"I held the book so tightly in my hands."

A bit of an obscure title for a post, let me explain.

One of my favourite bands back in the day was Genesis, I saw them once at  Earls Court in London back in 1977. Anyway, they made an album called "Duke." in 1980.

One of the best tracks was called "Between the Lines."

And that's where the lyric comes from.

And now we get to the reason for the post.

IT'S HERE!!

More lyrics from the same song "It's written in the book."

You will be able to pre-order from Amazon soon. I believe that you can already from Barnes and Noble. I'll put all the links up when I have them. Meanwhile, I'm off to hold it for a while longer.

Meet the family

We had a family get together for Yvonne's birthday, travelling to Kent for a few days. It's why I've been quiet on the blogging front.

The problem here is which order to put the pictures in, who goes first? They're all my favourites but I have to start somewhere.

So in order of the furthest away from me first, here is Georgina, our youngest, in Adelaide. She couldn't be with us but we had a long phone call and we'll be seeing her soon (I hope).

Here's me with Maeve, our middle daughter Naomi's child. she's the latest addition to the family,

Here's Elsa, our eldest daughter's daughter.

Finally, here they all are, together with Yvonne. That's (clockwise from top),  Yvonne, Naomi, Maeve. Elsa and Amy-Rose.

It was great to be with them all, I only wish George could have been here with us too. And Yvonne says thanks for all the cake and presents.

Mermaids bed

This is really Yvonne's post, I'm just typing the words and putting the pictures up for her. When our first grandchild was born, Yvonne made her a dolls bed, using a fairy theme. 

When Maeve came along, naturally she decided to do another one, this time using mermaids as the inspiration.

The bed itself was straightforward enough, a hexagon quilt and crochet blanket on a wooden bed from Ikea.

The pillow was made with a cross-stitch panel of a mermaid in the middle.

That just left the doll and look as she might, Yvonne could not find a mermaid of the right proportions to look right.

She did, however, find a doll that could be adjusted to fit.

So she sewed the legs together and padded them out. 

She made a mermaid tail shaped piece of fabric and sewed it into place. 

She made a shell bra and fitted it.

She sewed ribbons into its hair.

And a mermaid was born!

Wordless, the plants that grow out of the walls in Devon

These tenacious plants were all spotted on my walk. None of them should be growing where they are, after all there is little nourishment for a plant in a stone wall. Yet here they are, in a testament to the power and persistence of nature.

5 Minute Hummus, an inspirational walk and Yvonne's cards

I went for a long walk with the dog this morning, all around Sharkham Point and it was glorious, I do love it there, it's always different. There are so many tracks and paths and they all give you a new view of the place. And now the ferns are growing up its changing again. The Elderflower is coming out which means that it will soon be June and I can start making wine and cordials.
Here are a few pictures from my walk, as ever it was inspirational and I got home bursting with writing ideas.

There was a car carrier coming in to take a channel pilot, I looked at it and thought, "did I really used to drive one of those?"

I've been retired for a year now and I don't miss it yet.

For lunch, I made a 5 minute Hummus, just  a chopped and fried onion, these ingredients and a bit of oil, and garlic.

Soften the onion and mix everything together in the blender with a splash of Lemon Juice.

Blend to a smooth paste and season to taste.

Serve with a Sundried Tomato roll, delicious.

Georgina, our daughter in Australia sent us this picture of her feeding the ducks in Adelaide.

 and Yvonne has discovered this amazing colouring book, cards and colouring together!

She has the cards and the envelopes to do, here's her first attempts.

and the inside,

and the envelopes, absolutely gorgeous!

and finally, a picture of my grandchildren, who we are off to see soon, can't wait.