With love...

When my dad died 12 years ago his personal possessions were few and only filled a tiny suitcase. There were photos, documents, address books etc but he wasn't one to save cards.

However, I found that he had already bought me a Christmas card ( he died in the summer on my husband's birthday) and so I would have received it later that year.

He had also saved one - rather sad looking - little pressed flower card that I had made him in the mid seventies.

 He never showed sentimentality - but was from an age when men just didn't do that, but there was a softer side to him. Dad had a watercolour of mine on his chimney breast which my brother ( who completely stopped all contact with dad once dad became infirm) always said was 'rubbish'. This didn't matter to me though as I knew dad liked it.

It's the little things which count...

A rather pink display!...

I took these photos of the front of our house yesterday. The climbing roses were magnificent about a month ago - but I'm not sure that I remembered to photograph them.

Darn that Fox!

This Iceberg Rose has lived happily - and bloomed profusely - for many years now. When my husband worked in the local woods he rescued it when it was dug out a flowerbed bed (from the park below the woodland) when it failed to blossom

We cherished and nurtured it - and it repaid us handsomely - until one of the local foxes decided to mark up at its roots each night! Finally beyond saving, it has now been dug out...

Creating Memories

I took these short video clips today - to create memories. A cloudy but lovely day; our son loves the gardens and, since his stroke, this is the first time he has managed to go around the gardens (a small part of it) without a wheelchair. He had forgotten to bring his camera - he loves taking photos - and all I had with me was a small Vado HD video cam which he doesn't like using ( it was his but he gave it to me)

An awful lot of pink

Just some of our roses currently in bloom.

With love from J

Daz Roses

Back in the 1960's our family's chosen washing p0wder was Daz - very probably the result of it's clever and extensive advertising.


Horrible though it sounds now, in about 1962 they started giving away a plastic rose with each packet. Millions of families - including ours! - thought they were marvellous and ours eventually filled the vase in the photograph below. I have searched unsuccessfully for an old photograph showing the roses in the vase - but they must have kept the offer going for ages as the vase definitely got filled.

They were probably really awful - but at the time we all thought they were lovely!

(we had to search high and low through boxes in the eaves of the loft to find the vase so I could photograph it!)

From A Friend...

A dear friend brought me these flowers this morning - she knew I had been feeling very low about a sudden serious illness in my family (not me J or M).

I feel blessed for having such a good friend.

Roses in the shopping centre

Took this this afternoon on the top level - the words are nice underneath the roses...

Hurry up summer!

Much as I love the snow, the grey and gloomy weather days make me long for summer... Above are a few photos of some of our Roses taken 2009

Rose watercolour

I painted this Rose using watercolours a couple of years ago. It came from a bouquet of Roses that my best friend P had bought me.

Needlefelted Rose Brooch

This has just been an experiment, so the next one might be a bit better.

First of all I made the felt by needle felting dyed fleece. Then I cut out the shapes and did my best to sew them into a Rose bud effect. I would have liked the petals to have been thinner - but they need to be a certain thickness for stability.

Rose Hip Syrup

Filled with vitamin C, Rose Hip Syrup was of particular importance during the war/ and afterwards, when food rationing meant that fruit was in short supply.

People made it for themselves - but the company Delrosa in Wallsend paid children 3d a pound to collect the hips for commercial use. The WVS was also instrumental in encouraging people to make use of both the hips and other 'wild' foods during a time of such austerity.

I have made this recipe successfully in the past, but of course - as with all preserving - special care must be taken with the sterilisation of all equipment used.

An alternative recipe can be found HERE

Mmmh... Pink

Unlike my best friend who could probably tell me both the common and Latin name of any Rose, I can only admire their beauty...

This is one of the climbers we have against the front wall of our house - and yes, the Roses really are still in full bloom!

Just love Roses..

I have always loved roses... in the garden at the house where I lived before my mother died we had about 5 different varieties of the old fashioned rambling roses.

Like other children both before and after me, I recall drying their petals and even trying to make 'perfume' by infusing fresh petals in water - rather unsuccessfully I have to add.

Although I didn't know the name of most of the varieties we had, I DID know the one which grew under our our front window.

My Dad told me - and anyone else who wanted to hear - that it was a Princess Alexandra Rose. (Ours was more of a pink clour than the one above)

It actually looked very plain to me as it had so few petals - and later in my life I realised it just looked like a Dog Rose. However, Dad obviously thought it was special and so I suppose some of his enthusiasm must have rubbed on to me.

As I tried to find some photos of this rose I was rather puzzled to find the variety so named had only been bred in 1992?

Further searching led me to find that the Dog Rose was actually used as the symbol for
Princess Alexandra's Rose Day which was started by Queen Alexandra in 1912

So... perhaps our rose wasn't so special after all - but it was to us...