Apps I love

I may be addicted to my smartphone... I blame the apps, too many good apps out there!  Here are some more of my faves:

I'm surprised I've taken to meditation as much as I have, using the Headspace app to do short meditations everyday has made a dramatic difference to how I deal with almost everything in my life.  I love that I can have this resource with me wherever I go and would recommend the free 'Take 10' package you can download.

Ha, this Cat Snaps app is just daft, but I love that it means I get pictures of Mew such as this....

Printic is such an easy way to print your Instagram photos, I love that they are printed to look like Polaroids. I stick mine to the inside of the kitchen cupboards so that every time I make a cup of tea or fetch something I get to see them.

I've been shuffling back and forth to London quite a bit this year and without a doubt this has been the app I've used the most whilst visiting, it is the best tube map app I've come across.  It's really easy to use and the route planner is super quick and reliable.

My A - Z of books

I've mentioned before how I never really laugh out loud.  Not because I lack a sense of humour, a soul or any joy in my heart *gip*, I just don't laugh out loud seemingly.  I would love to, especially when I go to see a funny film or a comedian I look like I'm dead inside sat there with a slight smirk on my face nodding my appreciation like an emotionless robot.  SIGH.  What has this got to do with My A - Z of books?  Because this week is 'L' for 'Let's Pretend This Never Happened' by Jenny Lawson, and goddammit, it's made the list because it made me actually LOL!

Lawson's memoir is hilariously honest, engaging, ridiculous (zombie dog story) and her love of weird taxidermy only raises her further up the pedestal I am happy to place her on for making me LOL.   Lawson was a blogger before she was a writer and as such I found her style more engaging, she is a better storyteller, less focused on writing for other writers which seems to be a thing now.  I read a quote on Pinterest that said 'seeing a person reading a book you love is like having the book recommend the person', I think if I saw others reading this book, chuckling along to it there is a good chance we would get along.  

Allotment geekery

Less than a week to go before I start my San Diego adventure!  I am so excited but stressed as well, there is so much to do before I go and both MozzyMr and I have caught a cold.  It's like we're competing for most disgusting nose blow, or loudest cough the whole time.  On top of that I've bruised a bone in my foot, I'm not even sure how I've managed it but it has kept me from the gym and I was counting on these last few classes before I fly out to calm me down!

Last weekend we were in London attending Secret Cinema (which was awesome!) so all the allotment work that has been piling up is being condensed into this weekend.

The allotment is just bursting with all sorts of gorgeousness at the moment, these little flowers are everywhere at the moment, as are buttercups is that a thing this year?  I see them in abundance everywhere I turn.

This year I am trying my hand at companion planting, in this raised bed we have shallots and carrots.  Monty says the smell of the shallots should deter carrot root fly, as most of my crop of carrots were attacked last year I'm hoping this works... At any rate the shallots are popping up and doing well so that's good :)

The apples have started to make an appearance, we might give cider vinegar a try this year.  

That's a whole lotta egg shells right there.  We've been saving them up since the autumn (giving each shell a thorough wash before crushing and storing) so we can protect our runner beans from slug attack.  Since owning an allotment you start reusing things more and more, seemingly everything that is thrown away can be used in one way or another on the plot!

Life lately

I've been MIA of late.  Life is busy, but life is good so I don't mind it being busy, here is a little of what I have been up to:

1. Hanging out with this muppet

2. Mewster's new trick is to stand on our shoulders as we walk about the house, parrot cat!

3. Mewster obsessed much?  If there is a box to explore she'll be there.

4. Robo feeder broke for our last weekend trip so we just had to pile Mew's bowl high and hope she didn't eat it all at once (she didn't, good cat).

5. So much growth happening at the allotment, so much to do before we go away to San Diego eeeeeep!

6. As you can see there is still ALOT of digging grass out to be done at the plot :/

7. Sometimes after a shitty day the only thing that will make it better is gin.

8. Disney cake made by friend Katrina for other friend Marte who left work to return to her native Norway

9. To send her off in style we wrapped her whole desk in tinfoil, including the contents of her desk, our boss was PISSED about it.  

My A - Z of books

No image this week because the book I am referring to is actually in the shed on my allotment... This week 'K' is for Kevin Forbes, and his book 'Keeping an Allotment'.

MoMa bought it for me, it's a very straightforward guide to growing veg, no fancy photography and very functional illustrations.  The reason it has made it into my A - Z is because I am constantly referring to it, if I had a scan of it you would find mud on almost every page as I stand in the middle of the plot thumbing through it's pages to get advice on planting beans or carrots!

Here is a recap of my A-Z so far:

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J

My A-Z of books

Here we are at 'J' and this week it is for Jon Rosenberg.  I came across Jon Rosenberg's books when I finished reading the Ben Aaronovitch's books and my kindle recommended The Digital Wolf the first in Rosenberg's Hidden Academy series.

I loved his books, they were so readable, daft, funny and frankly moreish!  I blogged about Rosenberg's books in January 2013 as part of my Month of Reading posts.  In January 2014 whilst sat in the Picture House at a livestreaming of the National Theatre production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus an email popped up on my phone (MozzyMr was hating every second of the play and was being just a little distracting so I checked it...) it seemed to be a comment from Jon Rosenberg himself:

"Hi Anna,

I'd just like to say thank you for such a lovely set of reviews. There are many perks to being a writer but few match that of seeing people enjoy what you've put out into the world. 

Currently I'm twenty four chapters into the next volume in The Hidden Academy series and hope to have it out and available to be read sometime this spring. 

Best wishes and many thanks, 


Jon Rosenberg"

EEeeeeeep!  It took a lot to contain the excitement, I hope the comment is from Rosenberg because frankly that would be cooool.  

#100happydays

Ooo I'm a bit behind with my 100 happy days, not because there hasn't been a lot of happy to document, simply because work and life has become so hectic!  Here are days 61 - 70:

61. Easter bunny treats AND a reward sticker in the same day? (Yes there are reward stickers at work and it is remarkable how much people strive for these!)

62. Good grief, Mew is too cute sometimes, she sits on my phone a lot, I had it on the arm of the sofa whilst she had a little wash above it and got this little snap.  I love it when cats wash their heads they look so content.

63. I won an award at netball and received a I heart netball t-shirt, and you know what?  I really do heart netball, with all the gym classes and netball classes I'm really notice my stamina improving and my team mates are so lovely :)

64. True dat.

65. What is a 100 happy days post without a trip to London?  This time it was with friends Iain and Derfel and we went to see the musical Billy Elliot.  We were in the cheap seats but actually the view was great!

66. Absolutely my favourite time of year allotment-wise, all the seedlings poking through.  I over planted purple sprouting broccoli so shared them around with my friends at work, one has an allotment and the other is giving veg growing a try for the first time.

67. How could these little cat paws make me anything but happy?

68. The strawberry flowers are blooming which means jam season will soon be upon us, as we only have one jar of last years jam left this makes me very happy indeed!

69. Morning spring sunshine is gorgeous especially when it highlights the ever maturing tomato plants on the windowsill.

70.  I was lucky enough to meet this little lady, she's called Maggie and she is just THE most adorable little pup.  She makes me want to get a dog so much, sadly MozzyMr won't be having that at all.

#100happydays round up:

• Days 1 - 10
• Days 11 - 20
• Days 21 - 30
• Days 31 - 40
• Days 41 - 50
• Days 51 - 60