Peapods

poor mouse

Poor mouse, laying so quietly...

WHAM!!

Stomp stomp.

Some minutes later.....

Poor mouse laying so quiet, so abandoned, so upside down...

ATTACK!!!!

"What?"

picking chamomile

I have been out picking chamomile in the rain. Growing chamomile was a bit of a luxury 'just for me' thing to grow, I really like nice chamomile tea. However it looks really pretty too :) I actually planted this last year but it is only this year that it has come up with the chamomile flowers for me to harvest. I bought the seeds from here.

ivy

Supersonic Festival 2009

We just got back from Supersonic Festival 2009. We love going to this festival! It is held in the Custard Factory which is an arts and media centre in a former custard factory in Birmingham. We only ever go for the Sunday even though it runs all weekend, maybe next year we will think about going for the whole thing. Our Sunday only strategy is mainly to keep our costs down and it means we aren't too exhausted come the headliner on the Sunday. The main reason we like this festival is the music, it is our kind of thing, however I also really appreciate the general atmosphere of friendliness - even the security guards were reasonably friendly. I also think that the dark clothes + beards + tattoos type people who attend this festival are nicer to be around than a lot of festival crowds.

good morning covered market

My new bike was in the bike shop for the free checkup that came with it so I had to get the bus to work. I am not a fan of the bus but an advantage is that I got to take a shortcut through the covered market. I love going through the covered market. I used to work there in the big jewelery store when I was on holiday from University, and after that I worked very nearby so I used to go there everyday for my lunch. I miss not being quite as close so it was good to get some time in there. It was before 8am so most of the shops were shut and the butchers, fishmongers, and fruitiers were just setting up.

Ps. I was having an idle look about for information and I discovered it was opened in 1774! Wow.

red gooseberry clafoutis

A big day in our house! We finally have a new oven. We chose one in a showroom the other week, then hunted around online for the best deal, and today our excellent electrician wired it in.

I was feeling like we hadn't had an oven in years but checking on here it has actually only (only!) been since November. When the oven broke we made a plan to re-do the whole kitchen by saving up and getting in a company to do it for us as there are various aspects of it that we would like to update. However when we got in the quotes the costs were crazy expensive even with spring and recession deals. So we have formed a new plan for us to do it ourselves bit-by-bit. The first step was getting the new oven.

I gave a lot of thought to what would be the first thing I would make in our new oven. When I was reading looking for inspiration I came across a Nigella recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess for red gooseberry clafoutis. It appealed to be as I have never cooked clafoutis before, and as I had never eaten red gooseberries before, and most importantly as I had a punnet of red gooseberries sat in the fridge after they had come with my fruit and vegetable delivery.

Turned out pretty well I think. A good start for the oven.

kitten update: after the hoovering

I did some hoovering. Nothing special about that. This was my sofa afterwards. Nothing special about that either. A couple of remotes out but that's ok. However... if you wait quietly for a few moments...

...a tiny face peeks out! Checking that the TERRIFYING hoovering sound has ended!

And if you look even closer you might see this little face keeping very very still and quiet.

"Phew it's ok! We can come out now."

Yes I am becoming one of those people who goes on about how cute their pets are ;)

a pale yellow

Something else from the garden. I took this a couple of days ago at a slightly earlier time in the evening than the dill pictures. I think this is a chrysanthemum? I can't remember what I planted! Although you can't tell the scale from the picture it is a big flower.

Sometime I would really like to do a proper post on the garden. I have been meaning to do this for ages but it feels such a big job I have been putting it off. We started it from literally nothing but lawn and weeds two years ago. This year I have really enjoyed having flowers in the garden.

dill

I scattered a few seeds in a pot and it has come up yellow fireworks.

Walking In My Mind

We headed up to London on a really quick visit to see my aunt and to go to Walking In My Mind which is on at the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre. I had earmarked this exhibition as one to go to because it had installation works by Yoshimoto Nara and Yayoi Kusama but the whole thing was interesting. Well worth going to if you like installation art. Part of the Kusama installation was that the trees along the riverbank were wrapped in this dotted fabric. I love how it looks.

Photographs were not allowed in the gallery but this was part of the outside Kusama piece.

If you want to see some other Kusama work Hiki of jollygoo has some great pictures of other work on Naoshima here.

Southbank itself is really an interesting place to walk around. Mostly I have come here at night so it was nice to see it in the daylight.