The Gallery - The Little Things

So the Gallery this week is Nature... I am, quite literally clapping like a seal with joy....(try to get that mental image out of your head...Mwahahahaha)

This is one of my most favouritest things, Tara clearly loves me and has done this specially for me. (**delusional**) So Happy.

Last week I was mumbling on about my Garden  and how I appreciate the little things when I am there.

For the purposes of this I am going to actually show the little things..

Like butterflies.

This is a peacock butterfly, I have entered him into the big butterfly count, If you spot a butterfly in your garden in the next couple of weeks, pop over to this website and you will help the butterfly conservation people understand what butterflies are where in the country. Apparently, there is a significant drop in the peacock butterflies but if we understand where they are etc., something can be done to help increase their population. 

Sorry, don't know what happened there, got on my soap box about butterflies.

Moving on. My garden is full of beasties and bugs, strangely, there are no counts for these...

Poor old snail, he was swiftly removed after all the effort he has put in going up the bamboo pole to the leafy sunflower, but not before he posed for this.

Of course the garden is a great source of entertainment for my daughters. Their favourite is the ladybird. 

Unfortunately, the ladybirds aren't fond of being handled, and I'm not sure, but there seem less in the garden this year.

Anyway, I could bore you with picture after picture, but I won't. 

I am so looking forward to seeing everyone's entries this week - v.excited - cue more seal clapping..

The Gallery - Now there's a Novel Idea!

Well this weeks' gallery is challenging..I mean really. I had to get the little grey cells going and you know that I don't like to do that unless REALLY necessary.

Choosing which novel was tricky. I did English Literature at college many moons ago, and I really like books, I struggle to give them away or share them. 

I am a book snob, I like my own copies, I don't like the grubby feeling ones you get from the library or off someone else (I know, I am rubbish, I recycle and everything, but this does let the side down a bit- I do take my kids to the library, even though it makes my skin crawl). 

I love the smell of a new book, I like the feeling of breaking the spine when I am reading it - I know that is going to freak some of you out, us book lovers tend to fall into two categories. Spine breakers and spine savers. I can't see the point of having a book if it doesn't look like you have read it.

So given all of the above, which novel can I do...?

Then it came to me in a moment of retro genius. 

From a time of mix tapes and records it was published in 1995, but with a 1985 feel.

The film was great and considering it was an British book, the American's didn't kill it and John Cusack was fab.

Me         

John Cusack

*******ahem********

Sorry momentarily lost focus again

Anyhoo..to the photo.

And that's it - High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Why?

Because it is a really well written book.

It takes me to a time in my life when I was having an amazing time.

And it's all angsty and indie. And I love boys who love music. 

And I love the opening lines...

'My desert-island, all time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order....'

You know where you are with an opening line like that.

PS - It is a year today I started blogging - I did a Meme for Tara
And here I am a year on, 92 posts later, doing the Gallery that Tara invented, but which I do for me, along with all my other posts.
Thanks Tara.

My Garden..or appreciating the little things

This afternoon, I had about half an hour relaxing in the garden. From where I was sitting, this is what I could see.

The allium (is that right?)

The Clematis

The Courgettes

The grass that needs cutting

The strange yellow flowers that come every year, but no one can tell me what they are called

The bumble bee's on the lavender 

The flowering oregano

And more bee's.

All taken without getting out of the patio chair. My garden isn't big, but it is lovely.

What can you see from your patio chair?

Finding My Focus

I am struggling to focus at the moment..and no, not because my eyes are rubbish, even after laser surgery (only me!).

I am struggling to focus because I have too much on my plate.

In fact my plate is so bloomin' full I can't even carry it any more I push it around on a little trolley.

Work is really really busy at the moment for me, lots on lots to do, and I seem to rush around walking quickly with bits of paper in my hand from meeting to 'just a quick word' and then back to another meeting. My desk is missing me and I miss it - I need to spend some quality time there.

At home as my children grow bigger they are becoming more aware of how much time (or how little time) I spend with them. Not enough. Mummy guilt. Not enough playing time, not enough energy to play.

Then there are the things that keep me (moderately) sane that I do just for me, like this and my Blip

Or cooking for, or going out with my friends and  seeing my lovely family in Shropshire. I simply don't have enough time and can't focus on any one thing enough.

And because I am spread so thin, I get poorly, I am currently voiceless. The irony of being a Contact Centre Manager who has lost their voice is not lost on me.

But, I think I have found a solution - all you trekkies out there will not be surprised by this solution because you have known about it for ages -  I have decided the only way to get my focus back is to fold space and time. Yep, that should do it...!

Now I haven't quite worked out the logistics of this yet, but leave it with me, I am a problem solver, all I need is an excel spreadsheet and some sticky back plastic and I should be able to sort it.

When I find out, I will let you know....It can't be that hard, can it?

The Gallery - What is that...?

Yet another brilliant idea for the Gallery .

My clue for this is see my last post for idea's...

That's it is the side view of a sword of Bubble Juice with the sun behind it. Hope you like it.

But I can't leave it there..what about this?

This is the nail I damaged when I was 5, because even ugly things can look beautiful.

The Joy of Bubbles

This is just a quickie.. thought for the day really. 

What is it about the smalls that love the bubbles so much? 

Hours of entertainment - brilliant invention (to whoever invented them).

And on a final note - this was taken at The Inn at Grinshill in Shropshire yesterday.  If you ever get to go - go, the food is yummy.

The Gallery - Holidays

So it's holidays this week at the Gallery and I am really looking forward to everyone's holiday photo's. Yay!

Before I was with my husband I was a sun, sea and sand kinda gal. Sunbathe, drink sangria and snooze, then party, party, party all night.

I'm on the right. This is 1998. Tenerife.

Then I married Paul, whose parents are Irish. When I first knew him his skin was blue, he was so white. He didn't like the sun or heat.

This is him circa 1994, on a beautiful sunny day, enjoying the shade.

So I married him. Knowing this, and we have found that he doesn't mind the sun but we do visit Ireland a lot to see family. And when the weather is nice there it is gorgeous.

When the weather is horrible, it is really horrible.

In fairness this was Christmas Day 2004, so we weren't expecting blazing sunshine. And it was quite exciting having snow on Christmas Day.

When we are not in Ireland, on the whole we holiday in the UK - we didn't have much luck with the weather last time, but my daughters didn't care.

And when it comes down to it, apart from the Sangria, they are like me - all they really want is the sea to splash in and some sand to play in.

Roll on August when we are off to Wales - Just keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds out.

Clumsy, the new Cool?

It's official, I am the clumsiest person I know.

I fell down the stairs last week.

Twice.

On the same day.

Then on Thursday, I fell off a chair on the patio and landed on my hip. I have never had a bruise quite like it.

I have always been clumsy. If there is a table to walk into I am your man - so to speak

If there is a step to trip up I am tripping up it.

If there is food or drink to spill all over myself it is all over me.

On my first proper outing to a pub in Birmingham with my then boyfriend, I walked straight into a glass door and nearly knocked myself out. He walked away and left me - he was a charmer.

When I was little my Mum used to always have a spare set of clothes for me. Partially, because she was a girl guide and always prepared and partially, because I feel in puddles, ponds and pools ....a lot.

Having said that, they may have put me in a lot of streams and puddles....hmmmm

There is a famous family story of when we were on holiday somewhere and I fell in with the guinea pigs at the petting zoo. This is told with much hilarity, I am not sure I get it. Is it the guinea pigs or me??

I think my eldest child may have got the clumsy gene. She has had her arm in plaster twice and if there is something to knock over she will knock it.

This morning she was playing with the gas fire (I realise how bad that sounds, but firstly, it wasn't on and secondly, she got in lots of trouble for pulling the fire apart 'the minute my back was turned') but her curiosity got the better of her and the front bit landed on her toe when I came in shouting (please see above).

Which is exactly the type of thing that would happen to me.

So how can I help my daughter get over her clumsiness and become all elegant and serene - like those really grown up beautiful ladies?

Do I really want her to?

Probably not, I would obviously prefer she didn't hurt herself (I'd prefer I didn't hurt myself either), but who wants to be all serene and grown up ...really.

My husband is a clumsy kindred spirit (OK, my children were doomed from the outset), and it is one of the things we have in common and one of the things I love about him. So rock on the clumsy, clumsy is the new cool. We are kooky and different and quirky and when we are old we can be really really eccentric and strange (that last bit, might just be me).

Lets just not all get in a room together, it could be dangerous.