Joyless Signs

This may become a series, but hopefully not as I don't want my day to be marred by too many of them. This is the table outside the office, which suddenly got into festive mode this week when the poinsettia appeared. The ambience has since been ruined by the appearance of the sign. Ways to improve the sign might be the magic word we bang on about all the time, or the use of the 'plant's' lovely name, or even the reason why we shouldn't water it. Or maybe the use of a pretty cursive font. But no. No learning there then. Just joylessness.
I see that please was used. Still joyless.

The Only Picture

There was freezing fog this morning and a strange ice layer on everything-not like normal frost, very thin and hard to remove. The trees looked beautiful but I was late and couldn't stop. I parked next to a car with this frozen spider's web attached. Not pretty at all, more like something from 'Alien'!

I Love Lights!

In between all the cleaning, sorting and de-cluttering, I have found time to put as many lights as possible around the place. I decided not to have a real tree this year due to the fact that I am trying to clear rather than create more mess. I don't want a tree pretending to be real, so went for this bright pink one from Asda. It is battery operated and so far they have lasted ages. I also got the pink feather lights, and then later two more sets-mirror reindeers and crystals-all battery ones too so very easy. I already had the flower lights which sit in a big pink thermos flask which has a mirrored glass inside and is just beautiful. I can't remember where I found that-a charity shop on a day trip somewhere.

Andy booked a plumber to come and fix the gas fire on Saturday, so this involved me in cleaning the area he would be working in, which involved moving the settee out and cleaning underneath it-which led to me finding the Christmas lights I bought after Christmas last year in the Habitat in Canterbury (in the sale)

I was surprised to find them as I had totally forgotten about buying them. There is a great wire tree with red and white lights, a set of red and white ones and some very bright and cold looking blue ones. The cold and warm lights cause some arrangement problems, as do the plug positions and the huge adaptor plugs these lights have, which do not play ball with multiple plugs. So a bit of problem solving was involved in the arrangements. I love the result though. Our flat now looks like an Aladdin's cave or a fairy grotto.  

 As December has advanced I have found myself wavering towards a real tree, perhaps a small one, as I love them so much. Then, when out on Saturday for breakfast at the cafe, we walked past the florists and I noticed they were selling large fir tree branches. Perfect! I bought one which is now acting as a miniature tree in a vase on the computer table. It smells good and fits in perfectly. It is decorated simply with white lights, glass robots, and felty things from Linda Sue. A snowman, an elf, a mushroom and some strawberries. One of my angels is on the top. (Thanks for making my 'tree' look pretty Linda Sue!)  It is standing in a clay cooking pot rescued from the school skip in the summer, with a little water in the bottom to keep it fresh. Perfect!

 The blue lights on my changing picture frame.

 Tiger enjoying the return of the warmth.

Pets and Stuff

Literally stuff-not stuff as in other stuff. A little picture from my journal which is slowly getting back to some pictures and not just designs and obsessive list making.
A picture of Sadie my Dad's dog. I arrived at his on Sunday morning while she was out for her walk. I have never seen her so excited as when she arrived home and saw me sitting on the sofa! She is such a lovely dog and does my Dad and his wife such a lot of good.
The other pet today is lovely Lily, having some lap time last night. Love her!

Lille Lights

Lille 2

This is the exhibition in the Musee de L'Hospice, that was just my kind of thing. Beautiful taxidermy animals, in a paper ark, in a lovely old building. The animals are from the Maison Deyrolle in Paris, which had a bad fire in 2008. It is somewhere I didn't know about for years, and have been to Paris quite often. Maybe I wasn't interested in taxidermy then. Anyway, it lost 90% of its collection which is so sad. The artist visited the gallery after the fire and drew an ark in the guest book, which, according to the description below signifies that those animals which escaped the flood were then caught by the fire. (They are all stuffed so it is academic really.) Some of the animals in this ark are from the gallery, and are scorched or quite badly burned. The thing I liked about it the most was how the animals were positioned, a giraffe lying down in amongst them all, a tiger facing into the boat, a snake curled around a piece of wood at the back, and two polar bears who look as if a private conversation has been interupted, and they are not happy about that.

Lille

We went to Lille for the day on Saturday. It is very easy to go to the Eurostar station at Ebbsfleet. It only takes 20 minutes to get there and you pre-book parking so when you arrive at the carpark it welcomes you digitally by name! I love that.

We were going with the vague thought of Christmas shopping, but the Christmas market was disappointing. Lille however was not. It has some lovely old streets and buildings would be worth going to for at least a long weekend. We wandered around the streets looking and taking photos (well I take them and Andy kindly waits for me!) Here are a few (quite a lot) of them, and I have a few more to share too! There was a great art exhibition we visited in an old hospital-very old-13th century I think. It was just my kind of thing. Also the lights were very pretty. But here are some moments from the day.

 The sun illuminated the sun, and shone through the fountain too.

 A fish made from trailed paint caught my eye.

 I loved the graffiti covered models in this shop window. The shop sold spray paint. I always thought that paint for graffiti was got by less legitimate means. 

 \Lille is filled with pattern.

This is in the Musee de L'Hospice. The combination of shadows on the stairs and the blue and white tiles looked most attractive.

 Tile detail

 Santa was there, overlooking the market and despairing. I suppose it was not that bad, and we did buy a tiny Jesus and Mary and some quite strong mulled wine, which caused us to need to sit on a bench for some time to recover. It is just that they advertise it as a reason to go there and there are so many other great things to do instead. I want to go on the weekend where everyone, or nearly, sells things from their houses on the streets. It sounds totally mad and eccentric.

 Glitter ball on the big wheel. We didn't go on it, as it was scarily high and probably very cold.

 Cute sign. I am not sure what it means though. Maybe that it is safe not to hold the adult's hand here as it is a big square? Or maybe it is a lesson in perspective.

Jazz cat.