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I’ve been debating with myself for ages about getting a ukulele. On the negative side I did get images flashing through my mind of George Formby singing “When I’m Cleaning Windows”. I’m even shuddering now thinking of that. However when I saw Garcia playing one on Criminal Minds it put a more positive slant on it. In true Garcia style she had pimped it with rhinestones and although she only got out one line of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” it turned negatives to positives for me.

I have a full size vintage acoustic guitar which is just a beautiful work of art and has fantastic tone, but I wanted something smaller to play and when I read Getchen “Gertie” Hirsch’s post on Ukulele Ladies I realised that a ukulele would fit the bill. Plus it is immensely portable, you could stuff it into a large handbag very easily. I have visions of whipping it out for impromptu concerts if I get bored waiting in lines at checkouts or at the post office!

I’ve got a beginner’s one from Amazon. It had a particularly helpful review submitted from a very knowledgeable and funny customer. Also it is purple which is one of my favourite colours so it just had to be! Here she is.

I have christened her “Gertie”. It’ll be a while before I’ll be posting anything on Youtube but I know I’m going to have so much fun with her which is really all I want from a musical instrument. Mind you I would like to learn “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and I did find an online tutorial for that. So far the Four Mouseketeers have ignored my renderings but did take turns to sit in the box it arrived in.

Here are a few vintage stylish Ukulele Ladies.

Greta Garbo

Marilyn Monroe

Lingerie Lady

Sláinte

Linda xx

This week I went for a couple of circuits of Cissbury Ring, an ancient Iron Age Hill Fort near Findon in Sussex.

I don’t go very often, but when I do I tell myself off for not going more! It’s very popular with dog walkers, so I get to pat quite a few! Today I met a couple walking 4 Collie dogs. As you know from a previous post Collies are my fav breed. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!! There are two circular paths, one at the top which is narrow and chalky but has brilliant views over the Downs and a lower wider grassy one with loads of wildflowers and tweeters in bushes.

The banks and ditches which you see are are the remains of a vast defensive wall. It’s approximately one mile around taking the top path.

A welcome sight if you are still knackered from the climb up!

It’s great to imagine Neolithic tribes living here and mining the flint for their axes and arrowheads. Examples of Cissbury Flint have been found as far away as the Eastern Mediterranean. I sometimes think I must be walking the same paths as these ancients. I wonder what they would make of how it looks today.

Bird’s Eye View

Part of the surrounding area is farmland and you never know what you are going to find!!

Woodland Creatures!!

I’ll be taking my big camera up to see if I can get some shots of the famous round headed Rampion “Pride of Sussex”

Picture courtesy of Plantlife.org.uk
Can’t wait!

Sláinte

Linda xxxx

Thursday 25th April is Pay It Forward Day in the UK.

In case you haven’t heard of it, the idea of Pay It Forward is to do random acts of kindness for strangers for no payment but with the request that they do the same for others. The premise is that if everybody performed a random act of  kindness think how the world would become a much better place. A modern day take on Love thy Neighbour.

There is a film of the same name starring Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment. School teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) sets his class an assignment: they must each think up a way to make the world a better place. This prompts eleven-year-old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) to develop the idea that instead of paying back good deeds, one should instead pay them forward. Putting his idea into practice, Trevor performs an act of kindness for three different people, requiring each of those three to perform three further kindnesses themselves. In doing so he starts a chain reaction which does indeed make the world a better place.

The UK site for Pay It Forward Day is here

Suggestions include buying a coffee for a stranger with the request that they do something in turn for another stranger. Paying for a parking space, giving someone an umbrella when it is bucketing down etc.

I would add

Give an old lady in the street a bunch of flowers (careful you don’t get accused of stalking!)

Give someone walking their dog a bag of doggie treats

Put some money in an envelope and anonymously post through a needy person’s door with a note that when they are able, they can pay it forward with a good deed

Go on, give it a try. You never know where it might lead!!

Sláinte

Linda xx

I was having a browse in my favourite charity shop, mainly looking for fabric when I came across this beauty

A dark lilac embroidered linen and silk skirt from Monsoon. I just love it and the price I paid for it – £5. As you can guess from my last post I’m a big fan of embroidered clothes. My grandmother was a professional ecclesiastical embroiderer making all sorts of church stuff from robes to wall hangings. So I think she must have had some influence on me. I wonder what she would have thought about my home embroidery machine.

It won’t be dry cleaned, it’ll be hand washed in soft wool detergent! It’s such a gorgeous floaty skirt, definitely a warm summer evening job. I keep getting it out of the wardrobe and gazing lovingly at it!

As Doctor Who is on later tonight I thought I’d also share my latest embroidered baby bib. It will accompany the Dalek bib. Now if I could only get hold of a Cyberman embroidery pattern!!

Sláinte

Linda xx

I’ve been taking a break from making things for my Etsy Shop and I’ve been making some stuff for me. Probably less making really and more of the embellishing. I have been looking for a replacement denim jacket for the one that went to textile heaven a while back. I found a beautiful new one in a charity shop for £4. Perfect fit and just gorgeous with it’s little zippy details.

Having fallen in love with Steampunk style I thought I would add a little something to the back. I kept telling myself it was going to be worth it while I was fighting with the embroidery hoop on my machine and getting the fabric properly positioned so I didn’t end up sewing the sleeve to the collar. And here it is – I really love it!

A closer view

It’s going to get a lot of wear this summer!  Meanwhile in another charity shop I found a chrome vegetable rack for the grand sum of £1.50. It’s now been sprayed pink and is home to my crochet yarns. I can’t claim the idea as mine – Lucy at Attic24 inspired me to have a go.

Lastly, I’ve just started watching Game of Thrones right back from the beginning. Loads of blood and gore and some very adult scenes! Ordinarily it would not be my choice of viewing, but I love all the stories and how they weave together. The scheming and plotting is fascinating, I wonder if they got inspiration from some of our politicians. I thought adding this embroidery design to a plain white tshirt would be a fitting tribute to the programme or I could wear it with a degree of cynicism next St Valentine’s Day!!!

Sláinte

Linda xx

I took myself off to West Dean Gardens to cheer myself up after Frisco’s passing. I always make for their fabulous greenhouses they always have wonderful things to look at.  This greenhouse has a beautiful cherry tree in bloom

In the tropical greenhouse I found the most perfect Coleus I’ve ever seen

Deep red Sedum rosettes

Weird orange flower

An espalier Fuchsia!!

Grape Hyacinths

And of course I found the resident pussycat!! We had a good ten minutes of chin tickling and ear scratching!

Some little lambs with their mums Look at the waggling tail of the little lamb towards the end! They are a bit far away so you might need a magnifying glass!

Lambs at West Dean Gardens, West Sussex

Sláinte

Linda xx

It was with a very heavy heart I had to say goodbye to my little black and white cat Frisco. He was almost 16 and getting weaker and thinner each day. His life was becoming just a mere existence so although I would have loved to keep him with me I had to make the decision to give him a dignified peaceful end, which is what the lovely vet gave him. As he passed away he stuck his little pink tongue out looking totally cute. It made me cry even more.

Frisco with Daisy

I had him since he was a 6 week old kitten. I first saw him in the vet’s waiting room. This tiny little kitten was being rushed passed me as an emergency as he had been choking during the night. As his cute face stared out at me through the cat basket I just fell in love with him. His owner said he would be looking for a home soon. Needless to say I was round at her place the next day and the rest is history.

He was famous for his beautiful green eyes.

He never really made friends with the rest of the cats and would wack anyone that got near him, but he did love any of my female friends that came to visit. He would sit on the floor in front of them and just gaze at them. I wonder who he was in a previous life – Casanova perhaps? He got his name from a line in the Otis Redding song ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’ which is one of my all time fav songs.

This is my favourite picture of him snoozing in the grass with a little daisy.

He was also a great one for sitting by the bath and watching!! He would also climb on to the side and head butt me and lick my nose. Earlobe nibbling was also a favourite pastime of his (my earlobes not his).

Intrepid explorer!

It is so weird not having him around, I am sure I can see him out of the corner of my eye at times. Rest in peace little one xxxxxx

Linda xxx

Daisy’s decision to include a fisticuffs picture must have set something off in cyberspace as my agency has just sold my other cat fight image. It’s of Lily attempting to evict little Rosie from her Santa Hat.

It sold to a German magazine, goodness knows what it is being used to illustrate! Actually thinking about it Lily is almost as naughty as Daisy. These are a few images of Lily ‘caught red pawed’.

Partying hard at Christmas

Swinging on the washing

Practicing to become a tightrope walker

Hogging the catnip

Change of subject, the temperatures are gradually rising and I’m hoping for some nice Spring images. These are a couple from last year.

I’m obsessed with crocheting flowers at the moment – must be a subconscious way of wishing for Spring. I’ve just found a lovely black button which I’m going to use for the centre of a crochet Poppy. This is my inspiration image.

It’s Papaver ‘Royal Wedding’. It never fails to bloom each year, no matter how harsh the winter. If I like what I come up with I’ll put a few in my shop. I’m off now in search of a pretty colour of cotton.

Sláinte and Happy St Patrick’s Day to all of us of a Celtic lineage

Linda xx

Haven’t blogged for a while as I had to hide the laptop from Daisy as she has now got a taste for blogging, or it could be she liked sitting on something warm. She does like a warm bottom and it has been decidedly cool lately with late season snowfalls here. In fact we have all had cold bottoms here!

Thought I would generate some heat in my fingers by typing about one of my favourite books “Wicked Plants” by Amy Stewart.

I love plants and I like taking images of beautiful flowers such as this gorgeous purple Anemone

But I’m also drawn to the dark side of plants (Daisy would be proud) and Wicked Plants is full of dangerous and diabolical examples. There are no colour pictures in the book, all the pages have a Da Vinci Code like sepia design background with plant illustrations in black pen. The usual suspects like Marijuana have their place in the Illegal plants chapter but it’s the innocuous ones like Morning Glory (Ipomea tricolour) that surprise. Did you know that its seeds if eaten in sufficiently large quantities launch you on an LSD like trip producing frightening hallucinations. I checked my local garden centre and they are on sale in there, no restrictions. If only they knew!

Rhubarb leaves cause gastro intestinal problems and in rare circumstances coma and death. Think about that when you are next drizzling custard over your Rhubarb crumble!

Finally, did you know there was such a thing as a Strychnine Tree (Strychnos nux-vomica)? I always thought Strychnine was produced in dark labs by Victorian murderers with Jekyll and Hyde tendencies. It actually comes from the seed of this fifty foot tree. And for good measure the bark of one of its relatives Strychnos toxifera can be boiled down to make poison for the tip of an arrow. All good stuff to know come the Apocalypse, which I predict should arrive on Budget Day next week.

Sláinte

Linda xx

Today I have my very first guest blogger post! Daisy the Cat a legend in the cat blogging world has kindly consented to write a guest post for me. I am positively purring with excitement! Over to you Daisy……….

Thank you very much CrystalMoonCat for that very nice intro. I have to correct you though on my name. whilst I am known to my neighbours and the local vet as Daisy, my full title is Daisy the Destroyer – Daughter of Darkness. Here is my terrifying real picture…….look away now if you are in the least bit squeamish…….are you sure you want to look at this, really sure? Well OK then, on your own head be it……………………

Well I did warn you!  I am born out of the fires of the deepest depths of hell, damned  for eternity to wreak havoc on this weak and fragile earth and it’s puny little human population.

But I digress – yesterday I had tuna for supper and very nice it was too. Unfortunately I had to share it with 4 other felines but I have plans for them. I am the third eldest of five. The eldest one is 16 and after a lifetime of being thumped by him I am finally able to get my own back on him as he is a bit weak and tottery now. He’s also completely deaf and I can make all sorts of noises behind him and he doesn’t even know, tee hee. I had him cornered yesterday and was about to push him over when SHE came in and separated us. The second eldest is a bit fat and seems to only travel between her food bowl, the water bowl, the litter tray and the sofa. She has no interest in being number ONE and has relinquished her position to me. I made her sign her paw print in the litter tray to be sure. So really I am now number ONE puddy. It’s a position of immense power as I get to be in the middle of whatever is going on, I get fed first as the others stay back to let me in first and no matter how close any of the others snuggle up to HER I can always worm my way in between them.

I suppose such a position comes with an element of responsibility. I see it as my duty to see off all strangers that come around – cats, dogs, humans, spiders, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll take them all on.  I also take my agent provocateur role very seriously and I will continue to pee down HER printers and up her sofa legs. The other day I got one in on the fleecy blanket SHE was about to sit down on. Now just between us this is my current disguise….

I’m pictured here listening in on HER private phone messages.

And this is what happens to any one who gets in my way! You have been warned!!

Love and kisses,

Daisy xx

………………..Thank you Daisy for that brief and interesting look into your interesting and slightly disturbing life.

Sláinte

Linda xxx