Merry Christmas

Wishing all my friends a peaceful

and very happy Christmas!

This Christmas,

I just want everyone

to be happy, healthy, and loved.

Sending you all my love

be richly blessed,

and thank you for your friendship over the years!

♥ Be wrapped up with love and hugs ♥

Please take some of my gifts for you

Kew Gardens 19th Smile – Shapes and Patterns

A cold day at Kew Gardens yet the beauty stays.

I observed so many different patterns and shapes this time.

The ‘Smilex’ with its heart shaped leaves and thorns.

Again I tried to take photos with a bokeh- effect as good as I can with my Phone Camera.

The Banana Tree had fruits.

Look at those amazing patterns of 2 very different plants.

It is wonderful to have been able to share this visit with a wonderful friend.

A sweet friendship
refreshes the soul.
Proverbs 27.9

Kew Gardens 18th Smile – Wonderful Finds with a Friend

This time I went to Kew to find the Autumn colours.

My blogger friend Colleen loves to travel and loves Kew,

so I invited Colleen along to enjoy the Gardens.

She loved the yellow Ginko Tree,

behind is a golden Larch just starting to colour.

Along the bridge a variety of colours…….

hang on Colleen I need to catch up.

This is a very tall Monkey Puzzle Tree.

We looked at it closely.

It looked more like a column.

Amazing nature ♥

I couldn’t stop Colleen climbing this Bonsai Tree.

We needed a break and sat down for lunch and a chat.

Colleen brought enough for all in the rucksack, thank you.

On our way we found this beautiful Autumn tree

and rustled through the Autumn leaves.

Thank you Colleen, I’m so happy you could come.

We were having so much fun in Kew Gardens together!!!

I loved every minute of it!!!

♥ Sharing is having more ♥

The best way 
to multiply your happiness
is to share it with others.

Kew Gardens 16th Smile – shapes

Another trip to Kew Gardens – this time I found lovely different shapes in the plants. We walked through the rainforest, grasses and admired another beautiful open waterlily.

Never lose an opportunity
of seeing something beautiful,
for beauty is God's handwriting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

God was very creative making wonderful shapes for us to admire.

• 

  Aloe – spiral

• 

  soft long thin grass in the wind

• 

  long – titan arum

• 

  just amazing….

We saw a fruit in different stages

God gave us eyes
to see the beauty of nature
and hearts 
to see the beauty in each other.

Kew Gardens 15th Smile

This time in Kew Gardens I admired the flowers and learnt some Photography tips from my Photographer friend I went with.

I learnt to focus on the flower with a blurry background. This was even possible with my Mobile phone camera and I was so happy that this worked well.

Please click on the individual picture to enlarge it. I’m proud how the pictures came out.

This little fellow fell on my trousers while we had lunch under an Oak tree.

He was not even 1 cm long.

We passed a fascinating tree, a Maritime Pine which did not grow straight. The bark was smoother on one side and really rugged on the other.

Maritime Pine not growing straight, and view up

We stayed so long we nearly needed a lantern home….

A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. Proverbs 27:9

We need love

Dear friends,

know that you are not alone.

We are all joined in love.

 

Every situation in Life is temporary.

So when life is good,

make sure you enjoy and receive it fully.

And when life is not so good,

remember that it will not last forever

and better days are in the way.

Jenni Young

 

Sending good thoughts to each of you

in this blogging community and the world.

Take good care of yourself and stay safe!

 

Today is …. #48

… a day for gratitude….

 

Another year comes to an end.

Reflecting on the past year.

We have dealt with ups and downs,

family or work related,

maybe illness, loss and sadness.

We are growing stronger every year dealing with emotions

and difficult situations.

 

I wanted to express my gratitude to all of you

my wonderful friends around the globe.

You helped me cope with many things,

you made me happy,

you were there for me.

My heartfelt thank you.

I am so grateful for you being here.

I send you so much love and many hugs.

Thank you for being with me on my journey!

Another Year – 7th Blogiversary

My blog is 7 years old and I am sort of archiving my old posts

onto another wordpress site as I don’t really want to lose any.

(not sure though if that is really necessary)

I just cut and paste so I don’t need space for pictures on that.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Looking through old posts and bloggers who followed is nice but also makes me sad.

Some have gone to heaven, may they rest in peace, they are not forgotten.

Some have just stopped blogging for an unknown reason,

some closed their blog, it does not even exist at all,

some made their blog private.

 

I enjoy blogging very much,

it makes me happy,

and if I can reach even one person who likes a bit of my posts,

I am happy.

I don’t always have time to read all blog posts I like .

I have made amazing friends all over the world, met some of you

and I will try to meet more of you personally.

To all my blogging friends

a super BIG THANK YOU

 

 

You don’t know how much you mean to me.

You have enriched my world in those last 7 years,

you have made me laugh, cry, think.

I learnt from you, you inspired me, you supported me

and showed me what a wonderful world it is

with you in it.

 

There is so much love and kindness out there

and we need to spread it as much as possible.

People need love, hugs, appreciation, kindness, peace, praise,

understanding and self esteem.

Let’s keep it going.

I feel truly blessed with all of you around me.

 

Love you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Award

In August I have been nominated  for an Award and I had it in my drafts since.

I just realised that and I am very grateful to Binky  who gave the award to me.

Thank you so much and sorry it took so long.

I have known Binky for years

and as Binky,

I saw bloggers come and go in the nearly 6 years I am blogging.

Some bloggers stopped blogging,

some went to heaven,

and also I met some bloggers personally.

It is wonderful to meet Bloggers on line and face to face.

You get connected and become friends.

There is a wonderful community out in the blogging world and

I can only express my sincere thanks to everyone of my friends, readers and commenters.

You make me happy.

 

 

Danny and Struppi

Danny travelled again for the weekend.

On the plane with a snack

in the car to the house.

In Stuttgart Airport Danny saw a many bears and talked to some.

He made friends with one, called Struppi.

Struppi then joined us on the flight back to London.

The bears had a lovely flight home and Danny is busy introducing

Struppi to everybody and the English life here.

Our bear family has grown!

Welcome Struppi!