Day out at Woburn Safari Park

First of all, my apologies for being a very sporadic blogger right now. We are at our busiest time of year at work and my college course is starting to become time-consuming. I don't get much time to browse blogs at the moment, but will probably catch up one day.....!

Andy and I had a wonderful day out yesterday at Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire for a pre-birthday treat (my birthday is tomorrow). You can see my Woburn photo album here. And here are a couple of my favourites:

We were up close to the Siberian tigers. Yes, that is my wing mirror in the picture!

I also got up close to the cute wallabies! I'm never satisfied unless I can actually touch a creature!!

The best moment of the day though, was driving through the monkey enclosure. Several cars around us had monkeys leaping onto them and then leaping off again and we were heading towards the way out, without having had any monkeys being even slightly tempted to jump onto my car. I suddenly heard a little noise, almost like a shreiking noise and I noticed at the foot of a tree next to my car was a baby monkey calling for its mum! It looked so tiny and lost and I felt really distraught that it seemed to be so lost and alone. Suddenly this little baby took a running leap and landed on the roof of my little car! All the cars around us stopped and people were all fixed on my car roof!! Although I have a sunroof, the baby monkey was sitting at the back of the roof, so we couldn't see him from inside. Although I did see a little monkey paw resting on the back window for a few moments! Baby monkey continued shreiking from the top of my car. I really wasn't sure whether I should start driving and hope that little monkey would jump off safely or not. Anyway, I decided to stay put and sure enough, little monkey's mum eventually came out of hiding. Mum and baby gave each other a hug and we continued on our way!

There were lots of other beautiful and amazing animals to see. I loved the bears! I'd seen a polar bear before, but these were North American black bears and soooooooo cute!!! There were also some darling little marmosets who looked very mischevious, running along the fence to their enclosure and staring at all the people in a curious, tilted head way! I was sure that if I'd stood there much longer remarking on how sweet they were, one would probably have jumped onto my shoulder for a ride! There were also some very naughty squirrel monkeys - one stole a chocolate bar from a little boy's pocket and ran up the nearest tree to eat it! We had a fabulous day, but then I love animals so it was just my sort of thing.

On my big day tomorrow I'm going out for lunch with my brother and SIL to a little village called Fittleworth in the north of West Sussex which should be good. I also went out for lunch with my Dad on Saturday. Eeeek... so many calories! Then at the weekend it is Catriona's christening, so I'm going up to Yorkshire for a long weekend to do my duty as Godmother. It's Sharon's birthday at the end of the month, so we have plans for a girlie night out (well, as girlie as you can get in her little village!!). I'll try to blog again soon! :o)

Watergarden progress and a new arrival!

I've been stitching a bit on Watergarden whilst waiting to add the finishing details to Crescent Dreams!

Apologies again for the scan - if you want to see a better picture, just click on the link to my Webshots & its in the Works In Progress album. I've reached the outer edge at last & I love the golden gate! I'm going to put it down for a while now & firstly I shall finish off Crescent Dreams as baby Catriona Hope has finally arrived! She decided to make an appearance on Saturday evening. Both mum and baby are doing well & from the photos I've seen she sure is a cutie! They will be coming down very soon so Catriona can meet her grandparents, so I'm sure I'll be able to arrange a visit to see them. ;o)

Once CD is finished then I shall pick up Snow Princess again - I'm getting an urge to stitch lots of blues over 1..... I must be totally barking mad........!

I'm still here.

Yes, I am still around, though not very much lately. I am spending very little of my spare time on the PC at the moment, so I've been doing a bit of lurking on blogs & boards. The RSI I get in my right wrist/elbow from using a mouse is pretty painful recently & sometimes its enough to be on a PC most of the day at work. I'm still HDing with all of you though & sending hugs where necessary :o)

A huge thank you to everyone who sent hugs & warm wishes following my recent lump scare. They were really appreciated. I had my 2nd check up just over a week ago & all seems fine. My doc believed me to be quite run down & stressed which is probably effecting my immune system. I could do with a holiday & am off in 2 weeks time to go & stay with my best friend Sharon up in Yorkshire for an extended long weekend. We will be celebrating as she's just found out she's expecting again :o) They've been trying for baby no.2 for 3 years so I'm really pleased for them.

I have been doing a bit of stitching, but sadly the USB connector on my camera seems to have died totally meaning I can't upload the pics I took this morning :o( I have stitched her face and started her other arm which are over 1. I'm so pleased with how her face has turned out. I may have to get my brother to take a photo for me next time I'm visiting him & upload it that way.

I've discovered a wonderful garden nursery several miles away - Old Barn Nurseries which has re-ignited my gardening bug! They have some beautiful Japanese Maples, some must be very old indeed as I nearly fainted when I saw the price tag on the £5,999.00 one! It was gorgeous though. They also have a fantastic pantry/restaurant which has delicious food. I can fully recommend a visit! ;o)

Girlie day!

My best girlie friend in all the world came a-visiting me yesterday & we had a really lovely day. It was the first time she'd visited me since I moved last September so it was great to show her around the local area & the house etc. We had lots of chat to catch up on & she showed me what she'd been stitching recently, including one she had been stitching as a surprise for me SeaHorses! I've got a bit of a thing about seahorses & love this design, have done for a long time! Sharon's stitching it on SW Blue Dynasty linen & has added a bit of sparkle to the reeds. It looks fabulous so far - she hasn't got much more to do, so I shall be on at her to 'Stitch!' even more now ;o) She's driven back up to Yorkshire today & I got a text from her not so long ago to say that she'd arrived safely home. I'm going up to visit Sharon for a long weekend in September so am really looking forward to it.

I've still not had much of a chance to stitch, just a few threads here & there, though I have made a bit more progress on Forest Goddess, so will be posting a new piccie soon.

Dad is still not that well. He is now having to go up to the hospital to have an iron drip every 2 weeks as there is a severe lack of iron in his blood. He had a brain scan yesterday which is in preparation for him going to the TIA clinic in a couple of weeks time. I'm going over to see him tomorrow. He's been feeling a bit down, which is hardly surprising, so I'll probably take him out for a bit of lunch somewhere when we go out shopping.

Pirates 2... twice!

Well, I went to see Pirates on Saturday evening as planned & loved it!! There were so many laugh out loud moments & Johnny Depp was excellent (as usual). Anyway, I loved it so much I went to see it again this afternoon, this time with my nephew. I managed to see the first film 3 times at the cinema with different people, so am going for my own personal record with this one!! Another 2 people want to see it with me, so looks like I might manage it ;o)))))

I'm back to work this week, after having Wimbledon fortnight off so my stitching time has gone back to being limited again. The thing I loved about doing shiftwork on my last job was all the free time I had to stitch & then being able to stitch at work (whilst working on the switchboard) during evening, night & weekend shifts! Therefore, my stitching time is very precious to me, so I like to make the most of it.

My best friend is coming down from Yorkshire at the end of this week - yay! I'm going to pop in & see her on Friday for a while (she's staying at her parents house which is near to my Dad's) after I've seen Dad & then she's going to come over & spend the day with me hopefully next Thursday. It'll be great to see her - I really can't wait!

Olympia Show Report

What a lovely day I had at the show yesterday! :o) It had vastly improved on last year's effort which seemed to be far more papercrafts than stitching & I believe the company that runs the shows had lots of complaints about it. They've redeveloped the Olympia site, so there's now 3 levels - the entry level which is the main show which was 90% stitching stalls, an upper level which had most of the other crafts and a lower level with a restaurant & seating so you could munch on your picnic! There was a good selection of stitching goodies available & my best friend Sharon really choked me up - she knew I didn't have a great deal of cash to spare & she gave me a rather large sum of money as a gift of friendship. I really didn't know what to say & it was pretty emotional stuff! She is my oldest, dearest friend & we go back a very long way having known each other most of our lives. It's just great to know how much your friends think of you in the good times & the bad. So, thanks to Sharon I was able to have a lovely splurge on stash! I bought some beautiful beads from a stall called Whichcraft by an unknown maker (well, they weren't Delicas or Mill Hills - that much I know!) which I'm going to try & incorporate into my Titania conversion, I also bought Celestial Spheres by Mary Hickmot which is a gorgeous kit & I've wanted to stitch the solar system for ages! I picked up Mira's Blossom Harvest and L&L's Celtic Winter and my bargain of the day were these fantastic bead storage boxes which were £9.99 each & the day before I'd come across them online at their full price of £50! So, not one to let a bargain pass me by, I got 2. :o) The show wasn't as crowded as previous years, although we've never been on a Sunday before & I presumed it would be packed as it was the last of 4 days. I'd definitely go on a Sunday again & can't wait until next year!

When we got back to Sharon's parents I spent a few hours with them & our other friend Richard came over in the evening so we played a couple of games. One was hilarious - it's called Dancing Eggs. There's an eggbox containing 10 rubber/wooden eggs. There are 2 die, one indicates what you do to get an egg (run around the table, crow like a cockerel etc) and the other one tells you where you have to keep your egg (between your knees, inbetween your neck & shoulder, under your arm etc). It's hilarious & obviously the more eggs you have, the more difficult the tasks are! We also played the movie game Scene It, which was pretty good. We're all film buffs, so we were in teams - me & Sharon versus Richard & James (Sharon's DH) and of course, us girlies beat the guys not once, but twice! Lol. We had a great evening & I am hoping to go up to Yorkshire so I can see them soon.