Memory jogging...

Insomnia has its plus points! I rarely sleep beyond 5.30 or 6am. I don't always get up that early but at the weekends I do quite like to get out early and just walk and it is the best time of the day - when the streets are quiet and the birds are not drowned out by the sound of cars.

I've been thinking about starting running again for a while - in part, inspired by various people in blogland who have mentioned the benefits. I used to run 3 or 4 times a week with a neighbour - our usual route was a 3 1/2 mile round trip and about 5 years ago, I think I was the fittest I have ever been and able to do that rout without too much difficulty.

Of late, I've been very conscious that whilst I am pretty active, and not trying to lose weight (I have lost a LOT of weight in the last few months!) - I am conscious that thinner does not = fitter! I know I need to do something about my cardiovascular fitness and the budget will not stretch to anything that involves a fee at the moment! So....

Yesterday morning, no rain! Grey, cold, but not actually raining so, before I lost my resolve, I set off for a walk/run...

I've got to confess more walk than run really - 1 minute running, 1 minute walking for about 20 minutes then I just walked a scenic route back - about an hour and a half out altogether. Slightly depressed about just how breathless I was after such short spells of running but I'm sure it will improve! And now I've written it here, I might feel more inclined to stick to it. We'll see...

Didn't take any photos to begin with - nothing caught my eye and I couldn't cope with stopping when I was trying to time the running! Once I was walking I came across this colourful row of houses on a street nearby - seem slightly out of place in the rows of Victorian terraces but I guess these were a bit grander than your average city terrace.

I used to live in this house...

I expect it was a lovely large family house originally but about 30 years ago, it was one of the off site residences for student nurses. I lived here for a year (my room was on the ground floor, bottom right where you can just see the white lintel) with about a dozen other girls and we had a ball here. The rooms were pretty grim, cold, damp and I think the maintenance left a bit to be desired (think it was condemned eventually as unsuitable accommodation - no fire escapes for one thing...) but it felt much more like independent living than the large impersonal nurses home blocks on the hospital site and we had some great parties here!! The turret rooms were particularly envied I seem to remember. I believe it has since been turned into flats - I'd love to have a look inside, probably wouldn't recognise it.

This was a walk of memories. This little church is tucked away in the more upmarket end of the city and is where a friend of mine got married. I think she was the first of my school friends to marry and their wedding was a couple of months before ours - seems a lifetime ago now, we were all just kids.

This morning I looked out of the window to this...!

Proper Blue Sky!!!

So, out I go at 7 am determined to soak up a bit of brightness. It was really cold, so I was still wrapped up head to foot but I made myself do the walk/run routine then just kept walking out to my favourite route around the university broad. So lovely to be out early and appreciate the beauty of the green spaces on my city home 'doorstep'...

As a child I was convinced these were called 'popular' trees! And why not?!!!

My route takes me alongside the river. I just don't get fed up with this...

There were bright buttercups along the river banks...

Unfortunately, my camera will just insist on auto focusing on the bits I don't mean it to focus on (grr!) but you get the gist of the zingy bright yellow. As kids we used to hold these under each others chins to 'see who loved butter'! I can't really remember why it was such a big deal to be a butter lover! Other than, I suppose, that most people didn't eat butter routinely. We did in our house actually ( at the time, I thought it was my parents attempt to be a bit posher than we were - maybe they just knew it tasted better!) but I can remember wishing we had 'margarine' like everyone else, so that your sandwiches weren't a shredded mess from trying to spread too cold butter on soft 'plastic' bread. The 'marg' then was pretty vile I expect - no olive or sunflower, just margarine of some indeterminate vegetable oil origin, doubtless full of hydrogenated fats too! My nannie was a complete convert - she used to call it 'spread' and there was an art, in her eyes, in getting the thinnest smear evenly across a piece of bread, right to the crusts (it was not ok, as far as she was concerned, to have a gap between the spread and the crust of the slice!). Did anyone else play the buttercup game?

On round to the broad, lovely and peaceful as ever at this time in the morning...

I was out for just short of two hours by which time the clouds were returning...

And by the time I turned into my road, there was just the odd patch of blue...

"Enough to patch a sailor's trousers" was my Mum's expression! Lots of memories triggered from this weeks walks! 

I've spent much of the rest of the day sat listening to the radio and knitting and, having just got up to make a drink, realise running two consecutive days after several years gap might have been pushing my luck a bit! Seem to have stiffened up a bit! Off to tackle the stairs and head to bed, hope I'm not too achy in the morning!

Til next time then, and thanks for all your comments on my last post - lots of no-reply bloggers so can't respond individually to all.

Sx

April photo scavenging...

April has been a bit of a rubbish month. I think its been a combination of the weather and work and too much 'stuff'. Suffice to say there seems to have been precious little opportunity to get out at all, never mind get out and take photos.

So, I have done very badly and can't post a complete set. Never mind, May is another month and I hope, we'll have some breaks from the rain and I might get my photo taking mojo back!

This month's meagre offerings...

Rock...

Oh dear, had lots of ideas for this one - but didn't convert any to reality!

In/out...

I thought there was something quite sad about this church entrance, which seems to say way in and keep out all at once. Such a shame that churches have to lock their doors now.

Amazing...

I can honestly say, without meaning to sound grouchy, I cannot think of anything that amazing in the last month - work, rain, empty house, work, rain...you get the picture. Obviously amazing things are happening all the time but think I've had my eyes shut! Suppose I could have snapped my little pots of veg growing in the garden - I do think seeds turning into plants is a bit amazing - but it has been so hard to get out there between the downpours or in daylight!!

Can't live without...

I debated with myself long and hard over this one!! I went through, in my head, all those things that you intuitively feel you can't live without...coffee, phone, belongings of whatever sort..., then I thought no, bit shallow, of course I could live without all those things. So I went off on a bit of an abstract train of thought - family, home, love, laughter...so many things but the last few months have taught me that, whilst these things absolutely put the joy and 'quality' into life, in fact it is completely possible to exist without things that you never dreamt you could be parted from. I found this whole process a bit draining to be honest, I think I'm a bit prone to introversion at the best of times and maybe giving this one too much thought was a bad idea! So ultimately, I went literal and just snapped at something we have had plenty of this month - water!!!

On the move...

Seems to be a little rash of people trying to be 'on the move' near me...

Smile...

Somewhat reluctant model in the form of my lovely niece, and blurry phone shot (she was threatening to duck out of the way!!) but best I could manage...

Spring...

Daffodils are synonymous with Spring to me and, although we have not had Spring sunshine, this bank of daffs on the castle mound still looked lovely.

Multicoloured, sticky, tangle...

No excuses here, I have lots of multicoloured stuff around and I'm sure I should have been able to come up with something for the other two - like I say, have been pants at taking photos recently!

Indulgence...

Yummy Easter chocolates, given to me by a good friend - these were a complete indulgence, I think I ate nearly all of them myself!! Very greedy!! I have plans for this clever concertina box...

Direction...

Feel I should put a blank frame here! I seem to have been a bit lacking in this!!!

50% completion. Must try harder!! 

Have just reread this post - I think it probably does represent how I've felt this month! Too much grey, cold and wet - I'm sure I am one of those people who needs sunshine to keep positive! Perhaps I should consider emigrating to warmer, sunnier climes...! Glad to say goodbye to April, hoping for a brighter May.

Off to look at Kathy's May list now, need to set myself a bit of a completion target I think!!

Til next time,

Sx

Oops, just remembered I forgot to add a link to Kathy's blog - thanks as always for the inspiration!

April showers...

Today has been one of those days when you just can't 'get out'. Well, I suppose I could have been out but all day there have been spells when big black clouds have darkened the sky and the heavens have opened. And when I say April showers, what I really mean is April downpours...the sort that drench everything even with the benefit of wellies and a brolly.

Yesterday was much the same except in between the rain the sun shone...

I'm not exactly sure what these plants are but there are lots of them in the garden and they seems to trap the drops of water...

Even on the vertical leaves, the droplets were clinging on.

Today it all just looks wet! And grey. Yuk.

So, I have stayed home and cleaned a bit and tidied a bit and caught up with phoning people I should have phoned before. One of the disadvantages of living alone (or maybe advantages? suppose it depends on whose opinion...) is that it is entirely possible to not say a word for a whole day. Sometimes I just want to speak out loud to make sure my voice is still functional!! Today I've had a bit of a sore throat and until I heard myself on the phone, I wasn't sure if I was going to be croaky!!! Oh dear, that sounds a bit barking doesn't it...

Anyway, thank goodness for phones and skype - at least I know now... :-)

I've also done a bit of nonsense knitting! Our charity group is having a jubilee party in June and some of the yarn that has been passed on to me is red, white and blue so I thought I'd make a few bits to go on the table top sale or in the raffle. This is my first little attempt...

You'll have to excuse the 'egg cup'! One of the things that didn't come with me! So I have to improvise with a little sherry glass. Quite a classy boiled egg receptacle I think. I thought I'd make a few of these little egg cosies - variations on a theme in terms of colours, I think. They don't take long and I think they are quite cute. 

Made me think about the funny things that are a bit traditional - we always had egg cosies as kids, ones that looked like chickens or ducks made out of felt I seem to remember, and I loved having my boiled egg like that. But kind of a bit odd - given that they don't really need keeping cosy as you eat them as soon as they are cooked!! Wonder where that tradition came from?

Anyway, will knit up a few more and hope they make some pennies :-)

One other photo I wanted to share - I just found this on my phone...

These finished a while ago now but I had forgotten how pretty they were, loving the stripy-ness.

Right, one more phone call to make then I am braving the weather to go to the cinema - going to see 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'; I read the book ages ago and  loved it so hope the film doesn't disappoint.

Til next time then

Sx

Time out, blankets and snuggling...

Where is this month going?!

I feel hardly able to keep up with myself at the moment. Sometimes I think its a good thing, as keeping busy limits the time I have to overthink things (I'm a bit prone to this...not always a good plan, I realise but if you have a compulsive need to 'make sense' of everything, what are you to do?!!) but sometimes, I just feel I want to stop the world and get off! You know, just draw breath and feel as though you can stand still without dropping the gazillion plates that you are trying to keep spinning...

Well, my early morning walks are the one time when I feel that, just for a bit, the frantic stuff recedes a bit. I don't go out every day by any means - work days are a bit of an impossibility as I am usually in so early but at the weekend, given my body clock seems to refuse to recognise weekends, I often do get up and out before the world really starts to wake up. And I really love this time of day. I love the fact that the city is still largely behind closed doors and curtains. Feels a bit like that feeling you get from walking in new snow or across and untouched beach - like you are the first person to see things that day.

Don't know if that makes any sense at all but its why I often have early morning photos! And today no exception!!

Last Sunday, I was out of the house by 7.15. It was bright and crisp and cold, with all the promise of a new day. I try to vary my route a bit but, to be honest, there is a limit to where you can get to differently from my house and I am finding my trip across the nearest city park towards the university is one of my favourites...

This park is really changing as the year progresses - the beds are filling up as the new growth comes through and I was a bit surprised at just how green the trees are already. The blossom is already beginning to drop and looked a bit like snowflakes across the ground...

The university park was deserted at this time in the morning - with the exception of the odd runner or dog walker the first hour or so was just tranquility itself!! Not a student in sight of course!

The broad in the university grounds is very peaceful and such a contrast to the concrete campus that is UEA. From this spot in the other direction you see this...

I think I've mentioned these before - they are not everyone's cup of tea and I must admit I find the other side of the buildings a bit grey and depressing but these striking glass fronted buildings quite fascinate me.

They were built in the late 1960s as student residences and are known as the Ziggurats (I should probably know why but I've no idea!!). They have attracted a lot of interest over the years as iconic modern architecture and are now protected as Grade 2 listed buildings.

I quite like the shape of them and the way the light bounces off the windows. I have never been inside but imagine they must be full of natural light.

There is something about water too isn't there?

The sun was still quite low in the sky and the clouds reflected in the broad. If it hadn't been so cold (it was really cold! About this point I was wishing I'd picked my hat up!!) I could have stood and absorbed this view for ages.

I have done this walk from the other direction and was trying to retrace my route but on the other side of the broad are some woods and I got a bit misplaced there! (Usually my sense of direction is ok but somehow in woodland I get completely disorientated!) I spent a pleasant hour wandering through the woods before realising I was back almost to where I had started!

Undeterred, I thought I'd keep going along a different path and I found myself walking through more woodland. This wasn't quite the riverside path I thought I was heading for but was very pleasant all the same! The ground was covered in bluebell plants - I need to come back in a couple of weeks as they are not quite out yet...

I found just the odd one beginning to flower...

I think it will be lovely when they are all out.

And lots of fresh green leaves unfurling in the spring sunshine...

I have to confess at this stage I was a bit clueless as to where I was going to come out so when I spotted a road I headed for it and realised I was about 3 miles or so from home!! I had emerged in a very posh suburb of Norwich - lots of beautiful houses, landscaped gardens, electric gates, very nice cars in the driveways - you know the kind of thing! 

Ridiculous, I know, but I felt a bit inhibited about taking photos here! There were a few of the good folk in their Sunday best heading (I presume) to church and I thought they might think I was a bit suspect in my scruffy trainers taking photos of their lovely estates!!!

There is definitely more colour appearing in the gardens and hedgerows now... more pinks and purples replacing the bright yellows of the daffodils and forsythia. This purple honesty was just growing alongside the path...

And the scent of lilac made me look up and spot these...

So pretty. Made me feel a little wistful for my old garden as I had/have a small lilac there that I have been nurturing for the last 18 years or so and last year it had the best show of flowers yet. Never mind. I am fast realising that all these 'things' in our lives are a bit transient and it is the recollection of them or the 'sense' of them that is really the thing that stays with us. Maybe a smell or an image - something that triggers a memory or a whole series of memories of an experience or feeling that is just as vivid as if it was infront of you.

In my current little patch, the little flower borders are filling up with bluebells and the wallflowers that I planted early on are just beginning to flower. Plus I bought some brightly coloured pots that I have planted up with my sunflower seedlings, onion sets and marigolds! I'm going for the mixed pretty and functional look! Space being the essence here!!

I found a great little book at the library called 'Patio produce' and felt inspired to have a go so I have a few potatoes in bags under the kitchen window, carrots and onions in pots at the other end of the garden and french beans and courgettes in the utility room beginning to show signs of growth.

I'm hoping to squeeze in a few tomatoes and salad leaves later in the year too. Watch this space, could be like the good life before long!! There is just something so satisfying about growing and eating your own food. 

Indoors, I have been busy with woolly projects too! I was given, by the elderly mum of a friend, a huge bag of odds and ends of yarn. Loads of it! Mixed colours and weights, some of it that has been stashed away for years I should think!

Although some of it is definitely not my 'natural' choice of colours, I thought I ought to make something to use it up - partly because I can't bear to see things go to waste and partly to occupy my time (I have no money for new yarn at the moment!!). 

It is mostly old acrylic which definitely does not have the lovely soft feel of the newer stuff. I made a little ripple blanket...

I had intended it to be a bit bigger but I got a bit bored with it. The trouble is I wasn't really enjoying the colours at all and it felt a bit of a chore. I think I will probably put it onto the Breathe Easy (the charity I'm involved with) sale table - you never know someone might like pastels and it might raise a few pence for the group...

I have decided I am definitely not a pale colours girl - they just don't do anything for me - but I did quite enjoy the process of rippling and it used up a few balls!!

My other little project was this...!

I have been so cold getting into bed at night and I thought I could use up a few more donated bits with this. I picked the softer yarns and colours that are nearer my sort of thing (although given that it will be largely in bed probably shouldn't have mattered!!) - the buttons were some I already had in my button jar.

Is it a bit sad that I'm looking forward to cuddling up with this tonight?! Oh god, old lady lifestyle, here I come...!!!

Til next time then, and thanks, as always, for your comments - lovely of you to drop by and say hello!

Sxx

enough already...!

Ok, cold weather...you can just disappear again please!

Last week we were enjoying lovely sunshine and although I accept it was unseasonally warm really, was it really necessary to revert to freezing cold winds and grey skies?

I appreciate that there are worse things than miserable weather and I know the land needs the rain but...I really, really need this winter to be over with thankyou! Today, I have been cold all day and as I am between knitting/crochet projects I am seriously considering a hot water bottle cover!!! Followed by a trip out at the weekend to purchase said hot water bottle!!!

Don't rate the chances of the lovely spring blossom lasting long in the cold snap...

This blue sky and blossom was only a week or so ago when it was warm enough to walk without a coat on!

I love these simple flowers and the fresh green of the leaf buds beginning to unfurl.

And last weekend, I was even able to sit out in my tiny square of sunshine with a cup of tea and a magazine...

(no significance to the open page here!! believe me they cannot sort my problems just now!!!)

Complete decadence last Sunday - I sat outside for an hour, painting my toenails, sipping my tea, enjoying my little seedlings and skimming through the magazine... 

Clearly, it is entirely my fault that this week the woolly socks have been back out and the toenails back in hiding!!!

I'm not trying to wish the year away but I have had enough of winter now...

Hope you're all keeping warm!

Sx

PS oh and thanks for all your comments...I do try to reply but don't always manage it (or at least not very promptly!) and a few of you are 'no reply' commenters so just wanted to say how much your comments are appreciated! xx

photo challenge 2012...

I think this month I might have got the whole set!!! Thanks, as always to Kathy for the inspiration in the form of the monthly list...

I tried to concentrate this month and make an effort to remember what was on the list (I am completely rubbish at this - seem to have the entirely lost the ability to retain anything other than immediately required information just lately...everything else just seems to fall out of my brain again!). In truth, I still forgot what I had already taken pictures of but that meant I ended up with choices!!

So here goes...

Morning...

This was taken on one of my early morning walks, when the city streets were still sleeping and the light was lovely.

Buttons...

As a child, I remember my Mum had a button jar which I loved. It might even have been this one as I'm fairly sure this jar came from her and is certainly very similar. Anyway, I unearthed this jar when I moved and transferred all my buttons that were in odd places amongst my sewing stuff into one place. I have to confess to loving this even more than my childhood recollection one as Mum's was an assortment of salvaged shirt buttons - almost all white I think - and although some of these are salvaged, quite a few are impulsive purchases to satisfy a colourful buttons craving! There are one or two that are left overs from things I've made - the little blue bird was a spare from a card of buttons (can you still buy buttons like that? Just occurred to me I nearly always buy them loose now) used to make a baby cardigan for my first son. These sit on the windowsill in my spare room now, where the light shines through them :-)

Square...

Had to be really... the latest crochet squares...

Kitchen...

I found this one quite tricky. I tried taking shots of bits of the kitchen - sort of representative pictures but they were all a bit dull. Its a very small room so difficult to get any angles as such. And I don't somehow, feel it is really my kitchen so it doesn't sort of have a 'personality' (I appreciate that probably sounds a bit bonkers...  I think I just knew my old kitchen so well, never had to stop and think where things lived, could almost have managed with my eyes shut. This one still feels a bit borrowed). This is taken through the utility room window- I had forgotten the hearts were still there, they were a pre Christmas gift from a friend and I've just never taken them down.

Theatre...

The sun was setting behind the bandstand and outdoor theatre space in the city park.

Street name...

This could almost have been the one for 'landmark' - Elm Hill is one of the really old Norwich streets, dating (apparently, just looked it up...!!) from around 1200. Its a really pretty cobbled street with several tudor buildings either side.  Worth a look if you are ever doing a grand tour of Norwich (but nightmare in heels... ;-) )

Fancy...

Tom's posh latte and muffin in The Dining Rooms at Cinema City - love the home-made look, much more our kind of thing than swirly piped ones, and he said it was yummy!

Landmark...

Debated with myself over this one - I think I have taken a photo of almost every obvious landmark in Norwich (see...lousy short term memory!) - this is the City Hall which dominates over the market place.

Fashion...

It was Fashion Week in March so I had intended to try to get some shots relating to that but then took this one of my son's arm and quite liked it. He has a rather tatty collection of festival wristbands, and other 'adornments' - and it reminds me of the current fashion for wearing all sorts on your wrist. He does know that when he gets a 'proper' job these are likely to have to go...!

Words...

I walk past this random bit of graffiti/street art every time I walk into the city and it makes me smile every time! Pity about the black bit next to it but I love these colourful words. Think I should put them up in my bedroom for a morning mantra...

City...

You wouldn't think this was in the city centre, would you? The Britons Arms is an ancient building on Elm Hill, now a coffee shop with a tiny garden terrace out the back where, unbelievably in March, it was nice enough to sit outside for tea and cake!

Half a face...

Well, several half faces to be exact...of HRH Queen Elizabeth II - not sure profile is the best look for any of us, particularly as we get older...! (oh dear, is that treason?!! if I never blog again, assume I've been carted off to the Tower...)

I enjoyed this months challenge - even with what has felt like a relentless work schedule and no time... It has made me consciously get out and think a bit, just what I've needed at times this month. April's list has some tough ones, time to get snapping again...

Have a look at some of the others via Kathy's blog... I get a lot of fun out of seeing what others have come up with and there are some seriously clever-with-a-camera people... 

Til next time then,
Sx