a wet day out

Here in the UK we've been experiencing April showers, and not how I remember them from other years (but maybe that's just because you tend to forget the rainy days). Anyway a bit of wet didn't stop me heading into London for a bit of a day out on my day off. 

I walked through the city in the rain, with my comfy shoes on and my umbrella up. Now the city is hardly the place you expect to find a bounty of blooms but I did. Look at these beautiful Peonies their exuberant heads getting thrashed about in the wind and the rain.

I stopped for coffee and breakfast en route before crossing the Thames toward the Tate Modern, the skyline seemed to be teeming with cranes, more than I remember seeing before at one time. I guess London is busying itself with looking finished and perfect in time for the Olympic games! 

The Tate is where I was heading, to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. I know so many people that have been already and I'd meant to be going myself a while back but plans changed so I was really excited to finally be making my way there.

Wow, what an incredible exhibition it tracked Kusama's life as an artist from sketches she did as a young girl, to crossing the Pacific to make a name for herself in the US and ultimately the world during the late fifties and sixties and then back to Japan in the Seventies right up until present. I really enjoyed seeing some of her early drawings, paintings and collages, her sculptures encrusted with phallus (well they just amused me) but it's her installations of spots that she's best known for and these were truly a treat. The first room of these 'I'm Here, but Nothing' was just so pretty the UV lights picking up the hundreds of fluorescent spot stickers. I could happily recreate this at home (it would certainly be an improvement on the beige). The exhibition concluded with 'Infinity Mirrored Room - Filled with the Brilliance of Life' her largest installation of this type to date. It really was mind blowing, disorientating and magical, the coloured dots (or lights) changed colour continuously and you really had to concentrate hard to move forward in the right direction! 

If your not familiar with Tate Modern it also has some fantastic shops selling a whole host of things, great art books, magazines, kids books, and gifty stuff. I did make a few purchases - a couple of great kids books, postcards, and a tea towel. I then faced the weather again and headed across town to get my haircut, a little more shopping on route. On my way home I detoured to Ikea for a touch more shopping. All in all my idea of a perfect day out, a little lonely (I was on my own) but sometimes that's what you need a bit of time to do just as you please.

P.S. The last picture was a mistake, but too pretty to omit. 

toy town

I found this little wooden town lurking under a table at the car boot, well I couldn't resist. You can see I found great pleasure playing town planner and laying out my own little town. Only trouble is this little town is in an area that's often effected by the curse of the black and white cat (aka Mouser) who thinks nothing of a little destruction on a daily basis! 

i've been slack

I've been a very slack blogger of late - only six posts so far for the whole of April! Well I'm hoping that my normal service will resume anytime now... I've been a busy bee - mostly with work, so it's not like I've just been having a super-nice time doing loads of exciting stuff that I can now blog about. I've just been working hard on a big project with a nasty deadline, which has meant I've been commuting to London everyday rather than my usual week where I work a couple of days from home and use those extra hours of not sitting on a train to blog. I do try and catch up with my favourite blogs on my train journey which is great but the internet connection is intermittent and I'm unable to leave comments which I find really frustrating, so that explains a little why I've been so quiet of late. 

Anyway if there is one thing a train journey does offer it's the opportunity to appreciate the full range of upholstery fabrics currently on seats of the trains I ride! Which is your favourite design? Mine's the first - but this is on the worst type of train, the type made for short journeys with hard uncomfortable seats! Pretty fabric though, don't you think?

I'm hoping to do some most posting soon, I've actually got a day off work (and I had yesterday off too) so I'm busying myself with a few blog bits now...

bunny time is here

You know our lovely cat Mouser well yesterday, just as D arrived home from work, he appeared. I knew he'd arrived because he let out a big meow - do you know that type of meow? A meow that says 'quick come and see what I've got for you!' And there it was in the corner of the room a cute little baby rabbit! Absolutely perfect, Mr Mouse must have carefully carried him all the way home for us, even negotiating the cat flap! I picked up the bunny and placed him in the waste paper basket. We decided that we should take him somewhere and release him, so that's what we did. We drove up the road to a little nature reserve and let little bunny go, he was off with a skip and a jump even quicker than I imagined! This is the first present we've had this year in the form of a bunny. Mr Mouse is an excellent hunter and likes nothing more than catching bunnies. We don't mind, unfortunately bunnies, as cute as they are, are pests - they eat our pretty plants and veg so we don't really want them in the garden, Mr Mouse controls the population pretty well so we don't grumble. But I sense this is the start of the bunny months, I'm sure we'll have more presents to deal with, it's OK when the bunny is fine and we can release it, its not so nice when the bunny has been mauled, played with, and injured then we have to hope for a quick death or even intervene and stop the suffering. This little bunny was lucky this time, but as lovely as cats are they do like to remind us that they are trained assassins and we as their loving owners often have to pick up the pieces.

P.S. If you have a minute to spare and feel inclined you could vote for my blog over here. I'm not sure why really but in a moment of madness I nominated myself! I only have one vote so far (not from myself I hasten to add) but one vote looks so lonely so I'd be very grateful of anymore! Thank you : )

happiness

On Sunday we drove over to D's parents for lunch, it was a lovely lunch, my parents were there too and it was good seeing everyone in one place. Sitting down with them all to enjoy a meal made us happy. On the way there we stopped by a car boot sale. I found this little treasure, a spice jar by Anita Nylund, I love it, I've envied her storage jars for many years but have never been lucky enough to find one cheap enough - till now that is! I'm really chuffed with it, it may be small and lonely but it will bring a smile to my face every day - I just know.

where have all the hours gone?

I'm not sure what's going on but I haven't had much time for blogging lately. I'm really busy at work and it's a little stressful so I've just been trying to relax in the evening by staying away from my mac. Plus there seem to be loads of chores to do at home, the garden has really sprung to life and spare time seems to be filled. Also I'd got a bit lazy over winter and now I'm having to catch up! So I'm sorry if it's a little dull around here at the moment, I'm hoping things will pick up soon and doing all the chores will mean things are looking nice and I can share them with you! I still haven't treated myself to a proper camera, I keep meaning to look and research but that along with a million other things waiting for my time... Anyway do you like my new vase? I love it, my Dad found it and knew it was just the type of thing I'd love! Thanks Dad!

happy easter

Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter! 

Finally work has finished and I'm officially on holiday for the long weekend. Just waiting for D to get home and then we are heading to the garden centre to stock up on supplies! You see I'm hoping to spend lots of time in the garden (I really hope the weather isn't too awful). As well as gardening we'll be visiting family, hunting for chocolate eggs, going to a fabric sale, relaxing and if it pours - I guess we'll be stuck indoors painting our hallway! Hope you all have nice plans. I'm looking forward to catching up with your news next week and no doubt admiring more beautiful Easter decorations.

car boot bounty

Hello! It's nearly Easter and a couple of extra days off work - I'm so excited! Just thought I'd quickly show off some of my favourite car boot bounty of the past few weeks, it's a right mixture. I've been quite good (not buying too much) though I do normally come away with something, but last week was my best effort - I only spent 50p (on the little strainer). The pictures aren't great, still haven't upgraded to a proper camera... Hopefully we'll get another couple of car boots in this weekend, though I don't think the weather forecast is any good - let's see!

hyacinths

Saturday afternoon we popped along to Waterbeach, just north of Cambridge, to view the National Hyacinth Collection. The collection is held by a chap called Alan Shipp. We went along for the first time last year, it was just so magical that we had to return this year for another look! The photos are a mix of those I took last year and a few from this year, it was just so windy this time round that I didn't manage such good shots. Aren't they amazing though? The vivid colours, the regimented rows, the black fen soil. Though I don't want my garden to look like this, I do want lots more sweetly scented hyacinths - I've been buying them for the past few weeks and I hope to order some from Alan or pop along to his bulb sale in August. I'll plant mine in the grass in natural drifts, hopefully this time next year I'll be able to show you.