Heres wishing you all a merry Christmas and hope one and all has a happy, healthy New Year for 2010.

Fell rather sad and guilty today as a couple of herons or cranes have eaten 11 of my fish.  Noticed this morning that rather a lot of water was missing but didnt realise the fish were also. Then as I was waiting for my cousin Deb to pick me up to take me shopping I noticed one heron/crane on the rooftops. I had netting over the pond but when I had replaced the pump in the summer I hadnt put the netting back on properly.... When I returned from shopping I thought I had better refill the pond, only to realise that there were only 8 fish in the pond instead of 19. Daughter Kate then heard strange noises from my dads garden which we later identified as a heron. Then son Damon saw two swooping down on the field at the back of us while he was walking Max our German Shepherd. I caught sight of them in the distance and thought that was the last of them. So I refilled pond and put new pond protection net over and thought that the fish would be fine now... Then this afternoon my dad came home and came running in to tell me that there was one large and one juvenile heron on our roof! I rushed out into my garden to make sure the fish were alright, only to find the fish in only about 6 inches of water...the herons beaks had cut into the butyl liner without me realising it. So now the poor remaining 8 fish are in a temporary plastic box in the garden with lots of metal grilles etc over them to protect them. My poor fish.... I feel really guilty. If only I had put the old netting back on properly, Ive had the new netting for about 2 months now and hadnt bothered.... I love birds, and normally see the cranes or herons fly over my garden early in the morning on their way back to the Thames marshes and never see them in the middle of the day. Just hope they leave the remaining fish alone.

Well I still havent had chance to photograph all my makes - migraine and weather have been too bad, and daughter Kate has been playing Modern Warcraft until all hours (she goes to bed when I get up) since her break up with boyfriend Matt a month ago she has taken again to sleeping in my bed.
The weather here in Kent (as all over England I expect) is terrible, very gusty and torrential downpours, so I have been looking around blog land and have found  a lovely blog http://frenchlarkspur.blogspot.com/  by Tracey, and she is having a marvellous giveaway. It includes some lovely textiles with french wording on, which I love (a lot of my recent makes have English and French words on so I am going to enter Traceys giveaway- i have never entered one before) So click on French Larkspurs link and have a look! What a lovely name too, roses, larkspur, geranium and poppies, my most favourite flowers. I grow larkspur every year, most of it self seeding, some from an original sowing from my parents house back in the early 1970s.
Hopefully tomorrow I can pull Kate out of my bed and start photographing my lovely linen and gingham makes! Hope the weather isnt too bad where my blogger friends are, Betty x

I just wanted to post in remembrance of all our servicemen past and present who have died for our country and other countries far and wide. Coming from a long line of military men on my fathers side (his grandfather and great grandfather were career army men from 1860s to 1920 between them, and dad like most men of his age spent a good few years doing his bit, and both my grandfathers were in the trenches in the 1st World War)
I cant bear to listen to the news lately or read the papers to see how many of our young men are dying still in foreign fields. Let us hope they will all return home safe one day soon.

Goodness its been a while again, but I have been busy sewing if nothing else! My daughter Kate loves going to game expos. In May she went to one as a female warrior type with scanty costume and huge sword, but decided she wanted to go as something more pretty for the October expo. So I made her a Belle dress from Beauty and the Beast.  Kate said that hundreds of people took her photo, but we havent any of them! When she arrived and dressed in the toilets of the expo in London a girl took her photo and luckily posted it on the net, so here it is, rather blurry, here is my beautiful Belle

I havent blogged for a month or so as I have been getting terrible migraines every time I look at the screen, so I have been busy sewing (which also has been giving me migraines! I think I have been eating too much chocolate and cheese....) I am going to post my creations next week as I am busy this week helping my brother Bill who has been recovering from a heart attack who has and still is quite poorly.
But my main reason for coming on is to give a link to my cousin Debbies Wednesday giveaway for a wreath of her pretty paper roses - view her blog and websites, she makes beautiful lifelike roses and is such a lovely person - so please visit her and post a comment and be included in her giveaway. I would if only I wasnt her cousin.... Cant wait to photograph all my new creations, I really feel in a sewing mood. I have to make my grown up daughter Kate a Belle evening dress from Beauty and the Beast before next Saturday, so wish me luck!
http://debbie-paper-roses.blogspot.com/2009/10/wednesday-give-away.html

It was very windy yesterday so decided to bring some flowers into the bedroom.I dont know why but I dont normally have cut flowers in the house or houseplants for that matter.When they look so beautiful in the garden I just hate to cut them I suppose. I have one single houseplant, a mother in laws tongue that I bought when I was 16 in my lunchbreak when working at Grand Buildings Trafalgar Sq. I still have it,although i always forget to water it (up on bathroom cupboard,too high to reach, but it still survives) Put lovely roses,echinops,golden rod,annual asters and some herbs on my bedside table, but removed them when I got in bed. Table looked bare this morning, so I am going to have to replace them with something floral when they start drooping.

 

Am totally exhausted this morning after watching Andy Murrays epic match at Wimbledon on TV last night. Lasted 4 minutes short of 4 hours and I swear I played every shot with him! Poor Andy, I hope he managed to get a good sleep last night ready for the quarters on Wednesday. Talk about Braveheart, he showed immense courage and looked very emotional at the end. Well done Andy!
Must try and get in the garden today (was far too hot to stay out for more than a few minutes yesterday, and it looks like it is hotter today) Have bought some expensive strong mesh to make covers for my veg polytunnels, hoping to keep the slugs and snails off my lettuces. They have managed to get inside the greenhouse and demolish many lettuce plants. Havent managed to find the right size covers for my tunnels, so decided to make some from the enviromesh i bought from http://www.gardening-naturally.com/ Will have to get the sewing machine out today I think before I dont have any salad crops left. My tunnels are 2 metres long x 1 metre wide and about 32 inches high, and I have looked everywhere for replacement covers (fleece and mesh). I also have some cheap smaller tunnels I bought from the Pound Shop, which are about 2m long but not very wide or high, just right for lettuces, so I think I may use the metal arches from these to make smaller tunnels for the lettuce, and make sure I dig some of the enviromesh down into the soil to stop those pests! Photos to follow hopefully!