Still no knitting, just a couple of pictures to prove I am alive!!

DDs lunch yesterday

View from said lunching place!

Off to stalk DT, I have knitting and a camera!! Hee hee, you just never know...watch these photos ;-)

The last day of school really takes it out of you...

DD and I went off for our annual "last day of the school year piece of cake and a cup of tea", well actually we had smoothies and DD had macaroni cheese (wtf??) and then we walked home. DD now has 6 weeks stretching ahead of her, so what did she want to do...she wanted to pair the odd socks...she was working away with Topsey for company, and whilst I was cooking dinner I realised things had gone quiet...I could no longer hear "mum, come and look at this", "mum, look at me and Topsey", "mum, do these socks match??"...so I went upstairs with the camera as I thought it might be worth a picture, and look what I found....

Aaaawwwwww!

I managed to get the glasses off her...she is fully clothed, rather hot and sweaty, and the bed is covered in cat hair - nice!

I am off to knit - honest!

Still no knitting...

But DH went to London and came home via Cyber Candy . He got me Moomins...look!

And when they are released from their box there are 2 tins....

fronts and backs

Aw, Moomins!

You know there is nothing on telly.....

...when you have finished putting the shopping delivery sway and catch DH watching horse racing from Yarmouth.....

Anyway, no knitting (what's new?) BUT a few photos...for no particular reason, and no particular order...

First up: my new recycling bins, thank god I have a garage to put them in

I won't bore you with the details of which bin does what, but suffice to say what used to go in one doesn't go into it any more, it goes into 2. Which is good because now they are only collected every 2 weeks, but not all bins are collected the same fortnight. We have a piece of paper telling us what to do, and when....it all starts August 4th, so then will begin the fun - hee hee!

Next up: my honeysuckle cos I love it - sigh! And the smell is heavenly!

Next up, one of my favourite portuguese snack - tremocos!!!! A photograph, cos I can, and now I am going to eat them - yum!

And finally a photo for Bezzie - jeez you would be so proud of me....I went to a local supermarket and picked up a few bargains.......in fact we happened to get there when the lad with the price gun was marking stuff down.......to 20p ($0.40)!!!! Yes, I am fucking with you not ;-) 20p!!!!!!!!

Look at this list, it has the original prices and the price I paid, and yes a pack of sausages went through the till at 2p ($0.04!!!!!!!). I added it all up and I spent £2.22 ($4.44) instead of £23.53 ($47.00)

This made me very happy :)

Small Ads:

One tramopolene free to a friendly american ;-) Bounce you for it!

Still no piccies....

and a very busy weekend.....
yesterday was my day off, I spent the morning thinking about what I should have been doing - you know the kind of thing; laundry, cleaning, housework. So I read the paper, did the crossword and sunbathed on the trampolene (you know how small my garden is), my excuse was that I didn't want to get hot and sweaty and then have to go out. At 1.30pm DD, DH and I went to our friends renewal of vows. It was a lovely family affair, and we all went back to their house and sat in the garden, catching up, meeting new friends, eating and drinking. The weather was warm, and we actually sat outside until 9pm - yes 9pm!!!!!
It was almost like Summer ;-)

Does anyone know how to.....

reply to people who leave comments - obviously not as a post (yes, I have done that!!), but via email. Sometimes I would like to say "thank you for your comment" or "goodness that is nothing, snails here can climb my 6' fence!!", or even "Sue, I won't blame you personally, but could you take it back for a refund??".
When I get emails saying that I have got a comment (I love those, you may have guessed that also get excited when the postman is walking up the street), the email address comes up as noreply-comment@blogger.com. Is there anyway I can do what I would like on Blogger? Anyone? Bueller??

I now have my weather frustrations in perspective.....we are not running from bush or forest fires - rain, get over to CA immediately!!. It is not hot, and our humidity is acceptable, certainly not a ridiculous 90%. And I am lucky enough not to live too close to a river so I am not getting more and more anxious when it rains. In fact my plants are thriving - except the caulis, they died a very sad death........my flowers are looking lovely, and my pumpkins are looking good.

Must go, DH has just freaked out the cats by yelling "there is a faller!!!" - he is watching the Tour.......

It is still fucking raining.....

for gods sake someone really is taking the piss....I buy new skirts, I buy summer shoes, I want to garden, so what happens on my one free day off this week.....it RAINS...it has not stopped ALL day, literally ALL BLOODY DAY!!!!!!!!

Rant over.....oh a final FUCK!! there, I feel slightly better now....

so what do you do when your day looks like this

Bezzie look! I have runner beans (just sprouting), 2 courgettes (a lot of dead snails - hence I still have 2 courgettes), emergency courgette (in case I don't kill all the snails!), something in a pot that hasn't sprouted (I think it might be watercress?), aspidistra, and mah massice grapevine. Nowhere near as advance as yours, so maybe we should swap weather.

Whadya do? You bake....I bought one of these, I couldn't post my own picture, as we have fallen out....bloody thing. I hasten to add, I didn't buy it from here - it is just the only photo I could find. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!

I turfed the kitchen out looking for all of my ingredients.....look at the mess I created, all to make gingerbread men (sigh!)

I followed the instructions - do I have gingerbread men??? Do I hell!!! I have a bowl of spongey ginger stuff...the mould is sitting in the dishwasher in disgrace...BUT I am not beaten, I will come up with a Plan B and I will have gingerbread men. I did have some stuff that you brush in the mould to make the men come out easily, but as you can see, despite getting all the cupboards out, I couldn't find it! I will blame it all on DH, he went to work at 6am, so I decided to get up too and in my enthusiasm thought I would bake - gggrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, I promised WIP Wednesday so here you go

Hangin' in front of the window

Hangin' in front of the window part II

Layin' in a provative fashion on the table..

Best interpretation of colour...probably photo No 2

Yes - I do knit!!!! And at times, better than I bake....

PS: Update on Epiphany......I am still blogging, no doubt boring 2 people to death, AND I am still wearing make-up...ok, not right now this minute....but it isn't yet a 5 minute wonder....I quite like this "settled (ish) in your own skin" ;-)

Is it still raining? really??

Wow - this weather is horrible. It feels like autumn out there. The house feels sticky and damp, the washing isn't drying, and I almost feel tempted to put the heating on - sigh! And tomorrow is my day off, so I guess I won't be outside..much...at all actually. The VERY heavy rain cloud that is sitting over this country is heaviest over Casa de Frango Maryannlucy. Just cos DH bought me 2 very nice skirts for my b'day, and I bought myself 2 very nice ones AND I bought my new sandals...it has pissed down with rain ever since...I know I have retail legs but god this is bad....so tomorrow I will throw myself with gay abandon into housework - YAY!! and after those 5 mins I may just knit. And as it will be a day after WIP Wednesday so I may even post some WIPS.....

Independance Day Part 2

There are much better photos of yesterday here

These are on the Sulgrave village website.

Happy 4th of July

We had such a fantastic day today. We decided last night, that although the weather has been awful, we were going to make the most of our day off together. We dicussed what to do, should we go to Blenheim Palace, Upton House, Birmingham. DH and I discussed the time we went to Blenheim and met an old couple who had been at a WW2 re-enactment day. So with that in mind, I hit t'internet......after a lot of trawling I found that an old house near us was having a 4th of July celebration - reasons why explained ina bit...anyway the day was planned, we would go to see what it was all about.

Well, we woke up this morning and it was pissing down - grey skies, wet, VERY wet.I thought twice, DH said no, we would go. Armed with our best summer clothes - waterproofs, wellies, walking boots, we set off.

To get there we had to go past this house....this is were my grandparents lived, and I have a lot of happy memories of this house, and I had almost forgotten how beautiful it is - really chocolate-boxy. All of that is one house, though I think a long time ago it was 2 cottages (or so Gran told me). It was good to see it again, and if I look carefully I can see me and Gran on the front steps picking sweetpeas.

We drove on and got to this place: Sulgrave Manor. It is the ancestral home of George Washington - yes, THE George Washington, hence the 4th of July link. We had a great tour round, and were given loads of info onthe house and the Washingtons, it was all very interesting. Who would have thought that this was only about 30 minutes from where I live..

this photo was taken late afternoon, look, blue skies!!!

We got met at the house by this chap - isn't he handsome. We all got to hold him, I was really surprised by how heavy he is......

We all agreed that this was worth the entrance fee alone

We had a wander round the grounds and I found these for y'all

Oh, and I spotted this guy in the gardens...

All this was pretty good, but then things got even better - look at this lot

We saw jitterbugging and jiving. We met GIs, and Winston Churchill. It was fab!!! I have always been drawn to the 40s - maybe it is a knitting and "making do" thing - having to do the best with what you have, the dresses, the attitude and strength of spirit, the music, the hair, the make-up..everyone today was so friendly. Have I said it was great????? Have I mentioned that I might be hooked on this re-enactment thing?????

We also saw some huskies, and got cuddles

and we watched some Appalachian Dancing from a group of very nifted footed women. Watching their feet was fascinating, the rhythm was pounding, and the music was very toe-tapping - violins, guitars and banjos....

And then I met Eddie!!! Can you tell from my face that I am a little bit impressed??? Lulu - he wasn't italian, but hey ;-)

The group finished jitterbugging, and then started to do the Lambeth Walk (oi!), with audience participation....can I let you into a secret now? If you don't want to participate, I don't recommend the following:

1. Sitting at the front

2. Shifting round in seat

3. Looking anywhere apart from at the people walking towards you.

4. Wearing halloween wellies

Cos as you can see, it doesn;t work. But I wasn't really complaining - sigh! He apologised for being "hot" (his word not mine), once again I didn't complain, he had just been dancing. DH got picked too, he looks very happy as well doesn't he? (should that sentence have ended with a ! instead of a ?, I think perhaps it should)

Anyway, we can now do the Lambeth Walk...

And then we met these two - don't they look fantastic. And they were facinating to talk to. We picked their brains, and we may well be visiting another in the future...perhaps next time we may be a little more participative - watch this space

Just going back to my Gran. Because of her I have a love of sweetpeas and grow them every year. This year I was late so they haven't even come into bud yet. When we were in the house, there was a vase of them and the smell was heavenly. AND a record that Gran used to play when I was little that me and my cousins would dance around to was Glen Millers "In the Mood", guess what we heard today. Actually that was probably obvious given that we were at a 40s do.

Destiny - all things happen for a reason. If you don't believe me, ask Dr Who.

Do you do it quietly, do you even understand it?

Plurking

Do you plurk? I think I do, yet don't understand it....odd? have a look for yourself.

Something kinda Oooooohhhhhhhhh

When you are asked if you want the bad news first - what do you choose? I guess I go for the "bad news first" option - that way you can get the nasty bit over and done with and get onto the good bit ;-)
So first off, my new shoes. I really would have preferred the red ones, but these babies are selling out quicker than you can say "Do you REALLY think those can make your arse smaller???? hahahahahahahahaha! silly!!", so I went for Plan B, the green ones......yes I know mine are pink...the green ones are selling out quicker than my backside is shrinking too. I like the pink ones though, they are pretty, and more importantly they are so COMFORTABLE (yes, I am getting older!!). They are fab, they are like walking on air, everyone should have some, everyone who works in retail should have some, and yes I am going to get my red ones when they are available. And if they shrink my butt, so much the better!!!! These amazing things are FITFLOPS, I love 'em.

So I got the "bad news" bit over, here is the good bit....look what knittingozfan got me for my birthday - big squees!!!!!

Cut the top off, water and you'll get gerberas - I love these flowers and they are DDs favourites, so we are looking forward to these growing........

She also got me some mmmmmmmmmMalabrigommmmmmmmmmmmm. The colour is Orchid, and having had a look at Ravelry I have about 10 patterns stored that I need to choose from.

oh, what is that in the background? Does that really say "Emergency Knitting"? Why, yes it does........how did she know that I really coveted one of these?? I had seen it on Turtlegirls blog. When I saw the post I left a comment saying how fab I thought it was, and that I would love one. I showed DH, he was suitably impressed (you can see the face now can't you). I didn't mention it to anyone else....I didn't know that knittingozfan had heeded my advice of reading turtlegirls blog, and although she hadn't seen my comment on the post, but she had seen the bag AND she got my one for my birthday.....look! more pictures....

yes, I know these 2 are virtually the same. For much better pictures click the link above.....more pictures though



I am absolutely made up...how fab a pressie is this - it is so good, even T Malluh is impressed, so impressed she has posed next to the bag.......and in honour of Tops, I leave you with a few more cats...well it is Caturday tomorrow if I am not very much mistaken....



No photos of Archie, he wasn't feeling photogenic this evening...

forgot to mention, DH has been lucky enough to accompany DD and a friend to this tonight. It hasn't rained here yet, so I can only hope it isn't raining 9 miles away.

Right now this minute they are possibly witnessing the gyrating skinnies belting out these lyrics

I've got to heat it up, Doctor, got to heat it up
I've got till 3 o'clock, I've got to rock until you drop
Something kinda ooh, Jumping on my tutu
Something 'side of me, Wants some part of you oo-ooh
Something kinda ooh, Makes my heart go boom boom
Something 'side of me, Wants some part of you oo-ooh
Something kinda ooh, Jumping on my tutu
Something 'side of me, Wants some part of you oo-ooh
Something kinda ooh, Bumping in the back room
Something 'side of me,Wants some part of you oo-ooh etc etc

it goes on....I won't. I just know that DH is having the time of his life.....