Photographic Garden Moments

Dear Reader,  today is a rain day.  It reminds me that one,  I have not much to write and two, with not so much to write and being British I will tell you about the weather. Here is a picture of our town in the rain a couple of weeks ago.  We had a months rain in a morning, apparently.  This is a picture a local resident took.

To safeguard our garden from the onslaught creative gold was struck once again by  the 20 year old Online Shopping Genius (daughter).

With the rain out of the way creatures emerged to enjoy the warmer meteorological conditions

and friends far afield decided to grab the sunshine moment and throw a bbq.  I dug out a kimono, for me not Mr Him, and Mr Him and I journeyed to Folkestone.  Here I struck creative gold myself (its clearly a family trait) and persuaded Mr Him to drive home leaving me to indulge the afternoon away with a few, a fair few, of these.

Now, don't get me wrong, he didn't leave me in Folkestone. No, I couldn't risk Mr Him loose to his own devices for an afternoon, goodness knows what would be flopped and in what darn colour!  No, he had to stay within range whilst I was introduced again and again to Mint Mojitos.

We did walk (before too many mojitos hit)  around our friend's garden and captured photographic moments for you.

little designer bird house

mirror in the dell

so that's what to do with the empty wine bottles!

Nasturtiums

Wannabe Statue of David

Instagram Photo Challenge and other things.

Dear reader, I'm inundated at work. My writing to you has suffered. It's your misfortune, I do realise.  This morning I've snatched a few minutes to update you.  A small update. I could give you a big update but it would involve lots of spreadsheets and concatenate formulas and I'm sure you don't want that.

Instead I'm going to tell you a little about my instagram adventure. I'm taking part in a photo challenge. A theme for each day is followed, not too well by me. For instance last Friday the theme was food diary.  Here's my contribution, with the caption 'ooops'. 

I'm on a liquid diet. 

Yesterday we had to post strapless. Well I don't go strapless, believe me you don't want me to, so I struggled with this challenge until I had an epiphany. I recollected that I wore this little number in  Brighton last year.  A vision in a sapphire sheen of elegance it is not but  I took a gamble and posted it.  I haven't been banned yet.

Meanwhile I am sure you want an update on the men in the office Friday style challenge. 

 Yes, bright or colourful socks.

At home Mr Him has modified his clothing to come up with what he calls 'Shipwreck Chic.'

Now for your challenge, use the word concatenate in your comments.

Close Encounters with Wildlife

Dear Reader, I am today once again giving you a quick pictorial blog. On our way back from Nottingham we stopped off at Woburn Safari.  Here Mr Him eyed up the lions with glances across the car to me.  I cannot imagine what he was thinking! We saw black bears, wolves, giraffes and more.  I will leave it to you to peruse our close encounters. 

A Pictorial on Nottingham, with a Mr Him Style Bonus

Dear reader, this week Mr Him and I abandoned house, temporarily and not due to its occupation by so many others, and ventured north.  We drove 5 hours up various M's (m23, 25 and 1)to attend an event. Once said event was over we did a bit of sightseeing.  Prior to showing you the sights I will delight you with a style dabble Mr Him tried out, after he saw a male friend sporting the 'look'. As we know Mr Him will not be outdone on the style front.  

I think that he can get away with this as the bag is of a sombre and masculine  colour and blends with his dark suit. It's a change to see him deviate from fruit.

We were told by friends that whilst we were up north we should visit Nottingham.  We caught a train from the  town we were staying in and the first point of interest was 'big' Marks & Spencer. Here I found a confluence of clothes spread across the floor of Nottingham. Jeans collection, summer collection, classic collection, petite collection and more. It was the Indigo collection that I was wanting and I found it.  I bought a kimono. Mr Him didn't. 

We then headed for more ancient sights than Marks & Spencers.  The castle, 

 which has sandstone caves underneath. 

The oldest inn in England  (If the sign is to be believed. )

  
We had a drink.  Then another drink.  Summer cup was the specialty here. 

 Here we saw 'the fishman'. We don't have fishmen in our part of the world.  The fishman sells fish from his basket as he wanders the pubs and town centre. 

This pub is built almost under the castle and is built into a sandstone cave.

 A local gentleman at the bar told me that we should visit The Malt Cross next.  We did. 

This is a pub with a resemblance to crystal palace.  

Lastly we headed to The Canal House.  A pub with a barge inside and accompanying canal! This is not usual, dear reader.  In the UK we do not build canals in our drinking establishments. 

Pie was the gastronomic speciality and I felt obliged to sample scoff the chicken and tarragon offering.  

Later full of the sights, drinking establishments, pie and summer cups we headed for the station.  

Many Relocations and this Friday's Shirt Result

Dear reader, you know how much I endure enjoy  people moving into my house unexpectedly. Think back to the arrival of the yogurt churner extraordinaire and his habitation of our house whilst we were out to lunch.  He is still with us I add. 

Well, dear reader, on Sunday I awoke to find two more had moved in under the cover of darkness.  The Online Shopping Genius' old bedroom was now  occupied,  yet  it hadn't been when we went to bed Saturday night.  It appeared that the Online Shopping Genius and Automotive Engineer boyfriend are staying for a few days weeks months. 

So are their cars! 

On the subject of relocation, I had a bit of a brainwave a week or so ago.  I decided to move members of my team.  The aim being to snuggle them in closer to me.  We have arctic air conditioning and short of taking a hammer to it I could think of no other solutions to keeping warm. 

One team member objected to the move and went on immediate vacation.  Another was so taken with the idea he put the application into the facilities department himself.  He did a darn good job as I wasn't even required to sign it off.  

The move took place and I can tell you,  dear reader, it's quite a novelty sitting next to a woman.  I found that out in the first five minutes.  Petra opened her relocated set of drawers and showed me her tablets, tea and, just  in case I needed it, where to find a spare voucher for having my eyebrows threaded. I was stupified, dear reader,  and a spreadsheet didn't get opened for a good five minutes whilst I recovered. I then had to make myself a cup of her proffered caramelised apple green tea. 

Talking of the office, last Friday one of our male colleagues left.  His gift from the team was a blue shirt, just in case he didn't have enough. 

Friday's clothing challenge in the office for the men was checked shirts.  Result, one managed to depart from blue and and one interpreted check as stripes.