(More Than A) Saturday Morning Bike Ride

Tempting Fate...

1. I had a concert on Saturday. While chopping potatoes earlier in the week I thought to myself wouldn't it be awful to cut a finger before a concert... cue 0.5cm diameter piece of skin sliced off index finger of left hand. (I find the plasters marketed as being suitable for sensitive skin to be best for such circumstances - they stick well to the skin and aren't too slippy on the surface so you still get good contact with the instrument strings, so there you go...)

2. I was just congratulating myself on managing not to succumb to illness this winter... cue shakes, aches, shivers and sniffles - fortunately it all started on Sunday ie after the concert, I also seem to have had a fairly mild dose as others I know have been much more severely afflicted. I am having to miss orchestra practice tonight though which I'm a bit miffed about as we get the new music and next concert we're doing Brahms 2nd Symphony which is wonderful to play, here's a little snippet:-


Sigh...

Here's a bit of the poster from the last concert...

....to be honest, the programme didn't thrill me, the only redeeming feature is the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, part of which was used to great effect in The King's Speech, snippet here:-



Now to the bike ride photos. I wasn't feeling very energetic (the virus was probably there but biding its time), and the weather was keech (you'll need to scroll down a little), so it was a fairly short affair.

Tree silhouettes are always a reliable subject .

Wooo, a chaffinch, and I managed to get a photo of him.

Notice anything odd here? (the answer is at the bottom of this post)

Three tree mound views.

Looking back.

Three big puddle views.

You can tell it was a half-hearted effort!

On to more colourful things. Yes, it's all stuck together in one post. If I were a better organised blogger this would be three, possibly four, nicely segregated posts. Best I think just to include everything while I can, before the moment has passed...

Look, I made some muffins and took a nice photo of them, it seems to have been a sunny day.

A felt cat made by A. I sewed on the eyes and mouth and helped thread the needle (numerous times), otherwise it was all her own work.

The latest state of the diasies. I haven't done any for a while - too much crocheting makes my left index finger hurt so I tend to lay off the crochet if I've lots of bass playing coming up, and since being unwell I've just not felt inclined.

Earlier last week I did some charity shop rummaging...

Ten Small Thoughts On Charity Shopping:-
1. It's like going on a treasure hunt.
2. You have to look through a lot of rubbish to find the treasure. Having said that…
3. Everybody has “their things” to look for – mine are bric-a-brac and books.
4. Sometimes you're lucky, oftentimes you're not.
5. The fashion for "vintage" means that many more people are now looking, plus...
6. Charity shop stock has been adversely affected by Ebay
7. A very tidy shop is not a good sign
8. The small local shops are often the best
9. Sometimes what looked good in the shop looks plain awful when you get it home.
10. It's all for a good cause.

I've mentioned before how much I love Jane Ray's illustrations, so I was pleased to find a book of hers we don't yet own. £1.50.

This is a similar book illustrated by Susan Field, the illustrations in this are lovely too. 30p

Various, £3.50 the lot (except for the strawberries, they're "stylist's own")

4 x 25g balls of acrylic, not a great bargain at 50p each but I liked the colours.

Off now to dose up on some more Solpadeine (wonderful stuff, tastes vile though (I use the soluble tablets)) before going to help hubby with the children's bedtime - prompts another random thought: why do children cry/whine so much, or is it just mine... drives me bonkers!

Oh yes, and the answer is...
...there's a car on the road. I think it's the first time ever on my blog. So there.