24th July photo - Metric conversion fridge magnets.

When my mum moved into her new flat, I bought her a set of these metric consersion magnets as she had to change over from a life time cooking with gas to electricity. I thought they were ideal for the elderly struggling with conversion.

Well I must have become elderly now - because I had had to buy myself a set as my scales measure in lbs & oz, but all new recipes are in grams & kilos etc. I find myself referring to them frequently.

Sorry about the quality of this second photo - it was taken in the daylight, but the camera put the flash on - hence the bright spot.

23rd July photo - millionaires shortbread

Well first of all an admission - this photo is a photolift (is that the right term - like a scraplift?) of Jo's post of exactly the same thing last week!! Thanks Jo for the link to Lucy's blog and the recipe.

I have wanted to make these for ages - my first attempt many years ago with Jess, failed dismally because we used evaporated milk by mistake! So I was really pleased to see Jo's post and this time I used the proper ingredients!

Liam was so excited to see these piled up for the photo he grabbed one straight away.

They have come out fairly well - the shortbread is a bit to0 crispy - will bake it for a little less time next time ( my new cooker is very eficient!).

22nd July 2009 - Liam cycling to work - or a quick getaway!

Fergus was on his way to work at Starbucks and was in a good mood, so I thought I would grab my chance for a photo of him, as I had not had one lately - he's not the only one - there are other folks who owe me a photo for July as well!!

He posed on his bike in the driveway and I got this shot of him - but then I carried on clicking and got these action shots - which are nothing like Pam's super cycle shots in Barcelona - but not bad for a 5 second glimpse as he shot away as quickly as he could!

I think I might use one these last 3 as my POTD!

21st July photo - my new CD's

Oh dear Pablo Neruda's poetry should come with a health warning!! I am halfway through his biography (which I posted last week) and really enjoying it - he led a fascinating life. I am reading his poetry in tandem with this book - but many of his poems are so powerful that they are having quite an stirring effect on me! Never ever did I think that I would come to enjoy poetry.

So finding myself in quite an emotional state - I end up making it worse by discovering music which is having the same effect on me!

From the Northern Soul music scene, I have known a couple of tracks by Terry Callier but thanks to You tube, I have found some of his new romantic music which is so beautiful & emotive. Just listen to these 2 wonderful tracks below.

Terry Callier's story is equally as romantic - He began writing and recording music in 1963 but never reached a large audience. So he took a job as a computer programmer at the University of Chicago. In the 1990's a British Company contacted him for rights to use one of his tracks in the Northern Soul scene - his music went down a storm and DJ's at Northern Soul all-nighters all over the UK, started playing his music and he was 're-discovered', coming over to Britain to play at gigs in the university holidays. In the late 1990's he started recording again and this time has found such recognition from a wider audience that he no longer works as a computer programmer - concentrating on his soulful music. I am so gutted to find that we have missed a concert in Manchester that he did in June this year. He is performing at the Brighton Festival in August - so I am trying to persuade Steven that we need to go!

Anyway the point of this long post is to show my POTD - 5 new Terry Callier CD's that arrived this morning.

There were tracks on all these CD's that I liked and I could not make up my mind - so I ordered all 5! Some folks think that I am slightly insane - perhaps this is evidence that I am!

I am sure that a good old fashioned slap in the face will come along and kick me out of this emotional reverie - but for the moment I am thinking of taking out shares in the Kleenex company!

If you fancy hearing some of his great dance music - instead of this soppy stuff, just put Terry Callier Ordinary Joe and look at me now - into You tube and you will be treated to some lovely footstomping treats.

20th July photo - more summer flowers!!

I know I said no more flowers - but I am struggling for something for today and these are so pretty!!

There is something quite appealing about blue flowers - I like all these shots but I think the top one will be my POTD.

19th july photo -

Steven & I took a chance on the weather today and spent the day at the caravan and we were rewarded with nice sunny weather.

We had a lovely long walk through some woods planning where to site our next geocache - there plenty of places to choose from - as you can see, these woods behind Steven are quite extensive. I am quite excited about this one so I can't wait to get started on it.

The lovely weather bought the para gliders in force - they were lovely to watch - but I only had my compact camera on me - so I could not get close enough to produce good enough photos to be POTD which is a shame as they were fab to watch circling about in the skies.

Our exertions through the woods were rewarded with a 99 ice cream - yum. I must learn to speed up when taking photos like this as they melt so quickly!


Now the school summer holidays are here - the life guards are out on the beach. Though no one ventured into the sea today as the waves were quite rough.

Lots of photos - but which one to choose for POTD? I will decide when I have time to print it out tomorrow.

18th July photo - Eleanor at the railway station

I took Eleanor back to the railway station this morning for her journey back to Uni - but forgot my camera - shock horror!! As she is a very willing subject for POTD I had to use her camera - but all the shots I took bleached out her face completely. I have done my best to edit this one - but it is still poor - sorry Eleanor. Her time at uni is coming to an end soon. Her PhD has to be handed in by the end of September so she will have to come home to live then whilst she job hunts. So from quite an empty house we will be having a full one again.