London highlights

travelling by tube.

the thing I love most about the tube is the font on the signs. how geeky is that.....

truly beautiful meringues in the V&A cafe.
there are no photos of the actual cakes that we ate, as they were too busy trying to blow away. I have never known a cup of tea could blow away, but apparently they can.

the oh so lovely yarn heaven that is Loop.

I was far to overwhelmed to actually buy anything.

 a shiny new red bus.

the olympic rings at Kew

toasting friendships

the olympic torch

we had the most perfect evening for the visit of the Olympic torch to Northumberland. Please note the blue skies. ok I'll admit everyone is wearing coats and shivering, but it was dry! The grounds of the castle made a great venue for the arrival of the torch, which was used to light a giant cauldron on the stage.

next morning we were up early in the pouring rain to see the torch running out of town, it was an amazing experience, although if I'm truly honest I think the thing the children were most impressed with was the promise of hot chocolate when they got to a specially organised breakfast club at school.....



right now and a tiger tail

right now there are a million things I should be doing, but I am far too distracted.

firstly the Olympic torch is arriving today and we are partying at the castle

the town is full of market stalls and bands, and I need to go and look at them all, and maybe stop for a cup of tea in the market place. After all it is sunny here today - drum roll please!!! and therefore these opportunities are not to be wasted!

tomorrow we will wave the torch as it runs out of Alnwick on it's journey south, right past the train station where I am catching a train for my birthday weekend big adventure to the capital city. Oh how excited I am!

but first I must pack.  I have a list; oyster card - check, knitting for the train - check, camera - must charge battery!!!!, tiger tail - check, - what's that you say? "tiger tail?", doesn't everyone travel with a tiger tail? no? oh well, just me then, thanks Lynn! 

I will see some of you at the weekend, and I am very looking forward to it. And if you don't see me don't worry, I shall take lots of photos of the tiger tail so you don't feel you have missed out.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. x

lavender fish

how does the nursery rhyme go?
Lavender's blue dilly dilly, Lavender's Green......

well these lavender fish come in blue, and green and in all the colours of the rainbow.

they were very popular at last years Art's Festival, and I hope they will be again. 

Just over two weeks to go, I shall probably start panicking soon. 

busy busy busy

good grief it has been busy busy busy round here lately.

there have been ridiculous outfits, and severe expansion of comfort zones as I do new and scary things,

like singing on stage.............

there have been trips to distant railway stations to meet special people and wave flags.

there have  been ancient monuments to visit, the highlight of which was definitely the latrines - well for the youngest boy at least!

trips to the North Sea; big, blue and impossibly cold.

and there has plenty of feasting.

In truth it has been mostly about the feasting.

with the occasional wild animal sighting........

fancy a cuppa?

It has been significantly wet and grey this week. which has hindered me in taking the photos of things I wanted to show you. We did have a one morning of nice weather, but I that I used up in the garden, pulling up a multitude of weeds.....

oh and other time it was dry I was stuck inside a dusty gymnasium doing exam invigilating, I think I was even more frustrated to be there than the poor GSCE French students, and they looked pretty fed up I can tell you that......

the upside to being stuck in a lot is the opportunity to drink lots of tea,

and when a moment of photo frustration turned into a flash of inspiration to check my archives for unpublished posts I was thrilled to find these tea related pics,

taken at Beningbrough Hall Gardens.

I am inspired to make a make a mosaic for my garden, but I think it will have to be a little smaller......

dinner's ready

sometimes when you say "dinner's ready" you don't get quite who you expect at the dinner table......