Taking liberties......

     
            ......and getting closer and closer to dads dish, while he is totally absorbed in his telly programme.  Joe could sneak a quiet lick and I'm sure dad would be none the wiser once he is glued to the tv or his phone.  This dog gets away with murder sometimes.   

     The Conservative Conference was held in Birmingham last weekend, so we went into town for a wander in the sunshine to see what was going on...

        .....security was very tight, as there was just about every protest group you can think of waving posters, handing out leaflets and shouting into their mega-phones.

          Access to the Symphony hall was totally off limits to us normal people.  We walked along the canal banks watching the barges and the police diving team coming and going on the waterways.

        Darsh isn't quite in the same league as Cameron or Boris, but he was still chuffed to see his name plastered on a city bill-board.  So of course he felt the need for a photograph to remind him of his moment of fame...

               Monday saw us heading to London to see Sara and John's new flat. 

    The views from outside, and the weather, was stunning, but the flat itself.... not so.  We are heading back over there tomorrow, armed with paint pots, brushes, steam cleaner and tool boxes....

A sunny morning....

     .....quick into the park before it changes it's mind.  Every morning this week has started off lovely, but by mid-morning rain moves in.  This morning we were in there, quick.....
 

           ....one to stroll.....

            ......one to sniff.....

           ......and one to admire the shadows.

                Of course all that rain has left it very muddy under the trees, but dad had to have a go at jumping over it, and he made it...nearly...and spent the rest of the walk trying to get mud off his boots, socks, trousers, legs!   "Oh it gets everywhere" we could hear him wailing as we walked back to the car.
       Joe walked round the muddy patches, but with his low slung undercarriage.....

                  ......he was filthy, and very reluctant to be caught, as he knew a trip to the wash bowl was in store for him at home....correct.... but a good chase with a doggy towel and a favourite sweetie soon restored his happy face.

Sara's back.....

     ....in the country and she spent part of the week looking for a flat in London.  Then she came over  on the train and joined us for the weekend, whilst dad drove to Newcastle for a couple of days with Charlotte and brought her back here too.
      It was my birthday on Saturday, so after a late breakfast and a try on of clothes to take on the cruise, which is in only  4 weeks time, we went into town to a vintage fair.  We took a bag of unloved clothes with us to put in the swap-shop they were doing.  I'd never done one before, but Charlotte was a dab hand, apparently such things are commonplace up in Newcastle.  You take in things you don't want and swap them for things there that you might wear! 
     So, Sara got a new jacket, a pair of jeans and a dress that needs a little altering, Charlotte acquired 2 lovely new dresses and I got a new top, some pretty buttons to put onto something else.....and a large pile of washing and ironing.  It was good fun, and if the stuff doesn't get worn we can simply throw it back into the next charity donation bag.
      There was also a couple of girls doing 1940's hair and make-up, so I had a go, after all it was my birthday....

         ......then we went to play posing by an old factory wall, while we waited for dad to park the car...

      .....had a walk through town, an amble round Selfridges....it was so busy (how many weeks to Christmas?)
        And into "Bodega" for an early supper.....

         ....it's a South American themed restaurant, my current favourite as it is always so noisy and busy, the food is great and rather unusual, the staff are pleasant and it has a really good atmosphere.

 

Sunday was an at home day.

I got my wedding dress out of the loft.......

      ....and the dress I bought for my 21st.  They still fitted...sort of....on one or the other of us...

It's Waining.....

     .....and has been for simply hours.

                 ....waiting not particularly patiently, but we know it has to stop sometime...hasn't it?

 

He hates getting wet, and grumbles loudly when he has too, but a little dog can only wait for so long, and he makes sure we know all about it when he comes back inside.  He takes ages to dry, so too do the carpets!

Good morning......

       .......to this brilliant first Autumn day, and to our first winter frost. The garage roof and cars are sparkly for the first time this season.  The sunshine is brilliant, too "brittle" to last for long, so make the most of it.  Darsh is still snoring in bed, Joe is helping him.  So I am enjoying a peaceful breakfast on my own, with my coat, on the patio.

 
                .....This pair of pigeons are still sat, trying to raise a family on a platform, rather than a nest of twigs.  They have been sat for around 6 weeks now.  I wonder how much longer they will stay before they work out it just isn't going to happen.  We wonder if they are a young and inexperienced pair.  The "platform" is so small she has trouble balancing, any eggs would roll straight off and it is so easily spotted the magpies would soon raid it.

     Have had a productive week, my passport has been sent for, I've got a new I-Pad as my old one simply stopped.....sorted clothes for the cruise, started a course of acupuncture for my back and knee, attended my hospital appt. and decided that was a total waste of time, so acupuncture it is then.
       I also walked Joe around the block for the first time in a month.  It's only a little block but my knee was so sore when I got back, and Joe was cross, he didn't want to do the little block, he wanted to take on Sutton park, he dug in his heels and pulled on his collar.  I was worried as I daren't pick him up and he might slip out of his collar if he pulls it just right.  My toddlers never threw tantrums, but my dog can if his walk is too short.
    Last night it rained...."Walk Joe?".....definately not!

Wedding dress shopping....

      
     ......in Bristol, with Selina and Charlotte.  Selina was getting worried as everyone had told her she was leaving it so late-6 weeks and counting.  As it turned out, it was a bit of a problem, narrowing it down to just one dress.  There was just so many beautiful options, she was spoilt for choice!

         This was a favourite with me, it's clean cut smooth simplicity made it beautiful in a 1940-50's kind of way
.

                 This glorious creation was crying out for a huge country wedding..... 

          The detail in the work and the beauty of all that embroidery....

    The size and flamboyance of it's train meant it was just too lovely to resist at least a little try on of all it's gorgeousness.  With a price tag of £500 as it was second hand, it belonged to a really sumptious wedding.

Charlotte was nearly bursting with excitement....do you think she could resist having a try?

                 ....No, of course she couldn't.

              Grinning like a Cheshire cat on the way up the High Street to buy the chosen dress, at the first shop we went into would you believe.  Selina spent a sleepless night worrying about her decision, and whether she could find a dressmaker able to do the alterations. 
   Monday morning took us to a lovely lady in Bristol who was confident she could do the job, get the dress cleaned and get all those pretty little buttons looking pristine again in less than 2 weeks.

           Worries over?.....for now maybe, but there could be a few more panics just around the corner...

Spot the difference....

      I knew there was a similarity as soon as Joe walked in from his haircut the other day.

 This little guy lives with Selina.  We bought him for her for Christmas, years ago, long before we found  Joe....

                  This little guy doesn't, he lives with me, and he's mine, all mine.....

            It's his birthday weekend.  It's been 8 years since we fetched him home from the Birmingham Dogs Home.  He was such an unpredictable little devil, we were wary of lifting him into the car, he didn't know us and we didn't know him, but we did know he had a biting reputation and he was just so scared of life in general.
       8 years later, he rules the roost, loves staying at home in his garden and still hates the car.  When he first arrived he was faddy, I offered him some rice on the first night and he backed away in total disgust.  Now bring it on, he LOVES rice.  In fact most things go down, even if they don't stay down there for very long.  He loves us to bits, and is so thrilled when any of his sisters come home for the weekend.  He is loud and lairy  and totally does his own thing.  He never learnt any tricks, or rules, and his favourite thing is a snooze on our bed.

                               I love him....daddy hates him.....he's just perfect...[more or less]

I've got a mission today....

      ......Sara has just called from Dublin, to see if I can hunt out some flats for them on the internet, so she can arrange to view them when she is in London in a couple of weeks time.  There are hundreds of them advertised, and what with having to finish off her jobs for Citi, and packing too, poor old Sara is feeling a bit overwhelmed.  John is no doubt just as anxious as it is a huge upheaval for him too.

        However....I have also had a nice surprise this morning....all the way from China, via Lichfield and Interflora.....

         Rainbow Roses, 12 of them in a glass vase.  I've never seen anything like them before and think that close up they are absolutely beautiful.   BUT...wait for it....try looking at them as a whole, and at a bit of a distance....

       ....They look to be well past their best, and have no foliage at all, nothing like the pictures on the internet.  So after a few tears and a feeling of been so ungrateful for such a wonderful present.  We rang Interflora and complained.
      This afternoon a different florists shop rolled up with these beauties....

 

        .....the guy looked really shocked when I showed him the first bunch, but these are simply lovely

            Autumn....in one big beautiful armful.....and the smell....I have been carrying them round with me from room to room just so that I don't miss any of it.

                And whats this I see?

              Blimey...It's a good job I'm sitting down.

School starts again this week.....

     .....and so today we have got one of the best days of the summer so far.  It is bright still and very sunny, not overly hot, just lovely.  The butterflies and insects have finally appeared and I have been sat down in my wild patch watching them and enjoying the sounds I have so missed all summer.....

      The blackberrys need picking and putting in the freezer and the whole garden needs a lot of attention.  Joe is looking for his compass again cos Darsh hasn't cut the grass for nearly a month.  He only likes to do the grass when Sukpal is here to hold the wire for him and to empty the grass box when it is full....I ask you....it needs to be cut every week this summer with all that rain it has carried on growing far longer than normal.
             The flowers are also lasting well, I have been feeding and deadheading everything and so I still have loads of colour in the garden and greenhouse.  The sweet-peas are full of flowers and I can smell them inside the house.

    I hurt my back again last week and this is the first day I have really been able to get downstairs.  I have managed to get in the shower and get dressed for the first time in a week.  Thank god for the Paralympics I have been watching them all day, but the adverts are just so bad...every few minutes they interrupt the flow.....give me the BBC (no adverts at all) any day. 
    Joe is pleased to see me downstairs again, he is looking strangely slim for some reason.  I have lost half a stone this week.   Darsh has been in charge of catering.....he does so love his own made curry, fried rice and chips.  If he makes it himself....how come he can never tell me whats in it, or where the ingredients come from?  He was cursing earlier this week, apparently there is something wrong with his fridge.  The breads his brother brought over from Malaysia have gone mouldy....in the fridge, not the freezer.  When did his brother come over?  Just after Christmas wasn't it?   Hmmmm, anyway I've lost half a stone...wonder where I put it...

Lazing away the summer....

           .....a busy few weeks enjoying the summer, and I felt like a bit of a break from my blog.  But it's got to the point where if I don't make an effort and get back in the swing I know that I simply wont bother.  My I-Pad is just so quick and convenient to grab that I have become very lazy about turning on the laptop, and taking regular pics.  In the last few days I have felt a gentle change in the air, summer is drawing to a close so my favourite time of the year is just around the corner....

       I have a greenhouse full of so slow to ripen tomatoes, I think we have eaten about 6 so far this year.  They were rather soft and not very juicy, but mixed with a little oil, Balsamic vinegar and a bit of chopped Basil-which has done so well this year-they were really delicous.  The skins are very thin and easily damaged I expected thay would make them quick to ripen...but not so.

         It all seems so silent this year, there are hardly any bees or wasps, no butterflies or Lace-wings and certainly no Lady-birds.  Considering how many Ladybirds were around at Spring, Where have they all gone?

     This big green beetle was on my vine and I've been meaning to look up just what sort he is...

                 As for this....

                                                          .....Joe dug him up from under the apple tree, I think he is a Lime Hawk moth caterpillar, but I am not too sure.  Joe was picking him up in his teeth and throwing up in the air.  I put him in the flower bed hoping my big fluffy hunter (and me) wouldn't find him again.
.

              Joe was mega-excited last night, charging into the greenhouse wagging his tail wildly.  I heard a few bangs and crashes and I raced after him.  We have been watching a mamma blackbird rear a very late brood of 4 youngsters and 1 of them had got into the greenhouse.  Joe thought his day had come....he has been watching those young birds a keenly as us.  The bird escaped unhurt without Joe realising it was gone, but he spent a very enthusiastic 30 minutes turning over every pot and leaf just in case.  This morning some of my butter-nut squashes were just that SQUASHED.

        Due to eating 2 large greasy meals yesterday, Darsh thought it might be a good idea to come with us for our walk this morning-what with him planning to be fit, trim and sexy for the wedding in November.  I was very pleased he did, cos I fell down a rabbit hole-never even saw the darn thing and fell straight over, very Alice in Wonderland-not.  I have a strange, large lumpy ankle that is rather sore to say the least.  Joe was miffed cos his walk was cut short, and Darsh came home and scoffed a plate full of bacon-butties.
    I am sat, as I have been for all day, my rack of ironing is in front of me, still waiting to be done, all I have achieved today is slicing a pot of peaches and nectarines ready for the freezer.  Joe is looking pointedly at me, he knows automatically when it is approaching his dinner time.  Darsh is out under the camper van doing the brakes-we have yet to use that vehicle this year and are planning to sell it.  But I think we will have a good Autumn and plan to get away during September.  However now that Sara has GOT HERSELF THAT JOB, we will just have to wait and see...