Six word Stories

Joining in with Miriam to tell a story in six words. This week the word was 'cool'.

Amanda x

10 Things Tuesday- Spring

Sunday heralded the first day of spring and so I thought I would use that as my theme for this week. 10 signs of Spring.

1

Spring cleaning! Brand new supplies and good intentions! 

2

Easter decorations. It doesn't seem that long since the Christmas decorations came down but now it's time for pastels, eggs and bunnies.

3

A bit of DIY and gardening. Every where you look the shops are full of plants, garden furniture and diy products. There's nothing like a new project to start the new season.

4.

 Blue skies and warmer weather...Hopefully!

5

 

New shoots and growth

 6

 Birds nesting

7

Beautiful spring flowers

8

 

Fields full of sheep and lambs

 9.

Birdsong

10.

And after this weekend...an extra hour of daylight to enjoy it all.

What says 'Spring' to you?

Amanda x

Sunday Snippets, Spring and a Swap

Joining in with Jocelyn for Word of the Week

Baby steps all the way this week. Little by little I'm making progress, well I feel I am anyway :) 

Last week's feelings of being unsettled have drifted away as the sun has begun to shine. It's quite amazing how just a little bit of warmth and fresh air make everything seem a little more positive.

I've tried to be a little more constructive this week in how I spend my time and have made some tiny effort to get things ticked off my 'to do' lists. I'm feeling stronger each day and feel more able to do things and so I've made a start!

Firstly  I hit the garden centre. I am definitely not a gardener, despite years of frustration on my grandmother's part to turn me into one, so it's much easier just to buy what I need, rather than try to grow anything. However I have been pottering (No pun intended) trying to grow some seeds and store bulbs for replanting, so maybe some of that green fingered wisdom is seeping through!

I was recently given a book on small container vegetable gardening that I was surprisingly excited about, you see progress...I might make a gardener yet.:)

I am also making small steps in slowly moving back into my own place. Having rented out my house for the last few years I'm now in the process of moving back in. I've taken time to get it ready, get some building work done and painted a bit, so it's just about ready to move back into.  It's going to be strange living back on my own after 18 months living with my grandmother.

This wasn't on my to do list! But then I decided that I hated the terracotta colour of the porch thingy at the front of my house and so my next project is to repaint it. I managed to pick up some paint from the local 'free for all' (where for a couple of quid I came away with a large tin of Dulux) and I'm poised and ready to go! 

My daily walk has definitely been improving this week. I started off 3 weeks ago, very slowly taking about 20 minutes to walk half a mile. Little by little I've walked a little bit further each day and stopped when I was in pain or too tired. This week I'm now up to walking 3 miles and at a much quicker pace. I know its's not a great deal in the grand scheme of things, but for the 'post op me' I'm pleased with what I'm doing and more importantly I'm really enjoying getting out of the house and getting some fresh air.

So  progress has been made and I'm feeling optomistic. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and spring is here.:)

Another lovely thing happened this week is a fabulous parcel I received from Ellie @ Feltabulous. It was part of a stationery swap set up by Tracy at http://madaboutbagsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/super-stationary-swap.html

It was a great idea to send items of stationery to our swap partners...and who doesn't just love stationery? Any excuse to have new notebooks and papers and pretty things!

My parcel was lovingly wrapped in some pretty spring paper. It was all very exciting!

A whole bunch fabulous stuff was inside.

Some lovely paper and a notebook- just my colours too!

A beautifully handmade patchwork book mark, some sticky notes ...and as a teacher..I just love a good sticky note!....and the cutest little fox peg clips.

How lovely! Thank you Ellie.

Another smile to end the week. Hope you've all had a good week too.

Amanda x

Six Word Story- Moon

Joining in with Miriam to tell stories in 6 words. 

This week the word was Moon. Now I don't have a great deal of night time photos and so I ended up trawling my archives. 

It's almost a year since the last Lunar eclipse and I remember clicking away like mad trying to get a decent shot. What I do remember is how weird and strange it was, particularly as all the birds went quiet.

A rare occurrence...you could almost say it was once in a blue moon! 

Amanda x

10 Things Tuesday - Faces and places

Tuesday again!- Where does the time go? Last week I decided to resurrect my 10 things Tuesday and show sets of things that go together.

 I asked if anyone had any suggestions for some lists and Alexa kindly gave me a few ideas of which I'm working on. 

This week however, is just a few photos that seemed to jump out at me as I was trawling through my files.

Over the last few weeks I've been slowly sorting out photos from my files to try and piece together some semblance of order. I've made a couple of photobooks and still have loads more that I will eventually print out. 

It was while I was going through these I found some people pictures! This is quite rare for me, as aside from lots of friends and family photos, my photographs rarely involve people. I have lots of landscapes, close ups, food, and quirky shots, but it's not often I take portraits. I always feel like I'm intruding I suppose. Where I have got some portrait shots, it's usually either surreptitiously using a zoom lens or I'll have spent ten minutes plucking up the courage to ask for a photo! 

So here we are 10 faces and places from my travels. Apologies if some feel familiar, I cant quite remember which I may have posted before!

1.

 A elderly gentleman Flautist in a park in Ho Chi Minh City (Formally Saigon), Vietnam

2.

 Vietnam again! This time an orange robed monk sat in the market square in Dalat. Dalat is in the central highlands, an old french inspired town, with a fantastic fruit and veg market.

3.

 Hoi An is a beautiful old city in central Vietnam that has also a beach a few kilometers away. We cycled there one afternoon and stopped for a drink at one of the beach cafes. This lovely little lady served us and loved having her photo taken:)

4.

 Hanoi, Northern Vietnam. A very serene looking lady looking beautiful in her traditional 'Ao dai'.

5.

Hanoi again. A lovely lady looking resplendent in purple velvet, hopefully having sweet dreams!

6.

 Halong Bay in the north of Vietnam is stunning. This lady rowed us around her water village...and never stopped smiling:)

 7.

 This cheeky chap was snapped on market day in Luang Prabang, Laos. It was a fabulous place to visit.

8.

 On the way back from Louang Namtha in the north of Laos, we passed this little girl by the side of the road and I managed to snap this through the minibus window.

9.

 Another cutie. This time, messing about in a boat in KK (Kota Kinabalu) 

Malaysian Borneo.

10

 On the way up to Mount Kinabalu near KK, we would often stop at a group of little local stalls selling crafts and such like. This little girl was the shopkeeper's daughter.

Ok, so we've had 10, but here's a couple more to make it 12 on a Tuesday.

 This lady was trying to sell us some very pretty jewellery in Northern Laos.

Snoozing in Singapore. A rickshaw driver, just outside Raffles Hotel, waiting for a fare.

So there you are, 12! Things Tuesday for another week.

Anymore suggestions and I'll see what I can do:)

Until next time

Amanda. x

Six Word Stories and Sunday Snippets

What a Day!

Joining in with Miriam to tell a story in six words.

If I had one word to describe how this week has been then I would go with 'Unsettled'. Not in too bad a way, just in a rather strange and 'out of sorts' way. I'm sure we all get a bit like this sometimes.

Perhaps it's like the weather, never knowing what each day will bring, whether it's going to be cold or mild, wet or dry. 

It feels like I'm chomping at the bit, waiting for something to happen. Waiting for spring? The good weather? To feel fitter? To get my independence back? I really don't know what it is, but it's all just a little unsettling.

I have made progress this week though and am feeling like I can do more and more each day. It's still all very surprising though how much surgery takes it out of you. 

I've had some lovely days out and on Wednesday I even went to watch 'Collabro' in concert. Yes, I was shattered and sore by the end of the evening but it was great to be out and about.

 I've tried to walk a little more and get some fresh air this week too. It's lovely to see all the little subtle changes to the fields and hedgerows as each day moves onto the next.

 I've been taken to the garden centre a few times. Mostly just to visit the coffee shop, but I am inspired to grow some veg this year and try my hand at some container planting.

More coffee shop visits! This was a new one to me but it will certainly become a favourite once I can get behind the wheel again.

A girly afternoon in the Lakes involved some beautiful scenery, some quirky stopping off places and a fabulous afternoon tea.

 This sign made me smile! 

 

So really it's not been too bad a week. Who knows what next week will bring. Hope you had a good one. :)

Amanda x

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