Back at last.

Hello everyone, hope you are all well and happy.  Sorry that I've been missing again,  my Mom hasn't  too well and it's taken up quite a bit of time trying to get her sorted.  Happily, she's much better now and more able to cope again.

I have been trying to keep up with you all as time allowed, but I'm afraid I've been a bit light on commenting.

Anyway, a quick update on things here.  Wilfred and Winifrid Prickles have been having a great deal of late night activity in the garden - I've even managed to get a few minutes of Winifrid snuffling and scratching about on video (which took me days to upload onto the laptop!)  I'm planning on starting a new hedgehog page sometime this week (fingers crossed) so I'm keeping it to put on there.  They are eating me out of house and home getting through an inordinate amount of dried mealworms (ugh!) sunflower hearts, sultanas and crushed peanuts as well as the natural creepy crawlies from the garden.

I haven't had too many bargains as I just haven't had the time to seek them out, but here are some that I did get.

A pink single duvet cover and pillow case in new condition for £1.25.  I shall find use for the fabric :o)

A lovely old stoneware jar and cover 7.5" tall and 625" diameter.  £1.25

Which is sitting on my kitchen worktop.

Two sweet little birds standing about 2.5" high £1.75 the pair.  Now nesting on my Welsh dresser.

Nice, chunky candlesticks one 8" and one 12" tall.  £3.50 on total.

Then, a few days later I found these in the same shop.

8" tall chunky candles £1.25 each - made to measure!

Made for each other, right?  In storage until inspiration strikes :o)

Backstamp dated after 1940

Now, as you can imagine I had other things on my mind so I didn't check this properly :o(  no obvious chips or cracks so I paid £5.50 for the dish and it was well packaged in bubble wrap, but when I got home and tapped the side there was a dull 'clunk' instead of a 'ring'.  Yes, there is a crack I didn't see in the shop.  Let that be a lesson for you all.  (If I'd have checked it and found it was cracked I'd certainly have had the price reduced, but it'll do as display only.)

And lastly... two matted prints by Maud Earl 1864-1943

Taken from the book 'Memories' by the British play write John Galsworthy (of Forsyte Saga fame)

a biography about his pet black spaniel.

"Rushing piece of blackness, through the blacker night"

and

"Through the window of a four-wheeler into Kensington"

These are taken from the book published in 1912, and were packaged with the guarantee sticker that they were as described.  They were not priced, but I knew I'd heard of Maud Earl so I took them to the check-out and asked the price - 50p each :o))  Result, that more than made up for the Masons Vista dish.

I've also bought a new macro lens for my camera, here's a few flowers from the garden before I sign off.

And finally ( FINALLY!)

I visited George and Tesses Mom and Dad on Saturday and got these few shots :o)

Tess lying, George sitting.

George

Tess.

Well, I'm off to try and sort another mess out - I deleted Picasa from my laptop and discover that lots of older posts are now photo-less...AAaaaargh!

Best wishes to you all.