Smaller Things

All seen on my various walks this week...

A Small Copper butterfly in Greenwich Park. 

A toadstool/mushroom. Not sure what kind, also in the park. There were loads of them. 

I think this is a puffball. It looks a bit evil. 

A Ruddy Darter dragonfly in the Greenwich Penisula nature reserve. 

A Bluebottle fly on some fluffy seedheads. Living very close to the dragonfly. 

A Magpie strutting across the grass on West Parkside. He is going to be my photo for that road. 

More Big Boats

Beware of the dangerous grass!

More ships in Greenwich. I have been there today too and have yet more pictures! They look so lovely on the river there. They should be there all the time I think.

I would not want to be the man up the top of that mast!

Tall Ships

This weekend in Greenwich there is going to be a tall ships festival. I popped down to Woolwich today to see if any had arrived, as that is where some of the events are taking place. I could really get used to not working when everyone else is. (Well schools at least.) It was really quiet apart from the massive amounts of construction work going on, though there was lots of preparation for the festival too-just being done quietly! It was a lovely morning and I was happy to see some ships moored. There was lots of activity on one of them, unloading boxes. I thought maybe it was some delivery work or something who knows?

From a distance I thought this ship had a crocodile figure head. Even in the zoomed in shot it looks like that. But it is a dinghy. I wonder if it is meant to look like a crocodile.

The steering wheel makes the eye. 

The trusty ferry felt left out so I took a photo of that too!

The Tate and Lyle factory. A building I love. I was looking at the photo earlier and love the part to the right. 

Just abstract shapes.

I took a few Bleeding London photos and plan to go out again tomorrow if no work is forthcoming. I have got up early each day and then sat there worrying that the phone will ring! I am going to start ringing them from Monday but this week is, unsurprisingly, quiet. The children only went back yesterday and nurseries and many reception classes will be doing home visits or interviews, so that has allowed me one more week of holiday.
One more boat-not a tall ship. Is it a dredger? It has a crane on it. I am not at all knowledgeable about boats. It has a strange name and a stylishly dressed crew, which is why I liked it.

Bleeding London

When you read the other comments on people's blogs, do you then sometimes visit the blogs of your friend's friends? Well I did that the other day, and visited Linda Sue's friend Steve's blog. While I was looking through posts I read about something called 'Bleeding London', a photo project run by the Royal Photographic Society. It is based on the book of the same name by Geoff Nicholson, which I have to confess I have not heard of. (it is on my list now though!) Nor had I heard of the project, so there you go, ignoramus in more than one area! The photo project aims to have every street in London photographed and anyone can join in. So I have. When looking through the photos I saw hardly any of this area, so today I have been out on two walks-one in Woolwich (there are quite a few of Woolwich but not of the part I visited today-the scene of many home visits with the nursery!) and one in Charlton. I had a number of places I wanted to photograph, but most of them were just by chance. If you visit the site you can look at photos by area. It is strangely fascinating. I spent ages last night and this morning looking. Partly to check for Charlton, but mainly as it is great! Here are a couple of my photos from today.

This is Circular Way, SE18. It cuts across Woolwich Common, right next to a nursery I have visited many times, for inset on ideal classrooms and for forest school meetings. I used to ride my bike across here in the days when I rode my bike to work. It was shut during the Olympics as the shooting buidlings were here. If you go on street view on google maps it is from that time. What I like best about this photo is how the sign looks. I don't know how it got in this state, maybe vandalism as I presume it was new after 2012. You can't read the name.

 This is near where I parked. You can cut through on foot and I wanted a photo of the street it leads to. I took a lot of photos round this area last year when on home visits. Looks very unfriendly with all that sharp wire.

 This is just up the road. I always wanted a yellow car! They could see me coming then! After this I went to a little street across the road. It has lots of small businesses on it and used to have a a sewing shop. That has now shut and there is a mental health charity shop. There were three people in it, pricing things and looking like it was all new. I don't hold out much hope for it as it is out of the way of the main shops. I bought a small owl candle and a small china rabbit-just to buy something as I felt sorry for them. 

 This is the next road to me. Every two weeks it is shut to traffic (apart from access I think) so children can play in the street. There were loads of kids out. I asked this group of Mums if I could take their photo and they were very happy for me to do so.

 This is a road off of Woolwich Road. It is called Holmwood Villas, a very grand name. I have taken photos of this before as it is so ruined but looks as if it had a grand past, to go with the grand name. It is also the sort of place that will not last forever.

 This is another place I have photographed before. These amazing mosaic benches surround a little church.

This photo is of a little cat who was friendly after I had photographed the Mums. It was really sweet. Old and bony. I had to tell it not to follow me. Isn't it like one of mine? This is the photo I put in for this road. I couldn't resist at least one cat picture!
On another subject...
I have just been visiting blogs and on Kelly Kilmer's she is asking for support for her son Tristan who needs a certain amount of subscribers to his youtube channel before he can enter a contest. I have just visited his site and subscribed, after watching a brilliant short film. Just passing on the request as he is good!
Info on this post.
Tristan's youtube channel 

Things

I know, in the grand scheme of things, that things are not that important. But, in the small day to day scheme of things I find them inspiring, and like to have lots of them all around. I love so many types of things that there are lots of collections around the place, some small, (but growing-once there are two of something then that is the germ of a collection), and some huge, (dolls). These are all recent acquisitions to the museum of Sarah, and fit into one or more collections. Even better is that most of them were very little money, and one of them was an absolute bargain!

 This is the bargain. It is from the boot fair last Saturday. It was on the top of one of those piles of clothes on the floor that I don't often bother with unless some exciting fabric is apparent. I asked how much it was-50p! I gave the woman £1 as I couldn't believe something so beautiful was so cheap. It is a lined cloth bag, and must have taken hours to make. I wonder how it ended up in the boot fair. I am glad I was there to rescue it and give it a good home! Collections-embroidered bags, embroidery, patchwork.

 These two lovely ladies were also at the boot fair. I think they were £2. They are only about 2" tall. I love them! They have fabric skirts that have seen better days but I think they can keep them as they look right. Collections-ballet, (I have lots of ballet books, and a ballerina musical box, also from the boot fair. Sadly I have never been to a ballet or danced as a ballerina, but I find them beautiful.), small things, dolls.

 This basket is about the size of a cereal bowl-well a large cereal bowl. It is such a complicated design. And it has little foil pieces somehow woven into it. 50p! Collection-baskets. I cannot resist an interesting basket.

 This is some kind of shelf bracket. It is Indian-or so it says on its label. I got it in Hastings from an amazing shop. It is like a museum of Asian wonderment. It has dolls, puppets, fabrics, scary masks, and all sorts of other things in a small crowded space. I was just purchasing a particularly interesting hat-woven, decorated with red fabric and lined with newspaper, when I spotted this hanging up quite high. It is the colour that attracted me first, and then I saw the elephant. So, it fits into the elephant collection! This was my most expensive purchase-£8.90.

 The white cottage on the left is the recent purchase. The middle one is from a train set I bought for school, but kept a couple of buildings from, and the other little house is from some really old blocks. The cottage is wooden and painted. It is from a charity shop in Welling. Quite a strange shop but with lots of interesting things. Collections-small things, houses.

 A china poodle clothes brush. Everyone should have one.  Boot fair. 50p. Collection-poodles. I have china, plastic and puppet poodles. I did have a tea cosy but am not sure if I kept that.

 I love little shoes. I have a small collection of these including 5 pairs of size graded clogs. Why?! I don't know! Anyway, these two are recent. The wooden one, about 2" long, is from the boot fair. £1. The basket one, about 5" long,  from Hastings. £3. So well made.

As mentioned in the last post I have been making bracelets. Here they are! They are not purchased but they are a collection.

Bits and Pieces

Focus seems to be something that is eluding me at the moment-well in the way of getting the more boring things done, such as finishing sorting out the detritus from 20 years of school hoarding, or clearing the jungly garden. However, none of it seems that pressing when I have so many things I want to make! Usually the summer is spent in a frantic scurry to get everything done before school starts and takes over my life again. Well not this year! I feel so lucky not to have a permanent job as a teacher. That seems weird even to say but it is true. I am slightly nervous about commencing my supply teaching, but experience tells me it will be ok. I had a nice chat with one of the supply agancy staff the other day, and an email from someone I met at a school I visited for a transition meeting for two children in my class before the summer. I don't expect there will be any work tomorrow, and maybe not much this week, but that is not too much of a worry. I will spend one more day making things, and pottering around and then I will ring the agency tomorrow afternoon to see if they have anything for Tuesday. I am going to start getting up at normal time tomorrow though so I am in a routine. 

Below are a few of the things that have been occupying my time this week.

I finished my third doll painting. This doll is hard to make look as she actually looks but I am fairly happy with the picture, especially the teddy and the heart. 

I spent some time snail watching in the rain the other day. Hundreds of them appear when it rains. They are a good subject to photograph as they are so slow moving and don't get scared!

This is Cassie first thing in the morning-well for her anyway. She was enjoying the sun. 

Under this fabric is an old wooden trunk, the property of a Captain Borland who is somehow linked to Andy's family. It is where I sit to use the sewing machine-which I set up on a felt top card table normally stored behind the rocking chair. Everything here is stored under or behind something else! Lily likes to sleep here though and sometimes I have to leave her. Amineko slept with her the other day..

I made sleeping bags for two of the other cats. They took a bit longer than mine-ages in fact, especially as I broke a needle, and managed to tangle some ribbon through the feed dogs. Two separate incidents, both of which involved slight to medium temper loss, followed by dismantling various parts of the machine to sort them out!

In our sitting room there was a strange and not very good lighting arrangement involving a wire suspended across the room with three spotlights attached to it, which then plugged into the wall socket. When it eventually broke, we investigated whether a central light could be installed. Roger Tester, our great electrician, said that one could. He suggested spotlights. It is very dark in here at this end of the room and this makes crafting or reading difficult in the evening. We have lamps but they do not really help the middle section of the room. So today I bought a set of three spotlights on a bar-the ones in the middle of the picture at the top. I took the picture earlier in the week to send Andy for approval. How interesting!

Yesterday I went to the boot fair. I have not been for ages so thought it was about time. I bought a few great things, but not this. I thought it was worth a picture though! I didn't look closely but I think it is an actual painting rather than a mass produced thing.

I have started the next doll picture. 

I quite like it like this so may not do too much more to it. 

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable hour sorting out my beads and findings. Last week I saw a programme showing how to use crimp beads to finish the ends of necklaces and bracelets. It is much simpler than I thought and spurred me to want to make some bracelets. I have all the things I need, but trying to find them in the mishmash of stuff in the two tool boxes and another load of assorted places was driving me mad. Now I know where it all is! I have, by about the fifth bracelet, got the hang of making them the right size, rather than big enough to just fall off my wrist, and also how to get the sharp end of the wire neatly hidden in a bead. I had to go to Hobbycraft today for some yarn to make a friend another cat, and was looking at beads. I was actually asked for jewellery making advice by a woman, and was able to give it! She even complimented my bracelet.

Yesterday afternoon, we met Andy's brother and his wife for lunch. We went to a pub called The Jam Sandwich Circus. We had lunch, then went to another bar for beer, then back to the first place for coffee and cake. We had this room at the back to ourselves. It is done up like a 1960s sitting room. I liked the table best, especially adorned with coffee and cupcakes!

Sun on the wall today. A lovely day!