Spam on Blogger

I keep messing around with the comment posts at the moment because Soggibottom gets so much spam.
Blogger keeps messing around changing things too, there must be a better way of filtering spam out.

This is a view from a place in South Devon called Sandy Bay, looking West towards Exmouth.

Only two days ago the cliffs were hanging in ice. IT WAS SO COLD walking along here.

 Even the mutt had her woolly jumper on.

That was the day that we got our clock back. It sat in the back of the car while we were on the beach.
It had been in the repair shop before Christmas.
Last year the clock stopped. It stopped dare I say, on October the 4th.

To understand why you have to go back to older posts. but hey it is going again...... It's a 1927 Gong clock, made in Germany. Arts and Crafts... When my mother gave me it, I didn't want it. NO ROOM.. for it. But it looked really sad and it worked, my Nana had it in her hall way, I remember this clock from my childhood.
It has been in Soggibottom for a few years now, I never realised, I missed it... It goes again, new bushes what ever they are... the gong is quieter, that is fine. it's back.
.
Wish we could report the same about the demolition crew this week, that they are back, it's now week three .... It was going to be three weeks .....the cottage next door still stands......
It's an invitation to all sorts dare I say who could benefit by metal. OR WHAT EVER they might find to make money from. The cottage next door isn't our responsibility... but because it is so close to Soggibottom........... it's a worry and has been for years.
Strange cars, thankfully we saw a strange car, this afternoon. Oh !
Half an hour of being back to Soggibottom cottage and in broad daylight.....
Over the last few weeks I am sure that we are thought to be too security conscious, not the case at all.

We try to protect Soggibottom... especially this beautiful Medieval bridge.....
History needs protecting. It's not our job to do it, but we do it never the less............

Freya can be found as always over at the catflapcavalier...............  The mutt is, as always a beautiful charming dog... pure Cavalier........It would be great to say that about some of the people that inadvertently come over our bridge. Updates as soon as we know anything :-) xxx

How to make rag baby books.

We are beginning to feel bored with the demolition of the cottage next door.

It was supposed to take three weeks. We are just about to go into week three. Because of paper work delays last week, the window to deliver scaffolding to protect Soggibottom cottage has passed. There must be one scaffolding company in the whole of Devon...
No clicking camera outside, a clicking camera inside instead.

 I saw some printed dog and farm yard material a few weeks ago. Perfect for a rag book. Perfect for a first book, you can never be too early in getting kids interested in books. I'm not keen on the hard cardboard or plastic baby books they can be chewed by little teeth. Rag books can be put in the washing machine and kept for years. I remember I used to have a Dean's rag book. With dogs on it.

They are really easy to make.
Decide on how big you want your book to be, remembering little hands have little fingers.

Cut out your material pictures, leaving enough room to tuck the edges in, although you could applique them on.
Also cut eight rectangles all the same size for your base material, I used green for the farmyard book and red for the dog book.

One picture one side of the base (green) material and another picture facing. Just like this.
Do the same on each of your rectangles of base material on one side only.
You have eight rectangles each with two pictures sewn on the same side. 

Take two pieces of the material and put the picture sides face to face.

Sew around the edge leaving a small gap to turn the whole page inside out. Press the page with an iron .
You should have a rectangle of material with four pictures on it, two on one side and two on the other.
Hand sew to close the turning gap. Then sew all around the edge of your rectangle.

Stack your finished rectangles of material on top of each other and sew a strong stitch straight down the middle. Easy.

I have flowers for Mother's day today and cards too. I love my kids.

Even the wit of one, with the address on the envelope. .

As usual you can find the terrible two over at the cat flap cavalier.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there.

Grey Elephants.... demolition day eight

If your getting bored with all the demolition photo's, fear not, there aren't any new photo's today....

The whole thing seems to be a bit of a white elephant as the expected safety STUFF for Soggibottom cottage never arrived. No work today, they all had a cup of tea and went home. Not the demolition crews fault. Before anyone mentions it, I never had any knitted white elephants to show you... oh, well, it's Thursday tomorrow  and looks like it's going to be quiet next door for a few days. Real mess outside, not a great view to look upon.
Although the view at the moment isn't a worry, the worry is that although the demolition crew has again boarded up windows and doors of the cottage next door, also put all their safety cages around the area, there is a child's playground right behind the caged area. Maybe we worry too much....... 

Who ever had the job of getting all the right approvals and paper work in order.. oh, naughty, naughty....  Same people who are building our village by pass road... not very efficient.

At least Spring is around it's time to give everything outside in our courtyard garden a good shake to make sure everything is waking up...

I can see another trip to the garden center on the agenda.

One of Freya's favourite places to visit.  It's one of the few places that allow dogs and she loves all the attention she has there.

There are hours and hours to be spent outside in our garden tomorrow, but promise to keep you all updated on the house moving monster.........

Felt art, Rosie the retriever and a new mode of transport. Demolition. Week two day seven.

How to park a digger in a dining room...

A good idea to take the walls down first.

At least it was a brighter day to work outside.

Tomorrow our protection from falling debris arrives, at least that is the plan.

With all that's going on next door it hasn't stopped us from having visitors. Meet Rosie the Retriever. One of Freya's friends who loves having her photo taken. She has that beautiful Retriever smile.

This is a felt art gift from Karina.
My daughter isn't just a better artist than me, (if you ever see me with an artist paintbrush it's probably to put shadow on a teddy bears face) Karina is better at felting too.
All this needs is a frame.

See you all tomorrow, for another fun packed lesson on how to demolish a house.

If we can get him off of the phone...... :-) xxx

Week two - day 6 of Demolition - Spring and frogs.

Here are the demolition guys who have been given the unenviable job of taking down the yellow cottage next door. 

You notice they only had eye's for Freya Rose Blossom until I asked them to look up. She is such an attention seeker.

It's been another cold day, far too cold to have to work outside... even inside the cab of a small digger.

Things are disappearing. There used to be a porch there yesterday.

A better close up of the front door.

After finding an English Civil war cannon ball and small dagger hilt in our own garden a few years ago, it makes us wonder what might be found next door.

We also have some musket shot that was found near the church in the village a few years ago.

If anyone is in any doubt about Spring being on it's way, although the skies are grey here, there is still plenty of colour around. Our local garden center is one of Freya's favorite places as she is allowed in.

Snowdrops in the hedgerows that are well away from the route of the new road.

Buds on tree's (we won't be telling the road builders where these tree's are either).They are well away from the route of the new road.

We even have frogs.
See you all tomorrow. Freya can be found over at Cat Flap Cavalier as usual.

Day five of Demolition D day. No dragons here.

No dragons around here today. She went to the beach.

Leaving parts of the village looking more and more devastated with all the work that is going on for the new village by pass road. It would be a good thought looking at this photo that this is where the yellow cottage once stood but it's not. It's where tree's and hedgerows once grew. No bird song now.

The yellow cottage is still standing. Looking even worse than it has done before. After week one it's still there...

It's just as well we went out, it's a sad sight to see. We set off for better views.
It was a cold, wet and windy afternoon, but on days like this, at least we had the whole beach to ourselves.We went a few miles South to Bigbury Bay. At the height of Summer I wonder if the tourist ever think what it is like in the Winter...
It's like this... best time to go, even if it was cold.

Besides there were places that we could escape the wind.

 Loads of digging and rock climbing.

We are going to have a very quiet and restful weekend.
 Ready for week two in the demolition of the cottage next door.

It seems very eerie to see lamp posts and telephone poles standing all on their own on our return journey.
Have a good weekend and we will see you all on Monday x x x

Happy St David's day..................