How does my garden grow?

Organically I like to think. In other terms I let the weeds grow into nice mature plants, some of which flower. There are a couple that I do have to get rid of like the brambles and the bindweed. The bindweed is a nightmare but it does have pretty trumpet-like flowers. I don’t use any chemicals in the garden but the snails and slugs are an issue – I’m hoping the next door neighbours’ frogs from their pond will eat them all. Since studying I have really been out in the garden but I am a very seasonal gardener – when the sun is shining I might tackle it once or twice in the summer. Buying new plants and planting them out is a joy. Winter garden is a no-no but luckily because the weather in the UK is normally so wet in the winter, there is no reason to go out in to the garden. As you can imagine by spring everything has gone a bit mad.

One of the best things about moving into a house owned by an elderly person (apart from the fact that no-one will mentioned if they went into a ‘home’ or died in the house!), is that the garden is normally full of lovely plants and flowers. Every spring there is tons of bluebells and tulips popping up everywhere and the best of all are the peonies. I just love these bright pink huge blooms that appear every year and they don’t take any looking after (I’m sure there a few gardeners out there disagreeing with this as I’m sure they do need some looking after). I have three of these and if we ever move again I’m taking them with me! An odd thing about buying a house from an elderly person is the fact they always have a greenhouse and various sized sheds. One of these sheds is always situated by the kitchen, so from the kitchen window all you get to see is the shed. At least with my wild garden it does encourage all the wildlife into the garden like bees and butterflies to robins and fat wood-pigeons.

Blogging to make money

Apparently I can make money from blogging – according to this article. I can’t imagine making money from this – why would I get paid for it these ramblings. But the article does say that it would have to be a niche blog to attract advertisers or pay-for-click views. My thoughts are definitely not niche! And I don’t think I would ever want adverts on my blog, they would just clutter up the webpage.

I wonder what my niche blog could be about – music, ice skating, web design, my beloved iPod, running. Now I’ve been on various niche running blogs for inspiration, they must make money from advertising sports clothing (not that I can remember). News blogs – this one could be easy, subscribe to a press release site, copy and paste the important info, job done and then wait for the advertisers to come. Unless you are a writer and would like to do this full time and don’t care who comments in it then it would be a great job. But will it stop being fun, gone of the days of writing what came into your head that day or how something made you happy, sad, annoyed, laugh. If you were being paid for it or needed the money to pay the bills then it might just became like any other stressed job. Also the Christmas party would be rather dull in the virtual world.

De-cluttering an office

Our company is moving office soon – into a smaller one, so a major de-cluttering is going on. Our office in London has lost a few staff over the years (not really lost as I know where most of them are!) so it’s similar to downsizing like couples moving into a retirement flat from a four-bed house. The amount of IT stuff that I have recycled or throw away is amazing. Ten years of hoarding by the IT company that we use for major IT issues – I have cleared out over 20 power cables, bits and pieces of servers, Windows 95 disks, cables that I’m not even sure what they are for and as everything is working I don’t think the company will ever need them!

Another odd thing about clearing out an office is the amount of stuff colleagues leave behind once they have left the company. Ranging from the usual paperwork that has been there for the past six months and no one has looked at it to vitamins, face creams, shoes and bags. Some people leave and clear out everything while others leave their desks and drawers like they aren’t really leaving, maybe they are in denial that they are really going. I’m sure I will write more about this over the next week or so – what a joy that will be for me and you.

The school run and playing outside

I thought I would write something more political today but decided Gordon Brown was too boring so rising fuel costs it is. I can understand why the haulage companies were in protest yesterday at rising costs of fuel and road tax. If they stopped making their deliveries then supermarkets would have empty shelves and there would be limited supply on all other goods. The thing that got me about this was hearing from families who couldn’t afford luxuries anymore because of petrol costs. I’m sure half the problem is that no one walks their kids to school anymore or let them when old enough to walk to school. My mum can’t drive so when I was small she would walk me and my brother to school. When I was a secondary school I would meet up with friends and all of us would walk together. It’s a shame that most children nowadays won’t get these small pieces of freedom as parents are too scare to let them walk on their own or send them to schools miles away from home.

The other day I watched a programme on the BBC called Child of Our Time about 25 children all born in 2000 and the programme is following their progress in life and how different everyone lives. I only watched the first 30 minutes but it revealed that only about 2 or 3 children were allowed to play outside and only a few are walked to school by their parents. I was really lucky that I lived in a time when playing outside was all that I wanted to do – there was a big group of us from the ’street’. We played outside in summer months until the sunset. Games like British Bulldog, Tim Tam Tommy, French Cricket. Riding our bikes up and down the pavements, roller skating, skipping, football. I get such fond memories from these days and it’s a shame that most children won’t ever have days like these. Their memories will most probably been computer games and who had the better car at the school gates.

Writers block

There are just some days when I just can’t think of anything to write on my blog. Going for a run sometimes helps with ideas but today that didn’t happen. Doing thirty minutes of homework didn’t either. That just depressed me as I’m too tired to think straight and writing a critique about the past three lessons just didn’t do it for me this evening. I will make some time for this exercise tomorrow lunchtime. The studying is going well, I’m getting more in to a process with it now – taking notes, highlighting important areas and recapping on certain parts during the course of the day. It’s quite hard getting back in to studying when I haven’t done anything like this for about 12 years. Fitting it in to my day is hard as well – if I worked part-time (but got paid for full-time!) would make it a dream and then I can be like all the other Open University students who are on Lesson 7 already (we are only meant to be on Lesson 4 at the moment).

Sometimes I wish I went to university and then I would have been used to studying and coursework plus the social life looks excellent. But then again I wonder what I would have done at uni at the age of 18, most probably not Web Design (my school at the time only had about 5 PCs and no internet). My two goals at the moment are running the 5K race for life as oppose to walking it and passing this course. Finishing this course will determined if I go on to do another OU course – points make prizes or a degree in about 7 years from the Open University. Running 5k won’t make me decide to run a marathon but I will keep the running up so I can run 5K with ease. Everyone needs goals and look how I managed to write a post after having no idea what to write about. Talk about proper Essex ramblings!

The great British weather

Ah, there is nothing like a bank holiday for the great British weather to come in to its own – driving rain and a cold, brisk wind for a bank holiday Monday. For the past two days in the Essex area it has been dull, miserable, cold, wet and very windy. Driving conditions today were dangerous and that was just on the local roads – I would have hated to be on the motorway on a day like today. It feels more like October outside than May. Then again it’s not as bad as the cyclone that happened in Burma and the tornadoes that are sweeping across Midwestern US.

I remember the hurricane that hit the south-east of England back in 1987 – it was at night and I remember the wind howling at my bedroom window. In those days, we didn’t have double glazing so the noise of the wind was deafening. I could feel the house moving as a tree in our back garden was up-rooted. I also remember my parents getting up to see if me and my younger brother were OK. By the morning, the wind had died down and the best bit about it was that school was shut. Outside on our street was tons of debris from trees and general rubbish. A collapsed garage was of most interest to us kids who were allowed out to investigate what had happened. Unfortunately, as the news unfolded 18 people were killed that night, but when you are 14 all you want to do is play with your friends and count how many trees had fallen over at the local country park.

All Coloured-Out

On this miserable, dull Sunday, I have spent most of my time studying colour for websites. From colour blindness, illusions, the colour wheel and the list goes on. Surprisingly there is a lot to learn about colour. As I’ve always enjoyed art and design at school and college, I hope I’ve got a good idea of colours that go together to give a harmonious look. But when you are studying for a course, they have specific rules that I have to follow to get to my chosen look for when I have to design a website. Part of the lesson was also about how the eye works and naming parts of the eye. So far on this course I have learnt that design also includes maths and biology! I wonder what will be in next weeks lesson… chemistry?

On the subject of colour, we are in the process of decorating our hallway from 80s style to our style, which I’m hoping will be grey,white and black. I have a Dulux colour booklet to source colours for the hallway but my mind keeps wandering on to the other pages and now I have illusions of redecorating the two main bedrooms again. White Mist for the front bedroom with a feature wall of Overtly Olive or maybe some nice wallpaper. Then for the guest bedroom Satin Bow and White Chalk – a sort of pretty in soft pink look. Not sure if husband would agree with that one as his wardrobe is in that room. It must be a great job to be the person who names these paints – here is a list of some of the best ones I found: Crazy Cream; Vineyard Earth; Nude Glow; Seduction; Lunar Falls; Mud Hut; Sundried Tomato. Now from these names you can kind of tell what colour they should be – Sundried Tomato – Red; Mud Hut – Brown. But what about Seduction or Lunar Falls? Well, Seduction would you think is Red or Purple but no, it’s peachy and Lunar Falls is a creamy yellow colour. I also wonder what the job title is for someone who names paint colours… answers on a postcard please.

20 years younger

I’m not talking about the TV show which is actually called 10 Years Younger but how as you get older there is that scary thought that I could be a parent to a teenager! Today, while skating there was a birthday group at the rink and the birthday girl was dressed up with badges, tiara, ribbons – she was 15 today! This gave me a fright as I’m old enough to be her mother (if I had had a child at 20), and the question that I wanted to ask, would she have invited me to skate with her if I was her mother? Or by having a child so young would I actually look a look older than 35. Clothes, hair styles and attitude all help to keep you young – lots of beauty products to keep the wrinkles at bay. But I still see people on the train or down the pub and I wonder how old they are – they could be the same age as me but look 10 years older. The older day there was a women on the train wearing a rather fetching grey, over-sized fleece with Winnie-the-Pooh embroidered on it – I think she must have been the same age as me but looked early fifties in that horrible fleece.

I like to buy clothes but I keep to the shops that attract a younger generation like TopShop, Oasis, French Connection, New Look, Dorothy Perkins (which has improved a lot over the past few years), Ted Baker. One shop that I avoid is Next. Their clothes always seem the same every year except for some small detail change and have a mumsy feel to them. In my twisted mind once I start buying lots of clothes from Next in a size 14 then I have fallen from grace and plunged head first in to frumpyland! I’m hoping that never happens. I think I’m quite lucky as I look younger than my age (which I get from my mum) but it could be down to all the Essex water that I drink!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday to everyone. This will be a very short post as I was too busy at work to write anything and then out after work. I will say it was nice to sit outside on a warm evening and have a couple of beers. In the UK this is so rare, that when it does happen it’s wonderful. I had a great evening with our new HR manager who is now a friend, which is handy for trips to San Francisco. On the tube, it was lucky I had my iPod otherwise I would have had to listen to the Geordies who had such strong accents that I would be able to understand a French person easier. The train not as busy as it’s a Friday night; Thursdays are terrible as its party night in the city. Well, Happy Friday to all – I’ve borrowed this phrase from two very different people I work with. I promise to write more tomorrow.

I’ve just noticed that I’ve did a post last Friday called Happy Friday! so I think there is now a theme going on here.  Basically I’ve had one too many beers or cosmos before writing my blog and all I can think of is how Happy Friday is.  I should really write Friday’s post on Thursday to stop this from happening on a frequent basis!

Girls putting make-up on while on the train

This is one of those annoying things that I see sometimes on the train. Why would anyone want to put their make-up on a train and I’m not talking about lipstick (which is OK) but the whole face. Foundation, powder, eye shadow, blusher etc. If you feel like you can leave the house without make-up on then why is it necessary to put some on at all. The other day I sat around three girls doing their make-up and it can be quite distracting. How no-one has not poked their eye out with a mascara wand is beyond me. Or smeared eye shadow all over their face if the train has to suddenly stop.

I never leave the house without any make-up on except on very early Sunday mornings when I’m out running. I don’t normally see anyone I know otherwise it might give them a fright. The worse thing I have very seen on a train and on the tube as well, is girls pucking their eyebrows – argh, it is just horrible to watch and to think of all those eyebrows floating about in the carriage. It’s just not nice. Well, I had my rant of the day. I’m off shopping with our US HR Manager that is over! Cheerio.