School Holidays, Book Clubs & Other Bits

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Just squeezing in a last post on this final day of April.

 If I scratch around I can still find a few flowery pickings in my late autumn garden  💗

Right after I hit Publish on my last post I lit the first fire for the year.  I gathered all my potted plants that usually grace the hearth & moved them down to the hospital corner at the end of my lounge.  This area gets lovely afternoon sun through the French Doors & the plants do well here over the winter months. The quilt is covering The Mr's exercise bike which never ever hardly gets used 😉

The fire has gone most days since I first lit it & various furry friends take turns at sleeping in the prime spot.

School went back for another term yesterday & I breathed a sigh of relief.  I usually enjoy having the Grandsons for the holidays but this time round, for some reason, I found it felt a bit exhausting.  

The first week, when they were mostly here together, we did arts & crafts.  Sid is always right into this, Alec not so much.  I also took Alec to the movies to see Ghostbusters.  This would've been far to scary for Sid to watch.  

During the second week Alec flew with his Mum to Wellington & went on another wonderful tramp together in the Tararua Ranges.

I took Sid to the Domain to practise his soccer skills when the weather permitted.

We made robots together.  Mine is the smiley face one & his is the rather sour face one .......... 

I took Sid to the movies & we saw Kung Fu Panda.  He had an extra large box of popcorn all to himself (!!)

He asked to go Op-shopping 😜 - I parked outside the Op Shop & gave him a talk about how "we don't buy it just because its there & we have to buy something - we buy things we like & need & that are a reasonable price & not trashy or just junk"  (actually Hark at Me as I buy quite a lot of junk !!!) 😉

It clearly worked because we visited 4 different Op-Shops & he only purchased this soft toy Dolphin for $2 ... whilst Granny bought the pretty pale green plate which she fell in love with for $4.

I thought it might look pretty with the green accents that I currently have in my bedroom & felt it went just perfectly when I hung it on the wall   💚

After the Grandsons went home again I did my usual big clean-up & managed an autumnal display on the table in my dining-room corner, using up some of the lovely faded hydrangeas that are currently in the garden.  

I found this casserole dish from Mum's china cabinet that I'd bought home when I cleared out No 44.   It had been an engagement present for them so it's well over 60 years old. It's silver with a glass bowl & lid that sits inside it, very discoloured as you can see.  I remember Mum only ever used it on a couple of special occasions. 

Look at those sweet dainty little feet on it.

I polished it with Silvo & it came up beautifully.  As I was making up a fresh batch of rose petal potpourri I filled the dish & scented it generously with Rose/Geranium Oils.  The lounge smells wonderful & I'm enjoying having the dish on display.

Although I have belonged to my local Paper Plus Bookclub for over 2 years I have never actually attended a meeting, always having good intentions but my going-out-at-night-skills are somewhat lacking.  I knew I wanted to go last Wednesday very much because one of my favorite (local) authors Danielle Hawkins was speaking about her new book. 

I have all 5 of Danielle's earlier books, just love her writing & think she is a wonderful, special person.  The last time I saw her was when she walked in my driveway - you can read about that in this post from 2017.  I loved listening to her talk & then afterwards she would sign our books if we wished.  So it was lovely to get to speak with her again & when I told her I was a Granny now the first thing she asked me was "do you do arts & crafts with your Grandsons?"  Why YES I do!!! 

I am about a quarter of the way through this, her latest book,  & enjoying it immensely. 

Thank you all so very much dear friends if you've stayed til the end.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week - remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,