Ania M

I went on a day trip to London with DS yesterday. I turned out to be a very cultured day indeed. I do little girly outings with DD quite often, even if they are only brief shopping trips, so I thought it was about time DS and I did something together.

There is an exhibition called Comics Unmasked currently on at the British Library and this was our mission (along with DS’ goal of finding a white deer*). We’re not just talking Beano and Marvel here, but rather a wide range of material covering social and political attitudes, sex and violence and even the esoteric. I was somewhat surprised to see Mr Crowley’s Diary of a Drug Fiend and a print of the Universe card from the Thoth deck among the exhibits, though I’m still not entirely sure why it was there.

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…several hours without noticing in easy steps:

1. Wander along early to the (very local) Fleet Food Festival (just after 11am)
2. Get a beer to drink while you walk around in the sunshine
3. Buy some foodie stuff
4. Take in an interesting talk on Beekeeping
5. Find the local (Longdog*) brewery stall and repeat step 2
6. Eat some pizza from the outdoor wood-fired oven
7. Go to the talk on Keeping Chickens
8. Repeat step 2
9. Go to a demo on making sushi and make some sushi (raw fish, naturally)
10. Eat the sushi and wait until your eyes stop watering from using too much wasabi
11. Repeat step 2
12. Try to get more pizza only to find they’ve sold out (at 1.30pm!).
13. Decide the queue for venison burgers is waaaaaay too long
14. Wander on.
15. Notice that the bread stall (who are at the Saturday market and always have plenty left at the end of the day) have sold out of almost everything except a few cakes. Buy cake for child with sweet tooth.
16. Go talk to the bee-keeper for a bit and fail to buy any local honey because they’ve sold out
17. Find another food queue that’s not too long in order to feed the child(ren)
18. Repeat step 2
19. Wander around some more listening to the music
20. Have a Nepalese curry (and repeat step 2)
21. Hear the strains of Guns of Navarone (Ska-style)**
22. Bask in the admiration heaped on the dog (Who’s a pretty boy then!)
23. Go boogie to the excellent local Ska cover band (Key Lime Pi)
24. Buy ice cream for child (‘cos she’s your best mate, she is)
25. Repeat steps 2, 22 and 23 until the event closes.
26. Stagger home
27. Wonder where the time went
28. Fall asleep in the bath
29. Wake up, get out of the bath and blog about what a lovely day you’ve had
30. Vow to return next year 😀

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King of the Castle

My name is Dexter and I’m temporarily taking over this blog, as my human’s a bit busy with other stuff at the moment. I’m the handsome and regal chap in the picture. That was taken in Wales a few weeks ago – I’ll tell you about that later, but suffice to say, I am king of some castles.

My human has all these piles of material and flowers and other things that have been taking up her time recently (though she does find time to come for nice long walks with me too…well, she walks, I run and jump and play). She’s also been really busy helping the girl pup get ready for something they call SATs. I don’t know what they are but they seem to be very important and involve lots of paper. They get very upset when I stand on the paper, but I picked up lots of useful tips on grammar and punctuation through my paws. She’s even been too busy to tell you about all the fun we had in Wales a few weeks ago or my little adventure last week, so I’m going to.

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As you may be aware if you follow my Facebook page, I’ve just spent the weekend trading at Wrest Park and a very good weekend it was too….well…apart from Friday and my own staggering ineptitude :/

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It’s almost that time again. Time to dust off the canvas, dig out the sleeping bags and what passes for creature comforts in the field and go…well, live in a field at the weekends.

My trading season this year kicks off at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire on the 26th and 27th of April and, although the days were lovely, warm and sunny last year, I’m rather hoping there isn’t a repeat of the -4C overnight temperatures, when the water froze in the kettle and it was too cold for the butane cylinder on the stove to work. (Yes, I will be packing a thermos flask this year!)

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Under duress? You bet!

We received notification of DD’s secondary school allocation on Monday to the sound of jaws slapping to the floor and gasps of dismay and disbelief. Not only had she not been allocated a place at her first choice school*, but as we looked into the alternative offered, the whole thing became a tale of absolute horror.

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My mind likes to play tricks on me.

Take today. I’m standing in the kitchen chopping vegetables for tonight’s soup, cooking some onions for onion bread and crisps and wild mushroom noodles for my lunch*. All of a sudden, a word pops into my head, totally unbidden and with nothing whatsoever to do with anything I am doing, have done or plan to do.

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Once again the Tarot Blog Hop is upon is and this time we are instructed to write about “Tarot, Healing and Creativity” in connection with the holiday of Imbolc or Candlemas.

My personal experience of healing on a physical level is fairly limited as I have never suffered from more than the odd cold or cut, for which minor care will suffice. As for any psychological issues I may have…we manage to co-exist 😉 I am also reluctant to connect Tarot with Healing because as we all know…(altogether now): “Tarot is not a sticking plaster to fix one’s problems!” *

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As you may know, I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t see the point in setting yourself up to fail by bundling all the things that you’ve neglected to do the previous year and hanging them off one date in the calendar, as if this will magically enable them to happen. Perhaps that is a little harsh, but if you want to do something, just get on with it at the appropriate time. For example, if you want to lose weight, choosing the coldest time of year, when you are most likely to need and want warming, comforting food, is really the worst timing. It’s probably best to make that resolution at the Spring Equinox and save yourself three months of misery.

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So with Christmas over and the New Year beckoning, it must be time for the annual roundup. Of course, creeping senility means that my memories of this year go all the way back to…oh, last week some time. With that in fragile mind, I’ll begin with Christmas and see if anything less recent hoves into mind.

We had a fairly sedate Christmas this year. No panics, no arguments, no over-indulgence, no leftovers (apart from some salmon from Christmas Eve) and no excesses*.

*chocolate doesn’t count (more…)