Snapshots::

The Tower of London is one of my favourite places. When I worked in Whitechapel I used to go there before my late shifts started and sit in the grounds to read a book for an hour.

I love living by the sea, but I really miss London...x

Dream home

Last weekend we went for a walk along the seafront. Along with the joy (*shakes head*) of taking Custard for a walk I got to ogle the house that I am going to live in when I am a grown up (when we win the lottery, obviously).

I Want It ! Look at its lovely boxy lines and big sea-gazing windows. I want a Le Corbusier lounger in those windows. And a telescope. And a tulip table and an egg chair and and and......

I bet there's no crayon on the walls or play doh in the carpet.

Dreaming....x

My second favourite flower

When I had FHB, Toot gave me a lovely red glass vase, full of sweet Williams.
The vase now lives on a high shelf, safe from marauding bears. The flowers hold a special place in my heart, signifying as they do, the imminent birthday of my oldest, skinniest bear. Whenever I see them I buy a few bunches- they look best crammed together in a riot of deep green and bright pink, purple and white.
W bought me three bunches the other day, so I have some in the lounge and some in the kitchen, reminding me that on Thursday I have to make a cake the shape of a sonic screwdriver.
'Not the 11th Doctors though. The tenf. That's David Tennant's, Mummy'.
X

In the saddle

Today W, Miss T and I had a Big Bike Ride. The big three were in school, the sun was shining, so we hopped on our bikes and headed down to the seafront for breakfast:

Oh yes!

This was my view:

We rode the entire length of the seafront (about five and a half miles) to get to here:

A lovely bit of beach that we don't normally visit as it's a bit of a pig in the car. I had forgotten how beautiful it is.

Miss T fell head first off the ramp and put her teeth through her lip- much blood and many tears ensued. But, my brave girl was calmed down with the promise of an ice cream.

The fence goes out for really long way into the estuary. I think it is the remains of the one they built in the war to stop the U-boats coming up the Thames.

I got some really daft tan lines on my feet, due to the overly technical strapwork on my sandals.

Altogether we cycled about twelve and a half miles today, and I am feeling pretty pleased with myself, because I did it with a small person on the back of my bike too. Though I did run out of steam half way up the hill to get back home. I got off and pushed for a (short) way. The shame!

We have been doing some Ooh-I-wish-I-lived-here local sightseeing too:

The house on the right here has an orangery. I want an orangery! No simple conservatory will do now- there needs to be an orangery in my future!

The world from a bike- wonderful. Such a great morning! x

A windy airfield and my Mushy Peas cardi

Hello, Hope all is well in your world today. I still have a shocking cold and feel yuck, but I went with W and the bears today to see Toot and Papa go gliding. It was brill! I would LOVE to have a go one day too!

The airfield was Very Windy indeed and the bears all gathered in the boot of Papa and Toot's car to eat Polos and Pom-bears and watch the gliders. (FHB: Cor, not everyone's granny flies a plane!)

I wore my Mushy Peas Cardi, so I finally got W to take a photo of it- which is why the photo is quite so dreadful. (Forgive the sad face- I don't feel well and my nose is red red red. Also, I do not actually have a toucan's beak growing out of my head...)

The pattern is from The Crochet Closet by Lisa Gentry. Not sure about the rest of the book, but it was worth it for this pattern on its own- I Love It!

Three things to add:

1- I am not a tiny person, but the sizes on this pattern are so generous that I made the smallest one. And actually, I could probably have made it a bit smaller. A little bit of me is quite pleased about this.

2- As I put my cardi on at work the other day, one of the girls said 'Ooh, what a lovely cardigan', allowing me to have a most enjoyable Thank You I Made It Myself moment, which made me even more pleased indeed.

3- Some bright spark who runs the hospital has decided to paint the walls the same colour they are on the map. Which means that the walls outside my department are pea green and I look as if I am camouflage in my lovely cardi. Which makes me not quite so pleased after all. Especially because, on the walls, this colour looks like it should be in a bad public toilet.

Anyway, I am a happy girl and am putting this right back in my Ravelry queue to make another one. Perhaps avoiding a toilet palette next time!

x

Garage Flowers

Me: You haven't bought me flowers for years. Not since I had Miss T.

W: Yes I have.

Me: No you  haven't. At least, not without me telling you to.

W: What about the daffodils I bought you last month?

Me (foiled): Hmph. Apart from those.

W: And the Amarylis I bought you at Christmas?

Me (feeling daft): Well, and those too. But it had been a while before then. (Thinks) And I had to tell you to buy me flowers when I had Mouse and Custard. (Plumbing great depths here. Five and four years is too long to hold a grudge).

W: That is just not true.

Long pause.

Me: I think it is true. (I don't)

Next day, W arrives home from a morning out with the boys, bearing a bunch of flowers:

Me (thrilled): They're lovely. Garage flowers! (Laughing)

W (mock outraged): Not garage flowers...I stopped on the roadside for those. They're from the back of a van in a lay-by.

I am very pleased with my flowers, not least because my husband has braved a lay-by on a dual carriage way in Essex to buy them. Flowers with a whiff of danger! And I do love a gerbera...x

Busy Bee

In among the lovely things we did with the bears this weekend, I managed to get a few hours at my sewing machine and with my hooks. Bliss!

I made the Trapeze Dress from this book, with a charity shop duvet cover:

I made a little pillowcase tunic for Miss T, from this excellent book by Soulemama. Though next time I would make it a lot longer and put in much chunkier box pleats as Miss T is such a slight little thing.

(Rubbish photo I know- She's two and won't stand still).

And I made another slightly tweaked pillowcase dress for Mouse, with the proviso that it is for beach and height of Summer wear only. So naturally she will prance around in it on windy, rainy days as she is incapable of dressing appropriately. I shall tell her off whilst being ever so pleased that she likes it. That is how it works!

I am really pleased with my weekend makes, especially my dress as I have never made anything that complicated before. And W says I do NOT look like a bag lady dressed in a duvet cover in it. So I think that is a success.

Hooky-wise, I finished my pouffe! Turned out I only had another couple of rounds to do on it. Typical. so have lopped the buttons off the pouffe and made a mental note to acquire some duct tape for a little rudimentary repair work, then I ran some elastic through the bottom of the cover and knotted it really tightly underneath the pouffe.

And there you have it:

Easy peasy! Though I think I will probably make a fleecy jacket to go under the crochet cover. We'll see- much depends on how destructive my dear children are feeling.

So I end the weekend with the happy feeling of having Finished something, and the promise of being able to wear something I have made.

And I have finished the first sleeve of my green cardi too! Very Pleasing Indeed.

x

The weekend challenge II

Hello! Hope you have had a wonderful weekend. We did this:

Good kids=a challenge mostly met. Given that it was Mothering Sunday I pulled rank on the kids and we went back to the beach again in the morning- it seemed a waste not to make the most of a beautiful sunshiney day. We have promised them the park on Thursday, with bikes. Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

x

Sunshiney flowers

After our few days away, Miss T and I returned bearing these:

A thank you gift from my lovely sister-in-law, after I pointed out that we have never made it to their house during sunflower season. (This is a great tragedy because my brother-in-law is a champion sunflower grower. Last year they had a tunnel of them!) And indeed, they are just my favourite flowers ever! They are looking very fine on my dining room table, shoved in a two pint beer stein (Goodness knows where all the vases have gone).

These come close to sunflowers for sheer happiness value:

Two bunches from Toot and two from W, plonked in the blue jug from Toot's loft. They are making me feel extremely pleased.

And I didn't miss the magnolia flowering! It is It was so pretty! I would show you how pretty, but Somebody small and male, who likes sticks, has bashed all the petals off. Hopefully the rest will come out soon and I'll get a snap for posterity.

Oh well. It is just not worth getting upset about, is it? And I'll tell you what- it's a lot easier not to get upset when the sun is shining, even if a small-boy-who-is-big-enough-to-know-better did wake us up at five this morning by sitting in the middle of our bed staring at us intently like a weirdo. Happy happy!

x

The wedding magnolia

I wrote this a few days ago on a lovely bright day when I was feeling jolly good about all things. Today is grey and wet, and I am cold and tired, so finding this made me feel a little more Hopeful...

Eight years ago W and I came here and wandered around the streets, wondering if this was the place for us to settle and raise a family. It was a beautiful Spring day, the sun was shining and we looked at all the Victorian terraces and thought they were pretty. Not to mention near the sea.

But the thing I remember most about that day was the magnolias. Every other house seemed to have one. Different shapes, sizes and colours, but all magnolias, all in bloom, all beautiful. We decided we would have to have one.

So after our wedding and our big move from a two up-two down in London to a Proper Family Home, we bought a magnolia. It was small and sat happily at the corner of our shed.

Fast forward seven and a half years and our magnolia is a nine foot beauty, providing privacy and prettiness to the patio that now sits where the shed was. It is beautiful and I love it. And it is coming alive again for the Spring.

Magic...x

I notice, glancing over my shoulder at the garden, that the magnolia has definate white tips to all those lovely buds. I have a nasty feeling I am going to miss the flowers while I am at work this week!

Fab Fotos

A couple of photos for you today. Both taken on my stomp around London last week:

How fabulous are these Bishopsgate Bunnies?

And this graffiti? Love It!

x