On a mission..............

Too much wild fun going on here at the moment and now a mad panic before a family gathering of around 40 in less than 2 weeks time.........

Spare room to be painted, the garden to be tamed (?) and a mink to be caught that ate two of our chooks last night, little bugger..............

The joys of country life, it's not all a bed of roses.

Marie Chantal

Just a quick post to let you all know that Maries on-line shop is back up and running. When I did my post the other day on her beautiful products, unfortunately her site was down. So any of you who are interested in her products go have a look, they're delicious!

Today was a bit of a shopping day as I had been car-less for a week, I'll show you my purchases tomorrow and tell you all about the dilemma I found myself in over a pair of wellies!

See you tomorrow.

L x

From the garden.....

All this great weather has brought the garden on in leaps and bounds, veg, flowers and most of all weeds! Except for the parsnips, all the veggies are now planted in the veggie boxes as the last of the frosts are now hopefully past. We've been eating salad nearly every night for the last week, it's fab!

We're having a big family get together next month as we have family over visiting from NZ, so I'm hoping we might have some new potatoes ready for eating and plenty of salads, fingers crossed we might even have some fresh peas..........

I just need to get those second sowings done now.........! What veggies are you all growing?

Lots of news

Gosh, it's Monday already where does time go?!! Thank you to everyone for their well wishes, I'm feeling a million times better, just need to get rid of the horrible cough now!

Lots to tell today, firstly, a post that has been long overdue! The lovely Marie, over at Marie Chantal sent me a parcel a little while back with lots of her beautiful rose skin care products which are scrumptiously packaged. I at last managed to get my return parcel in the post just before I was hit with the lurgy! Marie received her parcel last week and has very kindly posted about it at the weekend, thanks Marie. Having used Marie's products over the last wee while, they are gorgeous! They smell divine and the rose cream is silky smooth and lovely to use. I've also got the Skin Freshener and the Cleanser, which again are both delicious to use. Here's a picture of some of her products ( Marie, I've pinched the picture from your blog as it looks really good, hope you don't mind!)

Marie has just opened up her fabby on-line shop, so head on over there and get buying girls as, luckily for us, she ships overseas!

Another lovely lady who has inspired me lately is Cherry over at Tales from Pixie Wood. I was catching up with her blog, reading about her trip to Florence last week. This time last year we were in Florence, I looked back at some of our photos from the trip and thought about how happy we both looked, it was such a fab holiday. So, feeling a bit "down in the dumps" last week I promptly went about booking us a holiday. Now, in the Hector house this is generally Mr. H's job, and a grand job he always does! But, I needed something to pick up my spirits and get me back into the swing of things, so holiday hunting I did.

Not one to go down the "let's go to the travel agents and let them do it all" route, not that there's anything wrong with that, and to be honest there's probably not a travel agent that could organise this type of holiday, I got surfing on t'internet!!!!! So, where are we off to I hear you all mutter..............

Here's a clue.......................

stunning beaches.....................

rugged landscapes.................................

Have you guessed yet?

We're off to the Outer Hebrides to do a bit of an Island Hopscotch, and how are we doing it? Well, we're camping, yes, camping!!!!! And the bit I'm looking forward to is this.........

.........sitting on the beach watching the sunset, with a large G&T and then sleeping under the stars!

Most folk that we've told think we're nuts, but hey ho, we were both in the Guides and the Scouts so we at least know how to put up a tent!!! Lets just hope it doesn't blow away in the wind like the last time!!! ( We have bought a new, slightly smaller and cosier tent for this trip!)

So the plan is, we sail over from Uig on Skye to Tarbert on Harris, spend a couple of days discovering Lewis and Harris and then sail over to North Uist, to do a whistlewind tour of the Uists and Benbecula. We are booked into two B&B's, the first night and the middle night, just in case the weather really is awful!! And if it's just not good enough weather for camping we can hopefully stay in some of these cute little places that are dotted around the islands........

We have both always wanted to visit Lewis and Harris, the thought of being able to camp on those amazing beaches just fills me with excitement. The opportunities to spot some of the wildlife that surrounds the islands is another huge spine tingler for me, imagine being sat quietly on the beach and then suddenly seing an otter in the wild? You can't get much better than that can you...? The camera will be at the ready........!!

On the nature front, I witnessed an amazing scene in the garden this morning. I was busy sewing away in my workroom, looking out over the garden, when I saw the familiar flash of the woodpecker fleeting over to the peanut feeder. A couple of seconds later another woodpecker joiner her, a fledgling woodpecker! She pecked away at the nuts and then fed them to her baby, it was like a scene from Springwatch but in our own garden! I shall try and get some photos but I can't promise anything...............

See you all soon,

L x

P.S. the photos are thanks to the visit hebrides site.

A quick hello.....

Just a quick hello from me before the weekend begins. The dreaded lurgy attacked this time last week, needless to say I ended up in bed for a few days. Not one to play the martyr I slept it off, best way in my opinion! So, feeling a lot better now but sounding like I smoke 40 a day (although I do quite like having a Mariella Fostrup type voice!), I've been playing catch-up these last few days. I have managed to get a few parcels in the post and have another order ready to go out, so roll on the weekend!

I'll be back on Monday with lots to tell, I've spent a good bit of this week cheering myself up by organising our holiday, all will be revealed on Monday, lets just say I'm VERY excited!!

Have a great weekend, what are you all up to?

L xx

P.S. The picture is of Jacobs Ladder, we've got tonnes of it in the garden just now, it makes a lovely cut flower so I'm off to fill up loads of jugs to dot around the house! x