This Week

A dead baby blue tit we found in the playground. I think it flew into the upper floor window and broke its neck. Although very sad, it was a lovely opportunity for the children to see the bird close up and to talk about death. We looked at it for ages and then gave it a little goodbye ceremony, wrapping it in pink tissue, inside a box and with two of the petunias we have grown placed on top. It will be buried in my garden.

 Blossom collected on my windscreen yesterday after a bout of heavy rain. I had just popped up to the charity shop (getting rid of stuff rather than buying it this time!) and this was in the carpark.

 The old egg basket that has been in the hall gathering dust for ages got a clean on Friday evening.. I had to prepare for a delivery on Saturday which involved moving stuff, which caused cleaning and sorting. The basket is filled with wooden eggs, eggs shakers made from real eggs and a couple of imitation wild bird eggs.

 I have been enjoying colouring in the spotty curtains on this picture all week. I have actually found a good propelling pencil which is nice to use and doesn't keep breaking.

 The garden is a pretty jungle and has so many bees and other insects buzzing around. I discovered the purple irises have flowered and are surrounded by geraniums and buttercups.

 I was trying an experiment in photoshop to get a photo that had a natural edge but it was taking forever and wasn't going quite as I thought so I stopped here! I was using the rubber to go carefully round the edges and then changed technique to use the lasso tool which is what the edged white patches are from. Too fiddly!

 I took this picture of the doughnut because I thought it looked pretty on the pink plate. I only noticed after seeing it on the computer that I had inadvertently made a London Underground sign!

 Out with the old-washing machine. It had become unbearably loud during the spin cycle. I think some kind of seal must have gone. It has been like it for ages but I had got to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore-and neither could the cats!

And in with the new. I bought the new one from Argos and they will remove your old one and install the new but you have to unplumb it yourself. This involved a trip to Band Q on Friday at 8pm as I could not find my wrench. This was what I was preparing for-clearing the hall mainly. It looked great empty but there is nowhere else to put the things in it so they are back.

It took three men to install it! The head man said there should be a rubber seal in the fitting for the drainage pipe but there was not one. He fitted it anyway, saying it might leak. He tested it and it did leak. I said I could sort it out. I intended to try to get a rubber washer but thought I would look at it first. basically he had not pushed the pipe attachment in far enough, nor tightened the metal tightener thingamy (a stainless steel band clamp I now know) tight enough. I did this and it was fine. The water supply hose also leaked but that just needed tightening too and it all works fine. It is lovely and quiet. A purr rather than a roar!

The final thing I have done this week is to take back control of my hair. I have been having it dyed at the hairdressers for ages now and it has gradually gone this kind of  light golden reddish colour that I think just doesn't suit me. The final straw came this week when a colleague at work who is well meaning but somehow manages to say the most offensive things, stopped me in the corridor to say, 'Are you alright? You haven't looked well for ages'. I was not quite sure how to respond so said 'Thanks-I think!' I then went back to class and said what had happened and one of my class colleagues said maybe it was my hair. (I had been moaning about that earlier in the week too!) I think she was right. It was better in that it didn't show the grey so much as it grew out, but it was so light that it just made me look like I look when the grey starts to grow out, but all the time. So anyway, now it is reddy brown again-a bit dark maybe but I like it more. And it will save me around £40 each time I have my hair done!