BEDM Day 11 "Walk To Work"

If I don't add this now, I will never get back on track!

 

 

It isn't a grape ivy, it is a grape vine.

 

It isn't a fountain, tho' there is a fountain later on. It is a birdbath.

 

It is an anemone de Caen, but my French pronunciation is beyond dodgy!

 

Sorry about the close up of my thighs. And my cough. And my sigh.

 

But do enjoy Dawnies' ice cream van tune, the fountain burbles, birdsong and the buzzing bee at the end.

 

You will never get this 5 minutes back, you know!

Zxx

BEDM - Day 9 "Secret Talent"

 A little 'Art Therapy' project that I took upon myself to carry out.

 

 

Made with bits and pieces found around the home, years ago, I thought I'd make a fly screen curtain for the back door. The nylon cord came from a kite that my dad made me when I was about 9. The kite got trashed almost on its' first outing, but its' line was on a wooden kite reel that dad had made as well and that got kept...because one day, 'it would come in handy'. The brown plastic spacers I cut from the outer casing from copper wire that I had stripped out, (and probably had used for something else!). The leaves were stripped off fake rose stems used to make the bouquets that were handed out to Roxy and Velma in the original London production of Chicago.

Nothing goes to waste in this household!!!

 

 

I was just going to blog about my sewing and millinery, but Mr B said to use these two different items.

So, my second piece is a watercolour, again, done many years ago. I nearly always pack my tiny watercolour paints tin, boards and a pencil when I go away. But this has been the only time I have ever really done anything with them.

I used my make-up brushes to actually paint with! 

 

 

And the real view...

 



BEDM - Day 8 "A Day In The Life"

Woke up!

Always a good start!

 

Bed with a view - wardrobes, window, make-up drawers and a Rene cat.



 

Not the news I had hoped for, for my town. This is the man that OK'd the brand new Bus Station that cannot cope with all the buses which means people have to stand out on the road in all weathers to catch their bus. Also the new Rail Station with lots of nasty, steep, concrete steps at its' entrance and a single lift. Not exactly good disabled access for the 21st century.

Loathsome dollop. 



BBC iPlayer link

Watched a little bit of this BBC4 programme and can't wait to see it all. Two hours of real-time footage on a canal boat travelling on the Kennet and Avon Canal; so no doubt some stunning scenery and views of Bath to come. Lovely.

 

Jigzone link

This could also be under the guilty pleasure banner. My daily fix of Jigzone. A different picture every day and a choice of how may pieces, so good for all ages. I tend to go for 184 which takes me a little less than 15 minutes. A nice little break with a cup of coffee.

 

The whole afternoon was spent pricking out and potting on seedlings. I did it in the kitchen, nipping in and out between showers. This wet weather has brought out loads of slugs, nasty little bu**ers! I thought birds ate the yucky things, but for all our menagerie of birdies, they don't seem to be doing a very good job.

 

The robins fledged a couple of days ago. Sadly we found one that didn't make it under the bench. We think it was the 'interloper' cat that we had just chased out of the garden. But 2 out of 3 is good. We also found an adult blue tit the other day, which was sad, but there seems to be much to-ing and fro-ing to the hole in the wall above loo window, so hopefully that family will fly off safely when the time comes. Don't know quite what happened to the blackbirds' nest in the honeysuckle. There was a couple of babies and the next time I looked the nest just seemed to have fallen apart! But, again, they seem to be keeping close to 'home'.

 

They didn't half work hard to bring up their little ones

It's about 7:30, Corrie is about to come on and I'm waiting for Mr B to come home from work. He's bringing in dinner from M&S...fish, chips and peas, so that won't take long to cook. Or eat. We'll plonk ourselves down for the ballet portion of BBC Young Dancer of the Year at 8. We know 2 of the 3 judges, Kenny and Dominic, so that'll be a bit of a giggle. The dancers have been fabulous to watch. Last week was the Asian section and they were fantastic.

 

A bit of TV news at 10. We still don't know how our local elections went. Northampton had a power cut just as they had started doing the counting, so they were going to start again at 6:30. Let's hope they do a better job than the last lot, even if it's the same party, as he is now our MP. And they wonder why our town never gets 'City Status'.

 

Roll on Saturday and the weekend!

Have a good one!

Zxx

BEDM - Day 7 "Home Sweet Home"

Books, stuff and more stuff makes my home sweet.

Probably too much 'stuff'!

 

 

Mr B stayed in digs in Edinburgh earlier this year. It was a family home with some amazing artefacts.

Whilst having a chat with the owner, he mentioned that we have more things than we really have the room for and the overflow is kept in storage.

"We rotate things" to which the owner said "Like the British Museum, you have seasons."

 

 

Those who've followed for a while may remember a couple of years back when our flat was "refurbished".

 

 

Belongings were packed up and stored for several weeks.

The family house down the road had two crates worth.

Yep! We needed FIVE of these wooden crates

We had five!

 Zxx



BEDM - Day 6 "Share The Blog Love"

I have a reading list with my favourites in, in the sidebar on the right.

I'd say take your pick. They're all good!

 

Or, for something a bit different, check out the same post a year ago, here, for the original bloggers that got me started. Narrowboating bloggers have a lot to answer for!

But if you only ever read one more post, make it this one, "Legs Akimbo LIL - the PAP test Queen...."   from MOB (menopausal old bag). She hasn't blogged for years but all her posts are brilliantly written, funny, (apart from the one about the passing of her kitty), and in the case of this one, a little bit 'vulgar'.
Be warned!

But do read!
Zxx

BEDM - Day 5 "Cinco de Mayo"

Rene in a sombrero

I'm afraid to say all things 'Mexicana' really don't come into my sightline! We enjoy Chiquitos when we're in Salford, but I tend to eat steak, nothing spicy.

 

 

Oh, and cocktails, of course!

 

 

This next picture was taken when we lived in Southsea, when we would visit the Southsea Show held on the common.

They had a most wonderful Floral Tent, our very own 'Southsea Chelsea' so to speak.

There were all sorts of displays - these cacti, sweet peas, (my fave), professional growers, WI groups, kiddies mini gardens, (I loved doing those at school).

 And a tea room!

 

 

BEDM - Day 4 "Guilty Pleasure"

This pleasure was 'made' guilty by a family friend.

 

 

I wore my red leather trousers home for the first time and a family friend, Lois, was visiting. She was determined to find out how much I had paid for them and, in front of my mum and dad, kept pestering until I gave up and said they were eighty pounds.

 

I'd been working for a while at The Wells and had seen these in a store up Chapel Street Market and, once tried on, they had to be mine. They fitted like a dream and they wore and wore and wore. Even when they got ripped on the train down to Plymouth, they got stitched up and worn some more.

 

With red leather boots in the cold and my Arnie Zane cut-off T-shirt in the summer.

The year was 1987 and I loved those jeans like, well, a second skin.

But that chat at my parents - oh my, my dad, he very nearly went ballistic!

Guilt? Oh yeah!

 

 

Then I just got on with enjoying them.

 

These 2 photos were taken by Mr B on a trip over to The Isle of Dogs, an area now more commonly known as Canary  Wharf.

 

We had travelled over by bus to visit the Limehouse TV studios; it was one of those 'mecca'-type places that we aspired to work at, at the time. It was still East India Docks then and they had just built the Docklands Light Railway, which was running on the track with no-one driving or travelling on it. Weird!

 

 

Canary Wharf is just to the left and the white 'blob' top right is the Blackwell Tunnel ventilation shaft.

It is quite shattering to see the developmental changes. What was not much more than scrubland and disused docks, is now what it is today.

The O2 is just out of the Google Map screenshot above, on the right.

 

This was one of our 'days out' trips that we would do when we first started dating.

Today is our 28th Anniversary!!

Zxx



BEDM - Day 3 "Self Care Sunday"

Having woken up this morning with yesterdays' make-up still on, well, I'd guess I'd suggest taking off your make-up before going to bed as a good step to looking after ones-self!

 

To be fair though, most of it was Laura Gellar stuff which is a mineral make-up and therefore not too awful to have left on.

 



 

A gentle walk through the park to Aldi was up-lifting for the soul and spirit as we were in the sunshine and missed all the rain.

 

I have a stash of daily meds to take to keep me 'healthy'. Two lots for high blood pressure, which is all over the place at the moment(!), anti-histamine, anti-depressant and something for my overactive bladder.

 

I'm think crystals are a positive force. How? Not really sure but they've been good for me. Regular heavy-duty massage for my neck/spine because of scoliosis. I quite fancy taking up Pilates, which is a fantastic thing. Working in a dance environment I was introduced to it donkeys years ago and, with hindsight, wish I'd pursued it.

 

Having been in a really rather horrible dark place with clinical depression my self care has left a lot to be desired. I don't think anyone has ever sat next to me and thought "She smells", but daily ablutions really didn't figure in my day, (not very much did), and even now it is something I have to consciously think about as opposed to doing it on 'auto-pilot', if that makes sense.

 

Even now it is a struggle to clean my teeth even daily, let alone twice a day! Thank goodness I have strong teeth and a caring dentist!

 

 

My garden has quite seriously been a life-saver and I would say grow something, wherever you live. The garden isn't very big but I cram a lot in and the excitement when, like today, my broad beans began to show...WOW!!

Then you get the good thing of eating fresh produce, which really is just the best.

 

And there's the thing - just do the best that you can do.

YOU deserve it!

Zxx

BEDM - Day 2 "Adventure"

I have to admit I am not much of an adventurer, in the going-off-and-travelling sense.

 

In fact, when an anxiety attack kicks in, it's a bit of an adventure even getting out of the front door! 



picture from motorbase

An adventure from way back, when I was at school; I has just started to take driving lessons and school had started a 'pre-driving class'.

 

Part of this class involved going to the Race Circuit at Goodwood, for classroom lessons and then a chance to actually drive around the track itself. The car I drove was an Inca yellow mini and we all screeched as I drove it through its' first 100 miles on the clock! As I had my Provisional Licence I was also able to drive around the Goodwood Estate are which was beautiful. 

 

picture credit

BEDM - Day 1 "A Sense of Purpose"

Well hello to the world of Pennyblossoms!

 

 

I think that BEDM has come just at a good time, (yeah, like, um, the beginning of May?).

I ground to a halt after loosing Tabby and just retreated into my shell. Either that or I was just being a grumpy git!

Think it might be time to invest in some new glasses!
What else can you do with 2 Flake Ice Cream cone plastic tops?
(Answers on a postcard please)
Me...grumpy git?

For those who don't know me or need a re-cap, I'm Zoe, not actually 'Penny' but called this blog after a storyline in an episode of The Big Bang Theory, a show I love so much that when I watch it on E4 I'll watch it again on E4+1. I am getting scarily word perfect on some of the episodes!

 

I have a long-suffering partner, who is known as Mr B on this site, because one blogger commented about 'Mr Blossom'. He isn't, but the name serves a purpose.

 

Pucker Up on the 1st May
Mwahh to Mr B

I said out loud to him "Ah, yes...Pennyblossoms; I'm fat and 50, that's my introduction", to which he replied "Not fat, fabulous". That sounds a lot more positive, but I am very overweight, due in part to laziness, mental health issues and medication (probably).

But a lot better than when I started this blog at the end of May 2009.

And actually I'm nearly 55!

Zxx

Pucker Up

link here



Zxx

My Little Tabba Cat

We bade a sad farewell to our mamma cat this morning.

 

 

 She was 20 years old and we had her for 16 of those.

 

 

Lucky us!

 



 

I am probably going to take a blogging break for a few months.

My mental health has been a bit all over the place this year, and we were both taken ill while away in Salford a fortnight ago and now with Tabby passing away everything is just too much.

 

If it all comes together I have exciting plans for the end of June, which I am looking forward to blogging about.

 

 

See you then, if not before!

Zxx