Otford

Just some pictures of Otford. 

 A mosaic of the village's history. 

 The village sign. 

 A very Norman looking church. 

 The village pond. 

 Pretty wisteria.

 Black tulips. 

 A methodist chapel and a tudor looking house. It is called Pickmoss house or hall and has a carved door.

 Pickmoss is a lovely name don't you think?

 Lovely knocker. 

 Idyllic stream. 

 A footpath we explored. It just goes around the back of the village and isn't that far but was very pleasant nonetheless.

 A lonesome tree. 

This beautiful tree with its matching tulips is in Eynsford just down the road. I saw it on Saturday but didn't stop to take a picture. After stopping to take this one we drove up over the hills just to see where it went. It actually came down over the hills again at the other end of Eynsford but it was fun! Eynsford is worth a visit as it has the remains of a Roman villa there. it has not very good memories for me though as it is the scene of the worst school trip I ever organised. Really very bad. So bad that I still remember it in great detail!

I am not a millionaire yet!

Last week was spent almost exclusively getting ready for the craft fair. As well as two days of wet felting (aching arms but if I did that all the time I would be very very toned in the arm department!) and lots of crocheting, I also sorted out and packed all the 'vintage' things I have been buying to sell. I was optimistic at the start of Saturday when we set off. We got to Otford nice and early, so bought breakfast from a lovely cafe and talked to the very nice lady owner. Once I had set up ( a fairly stressful experience!) Andy went home on the train. It was great having him there to get the stuff from the car and provide moral support! There was no room for any of the vintage stuff so it all stayed packed and went back into the car. Four hours later I had made £1.50-on a bag of beads-bagged, not made by me, and a bag of felt balls-made by me. Luckily I am not trying to make a living at this. There were not that many visitors to the fair, and they were mainly elderly people. Some very nice people and a few complimentary people and one very rude woman who said 'Ah yes, this is felting.' She then picked up one of the faces and said, 'But what would you do with it?'/ I shan't tell you what my mental reply was! Despite the lack of interest, I did have a lovely day. The stall holder next to me, Tamsyn, was really lovely and we chatted all day. She makes great little fimo things. I bought a jelly bean bracelet from her which looks very real. There were another couple of women nearby too who were nice. There was a delicious cake stall next to me the other side and I bought some of their cherry bakewell cake-mmm! After I packed up I then went and looked around the little junk shops in the village and spent some of my float! I took my friend back there today for a look around and some lunch. It is a really pretty place. 

The other good thing about the fair is that having to tidy up all my wool and stuff I had out to get ready for it has spurred me on to have a massive sort out session. Things have gone to the charity shop. The things I bought specifically to sell are going to go on ebay and if they don't sell then back to the charity shop. I have cleaned the back yard, taken horrible things I did not want to the tip, and this evening I have sorted out all my dolls house stuff so they are able to be done-finally! I am most pleased with my efforts and how the main living area looks at the moment. Still cluttered but not in that way that is encroaching on the floor space! I had the brainwave of using the table football as a table-with a piece of felt covered wood on top and it now has the first dolls house on it, ready to be played with.

Pointy

This morning. 

                
Pallet furniture in B and Q. They are running a course to learn how to make it. The back of the chair is scarily sharp. No good if you are prone to tripping over.

A Lock, A Flower, Some Mess, Blue Sky and Cassie

 Seen on the way to my friend's for coffee on Monday morning. It occurs to me that I could open this mysterious cupboard under the motorway as I have one of the fire brigade padlock keys from work. But I won't. I might get arrested. Or it might be scary under there.

 Amaryllis are a little scary. This one has taken four months to bloom. It is nearly a metre tall. It had one stalk that grew up then a second began. The first had a flower bud which was hollow and it withered away. There has been a tiny snail attached to it the whole time it has been growing. I have no idea if the snail is alive. The flower is so heavy and the plant is in such a silly little pot that gravity won and it fell over. I have propped it up with a cane. It looms over our heads as we wash the dishes.

 Cold and blue sky yesterday evening. It was cold again this morning but lovely and warm by the afternoon. I have crocheted for most of the day. Crocheting takes so long! I have now made eleven bunnies but want to make a few more. I am doing a bit of granny square bunting this evening. Oh, no I'm not, I am writing this!

 Unrealistic looking cloud, also yesterday evening. I went to Sainsbury's in evening as I spent all day sorting out all the stuff for the stall. The flat was a complete mess for most of the day, but by the evening was pretty tidy and clean. There is a photo at the end of this post to give you an idea. Watched 'Hoarders' this afternoon and felt smug as I am actually hoping to get rid of some of it. For the last few months I have had the excuse that I am buying stuff to sell. What I didn't realise was quite how much! It was interesting to get it all out though as I realised that I have certain dominating tastes-blue things, rabbits, aluminuim, toys. Or maybe I did know that but seeing all the things together proved it!

A grateful Cassie at the end of the day. She slept through most of the messy time, unlike Lily who was most unhappy. 

 Help! 

Things started to look better after I picked my favourite things to sell. I really don't want to part with those jelly moulds. They are packed though!
Right, back to the granny squares!

Craft Fair

If, by any chance, you live in this country, and anywhere near Otford, then please come along! 

I have been busy felting faces and trying different table layouts, and think I am nearly ready!  

Edinburgh

We went to see Andy's Mum this weekend. It was lovely to see her, even though briefly. We did a lot of wandering around which was fun. Having just spent about ten minutes looking at Google Maps, I now know roughly the area she lives in. It is south of the City Centre and is called Church Hill. It is close to Morningside which is a very well to do place. There are lots of beautiful Georgian houses and I was spoilt for choice in architectural details to look at. A magical giant metal strawberry plant first. 

Andy pointed out this house because of the window in the middle. You can't really tell in the photo but it is huge. It has what looks like a laburnam tree growing behind it.

Caterpillar topiary. 

I love the star detail on these drain pipes. 

Andy's Mum took us to the Canny Mans pub in Morningside for lunch. They serve a massive choice of open sandwiches. We all had some variety of salmon or prawns and they were very tasty. The pub is crammed full of an eccentric collection of things including lots of taxidermy, a bicycle, a pram and a full sized mannequin suspended from various points on the ceiling, and lots of Victorian china. It was a fun place to go.

This cinema is a bit different to the rest of the buildings in the area. 

Philip Serrell (above) and James Braxton of the Antiques Road Trip programme-spotted in Morningside!

Edinburgh's Harley Davidson Garage!

Part of the university buildings. It is, or was the zoology department and had all sorts of amazing animal reliefs on the outside.

The most perfect conical tree.

The interior of the travel lodge room. I took the picture because I liked the chair but I love the light in the photo. Not intended but I like it!

Random Selection From the Last While

 Strolling Bear-a flash of inspiration for my Mum's Mother's day card. She really liked it and my brother said it was 'the best card he had ever seen'! High praise indeed! I stuck him on with glue dots-the bear not my brother, but apparently he is starting to peel a bit now. He obviously wants to stroll.

 A massive dolls house in the charity shop on Saturday. I was tempted and it was only ten pounds, but common sense prevailed. There is literally nowhere it could go apart from the kitchen table and then we wouldn't have a table. Also the fact that I already have three dolls houses waiting for a makeover told me something!

 'Definitely built for the man who likes to be carefree about his clothes...that's the nice way of putting ''for the lazy man.'' And this is the ideal labour saving present-zip fastener, turn down collar, and it goes over anything'-I don't see this man as lazy-he is obviously an all action type, even when painting. This is from the old knitting book I gave my friend for her birthday. It is full of great pictures and funny descriptions evoking the lifestyle the knitted garments will open the door to.

 We went out on Saturday night for her birthday-to Hoxton, which was interesting. It was very busy and reminded me of being on holiday abroad. It was a warm and breezy evening which may have had something to do with that. I loved this elephant on the shutters.

 Interesting headline poster. Apparently it is street art. Here it is again. It did catch my eye as being strange!

 This tree graffiti is in New Cross-seen on the way home. 

 More bunnies are appearing-or at least more with clothes. I love the way this outfit turned out. She looks very cosy.

 The three little pigs with their wolf trophy. They took me all day to make on Sunday, but were worth it as the kids love them. Lots of story telling going on again this week.

 This is ballet bunny. I loved making the dress. For the skirt I increased in each stitch twice on two of the rounds and it had this great ballet dress effect.

 I worked at home this afternoon on assessment and tracking. The cats are shut in when we are not here at the moment, as we have a visitor who wees everywhere. They were happy to be let out and all flopped onto the decking in the sun. Cassie's paws are so huge and sweet I just had to take a picture. The black pad in the middle of her foot looks like a bear.

 S for Sahara-or Saharan dust anyway. All over all the cars and everything else too. Unlike the volcanic dust which is abrasive and sparkly, this is yellowy and, well, dusty. No point washing the car till it stops.

 I popped down to the river tonight to look for haze from the dust. It does look quite hazy. 

In other news, after continuing work problems -my personal ones being that now I have had two observations where I have been judged as 'requiring improvement' (despite the person who wrote the feedback not actually watching my teaching-and turning up late-very late, for the second observation without apology or explanation) so although I have taken on board the continuing comments about my classroom organisation-which I have changed again, I object to the ones that said the activities I give the children are 'not challenging enough' when the person observing has little knowledge of them (or of me)-having only come at the end of a very busy Friday afternoon. Also, after those two damning reports, she is now leaving, halfway through the year, as she is finding it hard to cope. Great! Anyway, all that aside, all the events since the dreadful ofsted before Christmas have led to our current headteacher leaving at the end of this week due to ill health, and our imminent takeover by another head who is drafted in to sort out failing schools. I suppose all we can do is see how it is, try to do what is required, and try to survive. Although I really would like to leave, there are things that stop me, lots of things, and some of the time I really want to stay. I work with lovely colleagues, have a great relationship with parents and children and really enjoy the teaching of this age group. We shall see.