August challenge - up to Day 22!

Anddddd another catch up!

How can it be almost a week since I was here.  Well a weekend away (visiting Noah in Nottingham) followed by two days back to back with Nathan (he's got some sort of viral thing going on - he seems generally fine but his temp keeps going up) and since then planning for our extended family holiday!

Planning and doing online shops for all the food takes A LOT OF TIME!  They don't call me Mrs Organised for nothing but I'm not feeling very organised at the moment. But bolognese sauce is prepared for tomorrow night, my ironing is done, shopping orders are placed for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday sooooo a few moments free to be here.

Apologies in advance for not catching up with you.  It's been a whirlwind week and next week (starting tomorrow) will be family time.  Also the wifi at the house isn't great.  I have to find just the right spot to keep on top of the shopping orders.  However the weather forecast is looking good and all my grandbabies will be there so what's not to like?

Right now, Day 17 of the challenge was: Picnic.  Here is a picnic bar:

Picture taken from Tea & Sympathy blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have never eaten a picnic bar.  It contains nuts.  I am not allergic to nuts, I just don't like the texture of them and try to avoid them.  Even those wrapped in delicious chocolate.

I also possess one of those lovely picnic baskets - the sort that hold your plates and cutlery etc in place and has space for your food.  I don't have time to take a picture.  Trust me, it exists.

Day 18 was "My Hands"

There - done!

Day 19 was "Movement"

That was Monday.  I certainly moved - here's the evidence:

Day 20 was "Two"

Well I could be artful and repeat my two hands but instead I'll give you my two feet!

Hmm not a pretty sight but I'm trying to get this done as fast as I can and at least I can take my feet together.

Day 21 was "Right Now"

Well of course that was yesterday.and I didn't take one photo yesterday but let's pretend this was then and not today

Well someone had to drink the wine that wasn't needed for the bolognese sauce!

Today's prompt (22nd) is "Clouds"

I think I was in the Olympic park when I took this.  It was a couple of years ago.

Woo hoo all caught up!

My plan was to prepare the posts for the next week in advance and have them scheduled to appear on the relevant day.  I'm now working on Plan B - another catch up in a week's time!

August Challenge - catch up!

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.

For full details go here.
 
I said at the start I would be doing this challenge my way so today we have 3 days in 1.

Wednesday ran away with me and yesterday I did an extra day with Nathan as he's been a little unwell this week so couldn't go to nursery. By the time I got home I just wanted to chill in front of the TV after dinner.

So here's the catch up:

Day 14 - Favourite smell

I have lots of favourite smells including food cooking, chocolate (of course), babies, flowers, but for my photo here's the perfume I usually wear:

Day 15 - Intentions

Another hard one to photograph. I started the year with another list of intentions so here's the logo for that. Full details and updates can be found by clicking here.

Day 16 - Number

I love numbers. Maths was my favourite subject and I still love doing number puzzles. But this year my focus has been on this number.

Or actually not. Big birthdays are just that, a number.

And now I'm up to date.   Prompt #17 tomorrow.

August Challenge - Days 12 & 13

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.

For full details go here.

Well I said at the start I would be doing this challenge my way so that includes putting two days together! We were looking after Nathan yesterday and were invited to stay for dinner.

Stay for dinner / Go home and cook a dinner we hadn't even shopped for?

That was a no brainer. We stayed but of course that meant we got home a lot later and I was too tired to blog.

Anyway, yesterday's prompt was "5 things About Me" and today's prompt is "Last Year".

I'm not good at promoting myself and hard to think of things I haven't mentioned before but here goes:

1) I'm all about family and this is mine:




2) My favourite colour is blue, there is a lot of blue in my wardrobe and of course I love to wear jeans. I'm all about comfort when it comes to clothes. Despite what you might think there was no memo sent around to wear blue for the family shot above, it just turned out that way!

3) I love to dance but my body has other ideas these days, especially my knees. I was wearing this, about this time last year after a nasty fall and my knee still isn't quite the same.





4) I'm paranoid about developing dementia/Alzheimers so I try to keep my brain busy with puzzles, crosswords etc. Here are some I did yesterday:





There are a couple of crossword clues still eluding me!

5) My favourite season is spring. I love it when the clocks go forward and we start getting longer days, the weather gets better but not too hot and the garden starts coming into bloom.

Now as for last year, apart from the knee incident above it was pretty good. Actually it was really good - these two joined the family giving me a hat trick of grandsons:








And today it's 3 years since these two tied the knot:




Happy days!

August Challenge - Day 11

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.

For full details go here.

Today's prompt is "hopes".

Hmm how do you photograph hope once let alone more than once?

A bit of lateral thinking and waffle needed here!

Of course I'm sure we all have hopes and dreams.  Photos to match? Well here we go:

Our wedding day back in June 1984.  We all hope we've got the right partner on our wedding day and although we might look a bit different now, 35 years on, I think we got it right!
 

 

We also hoped for children and they came along in rapid succession - we had 3 in just under 4 years and they certainly kept us on our toes.

But look how well they turned out:
 

They've done us proud and of course they've all made us Grandparents.  Something else we hoped for.

Hopefully at our family gathering at the end of the month we'll be able to update our staircase photo.  This is last year's:

Drumroll please! (And August Challenge day 10)

Why the need for a drumroll?  Well according to my post list, this will be the 1000th blog post here on blogger!

Goodness.  How can so much waffle come out of one person?

Interestingly I have just been scrolling back through some posts (I was looking for a picture) and it was good to revisit some memories.  It wasn't until I came back to prepare this post that I realised it was going to be #1000.

Although it's just a number (as I keep telling myself having had a big 0 birthday this year).

I was looking for a picture of an outfit as that's the prompt for today's August Photo Challenge.  Sorry but you're not getting a selfie of my current outfit which is still my nightdress!  Time flies when you're blogging.  I was up before 8 but I put the kitchen to rights first, then made some tea and then sat down with my laptop. (And I'm still here lol)

I'll get dressed at some point and the most important thing about the outfit for the day will be comfort!  That's what matters these days.  Gone are the working days when I had to look smart thank goodness.  Now I can wear what I please.

But to fulfill the challenge for the day here is an outfit:

It was the outfit I had for my eldest son's wedding back in 2016.  Funny what you find when scrolling back through blogs!  The shoes did not make it through the whole day and I don't think I've worn them since.  We're doing a jumble trail (yard sale) again in September.  I think they will be included in my items to sell.

I also found the post I wrote just after the brexit referendum.  It's depressing to think that over 3 years on and we've still not left and are no clearer on what Brexit will actually mean for this country.  The political situation just gets more farcical by the day.

I understand that, as a country, we (although not me) voted to leave and that decision should be respected.  However, I don't feel we had enough information at the time to make an informed decision.  Sometimes we have to admit to making mistakes and retrace our steps.  Unfortunately it seems unlikely that will happen (as in a 2nd referendum) and frankly if it did and we were to remain in the EU I don't think we would hold as much power within it as we've had before.  The other 27 countries must be sick of us by now.

Right now it's looks like we are definitely heading for leaving on the 31st October without a deal.  The trouble is most of us don't understand what that will actually mean in the day to day scheme of things.  How will it affect us?  Will there be issues with getting goods into shops, continuity of medical supplies etc?  I've just been reading this article by the BBC on this.  Might need to stock up on canned fruit and veg.  And not travel anywhere.

Of course we will survive this.  Hopefully in time to come we might even be able to look back and laugh about it.  But right now it doesn't seem funny at all.  And while we might have laughed at Boris Johnson in the past with all his gaffes and the jokes made about him, we not laughing about him now.

I think we just have to hope that in this current game of calling one's bluff, the EU blinks first!

August challenge - Day 9

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.

For full details go here.

Today's prompt is "ground"

Well I was going to take a picture of my feet on the ground but it's raining, hard. So here is the ground:

You can just about make out my fairy lights at the bottom of the garden.

August Challenge - Day 8

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.
 
For full details go here.

Today's prompt is "curved".

 

There you go.  Lots of curves.  This is a lovely wooden toy that my Grandson Nathan has.  Apparently it's full of possibilities most of which I'm yet to discover.

It makes a good ornament too with all its colours.

I will admit to stealing that photo from the internet. But not this one:

(Although I might have stolen it from his parents.)  Interesting hat?

August Challenge - Day 7

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.
For full details go here.

Today's prompt is "human".

Ok well I'm human so I thought I'd take a selfie and post it but I'm rubbish at doing that and I'm definitely not looking my best today and yes if that makes me vain then I must be human.  Anyway you can have these pics instead of my 3 favourite little humans!

Nathan

Noah

Rory

 

 

 

August Challenge Day 6

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.

For full details go here.

Today's prompt is "currently reading".




Actually it's what I'm about to read as I've just finished a book and this is my next read, courtesy of my library.

Although if you check out my Goodreads page (here) it shows me currently reading The Complete Works of Jane Austen, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Neither of which is strictly true. I've read Pride & Prejudice from the complete works but have yet to try any of the other Austen books. I started Wuthering Heights so long ago that I'd have to restart it now rather than just continue.

Both of these are part of the BBC reading challenge that I started a long time ago. Since then I joined a couple of online book clubs and I've also been making more use of my library. Part of me wants to get through the challenge but part of me knows that some books will probably defeat me. Actually quite a lot might fall into the DNF (Did not finish) category. But I've managed 40 out of the 100. I guess part of me feels that although I read a lot, I'm not necessarily "well read" particularly in terms of classics. As I get older though that seems less important. Although it does help with the odd quiz or crossword question and I do love a good quiz/crossword.

Thankfully all my kids like to read although none of them probably get a lot of time for it. Hubby also likes to read and his choices are often more challenging than mine. I sometimes try out books he's read but I'm happier to put them aside as DNF if they don't keep my attention. There is also a group of us from his extended family that update each other on a monthly basis on the books we've read and that's a good way to get recommendations.

However much I read though, my TBR pile(s) never seem to get any smaller!

August Challenge - Day 5

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.
For full details go here.

Today's prompt is citrus. 

I actually took that photo!  Just now!  I happened to have half a lemon in my fridge and fortunately it hadn't been there long enough to warrant moving to the compost bin!  (Hmm probably too many exclamation marks.)

I can't remember what I cooked that required lemon juice but there you go.  A genuine citrus fruit and a genuine photo.  Not bad going considering I am absolutely shattered.  After the weekend with Rory it was back to Nathan today.  Which included a trip to the park and a very slow walk back.  Fortunately I had Grandpa with me too.  Navigating Nathan walking with his backpack harness and pushing the buggy can be a challenge on my own.

I'll spare you any further waffle for today.  I'm off for an early night.  Tomorrow I'm aiming for a lie in.  Rory is now safely in the US on route to visit his other grandparents and Nathan is at nursery tomorrow so no grandsitting duties for me.  I think I've earned a break.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get around to visiting some blogs and responding to comments I've had.  Goodnight.
 

August Photo Challenge catch up - Day 4

The idea of this challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the prompts.

For full details go here.

Well of course I'm already behind!  Friday I was babysitting Nathan and since then we've (hubby & I) been looking after Rory.  He is exhausting!  He's lovely.  He eats well, he sleeps well, 10 hours undisturbed but going to bed at 7 pm means he is awake, for the day, at 5 AM!  I had to be there at 6.15 am yesterday and then with a 5 am start today I'm feeling a bit weary.

Anyway back to the challenge: 

Friday's prompt was pink!  I have a pictures of smething pink!  One of my new rosebushes.

Ok it was taken a few weeks ago and there aren't any flowers on it now but it was very pretty while it was in bloom.  I have quite a few pink flowers and purple and red.  When my current gardner took over  her initial response was, it's very yellow, and white, and of course green.  and it was.  But thankfully not any more.

Yesterday's prompt was lines.  My immediate response was to think of lines set by teachers as a form of punishment.  Fortunately I don't remember having to do any so no photos of those.  I was a goody  two shoes at school.  I have more to do with railway lines.  But I don't have a photo of those either.  What I do have is a photo of some tramlines so that will have to do.  This was taken in Melbourne on our Australian trip in 2017.

 
Today's prompt is buttons.  So many buttons in our lives these days.  Of course a lot of them are referred to as keys but we still have to press them so I'll think of them as buttons.  On our phones, our computers, in our cars, around the house.  When we're out and about.  We pressed a few today while out with Rory.  Up and down in lifts with the buggy.

Look at that little face.  So like his Mummy.  He presses all the right buttons!

August Challenge - Day 1

Yep another challenge but I'm definitely doing this one my own way.

I noticed this one recently on Janet's blog.  For full details go here.

The idea of the challenge is to post a photo a day during August in response to the following prompts:



Well..... you all know how good I am at taking photos! NOT.

However, my blogging has dropped off again and I want to get back on track.  Prompts help with that, even if I do go off at a tangent.

Like today.  Morning light.  Well it wasn't very light when I got up at 2am although at 4am there was definitely more light around.  Yes I'm not a great sleeper most nights.  I did then manage 4 hours of sleep waking just before 8.  But at that point I'd forgotten about this challenge so wasn't prepped and ready with the camera.  It was a bit grey outside as well so not the best morning light to photo.

I'm more of an evening light person anyway so if sunset was on the list I'd be laughing.  But evening light is not on the list so I might have to be creative somewhere along the days.  (I have photos of sunsets previously stored away if I need to cheat!)

Talking of which, this is what my pic would have looked like:

Yes this is one I made earlier!  Definitely not today - today the window is open.  Although it's actually cooler and we had the duvet on last night for the first time in what seems ages.

We Brits do obsess about the weather!  When it's cold and wet we want it to be hot and sunny, then when we get what we asked for we complain about being too hot!  Although I'm thankful not to have been in the areas that have flooded this week.  Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.

Today I'll probably be wishing for more hours in the day.  I have a few things on the (maybe) to do list and then I'm off to babysit Grandson Nathan.  Hopefully his Mummies won't be too late back as I'm off to Grandson Rory very early tomorrow morning.  Rory's parents are off to a child free wedding for the weekend.  Rory definitely likes an early start.  If today had been tomorrow I definitely would have been able to catch the morning light.  Oops, wishing my life away now!

There you have it, day 1 of waffle and a picture.  We'll see how this goes.  (By the way don't go looking for my posts on Instagram or the Facebook page for this, they won't be there.  Dealing with one social media platform at a time is enough for me.)