Monday, June 30, 2008

pooped!

That's what I am - p o o p e d!
Had a mad few weeks in one way or another!
I have started my course, and been a good student and studying hard! Loving it!
I have had this god-awful-fluey-cold-tonsilitis-painful chest-cough-bug thing (that's the proper medical name for it yannow). Not loving it! It's really wiped me out to be honest, as well as having chronic hayfever on top of it. On that note though I got one of those medinose doobermies at the weekend, they are half price at lloyds at the mo, £15, and will be money well spent if it helps (you shove the probes up your nostrils which glow bright red and it inhibits the histamines released to combat the pollen- be warned- you do look like a loon, and family members will laugh and are not sympathetic to your plight! lol!)

Had some guest design team work to do for MTML Jackie sent the most gorgeous kit for me to play with and I just loved it-it even had BIRD stuff- YAY! Combine that with Jen Wilson and it is a total 'me' kit! I wished i had done some more bits (I may still do if I can find a nano second spare) but being ill really whipped my time away! Will pop some pics up once it is online at the store.

We had a very sad event last week- I went out to check and feed the fish in the pond, and all was fine. When I got home, from what I can establish, one of the koi managed to flip itself out of the pond and was deaded :( This was just in a few hours, and my nephew discovered it when he went out to see how the baby fish were doing (I found another new one yesterday too).
So, we decided that as that left just one koi, that he needed a friend, so we went off to Stroud yesterday (the only place I will buy the koi from) and came home with two more koi. One the same type as the original one left in the pond, and one silver one with orange spots! As I was a little concerned about the silver one being ostracised by the others I had to check with the staff at the shop who looked rather bemused at my concerns over racism from fish! LOL! As it is, the new blue one, and the original blue one seem to have paired up quite nicely, and silver one is schoaling with the goldies ;)


Here they are acclimatising in their bag, you can see original blue koi on the left (Misty- yes the koi have names!) checking out the new additions to be






One of my goldies (they are normally really camera shy!)


A Mother's meeting going on around the bag!


freeeeeedom!


They have settled in really nicely, and are quite happy- they came up while I was feeding them today and weren't at all nervous :) I think they are to be called as follows- The silver one is Jasper, and the blue one is Samson. I think. that may change!

Been doing a bit of pottering in the garden (internet connections have been a total mare for the last couple of weeks- not sure what is going on but we have had days with no connection at all, so I have been forced outside into the real world!)
Baby corn is coming along fantastically, I chucked the seeds in a propogator two weeks ago and already they are about 8 inches tall, they went outside earlier so fingers crossed!
Strawberries- well, Simba is in his element, some days he can go through about half a dozen or so, and in the last week I have picked bowl fulls! Had some rasperries too. Sugarsnap peas are growing nicely, as is the mangetout and my second pot of garlic chives. These were all new additions two weeks ago, and for a change I have added a blueberry plant too. If you have a wyevale store near you, (presuming they all do the same offers) there was a promotion on the seeds, all seeds (apart from grass seed and bird seed!) are half price. So I have stocked up on more veggy seeds for next year.

New layouts are up at ATF on the theme of 'the soundtrack to your pets life' Now, with Simba, I often have to do a slightly different twist for my layouts to fit the theme, due to parrots having a totally different character to other pets. This is a good thing- it shows that you can adapt the themes to suit any pet! I decided to use his favourite songs, that he whistles and sings and dances to, and as I was writing the titles I realised just how apt they were for his personality! 'Don't worry be happy'- as he always is...'The great escape'...hmm need I say more?! LOL! even I was Bill Kaiser's batman (which is his favest fave song) reminds me of him hanging upside down from the door frames like a bat!

Anyhoodle- didn't intend such a mammoth post, and I still haven't wittered as much as I could lol so I shall save some for next time lol! *rolls eyes*
love n stuff x

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

pondwatch

so not quite springwatch, but in it's own way I guess it is. I sat by the pond for ages today in the glorious sunshine, and took loads of pics. There is so much going on down there and I am amazed at how established the pond is already- we only put it in last year, it was at my brother's new house, and they didn't want it so we took it, and the water, fish, plants etc to keep it as normal as could be. We added a couple of koi at the end of last year, as we only had goldfish and they are doing great too. We did have a newt but not seen him about for a while so he may have moved out. Lots of eggs, think they may be snail eggs but not sure!

So we have a resident toad who moved in at the weekend and is showing no signs of leaving :D


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There are some teeeeny tiiiiny fish in there too, not sure what they are yet, or if they will survive but fingers crossed for them. The snails are breeding like wildfire too

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as are the damselflies, there were two pairs, plus one more male about today, ignore what they are doing and they are very pretty :D (although they didn't need to land on my arm and stay there lol)

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I never thought a pond could provide so much relaxation and amusement! A little tip, if shooting in macro across a pond be aware of where the lens is in relation to the water- OOOOPS! lol!

This is last weeks ATF layout on the theme of bath time. Simba does SOOOO love his showers (and his blow dry with my hairdryer afterwards to stop him getting chilly!) A huge welcome to our two new DT members too who have a fabulous talent for scrapbooking pet pages :D
The little clear rings- no idea what they are but I think Angela gave them to me in one of her fab Granma's pickled inspiration jars (thank you) I filled them with glossy accents to make it look waterlike, also used GA on the letters, and added dots of it on the borders (hard to see in pic) ***GRRR have edited this post 4 times now, and blogger keeps chopping part of the layout off- so you will have to imagine it instead heehee***

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Oh and last bit of news (for anyone that cares lol) I am hitting the books again, I am starting my nail technician training very soon! Amazing how a lousy (and expensive- £18 for basic mani, I asked for french polish too and she didn't have any white, I mean come on!) manicure can spur you on!