A Busy Few Weeks - in pictures...

Doesn't time fly? It's been over a month since I've been here on the blog to chat. As usual there's just not

enough hours in the day ( or night). But I'm now getting to grips with this iPhone and posting pics from it, so without too many words here is the reason for my absence, in pictures....

 Firstly Gardening Scotland, or the north of the border's answer to the Chelsea Flower Show. We had our usual stand in the Crafts Marquee and sweltered in temperatures of 25 degrees on the Friday, but shivered in three layers of woolies by the Sunday! I do like that show - we've taken part every year since it first started around 11 years ago, and a lot of our customers are regulars who come back every year. A special hello to the lady from Linlithgow I met on Sunday, by the way, who told me she reads the blog. I sometimes forget that people do actually read what I write, and it comes as a surprise when a complete stranger asks how I'm enjoying my new windows (previous post)!

 Lots of inspiration, of course. I loved this colour scheme of pink and lavender in Dougal Philip's (New Hopetoun Garden Centre) display garden. It was my favourite I think, and what's more they stock our cards so they obviously have good taste!

 More of the same display garden.

 And again.

 And here I'll slip in a few pictures of our garden here at Blacketyside.

 It's coming along quite nicely, especially after yesterday's relentless rain.

 My favourite flower is the hardy geranium and I've got more than forty different types in the garden. Some are a true blue like the one above. Others are shades of pink, lilac and white.

 But this year I fancied a change from geraniums. I always treat myself to a plant or two at Gardening Scotland - well, you can't not! So I chose two geums, the goldy orange above, and a red one. I like the orange providing a contrast to the blue geranium.

 So we got finished and packed up and home at 8pm on Sunday night. Tired, but happy that the show had gone well. We left the unpacking of the van until Monday morning and put our feet up to watch a film. So Monday should have been a day off. I say should, but....
Our next job was to unpack, sort everything out then zip over to Edinburgh airport to catch a flight down to Stansted. Laura (daughter) and her husband Greg live near there, but have just bought a house nearer to Cambridge and Tuesday was moving day, and we were going to be the helpers! Bob and Greg did the real heavy stuff filling two van loads, while Laura and I packed two car loads and cleaned the house they were leaving. Laura, being four and a bit months pregnant (YES I'M GOING TO BE A GRANNY!!) was not allowed to lift anything heavy, hence the reason we were there.
Anyway the pic above is their new living room - not a great deal to look at yet - but what's amazing is they have an open fire and the house is less than ten years old! I've never heard of new houses being built with open fires for logs or coal. What a bonus.

 We all worked like Trojans and they were preparing their first meal in their new kitchen within 24 hours of getting the keys.

This was the real selling point - the fourth bedroom. Built above the garage it's massive, with three windows and loads of space for a multi purpose room - office, studio, games room, gym whatever. I'm quite envious.
We had a lovely few days with them, even if Bob's old bones and back were feeling it a bit.
Now we're home and stuck into the orders that were waiting for us.
And in a couple of weeks we'll be packing the van to go to the Highland Show.
It's getting to that time of year again.
Bye for now.