Blue Tit House

I know it’s not a great photo, but this is evidence that someone is using one of the bird boxes that ‘im outdoors made. In the depths of winter while everything was covered in a foot of snow, ‘im outdoors kept him self busy in the garage and made two bird boxes.
We’ve put them at either end of the garden, one designed for blue tits and one for great tits. (the holes are different sizes)
We’ve seen birds looking at both and this box is getting a lot of attention. Hopefully they will decide its up to scratch.

The Artist in the Office

Do you love your job?
Most of the time my job isn’t too bad; I like helping the students and making things easy for my academics. But just now I’m really frustrated with a system which doesn’t work and a lot of students nagging me for their exam marks. And on top of this is the wish to be able to do what I want with my time.

I wish I could volunteer, and write, and use the gym/pool every day, and make stuff, and go walking, and have a dog and some chickens. I guess what I mean is, I wish that money wasn’t something to worry about and I could be free.

But this is a mind set and maybe what I need to do is work out how to be free in my mind?

Anyway while taking a break from writing minutes yesterday I was looking on etsy and found an article about Summer Pierre and her new book – The Artist in the Office. This sounds like just what I need. Inspiration on how to use my creativity all the time. Now I have to admit that I’m not always working when I’m at my desk. Sometimes I write my OU assignments there and there was one time when I made paper moustache for the photos of the team outside our office. But although browsing the net sometimes brings me little gems like this, most of the time it’s a waste of my time and I should be using it better. (for work of course)
The book is on order and when I receive it (which might take a little while as it’s not released in the UK just yet) I’ll let you know what I think.

Chairing

Today I chaired the writers group. Not at all nerve racking.
We started by looking at what everyone wrote for last months homework.
We were to write 140 characters using the three words Alan gave us. When we first heard this we all wondered how you could write something with 140 people in it, but then realised he meant 140 letters, spaces and punctuation.
I however didn’t like the words I was given: dimple, teach and potato, so wrote something else instead.

Farringdon/Faringdon

The cement is late. When I ring up to ask where it is I’m told Oxfordshire instead of Hampshire. All for a missing R.
139

I then set the next activity. Starting with ‘She wore a red dress…’ continue using only single syllable words. This seemed to go down well and I look forward to hearing the outcomes next month.

Happy Valentines Day

To celebrate Valentines Day this year - the first in the new flat, we decided to give flowers a miss and bought a tree instead.

It doesn't look much right now, but in the summer it should have big golden heart shaped leaves. Its a Catalpa Bignonioides "Aurea", or Golden Indian Bean Tree.
I'm very excited, 'im outdoors has drawn up a planting plan for the garden and we are slowly filling it up. Roll on the Spring!

Christmas Beads

For Christmas my Mum bought me a Pandora/Troll style necklace. When she asked me what beads I wanted for it I asked for just plain silver spacer beads so that I could choose my favourite beads from sellers on Etsy.
Working from left to right:
The first bead is from Elysium Beads – all the way from Australia. It’s a lampwork glass bead called ‘Ethereal’ and in the light it really is ethereal. I was very impressed with how quickly I received it; I would never have guessed it came all that way.
The second bead came from Luccicare Lampwork. It’s a lampwork glass bead lined with sterling silver and filled with 8 cubic zirconia’s crystals. Again in the light it flashes like diamonds.
The next two come form Studio Mees & Merel. The first is ivory dots on turquoise and I think is my very favourite. The second is hot pink fuchsia stripe and was a present from ‘im outdoors. Bless him. The hot pink works so well with the blues.
The last was from my Mum. I think they are all brilliant and I love the fact that I’ve room to add more if something catches my eye.

It begins with an A...

It’s been a long and busy couple of weeks with no time to blog.
I’ve given blood and had a job interview (which I didn’t get). I’ve handed in another TMA so am now about half way through the course, and had the disappointment of my marked script back.
I’ve had a birthday and become the proud adopted parent of a pair of aardvarks – Kiyo and Misha at London Zoo. I can’t wait to visit them when it gets a little warmer.
We’ve had our first writers group without Anne, where we worked out how to make it work now. Homework to write a piece of flash fiction of 140 characters including spaces! (I must work on that)
And finally yesterday I went to Southampton again for the second OU day school for A363. Only 5 students turned up which was slightly disappointing but did mean we had more time for discussing work.
I wrote a couplet about clouds:

A baby elephant gallops over the hill
Before its gone it’s turned into a ship.

And a four line poem about the shadows of two men who have just jumped off a bridge into a river.

Shadows released,
No desire to be wet.
They sit; waiting
For their owners return.

I will try and blog more often but its going to stay busy for a bit, with exam marks at work coming in and more TMA deadlines looming, and I’m the next chair for the writers group so need to come up with a homework. Blimey!

Things to do when it snows

The snow is still there, but I'm back at work.

It came at a great time, giving me that little bit of extra time needed to finish my next OU assignment. And then I had a little bit of time left over to finish the blind I started over Christmas.

This is for the front door. During the day it lets in sunshine - if there is any, and makes the middle of the flat nice and light. But at night it lets in an evil orange street light from directly out side. Its a roman blind so folds up as you pull the string keeping it out of the way when using the door. And its made from blackout material so I only need the one piece and didn't have to do any clever lining. I have to say I'm very pleased. And thanks to 'im outdoors for his help screwing it to the door.

Snow, just a little bit

I've only been at work 2 days following the Christmas holidays, but already I'm stuck at home again due to the foot of snow that fell over night. Its not too much of a problem - work is quiet and I have an assignment due in at the end of the week.

We got a little bored inside as you can see - the castle is 'im outdoors.