This and that

Firstly - when I logged onto Blogger to do this posting, a little pop-up balloon appeared saying that 'the Blogger interface has been improved and I could try it out now'. Trust me, I clicked on the cross to say 'No thank you' faster than you could say knife! Any changes to Blogger worry me, given recent problems so many of us had. It'd a bit like volunteering to try out a parachute packers first attempt!

Secondly, Spike and friends are definitely fattening up for hibernation - they're getting through a lot of hedgie food. My OH found a big unopened bag of cashew nuts, bought in Thailand, in a cupboard recently. The nuts are unsalted and I buy supplies whenever we're over in 'The Land of Smiles' as they're huge nuts and so reasonably priced. Great idea I said, now the hedgies are woofing them down as a tasty addition to their normal food. Sheesh, I looked at the prices of unsalted and much smaller cashew nuts in our local supermarket the other day! That spikey group are going to have to form a Boy Band or something if I have to start buying more stocks.

Thirdly, after my miserable WOYWW kick-off yesterday morning, my OH arrived home after 'being out to play' for a lot of the day with another rescued poppy:

It's pure poppy red in real life and just gorgeous - what a lovely way to lift one's spirits :) I think this might be his last rescue mission as the earth clearing is going to happen very soon.

My friend Sarn made me laugh yesterday when I seemed to be in the doldrums by calling me Grumpy Knickers, another sweet blogger referred to my 'poopy day' Thank you all for your great comments, rude or not, my day was lightened immensely! (I think that 'immensely' is today's big word).


I plan to begin making a special birthday card before trotting off this afternoon to a friend's to do some crafting. Today I'll be taking my MS Punch Around The Page sets as I promised to show her how to punch some backgrounds for her stash. And I'll be showing her the trick posted about by Bernie on her blog, the video tutorial for which can be found here, by Becca of Amazing Paper Grace, showing that you can punch squares and rectangles using just straight fancy edges without needing a corner punch! I'm all in favour of linking back to an actual tutorial rather than just repeating the steps here so do go and see, it's really worth a look and is a very neat trick!

Have a great day, whatever you're doing  :)

Di
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Fickle Phoebe!

During the week, my beloved rescued a plant from one of his sporting clubs. It was growing where there is due to be some ground clearing work done and, being soft hearted, he couldn't bear to think that such a beautiful plant, growing stubbornly in a little patch of chalky soil, would be destroyed. By the time he managed to bring it home the bloom on it had sadly dropped off but I knew from his enthusiasm that Fickle Phoebe was worth trying to save. We potted her in some chalky soil and tucked her into a quiet spot in the garden with fingers tightly crossed. Despite careful watering, not too much and not too little while she settles in, the leaves and buds have been up and down more often than I could keep track of - one minute wilted and then suddenly perking up again - with no real rhyme nor reason. Hence the name Fickle Phoebe!

This morning our patience was spectacularly rewarded:

The light here is grim, it's a dull day and the colour is much more vibrant in real life - but I just nipped out and caught one ecstatic bumble bee - having a whale of a time now that Phoebe has opened one flower to show how gorgeous she can be if she tries!

I'm almost sure she's a peony poppy and truly beautiful with it!

Happy, happy Sunday!

Di 
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