Gill's Cactus...

When Duncan sadly died and Gill moved out of their house we adopted one of their lovely cacti.  Just after the first Christmas we had it, a single white flower opened and I was convinced it was Duncan's way of saying hello!  This year the whole cactus has come out in glorious bloom and I like to think it is Duncan's way of celebrating Gill's newfound happiness with Ian...

Gill's Cactus

Valentine's Day Walk - Queens Valley Reservoir

It was such a lovely day today we couldnt let it pass us by so The Cadbys and the Wautons headed to Queens Valley for a lovely Sunday stroll followed by a nice cup of tea back at Le Pont!

Stunning views, wonderful wildlife, and very happy children...

Archie, Harry, Holly, Phoebe and India

India and Harry

Winter Woodland Snowdrops

Spot the Robin

Daddy and Joff

Happy Valentines Day!

How lovely to wake up to beautiful bright blue skies and gorgeous sunshine...a lovely surprise.

Valentine Roses

Holly's "St Trinian's" Fancy Dress Party...

So after much anticipation and excitement, THE fancy dress party of the year arrived; a joint Birthday party held at thd Shakespeare Hotel where over 40 girls dressed up as TV/Film characters.  Holly, Megan and Flora decided upon St Trinians and had an absolute ball...

St Trinians here we come...

Dont we look cool?

Practicing my pout

Holly and Harry

VCP Sartorius Cake Sale

Helped out at Harry's school cake sale today, even though he is not in Sartorius House!  Previous experience shows there's sometimes a struggle providing enough cakes for every boy to buy 4...thats a total of 1200 cakes!  Anyhow luckily we just had enough thanks to one kind mummy who baked about 6 huge lemon drizzle cakes which we hurridly cut up into as many pieces as possible and having told the boys lemon cake helps them excel at maths they were snapped up!  Here's my contribution...

Vanilla Cup Cakes

Chocolate Cup Cakes

This Morning's View from Bechet Farm

Reflection of the Moon at Sunrise

Last Night's Sunset...

Our Neighbour "Epsom House" at Sunset

Afternoon Tea on Sunday

The Hummingbird's Strawberry Chocolate Cheesecake...baked by Hannah

St Trinians with a twist!

Holly was thrilled with herself yesterday.  Hannah took her and her best friend Megan into town to buy their outfits for next Saturday's party where the theme is 'famous film/tv stars'.  Hannah gave them 45 mins on their own and in that time they managed to buy their entire outfits, including heels that neither Hannah nor I would ever have allowed them...you cant blame them for maximising such an opportunity!  Since I wont see Holly before the party as she's getting ready at Megans she's modelled her 'posh' St Trinian's outfit just for my benefit...

St Trinian's Outfit

Hannah, Holly and Holly's very high heels!

Go Federer Go!

How happy was I today that Federer beat Andy Murray in the Aussie Open final to take yet another grandslam title!  Sorry Andy I know your turn is coming but not just yet!  What a great match, Roger is just so slick, cool calm and collected and swiftly made mincemeat out of Murray in 3 straight sets although the tense tie-break for the third made it a far more exciting victory.

Shirt change in 2nd set!

That cold bike ride yesterday...

Yes it was cold, freezing in fact but luckily I went yesterday and not today as Ian took his Harley for a spin today and managed to encounter hail, rain, sleet and then snow all in the space of about 25 minutes!

About to set off

Too cold for me...

It was such a lovely sunny day today so I decided to take my bike for a spin as I haven't ridden it in ages and was beginning to wonder whether the battery might be flat! It wasnt, so off I went.  Never have I been soooooooo cold.  My fingers hurt so much I could hardly squeeze the clutch and the last half an hour coming home was absolute torture.  I'm definitely only ever going to be a fair weather rider.....roll on spring!

A Lovely Thursday

What better way to start a Thursday than to meet up with some good friends and share some happy news over a cup of coffee and slice of lemon curd shortbread (recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook - of which i'm a huge fan).   Then onto another friend's for lunch; thank you Sasha for the delicious pesto pasta salad and divine chocolate! How decadent today turned out to be.  Such a treat.

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This Evening's Sunset

What is it they say? Red sky at night, shepherd's delight!  I just love this tree; apparently its a Canadian pine tree and very few remain in Jersey so I count myself lucky to be able to gaze at this from my garden.  It provides an ever-changing silouette depending on the weather and seasons...

My favourite tree

Our lovely sunset

Bechet Farm in the snow...

Holly

Next year's Christmas Card?

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Oh what fun we had when snow delayed our return to school after the Christmas holidays...

Holly and Adrienne keeping warm

Harry and Simon building a huge snowman

Holly, Adrienne and Elise's snow fort

Applying the finishing touches

And the children weren't the only ones marvelling the snow as further down the lane I found some of our beautiful Jersey cows...

Mooooooooo!

My First Post

Welcome to Shobie's blog. This is my first post!