While Mr C was at a work event this evening I met up with some dear friends for dinner in London. It's the first time that we've managed to catch up this year, but just an evening together makes me realise just how important friendship is. (All the two for one vouchers at chain restaurants that are freely available on the web at the moment also help the dinner out stretch a bit further than usual!)When busy at work I can be quite bad at making time to see friends, but it really is so, so worth it. I just need to try and do it a bit more often! ... read more
Archives for January 2009
Spotty pink tote bag
I feel like I've really achieved something this evening since coming home from work. Back at the Knitting and Stitching show in November I bought this fantastic pink spotty fabric and straight away wanted to use it to make a tote bag to carry my things to and from work every day. I don't need to carry a huge amount of stuff, just a book, my knitting, a bottle of water, umbrella and possibly my hat and scarf. I did want something a bit more attractive than the conference freebie that I've been carrying around for a while. Tonight I finally made this happen.I didn't use any ... read more
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
This morning Mr C and I were taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. This annual birdwatch has been taking place now for 30 years here in the UK, and Compost Woman recently wrote about how the event had grown from it's beginnings into being an incredibly important piece of research into British birds and also into a fantastic activity for children wanting to learn more.I'm not sure if Mr C and I fit into the children category, but I certainly learnt much more about birds by taking part. We don't have a garden, so instead headed down to our local nature ... read more
No time for goodbye – Linwood Barclay
The title of this book has this week more significance than I realised when I read it a week or so ago. Sadly this this week has had a complete lack of time for anything other than work and sleep, and a friend of Mr C's was tragically and suddenly taken away from him and his friends with no time for any of them to stay goodbye. Life can be incredibly cruel sometimes.------------------------------ Linwood Barclay's book tells the story of Cynthia who twenty-five years ago woke up one morning (with a teenage hangover) to find a silent house and no sign of her parents or brother. Even ... read more
Xmas X-stitch
I didn't really manage to be very organised this last Christmas and as a result it was Sunday evening (i.e. 18 January!) when I finished what was supposed to be a Christmas decoration. I say "finished" in the loosest possible way - the stitching is finished, but it is yet to be mounted. I just hope I get round to doing so before Christmas 2009!The design came from Jo Verso's Cross Stitch Year which is a fantastic book full of cute little charts all arranged by times of year. If you ever want to design any cross stitch yourself then I would highly recommend either ... read more
Wassail success
Awning number 2After all the palaver this morning with the awning I'm pleased to report that the Wassail was a huge success. Everything was set up in time, the weather stayed nice and bright and over a hundred local people came along. The Wicket Brood danced and entertained alongside the main Wassailing ceremony. The guests all seemed to enjoyed the spread of food that we put on and donated generously in return. An amazing spread of food Home-made jam all made from fruit collected at the reserve Toffee apples kindly donated by a visitorThe Wicket BroodThe committee are now ... read more
Awning update
Well, we lost our awing during the night. It looks like one big gust caused several of the poles in the top ridge to snap and for the metal bracing to become bent. The tarpaulin itself became ripped as well. Not that surprising when I think back to all the noise last night of the wind blowing heavy rain into our bedroom window. Our chairman even has one of those electronic weather station things in his (rather sheltered) back garden. It's previous highest reading was 15 mph. Last night it recorded 75 mph! I'm not sure we totally believe it though.Luckily one of our ... read more
Preparing for a Wassail
It feels like I've been neglecting this blog a bit over the last couple of week. Sorry, but life just seems to have been getting in the way of all the things I want to do. I need to try and maximise my evenings a bit more now that I've gone back to work. I seem to be struggling with this at the moment, but fingers crossed that I can create a better work - life balance over the next week.This weekend is a busy one down at the WWA as tomorrow we are holding our annual Wassail. We have an orchard area at the WWA and every January we always invite local people to go wassailing, ... read more
Gods Behaving Badly – Marie Phillips
It was Mr C that originally picked up a copy of Marie Phillips' Gods Behaving Badly. He really enjoyed it and added it to my to be read pile when he'd finished.It's a completely original book, set in modern day north London. The slight oddity is that living in north London are the central characters of the book - a family consisting of the Greek Gods! They don't particularly like modern day living, especially as they're stuck in a dilapidated house that's too small, dirty and doesn't have enough hot water. Life becomes a bit more interesting though ... read more
Gifts for myself
I'm guilty of a little bit of indulgence this last weekend. I had some money on a internet based credit card that I'd got as a result of a repayment following some fraudulent use of my card. I don't have the pin number for this card, but wanted to use up the money before closing the account. A trip to amazon was therefore in order and I bought some of the books that have been sat on my wish list for a while now.There's a definite yarn related thing going on with my book choices and I'm really looking forward to going through these over the next few weeks and adding more ... read more