The Latest From Chilly Worcester...

Hullo... It's another post from Ella

Female servant says that she's got 'blogger's block' at the moment so it's left to me to reassure the world that things are fine in Worcester.  Can you see the cobwebs on my face in this photo?  I got a bit carried away on a 'cupboard safari' last week.  I ended up squeezed behind a drawer, under the work-surface in the darkest corner of the deepest kitchen cupboard.  I can report that female servant has never dusted here.  It made me sneeze!!

 

 

Life has got a bit complicated since my last post.  Some of the local young male cats think that they can just peer at me through the hall window.  I think that's SO RUDE so I've started to glare at them from the lounge window.  This is my irritated face....

 

And here's the 'swishy' tail that goes with it!

At the moment I'm just protecting my indoor territory.  If the servants open the front door when I'm anywhere near, I run away.  Then I prepare to jump on any invaders from a position of strength - such the kitchen doorway.  Female servant has told the neighbours that she thinks I might be a 'swipe first, ask questions later' sort of cat.  She knows me so well!!!

 

The servants had a few days off last week. 

It was nice to have both of them around for fussing AND it was good to see male servant look at bit less tired and stressed.  They went for a few walks and enjoyed the sun.

 

Since January, female servant has been going to the local quilters club meetings.  She started working on a cushion for the 'Chairman's Challenge' while they were on holiday.  She finished it this afternoon.  I think it will look fine once it's got a few cat hairs attached but she's hidden away until the meeting in April....

 

She's used the 'quilt as you go', strip quilting technique.  There's a lot more top stitching than she'd normally do and it seems - from the pleased human squeaks - that she's pleased with herself.

 

I still think it needs 'furring in'!!!

Sending hugs and purrs to everyone.

Stay warm during this cold spell.

 

Ella (and Jx)

I was left!!!!!

Hello... it's Ella again.

Do you realise that I've been with my new servants for six and half weeks??

Female servant hasn't blogged much recently.  I've kept her busy with lots of games and fuss AND she keeps going out to do things.

 

 

Even my cutest 'play with me' expression didn't keep them at home two weeks ago.

This - apparently - was the view from their hotel window in Bristol....

 

They explored the harbour and Clifton Gorge... even though it was raining really badly

(should have stayed at home with me!!)

 

Male servant indulged in a very luxurious hot chocolate in a café in Clifton..

 

Then they explored some of the interesting Victorian side streets...

 

And then they ended up drinking 'Pawn star Martinis' in a bar on Saturday night!!!

 

I didn't enjoy being left alone. 

The lady who fed me lives across the road and she has three cats.  Obviously they could smell me on her clothes.. so they started to stare at me through the window by the front door.  Fortunately Male servant ordered a large parcel and this useful box/vantage point appeared.

 

I gave everyone a VERY HARD STARE

which roughly translates as "Don't even think about going out again!!!"

 

But the following weekend they went to a fancy Sunday lunch at the Worcester Cricket Club..

 

And female servant has been walking masses in a bid to get fitter..

 

I'm just rolling around on the pipes....

 

..And practising my cuddling skills!

 

Female servant says to wish everyone a good week.

She hopes to get her blog back soon!!

 

Projects, Plans and Other Time-Consuming Activities...

 

Here's a recent photo of Thomas.  If cats could speak, he'd be saying

"Mum, please BE QUIET!  Why don't you do something peaceful like a blog post??"

So here's a flavour of what I'm up to...

 

~ There's been lots of instrumental teaching.  I've picked up another harp pupil AND did some coaching for a Year 13 student (which ended last week).  A number of my pupils have also asked for extra time or additional lessons for various reasons.

 

~ I've been asked to learn lots of material on both the harp and the piano so I've had to expand my practice regime.  I'm now starting piano practice at 7.00 each morning (good thing we're detached!!).  My sister and I have got a medium term plan which involves some challenging flute and piano playing, so I need to brush up my technique.  I'm currently re-learning one of the late Beethoven piano sonatas which I studied at Uni. (back in the dark ages!!).  It's hard to explain just how good this makes me feel... but I'm sure that you fellow musicians out there will know what I'm on about!

 

~ We went away for two nights over the May Bank Holiday weekend.  We stayed at the lovely little 'motel style' guest house that we normally use for the Donington Historic Festival.  It's a great set-up for the car and fabulous value for money.   The weather was SO COLD but we still enjoyed the first racing of the season.

 

 

~ My Blue Discovery was finally towed away by the insurance company last week.  Sadly the Silver one also has had to go back to the garage that we bought her from... She has several issues that need to be sorted while she's still under warranty.  To be honest, Mark could fix her.  It's just that he's so busy with work, other jobs at home AND his building/maintenance programme for the Marcos cars.  Unfortunately, dealing with all of this is extremely time-consuming because the Garage where the Silver car is being fixed is over 30 minutes drive away...

 

~ There's been a steady stream of low-level jobs to deal with in the house - Such as the light bulb in the extractor fan popping; small things breaking and the whole boiler system developing a curious resonance in the loft!! (Which was resolved by cleaning all the lime-scale off.........!?)

 

~ AND the tray in the Shower has cracked... leaving a nasty stain on the lounge ceiling.  Grrrr!  'Kevin the Builder' is coming at 12.00 to start the process of removing the old shower and replacing it with a nice non-leaky new one.....

 

Thomas is not going to be impressed by all the mess and dust from this latest disruption!!!

Jx

 

Nice Things and Good Times..

The doorbell rang on the Friday evening of our NEC weekend and our lovely neighbour from across the road handed us a parcel.  "What's this?" said Mark "I don't think I've ordered anything from Australia."  "Ooooh," said I in a very squeaky voice "THAT'S MINE!!"

 

 

...And it was full of fabrics.  A lovely gift from across the blogosphere from Susan at Granny Smith's Quilting (Click on her name to hop across to her blog.  I am in AWE of her quilts.. they are beautiful)

 

Behind the floral fat quarters, Susan tucked these musical designs as a special surprise.

They are fabulous together.  I want to make something for my music teaching spaces, but I can't quite decide what/how yet...

Thank you again Susan - such a lovely and unexpected gift!

 

On the subject of Music - I've just got to the end of my second 'financial year' of private instrumental tuition.  I'm pleased to report that my business is growing more or less as I hoped.

It's all very 'low key' and laid back.. but I'm just about making enough to cover all the household and food bills, plus a very small amount for pocket money for myself.

I think the most important thing is that I'm happy, so my pupils get the best of my enthusiasm too.  I now have four harp pupils, six piano pupils, one violin pupil and some A level coaching.

The best things of all???? No crazy management team and NO OFSTED!

 

And finally... we've found a car to replace the one that was written off in the accident.

(All our cars have names, generally based on their registration plates, so 'Silver Su the Disco 2' is coming to live with us on Friday.  I'm very excited!!)

In addition, we took the Silver Marcos out for a 'post-winter maintenance shake down drive' yesterday afternoon.  She behaved perfectly - which cheered Mark up no end!

Jx

Life's been a bit crazy...

 Last week I had to take a little 'bloggy break'.

There just didn't seem to be enough time to read posts or write anything of my own.

However, I used the time productively...

 

Here are the 'pocket warmers' that I made for elder niece L., specially for those cold Leeds mornings when she's catching the bus to her work placement.  I hope that she'll think of Thomas when she looks at the little sleeping cat!

 

 

I cleared the conservatory (with some help from Mark when it came to the larger bits of furniture!)

 

I made endless cups of tea for our workmen

as the old superstructure came down and the new one was erected.

The new carpet is being fitting this afternoon so I'll do a proper 'new conservatory post' later in the week...

 

When I did Mum and Dad's ironing, I noticed that the napkins they use as table mats in the garden were looking very threadbare.  I found some bright poly-cottons in the stash and started to make some replacements for Mother's Day..

 

 

I collected some wheels for Mark's latest car project.

 

And helped him put them on the car on Friday afternoon.

(We're both SO pleased with the way that they've created the 'modern retro' look that we wanted)

 

THEN... on Saturday afternoon... we were involved in a road accident.

Basically we were travelling past a road junction at 30 mph.

A driver just didn't see us and pulled out into the side of the vehicle.

Fortunately everyone was ok..... but her car has been written off and the damage to ours could be worse than it looks.  The front of her chassis hit our rear passenger wheel and we suspect that the rear axle is no longer correctly aligned.  She's accepted full responsibility for the accident, but we're now into the inconvenience and paper-chase of sorting things out....

 

This week I'm hoping for a few days of 'calmer waters'!!!!

Jx

You Can't Beat...

..a little bit of fabric therapy.

I managed to buy a whole pile of festive fabric from 'Oh Sew Crafty' in Kidderminster.

Some of these 50cm and 100cm pieces were just £2/£3!!

I hope to make a patchwork stocking for every member of the family for next Christmas.

My "Crafting New Year's Resolution" is to schedule 'makes' so that they don't become chores!

 

 

You also can't beat a brisk walk by the River Severn in Worcester on a sunny winter's afternoon.

There's a lovely circuit which takes a path down the back of the racecourse, over the main city centre bridge, back over the footbridge by the rowing club and through an avenue trees to the car park.

 

I guess it must be somewhere between 2 and 3 miles.

Since I've stopped work I try to walk it at least a couple of times a week.

 

It's far more beautiful than the street circuits round the village

- especially in the light of a mid-winter afternoon..

 

While I was walking today I realised that I'd been really daft when I set up another completely new blog for 2017.  Mum's illness is an increasingly important part of my life (and one of the reasons why I didn't post for much of 2016) but essentially my day to day posts haven't changed at all.  So a few tweaks to the header and those explanatory pages at the top should be enough to 'set the scene'.

 

In this house we call these kind of episodes "Blibble Moments".. The rough translation is harmless, but time-wasting, stupidity....!  Do you have similar 'in house phrases'?

Jx

Forgive Me...

I think I've been a little bit stupid!
I started a completely new blog... when all I needed to do was tweak these existing pages.
Duh..................................................................




Give me an hour or so..............................
Jx

Taking a little break....

I'm having some problems with the internet at the moment, which makes it very difficult to read your posts, comment and share my news.  It's getting very frustrating and makes doing anything on the internet a real chore, so I'm going to take a little break for a couple of weeks.

While I'm away...

"Happy Holidays" to all of you who work in education and have just reached the halfway point.

"All the best," to everyone who pops by regularly.

I WILL be back properly once this is sorted.

Jx