52 Weeks of Happy 17/52

Here are my happy things from last week.

1. Birthdays. It was my niece and nephew's birthdays, they were 5 and 1. We went to Legoland on Sunday to celebrate, with some of their friends and these are the presents I got them.

2. Grow Wild Seeds. They were giving away 230,000 packets, through Countryfile and I was lucky enough to get one. I haven't planted them yet but I'm looking forward to watching them grow.

3. Flowers in the rockery. I'm always happy to see these bright, yellow flowers bloom. I have no idea what they are but they remind me of the sun! 

4. Red Kites. There were quite a few Red Kites flying over the garden on Saturday. I took lots of photos (from the window as it was raining) but only got a few decent ones. I was surprised when I looked back through the photos to see I got four in one photo and that each bird was striking a different pose! 

I hope you are all having a good week.

Poem

I found out yesterday that a lady from my college course passed away this week. She is the fourth person I know that has died in under a year. Life can be cruel sometimes but I think we have to try and remember the good things.

Kew Gardens

Last Tuesday I met my friend in London and we went to Kew Gardens. It was lovely to meet up with my friend again, we try to meet at least once a year. We walked and talked, it's always nice to find out what she has been up to. We took lunch with us and sat in the sun to eat, it was quite warm in the sun but chilly in the shade. I took lots of photos, here are the best ones.

Cow Parsley

Bluebells

Snakeshead Fritillary

Summer Snowflake

Magnolia

Reflections on the water

I hope you enjoyed sharing this trip with me, well done if you made to the end!

52 Weeks of Happy 16/52

1. Kew Gardens. On Tuesday I met my friend in London and we visited Kew Gardens. I hadn't been before and didn't realise it was so big! I took loads of photos so I shall do a post in the week. 

2. Daffodils. I picked these up at Asda, I was surprised to still see them for sale. The orange middle with yellow petals are my favourite colour combination of daffodils.

3. Seeing friends. I popped over to see a friend on Friday night, we don't get to see each other that much since she moved so it's good to catch up.

4. Easter. Today was pretty hectic here, all the family came over for lunch then we did an egg hunt for the kids, which they were very excited about! They all left about 6.30pm then I made a sort of soup/broth with the leftover chicken, I had it for dinner and it was very tasty!

I hope you've all had a lovely Easter!

A year of blogging...

I'm celebrating a year of blogging today! The last year seems to have flown past without many changes in my life. I'm really happy I decided to start this blog, it has given me a positive focus for times when things aren't so good but also a place to record memories and I have enjoyed looking back at my posts. The 52 Weeks of Happy posts, which I started this year, have made me look for the happy things through the week. Being a carer, it's sometimes emotionally challenging so having the happy things to look for gives me something else to focus on. 

Blogging has made me notice things more than before because I'm always thinking about photos I could take for my blog. The changing seasons, flowers, insects, my outside space are all things I've taken more of an interest in, over the last year. I've learnt things from other bloggers too, such as the names of flowers in my garden and the identification of a caterpillar I'd found in the garden.

I first came across blogs when I was looking for how to/patterns/ideas for crochet. My nan has always crocheted but she found it hard to teach it so I looked at YouTube videos and on blogs. I started crocheting in April last year, just doing practice pieces at first. When I came across Lucy @Attic24 and her granny stripe blanket, I knew straight away I'd like to make one. Not long after I found Jacquie @BunnyMummy who had made the same blanket but in seaside colours, this was perfect for me as my favourite place is the beach so I started on my own blanket. I have been getting on with the blanket over the past couple of weeks but there is still a long way to go!

Thank you for all your lovely comments over the last year! All in all, blogging is great and I've really enjoyed it so here's to another year!

I'll leave you with some of my favourite photos from the last year.

52 Weeks of Happy 14 & 15/52

I still didn't feel too good last week so this is my catch up post for last week and this week. I'm feeling much better now but haven't really caught up on reading/commenting on blogs. It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks and I've been resting quite a lot. 

My happy things:

1. Essentials magazine. This is the May issue already! I always look forward to receiving my new issue and flicking through.

Photo Source

2. Crochet. I hadn't done any crochet for ages but I've managed to fit quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. I'm quite slow so although I've spent time crocheting, it doesn't look that much different!

3. Wool delivery. I received these this week, from Wool Warehouse, I love these colours but the photo doesn't really do them justice. I've been using Hayfield Bonus DK for my Granny Stripe blanket but thought I would try Stylecraft DK as lots of people seem to like it. These aren't quite as thick as the Hayfield so I'll see how they are to work with.

4. Fun in the sun! I spent most of Thursday in the garden with my niece and nephews, it was really warm when the sun was out but chilly when it went behind the clouds.

I hope you've had a lovely couple of weeks.