Storm chasing

On Friday night there was a great thunderstorm over Exeter.  Being the saddo 'got no money' type I was all settled in reading my book (Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch) when MozzyMr came back from watering his tomatoes on the allotment.  He couldn't understand why I wasn't jumping about with excitement because there was a thunderstorm (I LOVE THUNDERSTORMS) but the truth is I hadn't noticed, the storm was still far enough away to not be heard if you're concentrating on other things.... that's my excuse.

So we grabbed our waterproofs and headed for the playing fields where the storm seemed to be heading.  The sky was amazing and the lightning was the best I have seen, probably ever.  I took a few photos but my little point and shoot didn't do justice to the colours and of course I didn't capture any lightning, but hey I still like them, they feel all moody...

Postcards from middle age

MozzyMa and Our Jim have been visiting so we popped into the RAMM for a look about.  The insects and the birds are the big draw for me but they also had a portrait and wildlife photography exhibition on (no photos allowed, boo).

Alternative advent calendar #20

I was tasked with getting table presents for a work lunch we held last Wednesday, as the costs were coming out of my pocket I really didn't want to spend more than a tenner.  Having searched Hawkins Bazaar, WHSmiths, Wilkinsons, and Paperchase it became clear that there are no cheap presents on the High Street at the moment, literally none so I was heading home present-less and a bit hacked off when I remembered Fizzy Wizzy Woo on Fore Street in Exeter.  These fab bags filled with sweets and little gifts were 99p each, looked great and everyone seemed appreciative, hazaar!

Walk Home #3

These two photos are a snapshot of the 180 degree view I have from the balcony at work.  On a clear day you can see out beyond the estuary to the sea, below and in front of you lies Exeter city centre.  From here you get to watch the seasons and weather past, struggling up the hill during winter through the snow is rewarded with a ridiculously beautiful outlook.

I also get to walk along the canal on my way back home, this is the long route home and I only tend to take it when the weather is nice and I don't have somewhere in particular to be.  If I forked off to the right it would take me to the allotment, straight on takes me home.

One Hundred Thousand Welcomes

Poor neglected blog, I've been off having fun in Dublin!  When I say fun I actually mean work.  I've been attending a conference for the last week.  I'm a little ashamed to say I have never been to Ireland before, I'm even more ashamed to say it's only a one hour flight from Exeter.

Oh and the other thing is, I hate flying.  Hate it.  I had to chuck rescue remedy gummy stars (made for kids) down my neck every ten minutes just to get through the experience, but hey I made it to the other side and when we arrived there was an impressive rainbow over the airport.

The European influence is clear, and there has been a lot of development including the conference centre we were attending:

And of course there was Guinness... my colleague was drinking it for the medicinal iron content, uh huh.

All too soon it was time to go, the return flight was fine, I may not be comfortable flying but it was a lot better second time around, might have to book a few weekend trips...

Allotment Geekery

Not doing too badly with the old veg at the moment, of course Mewster makes a thorough inspection of anything that we bring home.  As it turns out if you leave shredded beetroot unattended, she'll eat it, in fact she'll eat pretty much anything and in the morning when she's ready for her breakfast she'll just keep hurdling over your head until you get up and feed her.  Who knew?

Walk Home # 2

I've been on holiday for the past 10 days.  Whilst I don't hate my job I'm still not looking forward to going back I'm just too good at being on holiday, truly it is something I should have on my CV.

One of the good things about returning to work is my two mile walk to work passing rivers, railways, valleys and some fairly epic hills.  Here are a few photos of the things I see along the way...

Dreaming of a Devon Eurovette

I love a road trip, especially now MozzyMr can drive, I get to be the passenger which gives me the opportunity to take photos.  We seem to always be pegging it up and down the M5 whether it's to visit friends or family oop North or heading East for London.  We pass the Somerset levels along the way where you usually see some pretty amazing clouds, they roll off the Atlantic and drift across the levels uninhibited by hills and moors (depending on wind direction of course).

All of these clouds are very lovely and all that, but bloody hell!  We saw a Devon Eurovette!  I want one!

Allotment Geekery

At last!  Tomatoes and daft shaped ones at that!  The odd shaped ones pictured to the left are the Black Krim variety but we have plum, cherry, and money-maker varieties on the go as well.

Giving This Pinterest Lark a Try

Tutorial from Purl Bee

I originally found this tutorial on Pinterest, so I'm counting this as one of my Normaloid Defence List projects.  I wanted to go down the neon route because as I've mentioned before on this little blog I love neon but the thread frayed and was generally rubbish, when I moved across to the cotton mix thread the results were much better:

Attempts 1 - 3 above, and attempt 4 below, I'm happy with how they're turning out now and might even have a go at making some for a couple of friends....

Oh The Delicious Horror!

Yes I know, they're awful.  But if you have followed this blog for any length of time you will know that I have a high, high, high tolerance of awful kitsch.  (I love them.)  We went to the car boot sale today for the first time in months and I came home with a pile o'crap including these fabulous angel decorations.

Summer car boot sales are the best, here's hoping the weather holds for my holiday...

Life via the Medium of Rainbow

Allotment Geekery

Almost a month away from the allotment and the weeds are beyond a joke, on Saturday we spent three hours there.  Whilst MozzyMr was in the polytunnel tending to his tomatoes (seriously this is a preview of what he's going to be like as an old man, he'll be talking to those plants soon) I dug up two heaped wheelbarrows full of weeds and I still have half a plot to go!  To top it off because of the cool, damp weather the veg isn't really doing much, we're getting one or two courgettes but they're no thicker than your index finger, the peas have perked up a bit, and of course we have an abundance of tomatoes to come but they're still green, it has been weeks I was hoping for at least one to be ready by now, meh.

The lavender is doing well and I've let three of our spring onions go to flower because I love how they look.  Following such a hectic June we're not planning on doing much at all this July so it'll be lots of time on the allotment and hopefully some trips to the studio as well...

Road Trip!

A pictorial journey from the South West to Derby (oop North to me, being a Southerner and all).

All packed with wedding clobber we jumped in the car and left Devon, the blue skies, fluffy clouds and animals frolicking to almost immediately hit traffic.  Hurrumph.  Luckily I had suitable reading material and MozzyMr was driving, win!  Along the way we passed a glittery lime green VW Transporter driven by a youth who we naturally assumed lived with his mum, how else would he afford to a) buy a new VW Transporter and b) bling the bugger up!?  We passed the best bit of the M5 by Bristol where on a good day you can see for miles.  We attended a lovely wedding (here is a sneaky peak of the lovely bride, but more of that on a later post), I wore a new dress, had new hair and took lots of photos.  We did origami, and MozzyMr styled it up with a cigar.

Heh heh heh and this is when I get evil.  The day after the wedding MozzyMr is in a delicate state, whilst he is weak and kitten like curled up in the front seat of the car I pull into his favourite store... but don't worry I bought him a desk lamp and a piece of cake he was perfectly happy.  And finally, when you're tired, sick of driving and other drivers, this lovely sign whooshes over head, because for us at least South West is best baby!

Le Weekend

A weekend of luncheon with my aunt and uncle, a pint in the rain next to the river, some blue skies, getting pot-bound beetroot in the plot, of waiting for the apples to be ready for crumbles and harvesting a bumper crop of strawberries.

Allotment Geekery

A week away from the allotment and it has gone crazy!  Our peas have produced a good amount of pods and the additional peas I planted straight into the ground have come up and are looking healthy, I'm optimistic we'll have a good crop.  

As for our strawberries we have tonnes of them!  You can smell our little strawberry patch metres before you can even see our plot they smell absolutely delicious.  MozzyMr is great at making strawberry sauces which we'll freeze and I'm going to give jam making a bit of a go (Women's Institute ahoy!).

Our first garlic!  Planted in November we have waited, and waited and waited for the leaves to yellow and fall over, apparently this is a sign that they're ready to be dug up, and here we are!  The elephant garlic we planted a couple of months ago is making good progress it's all very exciting the only problem is that with all of the veg growing well the weeds haven't been doing so badly themselves so we have a lot of work to do to get things back to how it looked before we went on holiday.

Devon Only Knows How We Weird Up The Olympic Torch Relay

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 I've been meaning to write this post since last Sunday but some how life has just got in the way this week.  Anyway.  The Olympic Torch came to Exeter, and being Devon we decided to weird it up a notch or two....

We thought to ourselves, we'll do a parade!  We'll make a giant scone with cream and jam (cream first then jam, it's the Devon way).

We'll have a man with a taped plastic bugle and a good hat, best give him a wooden stick. "But Why??",  "Who cares?!" we cried out!

We should probably have someone dressed up as Sherlock Holmes, you know just in case... 

 "But who will represent the Met Office?", don't worry we have a man with a jacket that is just right for the occasion, and if I'm not mistaken he also has a beach ball that looks like the world.  "Does he look surly?", he sure does!

 "What about boat hats?  Weymouth is near by isn't it?", not only do we have boat hats we have girls doing INTERPRETIVE BOAT DANCES!  It's a serious business it takes a lot of concentration.

 "The Wind Trapper?  There is no explaining that away is there?", no you're absolutely right I have no justification for this just pure unadulterated love and pride for it.

"A Black Dog?  Isn't that symbolic of depression?", well yes.... but surely the bitter blow of defeat should be represented?  "You're making this up", hush now. 

"The Olympic Torch, I was wondering when you were going to get round to this", well yes there was the torch, it was very gold and very shiny and the man carried it very well but where is the face paint, glitter, interpretive dance?