Rosemary cake ....

Rosemary cake , with rosemary and orange infused icing ......the picture doesnt do it justice , it tastes better than it looks .

Tickets .......

Collecting tickets for Edinburgh at Central Station , decided to tarry awhile in town ..... my loitering included coffee and carrot muffin in Cafe Royale , never need an excuse to go there !

My real reason for lingering .. D hit a problem hanging blinds , not his fault , the wall was not straight at all , or the window frames were askew or something . Either way having fretted long and hard ove rthe Cutting of the Fabric and the Hacksawing of the Rod and Wood Dowelling bit , now having got it perfect , it was hanging off to the left ..... much anguish and hand wringing .

I felt my interests would be best served by Leaving him To It .....

and yes arrived home and it was all perfect . Blackout achieved . Now N can stay in bed all day if she likes , the sun will no longer disturb her .

Spotted in Fenwick cosmetic dept , a very fine looking pot of something called Hand Relief . Surely not ? I had to retrace my steps .... hand cream no less.

Action day here .... raining and blustering outside . Two families back from hols today so a bit of a clean up at their places to make sure it looks ok when they return . Putting rubbish outside making sure litter trays are pristine etc ... but I wonder if any of it is worth it . Sure that as soon as I pull the door shut behind me the cats skip about doing their worst . I usually leave notes too but I often get feedback about my illegible handwriting so maybe its not really worth it ?
Baking a rosemary cake , my first cake in ages . Fresh rosemary out of the garden . D is putting up blackout blinds in Nat's room . teenagers need darkness so they can stay asleep long after the sun has risen and she has had to do her best stacking her spare pillows against the window frames , to no avail . D fretting as he cuts off swathes off the blinds , in case he gets it wrong . I'm still considering the bathroom , and occasionally making forays into N's room to throw out another pile of "stuff" .
Trip to the station later for train tickets for Edinburgh for this week ( in this rain ? may not be wise ? )
Its all go .

Chasing Art

Drove to Newbiggen by the Sea this morning to view the progress of the beach sculpture . Two people , man and woman , to be called Couple , on a plinth , placed out at sea assisted by a crane . When the tide is out they appear on a pile of rocks , as seen left . But when the tide is in , presumably they will appear to be out at sea , surveying the scene BBC NEWS England Tyne Giant coast sculpture installed

Misty day , unsure whether the soft focus shot to do with the mist or the zoom lens .

Followed by a trip to Barter Books to buy presents and reading material as I have had to resort to re reading ( for the twentieth time possibly ) Margaret Drabble , A Natural Curiosity . Part of a trilogy this is one of my favourite recovering from migraine books . I know the story and the characters so well that reading is effortless , comforting .

And finally Ikea . I knew when I spotted a wood cabinet with basket drawers that I would find a spot in the house for one somewhere and sure enough , I found a cabinet shaped gap in the bathroom just yesterday . Delightfully installed already , it looks perfect and sets off D's window painting of this week to perfection . We spent a happy fifteen minutes in there placing and re placing a tissue box to best effect . This decorating lark could turn out to be addictive . the porch is looking a bit down at heel , not to mention the kitchen. Hall , landing and stairs ? Possibly .

pre pre senile dementia ?

As I prepare raw carrots for a salad earlier , D asks me what I plan to have with my salad , bearing in mind it is almost lunchtime . Oh , nothing much , I say , probably just a sheet of paper .

Even as I say it , I hear the words coming out of my mouth and know they are the wrong words . But it takes me a minute or two to tell him my plan , a slice of toast .

CatCalls

Catcalls this morning a joy with no headache but still spaced out enough by medication from yesterday to need to do everything at a slightly slower pace than normal . Four calls this morning and I head for the Fairytale Garden first . The bird feeders are empty as ever , the wire feeder knocked to the ground and pigeons marshalling the grounds waiting for my attention . The cats are much less insistent , both outside in recognition of the sunshine , the house deserted and though one of them follows me round the garden pledging allegiance I know she can't wait for her proper family to return .
At the second house , where there are two quite wicked kittens , mayhem awaits . The cupboard door in the kitchen is open , despite being firmly retaped yesterday , and they have been inside pulling items to the edge as best they were able . No mean feat for a cat . The vegetable baskets are overturned and one of the portraits of the family dog has been hooked off the wall and has flown some distance across the floor . Toys are mangled . They leap at me in delight and as I go into the utility room to collect food and wash dishes , the boy cat nips me playfully on the back of the leg . As I bend to bring out a tin of food I notice him clamber into the sack of cat litter wood chippings and begin to settle himself down ( probably to do what cats do best in cat litter .....) Argh , I scoop him up and tell him he has a properly appointed place for such matters . Later , when I empty the tray , clean it and replace the newspaper which lines it , before I have the chance to fill it with litter , the little girl has jumped aboard and started to produce a very long wee, looking around and blinking proudly at her skill in managing to thwart me where her brother failed . Oh well .
At my fourth house , I am delighted to see that Mr Upstairs is home , though attempting to confuse me by lounging on a leather beanbag downstairs . I am not used to seeing him after day three of a stint , as he tends to get bored and move in with one of the neighbours , but here he is though making it clear by the disdainful look he gives me that he is not welcoming attention . Ms Downstairs is cheery as ever flitting about in front of me and landing on chairs so that she is at the right height for conversation . I am tempted to water the garden , but mindful of the forecast decide to leave till this evening as it is likely to rain anyway . Though I will go out there later in any event as there are raspberries promised , and possibly even a strawberry .
At the final call ( usually I go to her first but as she is alone in the house I wanted to spend more time there today ) there is a sombre feeling as I approach . I know that a young man has died and I can't help noticing a shiny black car parked outside next door and wonder if its connected . Two nights ago as I sat the car outside waiting for a lull in the storm I noticed a solitary seagull on the chimney stack in the pouring rain , keening loudly , seeming highly distressed .
The little cat , also not much more than a kitten , races to the inner door to meet me . I have brought her a little toy white mouse as we have dozens of them at home and her toys seem to have disappeared . She pounces as I throw it then tosses it in the air for herself whilst I organise food and litter tray . We then play hide and seek until she returns to her food and I know her priority is breakfast rather than play .

Safer South Tyneside

Turning the corner on our bikes near the sea front in South Shields , we are confronted by a policeman in uniform and immediately feel guilty for riding on the promenade area , and certain we are about to be given some friendly advice about keeping South Tyneside safe .... but no , he asks have we heard about the Safer South Tyneside community bike stamping event , and invites us round the corner in the environs of Minchella coffee shop where we were planning on stopping , to tip our bikes upside down and have them etched , photographed , and thus logged with the police , very handy should they be stolen . In return for stopping and taking part , we are to be rewarded with a combination lock each . Sounds too good to be true . Whilst I unfasten the decidedly uncool ( Harvey had to remove it when borrowing my bike last week ) bike bag as I don't want the contents all over the footpath , a group of boys approches , one of them sans bike . He explains to the policeman in charge that he has locked the bike over at the " skatey" ( skateboard park ? ) and now he can't get the combination right to unlock it . He

explains which number he put in , how he changed it ( reason for change not given ) and now neither will work . How is it that I know that in weeks to come , when the policemen are long gone , and I am over the other side of the water ( we are a long way from home here , having travelled on the ferry this morning ) that I will be that boy ( figuratively, or do I mean metaphorically , speaking ) wrestling with the lock and a variety of possible combinations rattling through my mind whilst I become increasingly irritable .

The man on the phone is the man calling for assistance to unlock the boy . There is always an answer .....