15th - 21st October

This week I have been

Wearing - a little blue combo of a crown patterned top and a bunting strewn cardigan after the pregnancy of the Duchess of Sussex was announced.

Feeling - a little blue at times too. Wednesday was the birthday of T's brother L who passed away a couple of years ago. When the children were little this would have meant a day trip to London for us all to catch up. Now being older and mobile T drove himself up to Norwich, staying for two nights to see his birth siblings and spend time with them.


Trying - not to succumb to the temptation of snuffling a cake (or two) on Chocolate Cupcake day and so deciding to go down the brooch route instead.

Grateful for - the comments left on my last post which contained messages hoping we were all over our various bugs. Much appreciated.

Watching - The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. G and I have watched 3 episodes of this so far and we are hooked. It's written by the creators of The Gilmore Girls and I loved that long series so it's really no surprise we are enjoying this one.
Rocky adores Graham and ignores me most of the time, but whilst we were watching this TV show last night it seems my lap was the spot he preferred. Look at the size of his feet!

Eating -  steak and chips. Can't remember the last time I ate steak. We are lucky enough to work near some fab bars and restaurants and so a little gathering was organised for after work midweek. What a treat. 

Loving -  this late Autumn sunshine. To make the most of it the 3 of us took ourselves out for a walk on Saturday.
We took the train to Shawford and then walked the 3 miles along the Itchen Navigation trail into Winchester.

Over the years we had done various sections of this trail, which takes you past some beautiful river views, 

and this time we also took in St Catherine's hill. A walk up the hill is on the agenda for another day.

Hoping -  for a little colour in the front garden come the colder months after I potted up this colander and a terracotta planter with winter pansies. 

Easter

                         What a lovely Easter weekend we've just had.
Starting back on Good Friday me, G and S took ourselves off into town. For ages now we've been wanting to go and have a round of mini golf on the course in one of the parks and Friday proved to be the day we finally got to do it. We were the first group to arrive and had it all to ourselves for the first ten minutes. This gave us a good head start on the people who followed and meant we could just take our time and enjoy each hole and not feel like we were holding anyone up.

S managed to get a hole in one on her very first go but unfortunately things didn't carry on in the same vein for her!

We all had a really good laugh and it was lovely to spend time together.

A Festival of Colour was advertised as being held at the shopping centre so we wandered on over.

Loved what they had done to the steps.

The colour was continued in people dressed as exotic flowers

and the traditional fairground attractions of the helter skelter

and these gallopers.

A couple of weeks back G and I watched High Society. I love everything about this movie but G had never seen it before. I'm please to say he liked very much.

After watching it I commented that I have never seen The Philadelphia Society, the movie on which this musical version is based.

A few days later a copy arrived in the post, G had been online and ordered a copy and we watched this Friday evening.

I'm glad to have seen it (Cary Grant is in it!) but we both agreed High Society will always be our favourite.

We've now passed it on to G's mum to watch.

G had to work on Saturday and as S was busy with a friend I went to Winchester with him. We went a couple of hours before he needed to start work so we could pop along to the Angie Lewin exhibition at the Discovery Centre.

G was in and out within 5 minutes, he said it didn't so anything for him so he went into the library to see if he could find a book he was after.

I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't doubt I would. I love her work.
It wasn't until I was nearly leaving that I realised what I had chosen to wear that day by pure co-incidence, wasn't a million miles away from what I had been looking at.

We had time afterwards to sit by the Cathedral and have a drink and a bite to eat before G had to go on into work.

I then had an hour until my train and spent most it it in a shop called Molly's Den. There are several of these locally. Each one a treasure trove of collectables, antiques and all manner of goodies.
I came home with a new handmade brooch

and some of my money which my mum gave me at Christmas was spent on this cute mini desk calendar. 

Easter Sunday was a strange day. G had to work the late shift again and T and S were both at home all day. That hasn't happened in a while. I busied myself with household chores and in between those S helped me to prepare some games, presents and nests for our family day on Monday.
I cheated and bought the meringue nests to which we added a good dollop of melted chocolate and some mini eggs.

We had invited some of G's and my family over to us for lunch today which is when most those meringue nests were eaten.
Everyone was given a chocolate rabbit. Each rabbit sported a tag handmade by S which read 'You're Some Bunny Special'.

Plus there were some games. We had a round of bunny bingo, an Easter bunny left and right game, a guess what's in the golden egg competition and then we rounded it all off with a messy 'make your partner look like a spring lamb' game.
This involved one person in the team wearing a shower cap which was then covered in shaving foam. As shown here by T.

The shower capped team members lined up on one side and the other team members stood in a line opposite. They were given a bag of cotton wool balls which they had to throw at the shaving foam. They had one minute to get as many balls to stick as possible. As shown here by my sister C, my sister's partner A and by G. 

It was incredibly messy, incredibly sticky and incredibly funny. The winning team managed 34.
S was G's partner and she only managed 6!
I would thoroughly recommend this game, but make sure you have plenty of towels handy for the clean-up afterwards and a black sack for throwing everything away in. 

Saturday to Sunday

A round up of life here from the past week or so.

Saturday 11th saw us in Winchester for a few hours.

We went to see the The Romantic Thread in British Art. A small exhibition drawn from the extensive collection of Southampton art gallery.

Although undoubtedly the highlight was the Frank Dicksee Romeo and Juliet which was used to advertise the exhibition- anything Pre-Raphaelite gets my vote- a close second was a work named Coliseum at Moonlight which can be viewed here. The way the artist has captured the light of the moon has to be seen to be believed. The artist is Frederick Bridell and he was born in Southampton.

It was very cold that day, snowflakes were in the air, but we were warmed up by delicious hot chocolates as we waited for the train home. The florist based at the train station always has the most stunning displays and that day was no exception.

Monday is normally full of housework chores but I did manage to carve out a little time so I could finish my latest read. I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Ava Maria finding love and happiness in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it made me laugh out loud a couple of times which is always a sign of a good book. It's been made into a movie and I shall keep my eye out for a copy once the car boot season starts, you never know someone may have a copy they don't want anymore and I'd be interested to see how it translates to film. This is the first book in a series and I'll definitely read more.

Tuesday was Valentine's day. T was the only person in our house to receive a card, in fact he got two from the same chap!

I'm trying to decorate the mantelpiece in our dining room differently each month. I have so many odds and ends and sometimes I forget what I have got. I've been collecting as many of these items as I can and keeping them all in one big plastic storage box. Hopefully as the months go by I'll have something on show which reflects the time of year, occasion or celebration. 
This month is all about red and pinks and hearts.

Thursday was S's parent's evening. We had her report last week and she's doing ok, but there's room for improvement. We were taken aback by a comment made by her maths teacher, he described S as a boisterous student. This is so out of character from all the other comments we've had over the years. It would seem that she shares her maths class with more than just one or two of her good friends and it would appear that the chatting sometimes takes over. Although we had a laugh over the comments there was also a 'you must take it more seriously' chat as well!

Very welcome signs of spring seen in the park on my lunchtime visits.

Friday evening I was out for a meal with a bunch of friends from my previous life as a civil servant. We all worked together for about 15 years and still try and meet up every now and then. 
We met at the new Watermark complex of restaurants which is built opposite the old city walls. Lights were being projected on the walls as part of a Festival of Light event. This is a great new space in the city and I hope it gets used to it's full potential.

Saturday morning I was out to eat once again. Last year on what would have been our dad's birthday my sister T had suggested going out for breakfast and toasting dad with a coffee and a bacon sandwich, two things he was fond of, and we decided to do the same again this year.

The weekend was rounded off with a trip to the theatre for me and G. We went for a drink first, somewhere where the walls were covered in works of art including this David Hockney which really grabbed our attention.
At the theatre we watched The MGM Story. The website shows 4 participants but there were only 3 of them the night we saw it. My oh my did they have bucket loads of energy, they sang and danced their way through the history of the musicals produced by MGM.
An extremely entertaining and (for the performers) energetic way to end our weekend.

A Different Half Term

These weekly news posts seem to be the norm for me just now.

This one will start with last Saturday.

An exhibition I wanted to see, Love Thy Denim, was due to end it's run at the Winchester Discovery Centre. G didn't want to go and so I took myself off on a solo jaunt.

I spent a very happy hour engrossed in reading all about the social history of this most versatile of fabrics and admiring some of the clothing on display.

The photos here show a Vivienne Westwood denim shirt and the other item is an original 1880's milk maids shirt. I'd be more than happy to wear it now.

Once I had finished there I nipped to CK for a mooch and then onto a couple of charity shops before ending in M&S where I bought myself some lunch. I can heartily recommend this smoothie it was delicious.

The local car boot is now starting a little later at 10am on a Sunday morning, but we were a little late getting started and didn't arrive until gone 11am so we weren't there long.
I bought 2 new dresses for S for a pound each, she chose them.

and another pound was spent on this straw shopper for me.

As you can see it's not only me who likes it.

Couldn't resist this cute deer snowglobe countdown to Christmas chalkboard, it was only 50p. My other sister T has her birthday on Nov 25th, I will start my countdown to Christmas on it then.

Pumpkins have been purchased and they are sat, on the new autumn coloured polka dot tablecloth, waiting to be carved ready for Halloween.
For the first time in many years this autumn half term hasn't seen us go to the local country park to do their Halloween trail, which is why although it's been half term but not felt like half term.

Saying that S has had a marvelous week. She has been out with her friends most of the time, the weather has been glorious and mild which has helped. Tuesday S was with my mum as G and I were working and Wednesday I took her and her friend A into town for a spot of shopping and some lunch. 
I took Thursday off but as once again S spent the best part of the day out and about I had lots of time to myself. I took full advantage of this and managed to crack on and lots of odd jobs done which felt so satisfying.
So here we are now at Friday evening with another weekend stretching ahead of us.
I hope it's a good one for us all.

Talent

We've been lucky enough to see some very talented people whilst at a couple of local art events recently.

If you can't get and see them in action then check out each link and enjoy a little of what they have to offer and what we've been enjoying.

First up is The Bullzini Family and their high wire act which is thoroughly captivating.

The girls from Sole Rebel Tap with a Spatterdash routine entertained the crowd and S was particularly taken with their shiny shorts.

The Edwardian Cricketers were hilarious and had the crowd laughing along with them in no time at all. Lots of audience participation was required, here you can see three members of the crowd picked out to be fielders and S's friend L was chosen to be the umpire. A role she readily accepted.

Maple Staplegun plucked three lucky men from the crowd to help her with her hula hoop act and kept the crowd laughing with her antics and her skill.

Last up is a lady with a beautifully melodic voice who goes by the name of Sticky Toffee Jazz. Salisbury council organise music in the park during the summer and it's the perfect way to while away a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Hat Fair

For a few years now we've been meaning to go to the Hat Fair in Winchester, but it's always clashed with something else we've wanted to do or see.

Not so this year.

Event began on Friday and ended on Sunday.

We went on Saturday.

As we walked out of the train station there was a group of people milling around and we wondered if something had just happened and we had missed it, but lucky for us it was just about to happen.

Music started and people from amongst the little crowd made their way forward and began to dance.

S is off on a camping trip with the school next week and as we had to shop for  new leggings as part of the kit she'll need for the exciting activities they have planned, we made our way through the city centre and past Parchment Street the home of the sculpture of the kite flyer.

Once at the shopping centre we stopped to watch a couple of acts. The young pair on the left preparing for a tea party we could only stay and watch for a few minutes as the sun was blazing in through the glass roof and it was just too hot a spot to be in. The young lad in the bottom right was part of a group of half a dozen smartly dressed office workers. Their performance involved one of them depicted as literally drowning in his work signified by the balled up pieces of paper he was floundering in.
Then when the shopping was done, as our per our last trip to Winchester a few weeks ago, we made our way to the Cathedral close to have lunch. We struggled to find a spot to sit as it was packed out with hundreds of others who were also picnicking and enjoying the festival atmosphere. Judging from the laughter and applause coming from where the man on the unicycle was just away to our left he must have been very entertaining.

I left G and S sitting in the shade whilst I went an watched this quartets performance which was all about how something you say as a joke could be taken out of context and used against you to a detrimental effect through the medium of social media. Ring any recent bells? It was really good.

The final act we all caught was Ernest the Magnifico. This was absolutely fantastic. 'Ernest' had the audience in the palm of his hand throughout, he was so funny and the volunteers who he coaxed into taking part really joined in with it all. If you are ever at an event or festival where he is playing I urge you to go and watch, you won't be disappointed.