An August Round Up.

 Well I had hoped to at least blog monthly but here I am in October and 2 months behind, I can't believe I used to blog weekly at one time!

As usual it's work, we have too many students, like 30 too many. As with many other university courses all over the country and even the world, these unusual times have found us oversubscribed. You always over offer because people go elsewhere, drop out etc but this year has been a strange year in more ways than a pandemic. They tried everything to reduce the numbers, even offering money to defer but nope they all wanted to come. 

So we have been frantically trying to adjust class sizes to fit them all in and ensure they can all be taught. I said we there. This is usually the job of the programmes team, I work in admissions and recruitment so ordinarily once they are here the students are no longer my worry, but the programmes team are drastically short staffed, so I have been seconded to help out. I use the word seconded very loosely here, actually I'm still expected to do my own job as well the extra so to say it's been a crazy time would be an understatement. There was some logic behind me agreeing to do this, but I'm not going to go into that on a public platform or at least not yet...

Anyway August was a pretty cold and miserable month, I felt sorry for the school kids this year they had such a crap summer break. I met some friends for lunch at the start of the month and we tried sitting outside the restaurant but soon gave up and scuttled inside!

Mid month I went to Birmingham with my friend Charlotte to visit Alex. She has been working for Birmingham City University and had finally been asked to go into the office in person a couple of months before which meant committing and moving to Birmingham. She had done a couch to 5k urban art run not long before and as none of us wanted to be in the horribly crowded city centre she offered to retrace it as a walk.

The weather was grey and miserably and turned to rain but it didn't dampen our enjoyment one tiny bit. The art work on the canal paths and streets around them was stunning and I've struggled to narrow this down to just a few pictures for the blog!

   

Weirdly the whole time we were walking round the streets under the railway arches all you could hear was pounding music. Turns out it was from various nightclubs, all open and doing a roaring trade judging by the queues outside. I guess people were making up for lost time? but I can't imagine going clubbing at 11am even if it was a Saturday!

We headed to the Custard Factory for pizza at Baked in Stone. It certainly deserves it's fantastic reputation the food was amazing and I'd highly recommend it if you want great pizza.

I know it's been a fair while since I was last in this part of Birmingham for a blogger meet up guided by the one and only Vix, but I was sad to see that not a single vintage shop remains at the Custard Factory now. In fact the only one we could find nearby was Cow. 

It was properly raining by now so we decided to try and find somewhere to have a drink but eventually ended up back in the city centre and cutting through the Bullring. It was horrifically busy, like Oxford on the last Saturday before Christmas. People everywhere pushing and shoving and not a soul wearing a face mask! Just horrible. Other than that it was such a fab day out and so lovely to catch up with friends and eat out. I'm happy to slowly start easing back into things but that level of risk was a step too far for me, no wonder the numbers are going up again.

On the Bank holiday at the end of August Mum and I ventured out to the Stonor Park Craft Fair. Last year was the first time we haven't been in the best part of 30 years, not that it really counts because it was cancelled, but still. The tickets were limited and you had to show either your double vaccination card or a negative lateral flow test and were advised to wear a mask in the tents which we did, we also chose to go on the Friday as we thought it would be quieter. There weren't as many stalls as in past years, in fact there was one whole tent less, and a lot of it seemed to be jewellery, but never the less it was lovely just to go and browse. I bought this crab stamp to go on my nautical themed window sill and a gorgeous labradorite pendant which I will share next time as I have just bought a chain for it.

After a good browse we headed back over to Mum's village and had lunch at a cafe on the small industrial estate on the outskirts. It's one of those hidden gems that all the locals know about, serving huge portions of delicious homemade British classics like cottage pie. 

I'd stayed the night with Mum on Thursday and got to sample the joys of her air fryer in the shape of delicious salmon steaks. She is a complete convert after getting one for Christmas and says she never uses her oven any more!

On the way home we detoured towards the town of Abingdon where there was a sunflower field on the outskirts grownfor charity  so all proceeds from visitors go to a local hospice.

We had a blissful hour or so mooching through and I chose a few stems for a £1 each to pick and take home.   

I FINALLY had a face to face physio appointment. Every phonecall  since breaking my shoulder has been with a different person which is so frustrating, you constantly have to start again each time and some have definitely been better than others! I had a call at the end of June with a female physiotherapist this time, who actually listened and agreed with what the consultant at the fracture clinic from way back in March that I needed face to face treatment. She booked me a slot for 5 weeks time (which was the earliest one they had) in the neighbouring town to me so I could get there by bus as we don't have a car, in fact she even told me which bus to catch and where from! I know I'm being sexist but I swear often it takes a woman to get things done. 

Anyway I had been feeling quite good about my progress but when I got there the physiotherapist (also a woman huzzah) was shocked at how solid my shoulder joint was and thought it likely I would never gain full range of movement back. She gave me some different exercises to do and booked me in again for the end of September even though ideally she would have wanted to see me within 2 weeks but as ever there were no available slots. She explained I would likely need to be referred back to the fracture clinic for a procedure which she warned would be painful and sadly does not always work as well as they would like. Her plan is to get me to the point where I can dress myself without difficulty and I'd be fine with that.I came out feeling thoroughly deflated and depressed and headed into Oxford for a colleague's leaving do. It felt very strange to be back at work with all the team.

The next day I decided I'd be damned if I was going to have a painful course of treatment if I could avoid it and started doing my new exercises religiously. Dear god they hurt, so I figured they must be doing some good! The physiotherapist had advised using a traffic light system for the levels of pain. Green and amber is fine but if it gets to red, stop you are doing too much. I gritted my teeth and went amber as much as possible.

I have carried on walking as much as possible too and started to try and go out at lunch time rather than just sitting on at the kitchen table. I wish I could say it has made a difference to my waistline but annoyingly it hasn't, my stamina levels are better but I remain stubbornly fat. 

The menopause has certainly distributed that fat in different and sometimes unexpected places (armpit fat any one??) I might currently be the same weight as I was a couple of years ago but I'm most certainly a different shape! I never have had curves, I used to be tall and thin. Now I'm tall and solid, kind of rectangular like a wardrobe.

Talking of wardrobes I did buy a couple of new dresses. Not being able to do up back or side zips means the vast majority of my work dresses were out of the picture for as and when I did start going back into the office. Himself goes to work much earlier than me and I'm not about to sacrifice an extra 2 hours of sleep just to get zipped into something! I was also of the sneaking suspicion they probably wouldn't zip up anyway even if I had asked him, we'll have to see about that at some point I suppose, but now is not that time.

I bought this black dress with gold embroidered suns and and stars in FatFace. It's not somewhere I usually shop but I walked past when I was mooching in town and noticed they had a sale on. As I say it's not a store I usually go in, it's just not somewhere I shop, but for some reason I felt drawn to go in. In fact I dithered outside so long anybody watching me must have thought I was up to something! In the end I thought sod it and went with the feeling and was delighted to find this dress on the sale rail in my size. I love it and have worn it several times now including to Birmingham for my day out.

I then found this Seasalt dress on Ebay. It's ideal as you just pull it on so not even buttons to fasten.

Finally I treated myself to this lovely dress off the Collectif website and wore it to the first day of the students being in. (It's a much more vibrant turquoise that it looks here.)

I finally got to wear one of my Snoopy Erstwider brooches out in the world too. I bought a couple of handbags in their sale too.

My Mum has finally stopped asking me why I keep buying handbags and instead said thoughtfully "When do you think you might have enough bags?" Now there is the million dollar question!  

July in all it's Glory.

 July started with us still in semi-lockdown. Himself had announced earlier in the year it would be a good time to finally clear the conservatory of the boxes that have been in there since we moved in and make it somewhere habitable. I'm sure I've said before we have never bothered to unpack properly  because we only planned to be here for a couple of years, apparently it's now 5 years later (I still refuse to believe it's that long even though I've seen calendar proof) So fair play.   

This meant coming up with a plan for all the stuff which was to go through it all, repack and store it in the garage, simple you might think but no...  

The easy bit was to buy clear plastic stacking boxes with lids which would become our new storage solution. Before anything could move though, whilst out on our evening walks we had to locate, and liberate, within easy carrying distance of the house a couple more pallets for them to stand on. That took a bit of time. Himself also had to put some sort of lock onto the garage door as the current one is broken. This also turned out to be more complicated than we had hoped and involved drilling into the brickwork on each side and adding a bar that could be padlocked.Of course none of what was needed for that was easily available in a shop and had to be ordered online, then the battery of the drill wouldn't charge so Himself had to walk down to my brother's house to borrow his but eventually it was done.

That left me with the task of the actually clearing out and cleaning. 

I have been through the boxes a couple of times since we have been living here, each time a fair bit went to charity or into the bin and we'd have a bit more space. It took a couple of weekends to do that again and some more stuff did head to the charity shop. The rest was cleaned/washed and repacked into the storage boxes before being garaged, all bar two boxes of Christmas bits and some other things we need regularly that is. I also washed down the wall and windows, scrubbed the floor, carried the papasan chair through from the kitchen where it had become a dumping ground rather than a chair to sit in, and moved my plants around a bit. 

That's not even all the plants in there, you can see why Himself calls it the jungle room! The cushion with the monkey was a jumper I knitted myself in the 80's and couldn't bear to get rid of when I stopped wearing it.

I had a couple of days off work to do some heavy duty gardening which was much needed and also caught up with my train buddies* Liz, Carole and Simon for a long overdue lunch with lots of prosecco. It had been over 2 years and lots had happened in between. (*we all used to work at the library and caught the same train to work each morning.) 

July was flying by and all of a sudden it was my birthday weekend! 

I finished work on the Thursday and we grabbed a quick dinner before walking over to Nephew Number One's house for a drink and a catch up with him and his partner. He and I are both big spiced rum fans so I took over the bottle I bought in St Ives.

It's the second one in from the left and sadly it wasn't great so I won't be in a hurry to get any more. As you can see we did give it a thorough taste test!

On the Friday my friend Charlotte came over. It had poured with rain up to then but the Friday was glorious so we went for a lovely walk and then had lunch in Prezzo because I had a voucher for a free bottle of birthday prosecco. We sat out on their balcony and ate and ate before waddling back here and collapsing in the garden loungers. It was so lovely to catch up in person, to actually see each other face to face, so we literally talked ourselves hoarse! 

She bought be the most awesome Snoopy tea towel which I can't possibly use, and this very cool book.

Saturday was my birthday so after presents and breakfast in bed, boiled eggs and bucks fizz in case you were wondering. I wore the dress from St Ives complete with this amazing necklace from lovely Mim.

It was ridiculously hot and due to get even hotter the next week so Himself ordered a new fan and we popped into town to pick it up. Despite leaving the windows and curtains shut in hot weather this house is always like the fiery pits of hell by the evening when the weather is hot, I think it's because it's a really well insulated house and it's south facing. Our bedroom is unbearable to sleep in at night so we have a floor standing fan up there which points across the foot of the bed and aids with sleeping. Working from home has been hard though when the weather is toasty so the new fan was for the kitchen. 

After we got back we just retired to the garden moving our loungers round with the sun to keep in the shade. My Mum called in with prosecco and some birthday pennies,

 Followed by my brother and then my sister in law after she finished work (they bought me this fab bag!) so more chairs were added and more corks popped. A blissful lazy day.

I was thoroughly spoiled

among other things with books, a sample above and this lovely necklace.

The following weekend was my Mum's birthday so we liberated Dad from his care home and headed to Prezzo again for a family dinner. This time there were 8 of us for lunch and a good time was had by all. We wheeled Dad down one side of the shopping precinct and up the other so he could have a look around, his first chance in about 18 months before delivering him back. 

Sunday was Mum's birthday so we headed over to my brother's house before going to pick her up and take her out for Sunday lunch, after which we went back to Mum's for the rest of the afternoon. I was super excited to see Bobby the cat again but he was certainly NOT excited to see us! It has just been him and Mum for so many months now he was outraged at having his house invaded and sulked, though never very far from Mum. Wherever she is he is.

I'll leave you with some garden pictures. 

I have been loving all the baby birds, in particular this little fella who has been well trained by his red breasted parents and follows me everywhere when I am out in the certain knowledge he will get treats! 

The veggie containers have been going great guns, we have had so many courgettes! Also beans, carrots and radishes. I really must stop growing tomatoes though, they always get blight so I currently have bowls of green tomatoes all over the kitchen which may or may not ripen inside. 

I also tried growing dalihas from seed along with Monty from Gardener's World and despite the best efforts of the slugs who chomped them to the point of extinction I finally had my first flower.

I tidying and re-potted most of my pots and tubs and they have paid me back with a wonderful show. I do keep finding new things to buy, the last time we moved one whole van load was my plants I think it would be more than that now!

The Seaside Town with the Most Beautiful Light in Britain.

 So it's no surprise St Ives gets as busy as it does. We had deliberately chosen to go when the kids were still meant to be in school in the hope it would be quiet so it was disappointing to find it was busier than we had hoped it would be. Mind you by sheer fluke I did manage to miss the G7 summit by a week which was a huge bonus I had no idea that was due to be a skip and a hop down the road when I was looking at St Ives as a holiday destination! 

As it happens that did have a knock on effect for a lot of people because there had been a couple of positive covid cases. Meaning they had had to trace who they had been in touch with, and then where all of those people had been eating. This basically resulted in about two thirds of all the restaurants in St Ives being closed due to staff shortages as they all had to isolate! As it was pre-restrictions being lifted you had to book places to eat in advance so suddenly there were a LOT of people frantically trying to find somewhere else to eat. Ironically we were fine because Himself hates fish, so we had gone for Italian and pub food meaning none of our reservations were cancelled!

We do want to visit more of Cornwall but as it was still lockdown we decided we would go somewhere we knew, as we had both fallen head over heels for St Ives it was a no brainer. We even went back to the same B&B because despite the downside of being up an insane hill, it was lovely. This time though I booked the room with the sea view, we were not disappointed. 

No Pimms with the landlady this time and no cooked breakfast either, but there was a bigger kettle as well as a toaster in the room, then cereals, milk, bread, butter, fresh fruit, snack bars and biscuits downstairs. You just helped yourself each day. We bought eggs at the Co-op in town as we had brought our electric egg boiler with us so we could have a more substantial breakfast prior to the walks we had planned each day.  

We arrived at about 4.30pm did a hasty unpack and went straight out to reacquaint ourselves with this gorgeous place. Seeing what had changed, which shops had closed and which ones were new and just generally unwinding after a 5 hour train journey. 

Crazily we had left in a torrential downpour but this was the weather when we arrived. Bliss.

We had a late dinner reservation so we mooched about the harbour and two of the beaches before going back to sit in the bay window of our room and drink in the view, I swear I felt myself getting lighter by the second as I forgot about work and all that shit. We changed and heading out for dinner which was the first of our two Italian dinners and delicious. We walked back via the beach so

night time beach selfie! 

I took my denim jacket with me which became a bit of a nightmare as I haven't worn it since I broke my shoulder. Denim jackets have no give in them and even with help I had to wrestle myself into it each time we went out, lesson learnt there.

Now there is a view I would happily wake up to each morning, minus the iron obvously! 

Our plan for the day was to walk most of the Pilgrim's, or St Michael's Way. We had a leisurely breakfast before walking down into town and out the other side to catch a bus towards Marazion, our idea being to walk the route backwards. It's too long to walk in one day, but our plan was to miss out the bit we had already done between Lelant and St Ives which made it a more manageable 12 mile walk. There is a hill you can climb in the middle which give stunning views in both directions so that was also part of the plan.

Look at this gorgeous view, it helped make the fact the bus was cancelled and we had to wait 45 minutes for the next one a bit easier to take. As it turns out we should have taken that as a sign for the rest of our day...

We got off the bus about two miles from Marazion and walked from there down to the beach to start our route from the beginning of the causeway to St Michael's Mount, sadly the sea was in so we couldn't start from the island itself.

From there we headed to Marazion Marsh, the walk cuts across the marshes but we had a mooch around there first so I could look at the bird and plant life. Weirdly there was a sign on the post next to these steps saying the pathway was closed for construction work, yet there was no other indication anything amiss so we carried on. We tried to find the road where you could join the walk but got lost so we went back to the marsh and followed the path there. 

A little way in there was another sign, one of those big yellow ones you see next to road works, again saying the pathway ahead was closed but as it was just a grass footpath through marshes and woodland we couldn't figure out what they were for. Well we finally found out, two miles into the walk we reached where you have to cross the train tracks and here was where the construction work was clearly taking place! 

There was no one there and you could see from the way one of the barriers had been pulled back and bent someone else had clearly ignored the construction and carried on. We decided it wasn't worth the risk and turned back as in theory there was another place to join the walk in the direction of Penzance so we headed that way. Would you believe it not one, not two but in three places the coastal path that links Penzance and Marazion was closed for some sort of construction work. I couldn't help feeling that they had had the whole of the spring and early summer when everything was in full lockdown to do the work but instead they wait until the holidays are just beginning. By the time we had made it round these closures it was way too late to continue with the walk as we had to get back in time for a dinner reservation and we would complete the 12 miles in time. So we decided to walk into Penzance and have a mooch about but by the time we got to the outskirts by the train and bus stations it was raining. As we passed through the bus station we spotted a bus to St Ives just about to leave so we took it as a sign and dived on it.

We ended up walking over 6 miles just trying to get started! but as I said to Himself we still had a lovely day out until the weather changed and it's a reason, as if we need one, to come back again and actually complete the walk.

We got in, got changed and went straight out for dinner as we had a fairly early reservation, our second Italian which was not as nice as the previous night but very entertaining courtesy of the people from the Peak District at the table next to us waxing lyrical about "Not only Mr Tom Cruise but also Mr Harrison Ford" being in town for filming. 

From there we went to the Co-op and bought a bottle of wine which we took back with us to drink sitting in the bay window watching the night fall. Bliss.

The next day was warm and started bright but slowly became more and more grey and overcast.

We walked the coastal path towards Zennor, going further this time than before but we still couldn't go all the way. It's a very challenging part of the South West Coastal path, involving scrambling over rocks which I knew I couldn't do with my shoulder.

I don't know if it was due to the lovely warm early spring weather, followed by all the rain this year but the abundance of flowers on the cliffs was breathtaking. 

There were so many orchids too.

When it started to get challenging we headed back. First port of call when we got into town were for some chips after which we just mooched round doing some shopping, visiting a craft fair and whatever else took our fancy. 

I bought a new rum to try and a gorgeous handmade elephant necklace, as well as gifts for Mum and Dad. I was also going to buy a dress for myself but Himself whisked it off me and bought for my birthday in July instead.

 We bought an ice cream and took the scenic route through the graveyard by the sea back to our b&b. It was so peaceful and again the flowers here were lovely.

There were even orchids growing all over here too, so beautiful.

Dinner was at a pub that came with great reviews. I had the most delicious piece of fish with homemade tartar sauce because unlike Himself I adore fish. 

The weather was starting to turn but not enough to stop us walking round to Porthminster beach and back barefoot along the beach and through the harbour as the sea was right out.

Over night it started to rain and by morning was pouring so we ended up having to kill time in a couple of cafes before picking some sandwiches and drinks for our train journey home. Not that it dampened our love for the town one tiny bit. It was a blissful break and did us both the world of good.

A May Round Up.

 No idea what happened there but my follow up post didn't happen! I can't believe how quickly time is passing at the moment, I never seem to have 5 minutes let alone an hour to blog.  

Anyway I shall carry on as if it were just the start of May. 

I did indeed go into Oxford for the 1st time since before Christmas, to meet my friends Charlotte and Alex. Alex had moved back home to Wales last year and I have missed her a lot. Technically she works in Birmingham at the moment, though like many of us she has been working remotely. However she had to go into the office for a day so took the opportunity to visit Oxford too. 

I dropped off some paperbacks at the book stall at the train station on my way into Oxford, and delivered some reference books to the Oxfam bookshop when I got there. The rain was so torrential I actually had to take shelter under some scaffolding with my umbrella up until it eased a little. Charlotte & Alex met me outside the shop  and we walked to North Parade and managed to have tea & cake sat outside a cafe between showers, this was back when you could only eat outside at cafes or restaurants. From there we headed to university parks and meandered about having a good catch up. 

For lunch we managed to find a table outside at Vaults the cafe under the university church in Radcliffe Square. Posing for a quick selfie by the Radcliffe Camera after we had stuffed our faces on their delicious food, forgive the demented hair, it was that windy!

We also squeezed in a browse around Blackwell's before Alex had to collect her case and head for her train. I needed to nip to Marks for some undies and from there Charlotte and I went for a blissful browse around John Lewis, both spending our pennies in the haberdashery section. 

By the time we left the sun had finally come out and as neither of us was in a hurry to go home we popped into the garden at The Red Lion off George Street and had a drink. I actually ended up getting home later than Himself! Oh to be a lady of leisure. 

The other big excitement was FINALLY being able to visit my Dad again. They had allowed my Mum to visit since April but by the beginning of May they said up to two people could visit. We had to go 30 minutes before to do a lateral flow test, fill out paperwork & have our temperature taken, before being shrouded in PPE. The visit was only 15 minutes at first but I can't begin to tell you have amazing it was to finally be able to see him. Since then we have been visiting weekly, I now do the lateral flow test at home and the visits have increased to 30 minutes but we still have to do all the other checks and wear PPE. We are also allowed up to 5 designated visitors now so my brother and nephew number one can also visit.

 From the end of May we have been allowed to take him out, but only for an outdoor visit. On my brother's birthday we liberated Dad for the whole afternoon and had a family picnic in the park next to the care home. He loved it though I think seeing so many people at once was a bit of sensory overload after being away from us all for so long.

Himself and I went to nephew number one and his girlfriend's house that night. We had seen it briefly when they moved in in November but that was in full lockdown, so it was lovely to be able to visit properly and get a full guided tour. They have decorated since that visit and really put their stamp on it.

 We had a great night and finally left at 2.30am, with Himself being somewhat worse for wear (I had sensibly stopped drinking. He was good for nothing the next day so I left him snoozing and pottered in the garden.

I've been quite busy in the garden when I have had some time. I have been taking it steady as I gain strength back in my arm. Actually there has been a big change in the garden, you may remember me grumbling about the huge conifer 

the one in the middle of this picture to be precise. Well the lady next door popped round to say they were having a tree surgeon out to take the overhanging branches off the conifer, and the tree you can see behind it, on their side. As well as reduce the height of the conifer a bit. I confessed I would happily see the whole thing come down and she got quite excited by that until I pointed out that sadly as we are renting I couldn't approve it. I offered to ring our landlord to see if he was up for it coming down as I know he plans to build at some point. I did ring him and he was amenable so I passed his phone number on for them to sort out particulars. 

It turned out the tree surgeon was a one man outfit and said it was too big a job for him to remove the whole tree but he did reduce the height by 10 foot. 

Well he clearly didn't remove enough height for our neighbour because over the next 2 weeks he got his own chainsaw and did this

then this

and finally this

I mean fair play he cleared up and disposed of all the tree but it turns out he never even called our landlord who was a bit peeved as you can imagine! Though he did say if we were ok with it then he was ok with it. So yes...

Anyway now we have a lot more light in the garden!

I felt obliged to tidy up at bit at the end of the garden and there was a pile of rubble so I decided to build a rockery on a flowerbed near the kitchen that nothing seems to grow in. On the big new housing estate about a mile from us there is a small Asda and they always have plants outside. I have to say I have been blown away by the quality and the price and have been back several times now to stock up.

Here are the alpines I bought at 3 for £5 and a couple of other reduced plants.

and here is my new rockery! I've since bought a couple more to fill in the gaps.

As I am still working from the kitchen table and tend to stand at the window drinking my tea or eating my lunch I have bought some colour for the table outside.

Mostly petunias, from left to right at the back Blue Star, Blackcurrent Sorbet and Velvet. 

I planted all my out of date seeds and most of them sprouted

I also started my container vegetable garden.

I've been doing full on battle with the slugs, they have been relentless this year. Much worse than usual. I go out every evening and pick them off by torchlight. No poison pellets for me with all the bird life and hedgehogs. I have tried the wool pellets,the broken egg shells, the grit to no avail but have found the copper tape quite effective.

The birds have been an absolute joy, though the juvenile starlings are SO noisy! 

This laburnum tree and honeysuckle are like a bird high rise. It has a blackbird nest at head height, with a collared dove nest above that and goldfinches nesting right at the top! Today there were baby chaffinches, one of my favourite garden birds. It really does the soul good.   

I think this flowerbed in the middle of the lawn was once a pond but it is now a circular alpine bed. It is full of cyclamens so I have to be careful how I dig. I tend to fill the gaps with pansies and the like

As a rule I leave things where they self seed and this foxglove is no exception. However it is insanely huge and has now dwarfed everything else in the little alpine bed. In fact it's actually as tall as me! Ridiculous but the bees love it.

For the last bank holiday in May the weather was unusually glorious so we took ourselves out for a walk.

We ended up doing 10 miles and spent 7 of them carrying a box of eggs! We passed a house selling fresh eggs and when we looked they were from heritage breed hens and all sorts of colours like white, blue and green so how could you not? 

It wasn't meant to be 10 miles but we got slightly lost, in countryside like this who cares though? 

So that was May as ever I will end with my purchases. I was looking for something on Etsy and you know how it suggests things you might like.

Well

I fell in love with this glass whale when I clicked on the link, I just had to have it. He now has pride of place at our bedroom window. You can't really see but he has a moon and stars etched on him. I then saw another glass picture listed as 'from a seller near you' I absolutely had to have it. I am obsessed with the full moon, apparently as a cancerian it's in my dna, I'll go with that. 

Anyway after I paid it turned out it was from the US! My heart sank at the thought of the import charge but amazingly enough it arrived without getting stopped by customs.

I'm afraid this photo doesn't do it justice, it's gorgeous.

Finally handbags, well there had to be a few!

 The white one is heavily beaded, I have no recollection of buying it or where from!?! It just arrived in the post one day. You know your handbag habit is bad when that happens!

The red leather one has 2 side pockets that someone had decided to super glue shut, I managed to ease them apart again but the glue has left a messy stain.

These two were Ebay purchases.  I need to polish them and try and find space for them in my out of control collection. I feel the need for another cull, not that I ever seem to part with more than one or two at most. It's bad, very bad.

Well that was my gallop through the rest of May. I will *try* to get back very soon with June and our blissful trip to Cornwall. Adieu.