Contains very mild scary scenes and slapstick violence

“Just like at home, then”, according to someone who shall remain anonymous…

Our small friends took us to the cinema this morning, to see Despicable Me 2 which we all loved.  We were the only ones in the place for a while, but were joined by another couple of families shortly before the trailers began.  Once again, the Minions stole the show and whilst we giggled along with the children, my hero and I marvelled at the fantastic rendering of the fabrics in particular – Mr Gru’s jacket was exquisitely done, especially after the rainstorm.

We spent the rest of the day taming some Scoubidous into bracelets, hoping to find some longer lengths to buy whilst we were out but discovering that, around here at least, it’s last year’s craze.  Well, here’s hoping they start it going again amongst their friends soon, because we need more and just can’t wait for the Amazon package to arrive!

Can it really be September?

We had such a lovely day yesterday with friends from Arizona, with whom we spent a fun Independence Day last year that the change in the month passed me by.  We’re enjoying the fine weather, don’t have a new term to worry about (or look forward to) and though I’m gently easing back into work mode, really, the summer goes on.

There’s an abundance of fruit in the garden and thanks to Sue and Ivars’ restraint during Sunday lunch yesterday, there’s an abundance of puddings in the fridge too.

Yes, of course one of them is a plum crumble.  Good things happen in September!

Last week, prompted by an email from Shimelle about her annual “Learn Something New Every Day” project, I began to think how I might approach it this year.  I try to do something different each year – last year I had fun getting my hands dirty, in 2011 I made an envelope book and enjoyed playing with both glue stick and my computer, because previously, I’d found that though it was fun to use my computer to do these things, I missed playing around with glue and scissors.

How shall I do it this year, then?

I decided to use September to explore something I’ve seen but not really tried myself: Instagram.  I’ve signed up and logged in on my phone and also downloaded Rhonna Farrer’s app with the intention of learning to edit photos using my phone this year.  Yesterday, the first of the month, I took a photograph of the lovely sunset from our window using my phone.  I then tried my first edit by adding some text to it, saving in Day One.

I haven’t yet decided if I’ll eventually print them all out or leave them in a digital album, but I aim to learn something new each day by exploring the hundreds of options available in the Rhonna Designs app.  I haven’t decided yet if I want to post each one to Instagram, either, since this might be as public as I want to go for now.  We’ll see.

One thing is for sure.  I have a lot to learn!

Safely home

I’m not the only one in the family to have been on holiday.

My beloved sewing machine and her little friend have been in the repair shop for a while, getting some attention.  Until a couple of days ago, I feared that this extended stay might prove to be terminal but I’m glad to say, all is well again.

They both came home with their names attached in an appropriate way.

So, the good old reliable stand-by, which worked perfectly the minute it was taken from its case where it had spent the last five or six years, will take another extended leave.

Now that I’ve been reminded that even Bernina sewing machines don’t last forever, I will take a while and consider the options for a new one. However, intriguing and inspiring as this new model might be, I doubt that I’ll be seriously considering it. You did notice the price, didn’t you?

Getting back into the groove

I’m finding it hard to get back into things after my holiday.  It’s not exactly that I have nothing to do, you understand.  It’s just that I’m finding it hard to settle down and do it!

My desk is a tip.  I’m working on my journal and have the European Ephemera Mountain sitting awaiting my attention, and yet nothing I find seems to fit the bill.  I know it’s all there somewhere…

My hero has been someone else’s hero this last week, looking after a friend’s chickens three times a day whilst they were on holiday.  Yes, they laid eggs, so I thought I’d make our friends a cake for when they returned and made my favourite lemon drizzle cake with GF flour.

Oh dear.  It was such a sad affair I nearly didn’t give it to them at all.  But we did a little quality control and it tasted ok.  Just looked weird.

Then we had our lovely neighbours round for lunch yesterday, which involved my shelling a few pounds of peas.  It always makes me think of my Mum; the more so yesterday since it’s six years this weekend since she had her stroke.  My goodness.  I can’t believe we’ve been missing her for so long.

We had a fun lunch though and are still enjoying the leftovers.  There might not have been pavlova left, but there’s gin and tonic jellies and lemon possets in the fridge! 

Then today I was judging at one of my favourite shows.  Thankfully, a fine morning and a steady rise in temperatures, which meant that by the time the crowds came it was a beautifully sunny afternoon.

There were lots of really great entries and plenty to keep me amused for a few hours.  Once my work was done, we went off to the next village and had lunch in the pub.  The same steam train was puffing away down the line at the bottom of the garden as last year.

So, with September on the horizon and new terms, fresh starts and suchlike being discussed, I think I need to get my act together and get into gear, don’t you? 

Memories

As anyone who knows me will confirm, I have a bit of a thing about memories.  Making them, recording them, keeping them and perhaps, at times, trying to make sense of them.  This weekend, chatting to friends about the programme for the Cheltenham Literature Festival I spotted one of the themes for 2013: Memory.  There are several events which look very tempting, including this one and this one.

The subject is very much on my mind right now as I’m trying to get my road trip journal going, having abandoned it half way through due to a lack of time.  I’m aware that memories recorded at the time are very different from those remembered later and will refer frequently to scribbles in my notebook and the photographs I took for my own reference, like the one above.  Of course, I remember my room number in the first hotel of a trip, I might even remember the second…but as the days pass and we check into another hotel, I sometimes make a quick snap “just in case”.  After all, we’re security conscious enough not to carry our room key around in the wallet with the room number on it!  Thankfully, there’s a clear visual clue in the photograph to which hotel it refers to – The Eisenhut, of course.

Fast forward to this morning, then.  I was in Cirencester (not Baden Baden, as you might think from the map), having my hair cut and walked past Brewery Arts where there was an intriguing exhibition on.  I usually drop in when I’m around, just to see what’s what, but today that title hooked me in, needless to say. 

Oh my.  The work is lovely.  The design of the exhibition is super and the stories so inspiring.  But what I found most impressive were the stories told by the artist by means of her reflective journal, shown alongside the finished artworks.  Working with a group of elderly people in a care home and with some isolated carers, she created material for the exhibition, “A Celebration of Life and Love in Clay”.  The clay faces and other items on show are only part of the project though, because the process of making prompted so many profound responses, emotions and memories from the group, which Claire carefully explored and recorded with great sensitivity. 

I particularly appreciated the references to the excellent Five Ways to Well Being too.  Did you know there’s an app for that?