59/365 Along the towpath

Just a few things that caught my eye as we walked home from town today

London Road bridge



Maxwell's Silver Hammer




Summer House




World War II tank blocks

58/365 Joy's new toy

How do you like my new toy? I've heard that if I keep it in the box in mint condition it will hold its value for many years to come, so thats what I think I'll do. It would be such a shame to play with it and get it all scratched and dirty.

57/365 Some random things I found in the garden this morning

Spiraea



flowers on the runner bean plants




and a lovely brand spanking new shed base

56/365 non-blog

This non-blog is in remembrance of English football, which died this afternoon. Rest in Peace.

55/365 Pink knitting

not too happy about the colour reproduction on this photo, but its lovely to be knitting in pink.

54/365 Out with the old and in with the new

Do you prefer to cook with gas, or electricty?
I loved the kitchen in our house the moment I saw it, and wasn't, at the time, put off by the fairly new ceramic hob - however, same hob has reduced its working rings from four to three and then from three to two, so rather than waste time and money getting it fixed we bit the bullet and changed it for a gas one, which was fitted today.



This evening I cooked bangers and mash for tea, with broccoli and m/waved onions (how about a blog about this meal, Nim?), and it was wonderful to have such resposive rings that you could see the boiling bubbles reducing in number and frequency as you turned the control down. This simply DOES NOT happen with electricty. Oh thank you so much, Mr. Gas Hob fitter, you are the best thing that has happened to me all week.

53/365 New brickwork

We're nearing the end of the second week of building work, and it's all taking shape nicely. The floor is in position, the ceiling and partition wall are in place, we have lots of cables and powerpoint boxes hanging around, and the brickie has been in all this week - so now we have two doorways turned into window apertures, and one window turned into a doorway. It still looks like a building site, but hey, whoever had a nice new office/studio without a bit of a mess? The chaps doing the work are all very friendly and polite, and not a builders bum in sight. New windows and door due on site Monday, so another update next week.

52/365 Smoke rings?

Today is a gorgeous, warm, sunny day. England has just beaten Slovenia, and although they played much better than of late it was still a "heart in mouth" experience towards the end. Well done lads.
Haven't really had time to go out with the camera today, so here is an old shot from a couple of years back. No idea how this was formed, it looks like a giant smoke ring.




Building work progressing well, more news on that tomorrow.

51/365 Janet

This is my dear friend Janet, we have been friends since the spring of 1970, just after she got married to Roy, and just after I found out I was pregnant with Eddie (first son), so we go back a long way. Very soon after we met she and Roy moved to a brand new house in Tollesbury, Essex and 40 years on they still live in the same house.
Yesterday (summer solstice) was Janet's 60th birthday, and her delightful family laid on a surprise birthday barbecue for her (which coincided with father's day), to which I was invited. I am now living in Wiltshire, so the trip to Tollesbury involved an overnight stop at Ed's place in Fetcham on Saturday, and another overnight stop to break the homeward journey at my Mum's in Theydon Bois on Sunday.
It was wonderful to see the look of surprise and joy (no pun intended) on Janet's face when I arrived, and I am pleased to say that I spent a really happy afternoon and evening in the company of all her friends and family.
Special thanks must go to Janet's daughter-in-law Sue firstly for the invitation, and secondly for doing the lion's share of the organising. Thankyou Sue, it was a great day, and one I shall remember for a long time.

50/365 The lady in purple travels to Essex

I have just recently returned from a trip to Essex, the reason for my trip will be the subject of my next blog, but this blog is about my travel companion, the Lady in Purple. You may think that as a knitter I should have knitted this myself, but to be perfectly honest I wouldn't have even thought about it until I saw her for sale in Hennie's shop. Isn't she lovely?

Here she is sitting on my dashboard whilst we were stuck in a traffic jam on the outskirts of Guildford, in Surrey.



And here she is again in another traffic jam approaching the Dartford Crossing in Kent.



Please click here to visit Hennie's shop for other charity fundraising handmade items.

49/365 All Cannings

The Kennet and Avon Canal runs from Bristol to Reading through some delightful countryside, mostly in Wiltshire. On summer weekends it is usually a hive of activity, with holiday makers, canoeists, anglers, walkers and cyclists making the most of the waterway and towpath - however, during the week, and especially outside of school holidays it is a haven of peace and quiet, with nothing to hear but birdsong. Come, take a walk with us along the section of the canal near to the village of All Cannings.










This is a circular walk and towards the end it is necessary to leave the towpath and walk across the fields back to the village and, as any really decent walk should always end at a pub, the Kings Arms is most conveniently placed for liquid refreshment and solid sustainence.

48/365 Old photo

We got this digital camera in 2003, seven years ago almost to the day, and this is one of the very earliest photos I took. I still love it now. There was a pair of ducks who used to fly into our garden each morning and wait at the door to be fed.

47/365 Instead of the gym

which costs money, I went for a ride on my dear old trusty bike, which was free.
And you get to see a bit more of Devizes.
Firstly the church, with canon ball holes in the tower, reputedly shot by Oliver Cromwell's men during the civil war.



Next we come to Brownstone House, which at least one of my readers will recognise, as she works there (this was taken at 10.30 am Jean, so I dont think you were in at the time!)




A quick detour to the wharf




The Brewery is a very imposing building, and the smell emanating from same is quite delicious.
(I'm not sure how this writing got here, its part of the script for the photo, but I cant seem to get rid of it!)

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The green with the white horse beyond




Across the canal and almost home again.




I hope you enjoyed my bike ride as much as I did.

46/365 Out and about in Devizes

The paeony is in my garden, the only decent background for it was the sky, so I took this lying down on the garden path, I'm not really sure what the builders would have thought if they saw me.



The swan was asleep by the side of the Crammer. As I stopped to take the photo lots of ducks came quacking towards me expecting food, and woke the swan up, sorry swan.




This pyramid was donated to the town, I forgot to write down the name of the donator, but it has three sides, showing three different aspects of the town, this side shows the Caen Hill locks.




This house is in the middle of Devizes, I think its a private house, as there are no signs to indicate otherwise. I love the architecture of it. There are so many interesting and unusual houses in town that none of them looks out of place.




Junko, my daughter-in-law, is having a scan later today, so by this evening I shall know if my new grandchild is to be a boy or a girl. Watch this space.

45/365 Its all happening

Quite enough excitement for one day

44/365 Playing with photoshop elements

I've just been having a little play around with photoshop elements, the software that OU have provided with the course.
Must admit to never having tried anything like this before, but quite pleased with the results. The third shot looks a bit Monet-ish to me.

43/365 View from my desk

I've seen some really lovely blogs recently where people have taken me on a personal tour of their gardens, which I've really enjoyed - thankyou, you know who you are.
I'd love to do the same, but at the moment, what with having been here less than 2 years and currently having builders in to work on the outbuilding, the back garden is very much a "work in progress" with little to show apart from the small vegetable plot blogged about here, and odd single flowers which have featured earlier in this blog. However, as I sit at my desk, which is temporarily in the front room, I can see the front garden and beyond to the scots pines across the green.



Not much colour out there at the moment, as the border has mostly crocosmia and michaelmas daisies (not flowering yet) in front of a row of heavily pollarded lilacs (finished flowering), but it does provide a nice restful green screen between the house and the road. Enjoy for now and I'll try to remember to post this scene again in a month or so when the crocosmia are in bloom.

42/365 Bits and pieces

No particular theme to today's blog, just a few bits and pieces, its been that sort of a day.

For all you crafters out there reading this, how would you like to win some advertising space for shop/webpage etc in the Creative Crafting online magazine? Just click here to find out how.

I mentioned sometime back that the leek seeds I had sown were old and didn't germinate, so yesterday I bought a pot of leek seedlings in the market, and today I've put them out in the veg plot, near to the beetroot plants which are thriving.



Here is dear old Adrian, who (except at this precise moment) certainly looks a lot happier now that he's fronting ITVs coverage of the World Cup than he used to sitting next to Christine Bleakley in the One Show




Now you can probably guess what I'll be doing this afternoon.

41/365 Spot the difference

Although, to be fair to them, they have also done a lot of measuring, materials ordering, talking and tea and coffee drinking. All the materials required are to be delivered on Monday, so thats when we'll see them next.
In my excitement, I'm ashamed to admit that the strawberries were eaten before I remembered to snap them.
One of my assignments for next week is "composing images in the frame to alter their meaning" so here is one of my entries

40/365 Strawberries

Yesterday I spotted two almost ripe strawberries, so I thought just leave them for another 24 hours and then pick them. Wrong!! Went out to pick them this morning and they are gone. The moral of the story is keep your strawberries covered in netting.
There were another two I'm hoping will be ripe tomorrow, which I have picked and brought indoors so that Rog and I can have one each. Tomorrow when they are ripe I'll take a photo.
So, today, instead of ripe strawberries we have a picture of another paeony



an oilspill (not quite as disastrous as the one in the Gulf of Mexico)



and a reflection