Wonderful Surprises and Outside with Nature

This week has been so full of generous surprises from some sweet blogging friends.
First one was a little parcel I got in the mail from Judy over at Memories are made of this! http://judypatooote.blogspot.com/

She had asked me if she could put Elvis' mug on one of her gift cards LOL

A look at this beautiful bookmark! I`m using it right now while reading Under The Tuscan Sun. Judy sells gift cards and bookmarks at http://www.judypatooote.etsy.com

Now if only this lovely descriptive book had pictures....sigh.
Then.....
Jennie at Blog in a Cyber Bottle http://bloginacyberbottle.blogspot.com/ has elected me with this cool award! Thank you so much Jennie. What a fun one! Surely don`t deserve it though cause I`m so bad with blogging lately. Need to make more time on the computer.

And if that`s not enough, Kari over at Just Livin' Large http://grannyskywalker.blogspot.com/
has given me this one ! Thanks Kari. Thanks all of you guys and everyone that finds a few minutes to come and visit here :) Now if only I could find some nore time on the computer and visit everyone everyday! I`d be reading all day long, but I`d enjoy LOL

My Dad has a collection of bird houses in one of their trees....

A racoon was admiring them a few nights in a row. So much that he decided to pry the side off one and help himself to some yummy seeds.

My Dad strapped a cord around the tempting one and so far the theif hasn`t returned..

I was sitting outside reading and a hummingbird came to visit the beebalm. Of course when I went to grab the camera, he was gone. But Angus looked so pretty I just had to snap a couple of pictures...


A hungry visitor came to have a munch on a leaf of the garden phlox. these two are clickable to see his amazing detail...


Then a monarch butterfly came to check out the joe pie weed I dug up from the feild last year.

This one you can click to make bigger........

Well, that`s it for now. Have a great weekend!

And....
goes to....
Judy over at Memories are made of this! http://judypatooote.blogspot.com/
cause she made Elvis famous! And also makes suck pretty bookmarks and writes about all her childhod memories

Pearl and her Mum Kim at Feline Fine http://felinefinery.blogspot.com/
I love seeing Pearl and her bro Pumpy`s adventures. Right now Pearl is freaking out over the new member of the family LOL

Melissa at Empress of Dirt http://empressofdirt.blogspot.com/
makes pretty garden art for her garden and finds the neatest things to do it with.

Jackie at Musings from Jacran Cottage http://jacrancottage.blogspot.com/
has just gotten married in England! She`s now living in Ontario, but how exciting is that!! We`re destined to meet up one of these days if we can ever get our schedules to work and me get our at the moment shared vehicle when hubby isn`t working some weekend.

Robin at Tales of Inglewood http://talesofinglewood.blogspot.com/
Cause our birthdays are two days apart and she`s into some interesting things.
And....

Goes to....
Blue at Indigo Blue http://bluestindigo.blogspot.com/ who has such a thoughtful friendly blog to visit and is now going to take up painting. Can`t wait to see!

Rosie at Corners of my Mind http://rosiepblog.blogspot.com/ who shows such wonderful pictures of the places she visits in England. Can never get enough of seeing places over there :)

Lee-ann at Pear tree cottage! http://xmastree2.blogspot.com/ who has such a warm cozy blog in Australia. She`s deciding on colours at the moment.

Tash at Vintage Pretty http://vintagepretty.org/
who bakes the most yummy looking things and has such pretty pictures.

Pearl at A Storybook Life http://www.astorybooklife.com/
always has great tips and recipes with pretty pictures to go along.

Congratulations girls!

A Family Reunion and Up Close Trumpet Vine for Bob...

Hope everyone has or if in Canada, still having a great weekend. Today is a busy at home day. Doing the wash, making some raspberry preserves and low fat cake, stripping kitchen table and maybe getting it stained hopefully too. Glad everyone liked Elvis and the Doilie! It`s one of my favorites along with him and the wig, which you can find under the title "Elvis`s Secret Fantasy" in the pets catagory. Or here`s the link.. http://teaandmargaritas.blogspot.com/2006/09/elviss-secret-fantasy_12.html to copy and paste.
Anyway, we went to a little place called Courtice for hubby`s family reunion on Sunday. Thought I`d share some pictures with you at the farm. The food was bountiful but couldn`t really take a pic without anyone thinking we were a couple of nuts...

It was hot hot hot so the kids went swimming....

We took a walk down to the barn....

On the way we stopped to visit the horses and the donkey.

The donkey was a real ham...loved attention....



This guy just looked at us at first over the barn door and then all of a sudden he let out a huge burst of barks and scared the daylights out of me. We were hesitant to go in just in case he was a biter. Hubby told him to go and lay down. I wanted to pet him so bad. We ended up going back again with some meatballs for him so I could pet him because we found out he was harmless. They rescued him from some idiot who kept him in a little cage. Ohhhhhhhhh the things that guy needs doing to him. String him up...upside down by the heels and .....never mind. I hate cruelty to animals. Poor thing. You could see the sadness in his eyes.

Inside the horse barn...

Hubby took all the pics and look what he found. If you click on them, you can get a better view....


These last two pics are for Bob over at Gardener To The Big House http://the-estate-gardeners-diary.blogspot.com/
who was wondering if he might have something like this in the garden and needed to see it a bit better. So there ya go Bob :) Hope this helps. I did them so you can click and make them a bit bigger....

Have a Happy Weekend!

*** a little note on the second pic to answer the question. I had posted this in the past but thought I`d throw it up again for a laugh. I had this doilie on my computer chair and there must have been a crumb of food there because next time I turned my head, there was Elvis wearing the doilie!! LOL He stayed that way long enough for me to grab the camera near by.

"Don`t know why there`s so much fuss over a long weekend. Everyday`s a holiday to me"

I`ve Been Given An Award!

Rick from Palm Springs Savant http://rickrockhill.blogspot.com has very sweetly chosen me as one of his 5 bloggers for this award!
Thanks so much Rick!
Now it`s my turn to choose 5 bloggers who I think deserve the same. Well actually I would like to choose many many more than 5! But hey, 5 makes things a whole lot easier LOL

So the Creative Blogger Award Goes To...........

A View Through the Window http://zuzu.typepad.com/ is a magical place where teddy bears and fairies come to tea. Zu writes as if you`ve just cozied down with an old fashioned storybook. And she has the prettiest Welsh Corgi dog! Her computer has given her severe problems of late but she`s still managing to post.

Tongue in Cheek http://www.willows95988.typepad.com/
Corey resides in France and takes simple and beautiful photos and puts wonderful words to them.

Fat Eric and Friends http://fatericandfriends.blogspot.com/

Fat Eric reminds me of Angus. He`s fat! And also needs our prayers at the moment as he is having some tests done at the vet and his Mum is really worried.


Just Livin` Large http://grannyskywalker.blogspot.com/
I chose Kari`s blog because she has a warm cozy everyday "downhome" feel and isn`t afraid to share her happy family in Texas. And she looks a little like Anne Margaret in her profile too :)

Tales From the Butlers Pantry http://abutlersdiary.blogspot.com/
Mr. Fielding hasn`t posted for quite awhile unfortunately. He has a small steady following who like to read of his experience of being a butler to the aristrocracy somewhere on the English and Welsh border. An interesting read.

There`s so many more I want to add here. I hate picking and choosing. But there ya go Rick.....my choice for the Creative Blogger Award!
Hope everyone is having a nice week. The weekend`s almost here. We`re off to near Oshawa for a family re-union this Sunday. And Monday is a holiday! Yeehaw! A Civic holiday. But right now, this morning, I`m off to work.... see ya :)