Halloween 2018

Somebody's been busy drawing on the windows in one of the local watering holes👻 Saw these in town last week and was so taken with them I couldn't resist taking a photo. Samhain blessings to all who celebrate the Old Ways.

Arilx

Vacuuming

I think it only fair to pre-warn you that the content today is going to be rather rude and I have no wish to offend people.

There was never a plan to become a housesparkling elf nor develop opinions on the merits of different vacuum cleaners, but after six years of cleaning other people's homes that's where I'm at these days! These thoughts I will keep to myself bar the winner in the jolliest category goes to....drum roll....

Henry Hoover. That open smiley face does add a bit more fun to the task and things have moved on apace since he was joined by George [green], Charles [blue], James [yellow] and Hetty [pink]. They are all designed for different jobs I understand, but I've only used the little red fella. They're certainly sturdy little workhorses I'll give them that and seem pretty reliable. A friend's builder husband swears by them for their toughness and he certainly puts his through its paces.

Recently I have had an epiphany and have come to view the Henry Hoover in a whole new light....last week we saw the Circus of Horrors and hilariously one features in a rather risque act involving the dwarf Captain Dan the Demon. I'll certainly say it was a first for me [indeed I could safely say that about the whole never to be forgotten evening] and his "act" went off without incident. Apparently though this has not always been the case if this story from 2007 is anything to go by https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-476560/Dwarf-rushed-hospital-gluing-penis-hoover.html I would have so loved to have been a fly on the wall listening to him trying to convince the hospital staff that his accident really was the result of a circus act. I note that this particular performance did not feature on their 2011 audition for Britain's Got Talent.

.....as for me I had to suppress a small titter when faced with a Henry Hoover at my client's home on Thursday!! Life will never be quite the same.

Arilx

Sunshine and showers.

Now I'm one of those people who is utterly incapable of listening to the weather forecast and retaining any detail. My brain wanders off in search of a bun and as my attention returns I realised I've missed the dratted thing again. Thank goodness for being able to check online eh! Yesterday it promised one raindrop, black cloud and sunshine. Mixed, but not enough to deter us and my friend H from venturing forth on a short totter through some local woods using another of the well written walks from the Fancy Free Walks site.

On this occasion the Met Office was spot on....we got it all and the photos show both the rain and the bright sunshine we experienced on our little foray. We were somewhat stunned when two fallow deer shot out ahead of us and up the hill...just a quick glance of their spotty backs and they were gone so I had little time to process what I'd seen let alone get any evidence. Thankfully other things remained stationary! Compared to the fiery foliage I've been seeing of late it was all rather muted and damped down, but I rather enjoyed the quiet contrast of it all. The vineyard is new I think.

Well while you're out and about you might as well have a little nose around the village of Colgate where you've parked I say. A snout around the church turned up a surprising shelf of....hens and this rather rustic panel. Otherwise it's a model of Victorian decorum and a tad on the too sensible side for my taste. At least there was a rather splendid hand painted house sign opposite to appease my penchant for the slightly off beam and the promise of Viennetta for pud when we returned slightly wetter than when we had left!!

Arilx

Frou Frou Friday

A silly to end the week...hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Arilx

The Flames of the Season

It's simply my favourite season by a country mile, so it's yet more fiery Autumn images today which were taken on Saturday when we went out with friends.

Thanks for your well wishes for His Plumpness [except I am now to be known Your Litheness as the the vet has confirmed I have lost weight- H😼] He is pawley no more having been knocked out and the abscess lanced and drained. It was quite a vicious bite, but he's back to normal and has been out patrolling his borders and proudly showing off his war wounds to anyone who'll show him a drop of sympathy. Amazingly he's left the exposed area alone...he heard the vet say that he'd have to wear the cone of shame if he did otherwise. Anyway he insisted on having his photo taken just to remind you what a fine figure of a feline he is! Modesty is not his middle name.....

Arilx

Foxed by technology

Last week at Mythago practice we started to learn a new and, as yet, unnamed dance. To help us all remember it our squire filmed it on his phone and pinged the link over the next day. It runs sideways on if you view it in Youtube so he suggested that it was probably best to watch it either on our phones or i-pads.

Now I have a slight problem with this tech. My phone is middle aged like me and doesn't take kindly to be forced to change screen direction [occasionally she complies, but normally she just chooses to haughtily ignore me] and I don't have an i-pad. However, I accepted that if a crick in the neck was the price to pay then I'd go with the sideways option. Mr GBT though had a brain wave and changed the pc screen round......

As you can see our experiment wasn't entirely successful as it turned it upside down instead....ah well it can't be said that I haven't looked at the thing from all angles now can it!! I'm not a total technophobe, but a part of me does still secretly hanker after having a TV like this one which I saw  at the NT property of  Nymans this weekend.

It's going to be an expensive day today. That wretched cat has been fighting and is now sporting a rather large abscess on his front leg, so I feel a whopper of a vet's bill coming our way. There will be lots of cuddles and fuss needed when he gets back after being sedated to have the thing drained!

Arilx

Raid the stash to save the cash.

Take one exceptionally dull navy cardigan you bought from the charity shop years ago and never wear. Buy pretty enamelled buttons on a terracotta base and stitch them on.

Several months later still not wearing the wretched garment. Middle button is wonky, are the buttons practical to go through the washing machine.....hide said offensive knitwear in the cupboard of doom along with all the other U.F.Os.  Out of sight out of mind....very useful. Watch Stacey Dooley documentary on the horrendous pollution caused by the fast fashion industry. Conscience pricked...dig out cardi and decide that if I straighten the button and stitch some ribbon round the sleeves perhaps that will do the trick.

As you can see my plans failed to come to fruition and instead I went for a complete overhaul. Pops of colour and something which not only do I really love now, but one that is far more me. Yes I've worn it already and all it needed was a rummage through my wool and button stash. I am not a confident person, but on this occasion I am quite chuffed.

Arilx

Feathered Friday Edition

A spot of silliness for the end of the week!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Arilx

Upgrade

[Image from Pixabay]

One of the ladies I volunteer with rushed in looking rather harassed a couple of months ago. Apologising profusely, she warned that she might be a little bit distracted as her 19 year old granddaughter was currently in labour. After we'd finished I joking asked her how she felt about having a daughter who would now be a grandmother. With a glint in her eye she chuckled and revealed that it was more complicated than that because her daughter had remarried and was due to have her own baby a month later.

Fast forward to our most recent encounter and I was pleased to hear both of the new babies had arrived safely. "We've all had to have an upgrade" she said...."I've gone from being G to 2G and my 98 year old Mother is now 3G!" It must be quite rare for there to be a great-great grandmother I would imagine...it's certainly the first time I've encountered it😄

The Russian dolls image seemed rather appropriate for this post....much as I'd have liked to share a photo of my own set if I tell you the biggest is only the height of my little finger nail you might appreciate that they would have been a devil to photograph!

Arilx

Getting his own back.

Perhaps I should have resisted the temptation to take the rise out of His Plumpness on yesterday's post for he has got his revenge. Apparently he has taken up the feline equivalent of potato printing as a hobby judging by this which I encountered first thing.

He must have pressed his front paws down very carefully on the freshly painted and still only touch dry front door step to ensure he got the right coverage to be able to leave such a neat impression.

It has tickled me so much that I've decided to leave his handiwork there!

Arilx

Traumatised

His Plumpness is currently traumatised....so traumatised in fact that he didn't have the strength to tidy his front paws away when he fell into his day long snooze......

The Wretched Humans thought this card oh- so funny and had the temerity to laugh at it in his presence.....a cone of shame and any suggestion of non demand feeding [he demands I feed...except I don't as he's on a diet food to keep him trimmer that he would either wish or intend] is heresy as far as this one furry purry is concerned.

Inside Mr GBT had written " don't show Humphrey he'll have a heart attack!"😸 The poor soul is still in recovery mode.

Arilx

Re-cycle-d

Literally a recycled bicycle. Saw this gate in Lewes in Saturday when I was dashing past to get to our first stand for the day of dance.

Love it when people think outside the box.
Arilx

Strictly Come Dancing with a Twist.

It's no secret that I am unashamedly a SCD addict. Fortunately I have several friends who are also super fans so I can talk SCD with them and spare poor old Mr GBT. This mickey take is rather amusing!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Arilx

Let the new knitwear season commence!

Whoops, double whoops and thrice times whoops.....this returned home with me on Saturday. For a measly 350 pennies I could hardly leave it behind now could I especially with it's oh so pretty copper metallic thread running through it.

Yes like I needed it [not] but oh the lure of new-to-me knitwear. I laid every sensible/decluttering/eco argument aside with indecent haste and raced out of the door with it the minute my precious groats had left my sweaty little paw. At least on the upside the charity shop benefited from my profligate unplanned purchase!

Arilx 

There's a till works down in Poundland swears he's Elvis.

Imagine my surprise on Saturday when the self service till started doing Elvis impressions. As I popped my two golden groats into the appropriate slot it started singing "It's a one for the money" and after I'd finished I got a "thank you very much" delivered in the way only Elvis could. So apparently The King is alive and well and working in Poundland!

 Once I'd worked out what the hell was going on [it's weeks since I was last in] I got the giggles. Pure genius.

Arilx

Family

"There's no vocabulary for love within a family, love that's lived in but not looked at, love within the light of which all else is seen, the love within which all other love finds speech. This love is silent."

T.S.Eliot

Certain family members have and will always be within my inner circle. We held my Uncle's funeral yesterday, but we lost him to dementia a couple of years ago. He always loved his family [my Mum is his little sister] deeply and with total commitment. He and his widow have always been a constant factor in my life right from my earliest memories. He was an incredible cabinet maker and it was he who taught and encouraged my husband to make the furniture he does today. It is always sad to have to say farewell to those people who are extremely special to us, but I would always prefer to have had the privilege of having such people in my life and go through this than forgo the opportunity.

Normal scatty blogging service will resume tomorrow.

Arilx

Trees to Please

Lots of grunt work has been achieved this weekend and we now have a freshly painted front door. However, the halo soon slipped as I persuaded Mr GBT to play hooky with me. In order to protect our local park a Friends society was set up last year to promote it as an asset to the town. They've done a sterling job thus far and I picked up one of their tree walk leaflets in the summer. On a day like today with all the beautiful Autumn tints I felt it would be the perfect excuse for a short breather.

Lots of beautiful colours to behold and the trail took me to an unfamiliar spot in which I discovered there had been a poppy field dedicated to those who had fallen in the Great War along with a commemorative bench. The piece of wood with holes in has a plaque too, but I'm not sure what it's supposed to represent. Apparently it makes a handy place for storing found tennis balls for all the dog walkers these days! There were also several hand painted posters fixed to trees and railings. Again I don't know why, but I shall endeavour to find out.

And then these two staring down at us as we wandered home. They're on the outside of a restaurant which I passed every day for eight years when I worked in the town centre. Today is the first day they have introduced themselves to me.....look up peoples....there's always something new even when you think it's familiar!

Upon my return I did get on with my chores again!

Arilx

Devilish sense of humour.

Sometimes my friends know me better than I know myself. W sent me this for my birthday. Apparently she's had it for months and she cackled like an old hag when she found it. I must admit I had a similar reaction.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. Nothing major planned for as really need to do some serious catching up!

Arilx

Bosham

Down here in Sussex we have Cosham [pronounced Cosh-am] and not many miles away Bosham....pronounced Bozzum. Makes perfect sense doesn't it! There are two things I know about Bosham. Firstly it's stuffed nose to tail with tourists in the summer and secondly it floods regularly because the sea comes up and over. You need to know the tide times before you visit! It's a quaint little place to while away a morning.

This is along the High Street. You can see how high the doorsteps are to stop the water coming in!

The view out over the estuary with the village behind us. The little egret was nosing about for quite some time. The sign is on the road where we were standing a couple of hours earlier to take the photos!

Bosham has several historical claims to fame. In 1064 Harold visited prior to sailing to France to meet William the then Duke of Normandy or to us William The Conqueror. The church is featured on the Bayeux Tapestry.

This is Quay Green where King Canute [or Cnut] supposedly tried to hold back the waves. It's said that his daughter drowned in the Mill Stream running behind the church and she's buried inside allegedly. There is definitely a grave below her memorial stone, but its provenance is unproven.

Obviously, being Aril, a visit to the church was in order. This gravestone [I had read about it] is very prominent. I was initially rather confused about why it had a boat on it yet the cause of death talked about the deceased falling from a horse and drowning. I now know that a horse was something seamen stood on to help them unfurl the sails.

This Flemish roundel originally came from Norwich Cathedral [there are four of them, but only one shown as don't want to test your patience too far!]. Yet again I was puzzled....an angel holding a hammer? Is it off to do a spot of DIY then?!  Apparently it's one of the implements of Christ's Passion [the others are pincers, a spear and a scourge if you're interested]. Always something to learn.

How about these natty little figures round the bottom of one of the columns then? I can see now I will have to add some new expressions to my gargoyle faces I pull whenever any poor soul attempts to take my photo. That will give me something to practise over the winter months!!

Aww I thought as I saw a promising pair of wings up on the thatched cottage roof. A fairy....yes indeed. Good from afar, but bluddy scary when seen at close quarters! I think in retrospect I prefer the peacock even though I assumed it was a pheasant at the time!

Normally the decent photos I show are taken by Mr GBT, but on this occasion this is one of mine. I was rather pleased with how it came out with the duck just peeking out over the top of the brick wall.

Hope you enjoyed the ramblings of how we spent our Silver Wedding Anniversary itself at Chidham, Boxgrove and Bosham.

Arilx