Angel Jem's City Cottage

There are films that you can just watch and watch and watch. This is one of those, as is Guardians of the Galaxy. If my comic book heroes are right, then there should be a cross over Infinity Wars movie around 2018. Looking forward to it. My comic book heroes have both been in the wars recently. Between A levels and GCSEs we have had a tense few months. Made tenser by a couple of good results being tempered by a couple of rogue results. It's all worked out in the end, though. This hero  scored an A in his English A level, while managing to get a U for Religious Studies. Seriously, DP? It's not like we didn't take you to church every weeks for most of your formative years.... We asked for a re-mark and it was still a U. Either he will end up as the Pope, or more likely he'll start a cult and make a shed load of money. The results weren't important except to decide which University he went to. ABB and he was off to Liverpool, anything else and i...

Has anybody else been addicted to the Olympics? I remember when I was a student and the Olympics were in Seoul that I adjusted my body clock and got up to watch the events I most liked. Back then I loved the Decathlon ( Daley Thompson <3), the showjumping and the 1,500m. I don't remember being as enamoured of the cycling, the Triathlon and the shooting. I watched what was on BBC and made do with just a shout out for events that, in all honesty, would be the ones I'd love to take part in like the pistol shooting or air rifle. And the trap shooting I love now! But then, thinking back, the coverage wasn't as wall to wall and available as it now is. This time if I had a random event that I fastened onto and wanted to watch, the BBC sport app made that possible. Trap shooting? No probs; you could watch Tim Kneale (how I love that we share a surname!) slog it out with Steven Scott online , or watch the highlights on your phone, or any one of a dozen ways to find out how w...

I hope you are all having a lovely day today? Somehow when the sun shines everything feels a little bit better. The warmth of the sun isn't the hot, burning heat of June or July. I swear I can feel a breath of Autumn coming on, even though today is supposed to be the hottest day this week. At the very least, I got my copy of September's Country Homes and Interiors last week and I've been luxuriating in the colours and patterns of the season. I'm looking forward to apple pies, a proper stew when the weather grows colder and the smell of decaying leaves when they start to fall. Last year at around this time I was busy making my Autumn Ripple blanket, as you can read if you click on its name. I still love all the colours I used, and how they worked together. It sits with my pile of blankets in the corner at home and when the nip in the air moves in and before we turn on the heating it will be my knee warmer of choice. And I made a cushion to match as I told you i...

Where do the days go? Forget the days... the weeks fly by and before I know it, I've missed months of blogging and I'm reading and playing catch up on all your posts and drowned in a sea of bloggy friendship misses. I'm back in the room and (hopefully) here for a loooooooong while. When did I last post? Oh my goodness, June 5th!!! 2 months ago! I was still working at school and still looking ahead to finishing and I haven't told you everything that is happening in my life and oh my goodness it has been fun and... stop! Go and get a cuppa. This might take some time. So, my life at the moment. I am working with this man (just kidding!) who is just the best husband a gal could have. He's training me up into the dark side of the force and showing me how to manipulate people (well, insurance companies at least) to pay out for injuries. This is where I work. It's an office, and there's not a lot you can do to make an office different except to be Goo...

Stylecraft's CAL this year, designed by Jane Crowfoot, is called Frida's Flowers. It's a lovely, colour-rich, flower-heavy throw based on the clothes and colours of Frida Kahlo, the mexican artist. Have you seen it?  I was lucky enough to touch and see the original at a crochet workshop at Black Sheep Wools in April. You can read about my day here . It is gorgeous, and so loaded with colour; saturated is the right word. And I did buy the yarn pack with the best of intentions, but life (or guinea pigs) got in the way and the yarn lies, alone and bereft, at the foot of my bed. Don't worry, I have plans. But, having been to one workshop and enjoyed it; like a one-day crochet retreat, almost, the times of silence interspersed with conversation and questions was so relaxing; I wanted to go again and booked as soon as I was home. Yesterday's workshop was called Frida's Flowers Motif Workshop , with the aim being to start and get guidance on a flow...

Yesterday we went for a rare family day out. We are buried deep in revision and pain at school at the moment, so grabbing a glorious sunny day and escaping seemed like a good idea. We decided (ok, I decided) that we would go and look at a city I have often gone past but never into. We went to Lancaster; if you travel north on the M6 you very often pass the University, but it's not a place I remember going to. We didn't see that much yesterday, either, as we had plans for the afternoon. We did go up to the castle, which was a prison for many years. I couldn't resist getting the lads to stand under the sign! And the guy at the gate in the photo above is a prison guard... really! The Pendle witch trials were held here, and other famous trials. There is a castle tour, but we were on a mission and didn't feel like it yesterday. Fortunately Peter's football team play in Lancaster during the season, so I am on a promise. WE'd gone specially to see the ...

The week after Ted died was a hard one. We kept finding little things we'd tried, we had to clean out the medicines she'd had. We kept asking was there anything else we could have done, any action we could have taken, anything at all that would have helped. The vet had said no, that these things happen, but it was amazing how the guilt grabbed us. We were busy that week with Christian Aid and work, so our evenings passed delivering envelopes and planning office moves (don't ask; the Saga of Virgin is for another day) By the following Saturday we were slowing down. Sarah had a bad cold, Peter was out for the day and although I was supposed to take Sarah to badminton we cried off. We went for a coffee and to buy her material for a school project. I swear that was all. Just a Costa and a yard of material. But we called into Pets at Home, just to look for hay or bedding or... well, any old excuse. And there was a little girl guinea pig there, alone, all alone. And such a pi...