52 Weeks of Happy

Do you have those sorts of weeks where you end up where your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing?  The sort of week where you finish it and it takes a few hours to calm your brain down?  Well, that's me this week.  It's been full on at work so home life has certainly taken a back seat I'm ashamed to say.  However I have a family who understand that their mum is a bit of a workaholic and I came home today with the house spic and span, washing on the line and dinner being prepared.  This made me so happy and it reminded me that I haven't posted a '52 Weeks of Happy' post since a couple of weeks ago.  So, with the busy time in work and not going out and about as I usually do this weekend, I thought I'd post a few things that have made me happy this week and kept me going.

♥ The first happy: This bottle of wine waiting for me when I returned from the Cathedral today.  The bottle's label was at an angle and, how perfect, it even has my name on it!

♥ The second happy has to be all the wonderful messages you sent me last week for my birthday.  It was so lovely to read them, they all made me extremely happy, thank you  My birthday was not a big affair because I knew about the week that was coming up but Miss Teenager topped it off with a surprise message on Twitter from one of my favourite actors, James Purefoy.  Miss Teenager tweeted him not expecting him to come back, but he did and it really made my day!  So, another year older and wiser - hmmm maybe not wiser but the grey certainly shows the older.

♥ A couple of you asked how I collect and dry my lavender and, with the lack of a trip post this week, I thought I'd just gather some images for you on how I do this.  Now is the time to really get that lavender up and hanging before they get wet.  So starting with the top right shot, I either cut the stalk between a pair of leaves, or (second photo) by a clump of leaves.  Gather the stalks together and tie with string or ribbon and then just hang for a week to two weeks.  When they are nice and dry, you can just rub them and they come away from their stalk.  Then collect them up and put them in a dry place until you are ready to make some sachets (a future post when I have a better week!).  The brandy glass I am collecting them in is HUGE!  and £5 from a boot market.  Well worth the price as it matches the beautiful blue of the flowers.

♥ And lastly my sedum has gone from the pale pink from last week to a deeper pink this week.  This crane fly looked very much at home.

So now, with my PJ's on, furry slipper boots, nice warm coffee, heating back on and a storm on the way (I love it!) I bid you a very restful weekend and a great new week.

Take care. 

♥Chel♥ 

 (Remember that if you want to see a larger version of my photos just click on one and a slide will appear)