Beryl

Sometimes known as the Mother stone it encourages forgiveness, love and affection. It was used as an aid to keep demons and evil spirits away.

It comes in a range of colours, the one pictured above is my golden Beryl in it's raw state, which means it hasn't been polished to make it smooth, the usual term for this is 'tumbled'. The different colours are actually impurities which have discoloured the stones as in it pure state it would be clear. Many people believe the different colours give the stones slightly different attributes, for instance the golden Beryl brings out optimism and hope in it's users, causing others to give golden Beryl users the honesty they want. It is also a good stone for bring stability in work and money, it can be used if you are looking for backers in any business ventures you have, and will boost your enthusiasm in those ventures.

Another coloured Beryl is green which is known as the expensive but very beautiful Emerald. Venus's stone, preserving love and bringing hope and balancing the mind. New life is associated with the Emerald so Spring is a good time for it's use.

Other Beryl colours are red, pink and colourless.

A is for Arlee and Amethyst

Today is the first day of this years A-Z Challenge which I partook in last year and thoroughly enjoyed, so much so that I made sure to join up again this year.

We make our start with A of course and my A is for Arlee to say a big thank you for your creation of this linky which makes it possible for so many to join in with , meet new bloggers and make friends with some of them. I learnt so much last year from it which I will be able to implement in future blogging.

I do have another A which is for Amethyst. I decided to have a theme this year although I haven't checked every letter yet, so there may be a little blagging along the way if I don't find enough matches to the letters. The theme is gemstones.

The photo above is my amethyst which I leave out in the garden as part of the ornamentation so it needed a bit of a wash for the photo. The amethyst is a calming stone which helps protect anyone carrying it. It's good as a stress buster with anxiety lowering properties bringing peace and serenity. A very good allround stone for people. It also is mean to be very spiritual causing people to be able to achieve inner peace, or psychic experiences as well as help with meditating. It's also called the healing stone as it can help with addictions, blood cleansing and can bring down fevers with skin problems being cleared up as another of it's many helpful properties. Pop it under your pillow when you sleep to help with any insomnia you may have or rub it over your forehead if you have a headache. Carry it while travelling as a protection. One of the most recommended stones to have if you were to have any.

I have the one in the garden and have also kept a smaller one close be my bed, maybe it helps or maybe it doesn't but it's nice to have and look either way.

Easter Wishes

Hello after another long absence - must stop doing that, sorry.

So, Happy Easter to you all, I do hope you have all been having a great day with lots of choccy. It's been a chilly day here but lots of lovely sunshine to brighten us all up after a long stretch of dismal grey days. Perfect for the little Easter egg hunt I laid on for the girls. There was a bit of denial from Daughter#1 who tried telling me now she is 16 she is far too old to do an egg hunt but I knew she'd go for it once set up.

It was a bit of a different one this year as usually I use clues found from google searches and hide lots of mini eggs in the appropriate hiding places but this time I couldn't find any suitable clues for teenagers so just hid eggs around the house and garden meaning the girls just hunted everywhere for them. I'm sure they didn't find them all and we'll be coming across mini eggs for months to come but they had a nice collection by the end. Then they needed to answer a few maths questions, also found online, to 'win' their main eggs. Do you know, Daughter#1 really enjoyed it and got right into the spirit of it all, no good trying to grow up before you're ready, is there?

A shame there doesn't seem to be anything in the line of treasure hunt clues online, do not people imagine teenagers like to play around in this way? Surely they aren't just little adults but also big kids too. Next year I shall enlist the help of someone more 'clued up' in the art of making treasure hunt clues for the girls to search out the eggs, FIL did a very nice job of it some years back and said he enjoyed that so no doubt I'll be entreating his help again.

The photo above are the eggs that the girls 'won'. Spring colours, heralding in Spring proper for us all, let's hope.

Random Picture, Window in Bavaria

I love this photo of this little window opening into what look like a large loft space of an old house in Bavaria, Germany. What lies beyond? Why so small? Is it to keep out the heat or keep it in when the weather temperature drops to  -20 which it regularly does in this part of the country? The snow often holds people hostage in their homes when it piles up against their doors. My Sister-in-Law has a story that when she tried to enter her car one very cold winter day her key would not fit into the iced up lock, so she climbed in through the boot to get to the driving seat. A window so small as this, then, will certainly help prevent heat loss on these cold cold days and to keep in the warmth from the fire.

Would you like to see the rest of the roof from which this window peaks? Oh, go on then, here it is:

Our New Sink has made my Heart Sink

Pathetic, I know - both the pun and the sentiment.

But I am in fact disappointed in my new sink as it has proved to be so small. I was very much looking forward to my kitchen extension but there have needed to be so many compromises. For instance we won't have room for a large fridge freezer with added ice maker when the time comes to replace the one we have, there also won't be room for the dining table I envisioned for large family and friend meals, we will only have room for a tiny table to seat two or three people, so gone are the ideas of Christmas dinner sat cheerful and laughing altogether. Several other more minor compromises or losses have been experienced, and now I find my double sink, although classed as two full sized bowls are far smaller than the single I have now. I believe this is due to sinks being made smaller in general now as new houses and kitchens are being built so much smaller than they were and certain appliances are downsizing to fit, plus the use of dishwashers has risen so larger sinks are often generally not needed anyway. Personally I prefer to wash up myself, it's much quicker and you don't have those dirty dishes hanging around in the dishwasher for too long. But it won't be so easy to wash up my larger pots and pans now.

Yes, I know there are worse things to worry about or be-moan but I am allowed to feel sad that my dream kitchen will only be a kitchen now.

Back to School

They've only been back since this morning and I'm missing them already. Yes, even their little tiffs. There's no grumpiness, no sitting in front of the TV and no having to repeat anything I say to their plugged-into-some-music-device ears, and I still find myself missing them. How strange.

At least the boys are still here to keep me company as they carry on working on the kitchen extension. Here is a photo of  our current mess for you to look at

School Bags

                                                                                    

School starts back tomorrow and so the last few days have been a time for uniform shopping, shoes, skirts and bags. Who would have thought it would be so hard to get the RIGHT bag. It has to be so big but not too big, the right style, the right colour etc. The last one daughter#2 had was like the one in the picture except it was red. As the zip broke at the end of last term we've been looking for the perfect replacement. We finally found one after much traipsing of shops, the new one is almost exactly the same as the last one after all that but this time from a different shop. I'm glad it wasn't Superdry, which seems to be the IN shop for teens at the moment, as you end up paying for the name - or in other words 'too much' especially when the zip breaks before it's time is out in my estimation.

                                                     

At least we got in a bit of coffee drinking and cake eating while shopping, one of my favourite pastimes. We shared a delicious Giotto in Patisserie Valerie, which is similar to their Tiramisu shown here. I guess that made up for my tired feet.