Folksy Friday - A Celebration!

So! In the last few weeks, both Oliver and I passed our driving tests...yaaaaaaaaay!! It feels like it's been a long-time coming, although we both only started learning around Christmas...and failing my first test was so stressful, I didn't think I'd manage another, but I did! Hurrah! I nearly kissed the examiner, and I'm sure Oliver felt pretty relieved, too - thought I doubt quite so enthusiastic, ha!

Slightly predictably, this Folksy Friday is a celebration of our new skills!









I'd love to hear your driving lesson and test stories - I'd share mine but they're not that exciting haha!

Beep beep!

A Plant In Time

Hiya! I thought this might interest a few of you - a crafty floral competition for you to enter! A Plant in Time is a National Trust competition and exhibition that brings together creativity and a passion for plants, while helping nurture environmental awareness to remind people that we all have an impact and that we can all make a difference. Their collaboration with the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks flower show aims to create the biggest collection of handmade flowers ever to celebrate their amazing plant collections.


And you can win some amazing prizes! From the website:

'Go down in botanical history with a beautiful new rose variety named after you. Your rose will be recorded in the world-wide register of rose names and you'll become a part of gardening history. The winner will also receive:
* A National Trust holiday cottage break worth £1000
* 25 of their namesake roses to plant and some will even be planted in our gardens.
* A money-can't-buy gardening master class with one of our green gardening gurus
* A rare plant cultivated at our Knightshayes Plant Conservation Project
* An annual family pass for one year's free admission to Trust places'

Gosh! There are two categories, for under and over 16s, so if you know some children who might enjoy making some paper flowers, get them involved! You can get hold of some patterns from here, but you can also pretty much go wild!

Check out these creations:










Have a go!

Holiday Snaps!

I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you! I've been pretty busy since getting home, getting ready for the craft stall on Friday, and I do have lots of new little creations to show you, but first - some obligatory holiday snaps!

We did a lot of wandering in Valetta, where we were staying!












We went on lots of trips on the little yellow buses!


We visited some Neolithic temples!




We were amused by some less-than-local fare (how very British of us!)!


We went on an underwater safari!




We visited the Silent City of M'dina!





And just generally had a lovely time (appreciate the cheesy grins!)!




I would definitely recommend Malta as a holiday destination - the people are lovely, the weather is fantastic, the food (and wine!) is cheap and plentiful and there are so many beautiful and historic places to visit! Have any of you been?

I'll be catching up with everyone's blogs over the next few days, but what have you been up to in the last week?

Sounds of Sunday - Peter Gabriel

Hello! Happy Sunday! A Peter Gabriel 'Sounds' post has been a little while in coming - it was inevitable, because I love him, but I held off because it was a little predictable! I didn't really have a chance not to like him...I was born the day after his 1986 album 'So' came out (it's definitely still a favourite!), and my dad had to miss a concert (on the TV!) because of my arrival...his music has been around much much longer than I have, and has always been around our house...his videos were groundbreaking when they came out, and remain inspirational...he's worked with hundreds of amazing artists both mainstream and more unconventional and he set up WOMAD and Real World Studios to celebrate them. Also, he's a little bit bonkers, in a similar way that Björk, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and many more of my favourite artists are...example:


Anyway, stop harping on Sarah...I love him, and here he is!

















An Elbow cover of Mercy Street on his next album? Woop!

What's your Sound this Sunday?