Sunday 1st June

Plymouth

I'd spent the last day in Plymouth, Devon, UK, leaving London at two minutes to midnight on Friday and arriving in Plymouth at 06.15 on Saturday 31st May. I travelled with my friend Maria, who is a lot younger and fitter than me. The previous weekend she climbed Mount Snowdon. I sat at home and vaped. 😳 

We got a cheap coach down and expected to float down the steps feeling relaxed and refreshed after our overnight journey. I felt like my body needed straightening out and Maria proceeded to lead me on an hour's hike through the early morning Plymouth fog to look for a Weatherspoons. I do love Spoons - the price, the decor, the menu, the opening hours, all add up in my book 😀

So it was fry up and Prosecco at 9am and me sitting there with wilting hair but resplendent in new running shoes. I have recently taken up 5K Park Running and despite limping in almost last every week I have splashed out on the right shoes. 

They have shock absorbers and made me feel like a kangaroo on speed as I bounced along behind Maria.

We finished our meal and drink and postcard writing and set off to explore the harbour. We could just about see through the mist and Plymouth had a salty, fishy sea feel about it. Maria went in the sea up to her waist as I wimped out and sat on a wall 🙄

With no time to waste we set off in search of more alcohol and perhaps a Devon cream tea. 😀 We found a hotel near a tree that we had been sheltering under when we arrived and headed for the bar. Although it was June the hotel was nearly empty, the bar was quieter than a library and Maria and I sat with an expensive bottle of Prosecco in near silence whispering to each other. 😳 Maria doesn't like to whisper. 😱

Don't even ask about the Devon cream tea, visions of clotted cream and strawberry jam dancing with scones had long disappeared. 😭 We drank quick and tottered around the town trying to find the bus station. We gave up and had a Cornish Pasty and went in a tour of the vape shops.

Well, we found the bus station, boarded the coach and expected to be in Victoria by 10pm. We reached Newton Abbott and sat in the A38 for over an hour to to an accident and after doing a dramatic U turn and getting to Exeter the driver informed us that he couldn't drive any further as he was out of hours and a new driver was on his way from Taunton. We reached London about 12.30 and Maria decided to lose her keys on the train and threw the contents of her bag into my arms. I limped home with half the food that I'd taken to eat thinking 'where to next' 😱

Maria (on the left) and me (on the right) about to set off on our journey.

Smeaton's Tower - a former lighthouse at Plymouth Hoe

Monday 2nd June

Roller Skating (Or Not)

I am trying to roller skate. I want to do it so bad 😳 I'm just not very good at it. I tell myself that it's only wheels but those wheels go damn fast and I go all over the place and next thing, I'm flat on my back 😭 I'm sure that my neighbours are signing a petition to have me committed. All I can do is cling onto their hedges as I roll past, trying to look normal.

I went out and fell over before I'd even got out of my gate. Then a neighbour came out to see if I was ok. I wasn't but I assured him that I was as he admired my skates (not my skating as I was standing still trembling). 😳 I think that he wanted a go but I couldn't move to take the skates off.

So out into the pavement I went. My next encounter was a lady with a tribe of children as I was holding onto a hedge. She stopped and asked if I was holding on. I agreed to the obvious and she went away with her army of puzzled kids asking why the 'strange lady' was standing there and not skating. 😭

My roller boots 

Tuesday 3rd June

On And Off The Treadmill With David Bowie

Went to the gym today. I am unfit, I admit it 😭 but I'm trying. I like the treadmill I can walk fast in it, lost in my own thoughts, looking like I know what I'm doing. At least I know how to turn it on now. 😀

Today, David Bowie was singing Heroes to me, how I love that song, and DB by the way ❤️ and the sweat ran down my face into my ear and out popped the ear phone 😳 David just wasn't the same only being heroic in one ear. Anyway, I fixed that up and was fiddling with my phone whilst running and the next thing I knew I'd reached the end of the treadmill and was ejected off 😱😱😱 How to pretend that you meant to do that ? 

Hopefully I may have got just a tiny bit fitter with all the jumping on and off the treadmill. 🙄

After a sweaty session at the gym.

Wednesday 4th June

Letting The Teapot Draw

I've decided to learn how to draw so I've signed up for Art classes. I have found a fantastic scheme called 'drink and draw' where a local pub hosts an art classes with an artist who leads the class in drawing an item and you get a free drink in the price of the class. 😱

This week we had to draw a teapot which you may think is easy but it included colouring it in by shading. My teapot started out looking lop sided, out of proportion and generally absolutely rubbish 😭 but with the help of the artist, I rescued it and ended up with something half decent. The final picture is below. 

I left clutching my masterpiece and immediately I reached home I was on social media sending out photos of it. I have already signed up for next month's class.

My masterpiece 😳

Thursday 5th June

Unflaming June

Thursday 5th June

Today the weather in London was really vile. It's June yet it was more like November. 😭 I hate rain and wind and we had it all. I even turned the central heating back on I was freezing. 

The BBC are promising me that next week much better temperatures are on the way with next Tuesday seeing a gentle rise to the early 20's. I shall be keeping an eye on my thermometer to make sure that the BBC keep their promises. 

I joined the local gym today where I've been on a 12 week trial. Now that I'm a fully signed paid up member I have full access to the pool and exercise classes. I have booked a class for tomorrow, it's called 'Forever Active' They might do a re-think of their title once they've experienced me for an hour. 😱 

The cloud laden skies taken from my roof top flat in 'flaming' June

Friday 6th June

Being 'Forever Active'

I was helping out at the nursery this morning where I volunteer and all was going well until I tried to fold up the toys that used buttons to hold them in place. I don't have kids but I don't know how parents manage to cope with these toys, at one point I was kneeling on the floor with my head twisted round trying to read the unreadable ununderstandable instructions. 😱

When in doubt....press every button. The thing still stood, mocking me. I do not accept defeat so after 10 long minutes I arose victorious with the seat thing folded 😀 Why make it so hard though ?

Next on the list was my 'Forever Active' gym class. I turned up to see a sprinkling of pensioners sitting, waiting on benches like they were going to see the Headmaster for a caning. 😱 I joined the wrinklies row and wondered what I'd let myself in for. One older man whispered 'don't worry, he's quite nice really' 😳

I enjoyed the class even though I picked the heaviest weight to work out with, well, I like a challenge. 😀

Me after working out at the nursery trying to get the kids toys to fold down

Saturday 7th June

Tipsy On My Wedding Anniversary

Today is what would have been my 32nd wedding anniversary if my husband were still alive. He died in 2019 when I was 56 and he was 59. I will write more on that as I feel able to.

I felt ok, I knew the day was coming, it arrives each year, the days never skip merrily over from the 6th to the 8th and I have found that the best thing (and what Martin would have wanted) is to just carry on as normal. 

So I went for a Park Run at Tooting Bec Common where I normally go, it's only my 4th one and I haven't been for two weeks but I do have proper running shoes now after I thought that I could run 5K in trainers and my knees collapsed. 😱

With all this I had no idea how I would do but I'm rubbish at running, although I am 62 years old, very unfit, suffer from FND (I'll explain in due course) and the last time that I ran apart from trotting round in Park Runs was running for the bus whilst wearing my school uniform. 😳

Some of the runners scare me, they are so athletic, so muscular and they actually do warm up exercises. If I try them I fall over. 😭 I know now not to start at the front, not only will it piss the serious runners off as they have to get round me but there's no point as I'm not going to stay at the front, I might as well go and say hello to my new friends who bring up the rear. 

I knew that my previous PB (I love quoting PB like a professional but for any non professionals, it means personal best) was 53 mins something so I thought I would give it a go to beat it and try to actually run a bit. After all it is called Park Run. I did set a new PB of 50:34 and although well pleased with that, I couldn't help thinking that if only I'd shaved 35 seconds off then I would have had a time of 49 something. 😳 That glory will have to wait.

I was going out for lunch with my friend Margaret who is wonderful, she is 86 years old and so down to earth. 😳 I love her to bits ❤️ everyone should have a Margaret in their life. We went to Weatherspoons at Clapham Junction and I got a bit tipsy on Prosecco. 😱 I forgot to take photos until we left so I took some of the street and one of myself. I had a beef madras and it was really nice very hot but then again a madras should be hot. Served with rice, naan and poppadoms. 

I think that I was heading the wrong way home because Margaret took me to the bus stop. We clambered aboard and were homeward bound. 🙄

Me after a bottle of Prosecco and forgetting to take any decent photos

Clapham Junction...A bus

Sunday 8th June

Teaching Kids And Killing Hedges

Sunday, a day of rest. 😀 Not for me though, up with the larks, I'm helping out at my local church with the children showing them how to decorate small wooden crosses. I go to church and my faith is part of me and it deserves a mention here but I won't preach a sermon. 😳 The kids were great, they even showed me how to get the back of off some of the unpeelable stickers as I fumbled away. ☹️😭

Then Margaret and I headed off to Tooting Broadway to Weatherspoons to recover with my shopping trolley which she had given me a week ago as I had had to abandon my last one following an accident with bleach. 😱

We headed down to a table but on the way I heard the bar staff say that they were only serving jacket spuds and wraps today. 😱 I was so looking forward to something fried after all my hard work as well. 😭

We ended up with a cold chicken wrap each and salad and coleslaw and sour cream. It wasn't bad and Margaret poured some Prosecco into me and I came out of my stupor somewhat. 😳 

Back out on the street Margaret took control of the shopping trolley as I was crippling anyone that got in my way with it and we did business with the vape shop and the Pound Shop, I so love the Pound Shop, it's full of tempting items and I could wander round there for hours but I still had work to do. 😱

Home again and I got one of my favourite gadgets out, my hedge cutters and tackled the overgrown greenery that is brown inside but refuses to die in the front garden. The weeds didn't stand a chance against a Prosecco filled Jan either. 😱

Then I believe that I fell asleep. 😴

Margaret and me

Monday 9th June

Imitating Giraffes 

A visit to the Osteopath today who I see every month. Due to a combination of stress and sitting in one awkward position for months trying to take in my Husband's death, my Mum's death and getting made redundant all in the space of 18 months Then Covid and isolation, my muscles have contracted and my neck especially needs to be stretched. 😳

I came out feeling like a giraffe with instructions to stretch after running. 😱 All I want to do after running is collapse. 😳 Sometimes all I want to do after getting up is collapse. 😭 Still, must be positive. Oh, if only I was still popping Valium but I'm off those now and the doctors don't like them long term. ☹️ I bet they don't have the contracted giraffe problem. 

I went home and stretched my neck to a glass of Prosecco. Tidied up and made a cross for Hubby as I'm going to the crematorium on Wednesday for the first time. I'll save the details about why I've never been for later but here's my cross which I hope they let me leave there. 😀

A cross for my Husband

Tuesday 10th June

Parachuting Pensioners 

Every Tuesday I help with a lunch for pensioners. We do an activity and this week I was running it. 😱 We played 'Parachute Games'. 😳😳😳 No, I didn't lead a load of elderly folk to the top floor of a tower block, strap a chute to them and push them off. 😱 That wouldn't have been much of a game and I'd end up in a cell. 

It was a lot calmer than that. 😀 Actually, thinking about it now, probably not that much calmer. 😳 We had a big blue silk circle with handles and we all took a handle and threw balls in the middle and threw the 'parachute' up and down whilst trying to keep the balls from falling. This was accompanied by Black Lace singing 'Do, Do, Do, Do the Tango'. 😱 I thought of throwing a few of the more troublesome pensioners in the parachute whilst putting some Bowie on but they were enjoying what they were doing too much to change plans. 😇

Gym later in the afternoon and a good workout on the treadmill with Rainbow and Led Zeppelin in my ear. I was air guitaring along as I ran. 😱

Parachute Games with the pensioners

Wednesday 11th June

Today was a big day, I was going to Woking Crematorium where my Husband's (Martin) ashes were scattered when he died in 2019. I've never been. Why ? Because he didn't want a funeral and because I loved him enough to ignore what I might have wanted or what others felt 'right' I carried out his last wish to the letter. No funeral meant no mourners including myself and no choice of crematorium or date although I could have had his ashes back but I wanted Martin back alive not in ash form. Then Covid happened and then I got ill and found it hard to travel and besides that I had mixed up the crematoriums and for some reason thought that his ashes had been scattered in St. Albans. 😱

Anyway, all sorted, (and that was a lot to sort), I set off with my friend Margaret who was giving me support and probably doubted that I'd make it past Wimbledon alone, we sat on the train munching scones and drinking water. I was careful not to spill anything down me and deliberately wasn't thinking about the twenty clothes changes I'd discarded on the bedroom floor that morning before going back to my first choice. 😭 When you are visiting your Husband after six and a half years (dead or not) you want to look half decent. 

Woking arrived and we alighted looking around for directions, of course there were none so I asked, I was directed to the other side of the station to the buses and taxis. By then I was in a whirl and couldn't start to work buses out and the taxis were there all right but all the drivers were AWOL. 😳 As I was peering in the taxis wondering what spacecraft had taken Woking taxi drivers away, Margaret took charge. 😳 She asked a local who told us that we were standing outside a taxi window. 😳 All set with a released driver and Margaret and I strapped in the back within an inch of our life and running out of oxygen we just made it to the Crematorium before Margaret run out of Lockets and gasped her last. 😱

I couldn't leave any home made memorial so I made one out of leaves and wrote messages to Martin on it. I spent time with him in thoughts and was really pleased that his final resting place was so peaceful.

We decided to get the bus back to the station. All I can say is that Surrey buses take forever to print tickets. I grabbed mine before it had finished and was immediately in trouble with the driver for jamming his ticket machine. 😱 .... Jobsworth !!!

Then Margaret and I went to Weatherspoons in Clapham Junction for fish and chips and I had Prosecco. 😀

My leafy memorial to Martin

Thursday 12th June

It has turned warm in London, my roof top flat is a right sweat box. The only cool place is the bathroom. I used to spend a long time in there when I was younger after a night out with my head down the loo but that was from necessity not voluntarily. 😱 It's a strange thing, the passing of time, when you're young and puking cos you're pissed up and you are hanging on the edge of the loo, willing it to stop spinning, you don't think about when you get older and suddenly find that you are visiting the loo more often but you haven't even had a good night out, in fact it's not even dark (unless it's the middle of the night). 😳 I don't miss falling asleep on the bathroom floor though, especially remembering the night that I fell asleep on a kebab. 😱 I woke up with chilli sauce running down my face and slices of lamb stuck to my cheek. 😭

Today I tried indoor gardening. 😱 I am growing herbs. I plan on drying them when they are grown as I don't cook and doing something with the dried plants but as of yet I don't know what. 😳

Herbs all planted in thier pots

Friday 13th June

It's Dowton Abbey day ! 😳 My great friend Helen is coming to lunch and we are binging on Dowton Abbey. We are watching it from the beginning. We saw the whole of series 1 in a day, she left about midnight and we were hooked. 😱 Then we saw all of series 2 but we have had to cut down and we have split series 3 over two sessions. 

I know that I would never be the 'upstairs' type so I would be committed to a life of drudgery, sink bound. 😭 Helen and I watched TV, lost about 30 pounds in the heat of my flat, ate our salads, had healthy fruit, I had Prosecco and then decided that Sambuca was a good idea. 😱

I've always fancied serving up flaming sambucas with coffee beans in but worried that I would start a fire at an inappropriate time in Dowton Abbey viewing I left the flames out. We dipped grapes in it instead and very nice our grape sambucas were. 😀

Now we are having thunderstorms and rain and I will probably sink in mud when running the park run tomorrow and have to be rescued by the elderly volunteers. 😭

A grape sambuca

Saturday 14th June

Waking up with a heavy head and looking at the heavy skies I forgot any ideas of park running this morning, I knew it would feel like running through treacle and tell myself that my FND is bad but secretly I suspect it was the sambucas that were to blame. 😱 I will try harder at the gym next week. 😀

So I can take my time today as for the first time in ages I have a whole day with nothing to do. 😳 I checked the herbs - nothing yet. This is the worst part of gardening, the waiting.

Actually it isn't, Margaret gave me some earth from her garden a few months ago to plant some seeds in but warned me that there might be a worm in it. 😱 She said it would help the earth quality. It might well help the earth but it didn't help my nervous system much when I saw it. 😳

The unfortunate worm got thrown out of my window. 😳 What I didn't know was that the worm was pregnant when gifted to me and had just given birth as there were about five more worms in the pot.

My nervous system went into overdrive and the infant worms got a ride in the bin lorry. 😱

A few cups of tea later I still hadn't decided what to do and was regretting not park running but too late for regrets so time for a new project. 😳 The book. 😱 I've always enjoyed writing and feel that the last few years may have left me with experiences that could be of some help or encouragement to someone so time to write it all down. 

Im also making resin trays which wont really be trays, they won't be anything but I've set acorns in them as acorns are special to me. I'm making an acorn collection and so far I've done 'River Acorns' and 'Acorns at Sea' What I am going to do with them is a problem I have yet to solve. 😳

River Acorns in its mould

Acorns at Sea in its mould

Sunday 15th June

Out to Weatherspoons at Tooting for a late breakfast with Margaret today and we have realised that our planned trip to Brighton is only a week away. 😱 Brighton look out. 😳 I hope that the weather is good and that the fish and chips are tasty. 😀

Fry up and Prosecco and a good chatter at Spoons then home to cut the blimming hedge again and weed what is comically called a 'front garden' by my landlord. 🙄

It consists of a concrete bit, the rubbish bins and a bit of earth in which is planted two trees that make up this hedge that in all honesty the kindest thing would be if a lightning strike were to hit them. 😱 I'm not sure who to contact to arrange that.

I had long ago abandoned ideas of clipping a David Bowie shape into it and now just attack it, usually after a bottle of Prosecco. 😱 The weeds are harder, they want to stay in the ground. Does anyone actually garden for fun. ? 

Back indoors and I fell asleep, woke up and thought that I should just go to bed but didn't notice the time, I felt a bit daft when I saw it was only 6.30 in the evening. 😳 So got up again and behaved like an adult. 😱

My 'hedge'

Monday 16th June

Checking And Re-Checking

Got up early and checked the herb garden for signs of growth, nothing yet, just 12 pots of earth starting back at me. I don't want to grow earth, I want to grow herbs so I hope there are green shoots soon. 🙄

Then I checked my resin sculptures to see if they could be safely de-moulded. 😱 Sometimes, I am too impatient and I unwrap too early with devastating results. The sculptures never see the light of day again. 😭 

All this checking will have me booking an appointment with my GP to discuss OCD. 😳 I can see myself spending my life making things and planting seeds and checking they are doing what they should. 😳

After checking the resin I made another pot but got a bit sticky with the resin and felt like I'd cast myself in a mould, also noticed that I was sticking to everything that I touched so gave up on art for the day and threw myself in the bath for a good scrub.

Monday is bin day and I trotted up and down the stairs with my black bags. Our bin men are wonderful, out in all weathers clearing up our rubbish, then on Tuesday the street cleaning van comes round. I know that we pay for the service in our Council Tax but I've never complained about it. 😀 I bet it's a smelly, dangerous job as well and those black bags aren't always very strong.

I went out to do some volunteering at the nursery in the morning for a few hours, I should say in the kitchen as I make the tea, coffee and then wash up but it keeps me busy. 

London is hot, 26 today and it's getting hotter. My flat will be a sauna. 😱 

My de-moulded resin thing

Tuesday 17th June

Legs, Bums And Tums

This evening I went to a gym class called, 'Legs, Bums and Tums' 😳 I think that all three of mine (or four if you want to be anatomically correct), need improving but from the name I had visions of older, slightly overweight women puffing thier way through gentle exercises. 😳 I thought that I would fit right in there. Ok, so I'm new to the gym and I realise that times may have changed but I remember my dear Mum going to evening classes (remember those) ? With something titled similar to this.

I was a mere child but I recall she had a black leotard and she wasn't a small lady. She was a lot younger than I am now when she went to do her version of 'Legs, Bums and Tums'. 

I think that I realised that all was not as it should be when all these young, toned ladies arrived with perfect legs bums and tums, (and arms and shoulders and backs and whole bodies but we won't go there). 😱

OMG ! 😱 How I didn't die in the 45 minutes that I subjected my body to the most strenuous workout it had ever experienced I have yet to fathom. I sweated, I moaned, I looked for a way out. I felt like I was auditioning for Riverdance. 😱

At one point I couldn't do it any longer and just did my own thing. I can't lift my body off the floor with one hand behind my back. 😱 At least that's what it felt like I was doing. It's all right if you weigh 6 stone but I haven't weighed that since I was reading Winnie the Pooh. Actually, I read Pooh last week, I love Eyeore. ❤️

Anyway, I made it to the end of the class, I won't be able to walk tomorrow which is a shame because my new skateboard arrived today. 😱 Here it is.....

My skateboard 

Wednesday 18th June
Buses and Bags

I awoke and was grateful for the fact that I could wake up after doing the Riverdance class yesterday. 😳

Gently, I eased myself out of bed and I managed to stand with little trouble, hopefully I got away without injury and my legs bum and tum were now looking wonderful. I checked. They weren't looking any different. 😭

Margaret and I went to Clapham Junction Spoons for a drink and lunch today. We met at the bus stop, by the time I got there I was dripping with sweat. The heat in London is silly now, hitting the 30s. I fumbled for my over 60s Oyster Card which I have had for two years now and is wonderful. I pay £20 a year and it covers me to travel on London Transport. 

It's in a black wallet lurking in the depths of my large untidy bag. It has various friends including scraps of paper on which I have scribbled ideas and reminders, tissues, spare vapes, spare spare vapes, in fact lots of vapes, make up, it really is a mess. The bus came and I still couldn't find my pass but we got on and I asked the driver if he took cash. He grunted and pointed. I got the gist that the answer was no and he wanted me to get off his bus preferably quickly but I didn't know what he was pointing at. 😭

Was it a sign saying 'no cash' or a machine that took cash ? I looked at him helplessly whilst Margaret took my arm and helped me off the bus. She is 86 I am 62. She told me that we were outside a Post Office and that I could buy a one day pass in there and that's what the driver was pointing at. 

Newly passed up we managed to actually board a bus and get to Spoons for a drink and breakfast. A calmed down Jan (and filled with Prosecco) remembered that I'd left my Oyster Card in my Gym bag the evening before. 

Margaret made me turn my big bag out and throw rubbish away, I don't know why I feel a need to carry seven vapes. I can't explain it even to myself. It's obviously something from my past, so deep seated that I won't worry about it.

This evening I went out for a drink with Maria, my Plymouth friend. We sat outside the pub and the night was very pleasant. It was really crowded but I was local so no buses were involved. 😅

Margaret and me showing off my double tea bag skills

Maria and me

Thursday 19th June

Pretending To Be At Ascot

I woke up with my leg in a cramp that any professional football player would have been proud of but I had no trainer to gently stretch it as I lay on the pitch whilst sympathy oozed from the fans. 😳 I hobbled off to make my tea, cursing Riverdance. 😭

Today, I was off to meet my friend Tina after my morning shift at the nursery. Tina and I worked together in the City before we both got made redundant in 2020 and we have many bizarre memories of our time together. 😱

I met Tina at lunchtime when the temperature was above 30 degrees and London was hardly wearing any clothes. 😱 For some reason, Tina turned up to meet me in a black puffa jacket. 😳 I didn't like to ask why but she did see someone who knew her who was not as well mannered as myself and yelled 'Tina, why the **** have you got that puffa thing on in this heat' ? She admitted that she had no idea why so all three of us were none the wiser.

We were at her house having the customary drink and Ascot was on the TV so we thought as we couldn't go in person, we would pretend that we were there. So, on went the hats and scarfs and out came the camera. 🙄

Once home, I thought that I would get my portable footbath out and soak my feet. It was an impulse buy and I haven't used it much but today was as good as any. I filled it, lowed my toes into the cool water.....and fell asleep. 😳 I woke up to soaking carpets 😱 

At least they should dry quick.

Tina and me 'at Ascot'

Friday 20th June

Appreciating Plants 

A double gym class but I made sure that I was in the right ones for my age and condition this time. 😳 I did 'Falls Prevention' and now know how to avoid falling and my favourite 'Forever Active'. No more Riverdancing for me. 😱 Streamwobbling would be more accurate.

I checked the herb garden this morning. Marjoram and Dill have green shoots. 😱 The other pots are still growing earth. I took photos with my plant identifier app and it told me that my marjoram was trailing jade and my dill was a Venus fly trap. 😱 I don't know why I felt that I had to identify them, I know what they are. I guess they are a bit too young to get proper ID. 

I live in a road that has a fantastic lavender plant (as least I think it's lavender) I haven't properly ID'd and fingerprinted it yet. 

I sat at home in the evening with my feet on my wet carpet but at least I didn't have to get the footbath out again which is just as well because I fell asleep once more somewhere between'Dogs behaving very badly' which I never watch but I was hoping some football might be on and a royal documentary. 

I've lost my Oyster Card, I daren't tell Margaret, she'll make me turn my bag out again and the shame when some things see the light of day is hard to bear. 😭

My marjoram 

My dill

Someone else's lavender 

Saturday 21st June

Sweating On The Solice

It's Park Run day but we have a heatwave and conditions will be brutal. 😱 But I didn't go last week so I should go this week. It is only 9am until 10am, it can't be that hot early in the morning....can it ?

I went. I cooked. I burnt. I sweated so badly I was slippery. I was 4 minutes slower than my PB but I finished. 

So today is the Summer Solice. The sun rises in the UK at 4.43 (and so will I, as I don't have proper curtains) and sets at 9.21. I like summer, although after today the dark evenings start to set in. 😳

I really dislike the Winter months and doesn't Winter seem to go on for so much longer? When I was young, Summer was a proper season, now it's a few weeks of extreme heat and that's that, don't complain, you've had your sun for the year. 😱

Off to Sainsbury's at lunchtime. I bought a pot of Ice Cream and various drinks. All I wanted was milk and some snacks for the train tomorrow that will carry Margaret and I to Brighton. I forgot the milk and spent £37.75 😱 on nothing. So I came home and ate all the ice cream to ease my sorrow. It eased it but left me with tons of guilt. 😭

It shouldn't be so hot tomorrow but Winter is coming now. 

My now empty tub of ice cream

Sunday 22nd June

Brighton Beach

It was off to Brighton for the day with Margaret today. 😱 I got up extra early so that I could give her a wake up alarm call at 6.30. We both needed to ensure that we had time to wash, dress and pack our bags. That done, we got on the train along with the rest of London but luckily got seats and watched as the view from the window gradually turned from city to countryside. 

It's downhill to Brighton seafront, which it would be as the sea is normally lower than the pavement. We could see the sea. 😳 Like children we gazed at the English Channel as the rest of London rushed past us. 

We wanted a cup of tea before we got to the sea and looked for a Spoons in Brighton. We saw that there were two and followed the online directions, which were a bit off as before long we were hopelessly lost. 😱 We walked around Brighton, the whole of Brighton, asked people, looked at the map, shook our heads, my phone told us that we were a minute away but we couldn't see it. We found someone who knew it. I could have kissed him but then so would Margaret and who knew what that would have let to ? 😳

We had our cuppa and I had a very small bottle of Prosecco, it was posing as a miniature but Margaret was worried about the possibility of me falling off the pier. 😱

So onto the beach we went and the stones. We had an ice cream, (very nice but extortionate price). Then paid £2 each to walk up and down the pier where we were fleeced for more money. Into the amusements we trotted and armed with tubfulls of 2ps we were on the shove machines. Our childhood returned as we watched the wall go in and out and push the 2ps over the edge. We lasted a while and tried the grabbing claw but it never works well. Nearly over the edge ourselves with excitement we left the amusements and looked for somewhere for lunch.

After finding a lovely pub we decided that we weren't hungry so we drank instead. I had an adult size bottle of Prosecco and Margaret want half a cider. I picked a fruity light one as I didn't want her breaking into song on the train back. 😱

Our day had to end, and we, along with all of London headed up Brighton hill to the station, said goodbye to the town and wearily came home. We had a wonderful day out. 😀

On the train to Brighton

Film making on the train

Margaret and a lobster friend

Margaret on the cider

Margaret in her sun hat

Sharing a joke

Saying goodbye to Brighton 😭

Monday 23rd June

Being Impatient With Gold Leaf 

I was in a creative mood, so out came the resin, the dyes and for a change.... the gold leaf 😱 Purple is such a regal colour that the two seemed to mix well in the mould but we will see once de-moulded. 😳

Also made was a flower in pinkish red with the gold leaf. I am thinking that a new collection titled 'Gold Leaf' is called for. 

I have left them to harden on my draining board. They take a long time (days) and I am impatient. I am always de-moulding too early when the resin is still soft. 

It's like baking a cake or making a soufflé, (not that I've ever tried the soufflé. All your hard work is ruined if you remove from the oven too soon. 😱

So, patience is called for....but I don't have any patience, it left me when I got impatient with it. 😳 

Come home patience, I'll be nice to you. Promise ?🙄

The purple pot setting

The pink flower setting

Tuesday 24th June

Hair Today

Today is haircut day. I admit that my hair costs a lot but I have it cut and coloured and usually spend about three hours in the hairdressers so what the hell. 😱 I'm not a girlie girl but a bit of pampering here and there does me good. 😀

First the colour and the foils. Now most people would shudder at the thought of purple and orange hair with a platinum bit at the front but I love it. Most hairdressers would run for the hills but not mine, he happily dyes away and feeds me extra biscuits. 😳

The foil bit has to be my least favourite part because most of the time I can't see what he's doing and it's a bit boring anyway, not like the cut when you see your ex hair falling to the ground to be swept away a minute later like cobwebs. 😱

So, foils done, all washed, rinsed and toned and ready for the cut, we go short on the ears and long on the neck. Then the drying and the colours emerge like a butterfly from a caterpillar. 😳

I'm all done for another three months. Here's some snaps of the morning and me looking my most glamorous. 😀

In the afternoon I went out on the skateboard. I wore all my pads and my helmet. 😇

Me at the foil stage

The finished me

On my skateboard 

Wednesday 25th June

Big Breakfast and Opium

Breakfast/Lunch/Brunch with Margaret at Spoons in Clapham, not just fried stuff but fruit and yoghurt as well. 😱 and the usual mug of tea each and bottle of Prosecco for me. It was a big meal but we managed it. 

I came over all horticultural on the way and saw this weed and thought how pretty it was. It deserved it's photo taken so I snapped away. Then I wondered what it was. So I turned in my plant identifier app and to my horror it told me that it was an opium poppy. 😱 Growing wild on the streets of London. 😱

I moved away quickly in case I got arrested, although the yearning was still there to take it home and put it in water. I must admit the desire was fading though since learning it was a class A drug. 

I moved onto safer ground and lavender but the bees had beat me to it. They were fighting to get near it, so I took thier photo as well. 

The opium poppy

Lavender and a bee

Thursday 26th June

Herb Garden Tales

I've been staring at my herb pots as though looks alone could make them grow. 😳 Maybe I should start talking to them. 🤐 Or singing. 😵‍💫

No, I live alone, my neighbours will think I'm going mad if I start talking to my plants. Actually they won't as they already do. 

Anyway, herbs. Dill is the star and garden cress is doing rather well. The rest are a bit slow or have yet to start. 

It reminded me of a television series from my childhood, The Herbs or The Herb Garden. It had Parsley the lion, Dill the dog, Sage the owl, The Chives, Sir Basil and Lady Rosemary. I recall as a young Jan sitting cross legged on the floor, goggle eyed as I stared at the TV screen showing all my favourite herby characters. 🙄

Parsley was my favourite. ❤️

My dill

My garden cress

Friday 27th June

Acorns in Seaweed with Afternoon Tea

On Monday I made my last resin for the 'Acorn Collection'. I love acorns but they have been hard to work with resin as they stop the resin setting. 😭

The latest creation was in a shell mould and coloured green. I have called it Acorns in Seaweed'. Because it was so thick I left it until today to de-mould. 

Later on my good friend Helen and her Hubby came round. I whizzed up some coffee beans, forgot the Amaretto until the last moment, remembered to offer them Sambuca, ate coffee and walnut and red velvet cake that they bought round and tried Italian biscuits. 😱

Much more fun than a pot of Tetley's and a Malted Milk. 😳

Acorns in seaweed (top)

Acorns in seaweed (bottom)