Today is the last day of summer....

Oh I've been sooo busy!! There was the .. rescuing the neighbours from a disaster waiting to happen... winning the local show with the largest home grown vegetables EVER... running in six marathons... OK OK so lying is afoot...
In truth I am thoroughly enjoying making homemade breads...

cakes for home time, as the childers returned to school two weeks ago - and I miss them! Truly do. They have been lovely to have around. Sometimes (and I 've probably said this) but it is lovely to take the time to look around and "love the place your in", some times - like sunday - I came down to spend the morning tidying, so that my afternoon could be taken up with cake, knitting and The Railway Children (movie). I found myself picking up 12- yes 12 Wii games piled high, 8 videos (we still watch a bit of video) and 3 DVDs (because we are up with the trends too!) Cups, sweetie wrappers... please don't picture "How Clean is Your House" it's not as bad as that. it's just children isn't it?
I is not commenting on my sewing room :-) That of course is VERY different. For example, if we were to entertain surprise visitors, they would NOT be ushered into a room off the kitchen which was once a garage!! They would be invited to sit next to yesterdays breakfast plates left by the good chair.
We have more than one chair..
This is going off the beaten track now... I start to type and like a councilling session it all pours out ;-)
One has been sewing don't you know..

and there has been a bit of this...

That's what I mean.. Love the place your in... this park is 10 mins down hill from Chez Hope, and after cake, it's 20 mins uphill...

Special Garden

We have recently returned from our holidays, which I've said. We drove from Scotland, down to the south coast of England, taking a ferry from Dover to Calais. (stayed overnight Dover) Then drove from Calais down to the small village of St Julien de Landes . It felt like the longest drive so we were all delighted to get there. Not with the grey drizzle that we had left in Scotland, driven through in France and which welcomed us to our home for a few weeks - we were expecting some sunshine!! Anyway, nxt day we woke up to the sunshine thank goodness. We had a really lovely holiday, very relaxing. Mr H was asked when he returned to work what the highlight had been for him. He told me, he didn't even have to think about his reply it came out so quickly... "..eating with his family every night."
I think I've moaned about this before because it gets to the girls from time to time but I hadn't thought about how it can get to him.
Anyway, the last few days of our holiday were spent in Paris, to break the long trek home. The first day we went to one of my favourite gardens. The painter Claude Monet's garden in Giverny. We were lucky enough to go there 12 years ago when we just had one little 2 year old. It was a scorching day and we had to sip alot of water and eat alot of icecream.
This time we took our brollies, and wore jumpers. The weather wasn't the best BUT it didn't spoil anything. Maybe it made it less busy, which is good thing. Hopefully it won't be 12 years before the next visit.

What a beauty...

Well i have the cable now after sending Mr H up into the attic, just can't get the computer to accept the camera when it's plugged in. I suspect it is because the camera is needing charged... such a technical whizz me!!
In the meantime... great excitement for me last week. I took possession (it's 9/10ths of the law) of my mother's old bike. I had decided not to use the car at all this summer, and have failed miserably. So last week I walked up to mum's and down in the basement rooted out this beauty...

It's from early 1990s, maybe late 80s. My mum decided she was going to take up cycling, bought the bike, used it once and then hated it. It looks brand new and now has my big basket on the front. It's truly a beauty.