Friday 10 December 2010

CATCHING UP!




 Looks like I'm on a roll, long may it last is all I can say.  You never know I could be doing more than one post today.

Pete's appointment went OK yesterday, the news was mixed but nothing too bad.  He has to have an iron infusion which is good as he was starting to get symptomatic with the anaemia.  As far as I can understand the symptoms are worse when the blood count is actually dropping rather than when it is low.  This is because your body gets used to the low count.  The good news is that he is being given a new type of infusion.  Usually he would have CosmoFer or Venofer one of these is a day in hospital and the other is about 5 half days in hospital to get the full infusion.  This time Pete has to phone up to tell Lynn when he is available, he will be booked in, turn up and the infusion should take 20 minutes, which will make a huge difference to Pete.

Thursday 9 December 2010

DAY 3 JYC

I'm still behind with this Journal Your Christmas but I'm still going. 




We watched "Inception" last night which I found confusing to start with and maybe a little slow I didn't mention it though as I thought Pete would laugh and tell me it was my age.  According to Pete most things are due to my age now, which is not bad going seeing as he's two years my senior.  I was so relieved at lunch time when we were walking the dogs and he mentioned that he had found it confusing and slow to start with.
Pete is at the hospital this afternoon for an appointment with his Kidney Consultant.  The appointment was booked for 3 something this afternoon and he phoned me at 5pm to say he was the next one in so he should be home shortly.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there is no bad news.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

LET IT SNOW!

I'm a bit behind with all this journalling and photography which is not really a great surprise.   My mouse is completely at fault here you understand, it keeps jittering and jumping all over the place.  I tried feeding it some new batteries but it wasn't having any of it so it's going to get replaced as soon as I get around to it.  I don't think it will be tonight though as my Amazon order arrived this morning so now we have "The A Team", "Inception", "Rush" and "The Sorcerers Apprentice" to watch.  "Inception" will be the film of choice tonight along with some popcorn and a nice mulled wine.


This is the second page of my Christmas Journal which has been adapted from last years failed attempt.  Click on it if you want to see it grow.

Monday 6 December 2010

FESTIVE PHOTO WALK

On the fourth day of December we were instructed to go for a photo walk these are the results of mine.  Mine was less of a walk and more of a dash out into the garden and then a quick retreat back to the Living Room where it is warm.

                      


Sunday 5 December 2010

FOLLOW THE STAR

The 3rd assignment of Cheryl Johnson's 12 Days of Christmas involved photographing outdoor lights and with the temperature on Friday being exceptionally low I took the easy option and stayed indoors.  I held my kitchen sieve over the lens of the camera while I took these pictures and I have to say I do like the effect it has produced.  As soon as the weather is a bit better I will attempt this out doors.


Thursday 2 December 2010

ANOTHER ATTEMPT!

So here I go again to see if I can in fact see something through to the end.  In an attempt to kick start myself into creating something I have once again decided to join in the "Journal Your Christmas" and I am also joining in the the "12 Days of Christmas" photography workshop.  I have actually surprised myself as we are now on Day 2 of both workshops and I am up to date with both of them.  Now admittedly I am cheating slightly with JYC as I am adapting the pages I have done during my last 3 attempts at creating this journal but I'm going in the right direction.

12 Days of Christmas Day 1 was to play with the White Balance button on my camera.  I found this feature about 6 months ago and have been using it on and off since then so I was sort of familiar with it.


12 Days of Christmas Day 2 was entitled Spell It Out so I used these little guys that Pete and I made about 15 years ago.  They have been out every year since and are now in need of a recoat I think. 


Journal your Christmas Page 1 this is an adaptation of the one I had done another year.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME BUT FINALLY .......

... she blogs again.  A lot has changed since I was last here the main thing being that I gave up my job in Aldi.  The short version is that I really didn't want to leave but it was just not fitting in with our lives any more and it was making me miserable trying to keep everything at home ticking over smoothly and work there too, so something had to give.  It's been a month now and I am finally starting to get over the guilt of quitting and starting to sort things out and looking forward.  Looking forward to what will hopefully be my new job with any luck.  I have already passed the first part of the training and the second part takes place on Friday morning so fingers crossed it will go well.

Me not working at Aldi has given us more time to enjoy the beautiful Autumn we have been having so on Saturday we went for a little walk  near to Malpas that ended up being not so little.


These berries were resplendent in the sunlight and are going to be used as my "Above" picture for Our Space today.


 and it wasn't long until we passed a farmer harvesting his crops, unfortunately the sun was in the wrong place to take a decent shot.



we then dropped down on to a tunnel like path


to finally emerge on a country lane where we spotted the following little Copper Butterfly  (they look better if you click on them)



and these ivy flowers beckoned for my cameras attention before we headed back into the fields


The fields were full of corn so made it impossible to see a view from a low vantage point



Pete soon got around this problem and perched himself on top of a style 


 to look out on this - notice I have used the picture of me taking pictures of the corn and not attempting to steal any as I would not dream of doing that!


 We finally emerged back at the end of the walk out on to this view which was not as peaceful as it looks as just out of shot was a football match in full swing with lots of shouting and swearing.

Tuesday 29 June 2010

A DAY OUT

On Saturday, after one of the worst weeks that I can remember for a long time, we decided we were going to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have a day trip to the beach.  The beach of choice was on Anglesey at Llanddyn Bay, a place we discovered for the first time last year.   On Friday night we got our picnic lunch and picnic tea ready along with everything we wanted to take so that we could start out reasonably early on Saturday morning. After a walk from the car park with all of our belongings on a trolley to save Pete having to carry anything we arrived here.

        

Where we set ourselves up to sit down and enjoy this amazing view
  
           

The next job was to get ourselves creamed up and protected.


Before enjoying the picnic


playing games, notice how I get the broken bat


and going fishing


unfortunately the only thing that Kyle managed to catch was a dead jellyfish which he promptly got stung by more than once.  I had a little bit more luck and managed to catch this.
    

It was a lovely, relaxing end to a crappy week, just what we needed to get over Gastric Flu.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

(H)AIRCUT

This was my eldest son last Thursday just after school

 

This was him an hour later after a visit to the barbers and a very drastic (H)aircut. 


it was such a relief to see it get chopped off, I just have to hope that he decides to keep a decent style for a while.

The last couple of days I have been playing with my blog, not sure why as I am not very good at the actual blogging bit!  It's been time consuming but fun so not a waste of time.  Hopefully it may have given me the incentive to post a little more often.

Thursday 15 April 2010

H is For ....

"Hardening off" in this case some lettuce that is on my windowsill by night and outside by day. 


While I was outside I spotted these "Hellebores" looking magnificent.



We are not doing much in the way of vegetables in our garden this year as most of the edible produce will be grown down at the allotment or lottery as Pete calls it.    We are doing early potatoes which are peeking out ready to be covered over again later today.


Finally the Elephant Garlic is starting to look garlicky, I can't wait for them to flower!

Wednesday 14 April 2010

WOO HOO I MADE A CARD


I have no idea what possessed me to make a card this morning but I am glad I did.  I have no idea what I am going to do with it as I haven't made it for anything specific but it can go in my box of cards ready for when I can use it.  
I sell cards for Phoenix and when I first started they sent me a whole load of sample cards which were completely unusable due to the big SAMPLE stamped inside the card.  Well not one for liking waste but loving recycling that's what I have set out to do.  I must have about 200 sample cards just waiting to be recycled.  This one came from a plain square card with bootie pictures on it.

Monday 5 April 2010

HAPPY


Today's prompt over on "Our Space" on Facebook is happy and Kyle was definitely happy when I took this picture of him in Llandudno yesterday.

WHAT WOULD YOU BE?

I saw this here this morning as I was browsing around and thought it would be interesting to give it a go

 

If I were a month I’d May. If I were a day I’d be Sunday. If I were a time of day I’d be early evening. If I were a planet I’d be Jupiter. If I were a sea animal I’d be a flying fish. If I were a direction I’d be south. If I were a piece of furniture I’d be so comfortable. If I were a liquid I’d be fresh and pure. If I were a gem stone I’d be emerald. If I were a tree I’d have bird feeders hung all over me. If I were a tool I’d be a pair of pliers. If I were a flower I’d be in bud. If I were an element of weather I’d be a light mist. If I were a musical instrument I’d be in need of tuning. If I were a color I'd be lime green. If I were an emotion I’d be thoughtful. If I were a fruit I’d be a nearly ripe raspberry. If I were a sound I’d be loud.  If I were an element I'd be fire. If I were a car I’d be reliable. If I were a food I’d be warming. If I were a place I’d be full of life. If I were a material I'd be soft and warm. If I were a taste I’d be savory. If I were a scent I’d have citrusy undertones. If I were a body part I’d be eyes. If I were a facial expression I'd be a smile. If I were a song I’d be dance worthy. If I were a bird I'd fly really high. If I were a gift I'd be cherished. If I were a street I'd be a country lane.  If I were a city I'd be busy with many parks. If I were a door I'd always be open. If I were a pair of shoes I’d be green and flat.

And what would you be?

Thursday 18 February 2010

PAGE C

So this is it the end of the C's 


and then we move on to the D's which I am finding a lot more difficult then any of the other letters so far.

We watched Kevin Costner in the film 'Dragonfly' at the weekend which was watchable, not brilliant but certainly not bad. 

http://images.contactmusic.com/images/reviews2/dragonfly.jpg

Then last night we watched 'Drag Me To Hell' which was a pitiful excuse for a horror film.  The only thing it had going for it was some extremely good jumpy bits in it.  At one point, I am ashamed to admit, I actually screamed out loud.  In my defence Pete had put the surround sound right up and I was sat right next to the speakers.  It did give everyone a really good laugh though! 
 
http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/drag-me-to-hell-poster-560x829.jpg

At the moment I am sat listening to this
http://impressedguy.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/duffy-rockferry-front.jpg

Now I am out of ideas for D so I am going to have to get my thinking cap on otherwise my D collage is going to be very empty!

Wednesday 10 February 2010

STOP THE ILLEGAL BIRD KILLING

Turtle dove shot in Malta 

Yesterday I was made aware of this RSPB campaign to stop the illegal killing of migrating birds in Malta.  

Every spring, thousands of birds make astonishing journeys from their African wintering grounds to nest and breed in northern Europe.

Malta is a vital stepping stone for many of them on this journey, where they stop to rest and feed to build up their strength for the last leg of their journey. Sadly, many never leave the island - instead they are gunned down by Maltese hunters.

While there are law-abiding hunters in Malta, many just don't care. And now, Maltese hunters are waiting for their government to defy European Law once again and allow shooting in spring – despite the EU's conservation law that bans spring hunting.

Worryingly, this stance could encourage hunters in other European countries to try to engineer similar situations, which could have terrible consequences for endangered and protected birds throughout the European Community, including, swallows, swifts, nightingales, skylarks, and ospreys.

The RSPB have set up an online petition to stop this illegal killing you can find it here.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Continuing with C

This book had been sat on my shelf for a while now and I am so glad that I finally got round to reading it for AtoZ

I managed to read this book in only two sittings. The second of which saw me getting out of a freezing cold bath.

As for the book it was fantastic, a thoroughly enjoyable read which gave a good insight into the world of an Autistic teenager. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone without any hesitation.

We have also watched the film Crank 2 this week which I really shouldn't have enjoyed but did. The Crank films are very tongue in cheek action films, with rather bad language and ill-advised sex in public which made me cringe but they both made me laugh out loud more than once and of course there was some rather spectacular eye candy in the form of Jason Statham.


Yesterday I did make some gorgeous Cookies but unfortunately the majority of them got eaten before I had the chance to take a decent photograph so I ended up with the 2 sadder looking ones that had been at the edge of the baking sheet in the oven.


After a little bit more Creativity in the kitchen this morning we had Carrot, Cumin, Chilli and red lentil soup for lunch I don't think we will be having it again though as neither of us really enjoyed it and there is a Chicken Chilli all ready to go for tonight's tea.


Pete and I went for a walk yesterday to one of our favourite places Neumann's Flashes where I took the picture. The colours are true to life.

Formed in 1873 following a salt mine collapse the resulting flashes were then filled with lime waste from the chemical industry and lay filled with an unstable alkaline paste, derelict and abandoned for years. Over the years nature began to fight back and has now created an area of calcareous grasslands containing a wealth of wildlife , birds and plants resulting in a beautiful and interesting place to walk.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

THE WASP FACTORY BY IAIN (B)ANKS

Jim recommended this book to me and gave me his copy to read. I found the book a bit hard going in places but I am glad I continued and finished the book as it had a surprising twist at the end.

I'M STILL HERE.....

....just not doing very well on the blogging front. A to Z 2010 has now moved on to the letter C and so far we have had this for tea

http://www.schwartz.co.uk/assets/Biryani-pack156x208.jpg

watched this

http://neoavatara.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/children.jpg

which both Pete and I thoroughly enjoyed. I have listened to Coldplay's X&Y album today whilst chatting to Mima on the phone.

http://www.ilcannocchiale.it/blogs/bloggerarchimg/Blogopoli/Coldplay%20-%20X&Y%20-%20Cover%20(Front%20Retail).jpg

Now for a quick catch up with B
We made some of these delicious Brownies


and some of this equally delicious Bread

I ordered a couple of DVD's the other day for us to watch 2 for C and 1 for D. Tonight though I think it has to be "The Vampire Diaries" and we aren't going to wait until V to watch it either!