Wandering

Grrrr, I'm still not liking the new Blogger set up. My pictures have uploaded in a strange order and I don't have time to faff around moving and trying to recentre them. I'm not even supposed to be here, I should be hoovering and tidying up and all that stuff. Never mind, I just wanted to post some pics from last week before it was too late. So here we go, even more random than usual, how exciting...

I made the chicken with almonds and apricots again and this time I wasn't in such a rush so managed a photo. I've also found a link to the recipe (a little modified) here if anyone fancies trying it. It's yummy.

The first rhubarb from the garden. I think some rhubarb shortbread will be appearing this afternoon.

These snails are no longer in my garden. They're enjoying life (while it lasts) in the compost wheelie bin. A small effort to make my hostas less holey this year. It's the slugs I really need to get, they'll not photograph so well though methinks.

Charity shop bargains. Used lego spacecraft sets, £1.25 the lot. I thought they'd be good for parts but to my amazement every single piece was present and correct. It must come form a very well organised home, well done that Mum! They are displayed on my new table cloth from the same charity shop, pushing the boat out a little at £3.99 but a bargain compared to buying one new. Though if I'd spent the extra money I could have got one that matched the curtains better. Still, we feel most sophisticated having summer (this one) and winter (the red polka dot one) table configurations.

Now we're at a park for a tree branch shadow photo.

Prior to going to the park we popped into another charity shop. Some fabric for the patchwork quilt (£1), a What to Look For in Winter book (10p - just the Autumn one to find now), and a strangely smelly but very pretty jug (£3.50, gulp, but I liked it, and it's for a good cause...)

Now some photos from a real wander...

The End is at the beginning. Sadly I see some numptie has obliterated my favourite grafitti motif here, the little polka dot heart you can see in the middle of this post. At least I have a photo of it I suppose.

The view from the bridge.

You have to climb up high to see it.

Turquoise and brown, a rather nice colour combination.

Chimney pots and jackdaws. Similar, but not the same as the ones we see from our back door.

It's a long push up the street.

I like when other bloggers post photos of streets near where they live. What may seem so ordinary to a local can be foreign and exotic to a stranger. (OK, "exotic" might not apply here specifically!)

Does anyone know what this shrub is? It has lovely star shaped white flowers and copper coloured leaves. I want one!

Now back home. I was going to polish this pair of A's shoes for passing on to a friend as they no longer fit. However, I rather liked the scuffed toes and was reminded of the image on the front of this book which has made me feel sentimental about them so they're back on the shoe shelf at the moment.

Right, where are we now. A roly poly image of N's striped blanket, the Garish One. Some days I love it, some days I'm just not sure. My Dad says he'd get a migraine if he had to look at it for too long. I've enough yarn left for another eight or so stripes, then it will be border time. The ends for this one are not a problem as there as so few on a stripey blanket when compared to a granny blanket. So another TaDa coming fairly soon I hope.

Lastly, we're back at the tree on the corner. Thank you for all the comments on the post I did of the photos through the year. I made a little mosaic of the images I thought best represented Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I think the tree is an ash tree. I always meant to check the leaves to confirm but I can see why now I haven't done so as there are only leaves on the tree for two months of the year. The effects of season changes are best seen in the fields round about, the tree itself is almost always bare. A shame in a way, as it would have been lovely to have one which showed some Autumn colours. Not to worry.

Right. Off to tidy & clean. Have a nice day!