Owls ahoot

Believe it or not we nearly missed these

Just got back from a lovely weekend in Leeds. Mr B and I ten years married so we returned to the scene of the crime. And one of the amusements we undertook was the Leeds owl trail.

The symbol for the city is an owl and thus a lot of the buildings especially the old ones have an owl incorporated somewhere on or in the building. There are 25 to spot. You get a map from Tourist Info and off you go. It's a hoot - had to get that in.

What a great way of looking up and at buildings. We so often just have our eyes at shop window level and never really look at our architecture. It really did appeal to my collector's spirit. All sorts of owls - stone, gold, wood, stained glass, iron. Owls everywhere once you started looking.

I commend Leeds tourist bods for coming up with this free, family fun idea. I got so enthusiastic I was a little disappointed that I didn't actually see a real owl flying around.

Gold!

Have come home now with a bee in my bonnet and want to find the bees of Manchester (one of the symbols on its coat of arms). It would seem the play on words for symbols on coats of arms is never-ending!

To toss

To toss: take a deep breath, get a good action going in the wrist, have the confidence and flip.....and then catch. Good luck tomorrow with the pancakes. To toss successfully or to get into a mess with a pancake, broken on the floor that is the question.

Mine will be eaten with golden syrup, spread generously. Wonderful....and tossed.

Charity Update March

I have had a good month in the charity shops. My collection of cardigans in every possible colour and style is growing. I feel I should try to curtail the purchase of these items but they do come in so useful in the British climate. In the winter they add a cosy extra layer and in the spring and summer they are so versatile in keeping that evening chill at bay and finishing off an outfit. They aren't as bulky as a jacket which can get too warm and then is annoying when you have to carry it. A cardie is a versatile extra light layer which can be added or shed really easily. And by the way I ain't talking old men's cardies here.

You can see ironing isn't top of my list of priorities

But above all they are very very essential and wonderful in summer at concealing those upper arms which how can I put it when you reach a certain age ......can be a bit flappy!

Long live the cardie.

Charity items since last time:

Ghost silk dress (Oxfam) : £12.99
Mint Velvet silk dress (Oxfam) : £9.99 ( a sundress which definitely needs one of those cardies)
Next girl's dress (Oxfam) : £3.99
Green long sleeved t-shirt (Oxfam):£3.99
Girl's blouse (Oxfam) : £2.99
Huge book on nature (Oxfam): £4.99
Linea yellow cardigan (Barnardo's) : £3
red herring green cardigan (Britsh Red Cross) : £4

More double meanings

Had the sitting room plastered yesterday......now there's a whole new set of verbal misunderstandings.........I promise by the end of the day of being plastered I was still standing upright and quite sober.

Decorating double entendres

Oh how the English language can get you into trouble. We have finally succumbed to a decorator coming in to do his best on the sitting room. It's not been touched since we moved in seven years ago. We have lived with orangey browney walls below the dado, a dirty cream above and a green ceiling. We don't even notice now that the chimney breast has been half denuded of its anaglypta since we put a wood burning stove in six long years ago.

Anyway it couldn't go on as it is now directly juxtaposed with a brand newly decorated, spick and span dining room. I procrastinate as it is about decorating my daughter's bedroom so the sitting room wasn't going to get transformed by my clumsy hand any time during this century.

Anyway back to the fun of the English language. My friend rang up at lunch time and asked what was happening in my life to which I replied "Well there's a man stripping in the front room." Wails of laughter followed and a confirmation that it was wall paper being stripped and nothing else. My friend's joy seemed slightly tinged with disappointment.

Later I popped into the sitting room to ask if coffee was required. The decorator had resorted to a steamer to strip the awkward bits. "Gosh it's hot and steamy in here," I ventured with windows condensing and a wall of heat hitting me. I rest my case.

Liverpool Library Lives

How refreshing to be excited by a library...at least architecturally when all around me are closing. Liverpool Central Library has been transformed. Let's hope the Council can afford to continue to stock it. How fabulous to have a roof garden from which to view the Liverpool skyline and a dome  to look up to that took my breath away.

The dome of the new library

Older folks enjoying themselves - how dare they!

Lots of trips out this last week. C, H and I went to Rode Hall to view the lovely snowdrops. It's an old hall with beautiful grounds, a café and a walled garden. The kind of place that retired people with lots of time go to look round.

We got out of the car, walked down to the gardens and my 6 year old daughter piped up "They are all old people, Mummy." And there were quite a few older folks come to see the delightful snowdrops and have a coffee in the café but quite a few of the younger types too. But for the first five minutes H was quite fascinated and a little self-conscious about the prevalence of older folks, stating her dismay in quite a loud voice. Her brother on the other hand couldn't have cared less as he flung himself down the grassy manicured sloping lawns and I mean flung himself. H soon forgot about the 'older folks' and joined in too.