Late spring

This is the second year in a row that at this time of year I look out and think that the garden has too much purple and nothing else. It's slightly too early for the yellow poppies and the daffodils are all go e. I need some late spring yellow and red to balance the purple.

April Showers

Hosepipe ban
April showers like they used to be
A month's rain in 72 hours
Flooding
Still not lifting the hosepipe ban (not that anyone actually wants to use one this week)

Mother Recollection

Getting ready to head into town - need a zip from John Lewis. I looked out into the garden after the rain - the sun was shining on the lush spring green. A blackbird took a worm into the honeysuckle. Maybe she has a nest in there. Looked at my eye in the compact mirror and noticed a couple of grey hairs amidst the brunette tied up in my towel turban. Got a massively strong recollection of mother.

We would catch the 29 to Camden Town and chage onto a C2 which takes you down Albany Road, passes over Euston Road and brings you to Regent Street stopping at Oxford Circus - back route to town dropping off for shopping. It would always include a visit to Ponti's on the corner opposite BHS and the London Fashion College. We'd share a cream cheese and tomato sandwich and an eclair. Only ever half each, never one each (not sure why). Chance for a cup of tea for mum (massive tea drinker) or a milky coffee. Then we'd go to the shops with her mother's money (which is what she called child benefit - don't know why).

I think she and my sister would do the same. Mother and daughter time.

London Bloggers

Template update has raised lots of issues - DG commented yesterday that the updated further reading list is now much shorter than the list of those on hiatus. So many bloggers have stopped or moved onto other things (tweet anyone, Facebook?). Thinking it might be good to bolster my dwindling further reading list i had a look at London Bloggers. It used to be a list of bloggers (mostly personal or themed) by tube station. Now there are fewer listed and a much higher proportion of businesses blogs and adult themed. Less useful to find what I think of as fellow bloggers - interesting, writing or photo driven blogs by individuals about things that interest them (rather than work, politics, about America). So still searching...

Sidebar sorrows

So now its righthanded rather than on the left hand side (don't know why I prefer it so much being on the left (perhaps I read it more becuase it comes first) I checked through the links to other blogs - both the further reading and haitus sections.

Sadly some of those in the haitus section have deleted what was left of their blogs. I prefer to leave the old archives there because when I've read something for a while it seems like erasing someone to get rid of the link completely. Its sort of like address books - even though I may have lost touch with those whose numbers I have I don't like to chuck them out. Eventually the numbers are totally wrong and there is no way to be back in touch - too many moves, too many changes of numbers. Properly lost touch. It becomes a historical document of all those who you have known at some point. Much like this I've left the names of some of these blogs there to remind me who I used to read - there are some that I went to daily, who I met in real life. I'm not quite ready to erase them from my memory yet. (You can probably tell I am a hoarder by nature).

Happily a couple have stopped being on haitus. So that's nice.

template trouble

Checking back its been 9 years since I started blogging and I'd customised my old template lots - colours, sidebars etc. Liked it and was used to it. But recently there were some hitches. Blogger also changed its user interface making it almost impossible to fix the comments issue without first changing to a new 'dynamic' template. Which basically means they have control not me. I can't figure out how to give the header a subheading which would allow me to make a londoners life back into times italic and smaller than the overall heading. So it looks rather heavy and clunky now. Not at all like it was intended in the beginning to emulate the Guardian. Anyway, maybe I'll learn how or someone will point me in the direction I need to go to try to make changes to the html/css of the template or maybe I'm stuck with it (self taught on the html/css front so its a bit tricky when making changes). Also can't figure out how to get a slide show to work on the header so the little javascript I had above the heading is also gone. One of my fav bits. Its all so much less controlable and therefore less creative. boo hiss.

Dog-walking holiday

Went to Dundee over the easter weekend to spend time with the Sis while her family were away visiting the grandparents (dog not welcome). Spent the days dogwalking with some human activities thrown in. Weather was changeable - sun, rain, cold, windy, spring, winter.

Sis had a massive hole in one boot so we didn't walk far when it was pouring. Dry winter meant it hadn't mattered to replace the fav boots and now that the April showers were coming it was proving difficult to find a new pair, although we did try - visiting many shoe shops including the 'best' of the area in St Andrews. Almost got a pair in the walking shop but despite the longest walk-around-a-shoe-shop trying to emulate the elongate stride of outside eventually they were turned down as too high under the ankle bones with the potential for bad blisters while wearing them in.

Its something I only noticed about dog people when I started having lunch near City Hall - they are a group, they talk (mostly about their dogs) and acknowledge each other and know each other's dog's names. This trip Sis took me to all the best dog walking parks. We met a lot of people in various parks of Dundee and the surrounds. (A couple of trips ago she took me to all the Tescos in Dundee so this was at least an introduction to the outside. Better photo opportunities at least.) All sorts of ages and breeds (people and dogs). Lots of discussion about behaviour, parks, good walking grounds, road sense training...



She has what I learned is a 'swimming spaniel'. Dog that loves the water (unless its in the shower at home - because I kept commenting on the lovely eau de dog that was about him and his blankets she gave him a wash which much improved him) and has to get in wherever possible - beach, brook, puddle. Other dog owners know about this - not all dogs like to get wet apprarently but labradors and spaniels are keen (trying to lock this knowledge away somewhere in case it is useful at some point).

Me, I just like a change of scenery sometimes - large sky, dramatic weather, walk on the beach.

Spring

Up the east coast it is lambing season. Lots of little lambs on the hillsides with their mothers between Darlington and Durham.

April showers

Sunny
Then rain - heavy and probably localised because I can see a different sky in the near distance. Tree blossom floats in the down-pouring.
A patch of blue sky in the dark grey cloud.
Rain lightens off.
April showers.
Cluster of people at the supermarket door - unwilling to make a run for it in the rain. Some kids wait for it to abate under a bus shelter. Two of them play fight.
The rain stops but doesn't clear up.
Later it's spitting again. Weather continues to swing between spitting and pouring for the whole grey day. Not enough to fend off the drought.
On the way home, bus windows are streaming. A man rides past on a unicycle.

Flush and leak

So first the toilet stopped flushing easily and you had to pump the handle like mad in the hope that it would eventually go. Then I noticed the brown stain on the dining room ceiling under the bath.

Instead of getting a plumber immediately we opened the side of the bath and were very confused by the totally dry pipes underneath. Investigating further discovered the bath water went by pipe outside the house so probably wasn't the cause of the leak.

Finally called British gas to come and see to the toilet. They changed the mechanism inside. Great flushing restored. But then a drip developed through the dining room ceiling. Called them back. They came on Saturday night. Looked under the bath. Looked at the pipes outside. Took some tiles off in the bathroom to look at a pipe that went to the electric shower (long ago condemned which I haven't had replaced yet). Then had to investigate the ceiling. Stuck a screw driver into the plasterboard very easily because it was sodden. Made a little hole. Then cut a bigger hole. Found a completely soaked beam that was dripping off a nail onto the ceiling. Cut another hole further along the ceiling to see where the leak came from. The culprit was the toilet overflow. Man who changed the flusher also adjusted the level of water to overflow. So it wasn't still leaking. Over a year of leakage to cause the soddenness of the beam.

Called my insurance company who at first were unwilling today for the ceiling and would only pay for the beam. Until I persuaded her that since water was dropping through it had to be in scope.

My learning point here is - don't ignore those brown stains on the ceiling because they are symptomatic of potentially larger problems. Must be a better house owner...

Lost time and spring

It was Sunday evening before I realised that the clocks had sprung forward on Saturday night. iPhone helpfully changed itself and I clearly wasn't looking at the numerous other clocks around the house (one in the kitchen, one in the hall, one in the living room, not to mention the microwave, cooker, humax). I was shocked when I discovered that I was behind all day.

I watched my blossom tree bloom as the day went on. Full of bees - seem to be different sorts to me. And one peacock butterfly. And of course the sparrows, blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, robin. I love spring. The warmth of the sun, blue skies and flowers. Lovely.

Blogging Template Troubles

Haven't had a template issue for years until recently when the comments facility was acting up. Its taken a few days but I've been onto support and its all fixed now (I hope). Its linked to the new google/blogger redirect to local addresses apparently.

In the old days, at the exciting beginning of blogging career I used to tinker with the template regularly, updating the links and stuff, changing the pictures on it. I haven't done this for so long that I've forgotten how - inching through HTML code to find the appropriate script. Its a level of detail that doesn't lend itself to a friday night after a week at work. Its also why I still use an old blogger template with none of the new bells and whistles that I could have if I upgraded to a new template (I'm too attached to the colour panels and can't be bothered to remind myself how to recode this onto a new template). I wonder how long I would have to spend to really learn this stuff.

Been using pinterest quite a bit - it reminds me of what blogging used to do (point you to interesting things on the internet that you wouldn't find easily) but in a visual form. Its social in that you can following different pinners and find ones who are interested in the same stuff as you (which is how you used to gather a bloggers to your bloglist) and can show you stuff that you like (I've got a collection of ceramics pictures - searching for inspiration and artistic rather than pottery ceramics amongst other things). The only bad part of it is you have to be invited to join in (the exclusivity may make some people feel like they are in a club but I would prefer it to be open). I like it better than facebook and twitter though. It has more purpose, maybe.

Ceramics Class Spring Term 2012

Its been a term where I seem to have glazed all insides with Egyptian Blue. I'm channelling David Attenborough's frozen planet contrasting white and dark clays with deep blue insides like lagoons or icebergs. Its not so good on the jug (its not food safe - poison in the glaze). I hadn't realised how much of the work I made this term had a blue inside until I started putting a group of pictures together.

Friday Evening

In a bubble. Sitting in a dark bar lit by a bright yellow display of spirits. Its on a junction by a major thoroughfare - cars rushing to other placces. The radiator is on inside. The sky outside is very dark. Jazzy swing music is playing in the background to the jabber of people chatting.  A man at the next table snogs his girlfriend who is sitting in his lap as her friend plays gooseberry and buys more champagne. Outisde London is grey and cold and March. Inside it wouldn't be a suprise if flappers were dancing on tables in the other room to a band full of brass. A man walks past with two bulldogs that are interested in everything. Another man crosses the street with his son. A woman drags twin children on three-wheel scooters across the street - one in each hand. Neither child seems to have mastered the fact that they need to propel the scooter using their foot - so they just stand on the platform without moving. World goes by. Looking out from the bubble.

Mid-week

Shopping in town mid-week (had a couple of days off) is not like the weekend when the people hit the shops in a frenzy of buying as if the end of the world is nigh. No, mid-week shopping is a whole other ball-game. The shops are relatively empty, there are plenty of shop assistants to help. In John Lewis there were twinsets and pearls, and burberry donkey jackets with loafers and dark blue jeans, Queen's English and large shopping totes. Fur-lined collars are real. Purchasing with a slower pace.

I was looking for a new pair of glasses - its been rather tricky - the brand that I had which snapped are not stocked anywhere in London anymore and the styles in the majority of opticians are just too middle-of-the-road. I'm looking for something a little more unusual. I even tried the place in Covent Garden that only lets a limited number of people in the shop at any one time and makes the frames specially for you (delivery takes up to 6 weeks, costs £300 for the frame which I wanted and can't be paid for in installments). I finally found a place with an old fashioned style - leather seats and consultation booths but carrying quite an unusual range. The new purchase may help me get over the trauma of snapping my old pair. The lady in the opticians thought I had a very good eye. Suits you!

It has been one of those days when I felt like I was bunking off work. I enjoyed it greatly but felt guilty - like I should have been somewhere else...back to work tomorrow though.

Ofsted

We've just finished an intense week being inspected. That concludes an intense four week preparation period. Lots of long working days. And that's the end of an intense couple of years of work. We stayed in a pub b&b walking distance from work. Great for getting in early to be ready for them first thing in the morning. Bad because it was really only b [bed] and no b [breakfast] and the local cafes didn't open until I had already arrived at work. We checked in on Sunday, in the preparation to get there I snapped my glasses in half at the nose bridge. Not sure if they will be repairable. My favourite glasses. Then the first morning my hair clip snapped and not being at home I didn't have a replacement. On the second morning I dropped the other clip down the sink and had to unbend a coat hanger to rescue it. I forgot to take any pjs. Despite all these mini disasters people said I exuded calm all week (in total opposition to the nervous anxiety raging through me) which is seemingly a good trait in the link person on an inspection.

Mousecapades II... The Return

In the fight against the mouse mice I borrowed these humane traps from Pops, being a vegetarian and all, I didn't really want to kill them, just get them out of the house. I forgot though that once you catch something you have to get rid of it.

One of the traps had been under the cupboard under the sink for weeks and hadn't caught a thing. Suddenly one evening, really late, I heard  mad scrabbling and just knew a mouse was caught. The trap was shut when I got it out from under the cuboard. I had to shake it to be sure there was actually a mouse inside (they are very light) and still wasn't certain until I opened the flap slightly and saw its horrible hairless tail. So then where to get rid of it.... took a trip to the local park at 2am and dumped the mouse out. The trouble with this is that a) it isn't a neighbourly thing to do, and b) someone told me that they have a very good sense of smell and homing instinct and you have to take them at least 2 miles to get them lost. So the following day when I caught another one in the same trap it may be a second mouse or  it may just have been the same mouse returned home again and foolish enough to go in the trap again. I had to take this one to the park at 3pm. Not as easy to dump a mouse in broad daylight. I'm thinking traps that kill them might be better next time.

Anyway its four down so far...

Mousecapades

I thought the mouse problem that arouse just after Christmas had gone away (no evidence of them for several weeks now) but when I came home today I stepped on something as I passed down the hall to switch off the alarm. I turned the light on and I found it was a mouse in the last thoes of life. And then it died. I have to say I felt really guilty. And then revolted because I had to sweep the corpse into a bag to dispose of. As I chucked it into the outside bin I found one of the neighbourhood stray cats sitting on my gas meter and I tried to make friends with her (I've been thinking a cat is the answer for a while) but she was having none of it.

Night at the Museum

Late opening at the Natural History Museum. Always an atmospheric place, only more so in the evening with the light low.



The place was heaving with adults - dining all around the diplodocus in the main hall and an excitable hubbub in the makeshift bars. The dinosaur exhibition was quiet (unlike during normal opening hours when it is frequently too crowded to see anything). Palaeontology has moved on considerably since I was in primary school (when I, like most people, loved dinosaurs). The names and species have changed massively - there used to only be about 3 - T-Rex, stegosaurus, brontosaurus and pterodactyl (which I learned was not a dinosaur because it flew rather than walked on the land). We had to go back to the T-Rex exhibition when they had managed to turn the air back on to get him moving again (something about someone not reprogramming for the evening opening).

On the way home I waited for the bus at Euston. A very drunk white haired woman was sitting in the bus stop. On seeing a man crossing the station she shouted loudly (I was quite surprised), "have you got a big cock? Cos you've got a big arse". The other passengers waiting were shocked. The man didn't hear her. Everyone else tried to ignore her.

David Hockney at the Royal Academy

Got tickets in advance for the Hockney. I was quite excited to go. Apart from the fact that the Royal Academy is a horrible gallery to visit (too many people of a particular sort).

The galleries were packed - it was like trying to look at art in a crowded Friday night bar. The pictures are, in the main, huge and to see them properly you need to be able to be a distance away from them. Not possible in the crowd. Timed entry - at 3pm all of us entering then are crammed into the first room - couples, families, people in from the burbs, tourists, buggies, toddlers, arty oddballs, arty ordinaries etc. The pictures are the four seasons view of a group of three trees. Winter and summer are my favourite. Then led into a small retrospective of pictures that are very familiar from the 50s, 60s that were in a book that my mum had. And one huge grand canyon picture. A mixture of styles - some very flat with words, some very colourful. In the body of work from Yorkshire I liked the collection of oil and water colours. Sometimes the themes felt over-worked - it became a little formulaic. The huge paintings that are being used to advertise the exhibition are impressive only in scale and are somehow too composed, seem rushed and lacking in emotion. A bit too much like wallpaper. iPad drawings blown up were interesting while being varied in quality. Film work - liked the films of the landscapes in the paintings but not so much the dancing in the studio (not developed enough - I felt the idea could have gone further). Perhaps the abundance of similar composition and mass of paintings detracted from the ideas. I might have preferred greater selection. I also couldn't get over the crowds. It was claustrophobic.