Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Lovely pair

The other day I posted some photos of mothers and their babies. Today it's a father's turn...


Monday, 5 November 2012

Fingers crossed

We're gearing ourselves up for tomorrow's election. First things first, and the day will start with a visit to the dentist (poor Peter). We may take a nap in the afternoon, because we're very likely to stay up all night watching the results...

The first video is inspirational, but the second is VERY irreverent, very funny and NOT suitable for children or for work.

Go Obama!



Sunday, 4 November 2012

Still raining

We had a rain post yesterday, let's stay on the theme...


Friday, 2 November 2012

Life is short for some...

Melting Men is a series of art installations from the Minimum Monument project created by Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo. Since 2005, Azevedo has been setting up her Melting Men in various countries around the world. Although originally intended as a critic of the role of monuments in cities, environmentalists around the world are adopting her work as climate change art.

Usually the spectators help Nele to put the ice figures in place. Depending on the venue, they last 30 to 50 minutes.









Thursday, 1 November 2012

Mothers

I've been collecting photos on this theme for a while now. I find them very touching...











Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Yikes!

Shapeshifterbelly sent me an item that had appeared on Facebook:


I did a bit of googling and found better pictures of the spooky event:

Known as The Tufty Terror, this poor squirrel managed to get his head stuck in a Halloween decoration in Fareham, Hants, England.



Thank you, Shapeshifter.

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Happy ever after?

Mrsgunka sent me this Halloween themed joke:

Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got to know each other so well, they decided to get married.

One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom.

The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress.


The groom broom was handsome and suave in his tuxedo.


The bridesmaids brooms looked lovely.


The wedding was fantastic.

After the wedding, at the wedding dinner, the bride broom leaned over and said to the groom broom, 'I think I am going to have a little whisk broom!'


'IMPOSSIBLE !' said the groom broom.

'We haven't even swept together!'

Thank you, MrsG.

[I'm aware that some readers are unable to visit the blog, as they have this horrendous hurricane Sandy on their minds, not to mention the strong possibility of being without power. Please stay safe.]

Monday, 29 October 2012

Halloween treats

I haven't tried to make these "attractive" treats, but they look perfect for Halloween!



Ingredients
2 packs (3 oz) Raspberry jello
1 pkg unflavored gelatin (for extra firmness)
3/4 cup whipping cream
15 drops green food coloring
3 cups boiling water
100 flexible straws (or enough to fill your container)
Tall container (1 quart or 1 liter carton of milk)

Directions
1) Combine gelatin in bowl and add boiling water.

2) Let it cool to lukewarm and then add the whipping cream and the 15 drops of food coloring.

3) Gather your straws (don't forget to flex them out) and put them in the container. It's important that the straws have a tight fit so the jello stays in the straws. For this reason, a 1 liter carton may be better; you will probably get longer worms since there is a tighter fit. If you have a bigger container, a rubber band around the straws is helpful. Or you could just add more straws to fill the container.

4) Add the gelatin mixture to the straw-filled container and let it set until firm.

5) There are multiple ways you can remove the worms from the straws. You can roll a rolling pin over the straws and squeeze them out or you can hold the straws over warm water. The worms will slip right out.

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Friday, 26 October 2012

Au revoir to the vixens

The day started with very early with a trip to the airport, where we said goodbye to Irishgirl...


We came back in good time to offer TW and CC a bite to eat. As you can see, even the weather was sad to see them go:

(Please click for large picture)

After lunch, we took them to catch the train to Paris.


Pirouette is already missing TW, who always shared some tasty morsels and gave her some wonderful ear massages. I don't have a photo of the hotel cat, but I'm sure he'll also miss TW greatly!



We're going to miss (I can't do it!) Irishgirl's infectious giggling, CC's ab fab impersonations, dah-ling, and TW's Ibegotohell warmth and kindness. They're all fabulous!

The house is definitely too quiet after four days of much laughter and a good dose of very healthy, rejuvenating silliness. We're really going to miss the girls. Peter asked me to thank them for making him feel like an honorary vixen.

Please come back soon!

Thursday, 25 October 2012

...and the vixens fall down

We went to Salon-la-Tour today, where the remains of a castle keep still look quite impressive:


Later on, the vixens tried to go upstairs and this was the result:


It's slightly out of focus, which makes me suspect that even the photographer was plastered...

Austin's generosity shows...

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Hen party update


Peter is enjoying the hen party immensely. I thought he was going to do himself an injury last night he was laughing so much! He drove TW and Irishgirl back to the hotel at 2:30am and left them propping each other up in the car park, giggling uncontrollably. But they found their way to the room, eventually. Peter had visions of going to pick them up this morning and finding them on the exact same spot, still giggling...

We had a picnic in the garden today. The weather was very nice, but it started turning chilly so we came inside to resume the drinking in the warm kitchen (thanks for the wine, Austin... your money is going a fecking long way!).

I have to start cooking soon, so this is just a short post to keep the conversation going.

Life is good!


Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Traffic diversion

Today's post is somewhere else... Irishgirl is busy writing about today's exploits, so I'm not going to repeat everything here. This is where we went today:


Now, back to drinking wine. Thanks, Austin.

Monday, 22 October 2012

Paris! And some deep France

CC and Tumbleweed have just arrived here. Irishgirl arrived earlier and we had a lovely day together. Now everybody is having some wine (courtesy of our friend Austin), laughing and exchanging stories.

Here's a photo of an iconic Parisian sight CC took this morning.


PS - Dinner is Boeuf Bourguignon...

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Bon voyage

Hey Tumbleweed, this is for you, in anticipation of the start of your trip tomorrow.



Perhaps you could help rescue these poor guys:



I hope you leave your cats in good company...