MODERN TECHNOLOGY......good when it works, rubbish when it doesn't.....

This is to inform you that the laptop belonging to Jackie has been taken ill and rushed to the Computer Hospital. Everything possible is being done to get said computer up on it's feet again. There will be further bulletins as we get more news.

Comments on other blogs may be few and far between for a few days as Jackie only has access to her daughters computer and said daughter keeps snatching it away !!!!

I have nothing more to say at this time.........hopefully, there will be a new post soon.

More information when we get it.!!!!!!!

This is Jackie, reporting from England, BBC News.

TAGGED........

I've been tagged by Lori at Wildflowers to do the following:

1. Open the 4th file where I store my pictures.

2. Pick out the 4th photo and publish it to my blog.

3. Explain a bit about it.

4. Pass challenge on to 4 other blogs.

Well....here it is in all it's glory..... and isn't it a coincidence that it's happens to be a photograph of a flower and it was Lori from Wildflowers who tagged me ?
A photograph that I took of my Oak leafed Hydrangea.......' hydrangea quereifola 'flemygea' SNOWQUEEN !!!!!! How about that then......even the Latin name, although there are probably some experts out there that will tell me I'm wrong but, I think that's it's name !!!!! Apologies if it's wrong, but I know that the oak leafed part is right.
We put this in our garden about 10years ago. We found this wonderful Hosta Nursery (long gone now, unfortunately) when we were taking our son to his University. We stopped on the way back and bought loads of Hostas, which are still prolific and MASSIVE in our garden. We did buy so many, that I gave my friends some, and they are all thriving and look magnificent. What a shame that Nursery isn't there anymore, as I certainly think that they knew a lot about Hostas (and Hydrangeas). Looking around, I came across this little Hydrangea and bought it. Well, I think that it is my favourite plant in the garden. It is covered in these beautiful white flowers that (at this moment) turn to palest pink and then green. Every year, I think that I will cut some and dry them off, but I can't bring myself to do it , so magnificent are they, in the garden. Also, my son got married last October and my daughter-in-law had hydrangeas in her bouquet so this hydrangea always reminds me of that special day.
Right, well my next job is to pass the baton onto 4 other blogs so here goes:

1. Green and Pretty

2. Life with Lia

3. Being Ruby

4. Dumbwit tellher
O.K......my job is done, mission accomplished. Thanks to Lori, for tagging me and because of which, brought back a few old memories.

Jackie

MORE TEA VICAR ?.................

Ahhhhh..........that age old English tradition of afternoon tea...........

.......isn't it awkward, when you've just moved in and your furniture hasn't arrived, but you made sure that you packed the tea things in the car so that you could have a cuppa as soon as you moved in?...........trouble is, the table hasn't arrived so, what better place to keep the teapot but on your head !!!!!!!!! and , of course, the tea drinking professional doesn't have just one cup ( photograph, courtesy of Rodney Smith)................No self-respecting, gentile Englishwomen would have just one teapot........

.........here's the quintessential afternoon tea....the cream tea.......a .freshly brewed pot of tea, just baked, warm scones, strawberry jam, thick, thick, clotted cream and a skirt with an elasticated waist !!!!!!!........


............ not many of you out there will know about the finer points of making a pot of tea......above is the tower infusing method.....this tradition has been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries !!!!!!!! Oh, at last, the furniture's arrived.......



............builders have great big mugs for their tea but, the ladies would have these lovely pink cups and saucers for their Darjeeling........


..............a big comfy sofa, cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches with the crusts cut off, french fancies,walnut cake, scones and tea.......twenty minutes to let it go down and then a glass of champagne........ I'll meet you there in an hour......... does anyone know how to play the harp ?

.........do you have a pair of kid leather gloves ? It is a pre requisite of the tea procedure....

.......... this is tea at The Connaught in London...or you could go to The Ritz, The Dorchester and many , many more..........

..........take care not to sit on the antique Royal Worcester china.......the maid must have left it there.......she will be getting her cards at the end of the week !!!!!!!...........

.....I quite often have my tea break sitting on mattresses, in a fairy queen outfit, in the middle of a forest with the teacup on my head, don't you ??!!! ( another great photo from Rodney Smith ) Anyone got a ciggie. I think that would finsh this photograph...I'm on the phone to Rodney as we speak !!!!! !!!!!

.........the posh tea drinkers choice...Earl Grey.....not my favourite, actually, although, I have been known to partake from time to time........

......... handmade teabags !!!!!!! I wonder what they bring to the table.......do you think that the tea will taste better.......perhaps they are like Cuban cigars........rolled on the thighs of dusky maidens !!!!!!!

....cakes and sandwiches in an English garden.......and, tea poured out of a retro teapot.........

.....well, there you are vicar......take your pick out of that little lot !!!!!!

Jackie

LAVENDER and OLD LACE..........

Come with me through this lovely distressed door to a wonderful world of interiors....well, I think so anyway!!!!

Lace, satin, chandelier, flowers........a world of shabby chic delights.

Old rose pink, iron bed and beaded fringed lampshade.......

.........lets just pop outside for a moment, it's a lovely day and I've just made a cake (kitchen coming up in a minute)...sit down, I'll be out in a moment.

.........I have just picked this larkspur from the garden....I tend to grow flowers that match my decor perfectly !!!!!!

Here we are in the kitchen....see I told you that I grow my flowers to match...pink roses to match the food mixer !!!!!!!.........

and the plates............

...............and the fridge !!!!!!!

................excuse me a moment, I'm just going to make melon vodka.......we can have some on the porch later...as you all know, I'm not much of a drinker, so I'll probably abstain !!!!!!!! NOT

.............. Won't be a sec..I'm on my way with the cake....I made a few more things while I was at it.. .......

..........shall we sit here instead ? There's a lovely view from here.......

...( don't think that I like this but it comes with the house!!!!) I can always take it to the charity shop...I'm sure one of you out there will take it off of my hands.

.......lovely that you came round...I'm off for a long soak in the tub !!!!

Jackie

1. ARRIVEDERCI RAVELLO..........

I seemed to slip into a comatose place ,post holiday but I have snapped out of it and here are my first pictures of Italy........Tah Dah !!!

High up above the town of Amalfi, is Ravello.
These photographs (that I took with my own fair little hands, with Mr. Home's camera that our daughter bought him for Christmas. He didn't get his hands on it for the majority of the holiday !!!!!) are of The Gardens of Villa Cimbrone and Villa Rufolo at Ravello.This is Villa Rufolo.Much of the remaining parts of the Villa were rescued by Scottish Industrialist (we poke our noses in everywhere!!!!) Francis Neville Reid, who owned the Villa at the turn of the twentieth century. It now hosts the Fondazione Ravello, The Ravello Music Festival, which was on when we were there.


Bougainvillea is in abundance, something that we can only grow in the greenhouse or conservatory here in England.

Stunning views, everywhere you go ( obviously after great long walks UPWARDS!!!!)



You are going to see lots and lots of iron gates and terracotta pots with flowers....I took a lot of those......lots and lots......actually...lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!!!!


This is the entrance to The Gardens of Villa Cimbrone......don't you just love that weathered grey gate ?
These gardens belonged, in Roman times,to the noble Acconciajoco family, then to the enormously wealthy Fusco family. At the end of the nineteenth century, the estate, by then sadly abandoned, was discovered by a well known and educated English traveller, Ernest William Beckett, Lord Grimthorpe.( Us English get everywhere!!!). He was from a group of intellectuals who made the Grand Tour and had come to Ravello to recover from depression after the early death of his beloved wife.This magical place gave him so much pleasure and intense happiness, that he bought the estate in 1904, determined to bring it back to life., which he did with the help of English architects and landscape gardeners such as Harold Peto, Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll.
Well.......what can I say...I think that photography must be in my blood !!!! My husband is never getting his camera back now !!!!





Another good one, I think......not that I'm boasting or anything.!!!!!
This is the crypt, modelled on the Fountain Abbey of Malton in Yorkshire, England.
Although it looks medieval, it was built between 1907 and 1911 and became one of the meeting places of London's Bloomsbury Group.

Oh, it's tough being soooo talented......!!!!!!

Wouldn't you just love this as the entrance to your garden ?

Beautiful.........perhaps it wouldn't look so good in Hertfordshire, England.

I want these terracotta pots.......but I think they cost a pretty penny.

WOW.......even bigger pots (and more iron gates...you aint seen nothing yet!!!!)

Swoon.....not only from this delightful gate and geraniums, but am very hot now and have walked up what seemed like the face of the EIGER...and I need a drink.

I think that this is the entrance to the hotel that costs mega bucks and you get 'coptered in ......as you can imagine, we didn't stay there !!!!!!

Another arty farty one from my portfolio!!!!!!

Sorry....had to tarry awhile, as we have just walked UP again and are now at the top!!!

Well, I think that this is my piece de resistance...what do you think ? Shall I start saving for a mega camera with telephoto lens ????

More of the gardens..this is a well...by now I had reached the point of possibly jumping in it, I was so upwardly challenged !!!!!

I've jumped in it !!!!

Love the lamp, love the arched windows, love the leaves. love the walls ,love it all !!!
LOVE ITALY!!

Thought a little sustenance was in order and possible a little glass........

.........oh, looks like this one's nearly finished. Let's open another bottle.....

...yep.....that's right....keep pouring......up to the rim.....I'm going to need it...I've got to walk all the way down again soon. !!!!!!

Gootbey to Raveollooooo.......beeeuutifll coastline...fandabby dosey grdnssssss.....

think I might have drunk a bit too much wine so I'm signing off now and we will be sauntering down to Amalfi town, the next time we visit Italy.....HIC Hic hic.....

Jackie

P.S. I'm only joking when I say that I think my photos are good and that I'm soooo talented....it's just my humour.........some of them are pretty out of focus!!!!