A day full of blessings

Well this has been a real day of blessings.

I turned my phone on as I was having my breakfast

 and a text came in immediately. 

Would you like some apples and pears, 

I can bring some down shortly.

So of course I said yes. I shared some with my daughter 

and took some around to a friend who lives

 in a retirement village. What she can't use she puts

 in the hall for other residents to help themselves.

She also gave me a beautiful red rose with a wonderful scent. 

They were heading away later in the day and thought it was

a shame for the rose not to be enjoyed by someone.

Lucky me :) The colour in the photo is pretty true.

Morning tea came around and my GKB came in with this offering. 

We both had a laugh...and he didn't sing happy birthday.

Raspberry slice, yummy. He knows I like it.

We had just made scones for lunch and my youngest

 daughter waltzed in. 'How's your day going?' she said,

 and then in came my little mother and my other daughter. 

Bearing gifts.

I'd already received a parcel in the post today, from Japan.

How great was the timing in that? 

The botanicals and exfoliater were from one daughter, 

and the coral necklace came from Japan. They also had a

 birthday cake with them, so lunch was scones and birthday cake 

with tea and coffee. And good company of course. We did

 have a healthy(ish) tea - filled baked potato. 

Yummy again :)

When I delivered the apples and pears to my friend in the village she had just been given a box of bread and asked whether I wanted any, so of course I said yes, again. I took three loaves so I could give some to my daughters as well as keep some for myself. As you can tell, the barter system is alive and well among my friends. 

That's six photo's not five, oh dear I can't count :(

Maybe the two cakes can count as one?

And that's it for this week.

Have a good one,

Diana

joining Amy for: 
Five on Friday

Flowers, outside and in.

 We've had a bit of wind so this is how my foxgloves ended up :(

almost flat but still quite pretty. I know some people consider them a weed but I like them. You just have to get them out of the ground before they throw all of their seeds.

Blurred, but this is a bee gathering nectar

 in the cup of one of the foxgloves.

A lovely Japanese iris.

And this is a elegant bearded iris, knocked off it's stalk when the boys were kicking a ball around.

A couple of peonies cut from the garden after 

the wind had knocked them around.

And all that remains of a bunch of roses one of my neighbours 

gave my little mother. A pretty, delicate pink colour.

Since Mum has had the stent put in her health has improved immensely. So much so that she has decided to go home while she waits for her main operation date. I will check on her daily, she is only 5 miniutes away and my brother is even closer to her. I think she will cope okay as long as she doesn't try to do too much. Thank you for all your prayers and care, we appreciate it very much.

A walk in the April sun

I have been so busy lately it hasn't been funny, so have been feeling just a little bit tired. Well maybe a big bit tired. But that's okay as I'll be away for a few days next weekend with my GKB to the caravan. She needs a bit of tlc but not sure it will happen this trip.

We had a lovely midday with nephew and his wife and family today and my GKB's sister and her husband. I rang and got the grandboys to come for a visit so the kids would have some playmates, they're all of an age.

They don't see each other much, living in different islands so it's good they're now old enough to remember each other.

When they were all gone again and the house was back to normal (whatever that is) I made myself go out for a walk, it was such a beautiful day. I didn't really have the energy but it's surprising how a walk in the sun gives you a boost. I took the camera as well, just in case, and have some photo's to share of my walk in the April sun.

I walked to the playing fields where I

discovered the soccer nets were up and the first game of the season was under way for the "big" boys. Grandboy Jack will be pleased  as he is a soccer player and was wondering when the season was going to start - after the school holidays are over I'm thinking.

Then through the park where the leaves are starting to

turn beautiful autumn colours...

(one wee fellow and his mother were having lots of fun kicking heaps of leaves around)

...past the (usually) beautiful rose gardens. They're looking a little shabby now and in need of  a good pruning but still quite attractive. I would have liked to have gone in and taken a photo from the other end but there was a loving couple on one of the benches, quite engrossed in each other and I didn't want to disturb them.

Then I was at the children's park, which has just been redeveloped in the last two or three years. It's a really lovely place with a fenced area for the preschoolers as well as a large spider web climbing net and skateboard area for the older kids amongst other things.

Being such a lovely day the place was teeming with kids and their parents.

I walked home along the banks of the Silverstream. There weren't many people on it today, just one or two, and no dogs whatever. But...

...I did see a family of ducks under the bank, several in the water as well as up on the bank snoozing.

A lovely walk, I'm pleased I took myself out.

Have a lovely week, everyone.

I'm off to watch 'Weekend Murders' on the telly.