Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 17

A little while ago we all enjoyed seeing swathes of little white snowdrops everywhere. Then we had a season of yellow as daffodils burst into flower. Last month we has a spectacuar display of pink cherry blossom on the trees. (This seems to have been an exceptional year for blossom). Now we are greeted by all things blue.

When walking through the park I always stop to enjoy the flower bed that runs just inside the railings along the back of the park. This week the first thing I saw was bluebells. They are at their best when they run wild around the trees. There are far more here than my photo suggests. They remind me of childhood days when my older sister Dorothy would take me for walks through the bluebell woods. In those days you were free to pick a few and I remember at the age of seven being so dissapointed when the bunch I proudly presented to my teacher was put on a windowsill at the back of the room. It turned out she suffered badly from hayfever but didn't want to upset me by refusing them!

Dotted amongst the bluebells were some taller spires of star-like flowers, These are Carmassia; not a native to England but seemingly quite happy here.

Next came Alkanet, which many folk see as a weed, but it is the truest blue of all the flowers and deserves a place in the flower bed. Again they triggered a memory. As a child I had a clear 'carrying' voice, which came in useful when I became a teacher. Because of it, and the fact I had a good memory for 'parrot' learning, I was often chosen to learn a poem to recite at the church anniversary service, and one year my poem mentioned Speedwell, which is a very sweet little pale blue, rather insignificant flower. So instead I clutched a bunch of Alkanet picked from the rough ground around the church, while I did my recitation.

And lastly as I walked along the park railings, I came to this amazing clutch of forget-me-nots. And yes, they have a meaning for me too. For most of my life I have loved the Flower Fairy books by Cicely Mary Barker. She wrote botanically correct poems about every common wild flower and cultivated one, as well as some berry and blossom trees. And every poem was illustrated with a fairy whose clothes and wings matched the flowers the poem was about. She took inspiration for the fairy faces from the faces of the children in her sister's nursery. I always loved the sweet pea fairy which shows an older fairy fitting a sweet pea bonnet on her baby sister. But the poem that has always stayed with me is the poem for the Forget-me-not fairy.

"Where do baby fairies lie until they're old enough to fly, 

Here's a likely place I think, 'mid these flowers blue and pink.

Pink for girls and blue for boys, pretty things for baby toys..........

O how glad I am I found you, with forget-me-nots around you,

Blue, the colour of the sky, Fairy baby, Hushaby.

So what a nostalgic walk I had, and how lovely are the blue flowers this week.

I even have some in my garden. There were some little anemone bulbs in a box of mixed spring flowers that  planted back in the Autumn, and now I have a pot of pretty daisies.

And at this house I have inherited a mass of the little ground cover companulas. They grow out of the walls, up the steps, over the paths and anywhere there is a patch of ground. And right now they are smothered in buds with the first few showing their purple-blue colour. 

I have actually had to dig some of them up as I have started to clear the side border in the back garden. I have cut down and dug up the roots of two shrubs so that I can make a flower border. It is rather shady so I have to choose wisely what I plant there. So far I have a cowslip and some lily-of-the-valley (a real favourite of mine), plus an ox-eye daisy and a geum in the first section. Then beyond the pink bergenia there are two foxgloves, a lupin and a helebore. 

I have also moved the pots that have been emptied and replanted, over to the gravel, and as yet untamed area, so that our patio is clear. The builders will be back in next week to start on the new bathroom, and they will need somewhere to put their rubbish until we get another skip. 

I hope you have enjoyed my moment of nostalgia, and that you have flowers that evoke special moments for you too.

Here, to finish, are my two faithful friends who come to see me every day. They watched my digging with eyes like hawks and hopped straight in for anything tasty that they spotted. They both look black here but the one on the right is quite brown, and I am sure they are a mating pair.

I may not post next week as we are going to stay in Cheshire with our son Ben while the bathroom renovation is done, but I will visit you anyway.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 16

Now I will have to be quick writing this as I have spent most of the afternoon chatting with my sister Jean, which was nice.

When I commented on your posts last week I said I was preparing for a busy weekend, and it was just that. It really started on Friday. Late the night before, our eldest son Jim arrived with his family for a short break back on their home turf. They had an airbnb just around the corner from us, which was aptly named "Duck cottage" because they had to duck to get through the doors! They all came to see us on Friday, and then much later, early Saturday morning in fact, son number three arrived. Tom had flown in from Denmark to London and then driven down to us. He slept until mid morning when our youngest, Ben, arrived driving down from Cheshire. The other two boys, Mike, son number two, and number four, Jonathan, both live locally. It is a rare occasion when we have all five boys together so it was a very special day.

All the lads went over to Mike's house to share lunch and watch the Arsenal match, and then they drove back to Jonathan's house. Ben stopped off to collect Chris and I on the way. We had intended to all meet in the park but the weather didn't cooperate so Jonathan offered his house as there was room for everyone there. We spent a few happy hours chatting together, playing with our grand-daughter Aisling, and playing "pass the parcel" with baby Niamh around her uncles. She is such a contented little soul and didn't so much as cry at any of the new faces.

Jonathan also has a very laid back 'staffie' who wasn't disturbed by all the extra people in her house, and she just squeezed in beside anyone sitting on her favourite sofa, and watched all that was going on. She doesn't look too impressed but she liked the extra fuss she got.

Just before the sky darkened for another shower, we managed to get outside to take some photos. One of the boys with their dad, and then one of the 'girls'. we are usually outnumbered at family dos, and rarely get our photo taken, so it was nice to get this one, even though, sadly our other grand-daughter and her family were unable to be there.

And of course, we had to take one of all of us together.

Chris needed to go home after this. He is making slow progress but still gets very tired, and he was glad to go home and rest, while I stayed to continue chatting until well into the evening.

Ben drove home that night and Tom flew back to Denmark on Sunday ready for work the next day. Jim's family went home on Monday so now we are back to our usual , but we made some lovely memories to hold on to.

Since then another week has drifted by with plenty of April showers and some nice sunshine too. The park is really coming back to life with leaves sprouting on the trees, and many covered in blossom too.

I have made a start on the garden, cutting back, and then digging out two shrubs so that I have a border to plany some perennials in. Then I will be able to see the flowers from my kitchen window.

And that, I think, is quite enough for this week.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 15

Hi all. Having been absent for a couple of weeks I have some catching up to do. I am very happy to tell you that Chris's operation went well. It took four hours instead of the predicted three, but the surgeon was pleased with the result. He has a 12 inch (30cm) scar so it will be a while before he is jogging round the park, but he can walk around and is managing the stairs quite well. He came home last Thursday which seemed a bit too soon but he has a comfy recliner chair and has spent most of his time in that.

Meanwhile life goes on. I did go into the hospital to see him each day but it is two buses and up to an hour and a half travelling time each way, so even a short visit was almost a day out. Fortunately our son Mike works in a school so the second week he was on the Easter break and he collected me some days, or took me both ways, and he did a big monthly shop with me the day Chris came home, so he has been a great help.

On the Sunday Mike took me to the hospital -- no buses on a Sunday -- and then I went back to have dinner at his place. When our son Ben's situation changed, he could no longer care for his cat Bobby so Mike adopted him as a companion for his other cat Splodge. They are the same sort of colouring and apart from Splodges large size, they could be from the same litter. Bobby is very affectionate and came to me for some fuss.

It was Palm Sunday so I went to church before Mike collected me, and we had a lovely service. The church was decorated with palms and we were each given a palm cross.

The bunch of hyacinths I was given back on Mothering Sunday, lasted for well over a week. One stem split and had two heads of flowers on it. They really surprised me at how well they did.

April the first was my granddaughter's 5th birthday. I was told she was into pink and unicorns and anything fairy. I am not used to making 'girly' cards so I went online for some inspiration and chose a pretty little pink image of a little girl hugging a unicorn. I then used the link that Angela sent me after her picture of steampunk doggies, and with AI I put Aislings face onto the little girl. When she opened her card she look at it and said "That's me", so mission accomplished. I am not a huge fan of AI as I want to belive what I see and it is getting increasingly hard to do, but I can see it does have its uses.

I was asked to buy her a bubble machine which I did and she immediately went outside and had some fun with it. I enjoyed watching her, as I must admit I am a sucker for bubbles too.

My arthritis is getting rather worse since we came back to UK, which was to be expected with a damper climate. But I was really struggling to cut things out, and although I have machines which do it very nicely, I do enjoy 'fussy cutting' sometimes. So last week I bought myself a pair of sharp scissors with much larger finger holes, and they are so much easier to use.

On Good Friday, Mike and his partner Lucy took me to a plant sale at Whittington Castle. The stalls were lined up all around the grass area and I did buy a few perennials as well as a blueberry bush and a tayberry bush. 

The castle is a ruin and I used to take my boys there when they were small to run off some energy and have fun climbing the walls. You can just see the start of the ruins on the edge of my photo. In front of it there is a lake where a pair of swans return faithfully each year to raise a family. It is a lovely setting, and even though the day was grey and damp, we enjoyed it.

My garden is coming to life a bit more each day. We have an area of lovely little violets now, as well as bright tulips and several pieris shrubs -- the sort that have white flowers and at the same time the new leaves come red at first. They are very attractive.

We also have life of a different sort too. This great tit came to sit on the fence while I was hanging washing out, and every day a pair of blackbirds take it in turns to come to my dish of food I put out each day. They come so often that I am wondering whether they have a young family to feed already.

Our other visited is this little fellow. It is not a good photo, but he moves so fast,I was lucky to catch him on camera at all.

At first I was worried we had rats but he doesn't have a pointed nose and his coat is smooth. Searching online I think he is a vole. Unfortunately they can do a lot of damage in a garden, eating roots which kills plants, and burrowing under grass so that it collapses, so I will have to get a humane trap and relocate him out in the coutryside.

It is many, many months since I posted a sunset. We see the sun rise from the house but there are a lot of buildings at the back which mostly hide the sunset, but from my craft room, up on the third floor, I did manage to get this one last week.

I am sorry this is such a rambling post, but I am caught up now so it won't be so long next time. Thank you if you have stayed with me to the end.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week12

Well I hope your week has been as good as mine. Here at least, we have enjoyed some beautiful sunny days, making even a mundane trip to the shops a real pleasure.

Of course Sunday was special for many of us as it was Mothering Sunday. As is traditional in many churches, all the ladies who attended this Sunday were given a litle posy of flowers. This was mine, some daffodils and a sprig of forcythia from someone's garden. They have sat on my mantle all week and all have opened beautifully.

I was also given a bunch of hyacinths by one of my boys. I would never have thought of them as cut flowers, but by Monday they were all sitting up straight, and they still are. I know some folk find their scent a bit overpowering but I love it, and it is still filling the whole house.

Our son Michael invited us for dinner at his house, and as usual he cooked enough food to feed a small army. It was all delicious. His partner Lucy also had invited her mum along, and there were Lucy's two brothers, and one of their partners, plus Lucy's two boys, (Mike's son had gone to his mum's). Then with one of the visitor's lovely dog, a chocolate labrador, along with Mike and Lucy's own dog and two cats, we were quite a crowd.

This photo was taken after dinner had been enjoyed by all, and while we were waiting not very patiently for Mike to clear some of it away and serve desserts.

My contribution was a large strawberry and avocado cheese-cake. It is a combination that works well. The cheese part is a pretty shade of green, and the base is half biscuit crumb and half crushed nuts, held together with coconut oil. It is just a little bit different for a special occasion.

Our son Tom was arriving Sunday evening so Mike dropped us home with a plated roast dinner for him, which he also appreciated.

I spoke to my other boys on Sunday and last night we walked over to Jonathan's house so Tom could meet his newest niece, little Niamh. It was passed her bed time but she was happy to be held and bounced on Uncle Tom's knees, and she is such a smiley little soul, it is always good to have a cuddle. And when she wasn't sure about a new face, daddy soon got her smiling again.

Craftwise this week, the blue hot air balloon is now assembled and is a better shape than the red one. I am still at stage one with the green one, so maybe next week they will all be finished.

I also managed to finish off my scrambled square jacket. It took a while to crochet the sleeve ribbings and the edging all the way round, but I had plenty of wool to do it. I got some reasonable buttons from Amazon and I am pleased with the result.

The rest of my smiles are from the garden. The first sunny morning brought open my first tulips down by the front gate. I planted spring bulbs randomly around the garden, but I realise now that the tulips should have been planted in a group for maximum effect. But they look good and hopefully that will increase over time.

The garden is a learning curve as I slowly discover what is there. I knew one 'clump' was a heather. My dad loved heathers and I thought seeing as I have my Peace rose for mum, I should keep the heather for dad, and I am glad I did. It is suddenly in full flower and makes a lovely mound of purple.

There is a bush in the front garden that has stayed deep red with very small leaves all winter. It now has little buds forming all over it and google lens says it is a berberis.

This one made me smile. It is a bit straggley but has held its leaves all winter and they are veriegated green and cream with purple ones at the end of each stem. I now lnow this is a hebe and it has the wonderful name 'rhubarb and custard'. I think it will benefit from being cut right back and left to reform in a bushier shape.

Tom is now packing his bags ready for a train early this evening. He is staying at his older brother Jim's house in London tonight, and tomorrow he is off on a train to Amsterdam for a work conference. Then back home to Denmark next Thursday. He sure does get around.

Chris's operation is now scheduled for next Thursday so I may not get to post next week, or I may need something to keep me busy! But I won't be far away and I will post again as soon as I can.

 Thank you to all who visited me last week.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 11

It is one of those weeks when I have very little news, though a few things have made me smile.... Some lovely sunny days; chats with folk in the park; friends who really stepped up for me when I asked for help, discovering more flowers in my neglected garden; success in getting a few projects finished.

Today, I thought I would talk you through a new project that I attempted for fun. Paper Weaving. My son Tom knows I like trying new things, so at Christmas he gave me a set of three kits to make hot air balloons, one red, one blue and one green. Tom lives in Denmark and apparently paper weaving is a popular hobby there.

They have sat on my desk nagging me to have a go but they looked a bit daunting. You get eight sheets of pre-cut paper 'snakes' which you pop out and sort.

Next you pair them up and twist each pair together to make stripey snakes.

As you can see they form a sort of an 'S' shape, and six of each colour curl to the right and six to the left.

I decided to watch the video suggested for the next bit and that's where it became confusing. I had six of each colour curling right and six curling left, while the demonstrator on the video had all twelve of one colour curling right, and all of the second colour curling left. So having watched it through a few times I had to more or less do my own thing. 

The first round was fairly easy and I soon had this 'star-fish' shape.

The second round was much more difficult but I got there eventually. If you look closely you may see that some of my legs are overlapping the wrong way so I need to sort that out before I begin to weave them.

My first attempt was the red balloon and it is not very well done. As you weave each pair of strips you hold them with a paper clip, but they didn't hold well and sometimes my weaving lost tension so the pattern isn't perfect, but it is not bad for a first attempt. I am hoping the blue one turns out better and by the time I get to the green one I should be a pro!

My only other achievement was buying a clock mechanism and fitting it, with Chris' help, to the clock I made last week. It is now installed above the mantle piece mirror. I would like it to be a little bit bigger but I am confined by the size of wood I can buy, and the size of my machine. The kit came with gold hands so I sprayed them black to make them show up better.

Now I shall have another go at the blue balloon and then tidy my room a bit because Tom is coming over for a few days, and the bed sette is in here. He has tickets for the big rugby match in Bristol on Saturday and then he is coming to us on Sunday and staying until Thursday.

For a week when I have little news, I have managed to ramble on for quite a while haven't I? So that is it for this week. Thank you to all who came to visit me last week. I do appreciate your comments.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 10

I have been struggling this week to update my blog, with very little success, so please excuse the incorrect side bar. I will keep trying and have enlisted the help of another blog friend, so it might improve soon.

I didn't expect to be posting this week as Chris' op was scheduled for 6th. Unfortunately his last test showed he needed some blood work first, so the operation is now postponed until the end of March. So here I am after all.

I have also returned to my craft blog after a year's break and wrote a post about my first Christmas card for this year.

This morning we woke up to a thick mist/fog over the park. I couldn't even see the bandstand. Of course it soon burned off and we had a lovely sunny morning so I walked across and did my monthly grocery shop. Now it is raining!

However, yesterday the sun shone all day. It was so warm I felt confident to walk to my knitting group wearing just a thick cardigan. (I only wear a coat when I really have to). In the morning I stripped the bed and washed the sheets and they actually dried out on the line. That always makes me happy.

There were lovely streaks of light and shade on the grass as the sun began to sink at teatime.

Last Friday my daughter-in-law came over for the morning with our youngest grand-daughter.  She is such a sweetheart, and didn't cry once all morning. Ella brought me some flowers and they look so pretty together.

On Sunday I got a message that Chris was meeting our son Jonathan in the park to collect some paperwork from him, so after church I walked across to join them. We had a little shower of rain although the sun was out, so there was a complete rainbow over the playground.

Jonathan brought baby Niamh and her big sister Aisling with him and he challenged Aisling to climb the high cone with him. She is only four but she got up there with no help. She turned to smile at me, but then looked down and wasn't at all sure how to climb back to ground level. But Jonathan got behind her and helped her find each rung and she was soon back down with us.

Although I finished making the motifs for my wall hanging back before Christmas, it had not got any further, so this week I got it on poles and hung it on the hall wall. It makes a lovely splash of colour as you walk out of the sitting room. But it is a bit creased here. It needs to be stretched and steamed and I hope I can do it where it is, without steaming the paper off the wall!

I also woke my laser cutter up this week. I miss having a clock on the wall, and although I almost always have my smart watch on or my phone with me, it is nice to be able to glance up at a clock to see the time. So I made one. It is only 30cm, (12") high as that is the largest size I can cut with my machine. I made a solid back layer from a piece of mahogany ply and the more intricut front layer from basswood ply, and glued them together. Today I have given it a light spray of varnish and now I need to buy a clock mechanism with the right length of hands, and then we can hang it up above the fireplace mirror.

I have quite a folder of 'park' photos now, but I need some spring and summer ones before I can make a scrapbook page of them.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 9

I ended last week saying I had a busy weekend ahead and it was. Our youngest son Ben came over on Saturday, because Sunday was his birthday. (My baby will be forty next year. How did that happen?!) I had huge potatoes baking in the oven when he arrived with mounds of grated cheese, beans and coleslaw. Comfort food for us and for him!

I wanted a small gift for him so I did some real 'old school' crafting and made this rainbow spiral, nail and thread art. I had a big picture made in this way back in the seventies. I like the way it turned out and Ben loved it so that was good.

Late afternoon  we walked across to 'Festival Square', a small patio in the centre of town, to see the Lantern parade. This was an arts and crafts workshop for the end of half-term, where the children could all make a simple lantern on a stick.  Then they assembled on the square for an anouncement by the Town Crier, and led by the Snow queen, they set off for a parade through the park up to the market square for a fire show. There was quite a lot of them though their lanterns don't show in my photo.

In the back of the Town Crier photo you can see two of my sons, Jonathan's wife and her sister, and my smallest grand-daughter tucked snuggly in her pram. Her older sister was already running off with her lantern, making sure she wasn't left behind. I would have done the parade with them, but we had arranged to meet up with other family members to have a drink with Ben, so we went straight to the bar, and had a lovely evening of lively chatter. I always enjoy a family meet-up, for any reason.

It was a weekend of birthdays because on Saturday my sister Dorothy was 91. She lives down on the south coast so her daughter drove down and took her out for the day. They went to Longleate House and fed the giraffes. I gather it was an amazing experience which they both enjoyed. What a fun way to spend your birthday!

Living on the England/Welsh border we expect to see daffodils growing everywhere, and they are just opening in all the gardens in time for St.David's Day on Sunday. These ones are in the park, fighting for a space among the crocus, but they are on every patch of soil, in gardens, and along the roads, all with buds at bursting point.

My little tete-a-tete ones in the front tubs are looking so good with the last of the winter pansies adding a little lilac colouring.

Another of my finds as I walk through the park is this tree. I am not sure what it is until the new leaves come in Spring, but all winter it had grown lichen, I think, on all the thicker branches, leaving a perfect camuflage pattern. I love it, and I am going to use these photos to make some background paper for a scrapbook page.

I am trying to get back into crafting, and making a few cards. I needed two for last weekend anyway. So this week I have done some stamping, cutting, printing and colouring, so I have a few elements ready to turn into cards soon.

I have also dug out the jacket I was making back when we first arrived in England and were staying with our son in London. I finished all the squares a while ago, but then they got stored away. So yesterday I layed out the ones for the 'body', i.e. the back and fronts, following a scheme that came with the pattern. Now they are tacked and pinned together and I have the task of crocheting them all together. Then I will need to work a border all the way round the bottom, fronts and neck, and some mock rib on the sleeves. 

This is the wool I used. It is a lovely combination of greens and purples, with a touch of gold and blue, but it actually looks much greener in real life than it does in my pictures.

Needless to say, I have a new project in mind and am waiting for the yarn to arrive in the post. I wanted a smaller piece to occupy me when I am going to the hospital on the bus each day. It is only just over a week until Chris' operation now, and I shall be visiting him each day if possible.

And finally, I bit the bullet and had my hair cut really short yesterday. It feels strange but I am happy with what she did. I have taken a photo to use as my new profile.