window

View from the window with the top pf the guinea pig run showing .

Cyril made it last Sunday . He is 82.

Puffin Island today

Puffin island today , the tide in . Everone out walking and cycling today , fishing and photographing .

Richmond

Saturday saw us in Richmond

Friday afternoon

Fabulous Friday , after wierd dreams .
Called at Hexham en route back from Bardon Mill ( work trip ) for coffee in cafe nero and to give L a change to arrive home after work and collecting H from the school bus . After coffee and fruit scone research ( have I mentioned this ?) , tried to get back to my car ( Robbs car park ) down HallstileBank , noting the heatwave as I came out into the sunshine . Police cars everywhere , unusual for Hexham , sleepy market town , but then they were blocking my path and wouldnt let me near the hill down to the car park and I was told I probably wouldnt be able to get my car out either as the road at the bottom was blocked . " An incident " I was told . I thought of my dream and wondered if a knife was involved ....
Took a detour and found my car though it took me a while to escape . Traffic backed up along the A69 into Hexham and getting out was interesting , mainly due to rubbernecks like me trying to figure out where the problem lay and did he have a gun ? It later transpired he did , in Haugh Lane .

Arrived at Laura s expiring with the heat , clad as I was in a jumper and jeans . The road to the farm was cool , dappled with sunshine and with tree branches creating a long green tunnel and I stopped to take some pictures . In the farmyard my new Guinea Pig arc was immediately visible , made for me to order by Cyril who apparently knocked it out on Sunday ( he was bored ) .... it was quite Fabulous and Harvey showed me how the inner sanctum works , though doubts were expressed as to how Hedgehog , the larger of our ladies , will squeeze through . A picture will appear somewhere on the site though at present there is an Issue with pictures on posts ...??

We sit in the garden and talk about missing keys , plot our very own trip to Bravissimo ( not that we're boasting our assets or anything ) and drink green tea whilst watching Laura s guineas in their own arcs , wheezing as they go . Not that they go far . Waste of time getting them fancy runs really as they tend to huddle in the indoor parts unless forced out , but still ....

Dreams

Vivid dreams and very deep sleep , with the house featuring plus some of the other images from yesterday with a smattering of stabbings and men fighting with knives in close proximity to me and the kids , N and her cousins , aged around six and in my care . We were in S Carolina . I had to drive a distance and my SatNav was failing ......

Memories of an occasion years ago when waiting to be served in a fish and chip shop in Ambleside and because we spent most of the summer there were well known with our bikes and the baby trailer we had ( they werent common then ) . A couple came in and were kicking off with the staff and the tension was building and none of us could leave as it would have meant squeezing past them . One of the guys behind the counter caught my eye , looking at the kids and how transfixed they were by the anger and atmosphere , and signalled to me to exit to the kitchens , which I did . Similar tensions . And sparked off by an episode of Six Feet Under ( I'm nearly through season three ) when I was concerned by the number of times actors ( Nate and Ruth ) yell and shout whilst holding babies ( Maia ) , and I wonder about the baby as she looks from person to person trying to figure out whats going on . With an older child actor I suppose you can explain , this is just pretend but not so with a baby . To them feelings are feelings and anger is anger .

One of my regular CatCalls involves occasional weekends twice or thrice a year , and every so often a long stint looking after things whilst the family go away for six weeks for a long haul holiday . We had agreed this time to keep in touch via e mail if they wanted to know how the cats were faring and I had an e mail one morning asking me to confirm the cats were all present and correct as the woman had dreamed that Burt Reynolds had abducted one of the cats and taken him off to a house in a far distant street and when she woke this had seemed so real that she had panicked , possibly worrying that the dream portended some other nightmare scenario . N and I took the camera round and e mailed off some pictures to prove all was well and cat was snoozing as usual in the best chair . The dream she attributed to an excess of seafood . ..

Always a reason for everything , arguably , but sometimes its not that simple .

Thursday morning ....Reduced Hours and Comparative Bums

First day officially of working less hours to make more room for CatCalls , woke to rain and wind but couldnt resist the bike and the ferry landing and the wild sea , and thanks to the new camera and not knowing how to use it discovered several videos of the lashing waves on rocky seashore later this afternoon that I didnt know I had .

Must have coincided with propping myself up on my bike and staring out at the rocks and remembering a time years ago when my cocker spaniel used to chase rats there . No rats now , but a sudden wetness against my bare leg made me jump , a blue roan cocker spaniel being friendly . I must have caught sight of the dog out of the corner of my eye setting off a train of thought , I jumped and the bike almost toppled . The dog gave me a fright and admittedly my first thought was of a rat ......

the challenge now to get one of the videos downloaded to the blog for posterity .....

What a day my first Thursday of not working , anxieties of keys , a trip to the dentist , lunch with N before returning her to school and her friendly counsel about my key anxieties and how I handle them and how I might make Other People feel .... I should listen more to her .

Trip to town to return wrong sized bras ( the last remnants of our weekend ) and a box of art deco mugs from Fenwick Ltd which turned out to have one chipped mug when unpacked . I had vaguely wondered whether there would be an apology for this but .. no .. and I was expected to collect a new box myself ( and check them myself ) .

Oh well , not that I want to sound ninety and like I have nothing better to do with my time than whine about shop assistants . But really . I remind myself of my old Social Admin professor who said , when describing her treatment at the Registrars Office as she attempted to register her father 's death , noting how she had been kept waiting then treated largely with contempt rather than the kindness and respect one hopes at such a time , " Obviously they didnt know who I was ....."

and my unexpected urge to say ".... and who are you ? ... and should it make a difference who you are ? "

Influenced by the ongoing debate in the Sociology Dept at that time possibly , about whether the students should be permitted to use the same lavatories as the lecturers and understanding from a student whose name escapes me now ( how irritating ) , that most of the lecturers were agin , though " Betty was ok with it , and Ann " . I thought it was daring to use their first names as I was fresh from school but still hear her voice as she said in her Accent that was Different from Mine ( I hadnt been far then ) " I mean I said to Kathleen what's so much better about your bum than my bum " and I almost wished I'd had the nerve to propose myself as the student rep so I could take part in these fascinating discussions . Memories .

Blog Administrator....Martha s vineyard etc

For those of you wondering about the Removed Comments and the Blog Administrator , a delightful comment appeared after N had asked to see the blog and I had asked her permission to write about our Bra Day . She was fine with this and even contributed to the post . But the comment although excellent and witty did contain some profanities which though the modern mother accepts that her children know and use many of the same words as her parents ( when under pressure ) seeing them in print is not a comfortable experience . After much deliberation and indeed heart searching about her right to express herself as she saw fit , and indeed two reply comments to that effect , I finally exercised my right to press the delete button , with her agreement that she would write a different comment . I was sad though , to lose the kiss off comment ( isnt that what reviewers call it ? ) which went something like " I love you like fat kids love cake " and know that at least one of the profanities was due to a typo and a very amusing one at that .

Which brings me to the subject of reviews . My friend Michaela thinks I have a career in this field after I wrote a spoof review of her husband Neil's book " Martha's vineyard " ( Neil Griffin : 2006)

Go to http://www.lulu.com/content/607829

Neil had asked me to review the book but made the mistake of asking me several months after I read it and I don't know about you but if I read something last week I'm hazy about the details three hours later .


" I read this great book by Neil and I definitely wondered how Chaela would feel about her husband having relationships extra maritally on planes and in foreign parts and also that he seems to have harboured feelings on a longstanding basis for a colleague . So hey the book must have been dead realistic .
It was also dead good as it made me feel like I was imminently going on holiday / about to win the lottery or have my own inheritance appear out of the blue from a relative Id forgotten I had . There was nice weather as well . ( ??)
There was a clever twist involving a husband and some other people , and Neil got tied to a chair at one point which was dead scary . I read really fast at that point and didnt put the book down sometimes when I should have .... so eager was I for the denoument . "

If you re interested in reading Neil s book , which is excellent by the way , you would do better to read the notes on lulu.com and perhaps dont hold your breath for my (proper) review .
Even better , why not read it yourself and then review for Neil on lulu , as I know he's always looking for feedback . In my case its hard to disentangle the Bob character from the author and I did keep wondering why he picked the name Bob , though Im sure there will be a reason , I just havent had time to ask . The time constraints of modern life .