Beautiful Blogger Award from Carol

I was extremely tickled last night to receive the beautiful Blogger award from Carol a fellow Scot now living in Tennessee, tickled because right now beautiful is not quite how I would describe the blog, I'm thinking Carol has the gift of sight and is seeing the Pond House surrounded by some green and other colours!  Thank you, Carol! 

Simple rules


1. Accept the award

2. Thank the person who gave you the award

3. Add a link to the person who gave you the award

4. Put the award on your blog

5. Write 10 things about yourself others might not know

6. Pass the award on to 10 others

Ten things about me - hmmmm...

1. Although British, the longest I've lived anywhere at one time is in the States, in Sewickley, PA for nine years (in two houses, lol!)
2. I met my husband of nearly 39 years while ice skating in Gt Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK when I was 18
3. I was Head Girl of my school, at a convent in Norfolk!
4. I've been wearing purple since I was a teenager
5. We've lived here and paid taxes for twenty one years but still haven't taken the final step of citizenship
6. I attended 12 schools (and no, I wasn't thrown out of any of them!)
7. While living in Egypt I had a turkey as a pet, called Willy (I have a photograph)
8. I am chronically untidy (the WT told me I had to put that one in)
9. I am a champion procrastinator
10. I am a good listener

Now for the difficult part, as I read so many wonderful blogs....... but after much scratching of head here are my ten choices and many thanks to you all for allowing me to spend far too much time on the Internet following your blogs! 

1. Yvette, White Threads, because I've been enjoying her account of life in Ethopia
2. Ann, Calico and Cards, for her cooking, gardening and sewing
3. Nip it in the Bud as her ongoing posts about the Imperial War Museum are fascinating and I used to nip (sorry) there in my lunch hour when I worked in Lambeth
4. Roberta, Simply Stitching in the Garden, because I just enjoy the mix of posts on her blog
5. Abi, Stitching Bee, because it was through her blog that I found on Jane Greenoff's site, that I got into blogging.....
6. Lee, Lake Stitcher, as I love the title picture at the top of her blog (and the content also!)
7. Redwitch, because I like her humour and her cat!
8. Carol, Stitching Dreams, because I wish I'd known her when I lived in Sewickley and because she needs us for encouragement since she lives in a household of men!
9. Jo, Boos Mummy, as despite having three very young children, she manages to stitch!  I am also reminded of me at that stage in life.....AND we lived on the same army base in Germany, a hundred years apart!
10. And last but very much not least, YoYo, Dragon My Needle, because without her kind help I would not have been able to put in these links!

Goodness, that was hard picking and choosing!  Thank you again, Carol!

A Brown Sea

I think I am grateful for the torrential rain last night as it got rid of the last of the snow around the Pond House but rain brings clouds so my spirits droop accordingly!  The disappearance of the snow reveals brown leaves, trillions of them, as far as the eye can see!

 The previous people in the house were tenants and they apparently didn't think leaf clearing was one of their responsibilities.  We moved in around the middle of November and with all the unpacking and the absence of the WT for the first three weeks (don't ask, okay?) and then continuous (or so it seemed) snow cover until now,  leaf clearing was about # 52 on the To Do list!  Now of course they weigh a TON and are wet!  This is going to be a bit at a time project.  In case you're wondering I'm not planning on clearing back into the woods, just around the house and flowerbeds!

To show that all is not doom and gloom around here I'll leave you with a little bit of spring - on my kitchen counter!

Please leave a cheery comment or have a moan if you feel like it! 

I Met Some Neighbours and Found Out How To Link!

What a day!  Gorgeous blue skies again, and the snow is slowly, slowly creeping away.  Decided to walk this afternoon and while I was taking a picture of these buds by the side of the road I heard the sound of a bin being trundled down the driveway across from us.  The guy said hallo so I asked the inane question "Are you our neighbour?", we chatted and exchanged names then I set out for my walk.  On the way back I saw someone coming towards me at a great rate, she stopped and introduced herself as well!  I was very impressed, she'd walked a heck of a lot further than me!    Spring is coming and people are emerging from their burrows, hooray!

The other great news is that I  now know how to link to other people's blogs, look.....!

Thank you, YoYo  for helping me today and yesterday with daft blogging questions.  I have been puzzling how people can link here there and everywhere with such ease and lo and behold, it is quite simple, you just need a friend to tell you!

A good day!

In and Around the Pond House

Thank you to everyone that made such nice comments, especially Dawn, is the photograph better for size? 
I still need to find a better way to show the title and blog description on top of the photograph.  On the other hand, the picture will change each month, as hopefully, the view of the pond does too!

I'm still not ready to show you the bathroom (for that read I haven't cleaned it yet!) but here's a picture of the (tidied) sewing room.  Very white walls and blah brown blinds at the window.  The house faces south and looks onto sunshine but because of the trees doesn't get much in the room, which is good for stitching I suppose!  To digress, I left an uncompleted quilt in the sunshine when we lived in Pittsburgh and it faded badly, on the back, thank goodness, but it was a good reminder that the sun is much stronger here than at home!  Anyway, back to the matter in hand - I'm thinking some white blinds or maybe even just a half curtain/pelmet at the top since the only Peeping Toms are the deer and our coyote.  I saw his tracks on the front deck yesterday!  Then maybe some pale yellow paint on the walls to bring in the illusion of sunshine.  This is a *working* room so the furniture won't be changing but it is also the second guest bedroom so it has to look warm and inviting.

Benjamin Moore Paints over here has gone one better than the little sample pots with which you can splash a bit of paint on the walls to see if you like it.  They supply already painted samples 18" (44cm) sq for $3.99.  Our local friendly hardware store owner says they are a pretty good representation. 

Another good tip I read in a decorating magazine, is that a lot of people head straight for the paint aisle when they are thinking of decorating and then have to puzzle out what tones with the paint in the way of soft furnishings and furniture.  Their suggestion was to switch gears, find the perfect duvet cover, cushion, picture or whatever you can't live without and approach it from that angle.  I have a LOT of fabric downstairs, hmmmm, I wonder....!

The only exercise I got yesterday (please don't tell the World Traveller) was to bring the bin down the driveway.........

You can see why the WT got the tractor, can't you?  That's not the house at the top but I do have plans for it!  And you can see we live on a very busy road (this was taken at four o'clock in the afternoon.......)

I was going to show you some buds budding but the picture is a little blurry so will take another one today.  Enjoy the day!

New Life in Michigan

It's March and spring IS coming, we just can't see it yet!  The sun is shining from a glorious blue sky and the birds are sure that better times are ahead and are singing loudly!
This will be a blog about our new home here in the woods, where we didn't even realise we HAD a pond until we were driving away from the house after making the offer!  Besides the pond we also have a propane tank (in full view of the sitting room window!), a septic tank (and I am trying hard not to remember the Garrison Keiller tale from Lake Woebegon right now!) and a well.  AT&T says the house does not exist therefore they can't supply us with a land line, Comcast doesn't come this far out from the village (two miles) and to cap it all the sat nav insists we are slightly west of where we in fact are!

Despite this, it is a beautiful place even though we haven't had a chance to see the ground since we moved in, it's either had six inches of leaves on it or snow!

The man I share my life with, or the World Traveller (because he does), is in seventh heaven as he has his very own pole barn with a tractor to go inside it.  The fact that it is cold enough in there to freeze your socks off doesn't seem to deter him and he's often to be found pottering about in there.

Apart from the odd wave, we haven't met any neighbours yet and in fact they probably don't know they even have new people next door and foreigners at that!

The house is single story (another first for the World Traveller and his Lady) and though perfectly respectable is painted either stark white or has striped wall paper, neither of which inspire warm thoughts.  It's in the bathrooms that things begin to go to hell in a handbasket, all the facilties are brown, expensive brown, mind you, the bath is from Kohler but oh dear, it shows every drip of toothpaste!  When I get the courage, like tomorrow morning I'll take a picture and you'll see what I mean.

That's enough for tonight, see you soon!