In The Pink

Greetings. I have been unable to blog as much as I'd like of late....not an apology, just the first line of the ' word from me '; in fact I have had little time for much recently. I have spent some quality time with family which is always a top priority and treasured event but have found myself a little confused to where the rest of the time goes, and what I would like to fit into it! Above is a picture of my crafty pursuits. (Blimey that's a bright picture. If it looks likely to leave permanent retinal burn when posted I'll change it for a black and white version!) Anyway, I play the guitar and have recently taken up the piano again, (top soundtrack and film for those who haven't seen The Piano by the way). I have crocheted.......crocheyed......well you get the gist, for many years having been taught by my paternal grandmother but have recently started to push myself into more advanced crochet under the experienced and extremely skillful supervision of my Mum, ...

For anyone who has not heard Alan Johnston was freed last night after 4 months of captivity! This is wonderful news to wake up to and I would like to extend my heart felt thanks to everyone who supported the campaign for his release. Welcome home Alan!

Greetings. I have become dissatisfied with the appearance of my blog recently. I cannot find another template that I like and I lack the necessary skills to further develop my blog apart from adding columns of add-ons that I don't want. My sister bought me a brilliant blogging book a while ago. I devoured it in the first .....well few days I think and feel I am ready for the next step. The book I have is The Rough Guide to Blogging. Can anyone recommend another book to help me progress? I am not adverse to learning html and have made a few steps there myself but there must be a book for this?!?!?There's a book for everything isn't there? All help gratefully received!

Ginkgo biloba

This weeks 'weekly six' is dedicated to 'public open spaces'! Yesterday I went out with my camera to one of my favourite local parks. I used to work in local government as the tree officer and this was one of the parks that I looked after, my parade square if you like! Its been raining in England (really throughout all of it!) ' a hard cold rain. A kind of rain that washes away the grimy cover of would be villains and out into the darkness ' .... sorry about that deviation anyway it has been raining for weeks now which has great effect on vegetation so everything looked verdant, albeit all to a grey backdrop! I wish to pay tribute to parks and open spaces for the benefit they provide for all. This particular park is situated in the centre of a large, busy town however once inside the avenue of trees situated around the entire park boundary, the traffic sounds are replaced with bird song and you could be anywhere, for an hour or two. This avenue leads into the ...