be no walking alongside the river here will there?

You can see how the trees are not only surrounded by water, but it's quite deep as well.

It looks quite pretty though.

This road sign is taped to show that the road is flooded up river.

Last year, the floods were higher. The water came right over the road at the bottom where you can see the cars. Today, the water has subsided from how it was when I took these photos at the weekend.

Saturday was Mike's birthday. There are 3 of us Capricorns in the family.
We had a quiet day,
as you can see.

Countdown

I made sure I took the camera with me

on our morning walk on Wednesday.

It's been wet and muddy here,

so the hounds have not had a run for a few days.

But we took a chance that it wasn't too muddy

and gave them a run.

I knew it would be a good opportunity

to take some pictures of the hounds running.

I set the camera to take multiple shots.

It tends to be a bit of a pot luck,

with plenty of blurriness

with unexpected focused bits .

In the afternoon,

as it started to get dark,

we took a trip into Bernkastel.

We had planned to do this before Christmas

and visit the Christmas Market.

But because of my cold,

we didn't.

It was my birthday

on Wednesday,

so it was a good reason to go out for a while.

The Christmas Market had finished,

but the market place was still decorated with Christmas lights.

We had a leisurely walk around,

looking in shops,

and taking photos.

I played about with some of the different settings on the camera.

This last photo was taken on a night setting with a longer exposure.

I deliberately moved the camera around to get a blurred effect.

I like it.

Something I'm not so pleased with is the countdown to my next birthday.

In a years time

I will be 60.

It seems such a monumental event to me,

something I will have to get used to.

I'm sure lots of people reading this will have celebrated a sixtieth birthday

and they are fine with it.

Maybe in a years time

I will have come to terms with it.

I am planning to mark the occasion by having a party.

That should help.

 

Second Day in Cumbria

My sister has been putting up the Christmas decorations.

Even the family cat has her own Santa.

I was back in Carlisle this morning.

I took a couple of photos of some of the decorations.

This one is outside the old town hall.

The sun was catching the panels on the front and casting a coloured light

across the ground.

Yes I did say sun.

Most unusual,

as it usually rains whenever I'm over here.

True to form,

after taking these photos,

I went to the library,

and when I left it was raining-

very hard.

This evening we've been celebrating my nephew's 18th birthday.

It's been nice being able to share it with him.

In the Pink

Happy 25th Birthday to my daughter!

Here she is with her son on a local beach in Northumberland last February.

I love her pink hair!

Not sure what colour it is at the moment.

She probably won't thank me for posting this photo of her,

(which is why I've chosen one where you can't really see her).

She doesn't like having her photo taken

so she tells me,

though Facebook would tell me different.

So a Happy Happy Birthday to her,

and I hope that the weather stayed fine for the party she was having this afternoon.

100th post and Giveaway!

It's my 100th post

so in great blog tradition

I will have a giveaway.

My first post was in January 2007.
It's taken a while to get here!
Initially I had set up the blog to keep in touch with family and friends.

I thought it was a good way of showing them our new life here in Sweden.

Except I didn't tell anyone about it!

People asked us

'Why Sweden?'

This blog I suppose

aims to answer that question.

It's really a photo journal

of our day to day living.

I often wonder whether to publish a post

because each day is much like the one that went before.

We live in a forest,

Our nearest neighbour is 200 hundred yards up the track.

Some days we feel that we could be the last people on earth
because we haven't seen anyone for days,

literally.

When we sit outside on our terrace,

it is very quiet.

There is only the sound of the birds,

or sometimes the sound of the wind in the trees.

Hardly any aircraft travel overhead,

and traffic noise is only heard

occasionally.

Perhaps when the wind is blowing in the right, (wrong) direction.

Mike has told lots of our friends about my blog now.

And I know they call in to see what we're up to

or maybe it's just to see what the weather is up to in Sweden!

My daughter told me last week that she looks at my blog,

which I'm very pleased about.

I enjoy my trips into Blogworld.
I have made a lot of friends here.

Important when so far away from

family and friends at home.

So still without my camera

I will show what I have on offer for my giveaway.

I think I can manage with photos that I took before I dropped the camera.

I have been making some ATC's (artist trading cards),

from some felt I made last year,

which I embroidered.

I titled them

'English Garden in a Swedish Forest'.

I had some felt left so keeping the same size as an ATC

(two and a half inches by three and a half inches),

I have one to giveaway,

similiar to the ones shown here.

a heart,

you can just see one here

peeking out

but there's more in my side bar.

a hexagonal pincushion,

similiar to the one here, but smaller, and dottier.

some ribbons I bought-

one of a Dalarna horse,

and one blue and yellow (symbolising the Swedish flag).

All that that you need to do if you want to enter the giveaway
is to leave a comment here.
I will leave it open for a week,
until Monday 28th April 9am CET time

when I will pick one winner.

Please leave a link so I can contact you if I pick your name out of the hat.

Now I'll just go and find a hat!

Oh, and a Happy Birthday to my son.
Twenty three years old today!

Well that should be Sunday.

It has taken me that long to post this!

Best of luck!

Edited to add that the giveaway is international.

Squirrels, Treetops and Birthdays

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, snow or no snow.

We had a white Christmas.

As it's so cold, -5 to -10 degrees centigrade, the snow that fell a while ago is still here. Sometimes we wake to a heavy frost making the trees all white again.

I think it's been so cold that we got a new visitor to our garden.

Or maybe two!

There are lots of squirrels in the forest but they often remain well hidden, and until this last week I had never seen one in the garden.

The first one comes and feeds under the kitchen window. He/she seems quite young to me, though I'm no expert.

The one on the little yellow house may be the same one or a different one, I'm not sure.

The weather has been lovely over the Christmas period. We already had the snow then the sun came out and made it all special again.

Yesterday, after Mike spent Boxing Day (UK holiday on 26th), in bed, we took a walk to a lake with the dogs (of course).

Jewel was straight onto the ice.

She has no fear and doesn't hesitate.

We both felt the benefit of the walk.

But then Mike wasn't feeling well again today.

So I've spent a quiet day, walking the dogs some, and taking a few photos.

It was too lovely not to, though the photos don't always do it justice.

I didn't stray far though.

This is the view from the back of the house.

The house sits in a hollow, on top of the mountain.

(It's a hill really).

And during the winter months, the sun doesn't make it above the trees.

And as we're surrounded by trees,

only the treetops

get the sun.

And they look lovely.

Later, the light was particularly special.

Sort of eerie.

But the dogs heard me getting my coat, and they came trotting up from the bedroom, where they'd been sharing it with Mike. Or in Rufus's case, came bounding up!

And by the time we had a walk in the forest where it was already dark, when we came out of the forest,

the sun was setting.

So we stood a while,
Paddy, Jewel and Rufus,
gazing about us.

Sometimes one would turn their head and look towards the forest, and I'd notice,
that they had all turned to look.
Something was there,
perhaps watching us,
a fox,
or a deer
or two?

And then we carried on back to the warmth of our cosy little house,
with the log fire.
In a beautiful forest.

And Mike, still not well,
but feeling a bit better.

A quiet end,
to a quiet birthday.

Ghosts and Happy Hippos

My daughter asked me to make her a dress. This is the result. The choice of fabric was a little unusual for the time of year, but then again my daughter is one of a kind. She wore it to a party where she got lots of positive comments including an enquiry as to where she got it from.


This is the fabric she bought yesterday with a request to make another dress, for her birthday next month. Fortunately it's a nice easy to work with cotton, unlike the ghost fabric which was slippery and liable to fast fraying.
It's years since I did any dressmaking and I'm pleased that it turned out so well. Just need to get cracking with the next one now.