All creatures great and small

I love them - we have a family of red squirrels in the garden who demand peanuts, magpies who have stand offs with the squirrels over the peanuts, a couple of pheasants who potter around doing their thing then there is a ruddy great big hare! He is huge, twice the size of my cat! It is great to have all this wildlife in the garden BUT dear Mr Hare has just eaten my glorious display of crocuses. They had just bloomed in the spring sunshine and gave a great splash of yellow and purple in our currently brown garden. Now they are gone, munched, no more - I am devastated! However my son saved the day by coming up to me in the garden as I mourned my crocuses and with a gentle pat on the back and a big hug he said 'Don't worry Mummy, it doesn't matter' It's true - it doesn't matter and far worse things will happen that we will have to deal with. Sometimes we need 4 year olds to remind us of that.

Extremes

They say variety is the spice of life - well we have experienced both extremes of the spectrum these past few weeks - starting off with having to drill a hole in the lake to get water to wash with, collecting logs for the fire early morning in -17 degrees C and hunting for Easter eggs before they got buried by more snow! Then having flown across the pond we sat sipping cold beer by the warm pool, splashed in some great waves and ate huge pancakes for breakfast! Of course we met Mickey and had many a ride on the carousel in glorious sunshine. We loved it all!

Home again

Well I am back home in body but my brain is not sure if is still in the USA or in England! We have gone from 85 degree F heat in Orlando to 4 inches of snow at Mum's in the UK and now a grey damp Finland - no wonder I am bewildered! Time to download photos, put on more washing and try empty the suitcases by the weekend(not sure that will happen!) I love going away but I love coming home too....

Holiday time!

We all enjoyed a lovely Easter break at our summer cottage, near Lappeenranta, about 40 kms from the Russian border. Lots of snow, clear blue skies - it was beautiful. I love the way of life there, back to basics and at the moment with the lake frozen there is no running water. So drinking water from the neighbours well and washing/sauna water from the lake, after my husband has drilled through the ice! Logs need to be collected to keep the fire going so plenty to do! The children had fun with a egg hunt on Sunday morning,nearly a disaster as it started to snow big time but my eagle eyed son managed to find them all.
Now we are off on a trip of another kind - the other extreme you might say, Orlando, Florida to see Mickey and his mates! At least it won't be -17 degrees C there. It will be nice too for the kids not to have to wear winter suits and boots for a few days. Time for some fun - I can't wait!

Eggs galore!

I have been making Easter eggs by the dozen, well at least 1 dozen! They are such fun to make and the possibilities are endless.....
Also talking of Easter, check out the Easter parade at http://qdpatooties.blogspot.com/ ,where I have a couple of entries - a hot chick and a Easter bunny! Some of the other entries are just amazing - what a clever lot we all are!

Almost done

My website is almost done but still needs a few finishing touches. Once I'm happy then I will go 'global' -in other words e mail everyone I know to tell them!! I have summoned up enough energy to finish the caterpillar and a pincushion I owed as a swap and tonight managed a few more Easter eggs. I really enjoy making them as the design possibilities are endless and they look great in a little nest!

Non creative week

It's actually been a bit of a 'non' week in all aspects! We have all been struck down with the flu so lots of paracetamol and hot drinks all round. Plus just as we thought spring was on its way , it snowed - lots - so winter is temporarily back well and truly. I managed to get to my business class but with the tutor deciding to choose this week to speak Finnish(usually the course is done in English), me blowing my nose like Dumbo and being deaf in one ear, I'm afraid the finer points of Pricing and Invoicing passed me by. Hopefully I will have better luck in next weeks Book keeping class!