Happy Halloween!

Did you go trick or treating this evening?! Whoooo! We used to have such fun Halloween eves as children; not trick or treat, because it wasn't really done, but teddy ghosts, apple bobbing, gingerbread, toffee apples and pumpkin pie at home, and parties for our friends at St Mary's Hall - good job there wasn't a graveyard at the church - that would have been TOO spooky!

En France pour le shopping

I hopped across the channel to Calais yesterday, and did a wee bit of Christmas food shopping. I didn't have long owing to time-table changes on the coach and SeaFrance on strike congesting the ports, but had a good day none the less.

                               

 

Rodin's The Burghers of Calais

To honour those killed in the Wars

Bijou et si joli !

Beautiful wrought ironwork on doorways

Even the coal-hole is so pretty!

Lovely selection of squashes

Getting into the Halloween spirit

100th Blog!

I've just looked at my stats, and see that up till this one, I have posted 99 blogs! So to bring up my century at the crease, here are some images of Christchurch local schools were commissioned to design in 2009, in the railway station.I had noticed them before, but never photographed them, until Monday, when I had a whole 10 minutes to spare before the train came to go back to London. The brief was "What does Christchurch mean to you?"

The Grange (my Almer Mater) brought the Priory, the monastery ruins and the Avon and Stour to the fore.

Twynham looked at individuals' impressions as a collage.

Highcliffe represented the beach at Mudeford

             Makes waiting for the train very pleasant!

Happy Diwali

This little light lit my way home last night - a tiny clay oil lamp outside a front gate, to celebrate the Festival of Light.

Shubh Diwali! 

Many Happy Returns!

It's a whole twelve months since I started this journal; a big "Thankyou!" for reading, following and commenting - it's nice to know you stop by!

Happy Birthday, Blog!

Sharing the love

Even the steps down to the platform at the tube station were sharing the love today!

Dolly cake for Music Project

Nellie made this amazing cake as part of her group's Research Project. They chose Nicki Minaj, and the task was to present a biography, organise a tour, and perform a song. Nellie spent nearly all day on Sunday making it - it turned out brilliantly, and she asked me to take a photo before she took it home again to eat with her family. I must say we've had some imaginative and interesting 'merchandise and souvenirs' as part of the project, but never a cake before!

Baby bobble hats

The deadline for this year's Big Knit caught me unawares this year, so I only had time to make three, and cheated a little with ready-made pompoms. Pop along to Sainsbury's next month, buy an Innocent smoothie wearing a little hat, and 25p will be donated to AgeUK. To knit your own for next year, go to the Big Knit website for info.and patterns:
 http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/get-knitting-for-the-big-knit

More hearts

I have a habit of looking at the ground from time to time when walking along; to avoid tripping on loose paving stones or treading in something ghastly. Good job I do otherwise I would have missed these little messages of love this week.

   This one, I think, is from a helium balloon which may be still floating around aimlessly in space!

Lots of love xxx

Jamming

Our rather rubbish summer weather has meant the soft fruits season was prolonged - so the fruit man at the market still has lots of plums. I still had some mulled wine, so made another batch of jam. I gave one jar to Samantha to thank her for her help with the O2 concert, and the remaining three will go into the Christmas Present Box. It's getting quite full, so I hope I won't be running around at the last minute.

Performing at the O2

We had the fantastic opportunity of performing at the O2 Arena on Tuesday, for the Opening Ceremony of the World Skills event. 58 nations take it in turn to host, UK's turn this year. It was hard work, and lots of rehearsals since the beginning of term. Our 30 hand-picked singers joined a choir of 300, with another 300 singers and dancers, with an audience of 9000 delegates and representatives from all over the world. The Parade of Nations with all the delegates precessing with national flags was really moving. We sang a medley of songs from the four UK nations as an introduction to the evening.

I'll let Blessing (back row 2nd from R) sum it up: " It was so fantastic! The best thing I've ever done! I'll remember it for ever. I've got my T-shirt, wrist band, CD of songs, programme and ticket, photos and all the memories. Thankyou so much Miss for giving me the opportunity."

Little houses in Ealing

Ealing Broadway has its own take on the traditional tube sign.

I went to see Debbie today as she was leading a "Make do and Mend" spot at a community event in Ealing. I went to a bee-keeping lecture, an energy saving talk, saw how a clay oven was made and used, and chatted with jam making ladies and knitters.

Sweet little houses