Change of job!!!

Today I changed my job!!!.....well only for today!!!



As my profile says I'm chief cook..well actually I'm the only cook but hey!!....each day I make lunch and supper for the guys I work for.....maybe there will be a dinner party...or a BBQ...or a business lunch...everyday is different and I love it!!.....however today I became a laundry girl!!

....we are one person down as she's on holiday.( holiday! I have been on one this month...seems soooo long ago..but I digress!!).....and life was getting a bit overloaded in the laundry department..that is....one person just returned from six weeks working abroad where, presumably 21stC washing machine technology has not yet reached!!!......and six people just returned from a 3 day dust bath at Glastonbury Festival.......

..add to that the usual household bits and pieces and boy it was looking messy........


..so today I ironed......lots.......and then even more.....and I really enjoyed it...I love ironing...I used to do all my mums when I was a teenager while watching the Saturday afternoon film....there is such satisfaction in seeing a growing pile of neatly pressed clothes..sheets and pillowslips and once in a while its fun to do something different.....I'm off to buy that lovely ironing water because the smell of lavender on those sheets would have been perfect.

I have to tell you that these gorgeous photos are not mine ( how I wish they were!)...I found them on flickr by an incredible artist...playingwithbrushes..go take a look they are wonderful!!

'My Day' by The Lodger

Today I didn't want to go out.....I was quite happy in bed even though my bottom was giving off some rather nasty smells....NO going out could wait.....until 'she' came upstairs and harnessed me to the elastic lead thing and wrestled me out from under the bed.....WELL..now I'm in a really grumpy mood I can tell you.....

......so we go on our usual walk...well actually I don't walk because I'm soooooo grumpy....I get dragged!!!! The indignity of it.... all I wanted was a lie in for goodness sake!!!...I can tell from her 'voice that now 'shes' getting grumpy...I know, I know, you have to get to work...you have to get dressed because I know that under that sweatshirt you still have your PJ's on....Ha!!! One day you will meet someone who you'd rather not see with you PJ's on with wellies and no make-up.....MAY THAT DAY COME SOON!!!!

When we get back from what seems like a walk that took hours........huff.......I just get nicely settled when I hear with my total superior ears, next doors back door opening......oh well I must get up and bark at that........

Then.....I hear Bertie and Ralph being let out in their garden....and ..oh well I must get up and bark at them or they may think I'm not better than them......'she' shouts at me a LOT!!!!...I never quite understood what this 'B quiet' means?????.......

Then that slippy..snappy, noise that comes from the porch almost every day happens....white things fall to the floor and annoy the ***** out of me.....so I bark some more........suddenly the radio voice thing goes on very loud..........LOOK I'm trying to get some sleep here Mrs!!!!

Then....oh no!!.....the lead goes back on....what is THIS???...Excuse me but now you're supposed to go to work and I sleep for four hours curled up on the nest I make out of your lovely white bedspread....come on....you know the rules.....

No! No! not the car....its hot......I'm tired......you know I never sleep in the car....you know there is something underneath that follows us all the way to ........everywhere..........well just a little way then.....oh no..its further than that....not the vets?....not the vets.....not the kennels? oh no not the kennels PLEASE!!!!!!...........are we there yet? are we? no really are we???

.....at last she lets me out of the car and turns off that noise 'she' has been singing to for the last.....ages....couldn't 'she' hear me asking to be let out...Oh boy do I need a sleep!!!!

....but wait...I know where I am...there's the beech hedge I always pee up.....the doors opening OH...that really lovely lady who always has treats....the garden with the children next door..yeah!! .......and the birds..... and that silly squirrel that walks the fence..he's so dumb I'll get him one day!!!...

......what 'she' shouting....

'B quiet'!...

No way!!!

Thank You Mr Postman!!

Yesterday I received a lovely parcel that I won a few weeks back in Fairmaidens' sea Cottage blog giveaway..it is all so lovely and beautifully packaged....a dvd that I have to say must have passed me by first time around.....the gorgeous American magazine Romantic Home

....a bundle of cards and labels..all divine...and a pack of seeds which I shall be planting in the garden this weekend!!!..I do have a few hollyhocks coming up but I definitely need more...Fairmaiden how did you know that??

Just to say another BIG thank you to your Bella Bleu for choosing me!!

Flattery it may be BUT!!!!

Now I'm quite an easy going person...turn the other cheek and all that ...BUT.... when some-one upsets my girls that's another thing....

My lovely daughter Miss Magpie has a totally unique business..you may have looked over on the link for Vintage Magpie.....it all started about 3 years ago ..when I was visiting my Dad who was slowing slipping out of this world into the next......

When I got home Miss Magpie told me of a dream she'd had.....a bride walking down the aisle with a bouquet... not of flowers ( Oh..we were florists back then!!)...but with a bouquet of shimmering crystal and vintage goodies.......

She worked hard...developed a unique process to make it all work and got some publicity from the wedding magazines and has gradually made it work ....she now can earn her living from this and is fulfilling her dream......

She has taken stands at wedding shows...built a website.....been featured on fashion photo shoots etc..etc.. Its been and still is hard work especially in these hard times....

She has featured on wedding forums when people have wondered how these beautiful works of art are made...and some people have tried doing it their way....for their own use.....no problem...

BUT!!!

When someone takes your idea and copies it in every way...has their details as a direct copy of your website and even have the audacity to cut and paste the same wording to their business....that is just down right plagiarism.

I am mad...I am sad for Miss Magpie who says its as if someone has taken her baby and slapped its face it in front of her.....

BUT!!

We are trying to rise above it.......they are not as good......well how could they be..where is the love in copying someone else's work?

What goes around comes around....may this person feel very ashamed of herself .......

This is one of Vintage Magpies Brides......

Atmosphere

Tonight there was such a wierd sky......it seemed to make all the colours so intense....

Maybe there is a storm brewing....

Blue sky on the horizon......

Happy Fathers Day

Happy fathers Day to all the wonderful Dads out there.......

..and to my Dad..who is no longer with me in body but who walks with me in spirit.......
...I hope the poppies are blooming in remembrance of you......

Dorset Days Part 2

Continuing my day trip to old haunts in Dorset.....The Heath with its standing stone covered with fabulous bright green lichen and the bracken unfurling....

..the grasses..I love grass..I am always amazed by the colours in it ...green grass..no!!! pinks and lilacs, browns and golds....black tufts of the rushes....and butterfly's and moths everywhere....
..part of the commercial bit of forest..can you see the deer...I was only about 20 yards away from them..they took a look at The Lodger and Me and carried on foraging....

..the most beautiful doe eyed cattle......

This is another great spot for a stunning view...across the rolling countryside above Creech with views to the Purbeck hills and the Jurassic Coast....this is over to Kimmeridge Bay....
and this is down the road to Lulworth with its ruined castle ( when Miss Magpie and I were florists we used to do wedding receptions here....we both found it a bit spooky!!!)..

I was going to go to the deserted village of Tyneham and walk to the bay but the army had closed the road for shooting practice and we had to forgo the pleasure!!!

Can you see the smoke from the gunfire!!! I didn't dare get of of the car to take the photo in case a stray bullet went whistling past!!!

..a last longing look at the sea over to Portland Bill and then home.....another big sky in Dorset...

Dorset: Part one

Every three months I go back to my old home town in Dorset........The Lodgers personal groomer lives there and I would never let anyone else clip him......I trust her and what is a very traumatic day for the Lodger is made easier because they now have a love/hate adoration of each other..just to say I no longer have to drag him through the door!!!......anyway I also have a great excuse to visit my most loved and favourite place on this planet......Hartland Heath.....

..I have spent so many hours walking this place it just feels so like home.....the view....the mouth of the river and the boats moored on it......the ragged heathland....managed by English nature and an amazing site for wildflowers..grasses....birds and other wildlife......the only thing missing was the lovely old boy Louis..this is the first time I've ever walked here without him and I felt a little sad about that....

......however....the rain held off and the lodger and I took in the old tracks we always walk..over the heath , the heather just flowering in its brilliant purple swathes.....treading the well worn paths..so close to the sea that the ground is sand.....

..we climb our way to the cairn that commemorates this area being made a place of special interest......a beautiful cairn built of the local stone.....this is an intensely profound place for me and I visit it every time and place a stone or flower in its crevices....say a little prayer....and go on....this place helped me through the toughest time in my life......a break-up and a deathof a loved one....and somehow it holds my heart.....I just find such peace here....

..this is the stone and remnants of a posy of grasses I left three months ago....there are lots of my stones in this place!!!

Today's posy...buttercups, heather, dog rose, fern, a piece of timeworn wood and a feather I picked up bound with grass...a real wild summer mix.....a gift..


..does anybody else feel like this about a place I wonder...does someone else walk past this way and wonder who places these little offerings between the stones?? Who knows...

..in the distance Corfe Castle on the horizon.....


...and then the sky cleared and the sun came out...Dorset has such big skies.....when I go back I miss it...........

..The Lodger..'.leave me alone I've had a bad day!!!!'

I know a place where the wild strawberries grow.....

I know a place where the wild strawberries grow
walk a while with me in the early summer
and feel the gentle breeze blow
against your face
as you walk through the gate and down to the path..

into the shadows

while the musty scents of decay

will assail your senses

and the water will lap at your feet..

The trees stand sentinel

vast, climbing to the sky and

you feel like a whisper in time,

a fragment of their age

I know a bank where the wild strawberries grow..

bright in the undergrowth

a scarlet cry of summer

a feast for the patient

the dark menace of ancient grotto's

carved stones crumbling with weather and ivy...

scaring me with their unknown reasons..

dank and gloomy...

I know a path where the wild strawberries grow

along a lake

where a solitary swan

floats by snapping at her widows weeds

contemplating her barren year

I know a place where the wild strawberries grow.

Winner!!

I can't believe it...I won a blog giveaway.....from the lovely Fairmaiden at Sea Cottage.......

..she wanted to know what the ideal getaway place would be that you wanted to visit..see her blog for my entry....

I love Scotland and have lived in several different parts of it over the years.....mostly I pine for the wild untamed places....lochs and sea....empty windswept beaches......high mountains and heather covered moors with buzzards flying high and flocks of deer and sheep roaming the hills..the long summer days when it hardly gets dark and the cold misty winters when you are cosy by the fire....

We all have dreams...some I've lived and lost.... others are in my mind and one day may come right again....

What are your favourite places real or in your imagination?

Holidays

I'm back to good old blighty after a week in the sun on the island of Cyprus.......unbelievable weather......blue skies every day......low 30's in temperature......

..cool sea to paddle and swim in......

....lovely beach cafes to have an iced coffee............and a spot of lunch.......

...watching the world go by at a snails pace.....

and beautiful warm evenings with the moon on the water.........

......returning......rested....and slightly tanned......