Bournemouth Air Festival 2008

Over the past four days Bournemouth has held it's inaugural Air Festival and it's been such a success I imagine it's the first of many. Usually in the summer there's a display by the Red Arrows on one Friday lunchtime but this year they've performed three times along with dozens of other planes, helicopters and parachutists.


On Friday evening I was persuaded by my friend Kim to go and see the hot air balloons, amongst other things, in Bournemouth Gardens.....

we had a lovely time, the atmosphere was great, so many people and such a beautiful warm, still evening. Suspended from this balloon was a dancer on a trapeze performing to music (not sure if you can make out her white shape under the balloon), the balloon kept changing colour too....green, orange, pink.......

On the beach amongst the people still enjoying the warmth of the evening (and even some still swimming) we caught sight of this lad literally playing with fire! ..... (my SOS for this week)

Yesterday we went back to Bournemouth to see the air displays, I don't think I've ever seen so many people in the town on one day. The weather was fantastic so doubtless the beach would have been busy anyway, but even so I don't think I've ever seen it this packed out........

At the risk of sounding hugely contrary, the sun really didn't make it easy to take photographs in the sky! I know, I've been complaining that we have no sun and then as soon as we get some I'm not happy about it!! But I did try, so....

The Red Arrows

The RAF Falcons


The incredibly brave Team Guinot Wingwalk

And in the gardens on our way home we spotted a display of beautiful birds of prey.... (my SPS for yesterday!)



Next weekend I'll be attending a completely different type of festival .. a music one .. lets hope the sun comes out again for that one (I promise not to complain if it does!!).

'Y' Can't Kids Do Handstands Anymore?

Today's HS:MS challenge led to a mini revelation! Another letter .... Y .... so I figured the kids could help me out, but was shocked to discover that my kids have no idea or capability for doing handstands! When I was their age I think I knew better what the playground looked like upside down than the right way up!! We had a particular wall at school and when I wasn't banging my head against it so that I could get a bump and go to first aid for some cotton wool and witch hazel (I did so love the smell of witch hazel!) I was invariably upside down with my feet against it. So anyway, in order to take these photo's Moo and Fletch literally had to be propped against the wall and I had to be pretty quick on the shutter because they couldn't stay up for more than a few seconds!

I wonder if it's the result of too much of this sort of 'family time'?......

Is it bad parenting or can I blame the school for not making it clear what walls are really for?

I did discover something else though - handstands aren't nearly as easy as I remember them to be.....I have pictures to prove it but certainly won't be sharing those!!

'I' Spy with my little 'i' ......

Short post for now..... HS:MS.... i

'E' By Gum...It's (Still) Reet Cold Down South

It's taken me hours to find a picture for today's HS:MS challenge.....E.........not that I've just been looking for e's all day, I have been cleaning too and it's back to the draining board for this one -

Mollie had her friends Sam and Archie over yesterday and I couldn't resist getting a funny picture of the three of them together! They get along so great together, I just hope the friendship survives once they start secondary school next week.........secondary school, already!

And, I know I'm becoming slightly obsessive now, but, still no sun!!!

Oh My Word! Another letter challenge...

Today's HS:MS prompt - O

Another quiet and lazy day in the sheap household. No news to impart, no gossip to reveal, no beautiful sunny pictures either....surprise, surprise!

Whatever the Weather

HS:MS prompt for today - W - we have two VW cars so no problem finding W's in my space.......

got a bit carried away!

The good old British weather hasn't improved yet, we've got a faint promise of some sunshine this week but in the meantime we can still enjoy the daily visit from the ice-cream van to keep our spirits up!

This morning Mum found this young Starling in her garden he was acting a bit listless and didn't have any energy to fly so she took him inside to recover ...

and quickly discovered the reason for his ill health...

urghh - the biggest tick I've ever seen. Hopefully the Starling will recover quite quickly now that he's been relieved of his uninvited passenger - unlike the tick who got washed down into the waste disposal!

If Carlsberg bred dogs..........

After babbling on about Darcy yesterday I felt it only fair to let Coco (best dog in the world) share some of the limelight today! I caught her enjoying her favourite pastime this morning - sun bathing - unfortunately over the course of our typical British summer this isn't something she gets to indulge in very often. At 11yrs she really is an old lady now and it shows in her grey whiskers and the stiffness in her joints after anything but the gentlest of exercise but her nature hasn't changed, she's always been the most quiet, patient, well mannered canine you could ever hope to meet.

So there she is.......my SOS subject for today :)

SPS with friends...

Oh dear, I'm in trouble again! I've spent all day today fiddling around with the camera, drinking tea and gossiping with my friend and my mum and just generally being a right lazy mare!! Steven kept giving me (and the squalor surrounding me) disapproving looks but I don't think he really expected a reaction - I think after 20 years together he knows me quite well. As Scarlett O'Hara would say........I'll think about it tomorrow!

Yesterday my sister went along to book her puppy into training classes and I went with her to talk about possible one-to-one training for Darcy....lovely sweet, docile, lovable Darcy (indoors).....





.......naughty, uncontrollable, barking, aggressive Darcy (outdoors on her lead). I know that I've failed her, far too little socialisation when she was younger and the poor assumption that because Coco (best dog in the world) has always been a dream to walk - without any outside training - Darcy would be just as good.


Anyway, the trainer didn't think one-to-one training is what she needs since socialisation is probably the main problem so I have to go to novice training classes.........ewww......so not looking forward to that! I just know she's going to show me up and misbehave outrageously, particularly as there are bound to be puppies there and she really doesn't seem to like puppies at all - it's taken her weeks to accept my sister's dog Betty . To make matters worse, when she gets nervous or too excited she wets herself - must remember to take lots of kitchen roll with me. So, a few weeks reprieve and classes start on 11th Sept - no doubt I'll be reporting on her lack of progress (must think positively). I've paid for it now so there's no backing out!



Today I decided to bite the bullet and go for the proper SPS since I haven't done one in a while...

and then of course my oldest (though still slightly younger than me!) friend Karen turned up while the camera was all set up so I somehow managed to persuade her to get in front of the lens for a rare photo together...

So two (or three I guess) for the price of one today, I figure I'll be able to put it off again for a couple of months at least now!

B is for Bubbles

HS:MS prompt - B

I'm sooo tired today! I'm obviously not built for travel because even those two little days away have worn me out completely. Luckily for me Steven is not such a wimp and has taken Moo and Fletch swimming so I have a nice quite house to myself at the moment and nobody to lecture me about how being lazy makes you feel more tired (Steven's theory)! Tessa is here but she really doesn't count as company - she's far too engrossed in World of Warcraft and MSN to be sociable in the real world.....yes Tessa, that's you I'm talking about!

Anyway, so totally lacking in inspiration at the moment that I'm going to start hunting early now for a wrinkly subject for tomorrow's Photohunt.....perhaps a mirror might be a good place to start!

The Truth About Paris (according to Sheap!)

Q (HS:MS prompt for today) - I know there probably should be a plant in this pot but the Sparrows do seem to love drinking out of it so I haven't bothered.

So, I've been to Paris and quite honestly the French are welcome to it! No, we did have a good time, I can't deny that, but not necessarily because of where we were....it was lovely just to have a little time together on our own, no house, no children (despite loving them and missing them loads, of course), no dogs, no tv!

As usual, the rain followed me and the weather wasn't great but it was warm so that was ok.

I suppose I had bought into the whole Paris fantasy of it being the most romantic, beautiful city in the world....but I suspect this is a slightly exaggerated nostalgic view of what the city perhaps once was. The Paris I saw was pretty in places, dirty in most, and somehow slightly tacky.......am I just way too picky or is it that what was lacking was the sense of national pride I feel when I visit similar superior monuments in London!

Can you imagine anybody sticking big gold stars on Big Ben?!

I obviously left my rose-tinted spectacles at home....

We walked to Le Louvre - it's shut on Tuesdays but I only really wanted to see the outside anyway. The gardens leading up to it are beautiful and, I should imagine, a great place to spend a day just enjoying the sunshine and people watching.

This bloke liked it so much he didn't even want to take a toilet break!

The highlight (literally) for me was our trip up the Montparnasse Tower...56 floors in a very fast lift and then 3 more on foot and the view was fantastic -

And of course even I couldn't find fault with the food.....or wine..... at the lovely little cafe we found in the shadow of the Notre-Dame - best meal I've had in a very long time.


Couldn't help notice that the Notre-Dame was lacking something.........one or two gargoyles!......

But despite my best efforts to berate their capital city the French can surely not be criticized for their care in the community scheme.....what a wonderful idea to provide so many warm air vents above Le Metro for the benefit of those less prosperous citizens amongst them...

S is for Sarah's going to Paris tomorrow!

Lucky for us HS:MSers Suzy B is holding the fort while Kirsty and Anita are away. So today we have S ....





Get it?! No chance of taking photos outdoors today, its more like winter than summer...blowing a gale and raining - roll on Spring!

Did I mention that I'm going to Paris tomorrow????



Apparently the red circle is where our hotel is so if anybody has any fantastic tips on what to do .. or not do ... in Paris for 28hrs it would be much appreciated. We leave at 6.45 tomorrow morning and I'm still struggling to put a wardrobe together - I know - How hard can it be?! But so far the weather forecast has changed about 4 times today, first it was sunny, then raining, now it's saying windy... so many decisions! Steven thinks I'm puddled and of course he's right, we are there for such a short time, nobody is going to be looking at me and, for the most part, I'll just look like a body attached to a camera so who cares really! I'm very excited though!

So no more blogging from me until Thursday..... unless I decide to take my laptop - now there's another decision!!

Anybody looking for a kitchen decorator?

We have the weirdest weather at the moment. I get up in the morning and walk the dogs and it's glorious....warm sunshine, clear blue skies... you would think we were all set for a perfect summer day. But, by lunchtime it's cloudy and cold and/or raining - miserable. I'm watching the forecast like a hawk at the moment because I'll be in Paris from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday evening and I'm desperately hoping for good weather (I have an extremely poor track record as far as holiday weather goes) and juggling a camera and an umbrella doesn't appeal to me much.

Anyhow, the Chidlers have been busy, busy, busy this week. I decided to invest in some window paints to entice them away from the PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, DVD etc etc and they have taken to it with gusto. Unfortunately quantity rather than quality seem to be the order of the day and as you can see the view into the conservatory/utility room/bird room/dog-feeding room etc is rapidly disappearing (actually, on second thoughts that's probably not such a bad thing!).

This morning Mollie was working on another new masterpiece but had a problem with the tube of blue paint which seemed to be blocked. Hand over to Mum. Mums know how to solve this sort of problem in a sensible, responsible kind of manner don't they?

oops.....



obviously not!! Steven has a name for my particular brand of stupidity but I'm not sure it should be repeated in polite company. The good news is that once it's dry all the paint should just peel off quite easily!

And for my SOS today - Mollie...she's vegging out at the moment watching re-runs of the Vicar of Dibley, moving her eyes was about all the energy she could muster up!

HS:MS/PhotoHunt Catch-up

Today's SPS is doubling up for my PhotoHunt photo this week Colourful .. not one I took today though, I took this a few weeks ago when Mollie finished school - can you believe we had to buy her a new shirt so that her friends could sign it on the last day because apparently the polo shirts that she usually wore aren't any good for writing on. How does she know that Polo shirts are no good for writing on?!

Whoosh.....and there goes another week! I'll be back at work before I know whats hit me. Monday was Nan's funeral - the days leading up to it dragged by but since then the time has gone by so fast and it seems like a lifetime ago already.

Anyway, catching up with Her Space:My Space.....not all the words from this week, there were a couple that had me stumped but here goes:

bracelet

Two words - chew and leaves combined - couldn't get outside with the camera due to our fabulous summer weather (not) but here is the result of placing a Yukka plant too close to a budgie cage!

and triangle

When did we all get to be so scruffy?!

Last Saturday I posted about my Nan, sadly she passed away that afternoon. She was so tired of living so in a way it's a blessing but inevitably old memories of good times together come flooding back making us feel nostalgic and sad. I've spent almost all week working on the Order of Service for her funeral. I wanted to include lots of pictures from the past as she had always been particularly proud of her looks and never missed an opportunity to fish for a compliment!

This is her in about 1940, she would be around 20 yrs old.

What strikes me, looking at all the photos, is how immaculately turned out everybody looks. Money was tight, war was raging and yet all the ladies have their hair coiffured and the men look dapper in their three piece suits - even on the beach! And apart from that, everybody seems so happy - I guess the war made them more determined than ever to enjoy themselves whilst they still could. Anyway, more to come I'm sure, there are some fab pictures in that box!

So, I've missed a few HS:MS prompts lately - here's a quick catch-up of some of them:

hold

insect - I think this is a hornet. We've recently lopped our eucalyptus tree and Fletcher (aka little vandal) peeled the bark from the stump and the sap has attracted a whole colony of ants along with dozens of wasps and these monsters:

rust

Photohunters: Cloud

Took this from my garden yesterday morning - umbrella or sunhat .... you decide!

Nan

Saturday's on Her Space:My Space are SPS: Either a picture of you or someone else. Show us some people!

Today I'm posting a photo of my Nan, Maude, here's why.......

On Monday evening my Nan had a fall. We're not sure how, she was alone in her room at the time, so nobody saw it happen. She has broken her hip and we've now been told that despite urgently needing an operation to repair it they are unable to go ahead because she has developed pneumonia. The difference in how she looks now since Monday is astounding but completely incomparable to this photo of her taken less than a month ago just a couple of weeks before her 88th birthday.

At the beginning of last year Nan fell and broke a bone in her heel. Before that she had been independent and active - cleaning, cooking etc for herself and regularly taking the bus or taxi into town to meet friends and shop. After a long, long recovery period she came home but at the expense of her independence and freedom, a fact which has made her very unhappy. Looking at her now I can see no hope of her recovering sufficiently to return home again. If she was unhappy before in the comfort of her own home with her family around her I dread to think how she would feel if she had to live out the rest of her days in a nursing home. So, we can only hope for a miracle ... or, failing that, a reprieve from too much suffering, that is to say - a swift departure from this earth.... surely to wish for anything else in between would only be selfish.

I'm not seeking sympathy ... I feel lucky to still have a grandparent alive at my age and my children have had some lovely times with her over the past few years. We should all be so lucky!

Not a Knot!

Today's HS:MS prompt is knot - mine seems to be missing!