A week in pictures.

[curiouswombat]

This is my weekly '365 days in pictures' post.

It hasn't been a terribly exciting week, so no really exciting pictures. The high spot of the week was today, but as I am doing Sunday to Saturday weeks, a picture of my brother-in-law's 50th birthday lunch will have to wait until next week!



On Sunday Daughter-dear gave me some 'Early Mothering Sunday' flowers, as she will not be home next week.




On Monday D-d and I paid a flying visit to my Mum's in Bride before I took D-d back to the airport - I was off work on Monday. This is my Mum's bungalow, with her miniature daffodils, and tulips and crocuses in one of the hanging baskets.



Back to work on Tuesday - this is the view from the door of the building I work in - not the view from my window though - that is so high in my office wall that all I can see is sky!



Wednesday - this is my lunch, eaten at home - I often get home for lunch, which is a really nice thing! This is 'still life with oatcakes, peanut-butter and marmalade...



Thursday - when I got home from work at 5.45pm I got the last parking space on the street - and then realised that we seem to be breeding Citroens - the front, red, C4 belongs to our next door neighbour, the blue C3 belongs to the woman across the road, then my white C3, with the black C4 at the end of the row belongs to someone three houses down on our side...



Friday - this is our usual greeting when we come home from work -



And on Saturday I went to see my Mum, took her to do her shopping, and called in at my favourite craft shop, in Ramsey, to get some deep pink card for the children at Church to use today to make 'thank-you' hearts for their Mums, step-Mums, grandmas, whoever, for next week's Mothering Sunday service.



The hearts worked out well - cut two heart shapes out of the card, each about 6" or so wide and high, decorate, staple into a 'pocket', and then put into the pockets slips of paper that say 'I love you because...', for the Mum to take out whenever she needs cheering up!



We had a lovely lunch out at the Hilton for BiL's birthday and, even though we had to leave early so that S2C could come home to bed, I am still totally stuffed!

Comments

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

It looks so lovely and springy with the tulips and daffodils! I'm jealous-- I woke up to snow. It's hovering right at freezing, and alternately raining or snowing. My poor tulips and daffodils aren't even sprouting yet!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - here spring has sprung! Although we might get more frost or snow yet - it has been known to suddenly throw a winter day at us right up to April.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Oh you are so lucky to still have a craft centre. All the ones in our local area closed down, it was a great loss, I have to find things on line or through craft magazines now.

They never had a big stock, but it was good to support our local area.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a nice wee shop, I get a lot of my card making stuff there. And there is one closer to home that does more wool and fabrics, but also has some other craft stuff.

[debris4spike]

Great pics - gives me some ideas as to what I can take!

Love the flowers - and the vase! But, it has to be crunchy peanut butter!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I've had that vase for ages - I really can't remember where it came from - possibly a gift.

Crunchy peanut butter? I don't think it would go with my marmalade, somehow...

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

What a great idea to post a year in pics! I've never been to the Isle of Man, though I know someone who has moved there and absolutely loves it. Your mum's bungalow looks adorable.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh - whereabouts has your friend moved to, do you know?

The year in pictures is a form of self-discipline - and there are a few people I know doing it, but most of them post daily - I thought I might not have time to download from the camera and upload to the internet every day, but I could take the pictures and then do a weekly report!

Mum's bungalow is on a small estate, owned by the government, in the village on the north of the island where her family have lived for over 300 years!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I don't remember but I'll be meeting her again in three weeks when she comes to a big Tolkien event in this neck of the woods and I'll be sure to ask.

In these days when no one stays put in the same place for more than 5 minutes, I find it truly wonderful that you have such deep roots.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I find it truly wonderful that you have such deep roots.

Some time, if you are bored, try clicking on the 'reminiscing' tag in my side bar...

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I had a quick look. This appears a most excellent antidote for boredom!

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm oatcakes! Yum!

I love the cat! :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Those are Nairn's fine-ground, and very nice - especially with peanut butter and marmalade - I am the Paddington of the wombat world...

The cat looks like an ornament, doesn't he?

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Your Mum's bungalow is beautiful!

We don't have oatcakes here in the American Midwest. At least I've never seen any. But we do have rice cakes, basically an oatcake but made with puffed rice. I eat my peanut butter and jam (or honey or hazelnut butter or chocolate chips or banana slices) on sliced bread from the grocery store--the cheap, soft kind.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We get rice cakes too, but I prefer oatcakes - they are more like what I think you call Graham crackers than like rice cakes. Much though I like my marmalade on bread, or toast, the wheat doesn't really agree with me, hence the oatcakes!

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I used to be allergic to whole wheat (bleached wheat, or "white" bread was okay), but I've gotten over that allergy since my teens. Graham crackers are also made from wheat, but a wheat flour mixed with either honey or molasses, some kind of thick sugar syrup, and have the consistency of soft gingersnaps and other flat biscuits.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have the impression that graham crackers are a bit like digestive biscuits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_biscuit) - oatcakes are a little harder than digestives, but about the same thickness.

My wheat allergy has got worse as I have got older, sadly.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

I'm always fascinated that things like graham crackers aren't universal in the western worlds. If you didn't notice my reply to vilajunkie, did you know you can toast rice cakes?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Whereas we find it equally odd that you don't have digestive biscuits - no Brit can imagine life without chocolate coated digestives! But we realise that the Graham cracker must be vaguely similar because it's what you use to make cheesecake base where we use digestives!

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

We can access LU cookies that have a wonderful flat cookie that's chocolate coated - are they something like that (if you know the LU brand)?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I didn't recognise the name, but I do recognise the biscuits now that I have googled them - http://www.lubiscuits.com/varieties.html there is actually a proper chocolate digestive there. And you have Jaffa cakes but called orange pimms - isn't the internet educational?

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

Did you know that you can toast rice cakes? I was so suprised the first time someone told me and again when I tried it and it worked beautifully! Nice change for the things.

[beanbeans.livejournal.com]

What a lovely bouquet! Your Mum's flowers look wonderfully healthy. It's so nice to see Spring springing so heartily! :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I threw the tulips out today, so they had done a week - they were very cheerful though. We are certainly well into spring, now.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I love to see all the blooms in this post. I see your grass is a beautiful green, but the trees haven't gotten their leaves yet.

Do your curtains say something? It seems they have a secret message...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - the trees are a little behind the daffs and crocuses!

The curtains do, indeed, have writing on them, it is, however, in Latin, and so I have no idea what it actually says - and they are hung so that it is the right way around on the inside. Perhaps I should take a picture of them and see if anyone can tell me what it means!

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be funny if they were nonsensical? Or a form of advertising?

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Such lovely photos! It's so interesting to me to be able to get a glimpse of life in another country... and seeing that in essence, the culture is not so very different than ours. Yes, the car brands are different, the food brands are different, but so many things we have in common: daffodils, spring, the paperback of Tolkien!

Thanks for sharing these... I know I will very much enjoying your weekly reports!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's my pleasure. It is a very well worn copy of Tolkien... I actually do have a newer set, but they are upstairs!

I am deep in Middle Earth at the moment, I usually write three or four chapters ahead and so where I am writing in my current story is on the edge of The Mark, at the outskirts of Fangorn - hence the reference copy of TTT.

[peabodyblue.livejournal.com]

I love your photos! Isn't it great to have your kitty greeting you when you get home?

You may be inspiring me with these posts! I don't know if I could manage a photo every day, but it would be a great way for me to get practice with my camera! :) I'm seriously thinking about it!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I often get the impression that he is sitting there going 'You're late!'

I am finding it good discipline to take my daily pictures - but you could just set yourself a 'one a week' goal.

[jerusha]

What a lovely idea for Mothering Sunday!

And while you might not think the pictures are all that exciting, I find them fascinating!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Flowers are the traditional gift - so on the proper Sunday, next week, they'll probably be more expensive!

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

Let's see - want to say much, so I'll try to organize;
1) Really wonderful that you are doing photos every day. I am not so disciplined. I tried to start doing at least one photo a day, but it only lasted about 6 days and it kept getting latter and latter each day and I don't like to use flash! I think I need a different project, or someone to show me how to be more disciplined.
2) I agree with enigmaticblues - your photos are fascinating.
3) Um, do you mean your birthday when you say mother's day? Or is this another one of the lovely differences between there and here that I am oblivious too? Our mother's day is May 10th.
4) I want to steal your flower arranging. Those red tulips are such a nice frame for the daffodils. I would have just mixed them all up together - boring.
5) There's something so very sweet about the front of you moms's bungalow - must be you I see reflected in the window?
6) Wouldn't be bad to not get home for lunch if you could eat in that park - seems very gentle.
7) Classic 'side plate'! Made me laugh.
8) Will have to check some of our local brit type stores to see if I can find oatcakes for my daughter who also has wheat trouble - they look and sound yummy.
9) A good bit of Tolkien is nice for the noon hour.
10) This still life is classic - maybe I'll try to do some of those, thanks for the inspiration (and I haven't forgotten that I'm going to post some photos on my journal, my computer has been borrowed and I haven't had a way to put my photos online at all - but it's back now, yeah!).
11) Your Citroen's photo reminds me of when I lived in Arizona and belonged to a BMW club. One day we drove en mass up a nearby winding canyon road and there were about 15 2002 (not the year but the model) BMWs in a row!
12) Seems a very nice street.
13) Yes, your kitty looks not just ornamental but positively 2 dimensional! What a nice welcome.
14) How nice you do those things with your mom - I hope my daughter will keep that up with me.
15) Sorry this was such a long 'comment'.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Long comments are always welcome!

Mothering Sunday existed long before your Mothers' Day - it is actually the fourth Sunday in Lent and so is, like Easter, a moveable feast. Traditionally you gave flowers, and possibly a Simnel cake, to your mother - the Lent restrictions were lifted for the day.

In more recent years some of the American Mothers Daytraditions have crossed the Atlantic and so we now have Mothers' Day cards and things and it is often caled Mothers Day instead of Mothering Sunday - but the date remains the fourth Sunday in Lent.

Yes - I am reflected there in the bungalow window!

I do occasionaly eat lunch in the park, but the nature of the job means that I am often away from the office at lunch time.

Oatcakes should be wheat-free but aren't always - however the small amount in some of them is OK for me.

And the cat really does look like an ornament!

As for taking Mum shopping - my sister and I alternate week by week to do the weekend shopping with her, and usually call in once a week or so on the 'non-shopping week' in case there is anything she needs doing that she can't do herself.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

Thank for the Mothering Sunday update! I love learning about everyone's celebrations.

[momflower.livejournal.com]

thank you for sharing these lovely pictures!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thanks, it's my pleasure.

[ellaygee-09.livejournal.com]

I'm vicariously enjoying spring through your pictures!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

OOps! How did I miss your comment? Gives LJ a hard stare...

Spring is most certainly springing around here.