Grout Buddy

What do you use when you need to grout your tiles?
Why, "Grout Buddy", of course!

"Grout Buddy" smooths and profiles grouting between tiles

Here's Colin to give us a demonstration of "Grout Buddy" in action:

And the finished grouting...

"Grout Buddy" the revolutionary tool which does the job in half the time of conventional tools!

If you want the best, forget the rest - "Grout Buddy" every time!

In tomorrow night's post - "Shower Upgrade; Update"!

Aprons are us!!!

The observant amongst you will have noticed Elizabeth's shop, to your right as you read this, now has a display of Aprons. Why aprons you may ask?

Well on our recent trip to the UK we learnt, off Elizabeth's niece Ella (9), that the latest fashion in parties, birthday or otherwise is.... Bake Off parties.

And what does every self-respecting young lady need for baking?

So we have.....

Cup-cake aprons in sizes ranging from 5-9years

One for the young teenager...

And, of course, one for Mum 

(because the recipe always says "Ask a grown up..." when it comes to the fun bits)

And even if it doesn't, Mother's Day is only just round the corner!

Spring is Just Around the Corner

But the corner seemed a long way away when we awoke to snow again this morning.

By mid morning however, the snow had gone and after lunch the sun shone albeit with a bitter wind blowing.

Colin was hard at work in the shower room so I put on another few layers and ventured out to do some gardening. It was heartening to see a few signs of spring..

The first of the anemones and daffodils are in flower (just) and the hyacinth and tulip are well on their way..

There are plenty of lizard and bee orchid rosettes appearing..

and the cowslips are starting to show their buds...

Last year's verbena and holly hock plants are still in leaf and showing no adverse signs from the winter weather so far..

And, surprisingly, one of last year's antirrhinums is in bud..

My favourite sight of the day is this colourful daisy, set off perfectly by the moss in the lawn (!!)..

Perhaps that 'corner' isn't so far off after all.

"While the Cat's Away"...

...to bend the saying a little, "the moles invade the chicken coop!"

How's this for taking advantage of our brief absence?

At least some creatures were glad to see us home. This little dunnock was sitting patiently under the tree gazing hopefully at the kitchen window..

whilst this goldfinch took a more direct approach, peering inside...

And what was Colin's first job?? To fill up all the feeders of course!

Now for the mole traps!

Dinosaur burgers?

Given all the fuss about horse meat maybe the French Supermarkets are going to try a new meat for their burgers... We spotted these in the mall at Cité in Calais...

How many burgers would one of these make? It may also raise some suspicions as to how old the meat is!!!

Really, it was a good exhibit running from 16th February until the 2nd March and was catching the imagination of many children and parents alike.

Opportunist Bird...

A couple of photographs of a bird on the wire taken from the car... We think it is a Buzzard.

This is a sight we see a lot in France adjacent to main roads and motorways, Raptors on the lookout for roadkill.

Not as common where this was taken... On the side of the A14 on our recent trip to the UK.

Painting by Numbers...

Oh the happy memories of matching colours to the correct shapes on the canvas to create a colourful feathered, or cute four-legged friend...

How times have changed!

Painting by numbers now includes a series featuring friends of a very different ilk. Imaginatively named "Paint Strippers", this has nothing to do with restoring furniture!!

Amazon.fr carries the range.....

I may be at odds with the world but that's not MY idea of DIY. Give me a hammer and chisel any day....
and I'll carve you a much more realistic 3D model!

Flying Tits...

Blue Tits flying techniques manual...

Perfect flight.

 Spot landing.

Normal landing

Sideways landing.

 Crash landing?

I just love our Tits!!

Edge the Prune!

I've always said if you want some pruning doing, Elizabeth's your man... well, woman.

HOWEVER.....A word of warning!

Even industrial strength extending hedge trimmers are no match for her...

Whoops!
Sometimes you just have to admit it; women are indeed a powerful breed!

A little late or a tad early?

One of Colin's favorites photographed in Braye a couple of days ago...

The $64,000 question is: How long will it remain...

Entry €5 winner takes all!!!

Trees on Fire!

We are waiting for things to dry up so we can have a garden bonfire to get rid of the various tree prunings etc.

When the sun was setting the other day Elizabeth photographed the garden and it gives the effect that we had set fire to all the trees not just the prunings...

Watch this space for the actual bonfire, IF it drys up enough for the prunings to burn that is!!! They are currently under 300mm of water.

Tempted Out of Hiding.

A sizeable portion of the food Colin puts out for the birds gets tossed to the ground due to the force and gusto with which the little birds attack the feeder and the bird table.

This spillage isn't wasted as it serves to nourish the ground feeders and the other day Colin noticed an addition to the usual band of ground feeders. The normally shy Jay had ventured into the middle of the lawn, in full view of the window, to partake of the feast..

Sadly Colin's camera was set up facing the opposite direction but I managed a few shots...

We were lucky enough to get a close up view of this beautiful bird before it saw us..

And was off in a flash of colour!

How many Tits?

Can you get on one fat ball feeder?

Is it two?

or three?

or four?

The actual number we have seen on at any one time is five. Didn't manage a picture though!!

A Blue Tit story...

"It's very nice of the lady to put out sunflower kernels for us on the windowsill. It's good watching you lot fight over the feeder"

"Not sure what that is over there"

"I'll ignore it see if it goes away"

"Ohhh it's a camera"

"There is only one thing to do then"

"This is not my best side"

 "There how does that look!"

 "That's your lot I am going to have a kernel now"

"Flying without wings!!!"

"I'm off now, bye"