Ten on the tenth

6am reading in bed with my cup of tea 

7am breakfast 

8am at my desk 

9am on the way to the supermarket 

10am shopping to put away 

11am time for some tidying up

12noon relaxing with Rog and Cassie in the conservatory 

1pm lunch 

2pm a spot of patchwork 

3pm cooking mince and potatoes for cottage pie 

Linking up with A little bit of sunshine, to view others click here

Trellis to the rescue

So we have this wooden structure at the back of the house, a pergola covered in wisteria and jasmine, with a decked base and wooden sides. Its a great place to sit, either in the sunshine or shade. The guy who built it (or had it built) - the owner before last - made a great job, but obviously didn't have any little people around.

When we had our recent family get-together it was suddenly obvious to me (and I really should have spotted it earlier) that it was a bit small-child-unfriendly, with a drop at one side onto some steps and a smallish flower border at the back.

Luckily the californian poppies are quite hardy, and survived the odd Marissa-trample, but we needed to make sure that it no longer resembled an accident waiting to happen, so here is our solution, making both a physical and a visual boundary, and great for plant support too.

Green Day Friday 12

Linking with Green Day Friday 12 at Raindrops and Daisies

Candle Hill

One of the reasons we love Wiltshire so much (apart from it being one of the least densely populated counties of the UK) is the hilliness. We had a couple of favourite hill climbs in Devizes, and now we are here in Warminster we are in discovery mode.

Earlier in the week, reference to the local map showed us Candle Hill, just outside town, and right on the edge of the militarised zone, but easily accessible by car and by foot. Looking initially just for a nice quiet place to take a picnic lunch and some liquid refreshment, we drove to the furthest accessible point and then parked up.

Being right on the edge of Salisbury Plain, which is owned by the Ministry of Defence, might seem to some to be a bad move, but they couldn't be more wrong. The Army have one or two practice days a year, when all we can hear all day long is the booming of the large guns, but apart from that and the occasional soldiers in uniform in town, the Army are no trouble. OK we dont actually have access to this beautifully unspoiled countryside but we can see it and enjoy it in the knowledge that for the forseeable future it is in safe hands.

Playing with Photoshop Elements 8

I was given a free copy of Photoshop Elements 8 when I did my OU course back in 2010, and so far I've found it invaluable for cropping, enhancing, straightening and generally tarting up my photos, as well as resizing them for storage, but it does so much more than that, and recently I've started to have a little play around with some of the artistic stuff.

Here are just a few of the photos that I've "doctored", its quite fun and I'm looking forward to doing some more as and when I can find some free time. Click on the photo for a larger image to see the effect.

Once a month for a year, month one, September

The object of the exercise is to see how things change over the course of the year, I picked up this idea from Karen of Me, My camera, Eye.

I'm actually going to show two different views each month, the first is our back garden, which will be showing some "manmade" changes over the year,

and the second is a view from the end of our road, overlooking the valley and pleasure park, which will show nature's changes.

I'm looking forward to this project.

Summer Swap

At the beginning of August I joined in the Summer Swap organised by Kat of Kat Sighs, my swap partner was the lovely Hannah - Cupcake Mumma. I didn't photograph the items I sent off to Hannah last Tuesday, so you'll just have to look out for her blog to see them.

Yesterday I received my parcel from her, beautifully wrapped.

She has made me a lovely cushion in a very pretty fabric, with my initial (J) in the corner, and included a really brightly coloured fridge magnet cupcake and a yummy choccy UJ heart.

Thanks Hannah, sadly the chocolate didn't last long - as is usual in my house - but I enjoyed it, the cupcake magnet is now attached to my filing cabinet and the cushion is supporting my lumber region on my desk chair. Many thanks for being my swap partner, and for my lovely gifts, I know you have had a busy month - Hannah has just got married - I wish you and your new husband every happiness.

Hannah will be organising a mug swap in October which you can read about here.