Quiet Voice

You know there are times when I feel like a school teacher- forever having to ask LL to use his 'quiet voice' in that particular patient tone teachers employ. Other times all he wants to do is make things in clay*, "just like Daddy." Today was a bit of both with excess noise through the middle and peaceful, creative fun later. As for the morning, that was taken up with learning to swim butterfly stroke.

Although never referred to as "Nana" this apron was one of mum's favourites for the little guy and has proved very useful over the years. Still fits just.















*Real potter's stoneware clay, not plastercine or play-dough. Thankfully at present he's not too fussed about getting it fired.

4,500

Today some 4,500 beacons are being lit across the planet, in Commonwealth countries to mark the Queen's 60 year reign. These are being ignited at 10pm local time, with the first lit in Tonga, followed by New Zealand and Australia*. The final beacon will be lit tonight at around 10.30pm BST in London by Her Majesty at the end of a free concert in her honour.

Sadly it was announced shortly before the concert that the Queen's husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh had been taken ill and would not be at the Queen's side. It is expected he will spend a few days in a nearby hospital.



*It's always refreshing to see a staunch Republican like Aussie Prime Minister Julia Gillard having to acknowledge and pay tribute to Royalty LOL.

Long To Rain* Over Us

Wouldn't you know it- public holiday in the UK and it's chilly and raining! What happened to all the glorious weather we were enjoying last weekend? I'm seriously thinking about having to put the central heating back on for a bit.

Loving all the repackaged items currently in the shops, just in time for the Jubilee and Olympics.












* "God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen
God save the Queen
Send her victorious
Happy and glorious
Long to reign over us
God save the Queen"

I guess you might conclude I'm a bit of a Royalist at heart...

Pageant

LL and I took a trip to Henley on Thames today with a view to walking along the tow path into town and take in the sights of all the street decorations. Instead we arrived (by chance) just in time to experience the river pageant. Not the official river Thames pageant with the royal family at the head of the procession but a somewhat more amateur affair. It was a whole a lot of fun anyway.

Here's a selection of images I captured from our vantage point on the bridge...

Oh and happy 700th blog post to me!

Cuppa

What better way to start celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend? Cheers!

How Big?

Think we got a bit carried away while strawberry picking this weekend.

"You won't get that one in the car, son."

At Last

Temperatures in my little part of England finally exceeded 25 degrees Celsius (around 77 degrees Fahrenheit)- yea! It was a bit of a shock leaving the nice air conditioned office at 3.30 I can tell you. I'm now working in the middle of the office so no outside windows. Wasn't too much of a struggle to stop at ASDA on my home to pick up two litres of Cornish Ice Cream mmm.

Looks like summer might actually be on it's way (about time) although we do have a double public holiday for Her Majesty's Jubilee coming up, so you can bet cool weather and rain can't be far off LOL!

G8

Our leaders took time out on Saturday night from trying to fix the world economy (or whatever it is they think they were doing) to watch the European Champions League football final. That's the football played with a round ball. English team Chelsea were taking on the might of Germany's Bayern Munich.

British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) looks rather pleased, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be rather concerned. Not at all sure who the fella in the middle was rooting for.












I'm just so pleased to see they had their priorities right: that saving western economies from going bung wasn't quite as important as spending 90 plus minutes watching a bag of air being chased around a pitch by a bunch of over-paid pretty boys LOL.

For anyone not interested in world finance, the score at the end of 90 minutes being one each and penalties being used to decide the outcome. The final score was Chelsea 4 - 3 Bayern Munich.

Ma'am

What better way to celebrate the Queen's reign than with the original and best yeast extract product in the world?

Weak willed fool that I am, I couldn't say no in the supermarket. Suppose I could put it down to being patriotic, I guess.

Winter- The Sequel

Apparently it's been snowing in Staffordshire today.

Isn't it supposed to be Spring by now?

Brooklyn

No I'm not off on my travels again just yet. But just look what I found by chance in a local supermarket:

Readers of long standing will recall that I love this imported beer. It's just that I don't seem to be able to locate it that frequently and in fact I suspect the last time was possibly in 2007. That's far too long to wait. At £1.80 (about AU/US $2.90) per bottle they're a tad pricey but come on, it would have been rude to refuse wouldn't it? LOL

Three Visitors

It's not often I come home to see anything more interesting than say a pigeon or blackbird sitting on my roof. Yesterday evening was one such rare occasion when something vaguely "exotic" stops by; lucky I had my camera to hand. See if you can work out what they are...

Do you think the one on the left had fallen out with the other two?

Isn't he/she lovely?











Any bird lovers want to tell me what they were?