Good Morning!

Good morning! And a lovely one it is here at The House With The Blue Door - frosty and bright, just calling me to go outside. It's taken a few days for me to recharge my batteries, now that we're in half term, but I've got a bit more energy now and even managed to crochet a whole thing yesterday! Yes, I actually completed something, albeit a small thing. I'm a bit late coming to manadalas I know, but decided that my dining table could do with a little round mat to put under my jug of flowers, so experimented a bit and came up with a very simple one in my favourite cotton yarn.

 The pastel colours go well with the pink tulips which are looking like they've seen better days, and I'm now thinking I'll make another to go with daffodils too. I could have a whole collection in different hues to match whatever flowers are in the jug! Hmmm - perhaps I'm getting a bit carried away here.

After a morning of rain yesterday it's wonderful to see the sun today and a luxury to be able to plan the day ahead. Today is Pancake Day here, or Shrove Tuesday, so we are ready to make pancakes for tea. I've bought some maple syrup (my favourite) and we'll have the traditional lemon juice and sugar too. D likes Nutella on hers so we'll have to make sure that we buy some more today.

The end is in sight now on J's blanket as I've joined all the granny squares together and am now darning in ends, a dull but necessary task. Once I'm on the border, I'll be nearly there - hurrah!

 We're quite busy making some changes here at the moment, as we're having some damp-proofing work done soon and then a new kitchen in coming months. We've also been moving furniture around and generally tidying, sorting and catching up with jobs. I can see that life will be a bit topsy-turvy for a while, but it'll be very worth it, and I think that small creative projects are better for me for the time being. Before I go I have a few more flowers to share with you. These are the lovely variegated red and yellow roses that P gave me for St Valentine's Day.

And here in the garden is a little, hidden-away clump of pale purple crocuses about to bloom. (Looking at this photo I can see some weeding needs to be done!).

Finally I thought I'd show you these shy hellebores, one in bud and the other in bloom but, as always, with a drooping head. They are members of the buttercup family and seed themselves freely in our garden. As a result we have quite a few of them dotted around mostly in varying shades of mauve and deep pink, but a couple of white ones too. 

How wonderful it is to have some flowers to look at again in the garden! I do so miss them in the winter months. Right, I can't stay indoors a moment longer in this glorious sunshine!

See you soon x