Loving Life

Hopefully no longer on facebook

2011-05-03T14:57:00.001Z

Have I managed to unlink these two things? I'm hoping so. Maybe I'd even use it again...

Brainstorming the bedroom 'issue'

2010-01-28T10:22:00.005Z

Eesh, I just can't remember to do this every day, which means I can't get into the habit, which means I only do it on those rare occasions I remember. Blimey.

SO! The boys bedroom is DONE! dark bamboo flooring (that also goes out his room & along the landing), white walls, new skirting, and his awesome high sleeper bed with wardrobe, shelves, desk underneath. It leaves him plenty of floorspace to lay out his train tracks or hot wheels tracks, his clothes all have a home, some of his toys can live in his room AND he can tidy them away afterwards, and he has space for some of his books. As he gets older he'll be able to sit as his desk to do drawings or homework and maybe he'll eventually have a computer...when he's OLD. Because of the bed style, there's still space for an ottoman/blanket box in the bay window where his bedding & assorted cuddlies live, and we think there will be space for a narrow bookcase too. I'm *really pleased, and it looks really nice - I even put bunting up - red white & blue, and in the open shelves we have red storage boxes, blue bedding and curtains, and the wall is blue above the picture rail. He has a blue clock and a couple of star shaped blue lights on the wall (to go with the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling) and of course the toys that are out on the shelves are all 'nice' toys - a red wooden ark, a wooden farm with a red roof, and so on. It looks smart and attractive and SO FAR (nearly a week) he's even kept it tidy by putting his toys away again after he's played with them - which of course was half the point.

SO! two more bedrooms upstairs. Our room is the smaller of the two (but it looks out of the gardens and allotments and the field beyond that, whereas the bigger room looks out onto the road and the houses opposite) and ours is alomst more junk-dumped than the front bedroom. That room is filled with J's guitars, amps, leads, pedals, and so on, and also his home-brew equipment - including some demi-johns with wine in - his CDs on shelves, three bookcases (which I colour-coordinated and they look so much better!) and the rest of the boys toys. Our room basically has everything else - one whole wall taken up by mirrored wardrobes - and opposite the bed, eek -obviously filled with clothes, shoes, coats etc. We also have things like photo albums, my almost-entire yarn stash (which obviously needs some whittling but I can in no way do that), my shoe collection, my nail varnish collection, my make up, two jewellery boxes (one for good, one for 'junk' jewellery) and also a jewellery manniquin on my bedside cabinet for everyday stuff. I've got a mini handbag with hair clips bands ties and flowers, we've got a chest with bedding and spare duvet. Under the bed is the suitcase, my camera equipment, my studio lights, tripod, etc, and we've got sleeping bags, backpacks, holdalls and I have just a few handbags ;) Then there's a box of fabrics I use for lining knitted bags or making cushion covers or what have you, a box of out-of season clothes - at the moment filled with swim gear, sun hats, and shorts, a box of cosplay gear - clothes that are needed for our costumes but really don't need to be in the wardrobe as we use them maybe 5 times a year in total (two Expos, one film and comic con, one usually-pirate party and one halloween!). There's my one and only wedding hat, a box of spare bathroom supplies - buying in bulk is the cheaper way to do it, but when you have no storage in your bathroom, maybe not the best - a box of sentimental stuff - childhood memories, things from our engagement, our wedding, the boys birth & some birthdays. There's a box of Jem dolls who are desperate for a place to live out on display :D oh and there's a box of birthday party stuff - pirate tablecloths, bunting, banners, balloons, paper plates etc. There's probably more but this is just using my memory...

I have to clear all this out before I can even *begin* to do my room. EEEEEK.

Okay - so some can go up into the loft, I suppose. Party box, out of season clothes, maybe even fabrics if we can guarantee that the loft is NOT damp (some of our Christmas decorations were not perfect when we got them down last year). We're hoping we can put in a dressing table type area, which will hopefully give my girly stuff a home - well, make up, hair stuff, nail varnish (I class it separately as I have a lovely sized collection and YES I do where them all. Sometimes 10 at one time ;)), jewellery boxes (one is a beauitiful silver box with indian elephants on, and one is my nans old jewellery box I used to browse through for hours playing with her trinkets, so I do have to keep both - useful, attractive, AND sentimental all in one. I'm hoping to keep the blanket box for duvet & bedding storage, but the suitcase can go to the loft as we holiday maybe twice a year - maybe with the out-of-season clothes in it as timing would be roughly correct. We could then use under the bed still for my photog. stuff but maybe also a clear underbed thing for my yarn..? sleeping bags, spare duvets - maybe loft. Photo albums want to be somewhere accessible - and I'm looking forward to putting so many pictures up in frames on the walls, once we've got rid of the different busy-textures on every wall - so they should also take up less space as there won't be so many to hang on to unframed. Studio lights can go in the loft (how strong is our loft!?) but the rest should be accessible else I'll never use them. Holdalls can also go in the loft as we rarely go away for short breaks and when we do we're likely to know about it enough in advance to get them down. Sentimental stuff should go into a beautiful box and maybe go on top of a wardrobe with the photo albums so it's accessible but not in the way, and Jem dolls can stay in the new wardrobes until I work out the perfect place. Bathroom stuff WILL go in the bathroom once I've bought a storage cabinet and maybe cosplay gear in the loft too. That way - my wardrobe can have shoes and handbags in the bottom of it, like a normal person.

Blimey. How strong *is* the flooring in the loft? Maybe we should lay proper floor down up there before we take all this up there.

We're going to redecorate...the entire house.

2010-01-05T13:32:00.003Z

Well, so we've lived here three years in March. It was always alright though and we've not done anything really with it - apart from fill it full of junk, of course - and we've worked out now that we want to change pretty much everything.
The boiler is 25 years old and has never been serviced, and we can't have hot water on without also having the heating on, and vice versa. Yes, our bills are lovely, thanks. In summer, we *really* need the ceiling fan.
The doors / windows / double glazing are nice - wide bay window at front, patio doors at back, SO much light in our through room, and when we park on the front we can see the trees in our back garden through the windows - for some reason I like this. It's also dark wood and leaded and I think it quite pleasing to the eye. It's rarely been weather treated though, is gappy and drafty, and front and back doors both stick in the damp weather, so it needs some work too.
The porch roof tiles are slipping and the gutters front and back leak something terrible when it rains (sorry mr postman).
The front of the house is ORANGE AND YELLOW. Yes.

Hallway! decent size but the wooden panelling below the dado rail is getting tatty, the wallpaper above the dado rail is *awful* (looks like nicotine stained pattern but I *think* it's intentional) and above the picture rail is textured artexing - a different one to the ceiling artex, and both of them clash with the pattern on the wallpaper.
Open-plan living/dining room has BUSY (but lovely) wallpaper all over it - TOO busy - as well as a crazy-paved fireplace and hearth surround, oh and the archway between the two rooms has a stone edging too. They've GOT to go. Once it does, we'll also have to replace the floor throughout as it's been cut (wooden floorboard style laminate) to fit the 'paving'. Alcoves either side of the fireplace - one is the boy's 'toy store' and other is tv / xbox area. Dining room has huge display/storage units to ceiling, my cluttered computer desk / yarn store area and a huge dining table that seats 6-8. This is rarely used for more than us three because...
Kitchen! - tiny, galley kitchen. Can't fit two in at once. Not much workspace, even less cupboard space, curruntly also boasts boiler cupboard. Old oven that doesn't really work, though the hob is okay. New! Washing machine and dishwasher since we moved in and new-to-us fridge freezer as well (which meant having to lose a couple more cupboards). Basically, one cupboard for cups & glasses and a so-called 'useful' drawer, one double cupboard for plates bowls pans etc, one double cupboard for foodstuffs, one narrow cupboard for baking supplies & spices and one end cupboard for storage of bulk & spares ie unopened rice & pasta, oats, dried milk etc.
Upstairs - one tiny bathroom, door opens onto the loo, sink nect to loo, bath next to that, one shelf underneath window, built in cupboard under sink is not enough space to store spare toothpaste AND shampoo let alone towels, mouthwash, medicines, soaps, bath products etc. Quite nice (balck laminate floor, white tiles, reasonably newish) but no storage at all so everything has to be out and clutters the room up to look even tinier.
Our room - smaller of the two double bedrooms but is out back - trees and foxes rather than cars and buildings ;). Opens to entire wall of mirrored wardrobes. Ugly mirrored wardrobes, too. Only storage in house but eesh. Also have bed (nice black iron look bedstead, bought with employees discount when I worked for a bed manufacturer), one ottoman / blanket box (dark wood, old neighbours antique-ish, needs a polish) and one chest of drawers which we bought when Isaac was a baby as a shelf on it folds out to a changing table - very clever AND a nice looking peice of furniture. Oh and two rubbish bedside cabinets. We have to edge around sideways to get anywhere. The above-dado rail wallpaper is awful and old-lady ish. The below-dado rail wallpaper is even worse Both clash with the awful curtains. They all manage to go really badly with the horrible carpet.
'SPARE' room - sometimes called Daddys room, sometimes called Isaacs playroom, this is full of toys, cds, bookcases, 7 guitars, assorted demi-johns full of wine, empty wine bottles, and boxes. Once in a blue moon, these things at least partially fit inside the wall full of mirrored wardrobes in here, but most of that is taken up with amps and guitars and so on. I've been informed this room has both carpet and curtains, and that they are both horrid.
Isaacs room - has a bed, a cubey-drawer unit, a clothes rail, and a bookshelf/blanket box area. Is about 3 steps long and one wide. Wallpaper has been torn off and scribbled on. Posters (dr Who, pokemon, dinosaurs etc) try to hide this fact. Bed - was COT, now converted - has not lasted 5 years - broken slats all over the place. Curtains are fine, but curtain rail is hanging off the wall.

It's going to take a lot of work, and I don't know where to start!

2010-01-03T18:15:00.003Z

Wow. And to think, I wanted to post here at least weekly, if I didn't have time for daily. Heh.

2010. At the moment, it sounds kind of scary. As the clock was still chiming, I shouted 'welcome to the future' or something equally champagne-inspired (what? It's the bubbles) but it does feel kind of strange that now it's that year, you know, of that film. It sounded so far in the future 'back then'. I can't wait, though. It's going to be a really good year. Not because there's anything in particular I have planned, but because this year I'm going to improve on the things that were good from last year, and cut out the things that were bad from last year. I'm in a good place, and my boys are my world, and the allotment, and health and wealth and so on. We're moving in the right directions every year. This year? Bit healthier & fitter, house sorted rather than allotment (as we concentrated on clearing that for the last few years and ignored the house) and we're going all minimal/simple living / chemical free / and obviously some kind of japanese-meets country type interior. Clutter free and japanesey works, clutter free and country style does NOT, so we'll work out some kind of in between that works for people who grow & make their own as much as we do and will. We'll still like comics and x-box games and culty tv but I think evreything else is pretty much back to basics - growing and eating fresh and unprocessed foods being the main thing I'm looking forward to.

My house smells of home made bread as we speak. Mmmmmm.

Exciting things...

2009-06-23T09:36:00.004Z

I'm so excited at the moment! Not only have we booked our family holiday, but I've just this morning paid the deposit for a short break for JUST Hubby and me - no boy pestering us, asking us for things to eat, getting bored of waiting for things to eat, talking non-stop, etc. I can't wait!

The family holiday will, of course, be in Uncle Toms Cabin in Hemsby, as ever. We're going to have a whole two weeks there, which is *great* - and gives us plenty of time to relax as much as possible while still having plenty of days out. We'll eat at a few lovely pubs by the broads, we'll visit a few gorgeous long sandy beaches, we'll wander around a few broads, we'll visit a windmill. It'll be lovely.

The just-us-two holiday is at a village called Wilmington in Devon, 6 miles from Axminster. We will be visiting the River Cottage Canteen & food store, and we'll go to Lyme Regis too. The place we're staying is rather plush and has amazing views, and I plan to sit at the picnic benches in the wildflower meadows eating local fresh food, and take as long as I want to about it all! It's going to be starnge without the boy, but it's going to be *quiet* too. Today he went on his first ever school trip (to the beach!) so at the moment, quiet is something that quite appeals to me...

Knitting projects update

2009-06-18T15:44:00.002Z

The knitting I have on the go at the moment :

Beach Bag from jute twine, for the beach, duh.
Chevron Scarf (which I'm going to save and take on holiday with me in August)
Full Metal Alchemist bag - yes, the THING thats' been hanging over me for so long, I've pulled it off the needles and I'm just going to start again. I've cast on and st st-ed a few rows...and put it down again. One day!
Wrap with birthday wool - okay, I'll be finishing this tonight, so it's almost cheating to include it, but it's pretty and sparkly and I might even wear it to the summer ball, so that's exciting.
Teachers Gift scarves - one for Mrs Sparks, one for Mrs Sharp. Okay, not actually cast on, but I know what patterns I'm doing, and I need to finish them both in about a month, so I really should get round to starting...

AND the stuff I want to start soon: A chevrony blanket to use up all my odd balls of cheap dk. A 'toxic' nappy cover for my rock friends baby (due in July). Some interesting yet manly gloves for my husband, possibly for Christmas. (any suggestions?) A gardening bag for my mother-in-law for Christmas. The Brea Bag for my sister for Christmas. A tea cosy for hubby's grandmother for Christmas. An Odd and an Adipose for my son and his cousin to fight over for Christmas. Some fingerless mittens (Princess mitts, I think) for hubby's cousin for Christmas. And to finish those damn socks. Hmmph. Wish me luck.

Allotmenty updates

2009-03-18T09:32:00.003Z

Well, March and it's mad-oh-god-there's-s-much-to-sow season is half way through. We've got way too many tomato seedlings jostling for space on the windowsills, and also have leeks, cabbages, turks turban, chillies, peppers, marigolds, rudbeckia, nicotiana, and assorted other flowers I can't quite remember. In the garden, the crocuses are finishing, the daffs are opening, the buttercups are taking over, the hop is coming back (yay!), the bleeding heart is shooting up so fast you can practically see it growing. The angelica and the foxgloves are both doing their big thing this year, and one of the japanese quinces is still flowering, after getting very confused in December and peaking too early.

In the allotment we still have a few leeks in the fground and the perpetual spinach is still going pretty strong. The overwintered onions, shallots and garlic are all doing fine, and the new season red onions are finally being left alone by the birds, who love pulling them up as soon as we put them in. What's that? Netting. you say? Well, where's the challenge in that?

The broad beans are starting to emerge, and *some* of the peas have made it over winter, but we'll shove a few more in for good measure next weekend. I don't think it's possible to have too many pea plants, after all...We've been manuring the 'other beans' bed in preparation too, and have our seeds ready to go.

We've sown half a beds worth of assorted lettuces and salad leaves, and I think this year we'll be transplanting some of the lollo rosso and little gems into their final position as that worked really well last year. We're growing some saltwort this year (land seaweed!) as our 'unusual' salad, although I'd like to get some perilla out there as well. The rest is mostly mixed salad leaves for the cut-and-come-again goodness. Oh, and radishes as well of course - we've got some french breakfast as usual but some lovely looking ones called amythyst that look really good from the packet.

The gooseberry is going great guns and we're hopeful that this will be it's first year of fruiting, as it's looking really healthy. Both the blackcurrants we took as cuttings from our bush in the old house are doing good things too, so we're hoping that this year they *might* fruit. (We've lived here just over 2 years now, huzzah!). The new raspberries are showing a couple of leaves so we'll see if they do anything this year, dunno. The redcurrant isn't doing much but it's not dead either, so maybe it'll cheer up as the weather warms up. The plum trees are budding - including some activity on the dead side (previous owners were even more clueless about pruning than I am) and this year I've decided to leave the apple tree alone, as I gave it it's first pruning in 20 years for last year and it didn't fruit so well, so I'll give it a rest this year and see how it gets on, and prune it again next year. My vine looks pretty dead, but I'd rather get a new one anyway - a named variety rather than a random cheap vine.

The flower beds in the allotment are slowly being cleared, I've got plenty of seeds for them but I want to sow indoors and transplant into it, rather than not knowing what's weed and and what's wildflower when they emerge. The globe thistle is still in there somewhere, but it's a pretty late flowering thing so I'm still okay with it being quiet. The borage looks like it's done some self-seeding, which is brilliant, and I want borage in every single area I've got - allotment flower beds, tea garden, actual garden, and maybe even the front garden - as it's a really nice looking plant and constantly had bees on it last year. Haven't unearthed the passionflower yet, but our jasmine is doing very well and is desperate to be planted somewhere with sun and trellis.

We are diggin out the tea garden, which is our first real foray into the second allotment. It's basically made up of bindweed roots with a covering of soil, so is slow work - but very satisfying. We've *nearly* dug out the whole bottom third of the second allotment, and once we've done, we can level it out and make a circular bed, with a circular path around it, and curved beds around the outside. The middle bed will be split into eight and planted up with the most invasive sort of tea plants - mints, lemon balm, etc - with others around the edges, and access to our hedge at the side as well (sloes, blackberries, rosehips, etc). The path will be covered in gravel to differentiate it from the rest of the allotment (which is / will be barked) and also to help drainage for the non-frost-hardy tea plants (lemon verbena, for example) which will stay in pots so we can move them inside in the winter. Any seeds that are coming up already for it will go into pots until we've finished prepping the ground for them, and I'm *really* excited about this area. Justin is looking forward to making beers from most of my tea plants too...

The woodland area is basically being ignored at the moment, I've got a few things I want to put into it, but at the moment the nettles, bindweed and brambles are a bit too invasive. A lot of the seeds I've bought for the woodland might well be better to overwinter them anyway - they like a bit of cold to help germinate - so it might have to wait till autumn, or at least until the made new season rush dies down a bit. Come May, June time things are mostly looking after themselves as wlong as we harvest regularly and do successional sowing where we've got the space, so maybe we'll look at it again then.

The pond and bog garden seem okay. The bog was new last year, so we're keeping an eye on it, and this year we're going to give up on hoping to afford a pond liner, and we're going to move the rigid pond into the hoel. We'll build up the sides with cobbles and so on, but it's been sitting there over a year waiting for us to afford the right thing. To move it, well decant into buckets and refill it once it;s in place, so the plan is that at a later date we'll do the same in reverse to get it out and put a soft liner in place instead. It's not a bad shape after all - your typical kidney shaped pond, with one shelf, and a *bit* of a slope up that we can build on - and I'd rather have something in the ground than a big rigid liner full of water, plants and snails, but so high up in the air that nothing else can get in or out. We'll keep an eye on it that things can get in an out - we want to make sure it's safe for our slowworms, in particular, and I know that rigid ponds sren't, usually, hence the need for plenty of sloping sides that aren't as steep as the ones the thing comes with. It was free!

Costs for the allotment are still balancing okay. The raised beds were free - wine bottles collected over the year, top soil from freecycle, manure from a local organically-fed stables. The pond liner was free - found in the back garden of my ex-boyfriends mums house, and kept for me all these years in my mums garden. Considering I've been married for 7 years this year, that's not bad! We're moslty using coppiced branches from our unwanted trees to stake beans, raspberries, and other things as they need it. The bog garden is using the punctured water-feature base we unearthed from the old water feature at the bottom of our garden, and with the fence panels our nieghbour gave us, we've got enough wood there to edge all the planned beds in the second allotment, and still have enough complete panels to build a shed. (Which is coming along slowly). I'm starting to suspect we might have enough plastic bottles to start making a greenhouse now, so when we've cleared more of the second allotment, we'll find a space for it.

Things that we *have* spent money on - compost, bark, and seeds, mostly. Compost to improve the soil in a few beds, or to them up, as neccessary. We've got one compost bin but it takes a while, we've got soem turf loaming itself too. It just takes a while to get that going, and we plan to build a compost bin with the spare pallets as soon as we've got time and space for it. We've been using the bags to line the access paths with, and then putting bark down on top of that, but we might buy some weed supressing fabric instead, as couch grass finds it's way between the bags. We have a shredder which we were hoping to make bark with but it's a bit dusty, so we'll probably still buy bark. And seeds? Well, this year I spent £50 on seeds (so far!) but I've bought a lot of weird and wonderful plants for the tea garden and the wildflower area so the costs should be much lower next year what with perennials, self-seeding, seed-collecting and sp on. We're starting to grow our own collected veg seeds from last year as well, so it's an exciting start. Our re-planted garlic from last year is so far doing better than the newly bought stuff, which is interesting...

Christmas Knitting update

2008-12-09T14:38:00.003Z

Weeeell, I'm getting there.

Mum's bag - DONE
Cath's gloves - practically DONE (2 rows left)
Joe's scarf - DONE
Isaac's hat - DONE
Pamela's scarf - DONE
Karen's bag - done but for felting
Darren's dice - done but for sewing up
Pepop's hat - DONE
Marjorie's bag - half way through, going quite well
Auntie Dithery's scarf - DONE
Keira's hat - done but for one ear & sewing on face
George's bear - not done yet
Joyce's bear - not done yet
Di's scarf - DONE
Peter's socks - NOT DONE and WILL NOT GET DONE so will do something else quick - probably a hat
Mike's scarf - NOT DONE and WILL NOT GET DONE...
Ian's scarf - half done
Megan's scarf - DONE
Justin's blanket - DONE
Justin's socks - NOT DONE and might not get done - but at least done enough to show him and carry on.

So at the moment I'm doing Marjorie's bag - it's quite nice so far. After that I''ll finish the end of Cath's gloves so I can wrap them, and then sew up Darren's dice. Then I will panic. Yes.

Getting a bit silly now...

2008-11-07T14:22:00.003Z

Currently in progress :

Rose's Wristwarmers. 1 glove done, 1 glove started, paused, got ill, put down.

One bear : Started, got distracted, have since forgotten how to crochet.

One pair of socks : went a little wrong on the heel turning, so ripped back and now can't face going back to them until I know I can give it my full attention. Yeah, with a 4 yar old in the house.

One lacy scarf : I had been enjoying knitting this but then I got distracted by knitting something else on circulars, and now these looooong needles are just annoying me.

Hello Kitty hat ears : The hat is done, the bow is done, but it's such a struggle pulling the loop of my circular, plus I knitted 2 ears and they weren't the same, so I just can't face doing another.

Police tape scarf : long, slow and boring, there's no way this is going to be done in time for Christmas.

Grace shawl : Well, this one is for me (unlike all the others) so of course it's on a backburner. Plus, I suspect it may take me about 7 years to finish as it's so delicate and lovely.

Socks mark 2 : Different style entirely, and this one is mostly waiting for when hubby and boy aren't about AND i'm not doing other things, as this is a secret knit for hubby.

Cable scarf : used 1 ball as stated, is way too short, haven't got the money to buy another ball.

FMA Bag : After drunkenly purling what should have been a knit row, and being fully aware of my complete inability to pick up stitches, I can't face this one either (as much as I really want a Full Metal Alchemist bag).

Hat: I cast this on last night. Why, for gods sake why? It's not like I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE I COULD BE KNITTING...

I also take the boy to school wearing one stripy glove and one plain glove. And the stripy one doesn't have it's ends sewn in yet.

Vegetarian hundred (two hundred..)

2008-09-24T10:19:00.002Z

This is from http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2008/09/04/the-vegetarian-hundred/

1. Real macaroni and cheese, made from scratch and baked
2. Tabouleh
3. Freshly baked bread, straight from the oven (preferably with homemade strawberry jam)
4. Fresh figs
5. Fresh pomegranate
6. Indian dal of any sort
7. Imam bayildi
8. Pressed spiced Chinese tofu
9. Freshly made hummus
10. Tahini
11. Kimchi
12. Miso
13. Falafel
14. Potato and pea filled samosas
15. Homemade yogurt
16. Muhammara
17. Brie en croute
18. Spanikopita
19. Fresh, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes
20. Insalata caprese
21. Stir-fried greens (gai lan, bok choi, pea shoots, kale, chard or collards)
22. Freshly made salsa
23. Freshly made guacamole
24. Creme brulee
25. Fava beans
26. Chinese cold sesame peanut noodles
27. Fattoush
28. New potatoes
29. Coleslaw
30. Ratatouille
31. Baba ganoush
32. Winter squash
33. Roasted beets
34. Baked sweet potatoes
35. Plantains
36. Chocolate truffles
37. Garlic mashed potatoes
38. Fresh water chestnuts
39. Steel cut oats
40. Quinoa
41. Grilled portabello mushrooms
42. Chipotle en adobo
43. Stone ground whole grain cornmeal
44. Freshly made corn or wheat tortillas
45. Frittata
46. Basil pesto
47. Roasted garlic
48. Raita of any type
49. Mango lassi
50. Jasmine rice (white or brown)
51. Thai vegetarian coconut milk curry (dont really like coconut or lemongrass so I avoid Thai)
52. Pumpkin in any form other than pie
53. Fresh apple pear or plum gallette
54. Quince in any form
55. Escarole, endive or arugula
56. Sprouts other than mung bean
57. Naturally brewed soy sauce
58. Dried shiitake mushrooms
59. Unusually colored vegetables (purple cauliflower, blue potatoes, chocolate bell peppers…)
60. Fresh peach ice cream
61. Chevre
62. Medjool dates
63. Kheer
64. Flourless chocolate cake
65. Grilled corn on the cob (straight from the allotment!)
66. Black bean (or any other bean) vegetarian chili
67. Tempeh
68. Seitan or wheat gluten
69. Gorgonzola or any other blue veined cheese
70. Sweet potato fries
71. Homemade au gratin potatoes
72. Cream of asparagus soup
73. Artichoke-Parmesan dip
74. Mushroom risotto
75. Fermented black beans
76. Garlic scapes
77. Fresh new baby peas
78. Kalamata olives
79. Preserved lemons
80. Fried green tomatoes
81. Chinese scallion pancakes
82. Cheese souffle
83. Fried apples
84. Homemade frijoles refritos
85. Pasta fagiole
86. Macadamia nuts in any form
87. Paw paw in any form
88. Grilled cheese sandwich of any kind
89. Paneer cheese
90. Ma Po Tofu (vegetarian style–no pork!)
91. Fresh pasta in any form
92. Grilled leeks, scallions or ramps
93. Green papaya salad
94. Baked grain and vegetable stuffed tomatoes
95. Pickled ginger
96. Methi greens
97. Aloo paratha
98. Kedgeree (the original Indian version without the smoked fish, not the British version with fish)
99. Okra
100. Roasted brussels sprouts
---------------------------------------------------------
Now to add the other main one (but I will exclude any duplicates)
Feel free to play along. Rules are the same as the Omnivore's Hundred, bold the ones you've had and cross off the ones you aren't interested in trying. Feel free to leave a comment over at Feeding Maybelle with your results! Note: "?" links to what it is in case you need to know.

Edamame (?) (my favourite thing to eat in the world)
Cha Soba (?)
Arame(?)
Earth Balance Buttercream
"Homemade" sprouts
Green Bamboo Rice (?)
Absinthe
Eat at a raw restaurant
Fresh (real) wasabi (can't get it easily over here)
Deep fried pickle
Fiddleheads (?)
Garlic stuffed olives
Smen (?)
Goji Berries (?)
Shiso or Perilla (?) /
Amaranth (?)
Pomegranate molasses (?)
Water convulvulus (Water Spinach) (?)
Pea eggplant, Thai eggplant, green eggplant, Japanese eggplant, Indian eggplant, Sicilian eggplant...
A Zen Buddhist Vegan Meal (?)
Kohya Dofu (?)
Wild Asparagus (?)
Elderberry (?)
Candlenuts (kemiri) (?)
Salsify (?)
Nutritional Yeast (?)
Pandan (?)
Roman cauliflower(?)
Anything with acorn flour (?)
Poi (?)
Chaya (tree spinach) (?)
Pitahaya (dragon fruit) (?)
Asafoetida (?)
Fried plantains
Basil seeds (?)
Cardoon(?)
Durian (?)
Ground Cherry or cape gooseberry (?)
Fresh waterchestnut (?)
Cashewnut cheese
Nettles (?)
Fake duck from a can, tofurky, or any prepared vegetarian product to resemble meat
Kimchi (?)
Masala Dosa (?)
Lotus Seed (?)
Matcha (?)
Loubie Bzeit (?)
Quince (?)
Blue Potatoes (?)
Injera (?)
Nasturtium (?)
Turkish Delight or Lokum (?)
Spruce tips (?)
Breadfruit (?)
Mangosteen (?)
Swede or Rutabaga (?)
Garlic Scapes (?)
Lavash (?)
Candied Angelica (?) (But I am growing some)
Rambutan (?)
Sambal (?)
Bhutanes Red Rice (?)
Candy-cane or Chioggia beets (?)
Mango
Ras el Hanout(?)
Vegan marshmallow (?)
Umeboshi (?)
Red Currants (?)
Puy or French lentils (?)
Millet (?) (I have some in the cupboard)
Fresh Bamboo shoot (?)
Jerusalem artichoke (?)
Wild strawberry (?)
Jambool (?)
Po cha or Yak butter Tea (?)
Adzuki beans (?)
Shirataki (?)
Manioc, yuca, cassava (?)
Quinoa (?)
Ramps (?)
Chufa (?)
Purslane (?)
Curry Leaves (Kadipatta) (?)
Sorrel (?)
Sumac (?)
Vegan cupcake
Montreal bagel (?)
Peri-peri (?)
Syllabub (?)
Chartreuse (?) (*gasp* I luuuurve Chartreuse...still)
Kamut berries (?)
Kalamansi Lime (?)
Aloe (?)
Morels (?)
Raw “bread”
Dandelion wine
Rosti (?)
Loomi(?)
Stinky tofu (?)
Something grown by you

Hmmm. I need to work on some of these...

Foodie meme, stolen from Heather :)

2008-09-24T09:52:00.002Z

If you have questions about the list go here for answers.

Here’s the rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk (the origin of the meme) linking to your results.

Clairefun's Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. ~~Venison~~ (not now I'm vegetarian)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. ~~Crocodile~~ (n.n.i.v.)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. ~~Carp~~
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (will have to look this up..?)
11. Calamari
12. Pho (mmmm, Pho...aw man I need some Pho now)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (often)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (to look up)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. ~~Foie gras (veggie!)~~
24. Rice and beans
25. ~~Brawn, or head cheese~~
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~ (no thank you!)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (?)
31. Wasabi Peas
32. ~~Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl~~
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac (with a cigar)
37. Clotted cream tea (I was born in the west country so this one goes without saying...)
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. ~~Curried goat~~
42. ~~Whole insects<~~/p>

43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (I even made it, once)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. ~~Frogs’ legs~~
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. ~~Hare~~
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I don't know what half of these are, and most of the rest I wouldn't eat any more 'cause I'm vegetarian. Hmm, I wonder...?

It's autumn and no mistake

2008-09-24T08:05:00.002Z

I've just got back from walking the boy to school and brrrr, I've got that cheeks-been-slapped look to my face (oh yes, always a stylish look for me...). Luckily, I have the knitting to keep me warm! (and the tea, which hubby made this morning as we *think* I'm coming down with the boys cold...). I've finished the twisted drop stitch blanket and it's very cosy and rather lovely - I'll add the pattern as soon as my ravelry user is merged with my ravelry designer profiles - and now I'm making the boy a hat - again, couldn't find the exact pattern I was after so I'm making it myself - dk in the round with a ribbed brim and loads of teeny little stripes - he chose the colours he wanted, and I shall bust my stash to use them! (well, at very least the little odds and ends left over from other things).

My other works in progress are Christmas knits - socks for Uncle Peter, Rose's wristwarmers for my sister, a jute 'gardening bag' for my mum, a knitted police tape scarf for one cousin, a more grown-up cabled scarf for another cousin and for my nephew, a scarf for my mother-in-law...that's all I've started so far but obviously I have more I need to do. Waiting for some wool to arrive for my sister-in-laws bag, and I still don't know what to do for the boy or his 4 year old cousin. I need to add the ears / bow to the Hello Kitty hat for my 5 year sister-in-law and I need to crochet 2 bears, one for Nana and one for baby-brother-in-law. Hats for the father-in-law and the mother-in-laws boyfriend, and I'm not sure what to do for hubbys grandma either. Still, it's mid-to-late September and overall I don't think I'm doing too bad.

Other stuff to do today? Finish placing a Tesco order (boo, hiss, there goes all my green credentials), play about on 'Lil Green Patch' - yes, the facebook application, have a problem with that? - browse about on Ravelry just for the joy of it, and this afternoon do some more tidying of lounge and kitchen, as Ant is coming over to see us tonight and we'd really rather he didn't think we live in a hellhole. Even if we do.

Photographs tomorrow of the hat-in-progress and maybe something else...betcha can't wait,, huh?

Link / Legend of Zelda gloves

2008-09-23T08:40:00.003Z

I was desperate to knit something 'cool' for my 15 year old nephew's birthday, and one thing we share is that we like to cosplay - I tend to do anime characters, and he does Link, from the Legend of Zelda games (and is pretty good!). He had 'gauntlet issues' once and decided he wouldn't be wearing them, so I came up with these - gloves he could wear while cosplaying, but that also would not look out of place at school or on a 'normal' day with his friends, whilst still showing his love of Link. After a few dry runs, I decided that knitting flat and duplicate stitching on after was my preferred way, though obviously this is a fairly simple and extremely adaptable pattern, and you should be able to convert it to knitting in the round easily enough.

I used KellesBelle's triforce chart for the duplicate stitched pattern. She's kindly allowed me to link to it, and if you like the Linky goodness here, you should also check out her Link scarf and hat pattern (I wonder if my nephew would like the hat...?). They're entirely made of awesome.

I used Sirdar Click Chunky with wool (2 skeins, but it didn't use all of it) and size 6.5mm needles (US size 10 1/2). The Click chunky is an acrylic and wool blend, so washable, but still soft. For the tri-force itself I used a cheap acrylic dk weight! The colour was more important than anything else...but sadly I don't have the details anymore. (If I can hunt them down I'll edit this post, pesky ball bands!)

THE PATTERN (wait for it...it's *really* complex...)
Cast on 40 st and work in 2x2 rib for 8 rows.
Work in st st until desired length, and finish with 8 rows of 2x2 ribbing again. Cast off in pattern.
Sew the sides together, leaving a thumbhole.
Duplicate stitch THIS chart onto the back.
Weave in ends!

Tricky, huh? Though, if you have any problems, please give us a shout, I'll be happy to help.
Hope you enjoy it and please show me any you do! Oh and - DON'T SELL THIS PATTERN OR ANYTHING MADE WITH IT, thank you very much.

Keeping track of the obsession, 10 months in...

2008-09-16T13:12:00.003Z

I am currently knitting :

Rose's Wristwarmers (about half way through 1st glove)
Regia Kaffe Fassett socks (done about 1/3 of one sock)
Wish Scarf (Roughly halfway)
Hello Kitty Hat (Only just cast on today)
Yo Drop It scarf (Only cast on today)
Police tape scarf (as far as 'police lin')
Grace shawl (enough to know it's beautiful, enough to know it will take me forever...)
Frankie bear (well alright, that one's crochet).

I also plan to make in the next 3 months :

- skull & crossbones wristband (a birthday gift)
- Mighty Boosh wristband to wear when I see them live
- Mary Mary jute gardening bag
- 2x quick and easy cabled scarf
- a blanket
- knitting bag
- fuzzy dice
- another crochet bear
- photo frames or tea cosy or something grandmotherly
- a hat for the boy
- something fun for my 4 year old nephew
- another pair of Regia socks
– Helping hat
- very warm hat

In the last 10 months (that's as long as I've been knitting!) I have finished :

2 x pairs baby booties
2 x garter stitch scarves
1 x kitsch kerchief
2 x Instant Gratification scarves
3x Yo! Drop It scarves
1 x skull & crossbones wristband
1 x 'geek' wristband
1 x stormtrooper wristband
1 x 'foxy' wristband
1 x Miyavi wristband
1 x pr fingerless gloves a la Sweeney Todd
1 x pair fingerless gloves a la Link / Legend of Zelda
1 x Banana Republic Hat
1 x Pro Bono hat
1 x neckwarmer
1 x bear
1 x slippers
1 x skull & crossbones tote bag
1 x tie
1 x headband
1 x Branching Out scarf
1 x Bride & Groom dolls
2 x chainmail armours
1 x chainmail helmet

And to make as soon as I can :

a school jumper for the boy.
more Rose's Wristwarmers
a baby apple hat
a baby yoda hat
2 x pairs baby socks
1 x baby kimono
1 x baby cardigan?
lots of baby bibs
a music/guitary wristband
a Jack Skellington wristband
a topsy turvy cinderella doll
a grocery bag holder
a loo roll holder
a beret
a husbandy satchel
a set of coasters & placemats
a husbandy jumper
a cat bed.

I can't think about anything else. I hope this will help...

2008-09-15T08:59:00.002Z

Knitting Meme

Here’s what the formatting stands for:

Bold = have already tried this
Italicized = Plan to try this
Unemphasized = Have no desire to try this

• Afghan
• I-cord
• Garter stitch
• Knitting with metal wire
• Shawl
• Stockinette stitch
• Socks: top-down
• Socks: toe-up
• Knitting with camel yarn
• Mittens: Cuff-up
• Mittens: Top to Cuff
• Hat
• Knitting with silk
• Moebius band knitting
• Participating in a KAL
• Sweater
• Drop Stitch Pattern
• Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
• Slip stitch patterns
• Knitting with banana fibre yarn
• Domino knitting
• Twisted stitch patterns
• Knitting with bamboo yarn
• Two end knitting
• Charity knitting
• Knitting with soy yarn
• Cardigan
• Toy/doll clothing
• Knitting with circular needles
• Baby items
• Knitting with your own handspun
• Slippers
• Graffiti knitting
• Continental knitting
• Designing knitted garments
• Cable stitch patterns
• Lace patterns
• Publishing a knitting book
• Scarf
• Teaching a child to knit
• American/English knitting
• Knitting to make money
• Buttonholes
• Knitting with alpaca
• Fair Isle knitting
• Norweigan Knitting
• Dyeing with plant colors
• Knitting items for a wedding
• Household items
• Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
• Olympic knitting
• Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
• Knitting with dpns
• Holiday-related knitting
• Teaching a male how to knit
• Bobbles
• Knitting for a living
• Knitting with cotton
• Knitting smocking
• Dyeing yarn
• Steeks
• Knitting art
• Fulling/felting
• Knitting with wool
• Textured knitting
• Kitchener BO
• Purses/bags
• Knitting with beads
• Swatching
• Long Tail CO
• Entrelac
• Knitting and purling backwards
• Machine knitting
• Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegating yarn
• Stuffed toys
• Knitting with cashmere
• Darning
• Jewelry
• Knitting with synthetic yarn
• Writing a pattern
• Gloves
• Intarsia
• Knitting with linen
• Knitting for preemies
• Tubular CO
• Freeform knitting
• Short rows
• Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
• Pillows
• Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine (Knitty.com)
• Rug
• Knitting on a loom
• Knitting a gift
• Knitting for pets
• Shrug/bolero/poncho
• Knitting with dog/cat hair
• Hair accessories
• Knitting in public

Allotmenty goodness

2008-06-10T08:50:00.003Z

Dandelion tea, mmmmm.

So, another weekend in the allotment, the poor garden is being entirely ignored! It was a hot one though and we couldn't do a great deal of work. The hubby with his azada finished off the new bed that's the other side of the 'fennel divide' and managed to plant a few of our beans for drying out in it (butter beans, cannelini beans, borlotti beans, and kidney beans) as well as sowing some more bean seeds for a later crop and transplanting our leeks from the seed bed. I did a bit of weeding, and generally melted.

Exciting stuff:
- not only are the 3-crowns-of-asparagus-for-£1 or whatever silly price they were, growing, but also the row that we paid £1.05 for SEEDS have mostly germinated! Woot - we DO have an asparagus patch after all!
- the mangetout are arriving - and we've eaten 3 teeny ones of the plants already - absolutely lovely...nomnomnom.
- the peas are getting fat
- the redcurrants are turning red
- the potatoes are flowering
- the little gems are hearting

It's just all happening at the moment, faster than we can keep up with it, really.

In other news, hubby got some new XBox games for his birthday (Mass Effect, Bioshock), I'm knitting myself a headband before I go back to 'sensible' stuff 'cause it's soooo hot. Learning to crochet next weekend as I got 'The Happy Hooker' for my birthday last month, and on Thursday, the new 'Let's Knit' will have a beginners guide and some bamboo hooks, so I'll have no excuse. Fathers Day on Sunday as well as the Farmers Market, so that's nice, and end of the month is Miyavi gig folled by Hemsby-holiday which I'm trying to plan our activities for. So far they mostly involve pubs.

Things we're currently excited by include :
-Hugh F-W making Dandelion & burdock beer - we're growing Japanese Burdock in the allotment. Hmm. *chin-stroking, pondering*.
-Just general wine, beer, and tea making from, well, everything growing in our garden that won't poison us, basically.
-Oh and of course the River Cottage Spring 'cause we love River Cottage and it always makes us feel like we can do that too.
-Cosplay plans for October London Expo...got a few ideas, not sure where we're going with them yet, we shall see.
-and again - MIIIIIYYYYYAAAAVVVVVVIIIIIIII in a couple of weeks! eeeeeeeee! I have the tickets out on display and I keep catching 'Miyavi' out of the corner of my eye and having very squee moments.
-Ooh and talking of squee - the Moffat 2-parter in Doctor Who? Everything I hoped it would be and more. *happy sigh*.

New week

2008-05-19T13:47:00.002Z

Lotus tea today, Korean, it's lovely.

We had a busy weekend (as ever) - Saturday went to shovel bag after bag of lovely old horse poo for the garden, and treated ourselves to a pub lunch afterwards (we'd worked up quite an appetite). The boy was really well behaved in the pub and it was lovely to spend time together as a family - it doesn't happen enough, really. I got tipsy on 2 pints and so we came home, looked glumly at the torrential rain turning the allotment to mud, and then watched telly and drank more cider. Fun.

Sunday, after a slightly slow start, for some reason, we spent all day in the allotment. Hubby earthed up the potatoes, manured up the squash bed, dug over the brassicas bed, swore a lot when he discovered the slugs have had half the contents of the seed bed. He planted out some of the squashes - well, a bit of everything really - turks turban, soya bean, cucumber, pumpkin, and so on...

I cut down the long grass around the raised beds, weeded most of the beds, including the bindweed that was wrapping itself around the nasturtiums, the evil thing. We planted out the sweetcorn and put up all the canes and wigwams, though we still want to add some support for the mangetout.

We tried out the new-from-last-weeks-boot fair bread maker and had a lovely loaf, so had bread, cheese and jam, sitting on a picnic rug in the garden, along with a few radishes from the allotment. It won't be long before we'll have broad beans either, so that's really exciting. We finally planted out the redcurrant bush too so that's going to be exciting as well, and I still can't quite believe we have a full row of parsnips, mmm.

After the boy went to bed, we finished watching 'A Cook on the Wild Side' at last, and I very-very-nearly finished knitting Rach's 'foxy' wristband, needed for the Expo next weekend. I should finish that tonight, as it's just sewing in ends, and then I can look into what next - birthday gifts? baby presents? something for me, or the boy? I can't wait. After doing Joe's Link gauntlets, and Jo's headband, it feels like ages since I knitted something for me...

Today I'm looking at MoneySavingExpert.com again - it's been a while - and reading up on breadmaking and that kinda thing. I need to get back in the swing of being Old Style :) Tonight when hubby gets home we're going to go do some work in the garden, then after the boy is in bed, we're going to sit in the garden and drink some special tea - maybe pai mu Tan, or lotus. We usually go out with a glass of wine, which then becomes a few glasses of wine, and before we know it, we've spent a fortune on wine for the week...so tea instead, nice posh tea. Much healthier and cheaper in the long run...and probably more soothing.

I'm also making the hubbys birthday list - he sent me some ideas and I'm adding some to them - although it's 2 weeks away, we'll be at the London Expo all of next weekend, so it'll be good to get this off to everyone and out of the way. I need to find our complete costumes and check them as I have no idea where the boys clothes have gone...

I have unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. I've put a load of washing on (I'll hang it up after I get the boy from nursery). I've tidied the kitchen. The breadmaker is on (again). And now to get ready to pick up the boy :)

blogging options

2008-05-15T07:51:00.002Z

It appears blogspot / blogger, despite my lack of love for it, is the only place I can have a blog without getting so annoyed I stop writing it. Hmmph.

Potential things to cover (otherwise known as my life activities) :

Tea. Mmmmmm, tea. Currently in the house is jasmine, green sencha, kukichi, lotus tea, oolong, pu-erh, uki uki, gunpowder, dandelion, pai mu tan, white tea with acai berry, 'normal' white tea, and a few fruit ones too. We love tea. I plan to start making home-grown blends this year too.

Knitting. I'm obsessed. Ravelry is my favourite site, I'm currently working on 4 projects, most importantly is a little wristband for a friends birthday. I like small projects as I only started last November, and I have an energetic 3 year old, interrupting me as I type, who makes it nigh impossible to knit around him.

Family. My son is 3, and I'm a stay at home mum. He is quite a character, and has a rather good sense of humour, although he's a loon. I'm also married to a man who would have been best off in life being some kind of absent-minded professor.

Allotment. Ours is about 60ft long, and as we've got the neighbours too, it's almost the same width. We're out there every chance we get at the moment. Broad beans, peas, salad leaves, sweetcorn, courgettes, leeks, tomatoes, mangetout, parsnips, carrots, onions, garlic, beetroot, fennel, lettuces, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, aubergines, artichokes, asparagus, runner beans, french beans, beans for drying, soya beans, salsify, peppers, chillies, potatoes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, cauliflower...and fruit. Lots of fruit. and herbs.

Japanesey stuff. Whether it be watching anime, buying kimono, or just eating japanese food, this is our other main activity. Last night we ate japanese food (thank you hubby) and two days ago we were at Oriental City spending £75 in the supermarket and having a bento lunch. I read 2 mangas I got for my birthday, and in 2 weekends time we're cosplaying at the London Expo (as Ranma, girl type for me and boy type for hubby, and P-Chan for the boy).

Foodie stuff. I'm vegetarian and hubby just loves his food. We're hoping to become self-sufficient-ish (well I am, anyway, we're not planning on having our own cattle just yet) and we often holiday based around gastropubs in the area. We perve over Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (for me, it's not *just* about the food) and love those foodie shows that are seeing different foods around the world and things like that. We don't often get to eat at restaurants (a 3 year old, and no money tend to be the main issues) but we like trying out new recipes at home.

There's a few other subjects - music, books, gigs, money-saving, being green, films, and loads of other stuff really, but nothing else is quite as huge. Those are a few of our favourite things. :)

2007-12-21T12:30:00.000Z

Today : NOT cooking, 'cause today is my husband Justin's last day at work before Christmas, so I'm spending my time tidying the house and getting out the Christmas snacks When he gets home we're going to a nearby street that does an awesome amount of christmas lights (I'm hoping to take some photographs, we'll see!).

LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Justin being at home for Christmas
Seeing the Mighty Boosh live next year
IT'S CHRRRRIIIISSSSSTTTTTMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAA
AAASSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Tidying the house 'for Christmas' with a 3 year old and husband.
The crowds at the shops, if I have to go to the shops at all
Christmas ending, and life going back to normal!

Recently : dusted off my old myspace account - still like facebook more than either of the others. Finished a re-read and re-watch of all the Harry Potter films & books. Must watch 'Muppets Christmas Carol' at some point over the weekend, as it is entirely made of awesome.

2007-12-20T12:28:00.000Z

TODAY, Wednesday 20th December, I am :
COOKING:
Chilli Bean Bake (topped with tortilla chips with melted cheese over the top, mmmm)
Vanilla Christmas cookies - some for the tree, some for gifts, and some for nibbling.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Voyage of the Damned, of course. Go Astrid
The giving and recieving of Christmas gifts - I certainly know I've bought some good ones this year. Hope the same can be said in reverse
Captain John and Captain Jack together in Torchwood. *sigh*. 'Heykids...did you miss me?' awesomeness itself.
Hubby and I treating ourselves to an X-Box 360 in the sales, if we're even slightly disappointed by any of our gifts

NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Spending Christmas day with the family who aren't that bothered about seeing me any other time.
Isaac going without an afternoon nap for 3 days straight (Christmas at my mums, boxing day at mother-in-laws, and day after at father-in-laws). He WILL be hell.
The post-Christmas 'oh-mi-god-the-house-is-full-of-crap-and-we've-all-got-really-fat' routine.

TODAY I AM MOSTLY WEARING:
Stay indoors, not opening the door kind of crap. Look, I'm doing a lot of cooking, okay?

2007-11-22T16:36:00.000Z

I finally got myself up and ready to cook (after getting sucked into the Great Teacher Onizuka manga I was reading - good stuff) so toddled off into the kitchen to start preparation for the chestnut and sage cobbler I'm making today - you know, the possibly-taking-as-my-veggie-Christmas one. WHY does every recipe start with cutting an onion! And every single time, My eyes get so sore and watery I have to leave the room!?! I swear the salesman that came to the door thought I was crying (worked well to get rid of him, though...).

Um, so yes, I had to come back in the lounge and of course to my coomputer. Isaac went to sleep at last, and I've been doing more weeding on flickr, some of it proper deleting of photos that I know aren't even on my hard drive (but...I have enough photographs, so will I ever miss them?) Strict decluttering!

Yesterday I didn't cook, but I did clear out the kitchen, so all was not lost. I want to sort some of the pile of death I have lingering by my computer - it mostly seems to be catalogues I'm keeping to see if I want to buy Christmas presents from them for people, but maybe I should just have a really good look NOW, working out who I need to buy for still. I always find it hard to shop for everyone like that - I'm better at buying for one person at a time - so for example looking through first for ideas for my mum, then again for ideas for Justin, then again for ideas for...you get the idea - and you probably see why I've not touched this pile, and why it is now know as the pile of death. Hopefully I'll have time to cook, tidy a bit, and still go through the pile, or at least begin to - with Isaac not sleeping for a while you feel like you have to be quiet to let him sleep and by the time you kow it, it's...uh...4.12 in the afternoon and you've not started cooking or tidying yet. Yeah, I'm pretty shit as a housewife. Just as well I'm a stay at home mum, right? I'm good at that! :D

I also want to (want may be too strong a word) change the cat litter, put some more washing on, hang some clothes up, see if I can pair any more of Justin's socks before he explodes one morning of pent up rage, sort out these three million piles of CDs & DVDs hanging obout into a serious collection of things we actually want to keep all on a few discs we can actually find. I need to make more Christmas Cards - and start deciding who I'm making them for, too. I have more presents to wrap, including some that have to be done when there's no one else here. I need to look up the garden plants & work out what needs frost protecting & how, as this garden gets frost (our last one was really sheltered, so I've never needed to know before). I need to finish clearing out the clothes piles in our room and get the suitcase away (it's still out from a wedding we went to last month). Isaac needs to tidy his room (which usually takes up more of my time than his, getting him to physically do it). I have a lot of stuff to get on Ebay but to get to that stage I need to have less crap & clutter down here as I'll have nowhere to put the ebaying stuff when I get it out. I need to sew up Isaac's sleeping bag, dye my hair red for Christmas again, compile all my torn out recipes into one recipe scrap-book I have set aside for this very task. I want to do the same with some of the cardmaking designs I've seen (as I've bought a few magazines for inspiration and I already have enough magazines scattered around the house - I'm obsessed, I tell you!). Oh yes and there's some books I'd like to read before they have to go back to the library - where did those new library books go? - and I have to go to the library tomorrow to take the Dvds back, one of which we finally saw last night (Walk the Line, at last - excellent) and one of which we may potentially watch tonight. We want to make friends with the library staff as they like the same things as us and are funny and interesting and have kids too and read the same books as us and are the same age as us and and and...

I think for too long our friends have been either moving to London for work / giggles, or have settled down to the degree that they never see any of 'us' any more (whatever did happen to Steve? Oh yeah he got married and had a baby...) - We are married and have a baby! surely that means you can talk to us! - OR are just those few years younger than us that makes a difference, or I guess aren't settled enough - still all about the clubs and pubs and bands and drinking. Not to say we don't like bands (we're seeing the Montain Goats next month, we saw Polysics and Guitar Wolf this year and they were fantastic) and certainly not to say we don't like drinking (though again, I have been reminded of that recent wedding...mm. Maybe I don't like drinking, after all). It's just - we did all that. We did it really, really well. We would have bought the t-shirt, except it wasn't low-cut or skintight enough, and was only available in the same boring colours as everyone else. I perseveered, I really tried, and did it for about 15 years...that's a really big part of my life there. Some of those days / nights I'll remember for years. (Some I can't even remember now). At least I can proudly hold my head high and say I did it, and scraped through, and am now a normalish human being - which none of us ever expected would happen.

The carrots are calling. *sigh*

Day two...

2007-11-22T14:15:00.000Z

The Country Garden Cottage Pie was rather lovely, I had seconds for lunch today as well. Not the healthiest meal due to the volume of cheese, but pretty good without that, so next time I'll do it with less. Today I've not yet decided between ' Chestnut & Sage Cobbler' and 'Bobotie' - both one pot meals (less mess, yay). The chestnut & sage is a potential 'meal-to-take-to-someone's-house-over-Christmas-instead-of-meat' as I'm the only vegetarian in the families (at least the families we'll be seeing over Christmas that is).

We go to my mums house on Christmas day - this year is going to be the easiest 20 minute walk now we live so close - most other years we've had to go up a really steep hill & a 40 minute walk, one year we even drove 3 hours down the motorway from Stoke on Trent! Hopefully it'll mean that we can have a really good little 'just-the-three-of-us- Christmas before we go, which will be nice. At mum's is my sister and her 2 children (and my mum, of course) Joe (15) and Nathaniel (3). Joe I think is at his dad's house till mid afternoon / early evening so at least Justin can be with us rather than going upstairs to play computer games with Joe - I have to keep an eye on Isaac by myself then, which is tricky when the two younger boys are together as they are buggers :)

The day after, Boxing Day, is Pamela's birthday (that's my mother-in-law) and we go over to hers, and usually there is Karen (Justin's sister) and Darren (her boyfriend) and Marjorie (Justins Grandma) and Peter (Pamela's boyfriend). It's a birthday and Christmas celebration all in one which is nice, though it is the complete opposite of my families celebration - far more polite and well behaved!

The day after that is Colin's birthday - that's Justins' dad - my father-in-law - so we either go to his house or to his sisters house (Di) - I think now Colin has a bigger house it'll probably be there all the time, which is good in one way - very child friendly, as they have children Isaac's age and now younger - but also a shame in a way as Di's house is very traditional and is in the country and feels a bit 'old' - in the sort of 'olde' way - not all modern clean lines and so on - and we like that, it feels ever so cosy. Still, it's usually fun with so many people - Karren and Darren again, but then Colin, his wife Nicki, their 3 year old Keira, Justin's Nana Joyce, Di and her husband Peter, and sometimes people from Nicki's side now as well - her Mum or Dad usually. This year as well will be Isaac's Uncle George who is only a few months old!

I managed to get 4 cards made last night and was very pleased with them, it's something I only started doing a little while ago but, like the knitting, I find it quite relaxing, and I'm really pleased with the results. I'm starting to wonder if I might find it hard to part with them...On that note, I've also signed up to Crafts 365 - photograph something you're making every day for the next year - so I think that getting my camera out for taking three photographs will be more likely to happen than just for one. Every day! They might overlap a little as well, I would imagine. I'm trying to clear out my flickr account a little bit to make way for all these photographs that are going to be coming in, but that's about a weeks constant work by itself, as I used it for storage when I moved house / PC and so I have to open and save them all before I can delete anything. Not the quickest job!

Today Justin was working locally - his current job is in London - auditing London hospitals - but starting the last week in December (before Christmas I mean) he's going to be working in our home town! No more getting up at 6 am! This morning I was woken by the sound of the ironing board being taken out of the understairs cupboard at about quarter past 7 and it just makes *such* a difference to how I feel during the day. Mind you saying that, I haven't got any more work done in the house than usual - mainly thanks to Isaac refusing to sleep - but I have got a lot of secret things done for Christmas, so I guess it evens out a bit.

Todays plans? Cook soon, moar cards!! and we really *have* to watch a film tonight, as I've got to take them back in two days time. I can knit while I watch too. Dofus would be good but hmm, I doubt it :( Apart from that? My house is filled with STUFF. Stuff where it doesn't need to be. Why is there a spanner on my kitchen worksurface, and a book of poetry, and a ukelele? I need to have such a little amount of stuff that when things don't get put away after use, I still have a house underneath, rather than a dump.

2007-11-20T18:17:00.000Z

So : I've been trying out Live Journal, but didn't get on with it. There seemed to be too many things you should or shouldn't do, and I'm not really very good at that sort of thing. I think you might have to be a bit clever to be able to make the most of it, and of course sociable as well.

I considered facebook notes, but probably not adjustable enough for my tastes, and I know nobody would ever read them. Somehow, that doesn't matter on here - but on a place where I'm connected to coming up to 100 people, I feel that would be kind of disappointing. Also, I don't want to think to myself that people *are* reading, else I'll get self conscious and start writing to an audience, whereas this isn't to be about that at all. (Not to say that you can't comment at all, or anything, as indeed that would be most welcome).

Oh and I know there's others - I'm on so many sites dotted around the web - I'm thinly stretched over all of them but without enough free time to be active on any of them. So just use the few I like and understand. Flickr for mass photos, deviantart for cosplay event photos and the better photos (maybe some of my old peoms up there too now I no longer use allpoetry). Facebook for friend connecting, as I never use myspace anymore anyway and besides, there's barely any difference between them now, thanks to myspaces status updates and facebook applications. Plus, you know, I'm 30, so that waves goodbye to a whole load of others (bebo, orkut etc - well and myspace to be honest). I'll stick with money saving expert for my life advice, along with hot uk deals and zen habits for my proper life changing stuuff (you know, like becoming vegetarian mainly thanks to that blog, for example. It's wonderful).

Back to this old blog it is then. First on blogger, I had Isaac's diary - from before he was born, up to he was about a year old. It just became way to hard to look after him and keep up with writing about his life in that way. I've still got the 'photography blog' where I just posted my best photographs...not that I ever update that either. Then this blog started as *my* diary (effectively). I got bored and forgot, so I changed it to an allotment diary for a while when we moved earlier this year. Then that fell behind too...

I posted on my livejournal a while back about starting anew (and no, I'm not posting the link, as there's only about 3 things on there). It didn't happen, as I wasn't happy with the format. To be honest, I'm not that happy with the layout of this one, but at least I know I can change that...something outdoorsy, I should think...

I'm signing up to the Project 365, uh, project, and the Kids 365 project. (These are 1) taking & posting at least one photograph a day and b) taking a photograph of Isaac every day - both for a year. I'm not doing the self portrait version, but I'll try and appear in a daily once a month or so, for recording purposes only! Isaac is three now, and starting nursery after Christmas (hmm, if I
ever fill in that form). Before I know it, he'll be off to school, loving his teachers more than me, untucking his shirt, slouching, and then leaving home (well, I hope...wonder what house prices will be like by *then*?). He's so very, very photogenic and it seems a shame not to record at least just a little bit of his daily life, especially as it's going to change so much soon. The joy of this place is that I can send my daily photographs here from flickr and vice versa.

So my friends moving to Belgium can keep up with my allotment news (if she starts using the internet more, anyway). Isaac's auntie can read up on how he is from up in Bedford. I can keep track of what I'm making in my weekly meal plans and what we've tried & not tried, and what we've planted in the allotment and how it's going...So - it'll be a bit of evertthing, and
probably not every day, but hopefully every couple of days. If not, someone prod me on
facebook. I'll be starting the photographs on December 1st, but I'm going to try and start
regular blogging again before then...in fact...

So, I'm making 'Country Garden Cottage Pie' today with ingredients from the weekends
farmers market. I want to make a few more Christmas cards later this evening, as I got my printer rigged up at last yesterday and have run through a whole colour catridge already printing assorted background papers out. (Only £9 a cartridge! Might need to get a different printer...). I want to knit some more of Justin's scarf (and the speedy rate of about 5 rows a day before I fall asleep, it's going to take me till *next* Christmas at this rate). We do have a couple of dvds we need to watch before Friday - Walk The Line and Grave of the Fireflies (at last we have relented... we know it will be sad) - when we need to return them to the library. I would also like to spend some time on Dofus, do some tidying up, and catch up on lolcats. Any questions?
Good.

20th March

2007-03-20T11:52:00.000Z

Over the weekend, the weather took a turn for the worse, and we were fairly busy with visiting family and so on. We collected a lot of our opts from Pamela's garage, and we also collected things from my mum's house as well - including pea netting, some plastic bottles for cloches, toilet roll tubes for beans & sweetcorn, a portable potting sation, and so on. We also went to Wyevale on Saturday and picked up four varieties of potato, a mother's day gift of an azalea, some much needed compost, and two huge whisky barrel pots, as well as this, my mother's day present from Isaac was a hydrangea petilialis (sp?) for the non sunny side of the patio - very excited.

Justin dug over the potato bed and the lettuce bed, a fairly quick job as there was no turf there - so now only the carrot and parsnip beds on that side to do. The previously forecast snow may have missed us at it's worse so I'm wondering when it might be safe to start planting out, but it's fairly wet today as well as blustery, so not for now.

Thyme, Broad Bean, Sweet Pea and Nasturtium are the only thing not germinated yet, the salad leaves are probably ready to thin already. The radishes need potting on (but as I'm not sure where to put them yet, they haven't been).Nearly all the okra has germinated and there are three leeks arriving, also a couple of the onion seeds have germinated as well. There are three healthy looking calendula and nearly all the tomatoes are up too, in both varieties. The mint has one seedling today which looks pretty good. I'm about ready to sow some more, I reckon...

16th March

2007-03-16T11:51:00.000Z

I did decide to get the garlic and onions in straight away, mostly because we're getting a cold snap soon and that's good for garlic. Not as good for onions, but I'll be sowing some in pots as well in case of any losses. Which might just mean that the bed is done! - apart from watering and weeding, of course. This morning I found a small poo on it - probably a cat I guess - but no signs of digging up, so that's pretty good. Yesterday I also spent a while using the lawn edger to mark out the edge of the bed, at the front (I'll do the back as I go along each individual crop). It's kind of helped us to see where we need to do things, and was fairly satisfying, though also fairly worrying - there's a lot to do and this is the 'quick' garden, we haven't even looked at the long term allotment plans.

Today I went out but Isaac was trying to move stones - INTO the destoned bed. I tried to explain that wasn't what I was after and so he started to add them to pots instead. We came back in. I did manage to slot the bamboo canes into their wigwam holders (couldn't be faffing about with string - at least this way if the boy grabs them, they'll stay together...) and pop them into the ground, so it's something.

Our seeds? The salad leaves are starting to germinate, the radishes are coming along nicely, we have one of the out of date leeks poking up it's head, and quite a few okra are appearing. A couple of calendula seeds are popping up too! No Tomato, Thyme, Mint, Broad Bean, Onion, Nasturtium, or Sweet Pea yet, but then it has only been 3/4 days, so not really surprised...

15th March

2007-03-15T11:51:00.000Z

15/03/07
Homebase was a bit disappointing - no washing machine bit, and I didn't really get the chance to look at the garden centre for long as Isaac was playing up. A few good things, and we might go back, but we'll go to Wickes and a garden centre first for a price comparison.

I finally finished unturfing the onions & garlic bed! wooh! At the moment I'm half way through destoning it but had to come in for a wee, which meant Isaac came in too - and I'm not leaving him in the house 'unattended' . it's not ideal to then put the onions & garlic in the bed straight away, but considering the time constraints we've had by not actually moving in until after the last planting time for garlic, it might be better to shove them in quick and hope for the best. Plus, it's still sunny at the moment, which helps. I know we'll have more frost, but garlic needs a cold snap anyway. Dunno about onions, I'll have a look up...

Radishes still going strong, and an Okra seed has germinated!

14th March

2007-03-14T11:50:00.000Z

Ridiculously, the radishes are have germinated already! I know they're quick but...anyway, it's quite exciting to see them poking up - at least we know *something* will germinate! (Obvioulsy I hope for more crops than just 6 radishes...).

I dug more of the 'onions & garlic' bed but Isaac was 'helping' - when I found him bringing me all the labels I'd put in to mark where to dig, helpfully, with a big smile, I gave up and went indoors.Later in the day I managed to weed most of the raised bed, to clear it for our herbs & or salad leaves, and I also managed to build the little plastic greenhouse thing, which was harder than it should have been, due to most of the framework bars not actually being in the box and having to make a support from a bamboo cane. It was all there when we took it apart and packed it, so god knows what's happened to that. However, mum called and says she still has the framework of her great big walk in greenhouse and she thinks they'll fit. She's also got some pea netting we can have, which is fantastic!

We're going to Homebase tonight, supposedly to get something to plumb in the washing machine (I'm looking forward to that!) but I want to have a good look around their garden centre bit - it's quite good there, and the local B&Q is rubbish in comparison. Yay!

13th March

2007-03-13T11:49:00.000Z

My first day in the house with just Isaac for company - tbh most of my day was spent with him. The weather was a bit gloomy as well. plus I'm lazy. I did start to dig out the grass in the proposed 'onions & garlic' bed, but I didn't get very far as there were LOADS of slabs and stones - big and heavy stones, that would not easily move. Apart from that, the soil was good, dark and loamy, and completely full of worms.

Our new neighbour Maureen says that there is some bindweed about, but we've dealt with that before, so we can do it again - at least we know what to look for. The proposed cabbage site is quite shady due to the (other) neighbours large shrubs shading it, which worries me a little, so I think I might juggle it a bit and move cabbages about - put the kale and perpetual spinach in there instead - the cabbages can move down to the pumpkins & courgettes area as it's big enough to fit lots of cabbages in, and the pumpkins and courgettes can go in pots on our cobbled area that gets the most sun in all the garden. I think that should work fine...

2007-03-12T11:45:00.000Z

We moved into the house on Friday March 9th, and took 3 hectic and sunny days to look at the garden & allotment, invite friends over for a curry, and to generally unpack our clothes and deal with a newly moved 2 year old. Priorities, I suppose...though I was itching to get going in the garden.

There's an unknown tree, quite pleasant and a nice size. An unknown shrub, recently trimmed back. A cobble stone area which was once a water feature but is now a bunch of stones, with a couple of sedums growing in it. There's a gorgeous fern which we will be keeping, oh yes we will. There's 2 palmy things which neither of us are very keen on, but my mum likes them, so I guess that's Mother's Day sorted. There's a weird 'raised bed' with bricks stacked up, kind of falling down, but it'll do us for a while.

The neighbours overgrown shrubs shade our garden on one side, but the rest of it gets a lot of sun. It all has potential...

11/03/07 - started to lay down the outline of one bed in the garden with sand. Didn't get very far, what with the aforemantioned 2 year old and a hubby wanting to unpack boxes and so on rather than getting on with the garden. Still, he'll be back to work soon so I can get on with it then...

12/03/07 -
We planned out the bed outlines for each crop, and outlined the opposite bed as well. Labels were added to mark out which crops are where, so we know where to start first and where to manure or not. I also did my first seed sowing, in windowsill propagators: Tomato (Gardener's Delight and Tigerella) ; Radish (Rainbow Mixed); OKra (Clemson's Spineless); Thyme (Orange Scented) and Mint; Broad Bean Express, Onion Bedfordshire Champion, Leek Musselbugh - as well as Nasturtium, Calendula, and Sweet Pea.

The Tigerella, Radish, Mint, and Broad Bean are all newly bought this year, the Gardeners Delight, Okra, Thyme, Onion, Leek and the three flowers are all unopened but have been sitting about in my seed collection for varying amounts of time. The Onion and Leek are both six months out of date, but we also have onion sets and my mum has some Leek Musselburgh seeds, so I might as well at least try them. They were part of a vegetable seeds collection with a 'mass' use by date of six months ago so it's entirely possible that they might still be fine.

Either way, it feels pretty cool to be starting, at last. Actually, it feels completely mad to be even in this house, let alone sowing our first seeds...

Planned gardening

2007-03-02T09:03:00.000Z

Right - everything is in place and we exchange TODAY. (Insert eyes-rolling icon here). I have now heard that for a week so you'll excuse me if I sound a little suspicious. Anyway, we're moving in in a weeks time - March 9th - and as this is going to become mostly my garden / allotment record, here goes - MY PLANS.

I'll post you all a picture of my blank canvas as soon as I'm back online - obviously I want to wait for a little while to see where sun & shade fall - but not for long as I want to get my vegetable garden started!

We're going to lay out string / sand for where we want the curved beds, it's still going to be mostly lawn as Isaac is looking forward to playing in a garden at last. For the first year, we're going to use the beds as a vegetable patch, with annual flowers in as well for colour - we'll plant up a few of the perennials we've bought with us from this house but not that many, and I'll have to try & restrain myself from buying any!

Over the next year we'll be working on clearing & planning the allotment, which is through the garden but currently all grass & weeds. We'll be building raised beds, laying a pond, etc. As we start planting up next autumn, we'll gradually be able to reclaim the 'garden' part [I]as[/I] a garden, and have more pretty things. It will very much be a wildlife garden - I've had one here for three years so I roughly know what I want to do. The allotment will also have it's fair share of wildlife attracting plants - and the pond of course - as I want it to be away from my toddler. I also want a few trees at the top of the allotment to a) attract wildlife b) be useful fruit & nut trees c) help shade us from the field that our allotment backs on to and d)give us somewhere shady for the majority of the plants we've brought from our current garden - mostly ferns and hostas so far as the entirety of my current garden is permanently in shade. Although I want it to be a 'proper' allotment with plenty of space for produce, it [I]is[/I] garden shaped and tagged on to the end of my garden so I want it to be our 'secret garden' in appearance as well - that way I won't feel bad about Isaac (my 2 year old) having his 'own' garden with plenty of lawn and toys & the odd football kicked into my plants.

All money saving of course - I've collected lots of seeds and got garden vouchers for Christmas, I know that I'm going to have to spend a fair bit on a pond liner and trees so I want to get everything else as cheaply as I can manage it - and of course save money on buying fruit & veg over the course of the year!

Swearwords...

2007-02-27T11:13:00.000Z

...and lots of them.

We're now not moving on the 2nd as not only did our sellers solicitors not receive the form they were waiting for in the post, but now our buyers solicitors have said that the buyers money won't be ready after all (despite recent reassurances that it would be) as her deposit (which we thought was all sorted & ready) is being sent by a family member, from Ireland, by cheque, in the post and won't arrive by Wednesday. Then, because it's going to be a cheque, and one in Euro's at that, it won't clear in time until the 9th.

Bloody ridiculous, and I have said that I've had enough of the excuses on both sides, and that if we don't exchange pretty damn soon, I'm pulling out and putting in an offer on the other h0use we like (on the Isle of Grain). Sod keeping our buyers or our sellers, if I'm the only one actually putting in the work for this to go ahead!

We're asking them to contact the buyer and see if a Telegraphic Transfer could be done. This would speed things up and at very least enable us to exchange sooner, even if we can't move. We still haven't heard from our sellers if they're ready. Last week we were all of us confirmed and ready, now suddenly nobody is but us. Grrrrrr.

2007-02-21T07:16:00.000Z

Finally, finally we have a potential move date - March 2nd (just over a week away). It's all dependent on us exchanging this week and as of yesterday our buyer still had not received her contracts to sign & return. However, everyone seems to want to exchange this week with a view to exchanging on the 2nd, so we're going ahead and booking days off work & getting our helpers to do the same. We're hoping to have Justin's dad to help drive & carry, and Justin's sister offered to come down as well. I'm hoping to have my mum to help amuse Isaac & give me moral & cleaning support.

Glad to be finally going, though I do hope I'll have enough time to do everything here I want to, and leave it in nice enough condition. We've still got to dig up some of our plants from the garden, and I think tonight we're going to be moving some boxes over to Justins mums garage, as we want as little in the house as possible on moving day (we've got to be out at 1am, with our buyer moving in at that time...).

Also start of March is great - any longer and my whole 'garden with sun? Let's plant vegetables!'
thing would start to get buggered up a bit. Here's what we're trying (for the first year):

Beetroot - Boltardy
Broad Bean - Express
Brussels Sprouts - Evesham Special, Greyhound
Cabbage - Golden Acre Primo,
Carrot - Early Nantes, FlyAway, Healthmaster, Autumn King
Cress - American Land Cress
Garlic
Jeruslame Artichokes - Fuseau
Kale - Nero di Tuscano
Lettuce - All the Year Round, Little Gem, Webb's Wonderful
Salad Leaves - Lollo Rossa, Salad Bowl, Oriental mix, cut & cook mix, annual rocket, pak choi
Leek - Musselburgh
Okra - Clemson's Spineless
Onions - Sturon sets, Bedfordshire Champion seeds
Onion (spring) - Ishikuro
Parsnip - White Gem
Pumpkin - Mars
Radish - French Breakfast, Rainbow mixed, Mooli
Runner Beans - White Lady
Tomato - Gardener's Delight, Tigerella, Sub Artic Plenty (plus Tumbling Tom is we can find where we squirrled away last years seeds after they'd dried)

Plus lots of herbs and plenty of annual flowers, with a few perennials. Wish us luck, eh?

We've bought a house!! (subject to contract)

2006-11-13T07:34:00.000Z

It's in Gillingham, Woodlands Road to be exact. May I bore you with the details?

It's got a front off road parking thingy, it's a thirties house with rounded porch & bay windows, it's got a nice big hall (with lovely wooden panelling, very period) and a through lounge diner. Tiiiiiiny kitchen, small upstairs bathroom & three bedrooms, two are good doubles. It's got a brick built shed in the garden, and the garden is about 50 foot but then there's a second garden - an allotment, really - of about another 50 foot. In years we will extend lounge & convert to kitchen diner, and wqe would also add a conservatory (as a garden that size is crying out for one & it'll add value as well as being lovely). The loft is also extremely convertable in the future. We're wondering about another brick built unit in the garden for rehearsing, and we're also very excited about the periodness of it - we're going to keep some of the busy wallpaper (just on certain walls though) and we'd put in cast iron fireplaces and so on. We're also thinking we'll have a thirties themed housewarming party! (Justin is very excited).

It's a proper grown up house AND still walkable to Gillingham, train station, park, schools, and most importantly, we can walk to the Barge...:-D

Very excited. It probably will be a weekend we move but obviously no set date yet as all too soon. Coupla months or so I expect...

Though of course move day is going to be a nightmare as we're going to have to complete on this house & get out for our buyer, and complete on that house & have them cleared out - all on the same day. We can't afford to complete on that house without the money from the sale of this house! Arrrrgggh.

Huh, I'll worry about that later - for now I am too excited.

Claire

chain chain chain

2006-09-29T08:43:00.000Z

Well, we found a house we like. We've got ours on the market, and we've had our first viewing (last night though, so as yet I don't know what she thought). We've broken the news to our neighbours (she said 'oh no' when we told her - I feel mean and slightly guilty). We've started boxing up all our non-essential belongings - clothes, books, bedding, dvds, and so on. We're storing them for a while and living in a stuff-less house. The lounge looks incredibly big with none of our stuff in it, I'm tempted to keep the dvds away in a new house too.

The house we want is not stunning to look at when you pull up outside - just another terraced house, in an area that isn't the poshest - it's borderline lower Gillingham (and before you get to the posh again bit of lower Gillingham/Rainham). To balance this though, it's 2 minutes walk into the high street (which works better if you think about it as the corner shops - it's crappy for a high street but fantastic for corner shops). This also means the boy and I can meet up with my mum during the day, and that we can easily walk to assorted parks (as well as walking to the Black Lion for Isaac's swimming lessons).

It's a 3 bedroom, but it's 3rd off 2nd. We'd put the boy in the 3rd room, and use the 2nd room as a playroom. This means he can go into a big boys bed without us worrying so much about him getting out of bed and playing, and also means we can clear up his toys after he's been playing. We might put a sofabed in there as well for guests. If we do decide to have another baby, we can move into the 2nd bedroom (as it's not much different in size from the main) and have the baby in the small room off of ours, and the boy would have a big room for him & his toys.

The basement has been converted into a complete room. It has light, electricity, radiators, a double glazed window, the original fireplace, storage cupboards, and it's own entrance door. This room will be for our computers, the man's band gear, and a couple of bookcases. The band gear can come in and out without even coming in the main front door! Neighbours one side don't HAVE a cellar, and the other side only use theirs for junk, so there's no noise problems - the current owner is a DJ so is soemtimes quite loud down there.

Lounge, separate dining room, both good size & neutral. Bathroom on the small size and tiled quite dark green, but bigger than what we've got. Kitchen is galley style but with more actual cupboard space than we have in ours, gorgeous ceramic tiled floor, and gorgeous toning tiles on the wall as a splashabck, ever so nice. The RANGE cooker is staying...

Garden has a small 'side alley' part (good for storage and our shade loving pot plants). Patio is large enough for a dining table as well as the boy's slide & trike. It has a raised fishpond on the patio which will be easy to childproof. Then there's an expanse of lawn - lots, and plenty for me to do my thing with (it all gets sun as well). At the far end of the 70' garden (we currently have about 20' or so) is another patio, with storage, a treehouse with built in swing, and a raised vegetable patch. Hah! ANyone who knows me well enough will know that this sounds like heaven to me.

Now we just gotta sell ours! Here's a link : OUR HOUSE
- go and buy it.

The joys of house hunting

2006-09-21T20:13:00.000Z

So...we've started tentatively looking at houses.

We live in a small Victorian 2 bed terraced house on the edge of the Luton area of Chatham. Luton is 'famous' (infamous?) for not being the nicest of areas, and we're a bit fed up of all the murders happening within 1 minutes walk of our front door. (I've already lived on the 'street of fear' acording to our local paper and I don't want to do it again). I mean, I recognise our local policeman, and not for any fun & exciting reasons, and that feels wrong.

Since we moved in, about three years ago, we've done an awful lot to the place. We've replaced the kitchen floor, and laid laminate flooring throughout the downstairs. We've redecorated the bathroom, lounge and kitchen. We turned the garden from waist-high weeds into a gorgeous little wildlife friendly garden with bark paths, and a pond with lots of very happy frogs. We got central heating installed and a new boiler, we got double glazing installed. We've had the front of the house replastered and are in the process of painting it as we speak. We got rid of the bad 70's fire and have got a new up to date one (though haven't had it fitted yet). We fitted a loft ladder. We damp-proofed the basement and laid flooring, and have partially walled it - it's certainly now a usable room now rather than a dark damp hole.

Despite all this - the front door still opens into the lounge & out to the pavement. People still walk right past our window loudly. We have to keep the bins on the small patio and then take them through the house once a week. Our garden gets very little sun and I can only sit in the sun at certain times of the year. Isaac can't go out to play in the garden. It's about a mile to the nearest play area and it's not even a very good one (and it's certainly an unpleasant walk along a busy road).

I want greenery around us. I want a bigger garden, that gets some sun, that Isaac can play in, and I can do my gardening thing with. I want somewhere that looks nice when you pull up outside. We need storage space, in the form of a garage or cellar, but we also want three bedrooms in case we decide to have another baby, or just for a study/library. I want to be able to walk to somewhere Isaac can run around. I want to be a little further away from the pavement. The man wants a porch so the post doesn't come straight into the lounge. He also wants somewhere to store his band gear - PA and guitars. He wants somewhere he can sit and play guitar sometimes without the boy having to join in.

So far we have looked :

1. *a street in Maidstone* where the neighbours glared at us as we pulled up, and...well...were basically chavs. (Is that rude? Oh well).

2. Walderslade - a nice old couple who need to downsize. They had the most wonderful garden and fairly decent sized house but 'old people' carpets and wallpaper and it was in the kind of suburbia where you never leave the house...

3. Gillingham. A nice light airy house where the trains whizzed past the back garden.

4 Aylesham - a lovely village with amazingly friendly nieghbours, where an old fella had died two years before and nothing had been done to the house since. It would need new everything.

5 Wayfield where the lounge was huge and the house looked great from outside. The bathroom and kitchen were tiny and the garden got no sun.

6. Chatham. The local youths glared at us - just like where we live - and there was no storage (half the loft was taken up with a model train which was staying.

7. Walderslade. A beautiful house which we loved the decor and the size, but there was no actual storage fro band gear and the third bedroom could barely fit the two of us in.

8. Another Walderslade, with a huge lounge, tiny bedrooms, and no real garden to speak of.

9. Another Walderslade which had potential, once you laminated the floors, replaced the metal open plan stairs with wood that didn't judder as you walked up and down, updated the kitchen cupboards, and double glazed the back of the house.

10. Gillingham, a double fronted house which was the reverse idea of the tardis. A corner house that had all been taken up by the house it was bisected by. No right angles for furniture and the tiniest lounge.

11. Gillingham. Another nice from the outside house, but with storage space in the brick outhouses. Needs painting and recarpeting throughout, and the garden will need a lot of work, but it was a decent size and the area seemed good. It was even within walking distance of the only pub we like around here. It has damp, though...

12. Rainham. Almost exactly the same layout as the last one, without the damp, or the need for new flooring (though we would need to redecorate). Also without the child friendly garden or indeed the size of the garden. Next door to a couple of schools and near a block of flats where lots of the local mental health clients are housed,

NEXT VIEWINGS WE HAVE:

13. Rochester - In good decorative order, a garage for junk, and a 'spare room' on top of the three beds, kitchen, bathroom, and lounge/diner. Don't really know the area though...fingers crossed.

14 Chatham - Looks nice, has a fair few cupboards, and outside shed. Possibly not any PA space though...

15. Chatham - the next road down from where we are now. They say it's immaculate, and all the furniture is included. three beds, cellar, shed. Storage heating though and really really nearby.

16. Chatham - up a big big flight of stairs to the front door.three beds and a storage garage (not for cars, just motorbikes). A feature fishtank fireplace.

17. Gillingham - on a road that's very narrow , one way, and not good for parking. Three beds, Cellar, huge lounge andf kitchen, and a brick built unit in the garden currently being used as a gym.

18 Gillingham - on an avenue, nice. Three beds, cellar, and a summerhouse at the end of the garden (and also within walking distance of the pub).

19. Maidstone - near the last one, we're hoping the neighbours are nicer.

Wish us luck, won't you?

Blogged with Flock

About time I returned

2006-07-29T07:09:00.000Z

DSC_0014
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

Heya, and sorry to any readers.

I'm back now and it's all go, preparing a 2 year old to go on holiday. We've taught him what windmills are (we're going to Norfolk) and he can sing the holiday song (which goes hoh-hoh-holee, though we know it better by Cliff Richard). As you can see, I've bought him some cool shades - cute huh?

It's a nightmare trying to pack while keeping him occupied - and stop him from unpacking as we go along, of course. God knows what we'll have in our bags by the end of the day. We're off in two weeks time, but I'm trying to be as organised now as I can be. I've also got to get the house spotless as his 2nd birthday party is two days after we get back, and all the family are coming, so I've got to do it before we go...

Aside from that we're going out clubbing tonight, which is a bit of a rarity - but it's to a Japanese rock music night and I'm very excited! I've been trying to listen to a bit more J-rock so there'll be a few songs I recognise, but I think I still lurve Glay. Oh, and Asian Kung-Fu Generation but that's mostly a Naruto thing...

No time...

2006-06-19T12:15:00.000Z

Sorry for not being about much recently. Am off to Bristol for my father's funeral tomorrow so as you can imagine I've not really been in the mood for much. Will talk more soon....

Corey Haim!!!

2006-05-30T11:14:00.000Z

Corey Haim!!!
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

So the LondonExpo was very, very cool. And I met Corey Haim!!!! which I am still excited about.

!!!!

Yes, still very excited about.

SQUEEEE!!!!!

Ahem. I spent a fortune, bought lots and lots of DVDs (Perfect Blue, Pom Poko, Serial Experiments Lain, Appleseed), a manga, subscribed to Neo magazine, joined the UK Anime Club, bought a gorgeous Totoro pin badge, got The Man and I excellent T Shirts from Genki Gear (www.genkigear.co.uk) and took lots and lots of fantastic photographs. I dressed The Boy up as Naruto - well put a headband on him anyway - and he looked very very cute.

Sigh. Now I gotta wait a month till I can maybe meet Elijah Wood and Jorje Garcia.

SQUEEE!!!!!

2006-05-25T14:55:00.000Z

So the evening The Man goes out, my internet downstairs decides to stop working. Niiice.

Listening to the new Kate Bush album at last...as got from allofmp3.com. Amazing prices and perfectly legal (apparantly). Lovely.

Been trying Unix. Mmm, dunno. I can't seem to get the torrent software working, and I'm damned if I can work out how to d/l other software. I even managed to install a version of Bittorrent but dunno how to get it to run...sigh. Gave up.

MY ANIME COLLECTION: (that we don't get time to watch)

Seen all of a series / films:
Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away My Neighbour Totoro, The Cat Returns, Whisper of the Heart, Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, Blood The Last Vampire, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Castle of Cagliiostro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausica, Princess Mononoke

Seen some, want to see more:
Love Hina, Oh My Goddess, Hand Maid May, Mushishi, Naruto, Future Boy Conan, Kokoro Library, Excel Saga.

Not seen yet but got & eagerly awaiting the chance to see:
Azumanga Daioh, Ai Yori Aioshi, Perfect Blue, Noir, Chobits, Blood +, Millennium Actress, Spriggan

So far I've enjoyed everything I've seen. What else do you suggest I try to get hold of? Looking at my likes above what do you think I'd like? It's be great to hear some new suggestions.

Weekly update

2006-05-23T15:16:00.000Z

Yeah, so I've gone from daily blogging to weekly, I know...it's terrible. Mind you, it's finding the free time to think about things enough to write a whole blog post about them, if you know what I mean.

So, an update? We finished the kitchen in time for my birthday & my party, including lanterns and table runners and all kinds of cool things (some of which I've been photographing recently, so check out my flickr stream). On my birthday we went to Oriental City and spent a fortune - £60 in the supermarket alone. I got a Totoro! (And a Totoro organiser). As well as that we got a sake set, a maneki neko (lucky cat), some bowls, a Nightmare Before Christmas wallet - mostly 'silly stuff' - merchandising! Which is kind of cool for my 29th, I think - plenty of time for me to have grown up presents in the future...Also got some v cool books (inc Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys from The Boy) and some nice jewellery. The party went okay - it didn't rain till after we'd barbecued! A disturbingly large amount of people who said they'd come, didn't (well, Rob, Tyn, and Ant, anyway). Rob apologised via text and Tyn popped over the day after, so i guess at least that was something. Still haven't heard why Ant didn't turn up, but when he asked us to a gig in London we said no...which, if he'd been at the party 'bigging it up' and being enthusiastic, we'd probably have gone, so that was a bit daft. You can't invite people to your gig when you didn't bother turning up to their party you said you'd go to when you still haven't apologised or said why you didn't go, can you?

Apart from that, The Man has been doing lotsa studying for his MIAA qualifications - exams soon. His birthday is on the 2nd June (yeah, I'm three weeks older) but his exams are on the 5th and the 7th, so he won't be doing much celebrating till later. I'm buying him some Le Creuset for his birthday though so at least I know he'll love his present. I can't say what The Boy is getting him, in case he reads...

We've been trying out KDE / Mepis, a Linux based operating system. It looks okay but I don't know what I'm doing. The torrent program on ther (KTorrent) didn't work properly and although I installed the deb package of Bittorrent itself, I then had no idea how to find Bittorrent to launch it. So for the time being I've given up (as I really want to download something!). i will try again though, so stay tuned.

Anyway, as ever when I try and take some time to myself, The Boy is moaning and groaning from upstairs so I'd better go get him up. Sigh...

London Film and Comic Con

2006-05-05T09:00:00.000Z

London Film and Comic Con

We're going to this!!!

Guests currently confirmed - Richard Dreyfuss, Jorge Garcia (HURLEY!!), Elijah Wood!! Carrie Fisher etc etc...

Am really very excited.

Exciting week

2006-04-27T09:03:00.000Z

There's been so much going on...

First the week started with a trip to London to watch the London Marathon. The Boy hasn't been to London since we did the exact same thing last year (we really should take him up there more often!) and he enjoyed the train journey and all the excitement. Our friend James lives on Tooley Street so we were able to watch from the balcony, the weather wasn't great but then it was probably nice and cooling for the runners. We missed our friend Steve go past (we got there late) but saw lots of 'fun' runners (not that many looked to be having fun, at just under halfway) though was distracted from seeing Jade Goody by a giant caterpillar.

The Boy started making sentences this week, with the first one on Sunday being 'Button the button!' on the train (he was so, so desperate to open the train doors, I'm forgiving the fact that you don't button a button. Well, you do, but not that kind of button. Oh, now I've confused myself). By Monday evening (and generally improving all week) he was ordering us all to 'readabook' - and as soon as you finish reading him a book, he points at his bookcase and says 'readabook!' again. He can be quite demanding...

The man upgraded his mobile which means I get his old one - which has a 1.2 megapixel camera - yay - and, plus, isn't broken like my one is. I've spent hours getting my photos into little size and uploading them to my new phone, but they do look good! And I've added some geisha / Japanesey photos to give myself a lovelyness to look at too.

On that subject, we have FINALLY decided how to decorate the kitchen - in a Japanesey style! Well it makes sense, we couldn't agree on modern (me) or country (The Man) so this way we weon't be modern or country but we'll have enough modern style and enough traditional style to keep us both happy, and what with our enormous love of sushi and noodles and so on , it feels like the right thing to do. We're going to paint it white (goodbye dark orange! Yay!) and have red accents & accessories, and bamboo placemats, etc. We already have some nice white crockery so we're good there, and I think we can pick up a few nice bits to add interest - I've already been buying some things on Ebay. Some lovely woodblock prints and so on, as we'll have white walls. I'm desperate not to have it cluttered as it is though, but I have found with the lounge that once we decorated it nicely we were able to keep it tidier as it looked so nice, we made the extra effort. I'm hoping the same thing will happen with the kitchen once we're done - It's my party on May 13th - do you think we'll do it in time? That would be great.

On that note as well, I've decided what I want from the Man for my birthday - two daytrips. I have been waiting and waiting to go to Ikea for about 8 months now I think - I can't really remember the things I wanted anymore, but now we're doing the kitchen we should be able to grap some cheap wooden kitchen accessories and photo frames and so on. He can buy me a few bits and pieces! The other trip was going to be to a Japanese restaurant. We tried to go to Yo Sushi a while back without realising the Bluewater one had closed years ago. (Amusingly one has now reopened but more about that later). We've bought the Wagamama cookbook for use at home and knew that although not proper Japanese, were probably close enough for beginners - plus of course easy to replicate at home - and there's London or there's also one in Tunbridge Wells. However my friend Foz came over last week and mentioned the Japan Centre in London - shops and restaurants all in one - and then while researching that, The Man found a review of the 'best Japanese food in London' according to the Guardian (who he loves) at a place called Oriental City. It's in the middle of nowhere (well, a more residential suburb of London anyway) but has lots of eateries and a huge supermarket and a shop that sells bowls etc, and loads more. After doing more research into it I've heard it's really well priced, is the biggest Asian shopping centre outside of Japan, and I'm so so excited! So we're going there on my birthday, I think. With an Ikea trip before then, I hope, so that I can have a lovely kitchen when people come over for my party. Yay!

Last thing - The Man is on a study trip, left yesterday (Wednesday) morning to go to work, will be back Friday evening. He normally gets The Boy up and gives him breakfast, then gives him tea and puts him to bed at night as well. Last night brushing the boys teeth felt really odd - and today will be just the two of us all day! I hope we haven't frustrated each other to death by the time Friday night comes along...

sparrowhawk

2006-04-18T11:54:00.000Z

sparrowhawk
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

So it's been such a long time since I blogged. I've only had the thig a week and already I'm missing posts, eep.

We had Top London(tm) band Monica's Dress down for a demo recording session, which meant the basement was off limits - and then The Hubby was around a lot over Easter, which meant no time to myself. Yesterday though we went to Farming World in Faversham - The Boy loved it and I think his Grandma enjoyed herself too. I got to take my entire CF card worth of photos - about 120 - so I loved it too. And I think The Hubby was just happy to have us all there & enjoying ourselves.

Now though I want to find more places to visit like this one - that The Boy enjoys and where I can take photos and that we enjoy too. And of course I want them fairly close, else we're not going to want to travel that far.

IDEAS:

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens
Leeds Castle
Herne Bay (beach & beachhuts)
Canterbury
Dungeness?
Eynsford

Any other suggestions are really, really welcome.

The wallflowers are starting to flower in my garden! (I'm very excited). These are the things I get excited about now I'm very-very nearly 29.

Oh, did I say? I'm having the annual birthday barbecue party! It's become a tradition - well for 3 years anyway - the first time I was pregnant so couldn't go boozing, the next time I had a young baby so didn't have the energy to go boozing (this is a complete lie, I drank myself silly and spent the evening falling over and cackling) and this year we're having the daytime birthday barbecue followed by Grandma removing The Boy to a safe distance(ie: her house) and then the evening party too! I'm looking forward to it - my last birthday party as a twenty-something.

Summertime and self improvement.

2006-04-08T08:51:00.000Z

So, we had some sunshine. It's made me feel no end of better and it's making me want to get on to a self-improvement kick. I want to change a lot of things but most of them are silly, easy little things that I've just not got round to. One I have done recently, that's kind of prompted all this, was the annual 'preparing my feet for summer' - it's normally a pretty big job and takes ages, I'm one of those people who are always barefoot and my feet get dry and hard and cracked because of it and then I feel yukky when summer comes along and I wear sandals. However this year, I've been using an Avon cream on my feet EVERY DAY and sometimes twice a day and I've been wearing slippers in the house and really trying - and the other day I dug out my summer mules and wore them with glee because I've got lovely feet!

That's how simple some of these things are. I've got some other creams, lotions and potions (bust firming? Hmm - results noticeable in 4 weeks it says so I'll take a photo today, and then one in a month, and compare - and let you know) and nail strengthening - I'm desperate to stop biting my nails. Stretch mark removing too... I'm not planning to wear crop tops ever again but it would still be nice. Oh and some for your legs which gives a glow almost like fake tan but not quite, I'll let you know if it helps me feel brave enough to bare my legs in the warmer weather! One last summer change - I want to lose some weight...and will soon start to look st that seriously. Eep! Scary....

At home, other people.

2006-04-06T08:59:00.000Z

So today The Hubby is at home, 'studying'. (Currently, he's tidying the basement around me, a little distracting, but hey). This afternoon we're going to visit his Nana, a tiny little old lady with a cat and a big big garden. I think the boy might be a bit overwhelming for her, but hopefully I can take him out the back and let him run around. I hope he'll behave well - you really can't tell with him - especially as he's not asleep yet.

The Hubby is taking apart his computer desk - well actually it's mine but he's been using it. It's a great big black metal corner desk with shelves above and below the desk area - lots and lots of space for all that associated crap you have on a computer desk (this is everyone else too right? Not just me?). It's going to be put away safely though because in our basement we have no corners, thanks to some weird set up with supporting beams and so on.

On a blog I found recently, someone was describing the hour long conversation she'd had with a 'freak' on IM who talked to her about all sorts of sex related things. (As they do on IM programs). She was gutted at not having saved the conversation so as to show off how much of a freak this guy was, and her witty ripostes. She got lots of comments, with one of them saying - what a cow you are' basically. And now she's gone off on one, calling this person a troll, giving him/her the finger, slagging off them and their blog.

So: she's taking the piss out of someone she egged on for a whole hour (she even made him believe she'd meet him that night) and then being pissed off & offensive that someone called her a cow. So I guess I'd just like to state that I agree with the commenter. Why *do* people think it's cool to laugh at people and have a joke at someone else''s expense?

geese and more

2006-04-04T11:39:00.000Z

Geese
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

We went for a nice walk yesterday along the river with The Boy's Grandma. She'd brought over some bread for throwing to the ducks, but due to The Boy throwing his dinner on the floor after 3 spoonfuls (grrrr) he ate the bread, instead of throwing it. Mind you, these two geese in my photo seemed almost offended to be offered bread anyway, so maybe that was a good thing.

My exciting new close up filter has arrived, but not the unexciting step up ring which will enable me to attach it to the camera! This deserves another grrr.

We saw 'The Cat Returns' yesterday. Kind of odd film, not like the other Ghibli films we've seen, really. It was more of a kids film that most of them, I think, but it was really cute and I loved the cats - especially the bodyguard cats in their suits - so cool.

My tesco shopping order came today, so sushi for dinner tonight, yay! It's such a great service, despite the occasional mistakes. I don't drive and it's a godsend. Todays driver was a very nice young man, too. I probably would have been quite taken with him except he seemed to be about 12. I expect it was probably me and not him, huh? I'm still trying to deny that I'm getting older. And is it just me, or do policemen seem really young now too?

Feeling lucky

2006-04-03T09:24:00.000Z

Mmmm...dinner
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

Here's a recent picture of The Boy, staring intently at his meatballs. Yesterday - the great-grandma visit - went really, really well. His auntie and uncle thought he was great, and he really behaved himself. He picked up a few things we had to take off him, but it's one of those 'old lady houses' - lots and lots of things. EVERYWHERE. He wasn't to know they weren't out on display for him, and he didn't complain too much when we took them off him.

I just feel really...i dunno, vindicated maybe? I gave up work to be at home all day with him, it's been a big change, and sometimes I do resent him, in a way. Having no other real life mummy-friends doesn't help of course. But I've done all this, and I've tried really hard to do the right thing with him, and there's not ONE thing I would want to change about his personality. He's interesting, and intelligent, and cute, and funny, and he's got such a sense of humour. He's a cheeky little monkey, and he cackles, and he grins at you, and he knows when he's being naughty and watches you to see if he can get away with it - but it's great - he's learning his limits and what he can and can't get away with. He's happy to play alone, but he also likes playing with people. He loves being the centre of attention but doesn't show off in a bad way. He only whines when he's getting tired. He even says please (sometimes)...yeah, I reckon we've done well.

I see so many unhappy kids - strapped in their pushcahir and forced to stay there, being ignored when they're crying, being screamed at by their mummy in the street...and more...and I'm just so pleased and proud that the boy and I get on so well, and understand each other fairly well. I mean, he's mad as a hatter and I have no idea why he tries some of the things he does, but in behaviour terms we understand each other. He trusts me not to shout at him unless it really is something he can't do rather than just something I don't want him to do. He trusts me to get him up from his cot if he's crying (rather than dumping him there and waiting for him to cry himself to sleep)- which in turn means he's happy to be left in his cot and plays happily until he goes to sleep. And so on, and so on!

Yeah. I guess I'm happy. We'll keep him.

more about blogs

2006-04-01T11:43:00.000Z

Wow - I'm doing one of my 43things - I'm starting to use del.icio.us at last. It's pretty good for me because I use my lovely, shiny, less-than-a-year-old PC upstairs in The Boy's room, and my old workhorse, bought when I worked at PC World 5-6 years ago, downstairs. I've got different bookmarks on both these PCs so I guess I can now add them all and take them wherever I go. Nice.

The other thing I'm trying is BlogMad. This is where you register your blog, visit other people s blogs, stay for the required amount of time (you can favourite any blog you like) and earn credits. These you can then spend on getting visitors to come to your blog in the exact same way. What a clever idea, huh?!? So yesterday I had comments from complete strangers after signing up - so I can guarantee it works!

Also I've added Haloscan to update my comments & add a trackback link. Now, As you can see from yesterday, I'm not entirely sure how, what or why these are a good thing. However, after some friendly comments about the subject, I've decided to just stop worrying about it for now. I might come back to it next week (if I'm feeling more intelligent). So please, feel free to leave a comment & let me know if you like the improvements!

Last thing added is a Blogroll, (down and to the left, do you see?) this is where I add links of the blogs I like, though I have only just started it so it might take me a little while to get them added in. It's a nice idea though...and there's certainly plenty of blogs out there for me to add...

Finally - it's the weekend - yay! The Hubby is at home, The Boy is being a loon, we've done a bit of garden tidying. Tomorrow The Boys' grandma will be over, and we'll be going up together to visit his Great-Grandma, so a well behaved day on everyone's part is in order. The Boy's Auntie Karen will be there and she's not seen him since Christmas, when he was only just starting to run places, and certainly didn't talk. I think she'll be quite impressed with his vocabulary!

Tags:

blogs del.icio.us blogmad blogroll

Blogging...the horror

2006-03-31T14:59:00.000Z

So, after looking around to find out more about blogging, I've managed to scare myself. First off, it looks like Blogger itself is just oh-so-passe (and not what the clever kids do). Akin to an AOL emai address, I heard! (eep).

Secondly, there's about 3 million different things you should sign up for to add to your blog to make it better and more interesting and look more cool and attract more people and offer more content and make more money and , and...and...

Thirdly I still don't get trackbacks. I think my mind is on strike today.

Fourthly (um?) do I even have anything worth saying? Is anyone going to care? Why am I doing this? What's the point? So far, I know my hubby enjoys reading it. When I tell him to, anyway.

Fifthly (okay, don't ask) I'm not clever enough with technical things to understand or be able to use Wordpress. So does that mean I can't do a good blog just because I'm not technical? That kind of seems a little unfair. I thought the whole point of blogs was that anyone can do one, because we've all got something to say.

Grrr. Guess I'm having one of those 'is-there-anything-i-can-do-successfully?' days. You know the ones. Where's the wine?!?

Blogging, Lost, Next Top Model.

2006-03-31T14:04:00.000Z

So today I'm trying to find out more about blogging. Hey, I only just started, give me a break! I'm signing up with all kinds of things left right and center...though I'm not entirely sure what half of them do. I'm also being distracted by The Fuselage, the most wonderful Lost forum I've found (but be warned, Ukers, most people on there are watching Season Two). What a corker last night's episode (17) was, eh!?! Phew. And then when that appeared! Wow. And what he said at the end? Fantastic. Uh, for those of you who haven't seen series 2 yet, come back to this when you have and you'll see what I mean.

The other program I've been really into recently is America's Next Top Model. I discovered it halfway through season two, watched season three avidly, and then somehow missed everything since and forgot about it. Now I find out we're on season six already!?! Pretty quick, but I've managed to get hold of season 4 and catch up. Now it's just five and six to go but I might have to rewatch three anyway - they go to Japan in that one, and as you'll know if you've a) read anything earlier or b) looked at my 43things goals - I like Japan and Japanese stuff.

Hmm, and I've tried, but I still don't get trackbacks.

The Boy

2006-03-30T16:24:00.000Z

This afternoon The Boy is refusing to even entertain the idea of sleep. He refused to go upstairs without making a big fuss, and he's refusing to lay quietly in his cot. So while he is making a mess next to me (it's okay, I'm in his room) I'm still at 43 things. What I didn't realise straight away, is that it's linked into 43 people, 43 places, and, more worryingly, all-consuming and listsofbests. For me, this is a terrible thing, as it means I will no longer be able to move from my computer. Nope, never again.

Hmm. Do you think a 19 month old should be sitting and reading a beautiful Neil Gaiman / Sandman graphic novel?

I don't. Excuse me.

Aaarrrggh. He's sucked it and it's gone wibbly. I've given him 'The Spring Rabbit' which he seems less pleased with but he can do what he likes to that, I don't mind.

Should I keep the Blogger Navigation bar? I dunno. A lot of people seem to want to take it off of their blogs, but I love it - there's no way I'd read half the blogs I do if I hadn't found them through the 'next blog' button. I mean, I guess it means people leave your blog quicker - but personally I get annoyed if a blog *doesn't* have it. It's a difficult decision to make.

Japanese films, X-Box Games, 43 Things.

2006-03-30T10:24:00.000Z

This morning I've mostly been...43 things, people, places / X-Box Games Rental / Japanese films

The Boy is not really sleeping during his nap this morning. More kind of...being mostly quiet, and sometimes playing. I am however spending my time browsing the Japanese films on my DVD rental site. How on earth do tyou know where to start, when all you've seen are a few Miyazaki / Ghibli films? I've added a couple of the Samurai / Yazuka films I've heard Johnathan Ross talk about in Japanorama and so on. I'm not sure they'll be our thing but we might as well give them a go, else we'll never know. I know we like the horror films a la 'Ring' so I've added a few more of them. You do have to be in the right mood to be scared witless though. I'd like to see more anime but I just don't know what!

On that note, I've found a wonderful site called anime planet which, if you tell it which anime you like, it tells you what other animes you might like! All submitted by users of the site, and all have a little synopsis with them so you can have a read and see if you might like them. What a fantastic, perfect idea! I now have *lots* on my list to check out. Wooh!

Of course, my other big problem is that my DVD rental people have just started doing games. Including X-Box games. Now, I bought The Hubby an X-Box for his birthday last year, I think it was, so that would mean it's not even a year old. We like RPGs and action adventure type games, and I've done all the 'big name' ones I've heard of - The 2 KOTORs, Fable Lost Chapters, Jade Empire (loved this), and a few others. We've also got Unreal Championship for when we're in those moods and I've got Buffy Chaos Bleeds for that kind of fun. Oh and Morrowind is one of my favourites...you can just play it for years. That's it, though, and we've never known if anything else was worth it. Now though we can rent them? Mmmm. I'm looking at a lot of my day vanishing, aren't I?

I've also been adding to my list which is a lovely idea. Basically it's a 'life goals' list - ranging from travel the world, get married, have kids, to stop biting your nails, drink more water, or buy a notebook. You add what you want to do, and you can see how many other people want to do it. You can also add the things you've done, and whether you're willing to help others acheive their goals. (Just this morning I offered my requested opinion on a 'should I buy this camera or that camera?' post). I guess I know it's kind of time wastery, but oh how I love time wastery sites where you can add your own things and see other peoples too.

StopIE: Help stop Internet Explorer.

2006-03-29T12:33:00.000Z

:
The worlds most popular, and worst, internet browser:

There are countless bugs in Internet Explorer, but here they list the main reasons why internet explorer is so bad, and what you should do instead. It may be a small, not very pretty site but BOY is it for a good cause.

Firefox all the way, baby.

Isaac in B&w

2006-03-29T10:22:00.000Z

Isaac in B&w
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

Here's a photograph of my little boy. His name is Isaac, he's 19 months old, and he's really, really cheeky. He's great fun at the moment. He says 'pleeeeease' and 'shooooooees' and 'googoo gock!' and all kinds of exciting things. He likes to run, he likes to screech, he likes to chase the cat, he likes to eat (pasta with pesto is his favourite) and he likes watching Balamory and Boogie Beebies. He likes dancing and singing and he's a Daddy's boy. Plus - he's sooooo cute! I have taken lots and lots of photographs of him.

justin in black and white

2006-03-29T10:20:00.000Z

justin in black and white
Originally uploaded by Claire Fun.

Here is my hubby Justin for your delectation. He isn't really mean and moody, but he was kind enough to pose for me so I caould make him mean and moody for a photograph. We've been married for coming up to 4 years and were together for just over a year before that, so it's not really a long relationship in that way, which feels strange, because he's my best friend and I can't imagine life without him. We spend every minute we can spend together, together, and we never want to go out without each other. It's good. We are both looking forward to warmer weather and long summer holidays, though we are worried about getting older. I think he's more worried than me.

Starting slowly.

2006-03-29T06:52:00.001Z

So why this blog? It seems that everywhere else I sign up to on the net has their own blog (well okay, stumble upon and myspace are the only ones I can think of at the moment). You can't blog everywhere! (Well, I guess you can if you're so inclined). My son Isaac had his own blog but he's just not keeping it up! (Uh, the funny here is that Isaac is 19 months old and I was writing it from his perspective. Look, I never said very funny, did I?!?) . I have a photography blog - but what's the point when I've got Flickr? So While looking at some fantastic sites I'd like to share, I thought that's it, I'm ready - one blog to rule them all. (Or something along those lines).

So in case you want to know (and I'll only say this once):

I'm a 28 year old woman living in Kent in the UK. I'm happily married to Justin, we have a gorgeous boy called Isaac, we live in a tiny poky little house in a tiny poky little street. We have an evil cat called Mew. Nearby we have my Mum, sister Cath, her sons Joe (13) and Nathaniel (1 1/2) and Mum's dog Ollie. We also have Justin's Mum Pamela, who despite being a mother - in - law I actually get on well with (and she adores her grandson, which is nice).

I'm a stay at home mum, and I've taken this a little to heart and find it very hard to leave the house by myself. Weekends, when Justin is home, is easy, but for some weird reason I just can't do it in the week. I've just got back into photography after 8 years or so away from it, and about 3 weeks ago I bought a new digital SLR which is really, really sexy. I just need more lenses and converters and so on...

Justin and I are going through a real 'Japanese' phase. Our favourite director is Hayao Miyazaki - we love everyone og his films we see. Last night we saw our film Ghibli-but-not-Miyazaki film (Only Yesterday) and we loved it, so now I know it's not just him we like. We both like Haruki Murikami - he's Justin's favourite author and I'm just getting into him (though usually I'm a fantasy books kinda gal). My favourite food is sushi, which I'd never had until last summer's 'Will Adams Festival' in Gillingham (where I also saw Joji Hirota and the Taiko Drummers, who I loved). I just can't get enough sushi - and I can't get over the fact it's fairly healthy too. I'm overweight, have F cup boobs & therefore a bad back, have high blood pressure, and have just gone for a cholesterol test...sigh. Losing weight would be a good thing to do. Oh and I'm also on a few of those websites where you can 'meet' Japanese people to chat to and have already made a few friends (Hi Takeshi & Michiru!). I would LOVE to learn Japanese though I've heard it's really difficult...

Apart from Japan / Japanese what else? Books. Lots & lots of books. Fashion, kind of (Trinny & Susannah have helped me dress like an adult and get rid of a ll my silly old goth clothes. They did me well for a time but now I'm too old, too fat, and they're impractical with a baby. Now I dress stylishly!). I love shoes and scarves and jewellery and make up - I never have much money for these frivolities but I am also an Avon lady so I can get that cheap (and lots of it is really good stuff!). I love films & TV, and on a related note love Bittorrent. Only the stuff it's legal to Bittorrent of course! (Ahem). I'm into gardening (though less since having Isaac than I used to be) and also into doing up our house and buying nice things for it. I enjoy Ebay, though often spend too much time & money on there. I love animals - foxes are my favourite, but I love dogs a lot and really I do like most animals. I enjoy cutesy silly photos of animals too. I'm a bit off music - everything new sounds like it's been done before - and I used to like it then - but I do still love Nick Cave (who NEVER sounds like anyone else!) and the Polyphonic Spree (who come to think of it are also quite original). I have a soft spot for Pink too, and Scott Walker is my all time favourite.

So - that's me, that's what I like. They'll be more, of course - I can't sum up my life in a few paragraphs - but it's certainly a good starting place. And starting soon I will start adding what I like...