Not Quite There Yet

Hello my dear friends,

it has been so long again since I have been able to get some time to sit down and have a moment to spend on Todolwen and share things with you because I have been very busy with our outdoor project. I haven't even had time to read any of your lovely blogs again since I have spent most of the past 10 days either in the yard working or making sure things were getting done right without anything going wrong. Fortunately I did get a chance to get out on one day for a wee while some time last week and I of course I went to one of my favourite stores to go treasure hunting ...

and I found this!

 This is going to make a great base for a bird cage!!

It is so beautiful!

It is perfect and it doesn't even need gluing!! (Oh by the way I use E6000 when I need to glue anything like this.)

One little thing I did manage to do is to try and make paper clay birds in one of my coffee breaks.

I only got as far as making the plain birds but haven't had the time to do anything else with them so far. I'm still not too sure if they are the way I want them to be and I am still in two minds as to how I should finish them ~ maybe cover them with scraps of music sheets or dictionary pages? I will just wait and see I guess.

Our outdoor project is coming along but we are not quite there yet. So much work has been done by the company and my husband and I are working on the landscaping. We decided to change our riverbed and the bridge so it wouldn't be lost behind the pool which meant we had to move our "rocks" around the yards and we are talking very heavy rocks ~ 120 to170 pounds a piece!! So far we have done a lot but a few days ago our work had to stop when the tornado watch for our city turned into a tornado warning and it was safer inside. We were very lucky that it didn't turn nasty and we just had to put up with a very heavy thunderstorm with a lot of rain but I must admit that I was really glad in a way because the last stone I moved made an old injury to my back return which made it hard to breath and a rest was really needed. My hopes of being OK the next day didn't come so I spent most of my day laying down, not moving too much and resting.

The only time I did go outside to take a look ended with me sinking in to the mud about 10 inches deep and loosing my flip-flop which had to be dug out again (yuck) but it did make me laugh so much!

Our pool is almost done now and I must say I am really happy when this is all over. I was told by a friend that putting a pool in is like major heart surgery to your backyard and they were right!!

The biggest transformation is when the liner is put into the pool.

Add water and presto ~ one pool!!

Today the company is coming to set everything up so hopefully tomorrow we can take our first swim. As you can see all the new topsoil waiting to be spread out. My hubby moved more than 70 wheelbarrows from the front of the house to the backyard on his own ~ WOW!! I think we will still be needing about 3 or 4 weeks to finish everything off since we are doing a lot of the work ourselves.

Last but not least ...

...my last roses of the year.

I thought my little rose bush had decided that it was time to rest for this year but to my surprise I was wrong. Once more tiny buds are growing - only a few, not many but they are so pretty that I had to show you lovely bloggers.

I am hoping that soon everything will be back to normal and I will be able to spend a bit more time in blogland but until then please keep popping by from time to time.

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.