Hello everybody and welcome to the first in my new Blog series "Say Hello to...". In this series I will be interviewing various bloggers from around the globe.
First up we have Hannie, a student who lives in Dresden.

Hi Hannie!


1. So, tell us all about your blog. When did you start blogging and why? And how did you come up with your blog title?

Hello Blogging Friends,
Today I am going to share with you my ten most commonly used hashtags on instagram.

I really really really love Instagram. I think it's a fantastic social media platform. The emphasis is put solely on the photos and you can connect with so many different people with the same interests as you. I have followed people who post a lot of dog photos or wildlife photos or farming photos etc and there's no end to it!

So here are the ten hashtags that I use all the time.

1. #northumberland
I live in Northumberland and the Northumbrian scenery features heavily on my insta-feed. I like seeing other people's pictures from around Northumberland because it's giving me an ever expanding list of places that I really need to visit.
2. #labrador
This one is pretty self explanatory. I love labradors. Specifically I love my Labrador. Bosun. He is scrummy and I love him. I tell him every day.

3. #puppy
Again, self explanatory. Although I have been meaning to ask, when does it stop being appropriate to use this hashtag? He's nine months old now. Is there a cut off point? He'll always be a puppy to me.
4. #chillingham
It's where I live, where I work, where I got engaged, where I'm getting married. I love this place.


5. #myunicornlife
Generally used to tag cute things, pink things, pretty things, things that make you go awwwwwwww etc. I can't for the life of me remember where I first saw this hashtag. I think (don't quote me on this) that it was started by Helene in Between...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
6. #whatimreading
Does basically what it says on the tin. I like to take a picture of the book that I'm currently reading and then hashtag it. It's a fun way of seeing what other people are reading too.


7. #fiancee
Obviously quite a recent one. Teehee! Yes whenever I instagram a picture of Rick and me, it's usually accompanied by the fiancee hashtag. I'll only be able to use it for just over another year though.
8. #chillinghamwildcattle
Again this is quite a self explanatory one. I am the Warden for the Chillingham Wild Cattle so I often post pictures of them.

9. #countrylife
You know, because living in the country is my thaaang. Makes sense.
10. #photosinbetween
This is a hashtag started by Helene in Between that can basically be used for any photo you like. It's genius! I love it! And I also love seeing what other people use it for.


Well I hope you've enjoyed reading what hashtags I use on a regular basis. Am I addicted to social media? No, but I do enjoy it. I hope that some of you will use some of these hashtags so that I can spot some of your pictures on Instagram!!

Hello Blogging Friends,

Hello there folks! Who had a pleasant weekend? Did you get lots done? Did you go and do something fun? Or did you just loll around and relax in your pyjamas? All perfectly acceptable answers. Weekends are for "me" time, do whatever you want to do says I. Unless your other half is asking for some help with the chores...in which case definitely do that. You get the chores done faster and you score brownie points! Woohoo!

So now that we've had roughly about a week of sunshine, my garden is starting to wake up. I am so excited. We spent Sunday afternoon lounging in the garden, doing a bit of weeding and drinking tea. I love tea! And being able to drink it in the garden with a slice of cake, listening to the birds and watching Bosun try to chase bumble bees just makes it taste twenty times better than normal.

I thought I would take some photos and describe what is going on in my garden at the moment. Mainly because I wanted to practise my photoshop editing skills, but also because my future mother in law helped us a lot with the garden when we moved in and with subsequent holidays and I love showing her the progress.










 The primroses everywhere are in full bloom. Primroses are my second favourite flower so I absolutely love spotting them roundabout in the woodland. They tend to come out a bit later up here than I was used to in Dorset, but then, so does everything. These primroses are actually growing in pots so that they can be easily dug out again, as are the bluebells. And as you can see...the first bluebell is just starting to show it's flower!! So excited, Bluebells are my number one favourite flower. I love the way they carpet woodland floors, the colour is stunning and as a child, they were always a sure indicator that my birthday was on the way. Love love love them.


Here is my onion bed. This year I am growing red AND white onions. (or do you call them brown onions? I'm not really sure). Last year I only grew red onions as I much prefer them. I would like to make a lot more chutneys this year so I have chosen to grow a mixture of different onions. And a lot of them! My FMIL rigged up this contraption with the string to stop birds taking the onion sets when they were small...and it worked! I'll take it down once the onions are a bit more established, but I quite like it. It makes my garden looks like a professional lives there who knows what she's doing.


 And this is my one clove of garlic that has sprouted properly. I planted about thirty, but so far only this one is showing signs of life.




These are the daffs lining our front garden path. There were a few there already when we moved in last year but we have since added a few and FMIL planted a few different varieties which has made it look a lot prettier!

 I love my Forsythia. One of the first things to bloom in the spring, it just cheers the place up!

 This is my little herb corner where I am currently growing Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage and Parsley. I love this cute little corner. This year I have included these cute little wooden labels that you write on. I don't use them everywhere in the garden because they are quite expensive, but for something a bit permanent they look amazing. They are from Burgon and Ball. FYI I don't label them for my benefit, I know what they are. I label them so that when I'm cooking and I send Rick out for a bunch of parsley, he comes back with the right stuff.




 Also, I'm kind of obsessed with Lavender. I love the look, the smell, just everything about it. So I bought a lot earlier in the year! I dry it out and use it to make delicious smelling pockets to keep the wardrobes smelling fresh and the moths away. You can also see some lilies here that are shooting up.



And here is my first fruit tree to come into blossom, this is a plum. I also have pear and three varieties of apples. This plum blossom just smelled absolutely gorgeous. When I was getting under it to take these arty shots of the sky, I was sniffing away like....ooooh!

And I'll leave you with these photos of my beautiful labrador Bosun. I think as dogs go, he is rather photogenic.






So, what's going on your gardens at the moment? Is anyone else further along in their gardening calendar than me? Here in Northumberland we are definitely taking it slow!

Have a great week!

So Rick has been teaching me how to use photoshop (oooh-err!) and I've been playing around with it, so you might see a few fancy images pop up such as the one above. I did not take the photo, it is not my laptop and I have no idea where that park is. I have recently discovered these websites that contain thousands and thousands of images that you are allowed to take and use for your own purposes for free. I got this image from Pixabay, but there are many more. So if you ever need an image but don't have one of your own photos, then grab one of these.

Anyways so here are a few things from around the web that I've been reading on the odd occasion that I have some spare time.

• This cheesey baked bean dip from A Beautiful Mess looks DELISH!! 
• Lucy has put together her colour palette for a blanket inspired by cupcakes at Attic 24 <3
• I fell in love with these gorgeous frosty/snowy pictures of the sunset in The Alps from Joy Felicity Jane
• Twinkie Chan's second book is out! Yaay! I've always loved her crochet patterns and I will definitely be buying this book!
• So...I am a massive Royalist. I absolutely love reading about the Queen and the Royal Family. Happy Birthday by the way! So I've been absolutely loving all the pictures that are being released for the Queen's birthday. Prince George is just so scrummy!
• Totally agree with this article re vigilantes on social media potentially ruining innocent people's lives! Think before you post people!

So that's it for now. Have a good week and let's hope the sun starts to shine!

Happy Weekend Everybody!! I hope you have lots of funsies planned. You may have noticed things look a bit different around here, I've been doing a bit of re-vamping. I get bored of things quite quickly and change things up as often as I can. Not just online but also my life in general.



I thought I would do a "Get to Know" me post to go along with the new look. I stumbled across this on a blog called Megan has OCD. If you are a blogger, I challenge you to answer these questions in a post too and link back, so in theory we should get a chain of links going all over the blogosphere.

Let's Begin...

Hello Friends!
Please bear with me for a few days while I change over the template of my blog. If there are some bits that are not quite working properly, I am working to fix them, but I'm not very good with technology!! Ahhh!

My Review

“Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.”

I decided it would make sense to go back and start reading the Poirot series from the very beginning, being the logical being that I am (ahem).
Presumably this is the book whereby Agatha Christie wants to introduce Poirot and really wants the reader to get to know him. Thus in this book are lots of descriptions on his character and all his little quirks.
"Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man"

The story begins with Mr Hastings (our narrator) who gets sent home from the war front to recover from an injury. He gets invited to spend his leave with his friend John Cavendish at his old family estate of Styles st Mary. As per usual there is a variety of people staying at this place, including friends, family and staff.

When John's step-mother is found dead in her bed after having been evidently poisoned with strychnine, the blame is automatically put to her new husband, Alfred Inglethorp. They were overheard having an argument earlier on in the day and everyone had always assumed he only married her for her wealth. But of course that would be far too simple, and a very boring book. Investigation proves that all of the evidence against Alfred Inglethorp was planted in an attempt to frame him. So...whodunnit?!

This book/mystery/tale is extremely clever. Almost too clever. I feel like in real life, nobody would actually be enough of a genius to plan this sort of murder. But it does have fantastic entertainment value. Really Agatha Christie was a very clever woman.













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So Bosun is just over nine months old now (I know, where did that time go?) It seems like only yesterday we drove for three hours to Doncaster to pick him up. Rick drove home while I snuggled Bobo on the back seat. He pretty much slept all the way home which was pretty good. He is still very much a puppy in his behaviour. He throws a tantrum if he doesn't get his own way and needs to be involved in every single thing we do.


But have you ever looked at the really weird stuff that your dog does and just blurted out "why are you doing that?" I have those moments all the time, I'll give you a few examples.

Chewing Rocks

Eating Poo!!

Dropping Stuff in my Boots