Last Week...

From the week just past...

...Tuesday was beautifully suuny and noticeably warmer than normal. I hung out the first washing load of the year though the sun wasn't quite warm enough to dry it properly...

...but it was warm enough for us to play in the garden with no coats. I even did a spot of gardening, just some weeding and clearing up (a drop in the ocean really!).

The crocuses still look lovely though.

First ladybird (on an enormous dandelion which I tried unsuccessfully to pull out, I don't like them)

The patio is covered in squished dead leaves. I think the hydrangea petal skeletons are very pretty, I do like them!

I've been having a bit of a clear out of the house (not quite a Spring Clean but perhaps we'll get to that one year). I've finally managed to list a few items on ebay and a big box of books has been divided up between friends and the charity shop though I seem to be doing my best to replace the books already.

First off is this one, bought from ebay (seeing as I now have money in my paypal account from selling on ebay it's almost as though it's free!). I've not had much of a chance to look at it properly yet though first impressions are good.

Next are these two, bought for £2.99 each in Aldi's today. The knitting one is subtitled "Easy Fun for Everyone" - I'm not too sure about that! Perhaps one day I'll find knitting fun and despite the dodgy yarn colours and model styles featured in the book there are a couple of things I would like to try to knit at some point.

Cathy from One Pink Goose is partly responsible for the next set of books, all illustrated children's books. On a recent blog post she featured a book with lovely paintings by Mary Fedden. After a little hunting around I discovered that Mary Fedden had also illustrated a children's book and I found a cheap copy via Abe books.

It arrived the other day and on opening it I discovered it has been signed by the author and illustrator which is a lovely bonus.

Cathy also featured a card by Jane Ray who is probably my very favourite children's book illustrator. So (again cheaply via Abe books - their prices can be even cheaper than the 1p books from Amazon as the sellers can set their own p&p costs so they can be less than the £2.80 minimum set by Amazon), I bought Jinnie Ghost (here's an amazon link).

I just love the details in Jane Ray's artwork.

While I was at it, I noticed the seller had "A Child's Book of Blessings" which is illustrated by Olwyn Whelan who I also like, so it came too.

A is at the point of starting to read paperbacks but fortunately does still enjoy picture books (so long as they're not too babyish!) so I'm able to indulge my fairly recently discovered love of illustrated children's books for a little longer. Until I had children I hadn't realised what beautiful books there were out there, and a lot of them available very cheaply second hand.

OK, one last, unrelated bargain...
...whilst on a storage box buying mission to Ikea I discovered these lovely throws reduced to £2.99, available in blue, beige or green (which I bought), too late for this winter but should be of use next winter.

Other, not so good, news - hubby fell badly from his bike yesterday evening (he commutes to work by bike three days a week) and has broken his collar bone. Fortunately that's all he has hurt and he and his bike were delivered home by a very kind motorist who saw it happen (just going too fast round a roundabout, no cars involved).