Foraging blackberries

We went foraging for blackberries today which was not really a planned thing but just spontanous  -we  (Imran, Ruby and me) went for a walk with the dog, just across the road from us, and the berries were  tempting. It's not a 'done' thing really here in the UK, but foraging for berries, fungi etc is quite common were I grew up in East Germany - so this reminded me of my childhood. Yep, it's easier to buy them in the supermarket, and not that expensive either, but foraging is so much more fun LOL. Even my 14 year old teenage son had fun! Imran is now trying to make the berries into a smoothie, and I might freeze some for later use.



-- Post From My iPhone

Hot day on the Thames

I took my daughter Ruby and her friend Natasha down to the Thames today, lovely cool breeze on a hot day ( well, hot for us anyway!, abt 27C). It's not a long walk from us, maybe 20 mins, but not a very pleasant walk unfortunately - lots of boy rasers on motorbikes (we had to jump into the hedges a few times), and lots of flytipping which is a great shame. It was lovely down by the water tough, despite some rubbish which always gets washed up, can't avoid it. We had fun looking for shells and stones, and Bonnie had great fun in the mud. We had to hose her down when we came back home, no way we could have let her in the house like that.




-- Post From My iPhone

High Heels, East Ham and Autumn colours

// Sunday, 27. September 2009 //        

What's new ... another busy weekend. I spend most of Saturday ferrying the children (and mostly Ruby) around here, there and everywhere. Birthday parties, bank appointments, swimming, gym - you name it, i drive there. And most of. the time being stuck in traffic!

Saturday afternoon Nafees and me went to East Ham, Queen's Road market. Queens Road Market is a noisy hotch-potch market of Asian and African food and clothing. Nafees usually buys his Asian spices there, and I just love the Asian sweets, they are really sweet sweets! We took Bonnie with us, so I had to stay in the car with her- she wouldn't be any good with big crowds. After the shopping, we took her to Newham Central Park. We sat on the bench, eating somosas like an old couple ... haven't done that for a while.

Ruby went out shopping with her best friend Natasha, they were hitting all the clothing and asseccorize shops. She bought this pair of high heel sandals. It's been a long time since I've worn anything like that, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to walk very far in them - it's trainer's for me.

Sunday was a lovely Autumn day. It's still extremely dry though, and the colours are all dried up browns/yellows, there is hardly any green. The rosehips are beautiful though, there are my favourite autumn fruit.

Big news - well, for me anyway. I have finally bought my first D-SLR camera. Have been toying with this for the last few months, as I enjoy walking and wildlife/wildflowers more and more and really want to get more serious about photography. So... I have saved up on a deposit and got a Canon Eos 450D. There is sooo much to learn, I've been submerged in the 'Dummy' guide for the past few days and taking my first shots. I love it.

Problem is that this is going to be an expensive hobby. Already I realised that I may have to purchase more lenses with the stuff I want to take pictures off. I got 2 lenses with the camera (as I kit), and I want to get completely comfortable with everything in the first place. I'm still on the 'Automatic' setting for the camera, but hopefully will explore more in the next few weeks and can start experimenting with the manual settings.

Completely neglected cross stitch as a hobby, but will definitely return to it sooner or later - just enjoy taking pictures so much at the mo (and playing with all the new equipment). Here are some of the first pictures I took - completely unedited(haven't yet got the hang of Photoshop - another Dummy-guide I gotta get through LOL - Amazon is making tons of profit with me at the mo.

Thomas

Everyone at work liked this picture. Thomas looks absolutely enourmous, almost as big as Ruby but honestly it just looks like that in the picture, he is just one big fluffball.



-- Post From My iPhone

Spring Cleaning

I've had this week off, and really used it this time to do some major spring cleaning. I don't often have the time and the mood for it, but I really went for it this time. I've got several big bags in the shed, and about 100 books, all paperbacks which I read in the past few years. I decided that it is time to sort them out, as I'll not going to read them aagain, and it just takes too much space and makes the house all messy. We did a car boot sale, but only made about £40 (after taking away the stall rent of £12). Never mind, it's £40 extra in my purse. Lots of it was actually knitting stuff which I decided to get rid off as I don't knit any more - there just isn't enought time for knitting, and I enjoy cross stitch more.

We also finally started to paint the fence in the garden, and Rubyand Dan helped me. We've run out of paint though half way through, will continue maybe next weekend if there is time.

Ruby and me went to a craft evening on Wednesday. It is part of Kent's 'Family Learning', they organise different activities from craft, sports, computing etc for children and parents, and it is all free. It takes place every other months or so at local primary schools. We attended 'Easter Craft'. It's all pretty basic stuff, but all the materials are provided, and for me it's nice to spend some 'mother-daughter' time. With 3 children, it's nice sometimes when I can find something to do with just one of them and give them my attention fully - even if just for 2 hours as with this craft evening.

We completed some Easter baskets, trinket boxes (decorated with sequins etc), cards. I tried my hand at quilling, it was a bit tedious, but if I would have managed to fill in a complete Easter egg template (which I didn't), that would have looked great. So I just did it all on the outside, and I think I could even use it as a frame for my cross stitch. Ruby enjoyed herself. I don't think I could get my teenage boys to do this with me... they are past that!

Bonnie, Ruby and me went to Darenth Country Park today. It's just on the outskirts of Dartford, about 10 mins drive from our place. First we couldn't find the car park - if it is not absolutely clearly signposted, I'm not good at finding places - stuff like that annoys me. So we just parked in the middle of the housing estate behind the park which always makes me slightly nervous. (sort of think people in the estate will realise there is a car which does not belong there!)

Anyway, we walked back from the estate to the park. Despite the rather dull weather (at least it was not raining) there were plenty of people around, with and without dogs. So Bonnie only came off the lead occassionally, unfortunately I still cannot rely on her being 'good' with other dogs - she will run up to them, bark und 'circle them', and there is no way she will listen to me shouting to come back.

Parts of the park are large fenced fields (for horses I guess as a riding centre is part of the park). But there is also a wooded area which we walked right through. It is not large, but that was my favourite bit. I'm looking forward to coming back in Spring and Summer when there will be more plants to see - and in autumn for fungi possibly!

I picked Ruby up from a sleepover at a friends house today. Her friend recently moved to an area called Joyden's Wood, just outside Dartford. Joyden's Wood is an acutal woodland, managed by the Woodland Trust. I took Bonnie along with me and thought I could take her for a walk in the woods. Didn't quite know what to expect, I don't quite trust it when they call it 'woodlands' here, sometimes I found that th ey mean an area of about 10-20 trees arranged in a square - I guess I'm used to different woodlands from Germany. But Joydens Wood was loveley - gosh, it almost reminded me of Germany, like a 'proper' woodland. I've made a promise to myself to come back to this place more often, can't wait for spring to start. And just think of autumn and fungi foraging! Acually I should make more of an effort in any case. I live in Kent, and all I ever see is the area close to our house. What have I got a car for - I should use my weekends to explore around and hopefully will make a start next weekend!

The first signs of spring?

It's suppose to be really cold again from tomorrow onwards and beginning of next week, even snow. Would be nice to have some snow though, and it is still winter anyway! February from tomorrow onwards. I can't believe how quick the time is passing. We went to Gravesend today to get new school blazers for the boys. I hadn't realised that they did indeed grow in the past year. Danial's blazer is up from size 32 to 36 and Imran up from 30 to 34 (since September 2007). School Uniform is so expensive though, they cost me £35 each, plus £6 for the tie.

Nafees is finally back from Pakistan and now I realise how much I've actually missed him. I had to pick him up from Heathrow which is about 60 miles from here, all the way around the M25. As it was Saturday afternoon, the motorway was clear. Only problem was, when we came back, it was already quite dark, and I hate driving in the dark as I can't see very well. That's only if there are no street lights, driving in cities is fine. Anyway, as it was so dark and I tried hard just to stay in my lane, I missed the turn-off for the M25 at one stage, and found myself in the wrong lane and ended up on the M20 towards Maidstone. I got off the next junction, and found familiar sounding town and village names, so I found my way home via country lanes.

Nafees brought beautiful clothes for Ruby, and Jeans for the boys. a lot of fashion jewellery and bangles for Ruby, 2 Asian dresses for me, watches for the children and lots of stuff for the house (bedlinen, kitchen utensils), and food which his mum cooked and they had it canned.



I haven't shown pictures of the cats for a while, and I thought those are quite cute. There is Honey (or is it Candy?) getting all comfy on my Frederick the Literate (which I had stretched out on my bed as I was about to frame it). And here are 3 of our cates all stretched out on my bed.

Ruby and me went to see 'High School Musical' in London Hammersmith Apollo on Thursday. I had booked the tickets a long time ago, and Ruby had been counting the weeks, days etc. Now the day was finally here.

I took Thursday and Friday off from work - ghosh, it felt so nice and I realised I hadn't had a day off during the week since April. I picked Ruby up early from school and she changed into her 'HSM outfit'. That was a dead giveaway of course, and when we bought our underground tickets at Embankment station and I told the ticket guy we have to go to Hammersmith, he said straight away 'You are off to see High School Musical? Nice guess. Coming out of Hammersmith Underground station, you arrive in a shopping centre, and the first thing you almost fall into is a big Disney store.... packed full with HSM stuff... Ruby sometimes doesn't know her limits, so I told her she can have ONE thing - and she chose a school bag (which at least is going to be useful!). Then we had some time to spare, and we walked down the roads of Hammersmith when this huge thunderstorm started. We sheltered as much as we could in shop doorways, and sprinted across the street to find a Chinese Buffett Restaurant. The food was not exactly high cuisine, but hey, it filled our tummies. In the subway going to the theatre, illegal sellers were offering memorbilia etc, pompoms for £5 - no thank you.

Once inside, we walked around a bit, it is actually not that big place. Our seats were in the stalls, right at the left end (seats 1 + 2). The place filled quickly, though it was not fully booked, I'd say probably 80%. And then it was off to enjoy the show! The mostly very young actors were brilliant, and the choreography spot on (lots of dancing!). I was pleaseantly surprised that quite a few of the actors/dancers were not exacly super-slim - nobody can tell me that a big girl can't be as fit and dance and move as good as ultra-slim versions! The only 'famous' name in it was Letitian Dean (x-Eastender's actress), however, she did not had a lead role, and I think I wouldn't even have recognised her. My favorite part was the young guy who acted as a worm (crawling on the stage). I won't tell you how much I spend on 1 plastic cup of Coke which Ruby urgently needed (!!) during the intervall...There was lots of singing and dancing in the aisles at the end, and Ruby and me also got up and danced in the aisle(me) and on the seat! (Ruby)

We'll certainly remember this day for a long time!

Here is the reason - well, one of them, why I haven't been around too much. This is the latest edition to our family - Bonnie, a two year old labrador bitch. We got her at the end from a private sale. I wasn't too sure if I would keep her at the beginning. She wasn't used to walking on the lead and pulled me right - left - centre when I took her out. But she is perfectly housetrained and is as good as gold when we leave her alone in the house. And I guess everyone sort of fell in love with her quickly, she is very good-natured. I got rid of the choke chain and now bought one of those 'Halti' leads which goes around the mouth - so much better, and she doesn't pull half as much. I take her out every day after work for 1 hour, and for 2 hours at the weekend. Yes, I am dead-tired at the end of the evening, but believe it or not, it is actually quite relaxing after a day's work just to walk with her and forget about all those little annoying things in live.

What didn't help as well was that my laptop broke. I still haven't found out exactly what happened , but Imran was on the laptop (which he is not allowed anyway) and closed it with a bang. the cats were in the same room as well. When I came back and opened the laptop, half of the screen was gone. No physical damage on the outside, but all the pixels are completly messed up. as the laptop is less than 1 year old, we took it straight back were we bought it (Curry's), but they refused to help, saying that this sort of damage is not a material fault, but always accidental damage which is not covered under the warranty. To cut the long story short, my home insurance accepted the claim and I just have to see now whether it will be repaired or replaced. In the meantime, I work on half the screen only ;-))

I hardly did any cross stitch recently. There is plenty to do, but I'm just always too tired at the end of the evening. I went to the Cross Stitch Fair end of March in Olympia which was great as usual. Well, I'm a great fan of those type of Fairs. I haven't finished Rachel's poodle, of course not. So far, 1 1/2 pages done (of 6 all together). Sara's wedding is coming up in June, and I still did only, well, less than 5% I'd guess.

The Open University is keeping me busy as well... I think I have said before that I really really don't enjoy this year's course (Social Psychology). I just don't get a lot of it, because it is based not on Cognitive (experiments etc), but more on qualitative approaches such as discursive and influenced by philosophy - which is absolutely not my thing, sorry all philosophers out there. Anyway, I just try to get through with it. 2 assignments done so far - only 4 to go, and the examn in October of course. The next assignment is a preparation for a project, and the literature research for this kept me busy, and I hope I can at least write up parts of it tomorrow.'

Reading wise - currently I am reading two books, which is very unlike me, as I would normally always finish one before going on to the next. Reason is that 'A suitable boy' from Vikram Seth is over 1400 pages and not always easy to read. The other book is a German book from Johannes Mario Simmel 'Wir heissen euch hoffen'. This is an Austrian author, and I quite like his style of writing. I first read this book as a teenager, and now re-reading, I find that I understand many things much better. for example, he descripes a mental illnes and psychosis.

The weather has been awful so far here this year - no sign really of spring. Rain almost every day. I finally had my garden fence done, but didn't manage so far to do any planting.

A few finishes

First I have to show of Ruby! She did this sampler..ish tablerunner at school in needlework club and I am so very proud of her. It's a garish pink 11ct Aida and stitched with cheap wool, but it is for sure the prettiest piece I've seen for a long time - and isn't it strange, it means more to me than many of the big cross stitch pictures I did. I shall treasure it and show Ruby her tablerunner in 20 years LOL


Here is the Christmas picture from the Bucilla kit. I enjoyed it at the end, and there is much more work in it than the small picture suggests. However, again, I feel I am let down by my 'finishing' skills. I re-did the framing (on adheasive paper) several times, and re-did it, and re-did it - and still it is not centred properly, the back is all bulky - oh, just looking at the picture here now makes me upset - it clearly is loop-sided, maybe I'll just have to try again.


I also framed two small pictures, I finished stitching those in September I think. I like the heart best, it really does look so pretty and I'm pleased with the framing. It is stitched over one.

Oh, I admit it, I haven't been a very good blogger in the past few weeks. Don't now... nothing really happened, just life, work and pre-Christmas stress I guess.

Ruby's birthday went great on 24. November - now my little girl is 9 years old. We went to the cinema with a few of her friends and watched 'Stardust'. I hadn't looked forward to it, as I'm normally not one for children and/or fantasy movies (sorry folks, Harry Potter and LOTR doesn't cut it for me) - however, I really enjoyed Stardust. Robert De Niro has a part in it - oh, he is just such a great actor, and .. well, you gotta see it, it's another first class performance. The new 'Take That' song features as well in the movie, I think it's called 'Rule the World'. I don't say this often, but I would pay again to see this movie. Not sure though if my 8 and 9 year olds got some parts in it. Not sure if I'm allowed to show the picture here, if there's a problem, let me know

Workwise - I don't get time off over Christmas, but do have off on 25. and 26.12. Nafess is off for more then 2 weeks, and the kids of course, so I'm well jelous.

I got my brand new and shiny OU books for the new course and started reading and writing up. I know it's going to be a hard year, the course is called DD307 Social Psychology, and it's based a lot on philosophical theories etc, and I don't really get philosophy - never did.

I managed to stitch a few Christmas cards, as they went off to friends who might read this blog I didn't do pictures - I should have really. Tomorrow I'll show pictures of the gifts I received so far from my cross stitching friends.

I've got the sock knitting bug again - when I really should do my Christmas stitching. This happens to me ever now and again - I just don't fancy cross stitch but knitting. Ever since I first started to knit socks I loved it. I did a pair for my mum last Christmas, and she actually loved something I did hee hee, and she keeps wearing them around the house. I was surprised how straight forward it was. Usually with knitting, I get myself into a pickle with the sizes, especially with garments like jumpers, cardigans etc. they are always too big or too small or whatever, that really puts me off. But with the socks, its not too difficult. And don't I just love this self-patterning yarn! This one is from Opal.
We went to a bonfire and fireworks display here in Darford. Spend what seems like a fortune on silly things like candy floss and fairground rides for the children. Danial and his friend Matt Ruby and CaseyNow who's the Lord of the Manor!

Here's my update on the NH afghan - first stage of block 1 (of 30 blocks ;-)). I actually enjoy stitching on the afghan fabric, it's slightly 'different' to hava a whole lot of fabric covering me - nice for the winter months s'pose. And today was payday, and what did I do? I ordered the remaining DMC colours for the afghan! the best prices are from Tandem Cottage. No, I'm not affiliated to them, but you can't beat 50 threads for £20! They even offer to wind them on bobbins for you, how is this for service.

Today I was in court, and it was quite a funny session. A lot of the witnesses were stark drunk. One of the chaps kept touching his --youknowwhat- and kept leaving (staggering out of) the courtroom to go to the toilet, and he called our coroner 'your honour'. I just had to giggle, and as they were all very friendly, I prefer this sort than the violent type.

This is our house today on Halloween. I'm not going overboard with decorations, but I thought I lead the way for the kids with our little pumpkin.

All 3 of the kids went trick-or-treating and got an enourmous loot. Everyone was really friendly to them, and I had quite a few trick-or-treaters this year, mostly really small kids with their parents.

Here the promid update on Spring Queen. Almost done now, I can't believe it. Don't look forward to the beading though... and getting it framed is gonna be soooooo expensive!

And here is a historic moment! here you see my very first 3 crosses on the NH-afghan (Nature's Home)

Oh, I know it's gonna be years till I finish this, but I don't mind. enjoying it, but don't know what to do with all that fabric on my lap, is good for stitching in winter time s'pose ;-))

I went back to East Grinstead today with Ruby to have her finger looked at. the bandage is off, and it doesn't look too bad. Odd, I'd say. The nail is still on, but the consultant said it is gonna fall off in the next few weeks, and a new nail will grow in 3 months or so. The tip of her finger looks kind of bulbous, with all that new skin growing. The doctor said it will take 9 months to a year to regain some feeling in the finger, but it would never go back completely normal, however, she will get used to it.

Ruby at Ally Pally - can you see her bandaged finger?

I went to the Knitting and Stitching shown in Alexandra Palace on Friday. There are 2 major stitchting exhibitions (in and around London, anyway), in Olympia around March and this one in Alexandra Palace in October. The Olympia one is much smaller and focuses on cross stitch, papercraft and knitting. Alexandra Palace is - huge - , there were lots of textile arts exhibitions, lace making, everything to do with textiles really. Lots of cross stitch and knitting, all the 'usual suspects (exhibitors). I only ever went to the one in Olympia in March before, mainly because I safe up for it, and can't really safe for 2 shows a year *sigh*. Anyway, I decided to visit Alexandra Palace (or Ally Pally, as it's known) for the first time this year. I was not disappointed and will make it hopefulle a regular feature every year. I went with good resolutions of not spending any money, not a lot anyway, but it never happen's doesn't it.
So this is what I got, the new Jane Greenoff book (and she signed it for me), my usual Anchor colours (I buy a small amount every time I go to a show so eventually I got all colours, some evenweave (28 and 32 count), 2 Bang on the Door kits forRuby, a Eva Rosenstand kit of a tablerunner. and the usual small bits like needles (26er and 28er - I can't get those here in Hobbycraft. Oh, and a seat frame. Tried it out already, it works brilliantly, but only when stitching smaller things.

And this is my new pride and joy. I had decided already a while back that I will treat myself to a new lamp. Saved up for it, saw it in the fair reduced (but was too heavy to carry back on the train), went the next day to Hobbycraft - and it was reduced in Hobbycraft as well - hey presto, the lamp was mine. Stitching seems to be a whole new experience!