February - Signs of Spring?

"Why what's the matter that you have such a February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"

Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare

Hello there my lovelies,

I'm still croaking a little but feeling a tad more chipper than yesterday at least.  Hopefully the lurgy is on it's way out thank goodness.

Isn't the above quote fabulous?!   I used to think February was mean and bitter - neither here nor there twixt Winter and Spring and the quote sums it up beautifully.  Today is a case in point.  An icy cold blow, damp, grey and miserable.  However as we're approaching the latter part of the month, isn't it great to find that the evenings are gradually drawing out again as the wheel of the year gently turns. 

On the face of things, my garden is looking drab and dreary and so very different from the blaze of geraniums and lavender which graced my pots and baskets from mid-summer through to late autumn last year.  The cats have exploited the fact that I'm not out there every day scooting and scolding them out of my borders and I will leave the resulting damage to your imagination!  I'm incredulous that all three of them use my garden and - it seems - my lawn! as a proverbial 'dumping' ground when there is a ten acre field out back!!!   WHY?!!  The varmints!!   Despair was me as I was pottering around the garden this morning - the amount of work needed to pull it back to it's former glory weighing heavy on my heart (and turning my stomach a little it has to be said!)

Looking a little more closely however I was heartened to see some hints that Mother Nature is already in the process of donning her more glamourous garb and pushing Spring our way. 

A tiny primula with a single flower!

My beautiful Dicentra Spectrablis has survived another year it seems!  Although that picture makes it look like some weird anenomes under the sea!!  Mad!!

And..... hopefully....(dratted camera battery ran out before I snapped them) but I spotted the tips of the shoots of the deepest darkest black tulips planted last year which I had completely forgotten about!

Doesn't it make you feel a little better knowing that the earth is waking again? 

Now where's the poop scoop?!!

 OO!!! How could I have forgotten this very important happening!!  In other news - our girls have done us proud - they laid their very first egg today!  To say that I was chuffed was an understatement.  Here it is look:-

Is it sad to take a photograph of an egg I wonder?

Well..... probably even more sad to take a photograph of TWO eggs!!

Yup! After five weeks of cajoling and waiting they presented us with not one egg but two!! We found the second one (still warm I hasten to add!) when we returned from shopping this afternoon!  Double chuffed!!

Here they are - you can see how much they've picked up - they're all so glossy and healthy looking now - must be the mealworms and spinach they've been being spoilt with!! 

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend, whatever you're up to.

K xxxxx

Hibernation (aka SLOTH!)

Ugh.

Is there anything worse than a common or garden cold to make you feel like absolute PANTS?!  I'm off work at the moment a) cos I feel like aforesaid Pants and b) I hardly think it's fair to subject my work colleagues to the sound of my nasal passages being cleared at very regular intervals, a cough-cum-bark of which  any self respecting seal would be proud and generalised moaning and groaning everytime I move.   Therefore I am camped on the settee for the day, wrapped in this:      

 

                 

drinking copious amounts of this:           (although that's no hardship cos I actually love it)             

 reading this:- 

          

and doing some of this:

(when I'm having a moment of strength and am not lying all pale and wan with a white lace hanky clasped to my brow.  I also think that it's very unpleasant of darling Mother Nature to also deliver my you know what when I'm feeling this way.  Thanks for that luv!   Double Whammy!!  Mind you, whilst I'm feeling like crap anyway I suppose it's as good a time as any to get it out of the way!! 

I usually hate lying around and wasting the day - but there are just some times aren't there where you have to admit defeat and give in to your body's need to heal itself.  Well that's my justification and I'm sticking to it!!

Bridget - pass those big pants would you!!

 See you (cough) soon!

xxx

Of Lustful Thoughts......

In an effort to provide myself with some blog-fodder, I had an idea today to be inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins.

According to Wikipedia, , the Seven Deadly Sins “is a classification of objectionable vices”. Well I don’t mind a bit of vice now and again - I’m very open minded, me! In keeping with good old Valentines Day just yesterday - I thought we’d do LUST first!

Lust. Mmmm…. I lust after sooooo many things it’s obscene. My Man, Howard Donald, Gary Barlow, Colin Firth, Handbags, the entire contents of the Cath Kidston catalogue, a tidy house (!)…. Although - if I had a pie chart representing the lustful portion of my brain, I estimate that 80% of that pie chart of lustfulness would be given over to s….. ss…(*grips laptop and grits teeth*)… ssshhh……………..

SHOOOOOOOOOOOES!!!!!

Mmmmm Shoes…. (insert Homer Simpson voice here and the rubbing of thighs in a Vic Reeves stylee!!)


Life is simply too short to have boring sex or sensible shoes. I can’t remember whether I’ve read that quote somewhere or I made it up. But it’s true!!

I Love em! The funkier the better!! The more straps and buckles the better. And my, MY are there some funky ones around just now!

Look at these babies:- I had to be prised away from licking the window  swooning pitifully outside of ‘Schuh’ in Merry Hill when I spotted these on display. I do embarrass myself sometimes.



Suitable attire for tea with the Mad Hatter and Alice, I feel



And these for tea with the Vicar!!

For other shoes of a beauteous nature step right this way

And these by Iron Fist!!! Dear Lord.    My rock chick roots may be grey now but they're still there!!

Actually no.  I'm wearing THESE for tea with the Vicar!  mwahahaha!!!

Ah how I’d love to own a pair of them!! I couldn’t bring myself to wear them mind….they might get dirty!! I’d be happy to put them on a shelf and stroke them occasionally!!

Unfortunately I’m really not built for heels of stilt walking proportions but it doesn’t stop me admiring them from afar…. And lusting quietly! And sometimes not so quietly. My Mr B raises a quizzical eyebrow in my direction if I’m making ‘When Harry Met Sally’ noises with the laptop perched on my knee and merely asks “pretty shoes darling?”. Hee hee…. He knows me so well!



It’s a bit of a hobby of mine to find the most wondrous of shoes for the smallest price tag - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.



Here are a few of my successes……..

 £1.50 from the Tenovus Cancer Charity shop. Viva La Diva. Tags still on when I purchased them. Ever so slightly stilt-like tendencies, but surprisingly comfortable thanks to the little platform sole and don’t make me walk like a vertiginous duck.

£8.00 from Matalan last year ….. Mental colour but oh so fab!! How could I have left them on the shelf?

£7.00 - again from Matalan just a couple of weeks ago and perfect for a girlie night out. I wasn’t looking - but somehow they found me…. 

I think I’ve found my ultimate pair of lusted after shoes now though. When I win the lottery I’m gonna get this pair, walk into my boss’s office, casually rest my feet up on his desk and let my shoes do the talking.....

HAH!!!!!  Check out this site .... Major Shoe Porn I must warn you!!!

What’s on YOUR Lust List?

Hello Again

Hey hey people!

Well once again that short interlude of non-posting was once again due to a technical hitch! However, normal (cough) service is resumed as some wonderfully clever person at a different computer repair shop to the one I previously used simply replaced my power cable (well - that of the laptop and not mine personally you understand) and now said laptop is behaving perfectly.

Enough with the boring tales of technophobia already!

I’m always looking for blogging inspiration. I follow some fantastic blogs whose number are growing at an alarming rate! I could spend hours reading blogs (and probably do - if I wasn’t so much in denial about how much time I spend online to admit to it!). There are some wonderfully inspirational, intriguing and hilarious people out there and I love having a little insight into their daily life. I’m more of a ‘lurker’ than someone who comments frequently, but I do visit my favourite ones each day. I’d rather read blogs than watch tv If I’m honest.

I’m really trying to get myself in to the habit of blogging more regularly. I always have good intentions but then sit looking at a blank screen for ages waiting for inspiration to strike. When that doesn’t happen I give up and go read some more!! I often think my days are far too boring for anyone to want to sit and read about! I’m normally asleep at my desk by ten past nine in the morning - I can’t believe anyone would want to hear about that!!

At the moment here at Peapods we’re decorating the bathroom. Well I say we…. In truth it’s more HE than We really - but I feel that I’m providing much needed assistance by providing coffee at regular intervals, making encouraging ‘Oooooh!!! It’s gonna look FAB’ noises, and, only this afternoon ….. Wait for it…. Pasted three whole lengths of wallpaper. THREE I tell you. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it! Said bathroom is being given a rather radical makeover. It’s being turned from aquamarine with an extremely dated and naff starfishy border - to stark black and white with some amazingly mad wallpaper on a feature wall! I shall share it with you once we’re a little closer to completion but at present I’m really pleased with the way it’s looking. It’s taken a little longer than anticipated as these jobs usually do. I was confident that we’d get it done in a weekend. PAH!! What do I know of such things! Man decided that the door would look great if we stripped it back to the bare wood - little did he know that there were layers of paint on that door which pre-dated the Viking Invasion so it took scary things like a heat gun, reams of sandpaper, much brute force and elbow grease and, when all else failed - a sound thrashing with a can of nitro-morse to get rid of it all. A brilliant job has been done though and again I’m really pleased with the result. Next we have to paint the wall tiles, lay new lino type tiles on the floor, take off the old naff yukky skirting board and put beautiful pristine posh new skirting board on, put up the new fixtures like the loo roll holder and towel rail … and buy another roll of flippin’ wallpaper cos the pattern ran out and left us up wotsit creek!! GAH!!

It will be worth it.  It will.   I’m sure of it!!!

In other news.... the chooks have settled in really well.  These pictures were taken during the week they moved in.  They looked a little shell shocked (groan).  They were in moult and a little distressed by their journey from Wales to the Black Country by car, so they're looking a little spiky around the edges.  Mucho good food and pampering though and they're in fine fettle now, plump, and shiny, friendly and burbling away as soon as they see/hear us approaching.  We know this is only cupboard love however - they're just looking for the grub bowl!! I'll take some decent pics of them soon so you can see how happy they look. 

It's been such a miserable day weather wise today and it's wet, dreary and yuksome outside now.  I've lit the candles to inject a little cosiness into the evening and don't intend on going anywhere.  It's the sofa and my crochet for me.  I love these candle holders.  I bough them from Asda just before Christmas.  The large ones were £4 each - but if you bought two it was just £5.00 for both!  The smaller ones were £3.00 each.  They cast a lovely warm glow!  Looks like Charlie-cat has decided that the best place to be is snuggled up indoors too!

Well I'm off to press the very last drops out of my rock and roll weekend(!)

See you soon!!!