Jenny McIntyre's articles

Typical - we were going to cut the lawn yesterday, but neither of us felt well enough to do so, so we promised to do it today - it's been raining all day!!!!!!!!!! The first rain we've had for a week. We couldn't do it on Monday because we had visitors, nor Tuesday because we had to go to Exeter, nor Wednesday because we had a trip to the doctors - so Thursday was earmarked for the cutting of the grass. So here we are Friday and it's all wet, meaning we can't cut the damn grass!!!! Never mind -…

I had a white rose bush in a flower pot on my kitchen window sill but it wasn't doing very much really. In fact these last two years, I've only had one flower show in the winter time. I got a bit fed up but did wonder if it was a bit too lanky. There was a lot of stalk but no leaves or flowers on them, so I thought - it's time to have a clip here and there....... So I got my secateurs out and snipped away willy nilly!!!! Eventually I had a decent looking bush, with loads of off-cuts. I didn't…

Well today dawned with a beautifully clear blue sky. It was still very cold though which defies belief. How come it's in the middle of May and it's still very cold. I'm tired of wearing my thermal vest, I didn't expect this to happen by this time. I started wearing them from the end of September but certainly didn't expect to be still needing them 8 months later!!!!! I so loved the look of the blossom from the window, I thought I'd take pictures from the couch through the open window, so you…

Sorry - no blog for days and then two in one day - a bit like a bus eh? I thought I'd shown you my apple blossom, of which I'm extremely proud, but I found that I hadn't. This year it's beautiful, but there again it's obvious that I'd say that!!!! I'm so lucky to have this garden at this time of year. The complete overgrown part of it, just goes completely out of my mind, when I see such beauty with the apple blossom, cherry blossom and of course the lilacs etc, covering most of my eyeline f…

This time of year the lilac trees are having a great time, showing off with their wonderful blooms. The white lilac is very pungent and luckily I have many trees dotted here and there in the garden and driveway - the paler purple lilac isn't so common - well it's more up the other end of the driveway than down near the house. Meanwhile the dark purple is sprouting up everywhere. There are about 3 trees next to each other which takes over most of the bottom driveway.... This dark p…

I've just finished chatting to Pearl and she wanted me to thank you all for your wonderful birthday wishes. She wished she could answer them herself, but her eyesight is so bad at the moment that she can't see to write, nor actually read your messages herself. Her friend Annette has to help her by being her eyes. She's just had an operation fitting in a new lens but it's early days yet. She also wanted me to tell you that you are all in her thoughts. She sounded a bit like the old Pearl, b…

This is just going to be a quick blog, because I just don't have the time to do a long one. I am feeling very tired, I think it's because I'm just not used to having someone here with me all the time. Although Mandi does more for me, I still feel knackered. Well the other day I think I mentioned that I'd suddenly discovered that my camellia had decided to grace me with 3 flowers, which I was completely delighted with, as it hadn't had any flowers on it for nearly 3 or 4 years. Well imagin…

The cherry blossom has come out altogether, and with the blue sky above it, it really stands out. There was an overcast sky today with a bit of a wind and I could see confetti blowing across my garden. I just hope the blue sky will return tomorrow because I want to get out there and take some more photos before the wind catches all the tiny blossom and strip the branches bare. The tree seems to be fuller and fuller each year. I so love this time of year - the only thing wrong about thi…

Well at long last the weather has warmed up somewhat. Shall we just say - it's warmed up enough not to need the halogen fire on and the radiator is only on for a couple of hours in the evening!!! No hot water bottle needed neither. So it will be great not to need extra clothes nor putting a blanket over my legs to keep them warm!!! We've had a lot of dank days lately - not cold, not really wet neither, just damp and dark!! Colin, my brother's friend, who leaves tomorrow, has been so busy out…

Oh it's so good to see her. It was a very emotional meeting to start with. She came in floods of tears - she's been keeping her pain and emotions in check for months now - but as soon as she saw me - she cried for nearly an hour. Poor girl. She's home now, she can relax and take things easy. Also she can talk about how she feels and know that I completely understand (having been through very similar operations), but at least I was in the UK and my family was around me, whereas she was in a forei…

Hiya, I thought I'd better explain now, that I won't be on here for very long because not only will I have Mandi here, but I have one of my late brother's friends staying here too. I've known him for over 40 years and he was my brother's best friend. He's been so good to me since my brother's passing and we are good friends now. He loves it down here in Devon and he visits here many times during the year. He lives in North Wales but he's selling his house so he can buy a property down here, it s…

Just a quickie - had a lovely message from Mandi saying that she's booked a flight for Wednesday, landing in Gatwick at 4pm. She'll get a bus to Exeter and a friend of hers will pick her up from the bus station there and bring her home!! I can hardly believe it, because I haven't seen her (except on Messenger/Skype) since last year - I think it's almost 13 months. I do so miss her. Besides she's going to sort out my tablet, because somehow the storage space has really started to get very smal…

This is ridiculous - the snow had gone - the sun even visited us for about 30 minutes the other day and it's over half way through March, so why on earth would I expect the damn white stuff to come back? Where I live - it's a very temperate climes. It's thought that we have our own little eco-climate where any excess in either heat or cold, doesn't happen here. Well, last year we had a very cold summer. Those in the east of the country had lovely highs of around 30 many days last summer, whe…

Hiya - the reason I haven't written much lately is because not a lot has happened here in this part of the UK. Well a lot has happened, but not to me!!! We did have some snow - You can see that we did actually have a little amount - 3" was the total amount though.... The steps up to the gate in the fence is hidden under the snow. I use this to be able to go next door to Ann and Peter. They use it rather than me nowadays - I'm not too clever on my feet to try to negotiate the…

Not huge swathes or amounts of snow - but snow nevertheless. This part of the West Country rarely has any amount of snow - the last time was in 2011 and the year before that!!!!! So to see snow here, means I just have to video it!!!!! Mind you with temperatures of -4C / 26F it's not really a surprise. Oh has it been cold. You see I don't have central heating, just oil radiators and a halogen fire. So I can get heat pretty quickly, but it doesn't really keep the heat in for long. I read that t…

Well folks I've finished another soft toy for my next door neighbour. Her husband Richard is the one who comes round and sorts out things for me - and I'd already given him a giraffe because it was his favourite animal. I felt awful that I hadn't given anything to Joyce his wife. I don't see much of her really, because she's a nurse and is working a lot of hours. When she came round at Christmas, I asked her what her favourite animal was and she said "Elephant" - so that's what I made for he…

Do you remember I had decided to make some oven gloves for Ann and Yvonne for an extra little Christmas pressie? Then what with one thing and another, I didn't get round to making two pairs, due to unforseen circumstances, I ended up having to give just one half to each of them. So at long last I've managed to finish the other two halves. It hasn't been plain sailing neither - I'd only done the same thing as last time - cut out the wrong size of gloves!!!! So today I made absolutely sure that I…

I honestly don't know what I've done to deserve having the neighbours I have. Yesterday Richard came round to help me sort out the spare lounge. He's realised that I'm not going to be able to return to sleeping upstairs in my bedroom anymore because I have trouble going up and down the steep stairs, and that living and sleeping in my lounge isn't working so well. So he thought that if he moved the furniture etc out of the other lounge and up into my bedroom, it would leave enough room for my bed…