Life, a show update and a new look .........

Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can ~ Danny Kaye

A long overdue new look for my blog.    Still not sure if I am happy with the changes,  might have to make some changes to colours etc,  feedback would be welcome.   Computer monitors vary so much and colours which might look fine on one can look quite different on another.   Will have to do a few tweaks over the next few weeks.

It is almost the end of September,  the autumnal equinox has come and gone and the days are definitely getting shorter with a wonderful autumn crispness in the air.    The past few weeks seem to have just flown by and finding time to fit in all the happenings in life including a regular update to my blog, has been difficult.    I have lost some followers it would seem and for those of you who visit or leave comments, thank you for staying around.   I hope to get a little more motivated to do regular updates as the time I spend in the garden will be very limited soon. 

My efforts at growing potatoes in grow bags produced a small crop but they do look good,  the beans as usual have excelled themselves and we have had lovely home grown tomatoes for several months.   I have a tiny vegetable patch so have to decide very carefully just what to grow.   The seed potatoes I ordered came with several packs of free seeds and I thought I would have a go at planting some of them.   The tiny deformed carrots were not a great success but I carefully planted out four marrow seeds in spring as I know they take a lot of space.  Needless to say they all germinated and I planted them in the only small space available.  The birds kept scratching one of the plants up so it gave up the ghost but we have had several tasty marrows from the other plants.   Hopefully an early frost will not kill off the rest of my garden before I can harvest everything.

I have a friendly little robin who seems to regard me as a very special human.   He sits on the fence and sings to me hopping around in the garden looking for worms when I am working.   He has become incredibly tame, even flying into the conservatory yesterday to visit.   It is a constant battle to keep an eye on the wicked Mischka cat when he is around.

On the subject of cats,  little Leila is quite inconsolable without her big brother Merlin and our other cat is very much a loner, so she is feeling very sad.   A new kitten might be the answer, watch this space and see if we succumb.

Hugglets show in London was well attended with a long queue of anxious collectors outside before the doors opened.   However sales were quiet at the show partly due I think to the current financial situation with less disposable income.  I think that like most artists we sold many of our bears after the show from our web page.   We read all the time that internet sales are affecting the high streets in town and cities across the UK,  presumably it is the same world wide.  I cannot help but wonder if this is also affecting shows,  quite sad really as I love the interaction with friends from far away places and meeting collectors in person.

This picture is a selection of our little girls bears and one little mouse, most of whom have found new homes.

Our table display at the show

 

This year my Goodreads target is once again eighty-five books.   Given that I am avid reader and love books, I was four short of my target last year and I am rather running somewhat behind for 2013.   I suppose I could make the excuse that my book choice leans towards rather heavy tomes that take time to read and absorb even thought I am able to read fast.   Tempted by the thought that it holds so many books which I can carry around to read wherever,   I have succumbed to the lure of a Kindle which will hopefully arrive next week.   Another learning curve is finding books to download as e-pub (used by the libraries) does not work with Kindle.   Looking through the 'free' books on Amazon was an interesting exercise,  most of them are so old (hence no copyright problems) and many of the subject matter quite odd.   There are several sites with free books so I will have to explore these.   There goes my blog update time!   I also discovered that the Kindle version of several of the books that I would like to read, are almost as pricey as the printed book.   I have a birthday coming up soon so will start hinting that I need money for books!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, I hope to get to visit with my granddaughter Victoria.   Something to look forward to.



I still find each day to short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see ~ John Burroughs.