Christmas Eve 2015

Christmas Eve- and the year has flown past!
Looking back, it's been a tough year and then, a beautiful one.
We have been through the mill with hubby and his workplace, but thanks to the kindness of the legal and medical professions, we have made it through -  and find ourselves in a much nicer place.

In the process we have lost some friends. Friends of the season, I like to think of them as. Farewell to you, at the end of this year, I wish you well for the future. As they have left, there has been room made for new friends. Hello and welcome to you all. I hope you prove to be friends of a lifetime.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that we have moved to the beautiful country of Scotland, where we have been welcomed with open arms.

You may also be wondering, what's happening with the storytelling? I can tell you, I have picked up the computer and the third in the Leaves Series is progressing well. I hope to bring you Anna and Chloe, Angus and Seamus in their new adventure, some time in the summer.

Paddy, our jack russell, adores his new lifestyle. The countryside he finds himself in is rich in smells and friends. We see him grow in confidence daily.

I'm all ready for Christmas, and this new chapter. I wish you the blessings of the season. See you in the New Year.

On my wall, the amazingly talented Kim!

Today I picked up a couple of paintings that I'd had professionally framed.
Do you remember when we were raising funds for Lottie to have a dance wheelchair? The amazingly talented Kim Lintern donated some of her paintings to help raise funds.
When I saw these two included in the sale, I had to have them.. and today they came back to me and are on my wall..

Trying to photograph them was proving tricky, due to reflections  -

So I popped them on the floor, on the patterned rug to give me contrast, then cropped the final picture..

So now you have a better idea of the beautiful work, hanging on my wall.

If you'd like to see more of Kim's art, you can visit here website HERE
or connect with her on Twitter  - @kimlinternart

An Announcement... of which I am immensely proud.

No sooner am I back on line, but I have an Announcement.

I am immensely proud of being awarded an Honorary Membership, in recognition of outstanding work in Advanced Reflexology.

This honour is in recognition of what I do for my "day job" - reflexology.
The number who are awarded "Hons" is very small - and I am proud to join their company.

Back online!

Good morning friends!

I am back online after a month away, following our house move!
We now reside in the beautiful Kingdom of Fife, Scotland.

The great outdoors is literally on our doorstep... here is our morning view, as we awake..

We've been out exploring while we were absent from our online world.. and Paddy really enjoyed it - as did we!

Around every corner, there is something new to see - and better views of the Lomond Hills to be had.
The land is farm, so it's like having a living tableau to view daily. The fields were ripe when we first arrived and within a couple of days had been harvested, hence the hay bales!   

It truly is a landscape painter's delight - and I am sure once the house is straight, you'll start to see some paintings of my new locale. 

A new adventure begins

Hello friends - it's so long since I posted and so much has been happening!
Hubby has resigned from the college he used to work for  - and we've been advised to start legal action against them. I'm not saying any more about that, apart from the fact that because he's free of them, we are free to follow a long cherished dream.

We are moving further into the country!
We'll be surrounded by green fields and good friends. It's so exciting!
Of course I'll be off line for a while whilst the technical bods do what they have to, with phone and wifi .. but as soon as I'm back, I'll share some pics.

There's one pic here, and it'll give you a taste of what we'll be enjoying.

I'm looking forward to exploring, plus getting back to grips with my third novel.
See you all soon.

A breath of fresh air...

How would you like a breath of fresh air?

Come along with me, pictorially, to where the air is clean and the sun shone on us.

Paddy surveys the campsite and passes it as suitable!

We have hills and sea close by

We have more hills and mountains a short distance away

and cobbled streets for Paddy to explore

and the view from the top of one hill, outstanding!

We were staying at Strathkinness, near St Andrews... and what a beautiful place Fife is. I could happily live there. You know how some places grab a hold of you - well, that place did it to me! Where my father came from in Eire - and where I returned to, every summer break, as a youth- was a village in the countryside, near to the sea. This took me back there, in my mind. Beautiful scenery, lovely people. Well worth going, if you ever get the chance.

A Cottage Garden

I love my garden - and it is best described as a cottage garden.
A friend on Twitter recently asked if I could show her some photos, so I've decided to post them here, because I can add more than one picture to this post!


The view of the patio area, the largest plant being a dwarf Robinia tree, v. Twisted Lady

A dwarf clematis after the flowers have gone

 Irish Eyes, patio rose

English Lavender

Passion Flower

Mallow

Wild geranium

Bears Breeches and a pink wild geranium

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into my garden. Now I must get back to writing the third in my "Leaves" series of novels. If you want to read the first two, links are HERE