A Lovely Weekend

I'm a spoiled person... this weekend has been so lovely and I've had two great (early!) birthday presents, to make it even nicer.
Yesterday we went to spend the day with my niece, Keri-Anne, and her little family.  G. had to go to work, so we only saw him for a short while, but we shared a lovely "picnic" lunch (at the table, as it was raining!) with Keri-Anne and the little ones. 

In the afternoon, we played with the babies for a while then, once the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine, we went for a stroll along the canal, through the park and into the playground. 

The canal has recently been renovated, to create a marina.  Some large trees had to be taken down and they have been used to make these sculptural seats in the park - great for a bit of climbing, messing around and chatting.

A certain someone didn't feel like chatting - Let Sleeping Babies Lie!

Little swings and Big Roundabouts...

...and a Great Big Swing, for friends to play on together!

I met a new little friend...

...who was happy to take a piece of cereal bar, then scamper off on his own little errands.  He wasn't at all shy and was happy to pose for his portrait.

So were we!  We don't have many photos of the three of us together, so we were really glad to pose for Keri-Anne!

* * *

Yesterday, I received this Birthday gift, from Keri-Anne & Co -

Isn't it great?  It's a fab cushion, for my Studio (when I have a sofa to put it on!).  It's so nicely made and all soft and squashy. I love it!  Look at those great big wooden button-eyes... the cute floral fabrics and the spotty bit for the face... the little scallops for the feathers.  It's wonderful!

After all that exercise and excitement,  I was ready for a good sleep...

I was woken by my DH and DS, with breakfast in bed, plus cards and a Birthday present. We decided to celebrate my birthday today, since DH will be working on Wednesday and will be very late home.

This is what was in my surprise present:

Wow!  I am SO spoiled!  I didn't ask for a Kindle at all... I wasn't even quite sure whether I'd like one, although I have followed the blog debates about them for a while now.  Several bloggers I follow have made very interesting posts about their electronic books and what they think of them.  I originally thought I didn't want one at all - I love Real Books - after all, I do make them!   However, recently I've been borrowing DH's i-Pod Touch, to read books during the night, when I can't sleep; I do like this and have been sort-of mulling over the idea of having my own electronic book, of some kind. 

And now I have one! I have my own Kindle.  It is a 3G & Wi-fi version, which will let me browse the Net as well as buying books online etc.  I'm impressed by how clear the screen is, though the keypad is a bit clumsy (especially to someone who's become used to a touch-screen on an i-Pod). I was also surprised to find the screen is entirely monochrome.... just Black on White... with bits of grey... No colour.  Hmmm... I think that will take a bit of getting used to.  Browsing in B&W is an interesting experience.  But then, this isn't designed to take the place of my very nice lap-top pc.  Any browsing I do, will be just reading blogs, or checking on my Etsy shop, to make sure there's nothing urgent to deal with; or choosing nice, shiny new e-books to read!!  

I've already assembled a small library, all ready to read.  I have found a lot of free versions of various Classics; recent books - and a number of very popular classics too - can cost a fair bit to buy.  I'm not sure if I'm prepared to pay £11 for an omnibus edition of something, in an electronic copy, when I can probably buy a paper version more cheaply anyway.  I still love real books and that isn't likely to change.  But I can see that my wonderful new Kindle will come in very handy, especially when I'm out and about, or on holiday!

I am a very lucky blogger today!