90/365 Coral Cove

Today, wearing my "Phoenix Trader" hat, I did a table top sale at Coral Cove, a soft play centre for young children, in Devizes.
I was there from 11 am to 2.30 pm, sold quite a few cards and other bits and pieces, chatted to several lovely ladies and generally spent an enjoyable half day.
The sale was in aid of the Childrens Unit at Swindon Hospital, I'm not sure how much money was raised, but there seemed to be quite a good turnout so hopefully it was worthwhile.

89/365 New toy

Some time ago I showed you my new toy. I've played with it a couple of times since then, but today we have guests coming for tea, so I thought I'd better have a really serious play session, then I can put it away and forget about it for another few weeks.

88/365 Kitchen

I love my kitchen. I mean I really, really LOVE my kitchen. It is THE main reason for buying this house. It is big (two smaller rooms knocked into one), it has simply loads and loads of cupboards and storage space, a really decent breakfast bar and a huge amount of worktop area - which I have mostly managed to clutter up with electrical appliances!



Here it is as viewed through the archway in the dining room. I love the colour scheme of black with light wood, not one I would have thought of myself but it looks really good. It is such a lovely kitchen that I spend far more time in it than anywhere else in the house.
I love to cook, too. Nothing poncy or fancy (please dont take this personally Nim), just common or garden plain home cooking, and what could be better than using home grown produce?



This is last night's tea. Obviously I bought the beef from a local butcher, and my leeks aren't yet ready so this is a shop bought one, but the rest of the ingredients shown are from the garden, in fact the carrots had only been out of the ground for about 15 minutes when I took this shot. The addition of a few mixed herbs, some black pepper and a handful of lentils all cooked really slowly for about 4 hours made this into the most delicious beef casserole. Served with fresh crusty rolls, you will just have to take my word that it was a super meal, because I forgot to take a photo of the finished product.

87/365 What a difference a night makes

9.15 last evening from the front bedroom window



shot from the same window at 6am this morning



and just thought you might like to see the painted walls in Traps A & B, we are so close to completion now!







its actually the same colour both sides, but the first shot is a more accurate depiction.

86/365 Storm clouds

Yesterday afternoon and evening we were surrounded by storm clouds









but someone, somewhere, was obviously getting some rain.



This morning the air is so much cooler and fresher.
Hope its good wherever you are.

85/365 Folded or rolled?

No, not the lyrics from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, but a vexing question regarding sheets of giftwrap.
Now, as a buyer, I like to have my giftwrap rolled, but as a seller with a large stock I find its easier to store and less vulnerable to damage if its folded. So in order to please all camps I currently have both!







Please leave a comment below with your personal preference so I can get a feel for the best way to store my stock. Thank you.

84/365 Behind the Trapezium

We have a small area of land behind the Trapezium, part of which has become ours by default. You can see a row of old concrete fence posts where the boundary used to be and the new fence where the boundary seems to be now. This fence was put up by the developers and separates us from a parking area - I think they just couldn't be bothered to clear and landscape it, so they "gave" it to us. We dont mind though, as we intend to keep chickens out there.
This is how it looked at lunch time:



and this is how it looks now. Rog and Oli spent a couple of hours out there this afternoon, while I stayed indoors doing the ironing.



The extremely drunken looking elder tree will be the next thing to go.

83/365 Good luck to Angie and Nicky

Many moons ago (well it seems like it) I used to work part-time as one of a group of science technicians at the local High School. I thoroughly enjoyed the job, and as a group of girls working together we all got on remarkably well, meeting up regularly out of school for girly nights out. The dynamics of the group have changed little over the years, one or two faces have been and gone and a couple of new faces have appeared, but on the whole the core of the group has remained intact. Now after 6 years as Head Technician, Angie (second from right) is moving on and Nicky (centre) has been promoted and is taking her place in September.
My best wishes go to Angie and her husband Andy, who are moving away to deepest Suffolk, and I wish the best of luck to Nicky in her new role, I'm sure you'll make a great Head Techie Nicky, and I'm looking forward to hearing all about it at our next meet-up.
Watch out all you science teachers, you dont know whats going to hit you!

82/365 Stationery with a Smile :)

A couple of weeks ago I went into the main stationery store in Devizes (at this point I wont name and shame, those who live locally will know who I mean). I was only spending a measly £4.50, so I didn't expect a red carpet and trumpets, or anything like that, but I was served by the shop owner, and he treated me as if I wasn't actually there. He didn't look in my direction, he didn't smile, he didn't acknowledge my presence apart from ask me for my money - well no, in fact he didn't even really ask me, he just said the amount that was due. I paid up and walked out, feeling to myself that was no way to treat a customer, he could have at least tried to smile, or make eye contact, or something, so I vowed I wouldn't use his shop ever again.
The more I thought about it the more I realised that, as I just love stationery in all shapes and sizes, and as I already sell Phoenix and Dots and Spots greetings cards directly to my family, friends and neighbours, the next logical step for me would be to sell other stationery items as well. With Trap B (my studio) nearing completion I should soon have plenty of spare storage capacity, and so I have just taken my first small steps towards become a fully blown stationery supplier. These are the items that I have available as of now.
They are: small bags of multicoloured paper clips, small post-it notes (from recycled paper), top-opening clear A4 polypockets, and refillable biro-type pens made from recycled plastic bottles. I'll be listing these in my new Facebook shop over the weekend, and I hope to have illustrated price lists available next week. I'll be adding newly sourced (as green as possible) items probably on a monthly basis.


So now you know where you can get reasonably priced, ethically sourced and, wherever possible, recycled stationery.

81/365 Graffiti

I've been taking part in a Summer Photographic Challenge, set by Tracy of Madaboutbags. She gives us a different subject each week to interpret however we like, and post our shots onto our facebook page. This week the subject is GRAFFITI and I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be a struggle for me to find anything much. Devizes is one of those places that just doesn't "do" graffiti. I walked out this morning to the market, going through backstreets and carparks and all the sorts of places you expect to see it, and these are the only examples I could come up with.









If any of my local friends and readers can come up with suggestions as to where I might find other examples, please post in the comment box, thanks.

80/365 New doors

We haven't seen David, the builder, for a while, he's been working away, but he's back today, and has fitted up our two lovely doors.
Mine



Rog's



I think David is coming back tomorrow to put on the architrave, and hopefully some skirting boards too. Watch this space.

79/365 Like father, like son

Over the past twenty-odd years I have had many a PC rebuilt on the dining table - thats what Rog does in his spare time! During the daytime he works on them, evenings and weekends he rebuilds them. We currently have a total of six in the house, two for his use, two for my use, one for Oli and one spare.
Yesterday Alex came home with two more, and proceeded to cannibalize the parts from the smaller one and put them into the larger one. He had to come home to do it because a) he has no dining table, and b) he needed to borrow Dad's tools.












Prepare to be impressed - as Alex intended to stay overnight, the carrier bag also contains clean underwear, socks and toothbrush!

78/365 Unrelated items

I love sunrises and sunsets, there are never two the same. Yesterdays wasn't one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen, but I quite liked it.



You wont see me in many photos, as its not often I'll let Rog get hold of the camera, but in this instance he wanted a snap of me next to the new tree we've just planted to replace the small plum tree that died (I think it died of thirst during the recent very hot and dry spell of weather).



Yesterday we had bangers and mash for tea, so I dug the next potato plant, look how many of the beauties were on one single plant, 17, wow.



Rog was badly savaged by a rose bush when he was a child, so he wont have them in our garden. I love them, but I respect his reasons for not wanting them. This lovely rose belongs to our next-door-neighbour, and is cheekily peering over the fence, the scent from it is gorgeous.

77/365 Watching the world go by

Spent a very restful hour yesterday, just sitting in our fold-up chairs beside the canal at the top of Caen Hill Locks. Relax and enjoy.

This is how close we were to the waters edge.




with some liquid refreshment




close to some mooring posts




across the canal is a barge moored up




there goes mrs. duck (does her beak look big in this?)




right next to my seat, another mooring post




lots of towpath walkers passed by




a microlite (microlight?) buzzed overhead




a bramble swayed in the breeze




waiting to go down




there's boats down there




coming up




opening the gates




gates open




leaving the lock



time to go home for lunch.

76/365 Raindrops