Weekly photos 31/5/26

It's been a while since I just did a photo post and quite a few pictures that I've taken have already appeared on posts so here are a few that haven't already made it to the blog.

The pigeons spotted me taking this photo and they actually stayed really still for what seemed like ages.

Not brilliantly clear from this photo but most of the feeders are quite empty - again!  I only filled them 2 days before I took this picture.  The birds and squirrels seem very hungry at the moment.

Cousins!

These were taken back at the Highams Park Spring Fair.  They were sculpted with a chainsaw.  There is a whole trail around Highams Park featuring animals carved by the same artist which I blogged about here.

Progress on the cinema site.  The front of the original cinema is being retained and the redevelopment will include a 2 screen cinema and flats.  The site had stood empty for so long that it's good to see works finally taking place.

And say hello to the new cygnets.  There are 6 this year and they're just over 2 weeks old.

#SoCS - 30/5/26 - Impress

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “impress” Use it as a verb, use it as a noun, use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Well one thing that does impress me is the people who blog regularly, some even every day, and come up with prompts for challenges like Linda who blogs here and comes up with our #SoCS prompt every week.  She also does a One Liner Wednesday and is behind the Just Jot it January challenge which is a huge undertaking.

I also take part in the Wednesday Hodgepodge hosted by Joyce here and I try not to miss Friday's Fave Fives which Susanne hosts here.

Of course there are lots of blog hops that it's quite easy to find one for every day of the week but I do like to be a little bit original if I can.  One of the reasons I love the A-Z challenge that takes place in April is that it makes me blog every day but also allows me to come up with my own posts.  The team behind that challenge, which has been running since 2010 are very impressive.

Blogging every day is sometimes a challenge too far for me though.  I have done better this year, trying to have a blog hop or a theme running for every day of the week.  I had a think about what sort of posts I wanted to do and how the week would look and came up with the following:

Sunday would be looking back on the photos I'd taken in the previous week.

Monday would just be me waffling on like I usually do, probably with a weekend recap or something that I hoped readers might find worth reading.

Tuesday is the News day - trying to pick out interesting pieces of news locally, internationally, items relating to sports and entertainment and then either a feel good story or something quirky.

Wednesday is Hodgepodge Day

Thursday is something book related

Friday is the Fave Five of the week and then

Saturday is of course #SoCS.

Yep, something for every day.  Sounds impressive.  The reality is somewhat less.  For starters I am rubbish at taking photos.  Not when I actually take them - I usually try to get a decent photo.  No the problem is remembering to take them.  Things happen and I think I should have taken a photo of that but then the moment is gone.  Of course I could just take a picture of my dinner every day like a lot of Instagrammers seem to do but as my only input to that would be the eating of said meal (Hubby does the cooking here) that didn't seem right.  I do try and think of a good pic now and again but I definitely haven't made that habit stick, yet!

As for the news, well that has been quite depressing for such a long time really so some weeks it's been hard to find stories that are a bit more uplifting.

The other days have been a bit easier but I don't always do well on the #SoCS front.  The problem I find with #SoCS is that there are a lot of authors and poets who take part and they write impressive posts and I look at mine and think that's a bit trite so I don't always link them to Linda's page.  

And then of course throw in a visit from my son and his family, down from Nottingham for a few days, which then involves my daughter and her family coming here too and blogging gets put on the back burner.  I was AWOL for a whole week!

Still I'm here today and I will link to Linda's site as I think I've used the prompt word a few times at least.

Happy weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five - 29/5/26

Phew it's been a week!  Yep a week since I last posted but Friday means looking back on the good things in the week and then sharing with others here at our host Susanne's site.

1)  Firstly lots of family time this week - our son and his family arrived late last Friday and stayed until Wednesday - the kids were on half-term break.  That also meant we saw a lot of my daughter and her family - the cousins do love to get together.

2)  Afternoon tea at the Oblix restaurant which is on the 32nd floor of The Shard building in central London.  My DIL Amy couldn't make it to my daughter's 40th birthday party so the three of us had our own little celebration last Saturday.

The birthday girl.

This building is Chapter London Bridge which houses student accommodation, complete with a rooftop bar and a sky garden.  It's right next to London Bridge station with excellent transport options.

The Shard.  We were a long way up!  With great views.

We had sandwiches to start and then warm scones that were so light.  Of course we had the usual jam or cream first debate. (Cream for Rebecca and me, Jam for Amy.)  And then those lovely little cakes.  And of course lots of choices for tea.  It was all very filling!

3)  Sunday lunch with all of us together at The Royal Forest Hotel in Chingford.

4)  Today it has been cooler.  Still in the high 20s C but much more comfortable than the temperatures we had at the weekend.  We went from below average temps for the time of year to record breaking temps on Monday, which was a holiday here.  The previous record was 32.8C but the new high recorded on Monday was 35.1C.  It felt too hot to do anything other than sit by a fan and wish we had air conditioning.  Today though with it being a bit cooler I managed to catch up on some housework and washing.  Much needed after having family here.

5)  Thankful that we can afford to keep the bird feeders topped up.  Like everything else the food is more expensive but I do enjoy watching the birds on the feeders and the two cheeky squirrels that really like the sunflower hearts and pumpkin seeds.  Actually the pumpkin seeds were a bonus from the Foodbank.  We get all sorts of odd things in our deliveries sometimes, including recently boxes of small packets of pumpkin seeds.  Not a lot of demand for those from our beneficiaries so volunteers were invited to take some.  The squirrels emptied the feeder in no time!

Looking forward to a quieter weekend now.  It's lovely having the grandchildren and family here but with early starts and disturbed sleep with the heat  I'm ready for a rest!  Have a good weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five - 22/5/26

Friday means taking a pause and finding the good things in the previous week and then linking up here on our host Susanne's site.

1)  Firstly I'm extremely thankful that our car didn't get stolen last night as Hubby had left the keys in the car!  He was obviously in the process of locking the steering lock because that's where the keys were and he must have got distracted.  Anyway thankfully no harm done.

2) A couple of get togethers this week - Knit and Natter on Tuesday and the evening book group on Wednesday.  Always nice to get out and socialise with other people.

3)  Dry weather last Sunday for the Highams Park Spring Festival.  It clouded over at one point and was quite blustery but the rain held off until the early evening and it was a good day for the local community.  We also raised over £400 for the Foodbank.

4)  For the last few weeks we've had 3 or 4 students helping out at the Foodbank from a nearby Special Ed school.  They are all between 16-18 and each one has a member of staff with them and I think they've all enjoyed their time with us.  I'm grateful that we can give schools the opportunity to visit and help out at the Foodbank.  Also grateful for a local group that stepped in with a donation to replace one of our freezers that had stopped working last week.  The new one arrived on Tuesday and we were up and running with it by Thursday.

5) Dry, sunny and very hot weather forecast for this weekend which is a bank holiday weekend (no work on Monday for most people).  In fact they're forecasting that the temperature may be record breaking - it will be over 30 degrees.  (The record is 32.8° C.)  The washing is on the line and the garden furniture uncovered and ready to use.  My son and his family are arriving tonight for a few days.  All good here.

Have a good weekend all.