February Scavenger Hunt

Here is my helping for this month scavenger hunt as organised for us by Kathy.

I have completely failed on the subject of Cupid but got all the others and they are as follows

Empty.

One of our laundry baskets, doesn't happen often, just like the ironing basket!

Leap Year.

The leap year leaf on our weather tree.

Crowded.

One of the birthday cards sent to T. Who doesn't love the Where's Wally series.


Train.

One of T's many keyrings.


Food.

With the double birthday this month it just had to be one the cakes.



Music.

And her is the birthday girl with one of her presents from me and G. She is looking a bit concerned for some reason, but she does love it to bits.

Love.

Lots of love hearts on my lovely dresser which I love.

Heritage.

A plaque on a wall in the middle of town explaining that a church used to stand on this spot and it was here that Jane Austen worshipped when she stayed in the City.

In the Sky.

The Spinnaker tower at Portsmouth reaching up high into the sky.


5.

Whilst sorting through the box where I keep birthday banners and candles I found a few balloons left over from a birthday a couple of years ago.



Black and White.

Tiles on the outside of a house spotted whilst we were on our walk on Saturday.

Thanks again go to Kathy for making sure we keep busy with the cameras.

Tassel Tussle

At the charity shop I volunteer in all of our hats, gloves and scarves are put into a couple of large plastic storage boxes and are sold for 50p each and at that price we sell a lot. As the boxes will be packed away soon I thought I would have a rummage to see what was in there and I found this stripy beauty. The only thing was I wasn't sure about the amount of tassels.

So I unknotted the tassels from one end and wore it around the house for a few hours, as you do, to help me decide.



The decision was made and the tassels were taken off the other end too. I think it looks much better that way.

I do have a use for them though.

Another Wander by the Water

What another wonderfully mild and Spring like day we have enjoyed today. So mild in fact we were able to go out without coats or jackets, although for the paddling

wellies were a necessity.


Although I must admit I stayed out of the water most of the time preferring to seek out little treasures along the shore



but we all enjoyed being out in the fresh air no matter what we did. S kept running around shouting out how everything was 'so much fun.'



We saw a different part of the shoreline today as we started our walk from where we normally end up. The first thing we came to was the sailing club where through a hole in hedge we could see a few of the boats which had just taken to the water.



Part of the sea wall had holes cut into it quite low down, perfect for peeping through!



Our last new find was Netley Castle. The link gives lots of information about the castle. It's only been in it's present state for over 100 years, although there has been a defensive building here for many centuries. Unfortunately when it was converted into apartments a few years back another addition was made and it wasn't very sympathetically done so one end looks new and concretey and doesn't quite have the character of this older part.

It's certainly been a weekend for discovering new old buildings on our doorstep.

P-p-pick up a Parcel

One of the cards sent to T for his birthday didn't have the correct postage value on it so couldn't be delivered and instead we had to collect it from the local sorting office.

As it was so bright and mild it seemed like a good idea to take a walk to collect it rather than hopping into the car.

The sorting office is on a small industrial park off of a very busy road and just before you reach it, set back from the road, you get a tantalising view of a listed building. It's an old manor house which has been converted into apartments and there is a sign warning it's Private Property so unfortunately this is the best look you can get of the front


but a better view can be found of the back, although it's not quite so attractive as you can see all the later add ons to the original building. I would like to meet someone who lives there to get a better look round!
As we walked round by the side of the house we glimpsed a view of the river



and this is what we saw once we were past the trees. We had a great uninterrupted view of the river, those living near it and those out enjoying it in boats and canoes.



Once we had collected the card we took a different route back as I was hoping to find an unusual house I had once read about in a newspaper a few years ago.

First we passed a small boat yard where S saw and instantly liked these colourful boats and wanted a photo of them

then past an apartment building named Swan Court



until we found the building I was after. It was described in the article I read as being an oversized chess piece. Now I would love to see inside this home too.


To end this post there are a couple of completely random photos which I have included as I liked the texture in both of them.

One of them is a gnarled part of a fallen tree trunk


and the other weathered boards by the water's edge.

Birthday Cake x 2

It's been a day full of presents and cakes.

Today T turned 12

and S turned 7.

T wasn't impressed that he had to go to school, quite often their birthday falls during half term, but not so this year.

S wore a hat to school in the shape of a birthday cake, she wanted to ensure that no-one was under any illusion that today wasn't just any old Thursday!

Happy Birthday my darlings.

Welly Wander

Today I had to go to the shop and Post Office and because we had half a bag of stale bread I decided we would take the long scenic route and go via the duck pond. Then after reading my latest email from www.naturedetectives.org.uk I thought we would take one of their suggestions and make it into a welly wander where we had to spot something that started with every letter of the alphabet. T and S did them all (with a little input from me) apart from K.

We began by putting on our coats and Zipping them up. We weren't the only people by the pond as we saw a few Dogwalkers.

Down by the waters edge we spotted a family of Water rats chasing each other around.

The Hungry ducks were very vocal with lots of Quacking and they did make us smile with their antics on the frozen Icy water. Down by the pond we saw lots of Feathers.

Crossing over the road to the park we followed the trail, passing the wooden noticeboard which had a Butterfly carved on it, to the bridge where we played Pooh sticks. It was here the children went for a paddle, tried to dam up the water and ended up with Orange hands. Walking along the path there was plenty of Squidgy mud and we spotted a couple of Tree monsters. We thought this one below had the look of a dragon about it.



As T and S continued eXploring I handed out some Yummy hot cross buns to help keep energy levels up and distract S from the fact she had just slipped over and had a very Muddy bottom! Passing an Upturned tree stump we saw a pair of discarded black Gloves before leaving the path and making our way over to the playground past a huge holly bush which still had a few Red berries on it along with all it's lovely glossy green Leaves.

Just by the park is a Chair carved out of a tree stump, S didn't like the look of it for sitting on so decided on a jaunty pose standing next to it.


After a quick play we made our way to the shops passing this red sign to warn drivers of the Adverse camber in the road



then past the New housing estate which was full of builders and their Vans
Into the Co-op for a couple of things for tea we noticed all the chocolate on display for Easter and then it was on home for lunch after snapping our last photo Johnny English 2.


I think I've remembered them all!

City Culture

• Today I met my friend I at the Art Gallery for our regular catch up with each other's news and we chatted whilst making our way around a new exhibition showcasing the work of Roland Penrose and British Surrealism.

After leaving the gallery we made our way into town by taking a detour to see the progress being made on the new Sea City museum which is due to open at the start of April in time for 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

It has been annouced in this last week that the council will be giving away a free entrance ticket to each household in the City. I would have gone along anyway to have a look around, but will definitely be taking advantage of this freebie.

Keeping Warm

I only bought these on Saturday but I wore them yesterday and today whilst out and they have been keeping my arms nice and toasty.

I found them in Primark reduced to £1.00 per pair and today it struck me that they would have been a good item to have included in my winter warmer jar. So I thought I should share them as I know a few people liked the jar idea and IF you are planning that far ahead again and live close to a Primark then it might be worth a quick trip in to stock up. Of course you can always just buy yourself a pair (or 2) I thoroughly recommend them.

Busy

These past few days have been very busy. Busy with lots of fun things.

I went to London on Thursday for a visit to the Natural History Museum.

I went with S.

And the rest of her year group and 20 other adult helpers.

Oh my goodness what a full on day that was.

A lot of fun, but we were all pretty tired by the end.

Friday was work and then home and a quick change and out again for a meal with the group of colleagues I had worked with for the past 5 years until my change of office last year. As we had all left a different times and gone to different places a meal out was a good way to get together and have a proper goodbye to the team we had been.

Yesterday the 4 of us nipped into town for a couple of hours as a few things were needed, including a birthday present for G's dad and today we have been to Salisbury for celebratory birthday lunch.

We've been to the Grasmere a few times over the years and the food is always tasty and the staff very friendly. This lovely painting of the hotel hangs by the entrance desk.

T took this lovely photo of G with his dad.

I thought I would include this photo of me as it's quite rare.

Yes I'm actually helping myself to broccoli from the mixed veg serving dish. I even ate a small piece of cauliflower!

So that's been the past few days around here. Thank you for the messages concerning my reaching 500 posts. I hope to get round and visit you all later this evening as I haven't been around for a fair few days and I'm sure there is lots of news to catch up on.

Actually I'm thinking of perhaps buying a laptop just for my own use, with us all wanting to use the internet each evening even when I am free to wander through blogland the computer isn't free to use, any recommendations would be appreciated.