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.

Bunny Family Grows

This is the latest one. I am pleased that they stand up. It was lucky chance with how I have made the feet, but lucky chance is ok!

Camden

I spent a lovely Saturday in Camden with Caroline and Cheryl. We pottered, had churros and coffee, pottered some more, walked along the canal, nearly got pushed off the bridge by a huge wedding party and then had lunch. It was great!

This is Kiki the parrot. I saw her and was commenting and before I knew it she was sitting on my shoulder nuzzling my hair. Her owner said that she has been in Pirates of the Caribbean. She is 20 years old and was bought from Harrods pet department, which only recently closed. I asked if I could stroke her, but she prefers not to be touched, as once she got her tail feathers set aligh,t so doesn't totally trust people. Sensible bird! When the man said that she should 'come back to Daddy' she wouldn't get off at first. Perhaps my hair would make a good nest! Here is Zoe Hazel who has also met Kiki.

Amazing but slightly disturbing costume shop.

Caroline the cat.

Cow looking at the canal. 

Lovely ladies!

Ducks and graffiti.