a big wave to you all and hope you are all warm and dry.
Saturday was so wet and windy that I stayed inside but yesterday was clear so after a lovely family big breakfast at a well known garden centre cum ‘shopping experience’ I walked along the river which was full nearly to the brim
My sister, who has been flooded in the past, was on river watch but no water entered the house.
I made good use of a day indoors, tidying away ornaments to make way for decorations
you might have noticed an unexpected selfie in there too. Having put them all out I decided I need more tinsel so that’s where I’m off to as soon as I hit publish.
On a totally different topic – do any of my UK readers know of a supplier for guacamole without chilli? I discovered a very tasty version when I was on holiday – heavy on garlic and lemon but no chilli and remembered that I could get it like that in NZ and loved it. But the supermarkets that I shop in only do a version with chilli and I’d love to know if anyone in UK does a non-chilli version. I tried searching online but only got recipes. I know I could make my own but sometime I just want to buy it rather than play avocado roulette – I get tired of how many are not ripe or have large parts I can’t use because they are black.
Hope you all have a good week – now off on a tinsel hunt
a big wave to Sian and fellow Monday wavers and other blog visitors.
It was a weekend of re acclimatising to several layers of clothing and total cloud cover and cold rain – quite a change from the blue skies of last week – here is one of the photos I’d hoped to use for my Monday wave last week – I was using my tablet on front camera but couldn’t see the screen due to sun glare so framing was potluck
This weekend started wrapped up in many layers to walk through town with several thousand others on the climate change march – interested to see the wide range of groups represented by banners – too wet to stay around for the speeches.
Saturday evening was a pleasant blend of friends and curries to celebrate the birthday of one of my crafting friends who recently went on a curry making workshop – very tasty.
Sunday marked another key stage in my big crochet project – it is looking great.
Sunday also saw delighted response from my sister of the reindeer jar cover I made (plus chocolate puddles inside the jar)
Hoping you all have a good week – I’ll be starting on the mince pie consumption and putting up some decorations and getting to grips with cards.
another blustery and wet day but a warm wave to you all.
It was a weekend of contrasts
- watching the dreadful news from Paris as new details emerge and people try to deal with what happened - while crocheting cute Christmas items and periodically switching channels to something light and frothy. A reminder in so many ways of how connected we all are.
- hearing the rain and dressing in wellie boots and waterproofs to go out
while making piles of sunglasses, shorts, t-shirts and sandals for a week in the sun. I always find it hard to imagine that the temperature will be so different that I’ll need different clothes and one cardigan has been added to the pile then removed then added again several times.
hope those of you in the UK have not been flooded – my local river was very high but stayed within its banks – but the ducks and geese looked put out that the island they congregate on was mostly submerged
wishing you all a good week – if I manage to post from my tablet then I should be waving to you from a sunny balcony next Monday!
waving to you all on a third wet and windy day and a special big wave to our host Sian hoping her bad cold is better.
Despite the weather I made it to the local monthly farmer’s market for veg and bread (the yummy cake lady wasn’t there).
Plenty of fun and laughter inside at my parent’s house with my sister, nephew and his girlfriend all visiting. So lots of laughs and ‘remember when’ and tasty top your own pizza.
And I made progress of the other item I’m making for my craft group to sell for charity
the one of the left looks rather menacing but they are cute individually!!
Hope you all have a dry and fun week
a big wave to everyone and can you tell I have a big grin on my face? Still smiling at the decisive and stylish rugby world cup win by the All Blacks. Mostly I watch sport as a form of live entertainment but with this game I cared – I was cheering them on and applauding and on the edge of my seat. Now no more international rugby until February!
Which meant I could go out for a walk on Sunday afternoon to enjoy the lack f rain and wind and the blue skies and fallen leaves
Halloween passed me by – the only thing I did was enjoy the fabulous costumes for the Strictly Come Dancing Halloween special.
Hope you all have a good week
sitting in a beam of sunlight as I wave to you all. I’m really noticing the lower sun at the moment with how it comes in the windows and great light for photos.
And on Saturday I was delighted to capture another bit of sunlight magic with a half circle rainbow
I love how the sky looks darker above it – as though the rainbow is a barrier. There was a slight second rainbow but the camera didn’t register that.
Only one game of rugby each day (happy with both results and looking forward to an antipodian final) which meant I actually had time to do other things each afternoon.
Saturday I helped my Dad run a tasting table at the Community Orchard Apple Day – more photos later in the week. Interesting to taste the differences and see how people reacted to them. Good to see lots of interest from kids and one boy of about 9 who methodically tasted them and decided on his top 3 and persuaded his mum to let him buy some. Several people went for the red ones first but I didn’t think they were the best tasting – interesting how we associate red with sweeter.
Sunday I set our for the shops to get 3 specific items but came home with only 1 and instructions from the other 2 shops to go online to get the items i wanted. So really I could have just spent 15 minutes at home on the computer to get the 3 items but my first impulse is still to go to the shops. Have any of you made the switch to thinking online shopping first?
Wishing you all a good week.
A weekend of edge of the seat rugby and ‘wow’ rugby and my NZ self is very pleased and my Scottish self sad and amazed how close they came to winning and sympathies to my Irish friends.
And in between the excitement there was some bits of crochet – my finished Halloween amigurumi trio and trying some ideas for items to sell at festive craft fairs.
Also a visit to a craft fair with some of my crafting group colleagues to assess its suitability for us (probably) and to look at stalls we thought looked great so we can apply that to ours (some useful coalescing of views).
And some contemplation of the National Theatre staging of Hamlet – I saw the live broadcast on Thursday – Benedict was, of course, amazing as Hamlet and I loved the set with the larger than life doors and massive table and how dirt and destruction blew in for the second act. But the costumes annoyed me (I confess to a strong interest in costuming and having done it for amateur groups in the past). Every tie Horatio came on stage I wondered why they chose to illustrate his otherness in plaid and Gertrude’s dresses seemed wrong.
Waving to you all and hoping you have a good week.
a big wave to Sian (and her victorious boys in green) and all you lovely blog readers – on a sunny autumnal day – lovely blue skies but I know I’ll need a jacket when I go outside.
Yes it was a weekend of fabulous rugby – all set for 4 interesting northern vs southern hemisphere games in the quarter finals.
And yes there was more crochet with good progress on my big project. I was also enticed by a fun Halloween amigurumi and made a start
I’m claiming the slight blur as Halloween atmosphere!
There was also reading as I finished The Martian (Andy Weir) in 3 days – a real page turner and excellent story of survival. Then there was a visit to several local charity shops to find some new books for my shelves – a good haul.
And there was some unpacking of warmer clothes and packing away of cooler clothes – some of which only saw the inside of my wardrobe this ‘summer’.
Wishing you all have a great week
waving to everyone on a decidedly autumnal day.
It was a third successive weekend of rugby and crochet – with 4 more to come as the Rugby World Cup works through to its Halloween final. I thoroughly enjoyed all the games but recognise some of my lovely blogreaders will be disappointed by England’s loss.
I did spend some time away from my sofa – at some free book related events at a local library including an interesting discussion on the idea of bringing wolves back to Scotland and how their return would drastically change the landscape as the number of deer and rabbits would decrease and so more plants would survive and thus new habitats emerge.
And I spotted a recent resident on my river – I’d heard one had been spotted in the spring but had not seen it until this weekend when not only did I see the Kingfisher but it stayed still long enough for me to get a nice photo
Wishing you all a good week.
waving to everyone on this bright Monday morning and hoping you are all well.
My weekend was dominated by the rugby World Cup – I watched and enjoyed all 6 matches and got a fair bit of crochet done in the quieter moments
I chose this match for my photo as an extra wave to our lovely host Sian – her boys in green are doing well. I can’t show you much of my current big crochet project until late December but I will say those are half the colours and I’m loving them.
Squeezed into the mornings were unpacking from a midweek trip to Liverpool, sorting through all my photos and watching a local event (more on Wednesday). I was again very pleased to have a robotic floor cleaner so that I could get the housework done while watching the rugby!
I’ll share some photos of Liverpool for 5 in 5 but for now here are a few from the Anthony Gormley creation ‘another Place’ which has 100 identical statues scattered across 3km of beach north of Liverpool
– it was very windy but I loved the grey clouds and slants of sunlight
Hope you all have a good week
a big wave to everyone as we head into autumn
a growing number of yellow/orange/brown leaves on the trees and ground but not so cold I need to get out my boots yet – I do resist as long as I can knowing I’ll then be wearing them for several months
It was a good weekend with plenty of entertaining rugby to watch on TV and plenty more to come with the World Cup running until the end of October.
Plus a lovely afternoon and evening spent with some New Zealand friends who are making a whistle stop trip around visiting friends in the UK – we enjoyed some afternoon sun and lots of chat.
Now I’m looking our the window at the rain and hoping the forecast is accurate and the rain will pass by afternoon so that I can have the planned walk ‘to see my swans and river’ with a visiting blogfriend.
a big wave to everyone on a very soggy Monday – looking out the window at the rain and having seen the weather forecast’s rain cloud sitting overhead all day, I’m glad I bought new wellies at the weekend – there may be a bit of testing in some puddles later today!
It was a weekend of sorting buttons (by size, kind of)
brought on by finding a third box of buttons while tidying my craft table so that I had some space to work – sorting coloured buttons (and then ribbon) was a satisfying job for a grey day. I also discovered a needlecase full of needles and two packets of them so even if I lose one a month I’m set for several years.
It was a weekend of welcoming my cousin’s daughter to Edinburgh – she is starting University here – and looking forward to four years of having her around – and reminiscing about my student days as she is in the student halls building next to the one I was in.
It was a weekend of studying the pools for the rugby world cup which starts on Friday and anticipating plenty of good rugby watching, and hoping that the commentators (based in London) remember that many of us are not backing England to win – for instance those living in Ireland, Scotland and Wales – I’m not holding my breath on that one as 3 of the main comment team are former England players and coach.
Hoping you all have a good week.
another craft fair with my crafting for charity group on Sunday but this one had plenty of customers – we sold everything you see in this photo
plus a lot of other things to make £230 – strangely only £7 different from last year at the same place.
We were at a local faire held in a park with music, lots of cake, places to sit and a fun dog competition so lots of families come and stay for the 3 hours. Which means lots of people looking at the stalls and it seemed lots of the kids had some pocket money to spend – they were out best customers.
All of the baby guinea pigs that I’d made sold – very satisfying. The last 2 were bought by one girl who persuaded her Mum that she couldn’t take just one and leave the other by itself – exactly what my sister would say.
Waving to everyone, with an extra big one for Sian who started this lovely weekly wave (the longest Mexican wave ever??) and hoping you all have a good week.
waving to you all with my nicely henna adorned hand
I’ve often thought about having one when I see the stalls at fairs and finally did when I had a gap between shows and there was no queue at the booth. It took me longer to browse her photos and choose a design than it did for her to draw – she was so adept and maintaining pressure on the bag and keeping the pattern flowing (a lot like icing really). Then I had to not bend my hand and keep it safe for 20 minutes (when I wondered why I gave her my right hand). Then picking off the dried bits of henna was fun. The dye darkened over 24 hours and now I keep catching a glimpse of the pattern on my hand – it should last for 2 weeks.
It was the last weekend of the Fringe and I finished in style with an amazing Quebec based acrobatic troupe – just watching them exhausted me.
Then my favourite comedian – Adam Hills, with the added interest that he has a sign language interpreter for his Sunday shows. Fun to watch the signs as well as listen to him.
A quiet week ahead but plenty to do with crochet projects and tidying the garden. Hope you all have a good one.
big wave to Sian and fellow Monday wavers and lovely blog readers. I’m having a relaxing Monday after a busy weekend.
a weekend of fringe show enjoying on Saturday with my nephew and parents:
– of marvelling at the strength, speed and energy of Japanese drummers
- of laughing and singing along to 6 acts in a Best of the Fest compilation
- of having my brain squirmed by an excellent illusionist
- of laughing at a play based on Terry Pratchet’s Eric and sweating in a basement room on a warm day filled with laughing people
Then on Sunday an afternoon spent talking to several other crafters about what they make and where they source materials and some swapping of tricks of the trade (usually involving the use of PVA glue). Which was all very nice except that we had all hoped that we would be busy selling items to customers at a craft fair
but it seems the organiser did minimal advertising and chose the venue based upon cost rather than likely footfall. We did sell some things – to other stall holders. Oh well, we will know not to sign up for one of his craft fairs again.
Another busy fringe week ahead – the last week. Hope you all have a good one
do I have a tale for you today? Actually I have 2 tails !!
both spotted on fringe performers trying to attract an audience.
On Saturday I laughed lots at a comedy fest to celebrate 30 years of one of the fringe comedy venues with a lineup of lots of comedians each entertaining for 5 minutes (or longer in many cases). A great variety of styles – thoroughly entertaining.
It was also a weekend of crocheting more baby guinea pigs until I ran out of eyes (visit to HobbyCraft needed this week), browsing autumnal clothes online, and planning more fringe shows for next week with visitors. This week is looking so busy that my meal plan for the week has only 2 days when I’m eating at home in the evening.
Hope you all have a great week
August in Edinburgh is full to bursting with entertainment so this weekend was one of watching comedians and a prequel to Macbeth and lots of pipebands.
Having studied and enjoyed Macbeth at school I have been collecting different interpretations of the play and there are always several a the fringe. This year I didn’t fancy a 2 person, Chinese mime version but a prequel appealed – according to this playwright Lady Macbeth was the ambitious one and had angered the witches which prompted them to meddle.
On Sunday there was a pipeband display – 17 groups marching through the old town and then playing together as a mass band – I do enjoy bagpipe music when it is outside (not keen when confined by walls and echoing) and they were playing well known, tow tapping tunes. The backdrop of Arthur’s seat seemed the perfect setting
Hope you all have some toe-tapping in your week – waving to everyone, especially Sian.
