Hello. It's me again. Back for another monthly round up as my blogging mojo has yet to resurface :( I think I have a fully blown case of 'Blogger's Burnout' ... I just did it too much. By the end of May I had over 300 blogs on my google reader and was trying to keep up with them all on a daily basis; it was just impossible to do, and I got my knickers in a knot about not being able to do it. Which is silly. As a first step in my rehabilitation, I have cut in half the number of blogs on my reader, and am not being as obsessive about reading every single post, every single day, like I did before. I do feel guilty about it though. Ho hum. I apologise if I'm not up to speed on everyone's bits and pieces, but I simply couldn't do it anymore.
Anyway, on with July's doings.
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The kids are now on their long school holidays. Switching off the alarm on the morning of Friday 17th July, was sheer bliss. It doesn't need to go on again until 3rd September ... what a treat. We could have done without the torrential rain, thunder and lightning that greeted the end of the academic year, but never mind. As long as it doesn't happen again for the following 6 weeks, we'll say no more about it.
As with last year's summer holidays, No.2 has joined the reading scheme at the local library. (Last year No.1 said she would do it, but didn't. This year she doesn't even want to try. Tsk). This year it's called Quest Seekers, and you can see from that link that there is quite a cool website to go with the reading challenge. He has the poster, the card, and is well underway with his reading. I hope he manages to complete the challenge.
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Even though I have been an absolutely CARP blogger, I have had a lovely blogging 'thing' this month. I have been so careful not to enter any blog giveaways since that memorable week last December when I won not one, not two, but three giveaways in a single week. I felt I needed to redress the balance a bit and do a couple of my own before I entered any more. Well, I had the fabric giveaway won by the lovely Twiggy, and I do plan a monkey giveaway too at some point. sorry, as usual I digress. I'm on a blogging break, hardly commenting anywhere, and guess what? I won a giveway! :-D
Many of you will know Maree from Farmyard Crafts; like almost all the crafty bloggers I've encountered, she's rather fab. Anyway, she only went and forgot her own blogoversary didn't she? Tsk. Anyway, she had a retrospective giveaway and put those of us who commented on her posts around that date (back in April), into a bowl. That's bad grammar because it looks like she put the actual commenters in a bowl and she didn't. I can't go all the way to Oz just to get in a bowl, can I? That would be silly, and a total waste of the air fare. I commented, so my name was in the bowl ... and then it was out of the bowl because I won :-D I am going to so love the knitted square that Maree sends me!
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As noted in last month's round up, I am really getting into the old photography in a big way, and as such have a new toy in the shape of a DSLR Camera. I don't really know what the hell I'm doing with it as yet, but I'm learning. It's intended to be a very long-term project but I've started as I mean to go on by joining the local Camera Club. (I was very brave - went all by myself!) Those chaps and chapesses have been at it for years, and are very knowledgeable and clever. They made me very welcome, and I look forward to learning lots from them. After only a few weeks, I already know a little bit about filters, and that I need to get another lens because whilst the 'kit lens' is fine, it's not as 'flexible' as I'd like. So ... saving pennies time again.
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One weekend when the kids were at their dad's place this month, I had a forum and blogging friend to stay. She is known as Flowerduck at the forums of Digital Spy, and Lily-Wren in the Blogosphere and at Flickr. We've known each other for a few years now, and it was a real pleasure to have her here. On the Saturday evening we went to a drinks party at my neighbour's house. (The one who had previously invited me round for wine). Once again the weather was doing that 'precipitating it down' thing, and we were very pleased we only had to run a few yards home.
Like me, she is a beginner in the world of photography, so on the Sunday we ventured forth to find some nice photos up on The Ridgeway. We walked in woods and surveyed fields and just made it back to the car before the heavens opened once again. One of my favourite photos of mine from that weekend:-
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Early this month No.1 attending a Ceramics workshop as part of the 'Gifted & Talented' scheme at her school. She came back having had a wonderful time; and a week or so later I had a call from the organisers to tell me that because of problems with the firing and glazing process, it wouldn't be ready until the autumn. Whilst on the phone, the lady told me that the tutors had all been very impressed with the way No.1 had absorbed the information, and applied it to the piece on which she was working. It's lovely to hear from someone else that she did so well.
Her end of year report was good too - although each and every teacher said they'd like to see her be a bit less quiet next year, and to not worry about speaking up (takes after me, y'see ;-) ). Anyway, she was offered a treat in recognition of her hard work and application. She chose this:-
She's been wanting pierced ears for a couple of years now, but not enough to actually do it. Being a squeamish sort, it wasn't something she found easy but it's done now, and she's very excited about all the earring-wearing potential in the future.
She had them pierced by a beautician in a local salon, but back in my day those special 'staple' thingies (for want of a better term) weren't very common. Thus my own ear piercing experience saw my dad take me to the local doctors' surgery, where a geriatric GP put holes in my ears with a sterilised needle :-O He drew little 'x's on my non-existent lobes (I have stupid ears) and got me to look in the mirror to make sure they were in the right place. Then he injected said lobes with something noxious to make them numb, before grasping the sterilised needle and jabbing it through my ear. He wiped my neck with a tissue, and commented 'Oh look, a little bit of blood. Never mind ... it shows you're alive'. If that had happened to No.1, she'd have run screaming from the premises!
The doctor then inserted into my bleeding ear-holes, the gold studs we'd bought from a local jeweller. There were only gold or silver studs then, weren't there? You should see the choice No.1 had ... so many pretty little earrings. Anyway, after the doctor had put my new earrings in for me, we (my dad took me - it was a birthday present) made a donation to the Red Cross on the way out, and that was it. A done deed: Thank goodness times have changed!
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No.2 has also been on the receiving end of a good report, his teacher commenting on his good manners, on his developing 'have a go' attitude, and his 'cheeky' personality. He will stay in the same class with the same teacher next year - it is a mixed year group, so next year he will be in the upper age bracket. This teacher has been brilliant for No.2 - and he admires the guy so much he is now saying that if he can't be a professional footballer, he might become a teacher!
His 'treat' for the good report was a new pair of controllers for the PlayStation - he'd used the others so much they were literally falling apart.
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I have to now comment on another death of someone famous whom I respected from years gone by. John Ryan, the cartoonist, died on 24th July. The creator of 'The Adventures of Sir Prancelot' and 'Mary, Mungo & Midge' was 88 years old. I will forever be in admiration for his other famous children's TV character - Captain Pugwash. I loved this series when it was on TV. I loved it so much that I purchased a DVD of same some years ago and my kids enjoyed it almost as much as I did (especially No.2). I have the theme tune on my mobile phone and on hearing it, it never ceases to raise a smile from fellow oldies who remember the programme. Here is a clip from the show - our 'hero' is in big trouble - thank Crunchie for Tom, the cabin boy!
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I need to say a very big ThAnK yOu! to Andrea of Indigo Blue who sent me an envelope containing these:
Some seeds for our fledgling garden here. I absolutely love Aquilegias, and am really excited about growing some that came from Andrea's own garden. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - bloggers are fabulous people. Thank you so much Andrea - x - that was a really kind thing to do. If they come up, I promise to take pictures and post them here.
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No.2's last football tournament of the season took place on the first weekend of July. The team did very well and this was the trophy he earned as a result:-
No.2 also played in his first cricket tournament this month. I didn't know such things existed, did you? I'm sure the organisers thought picking a date in the middle of July would ensure that a morning's cricket could be enjoyed in midsummer weather. Hmmmm - that didn't work out ... it was bluddy freezing! The wind was so strong that at one stage the stumps actually blew over! Anyway, No.2's team got through to the final, but rain stopped play. Because the other team were ahead at that stage, they were deemed to be the winners by default. One very gutted little boy came home with a silver certificate instead of a gold one:-
I sat with No.1 at the cricket tournament, and found myself wishing that my dad had lived to see his grandson playing the sport he himself loved more than any other. *sigh*
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There hasn't been a huge amount of 'making' going on in these parts this month. Many of you are familiar with the lovely Michaela at The Stash Basket. She introduced me to the books of Debbie Abrahams, specifically the one entitled 'Blankets & Throws to Knit'. She is knitting a blanket for her parents' golden wedding anniversary, and I rashly decided to attempt knitting a blanket myself, from squares in that book. The difference between her and me though is that she is a proper 'knittist', and I'm not. Thus my squares aren't as nice as hers. My first attempt at the flower block involved 3 lots of taking stitches off needles and unpicking tangly yarn. Eventually, I ended up with something that was far from perfect, but with which I can live as a first attempt:-
I have since knitted a couple of stripey blocks (there will be stripey ones, flower ones and plain ones - with the plain ones perhaps having a bit of stitch interest):-
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Sorry again for being so largely absent. Thank you so much to all who read and commented on my June post - I don't deserve such lovely bloggy friends.
I'll leave you with another photo I took on the weekend that Lily-Wren came to visit. Some teasels:
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