Here are some pictures of why I haven't been writing much on LJ lately ... been too busy gardening (for one) and tapestrying (for two)
Might write more later, but intent on writing down how I do this ... for next time. (Don't ask!)







Who's a clever girl, then?

Current Mood: chipper

I'm having problems with my photos at the moment so thought I'd try to see whether my new squirrel icon (taken through my french windows by mixelmagic) actually works

Current Mood: confused

This little fly measured all of about 1 cm (including legs) and was captured on my trusty digital camera by David who thought it was a strange little fly. And indeed it is. Anyone who can tell us it's proper name rather than 'mini bat-fly' which is what I've called it will receive my grateful thanks.

Current Mood: curious

It's been beautifully sunny for the past three days (even though the weather forecast said it was gonna be horrid today) and the consequence is that I' ve spent most of the daylight hours in the garden potting up this, hacking at that, digging up the other ... and I'm now positively pooped! Heh-ho! (Note to self: when looking for my new house once this one is up for sale I must remember I need one with a garden a third to a half the size of this one ... then I might be able to enjoy pottering in it rather than feeling it's all just TOO MUCH!)
The main slant of my frenzied gardening this weekend has been filling up hanging baskets and about 15 planters with a variety of bedding plants to 'prettify' the setting for selling the house. I hope it works. At the moment they look a bit pathetic as the plants need a few weeks to fill out and start flowering, but hopefully they'll do this in record time as I used Alan Titmarshe's favourite exhortation, namely: "Grow, you buggers, grow!"
Apart from gardening, I had an excellent evening yesterday playing bridge and putting the world to rights (in roughly equal measure) at notapotto's house with Simon and Tom. Great fun ... although I think I probably drank too much whiskey as I've had a thumping headache today ... which is entirely my own fault. You would think that reaching the ripe (or do I mean manky?) old age that I have would mean I know better than to drink more than I should. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work that way and the older I get, seemingly, the less I can drink without suffering the consequences. Poot!

Current Mood: drained

The smell of freshly painted pebbledash is permeating the air that I breathe, and there is no escape. The decorators arrived today ... 4 of them ... and they set to with a will to paint everything possible before the rain washed it away. They managed to achieve an impressive amount considering how frequently the heavens opened over my particular part of Leeds today, but they spent quite a while sheltering in my porches (the 2 older guys in the front porch and the 2 young apprentices in the back porch, somewhat squashed) drinking my coffee inbetween bouts of activity. Ho hum! The weather forecast for tomorrow is unpromising, to say the least, so perhaps they'll leave me to recover? That would be nice, as it's really very stressful having all these strangers just outside the windows - life becomes devoid of privacy and home is no longer a sanctuary. BUT, hopefully it will make the house easy to sell when I put it on the market. Fingers crossed.

The play last week (Electricity with Christopher Eccleston) was a hoot. I keep thinking of it as it was so relevant to my current situation, being about decorators and the turmoil they cause to the lives of the people who are paying them.

In between then and now I've stayed withmadcatwomanovernight on Saturday after being thoroughly entertained and over-fed with scrummy food during the evening. Other than that I've just been trying to make some sort of order out of the chaos at home ... oh, and I helped Tom and mutant_poptart put up a wire fence between our two gardens on Sunday and moved lots of paving slabs (but mutant_poptart has written about that in his LJ) ... not to mention lots of hacking, slashing and mowing in the garden. What a jolly life I do lead!

Now pooped, so I'm off to bed

Current Mood: tired

My friend Julia and I went to the playhouse last night to see a performance of The Merchant of Venice. It was exceptionally good (as was the meal I had there beforehand, having realised I had forgotten to eat anything all day except a couple of olives ... oops!) Anyway, MOV was performed by Northern Broadsides with typical verve and gusto. The performances of Barrie Rutter (who is also their director) as Shylock, and Clare Calbraith as Portia were particularly powerful, but the entire cast worked together so well that a very memorable performance was the result. What I find so impressive about Northern Broadsides is their ability to use Shakespeare's language - exactly as it was written - yet by clever intonation, pauses, and emphasis, render it entirely comprehensible to a modern audience. Quite an achievement. Equally commendable is the kind of potted history of anti-semitism which appears in the program. A very interesting read indeed, and well worth the £2 - I just wish I could discover who wrote it.

Next week we're off to see Christopher Eccleston in "Electricity". I have every expectation of that being equally enjoyable.

Current Mood: okay

madcatwoman and I went out to play yesterday. It was such a beautiful spring day and the sun was shining, the little man who'd come to change the electric meter had been and done his stuff, so the world was waiting for us to go and explore. We had a lovely afternoon looking around Adel church, which dates from 1150 and has the most wonderful corbels around three of it's outside walls. I've made a couple of these into icons, one of which - the grumpy one - I've got as the icon for this posting (I'll show the demented one another time). Inside the church is an amazing chancel arch which has 37 'beakheads', the majority of which depict an ill assortment of devils and cannibals eating babies e.g. "Catface devil eating newborn baby, head first". This is quoted from the guidebook, which I had to purchase because there was just so much fascinating stuff that needed explanation. Anyway, I'm sure madcatwoman will be telling all about it so I won't blather on, but if you're in the vicinity on a Thursday afternoon (when it's open) I can thoroughly recommend a visit. The churchyard this time of year is full of daffodils, birdsong, and tranquility too, so it's a lovely spot to sit and contemplate whatever you need to contemplate. Most conducive.

From there we headed to York Gate gardens, which is just round the corner from the church really, and is also open on Thursday afternoons (and other times - they have a web site if you're interested). There I took lots of lovely photos, a couple of which follow to demonstrate what a super place it is.






I'm now back home and have spent the past couple of hours fiddling with my photos and feeding Owen's rats, since Tom and Owen are away in Scotland for a few days. I'm feeling refreshed and renewed after doing something different for a change, which just goes to prove the old adage; 'A change is as good as a rest'. It will be good if the weather continues to be pleasant for the Easter as I might even get out in the garden and do a bit of hacking and slaying, but I somehow suspect it will rain. Ho hum.

Must go eat!

Current Mood: bouncy

I've just realised I haven't written here since March ... and it's already 7th April ... so where the heck did that week go then?? Don't know about the other 50+ folk out there, but if there's one thing about growing older that I decidedly dissapprove of it's the break-neck speed with which the days, weeks, months and years hurtle past. Whatever happened to those endless summers? Wherever did the time to watch the clouds and turn them into fantastic imaginings go? How did I get to be old enough to remember the 30th anniversary of my first son Robert's birth and death this year? I have this kind of dislocated feeling lately where my life seems to have happened to someone else entirely. I think back over the minutae of my life and, often, find it hard to believe that I was really there! Hmmm. Most strange.

This introspection has probably been caused by thismornings session with the shrink. I found myself admitting to him today that one of my unfulfilled ambitions of many years duration is to own - and revel in - a three wheeler Harley Davidson (hello thewingedteapot. I know this sounds like a copy-cat ambition, but yours is infinitely better planned, and, let's face it, a whole lot more likely to happen than mine. (sob!) ) Anyway, this minor revelation seems to have done the trick in that he couldn't help but crack his face at the visualisation of this 5ft nothing little greying woman sat astride such a macho monster. I think it's helped him unravel where I'm coming from, somewhat. Not that it's likely to make a "cure" any more attainable, mind you, but at least the sessions might be a little less intimidating.

While I've been trying to write this I've had a long 'phone conversation with madcatwoman , followed by another long conversation with mixelmagic. It's now 4.50 and I still haven't had any lunch, so perhaps I'd better stop. There is also a kitchen full of dirty crocks that I need to do something about. I know it's time to do something about it because I've run out of mugs in which to make a cup of coffee. Meep!

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Soundtrack to Black Hawk Down

I'm fed up. I haven't done much on LJ lately because every time I sit down at the computer for any length of time (like to read what others have been saying, or to have a quick game of Freecell) my eyesight's been going all wibbly, and I've had to stop. David's changed something on the screen to make it less jiggly (techy term, not) but that doesn't seem to have stopped it. It's kind of like a migrane without the headache, although sometimes a headache appears afterwards. It's highly disconcerting to look in the mirror and see only half your face looking back at you ... and it's also very difficult to have a nice relaxing read when you can only see the words you're not actually focussing on. Bah!

Must stop, before it returns as I've had it twice today already and at least once every day since last Friday.

Current Mood: annoyed

So that's why there's all the noise. I went for a walk to find out what was happening, and found they had this gigantic road chewing-up machine right against the chapati roundabout at the junction of Spen Lane and Butcher Hill. All the Butcher Hill traffic has been diverted into Spen Lane, yet at times the traffic's not going anywhere in any direction. Good planning, methinks ... especially for a Friday, when there always seems to be more traffic than usual anyway. I know they have to repair the roads sometime, but you'd think they'd work out the diversions so that it took traffic away from the tricky bits, not into them. Ho hum!

The nasty noises brought on one of my 'funny turns' - where my eyesight vanishes in places and I feel most peculiar. At least it reminded me to phone the hospital for a neurology appointment, so I suppose that's a good thing? lol

I'm off to M & K's for my tea tonight. Hoorah! (Always supposing the traffic is actually going somewhere by then!)

Current Mood: indescribable