Grrrrrr

My phone is totally full of pictures, so I can't take any more until I have transferred them to my computer. I really wanted to put up a picture of a beautiful little flower, but the computer and phone are not co-operating this morning, so it will have to wait until this evening when I have time to fiddle and make them talk.
So only an old picture again today. Here's the little one talking to a horse.
Updated to add: Kathleen I tried to look at your blog but it said that only authorised people could read it. Just wanted to check whether you'd done that intentionally or by mistake, and if on purpose whether I would be able to read it again? I'd miss catching up on you and your beautiful family. Love Debs xx

Update update: Ok, so now the link works perfectly. I wonder what was going on there?!

Hello World

I'm back. Had a lovely weekend, although not enough sleep. More on all that soon. Tomorrow I'm looking after the little one. I have many photos on my phone which I must get round to uploading. In the meantime, here's a slightly blurry one!

I'll have a vowel please Carol...

(I know the caption doesn't quite fit, as that's a blend, but it was what the little thumbnail that blogger lets see you see beforehand made me think of. For anyone who hasn't a clue what I'm on about, don't worry! Posting should return to it's usual level of sanity(!?!) soon)

Does this hat make my head look too big?

No, it's the latest style, isn't it?!?!?

blow wind blow (but not too hard as I'm in a tent)

How to entertain small children

Open up the loft, which is where most of the toys have now been put. Go up to find toys. Instead child finds vacuum cleaner, and spends the rest of the afternoon playing with said machine. Sit by the loft hatch hole to avoid danger, and keep an eye on younger brother of forementioned child as he crawls around the loft and explores.

ps I'm going away this weekend, but I plan to leave a couple of draft posts for HP to put up for me. Probably not much content as I still have to finish (start) packing, but some pictures maybe.

Modern Art?

What to write?

I have several blog posts ticking over in my brain, the problem is I can't remember exactly what any of them were going to be about!

I have one more week of school, and then we have a week off for half-term. Next weekend we are going on a church weekend away to Ashburnham Place. My Mum and Dad will be staying in the house, but somehow I managed to volunteer myself to camp. Actually I have camped there several times before, and on one notable occasion the weather was terrible, and there was a mini-tornado which hit about 3 miles away! I'm pretty sure we won't get that again, and so long as I take lots of layers and prepare for all types of weather, I'm sure it'll be fine.

This week some wonderful friends of mine are going to be moving up to Scotland. I'm really going to miss them all, although I've already been promised a bed to sleep in anytime I want to go visit. J homeschools her four children, and I've had the pleasure of knowing them and doing things like babysitting and visiting them since before no. 3 and no. 4 were born. I love telling them things like how I remember cuddling them when they were really tiny, and how I've had the joy of changing 3 out of 4 of thems nappies over the years! More recently I've been able to take little one and J over to visit them, which has given C, the youngest, an opportunity to experience being the older child who gets to boss\look after a younger child!

Life according to a one year old - part 3

Exercise

Stretch up and grab anything left lying around within reach. If you find an important piece of paper belonging to your Mum this must go straight in your mouth.

If going on the slide you must never forget to take with you two small cars. These must fist be tossed down the slide, before you climb up the steps and carefully manouevre yourself into a postion to slide down. Once you reach the bottom you must locate your toys cars, pick them up and begin the routine all over again. Repeat until distracted by your older brother.

If your brother leaves the safety gate open, even for a second, make a run for it and practice your mountaineering skills on the stairs remarkibly quickly. Once you reach the summit disappear into a bedroom in an attempt to fox your pursueers.

Guest Post by HP

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Debs
Happy birthday to you

Oh and here is the finally promised post about my artwork. These are a couple of card S and I made for people we know. Mostly because we didnt like the amount we had to pay in shops for cards, also i suddenly had an artistic moment. (Few and far between for me!!)I hope you all like them and they cheer you up.
P.S. Dont forget to say happy birthday to the birthday girl!!

Nearly Friday

Well tomorrow it's my birthday. I'll be another year older, possibly even another year wiser. It's been a great year, with lots of ups and downs. I wonder what the coming year will bring. There are a few suggestions on the horizon, but nothing definite yet. I'll let you know once things come together more.

Ikea

Today I went to Ikea, with one other adult and five children. We came out with four trolleys and a buggy over three hours after we went in. It was great fun, but now I'm absolutely shattered, so I'm off to bed. More about it tomorrow maybe :-)

... I guess you'd say...

Yesterday as I drove to work through one of the heavier showers of rain I was listening to the radio. I was intrigued to hear the song 'My Girl' come on, after all, the line "when it's cold outside, I've got the month of May" just didn't have quite the same appeal as usual.

me

I have a snuffly nose that won't stop running, sneezes that won't stop coming, and a very sore throat. I am eating jelly to soothe my throat, and shortly then I will tuck myself up in my nice warm hope and hope that I feel better tomorrow.

Eurovision - the explanation

Eurovision always falls at this time of year, and generally happens on the either the weekend before or the weekend after my birthday. (This year it's the weekend before as it's my birthday on Friday). Over the years it became a tradition to have some sort of Eurovision party to celebrate my birthday, and to give each person a score sheet to take notes on each act and give them our own scores.

Unfortunatly this year Eurovision crept up on me, and since my uni friends are now scattered over the countty, and there are a couple of events alreadt going on with my friends round here I decided that I would just have to sit and watch it on my own. Actually, to be fair, I was invited out to watch it with some other people, but by that point I'd decided to blog my thoughts and comments instead, so I stayed in. I know that's a bit sad, but I've had great fun blogging and sitting here watching with my Dad.

It wouldn't be the Eurovision without Terry Wogan commentating. I'm sitting watching\listening to the votes coming in at the moment, with Terry's usual comments on the location of the countries being more important than the quality of the act (how true!).

Anyway, if you're not all that interested you don't have to read all my Eurovision posts, but I just thought It'd be a good way to keep them for posterity. If you did watch\are watching you can read them and comment (if you wish!) on what you thought about them.

UPDATES: The UK finally recieves its first points (7) from Ireland at 22:46.
At least this year noone will go away with nil points.

Oh, and Malta just gave us 12 points. We may not end up at the bottom of the score board (although it could still happen!)

FINAL UPDATE: Serbia are the winners. The UK came 23rd out of 24th. Ireland came last.

Eurovison - last part including one line summary

22. Turkey. (Smile at me Shekerim)
Belly dancers all British according to Terry. Man singing, with 4 women dancing around him and doing a bit of belly dancing. 'Shake it up Shekerim tell me what you're feeling'. The women have extensions in their hair and it's made all crinkly and put up on the tops of their heads. The background screens say 'shake it, shake it'

23. Armenia (Anytime you need)
Sung in English. Pan pipes, drums, weird tree with strips of plastic bags(?)hanging from it. That great method of taking great big pauses in the middle of the lines. Man singing, wearing a white shirt and black trousers. 'I wanna be you friend, day by day, to the very end. If you ever call, crying with the blues, I'm here for you'.
Or maybe it's toilet paper hanging from the tree? It's blown by a wind machine so it's hard to tell. Maybe a torn up dress? He has a bleeding heart at the end.

24. Moldova (Fight)
Fiddle. Dramatic. People waving huge pieces of material. Looks like her trousers are falling down, or rather pretty much have fallen. Lots of head waving. 'Never let nobody in' - well, good advice. It's not worth opening the door if there's noone there. Lots of red and yellow flashing lights. Oh, now the one at the black has a really big black thing to wave around. And the singing woman sounded like she was screaming for a second.


And that's it, all 24 songs. Hmm, Let me think, which was my favourite?
Oh, hang on, Father Christmas is coming on for some reason. My favourite line he said 'this is a show, so it must go on'. Santa has given Jaana a bell, and she's given it back to him. He's going to ring the bell to start the voting.

1. toilet roll lady dress
2. white clothes boy band.
3. never wanna lost this feeling
4. Irish warble
5. scary lady wants to be left alone
6. nice background dancers, her dress is too short.
7. Hand in front of face and warbles
8. nasal voice.
9. shadows and guitar playing lady
10. belly dancers not wearing enough
11. red dress, shouting, spinning background dancers
12. sounds like an Elvis song, a little bit, maybe - silver
13. pink, lost l'amour
14. opera encore type thing. all holding out roses.
15. pole dancers, and that's the best thing i can say about them.
16. big band swing song
17. don't really know what she's saying ,but she's so wanting it that i want her to get her hearts desire.
18. dance and count in German
19. flying the flag, all over the world.
20. different costumes, all trying hard. line dancing.
21. Aahhahhahah, play the drums, shout,
22. shake it up. Oh no, these were the real belly dancers.
23. Tree\wind\rag combo. The bloke playing the drums had really weird hair.
24. screaming woman.

Eurovision part 5 (?)

17. Serbia (Molitva)
Single voice soaring out over the background music. A ballad-y, but with something more. A woman dressed in a black trouser suit, seems to have a cause to sing about, putting loads of feeling into the song. Surronded by several other women dressed similarly, who have now turned into backing singers. They have red sashes on as well. 'Your name is my prayer'.

18. Ukraine (Dancing Lasha Tumbai)
Oh My!
All dressed in silver metal type things. Counting one two tree in German, and some ooh-oohing. 'Dance!' According to Terry it's the favourite. Goodness knows why! Glitter ball. It's like they are freaky licing glitter balls. And there's one in the background playing an accordian. The guy is wearing blusher. Some of them are wearing trousers that appear way too short for them. The lead singer has a weird star thing on his head.

19. UK (Flying the Flag)
All based on the idea of an airport and flying on a plane. 'We're flying the flag all over the world'. Personally think it sounds better if you can't actually see them dancing around in their costumes. Cool take on the UK flag on the background.
The chorus bit is very catchy. Strange, but true I'd say!


20. Romania (Luibi, Liubi, I love you)
Sung in every conceivible language to get votes, according to Terry. Singing in English to start off, in a bowler hat. And then to Italian. Group of blokes all dressed in different costumes, if you saw them in a pub you wouldn't think they were all there together. Ooh, missed a few languages, but now French, sung, of course by the man in the beret. 'you know what love is about, where-ever you are.. my heart tells me here is your home'.

21. Bulgaria (Water)
It's very dark, with a single voice calling out... and then the drums start, an unpredictable rhythm. SOrt of club scene meets, well something else. Just a woman singing and a man playing the drums behind her enthusiastically. Aaaaaaaa - that was what she just sang, rather than my response. She is able to make some interesting sounds with her voice. She's wearing a bright red top. Oh, the man's come out from behind the drums, and she got to play one at the end.

Eurovision part 4

Janna and Mikka and some other woman who they took from the crowd. But you had a feeling she was a plant. Wasn't really watching that bitcos i was typing! (commercial break in Finland)

13. France (L'Amour a la Francaise )
I can't type. it's jsut too bizarre. Pink. Comic. 'Let's do it again, again again'. Peculiar mix of English and French. I love it. Totally Eurovision. 'I'm crazy, lost in Paris' - line that just sums up the song, totally crazy.

14. Latvia (Questa N
Song to be sung in Italian. Sounds like its from an opera. Three men in top hats and jackets, not exactly tails though. Big crescendo. Two more men appeared. All waving roases around. 'The love between us will never end'. Big crescendo again. Oh, now there's another one. Looks like the ending of a big west end show. Maybe they'll all take a bow in the end. No, they just waved.

15. Russia (Song #1)
Three girls singing anf some more in the background sort of pole dancing on their microphones. 'So come and check it, so come and check it...' Not really my type of song.

16. Germany (Frauen Regier'n die welt)
Means Women rule the world. Swing. Piano, double bass. Bloke in white suit at the front singing and they others all in darker suits. Saxophone, trumpet and drums too. It's the sort of song that sounds really familiar. All about how women rule the world. WOuld probably get it in my head if I knew any German. Oh, some lines in English to finish with. ANd the switch worked. I like it.

Eurovision part 3

11.Georgia (Visionary Dream)
Shouty scary woman in big red dress. Four men dressed in what looks like 'dressing up soldier clothes'. All about 'sailing through' something or other. She has a big red design thing on her back and shoulders. 'Sailing though my story, sharing my his-tory'. More firworks at the end.

12.Sweden (The worrying kind)
Totally though it was a woman from the close up of the head, unti lhe started singing. Strange hair. Catchy rhythm. COol black and white flashy circle things going on in the background. I think I like this song, despite the strangly dressed man. Hey, it's Eurovision! He even has silver gloves. He just threw off his shirt. 'Baby I'm the worrying kind'.

Eurovision part 2

6. FYR Macedonia (Mojet Svet)
Oooh, well we get to admire the Macedonian script on the subtitles. (not sure what it is exactly). Woman singing, sounds a bit desperate, need to look to see what she's actually singing about. 'Sun wakes me in my bed.. three memories that were hurtful i erased forever.. music is the only world for me.. in my world we'll live in harmony' I like that last line. But I think her dress is a bit short though, nice colout though. Firework at the end.

7. Slovenia (Cvet Z Juga)
Weird dress, look as bit like the skirt is made from strips of black sack (like we did at guides a long time ago). She has ribbons all round one arm, but the other is bare. She keeps holding her hand in front of her face and singing ar-ar-ar-arrr. But she is putting lots of effort into it, and has a big smile. Sound like it ought to be in some sort of west end show. My Mum commented that the key change was a mistake, and I would have to agree.

8. Hungary (Unsubstantial blues)
Obviously a blues song. She has a fairly nasal sounding voice, but she's trying hard. SOme nice guitar stuff going on in the background. She's gone for blue jeans and a sleaveless white top, and it suits the song. Nothing too OTT. 'So why did you leave me? And why should I believe it?'. Getting a bit shouty and angry sounding, but still staying in tune. 'I'm helpless and i'm lonely without you'. Ahh, I do feel sorry for her, sounds like she's had a rough deal in life.

9. Lithuania (Love or Leave)
Bongo drum ,guitars, everyone is in shadow (behind a screen?)Woman singing, she looks like a dark haired Sandy from 'As time goes by', but noone else can she that, maybe it's just me. The bongo player has a cool hat on. Quite bouncy flowing, not really a ballad, but not rocky. She's wearing a leather jacket. 'Love or leave, don't play with my heart again'. As Terry said, it didn't really seem to go anywhere.

10. Greece (yassou Maria)
Oh my. Man in the middle, four ladies, wearing very little wiggling around him. 'She's the bomb' apparently 'ai ai ai, there she goes... Maria'. Cheesy, what you'd expect from Eurovision really. Really reminds me of that annoying singer who sings living la vida loca, or whatever it's called. Yassou means 'hello'.

Eurovision, the event of the year part 1

This is the first tine the Eurovision has ever been held in Helsinki, Finland after they won last year with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah.

The evening starts with lots of scenes of snow, and clips of the 'monsters' who won last year, with Hard Rock Hallelujah palying in the background, and of course with Terry Wogan doing our commentry. Now we've entered the stadium and see HPH in person.

We have Jaana and Mikko are our hosts. Terry is counting how many times they say the word 'Helsinki'

1. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Riijeka Bez Imena)
Apparantly it's a sort of prayer for forgivness (according to TErry)
Very calm and soothing, almost like a scene under the sea, with the green and blue effects surrounding them. The lead singer is wearing a dress\skirt that looks like it's a cross between a grass skirt and something one of those toilet roll holding ladies would wear (with the skirt that hides your spare toilet roll). Oh, a man came in playing some sort of stringed instrument and I think she was begging him for forgiveness.

2. Spain (I love you Mi Vida)
Boy band dressed in white. Lots of dancing. All in Spanish. Mi Vida means My Life. Couple of ladies also dressed in white playing huge drums in the back. I don't really understand what the song is going on about. But it keeps saying come give me your love. I like the bits where they say 'oh-ey-oh' inbetween the others words.

3. Belarus (Work your magic)
To begin with sounds like a bond song. There are two ladies moving around in front of moving screens. The guy singer is dressed all in black and saying 'work your magic, baby you can put your spell on me'. The chorus is quite annoyingly catchy. ANd is in my head already.The panels are stil going from side to side while the women girate in front of them. Oh, some more people just appeared magically. And while I typed that they disappeared again. The women were all dressed in black too, and have their hair tied up in a bun.

(Oh, people dressed in only swimming costumes and playing accordians. That was the inbetween clip)

4. Ireland (They can't stop the spring)
Very strong accent. 'The curtain has been raised, and Europe's all one stage'. Very strange lyrics. Sounds quite typically irish, you could almost dance a jig to it, possibly. Big flowers at the back. Fiddle playing. Now the woman has a drum and is playing it. Long instrumental. She has a pretty flower in her hair. 'They may steal the honey, but they'll never steal the sting' huh?

5. Finland (Leave me alone)
Loads of cheers for this act as she starts.
Oh, woman looking a bit bad tempered, like maybe she just got out of bed? 'Leave me alone, I wanna go home' - what great rhymes!? Weird dress, sort of chain things on the side of it. Could imagine this as a Pink song, or similar in the charts. Lots of air being blown at her to make her hair do that sort of trembling thing. I actually like in a strange sort of way...

Jaana and Mikka chat for a bit, so i'll post this one to start us off...

Apologies

to anyone reading my blog through a feeder. I had some formatting problems which meant I had to republish the same couple of posts several times. Hopefully they're all fixed now :-)

Life According to a one year old - part two

Toys:

When given the chance, regular household objects are much
more exciting to play with than toys specially designed
for children.

A small watering can makes a good trumpet\loud speaker.
Insert the spout into your mouth and make a 'hooo' sound.
Continue to be fascinated by the way the sound echos,
and continue for at least 10 minutes. Be extremely frustrated
when you try to walk around with the watering can in your
mouth and your minder removes it from your possession.

Be fascinated by the kitchen bin, and try to use it as a
drum at every opportunity.

If ever let into the bathroom immediately proceed to throw
everything within reach into the bath.

Chairs, especially those left in front of cupboards, boxes
or computers are for pushing round the room. Especially if
that then leaves access to a cupboard, box or computer that
needs to be investigated.

Questions meme

Having sent HP several posts to put up over the weekend, our email now seems to have come back and sorted itself out. Since I didn't keep a copy of the posts I sent to HP hopefully she'll either post them for me at some point, or email them back to me. So you may have to wait a while for the next installment of 'Life according to a one year old', but instead you can have this meme that I sat and completed having found it... well read on and I answer than in the meme.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No. Or possibly vaguely after my Dad's Grandma (That's what my Mum just told me. My middle name is her name)

2. ARE YOU AN ONLY CHILD? No, I'm the middle one. I have two sisters.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? When I was younger I always wanted it to be more fancy, but now I realise that it's useful to be able to write legibly (unlike some people I know!)

4. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I'd like to think so.

5. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Hmm, accident prone me and bungee jumping, doesn't sound like a good combination.

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I don't really like breakfast cereals. If I had to have something it would be oats with a handful of raisins on the top and some cold semi-skimmed milk.

7. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes and no. I have a pair with zips which i put on if I'm running really late for work (they have a hole in the bottom of one of them, which is not ideal!). The pair I usually wear are ankle high, so if I didn't untie them I wouldn't be able to get them off.

8. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? .Physically or mentally? For both, I'd probably say yes, but not like amazingly stronger than everyone else, just regular strong, if there is such a thing.

9. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? I haven't had ice cream for ages, but something like Ben and Jerry's phish-food.

10. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their expression, especially if they are smiling or not.

11. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Hmm, where do I start? But there are lots of things I like about me too.

12 . WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My sisters. Although we probably argue or annoy each other less when we are apart.

13 . WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Are we talking pants in the English or American sense of the word? English – white, American – dark blue jeans. Shoes – well I'm not wearing any at the moment. As my friends and family could tell you, I take my shoes off at every opportunity.

14. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? A small piece of cheese.

15. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Myself typing. My Mum sorting stuff out in the kitchen. Maybe I should put some music on.

16. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Purple of course.

17. FAVORITE SMELLS? Chocolate maybe? Now if this question were favourite smells I could list loads. But maybe that's something for the weird things about me meme.

18. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? I texted my sister HP several times this evening. Talking – I spoke to my Mum at work to check what time she'd be home and to pass on a message that was on the answerphone.

19. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I just found it on Carrie's blog (she did it quite a while ago. I rediscovered the address for her blog and I'd been catching up on her last goodness knows how many posts since I'd last read it. Carrie seems a lovely lady, from reading her blog)

20. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? No, but I used to have a gerbil called Silver, which would run up my arm and sit on my shoulder.

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I'm not really a sports fan. Definitely not football. Does Eurovision count as a sport? No, I thought not.

22. HAIR COLOR? Sort of dark blond, but actually more like brown.

23. EYE COLOR? Brown.

24. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No, but I am short sighted and wear glasses. The though of sticking my finger in my eye scares me, also I have eczema on my fingers and I reckon the solution you have to keep them in might sting!

25. FAVORITE FOOD? Lots of things. Recently I've cooked this chicken recipe that has chickpeas that have been cooked with some spices with it. You eat it with raw spinach, and it's very nice. Sorry if I haven't made it sound very appealing, but I like it. Actually, talking of chickpeas, I think I may be addicted to them at the moment. Here is the recipe for the chicken and chickpea thing, except we usually use turkey instead of chicken, and I hate fish so we don't put fish sauce in.

26. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Definitely happy endings.

27. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Can't remember. But I'm going to see SHREK 3 next Friday (I hope). That's the day it comes out, and it also happens to be my birthday.

28. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Green t-shirt and a dark blue zippy top.

29. SUMMER OR WINTER? I like snow, although not for driving in, and we don't get much in London. I also like sitting around outside in the summer. I think each seasons has its pros and cons.

30. HUGS OR KISSES? Lots of big hugs.

31. FAVORITE DESSERT? Something chocolate maybe? Or maybe a fresh fruit salad. It depends on my mood.

32. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? I've been reading some Arthur Ransome books recently, for about the millionth time. The one I've dipped into today is 'Missee Lee'.

35. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? At the moment I've got a piece of lined paper as a mouse mat. Handy for jotting things down on if I need to.

36. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? Last night I watched The Last Detective.

37. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SOUND(s)? Hmm, too many for this meme, one of them is the sound of metal scissors cutting fabric on our wooden table. It reminds me of when I was little and my Mum would make us clothes.

38. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Probably Beatles, but neither particularly at the moment.

39. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Scotland. Or maybe Germany\Holland. I'm not really sure which would be furthest. Anyway, I've not yet ever been on an aeroplane.

40. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Packing as many things as possible into a box? Entertaining small children? Cooking? You tell me.

I tag anyone that feels like being tagged.

"Life according to a one year old - Part one"

Whilst Debs' internet is down, I have been scripted in to post stuff for her, though it is still true Debs workmanship! Here's the first:

Baked beans cannot possibly be eaten from a spoon, instead
they must be picked up one by one in your hands, and
preferably consumed with pieces of satsuma.

Grapes are always an acceptable food, and will be enjoyed
with gusto. Cheerios and crackers are alright, so long as
I have free rein to eat as much as I want to, and then
re-distribute the rest throughout the house and garden as
I wish.

HP

Internet

Ok, so our internet at home is down, and likely to be so until Tuesday when someone can come and look at it. In the meantime I've asked (bribed, persuaded...) HP to put up a couple of posts for me over the next few days while I'm away - If I did it I'd have to put them all up at once cos I haven't worked out if you can auto-post things with blogger. Does anyone know about that?
Hopefully that's ok with her.... Thanks HP, you're a star.

Attack of the purple monster

Otherwise known as the outside of a 'lite chedder babybel'. Can't say I was that inpressed by the taste of the cheese, but the colour of the packaging and wax is pretty cool. [Actually that link doesn't have the ones we had, but it might give you a better idea than my photo if you haven't got a clue what I'm on about :-) ]

Friday afternoon

On Friday I got to go out on a trip with the class I work with at school in the afternoons. We went to the lake and park which are about a 15 minute walk away to look at things growing. The science topic the class is just starting is all about seeds germinating and such like, but so far as I can tell the trip was really just to go out and enjoy the sunshine! Ok, so we did have a 'tree guide' sheet to look at to try and identify some of the differnet species, but I have to admit my group and I weren't so good at all that. We were tending to go for the "well that one's Dave, and this one is Bob" sort of indentifying more than the oak\beech\whatever.

We found lots of sapplings and talked about their location, and how likely there were to be sucessful to last out against fierce competition (surrounding stinging nettles and such like), and I took a few photos, but obviously had to be careful about not taking any that were identifiable. This is one I took of my group - each of us put in one foot. As you can see I had five delightful children to look after. Once we'd done a bit of tree spotting, and even a little tree hugging we got to go into the park area and play rounders. I could happily cope with more school afternoons like this one...

Traffic jam

I took this while sitting in a traffic jam on the M11 the other day. Although you're not really meant to use mobiles while driving, I figured that since I was bored of sitting in a huge line of traffic, and I was stopped and had the handbrake on, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I took a picture. What I'm wearing is actually one of those sunglasses things that you can put on and wear over normal glasses, since I don't actually own a pair of prescription glasses.

The funniest thing about sitting in this traffic jam was that I was convinced I could smell onions, but figured I must be imagining it. However, when we finally got the the cause of the jam I saw that a lorry had over turned on the other side of the motorway, and it had spilt some of it's load over onto our carriageway, most of which appeared to be onions. Obviously everytime someone drove over that patch of road the onions were getting more squished and letting out their aroma! I wasn't really imagining the onions smell, which was a relief.

What I've yet to figure out is what caused the 'wet dog' aroma I could smell all of a sudden last night in the kitchen, especially since we don't own a dog. Reassuringly my Mum could smell it too, so at least it wasn't just my nose!

Holidays

I'm on the wrong computer to find recent photos, can't really think of anything to say and it's gone 11pm already, so here's a blast from the past just for fun.

We still haven't worked out where we're going on holiday this year. I can't remember where this picture was taken. Norfolk maybe?

one of the pink 'snow' producers

(for anyone who was in doubt about what it actually was!)This was taken looking straight up into the tree right outside our house.

tis past the season, but never mind

I finally got round to getting up to date with transferring my photos from my phone to the computer. You have to go into each photo and select to send it using bluetooth, and then it searches for the computer, and then you have to click on the computer to accept it. And some days the computer and phone don't want to be able to 'see' each other. So what with finding the time and having cooperative equipment, it's been a while since I did it.

As a result I found a few pictures that were actually now a bit unseasonal, but thought it would be fun to share then anyway. After all the posts I write in my head as I take the pictures and the posts I actually post must occasionally get to be the same thing.

Gluten free hot cross buns for my Dad. Made mostly by Bekki, but with a little bit of interference with the crosses by HP and myself.
Pink 'snow' as seen a couple of weeks ago on the pavement outside our house. There's a lot less of it now, but you still find bits of it that have managed to get inside the car's air vents and suddenly get blown at you at most unexpected moments.
Finally, the view out of the windscreen of my car whilst in the car wash with B and J one day during the Easter holiday.

Some Some

This hula-hooped hand belongs to the little one. He recently discovered that they fit on your fingers, and not loves to slip them on and wave his hands around. Of course, you then have to give him another one to actually eat, because you couldn't possibly eat a hula-hoop off your finger could you? Or at least not until all the rest had gone :-)

"Some, Some" is the way the Little One asks for what ever edible thing you're holding and he wants. And I guess it does make sense. After all, how else would you answer the question "would you like some?".

busy busy busy

This week is rushing by (like B here on his bike) and I realise I haven't posted for a couple of days.
It's all been busy busy busy. But will try to write a post tomorrow - I have lots I want to say, just no time to say it in..