On Friday we went to Hereford so I could rustle through the charity shops and Mr T could walk the Toast along the river bank. So far, so usual.. until that is Toastie discovered something buried in the mud at the side of the river..
She just knew that the Saxon Hoard was buried in there somewhere..
What a little darlin..
Oh well - better luck next time..
The first thing I do when I get in the door from work is to grab a lead, a poo bag and a small Toastie and head for the Great Outdoors. At this time of year it is a pleasure as I know that I will be walking in the light and pretty much mostly in the dry.
It is pure pleasure to see everything regenerating, not just the plants but the birds and animals as well – everyone is out and about and fulfilling the three Fs, feeding, fighting and .. .well you know the last one.
A couple of photo highlights from our walk this afternoon..
Day light saving starts this weekend so it will be even lighter in the evenings and of course it is the Spring Equinox tomorrow, yay!
Here is my little table all ready for a celebration with daffodils from our garden and the patchwork table runner that I put together a while back.
See you tomorrow
The visitors really are gone now and although I have lost points in Habit Judo for not blogging during their stay I don’t care. Really visitors take up all the rest of the time I have spare from essentials and I aint going to push myself too hard just to ramble on here – I doubt you lot noticed too much anyway!
A phone call from my GP on Wednesday informing me that my blood test showed high TSH levels has given me the reason for my increasing tiredness, problems with memory and concentration etc. Basically that means that the well meaning doctor who lowered my dose of Thyroxine last November was an idiot and I am suffering for it. At least I know that I will be better again soon…
And now for my big news.. TA-DAR!
Toastie and me
This is Toastie. She is a rescue dog and comes to us courtesy of a wonderful woman called Glenys Bufton a one woman dog rescue Queen. We had put our name down with Glenys about a month ago looking for a small friendly dog and last Friday we got the call. Glenys was over run with dogs needing help and had run out of foster carers, would we like to foster a small x breed terrier and if we liked her we could keep her? Oh Yes.. So, Friday afternoon we found ourselves arriving in a Lidl’s carpark ready for the handover – sort of like a drug deal, only instead of cocaine Glenys was cradling in a blanket a very small pink pig that had been found in the middle of the road somewhere. Fortunately she did also have a Toastie in the back of her car and the deal was done.
We think she is the greatest as do our friends and visitors- although she does have a few challenging personal habits including rolling in poo – causing our friend’s son to create this work of art..
Then she had her first bath in her new home..
I cheerfully admit to being a crap blogger lately, sometimes I am just not in the mood and so busy it just get missed out. I am trying to write in the morning but that is not working out to well – will keep trying.
And then there is the other riveting news that my front tooth has fallen out again. Bit into a kebab on Friday night and tooth just popped out. I think that it wasn’t stuck in properly and am hoping that nice Mr Wong the dentist will not charge me again. So that is where I am off to this afternoon – that and dinner at Yvonne’s house, eggplant casserole, which will be good because pretty much everything I have eaten of hers is. Must be the Italian in her coming out.
Yesterday was spent at Ocean Beach, a rough (unswimmable) beach about half an hour from Featherston. Tons of driftwood to make a shade shelter and we spent the afternoon relaxing, reading books and admiring the lunatics floating off the edge of the small hill just up from us.
I am on to another lot of books now – A Spoonful of Jam by Michelle Magorian, one of my favourite authors. I was late catching onto her, I found an copy of Goodnight Mister Tom in a book sale last year and after reading that I had to rush to the library to try to get hold of all the rest of hers, not terribly successfully. Which is fortunate really because it stopped me reading them all at once.
The second book I am reading is called Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. The writing in this is a bit disappointing after my three previous reads but I am bearing with it, purely to see what happens in the end. This novel is about a teenager who is killed while riding her push bike. She wakes up on an ocean liner heading for Elsewhere – the place people go when they die, and the novel so far is the tale of how she deals with being dead.
My third book is The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman, this is a reread because I enjoyed it so much the first time. This is the first scientific study into what luckiness is all about and Wiseman comes up with four principles that people use, without realising it, to create good fortune in their lives.
All good stuff and entertaining, makes me wonder what’s coming next.. So many good books, so little time 
Ocean Beach
Lunatics
Gratuitous shot of Poll
Sunset above our house
I love Wales – loved the people, loved the beautiful, beautiful land. And I miss it so much. Mind – the Welsh are a bit mental…
More hot, blustery weather, which is keeping me out of the garden and in my work room making Solstice/Christmas presents – tiny Buzzy Bee broochs and small tile pictures. Everything is on a go slow today however, as I drunk a little to much white wine last night and I am feeling the effect.
We had three of our good friends for dinner last night and Tude cooked up a storm with Cauliflower and Pea curry and a Fish curry. My responsibility’s were the Coconut Rotis and the Eton Mess for afters. Everything went down well and the huge bowl of Mess, which I had thought I had made way to much of, was decimated. I had two bowls myself and deservedly felt sick afterwards.
I could quite happily eat curry all the time. Except maybe not for breakfast. My favourite curry, when we were in the U.K., was a vege one – Spinach Paneer, love the texture of paneer. Tude’s curry’s are very good but they just aint the same as the U.K. ones. I think it must be impossible to make them the same, and maybe that’s a good thing, maybe we don’t really want to know what’s in them – something weirdly addictive anyway.
My friend Yvonne was meant to come to dinner as well but was busy having her dogs leg cut off — fair enough. The dogs name is Titan and I think he is the ugliest/cutest dog in the world and probably the happiest and friendliest dog as well. He had an accident some time ago and had had to have a piece of metal put in his leg. Unfortunately Yvonne found out the other day that the metal has slipped and his leg is badly infected, he also had a small tumour in it. He has been in great pain for a long time – but never showed it. Every time I have been to her place he has been just the most wonderful, madly lovely, loving dog. I will try to get a photo of him to show you – he is apparently recovering well after his op.
I am hoping that we will be able to go to the Organic River Festival at the end of January. Had a good time at the last one, even if it did rain a lot. Will have to see how the funds are going. I am also hoping that we might be able to go camping when we get back from my Mums. Maybe spend a week either out at Mt Holdsworth or at the Pinnacles.
Tiny vintage comic pictures
Buzzy Bee broochs
A Russian Squirrel - by Natalia Kolesnikova
A reminder that it is the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I love this photo. I have a sore arm so will not be typing much today 
These are some of the flowers I made at the felting course Saturday night -
Saturday night felt flower #1
Felt Flower #2
Felt Flower #3
Our Lilys are opening
River flower
…and I’m back
Spent the last couple of days visiting my Mum. Which is why I haven’t posted. No broadband connection you see, and as I have said before, dial up does my head in.
Got back on the train in time to have a coffee with my friend Evonne who calls in every Thursday after work. It was a lovely welcome home, as was being met at the station by Tude and then an over excited Polly who acts like she hasn’t seen me for years.
The roses in my garden have bloomed fragrantly and expansively in the 48 hours I have been away and the two tiny aubergines and a chilli that I planted by the back door have just completely disappeared. It’s all happening…
It has been a year for canine losses – four dogs that I have known have died so far, two - Bess and Sally in the last week. Very sad, good dogs all.
I’m not sure I could ever live without a dog but it is so hard when they get ill and die, especially when they have to be put down. At least they have a fairly decent life span though, unlike the pet rats that I have had, that only live for a couple of years. I don’t think I will ever forget sobbing down the phone to the vet as my rat died on my lap. I don’t think the vet will either.
I would really like a miniature pig. I saw an article about them in today’s Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/05/micro-pigs-pets-victoria-beckham They live for up to eighteen years and are seriously cute as well as being intelligent. Trouble is they are £700 – how can you spend so much money purchasing a companion animal when there are so many others desperately needing homes?
They are seriously cute though..
