A few nice things.
Not too busy lately, but I did manage to get out yesterday, to see that the winter aconites were in full bloom (no photo, I'm afraid), and that there was a wren living in the little park across the road from me. I wonder where it nests?
The terrible pain in the diodes all down my left side has decreased enough to not be a problem any more, although I notice it increases nastily if I lift anything heavy. I went on a little shopping spree in John Lewis and bought yarn, needles, and one of those wheat-bag warming pad things that you heat in a microwave. It's very useful and soothing, and I had been using it for a couple of days before it occurred to me that I could have made one of my own for practically nothing. One I'd made myself wouldn't make my microwave smell of lavender, either. I also bought myself some scent; Roger et Gallet's Bois d'Orange for daytime (orangey and woody, pretty much what it says on the tin) and as a special expensive treat Guerlain's Jicky for special (beautifully soft vanilla/lavender/lemon - makes me smell like a big fat lemon cheesecake. In a good way). I've been reading an excellent book on perfumes, Perfumes; the A-Z Guide, by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. This is mainly a fascinating list of several thousand perfumes, with idiosyncratic descriptions of each. I don't always agree with their verdicts, but they are very entertaining to read, and I ended up buying my own copy after borrowing it from the library. They describe one of the g-d's favourites, Lancome's O Oui as something similar to an ice-cream headache, which is about right in my opinion.
I also recieved a surprise (god)mother's day present from the g-d - Servants of the Supernatural; The Night Side of the Victorian Mind, a book about early spiritualists, from my Amazon wish-list, with a sweet little note. Quite brought a lump to my throat...
I've been planting seeds and making stuff, but the only thing I've finished so far is this little version of H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu as a present for my brother. He is, for anyone unfamiliar with these rather overwritten stories, a dreadful undersea demon-creature (cthulhu, not my brother), but this is the cuddly stuffed version. Look at his adorable little tentacles! You can't see his little wings in this picture, alas.
The terrible pain in the diodes all down my left side has decreased enough to not be a problem any more, although I notice it increases nastily if I lift anything heavy. I went on a little shopping spree in John Lewis and bought yarn, needles, and one of those wheat-bag warming pad things that you heat in a microwave. It's very useful and soothing, and I had been using it for a couple of days before it occurred to me that I could have made one of my own for practically nothing. One I'd made myself wouldn't make my microwave smell of lavender, either. I also bought myself some scent; Roger et Gallet's Bois d'Orange for daytime (orangey and woody, pretty much what it says on the tin) and as a special expensive treat Guerlain's Jicky for special (beautifully soft vanilla/lavender/lemon - makes me smell like a big fat lemon cheesecake. In a good way). I've been reading an excellent book on perfumes, Perfumes; the A-Z Guide, by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. This is mainly a fascinating list of several thousand perfumes, with idiosyncratic descriptions of each. I don't always agree with their verdicts, but they are very entertaining to read, and I ended up buying my own copy after borrowing it from the library. They describe one of the g-d's favourites, Lancome's O Oui as something similar to an ice-cream headache, which is about right in my opinion.
I also recieved a surprise (god)mother's day present from the g-d - Servants of the Supernatural; The Night Side of the Victorian Mind, a book about early spiritualists, from my Amazon wish-list, with a sweet little note. Quite brought a lump to my throat...
I've been planting seeds and making stuff, but the only thing I've finished so far is this little version of H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu as a present for my brother. He is, for anyone unfamiliar with these rather overwritten stories, a dreadful undersea demon-creature (cthulhu, not my brother), but this is the cuddly stuffed version. Look at his adorable little tentacles! You can't see his little wings in this picture, alas.