Wednesday Bits And Pieces

A Pelham Puppets cowgirl from ebay. Oh dear I seem to have started a new collection. (I bought another puppet at the weekend but more from her another time.) This girl unfortunately smells of cigarettes. I will hang her in the garden on dry days until it goes. She is in good condition otherwise.

Cheerful stickers from Sainsbury's.

Lily who has lost her meow. She normally meows all the time but has lost her voice.

This is a snake in bed. He has a little pillow and a duvet!

This is one of our pet African snails (at school) We got them before the holidays and they were fingernail size. They have grown to about an inch and a half in two months. They are called Speedy and Ben Ten. They eat cuttle fish, cucumber, carrot, cabbage and like to hide on the roof of their tanks.

I found this site today through a link that Anairam sent me. It is beautiful with lots to look at. I would write more but it is bedtime! Thanks Anairam!

Two Quick Things

A Daddy Long Legs found by C. today in Forest School. She was being ever so gentle and was stroking it! I have never looked at one so closely before and thought it was beautiful. It had such lovely greeny browns on its back and delicate lacy wings. I saw a small but horrible drama involving one of these last week. I was collecting the milk from the gates and was surprised by a rapidly flying thing landing on the ground nearby. My first thought was that it was a wasp spider! That's what it looked like. When I looked closely I could see that it was a DLL brought down in mid-air by a wasp which was then grappling with it and killing it as I watched. I did wonder whether to stomp on them but decided I should not interfere-and the wasp was very quick and efficient.

This is part of Maisy's drawing of Mummy (and other family members) today. I love the eyelashes!

Wonders Of The Modern Age and Giveaway News

I am still in awe of computers-and even more of people who understand them! That I can sit on the bed typing words that I can share at the click of a key just amazes me when I stop to think of it. My genius sister diagnosed our many internet connection problems for a new laptop and also made us wireless! She spent an hour and a half of her Saturday doing this so thanks Jane! Now we just have to work out why itunes has totally wiped out the thousands of songs we spent the weekend uploading. Why? Where have they gone? The space on the memory seems to be used still but the list is empty and when we put another CD on, it disappears! Oh well, I am sure we will work it out in due course.
I did the draw for the giveaway yesterday and here are the names the random generator picked.
If you are on the list please send me your address and I will post things as soon as I can. If you are not on the list please send me your address too as I would love to send you a couple of little poladroids! Thanks for entering too.
Tracy of Hey Harriet was drawn for the number bird.
Gabbi of Felinofice was drawn for the pink bird.
Yiota of Shells and Bells and Flowers and Showers was drawn for the Secret Garden.
Anairam of Fra-aing was drawn for the teeny tiny book.

Janice of Jabblog was drawn for the stamps and so was Dawn of Rattling On (I had two lots of stamps!)Lisa of Parallel Botany was drawn for Jackie

P.S.-The glove was on a beach on Guernsey. I liked its bright cheeriness and as I was blogging from the new computer picked it from my flickr photos.

Shadow Shot Sunday and Green Tomatoes (sadly not fried)

This week's shadow shots are of my poor tomatoes, resting on my newly refurbished stepladder. I rubbed it down, put blobs of a lovely turquoise in certain spots, then a coat of off white. Rubbed it down again to give it a battered look and then used beeswax over this. If nothing else it now smells very nice!

My tomatoes are from plants bought at the local allotment open day, planted very late and mainly no good due to some kind of blight. I really am a very poor gardener. I like their interesting knobbly shapes though, so thought I would preserve them through photography.

The other photo, and poladroid of it, are of a group of things hanging in the kitchen. The moon and star is a present from a lovely friend, the mirror is from the charity shop, and the rusty metal grid is a piece of fence from school. When I did my termly risk assessment review for Forest School I noticed this hanging off the fence at reachable by small child height, so I wiggled it a bit and it came off. I know some people would have put it in the bin, but I also know that some wouldn't! Rust lovers of the world unite!

Visit Tracy at Hey Harriet for shadow shots galore!

Miscellaneous

Peter DeWit cafe in Greenwich. They do a delicious full English and have lovely colourful chairs! If you look carefully at the top right of the photo you can just about see the bird silhouettes painted on the wall near the counter. I always mean to do some of these at home as it looks good I think.

Lisa of Parallel Botany had a post on red, white and blue last week and I thought of her when I saw these enamel spoons in the market. I love this colour combination too.

This stall is my favourite one in the market. The woman who runs it goes to France regularly and buys all her goods in flea markets there. There are always stuffed animals and birds, small needlepoint pictures, religious items and unusual lamps and kitchen items. I like talking to the stall holder-she is slightly moany but in an interesting way, and, to my mind, she has excellent taste! I have bought a number of things from her over the last few years, though nothing today.

Look at this snake skin! It must be about eight feet long. I wasn't tempted by it, though I did find it interesting. There was a large plastic crow that I resisted as I could not think of a place for it. There was also a wicker dress form which the stall holder claimed was from around 1900. It was beautiful-very delicate, with an absolutely minute waist. It was also £80-and I didn't want it that much!

On the way home we saw these police horses on the way to the Charlton football match. Charlton won-they have had a good streak recently apparently!

I also saw this vast expanse of hoarding, around a site that used to be a garage-about five years ago when I was first driving. Now it is going to be something else-I wonder what?

I am also wondering how long this will stay blank. It is such a tempting expanse, just waiting to be filled with pictures and words-even I am tempted!

Shhh, it's a secret

A few weeks ago, just before going back to work, I was lucky to be given two awards by the lovely and talented Shell. Thanks Shell!

The first couple of weeks back at work are always busy, but this year they were somehow worse due to the feeling I had of being given far more to do than I possibly could. The result of this was that I resigned a management post that I have held for a year and a half, feeling that having time was far more important than the extra money. I have been much happier since and have begun to feel the benefits a little in terms of time. All of this is obviously just a longwinded excuse for taking so long to accept my awards! They are lovely ones-

The Miss Watermelon Award and the You're An Awesome Girl Award.

I love the picture for the awesome girl one, and the sentiments-especially the art is everywhere one.

The Miss Watermelon one requires me to tell you six things I love and to pass it on to six people.

I love:-

stroking cats,

browsing in bookshops,

conversations with children,

birdsong,

windy weather,

putting on perfume in the morning.

I don't want to choose 6 people-I feel too indecisive today. I am very nosey though so I would love anyone to take the watermelon award and tell me six things you love, or, just to tell me a couple if you leave a comment! Thanks!

All of you who I know on here are awesome girls so any of you could take this award. Unless of course you are an awesome boy-and need a male version of the page.

I have also received an award from the lovely Anne and also failed to do anything about it! Thanks Anne!

For this award I have to reveal seven secrets about myself and nominate seven others to do the same.

As seen above, I am just not in a nominating mood. I would love to know some secrets though!

However, I am not able to reveal any secrets about myself I have realised, because they are, in fact, secrets! I started to write and I just couldn't do it. Anything I wrote would then no longer be a secret but would be on the internet, the least secret place in the world! I am not rejecting the award, I am just thinking as I write! So, thanks Anne, but I just can't do it! If anyone tells me a secret though, and clearly states, this is a secret, then I will keep it until told otherwise!

A Picture Of Things

When I first got to work this morning the sun was streaming into the nursery. I loved the way the table and chairs were lit up.

This is the step ladder I hoiked out of the skip on Sunday. It is unusual because it has a tall handle-like a library step I think. It was a struggle to get it in the car-I should have walked-it was only just down the road! Skip diving-such fun! I have sanded the step and am busy painting then distressing it. Then I have to find somewhere for it to go. Hmmm.

Here are the giveaway things-please leave a comment if you have not already and are at all interested in any of the individual items. Please see the post below for details. I have got two birds. At the moment they are plain, but if you are drawn for a bird I can do a face on it if you would like. There is also a facsimile copy of Jackie magazine from 1975. If you are about my age it is a nostalgic read. Can you see the tiny book? It is on the Secret Garden book-so tiny.

I will do the draw on Saturday.

Monday Meanderings

Roses at work
Window I liked in Bruges

Strange handmade handpuppet

In my kitchen

In Bruges

Notting Hill

Tall skinny cloth doll

The Angel Of the North

A waterlily in my sister's garden in Leeds

The church in my road-I can see this from the front of the house. In February in the snow.

The tree in my garden

Almitra Seeress

This weekend I have had loads of art things going on. I am still doing my sketchbook.

I am making halloween things for the Halloween party at A Fanciful Twist. I am making a clown doll. I retrieved what I think is a very interesting and strange step ladder out of a skip up the road-which needs work. I have rearranged my shelves yet again and have been reading some very interesting arty books. I have no pictures of any of this. I also finally managed to download Poladroid-I realise it was my lack of know how that made it impossible before, but then somehow worked it out. I love it and the magical effect it has on my photos. I have got some of those to show you!

Also I realised that I have been blogging for a year today I think. 231 posts. I have loved blogging for this year and am so happy to have met so many wonderful people through doing so. I would like to have a give away to mark the anniversary. I have a number of things to include and am going to make a written list here-as again, I do not have photos. I will do a photo post of the things later in the week.

A COPY OF "THE SECRET GARDEN" from Barter Books on my holiday.

A SET OF ROYAL MAIL PICTURE STAMPS DEPICTING POSTBOXES FROM DIFFERENT ROYAL REIGNS.

A TINY HANDMADE BOOK FROM MY HOLIDAY IN SCOTLAND LAST YEAR-IT IS REALLY TINY-LESS THAN AN INCH LONG AND THE COVER IS RED MARBLED PAPER.

ONE OF MY BIRDS-WITH OR WITHOUT A FACE-THE CHOICE IS YOURS IF YOU WIN!

A COPY OF ONE OF MY POLADROIDS-ANYONE WHO LEAVES A COMMENT CAN HAVE ONE OF THESE IF THEY WOULD LIKE.

Not sure why I did the capitals-but I started and so carried on.

I will do a draw for each item separately so there will be four people pulled out of the hat.

I will do a proper post on this later. If you are interested then please leave a comment here or on the other post and I will enter your name in the hat!

Flowery Shapes

This construction toy is called Octagons, for obvious reasons. I love toys like this, where there are endless possibilities and children can work happily at their own level of skill. I still enjoy playing with them myself. This is today's effort. While we played there was lots of talk about colour, shape and size, so it was all to the good!

The other picture is of mint flowers which Hana was looking at. I have never really noticed mint having a flower, let alone what they look like, so here they are.

Dinosaur

Have you ever seen a piece of video art called 'Brontosaurus'? It is of a naked man, dancing wildly in a room-I can't remember if there was music or not, I have a feeling there wasn't. It was in the Tate Modern in a little room for a while. When I saw it, I was visiting with my Mum and I think she was slightly taken aback so we passed quickly through! I quite liked it-there was something touching about his dancing. The reason it was called Brontosaurus is because there was a little toy one perched somewhere in the room. There is a tiny dinosaur perched in the post today, but there the similarities end.

The photo of the poor abandoned and still beautiful house, and the Charlie Chaplin silhouette are both in Woolwich, quite near to where I work. The other photos are from Greenwich. I took one of the buildings at Canary Wharf and it was just crying out to be cropped and made abstract. I want to make a mosaic of abstractly cropped sections of the photo but did not have time tonight!

The domed building is one end of the Greenwich foot tunnel. I have not been through there for years, but the last time I did you were allowed to ride your bike, and now you can't.

On a happy note, one of my favourite shops from the closed part of the market-The Old Bottle Shop, has moved to Trafalgar Road. When I spoke to the lady who owns it before it had to close, she was not at all sure about her future, so I was pleased to see it there and will visit soon.

I have just looked up Brontosaurus and found out it is by Sam Taylor Wood. There is music, he is a very bendy man, I don't think I watched all of it before! I think he is dancing to dance music which strangely goes with the classical music being played. Only watch it if you are not shocked by bendy naked men dancing!

Monday Evening

On the drive home from picking Andy up at the Dome we saw a tiny glimpse of a fantastic sunset. I drove a bit further to see more but, as so often happens, it had gone. We ended up in Greenwich and were just turning round to go home when we spotted this ship. When they are moored at Greenwich, these cruise ships seem huge and just loom up over the road. We went to have a look-down Norway Street and we also saw this poor old abandoned pub-The Thames. There do seem to be people living upstairs but all the windows were boarded up.

Shadow Shot Sunday

The sunflowers at school are beautiful and this one is just perfect. Sun and blue skies are still here for the moment.

The cat is my latest impulse buy-from ebay-it came this morning-along with a lovely pink knitted bag from Dawn of 'Rattling On'-thanks Dawn! I also got a Tate Magazine-full of tantalizing art, and a Times Educational Supplement (unopened at the moment)

I love bundles of post like that, especially on a sunny Saturday morning.

Can you guess the size of the cat? It is only as long as my little finger. It is very sweet and can probably chase a tiny wooden mouse I have-if I ever find where that went. Sounds as if I live in chaos doesn't it? And to some extent-I do!

I hope your Sundays are sunny.

Visit Hey Harriet here for more shadowy shots.