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...