Tree project - the beginning

A couple of months after we had moved in together we were sat on the settee watching television and the boyfriend commented on how much the tree outside had changed since we'd been living here. It had gone from a barren, twiggy mess to having a million little buds adorning his (her?) limbs.

We live on a main road so greenery is few and far between. This tree peers in the window at us morning and night.

Unfortunately I must have missed the lesson in school where we learnt about nature because i am hopeless at naming trees and plants. I know it's not a conker tree and I know it's not a poplar tree - that's my tree repertoire exhausted. Anybody got any ideas?

Anyway when the boyfriend commented on the changes a little thought took seed in my mind. "You should take photos of the tree and document the changes."

However many of the ideas that are planted in my head, rarely come to fruition, which is why, four months later I've finally got around to starting it.

So here's the beginning - everybody meet Mr Tree (if you feel like coming up with a name for him then do let me know).

September - his leaves have become a deep, deep green and his red berries sparkle when the sun is shining, providing food for the many birds that swoop about outside, taunting the visitors when they come to stay.

See you in October!

Pass me the talcum powder...

"How was the gym?" the boyfriend asked when he came back from work.

"Ok" came the rather muted reply

"Oh no, your knee playing up again?"

"No. Worse. I had to deal with nakedness."

I should explain....

It's a bit of a thing with me. Maybe it's because I'm British. Maybe it's just something deep inside me. But I cannot stand public nakedness. I really seriously have a problem with it. And I don't think that this is something hereditary because as soon as I was old enough to learn how to work a lock, bathtime became private time, much to my mother's annoyance. She would always yell at me not to lock myself in the bathroom in case I fell over and fainted and she couldn't come in to help me (ever the optimist is my Mum) but the reason I locked it is because if I didn't, she would merrily sail in to wash her hands or brush her teeth, leaving me fanctically splashing about trying to make myself respectable (which you can't do when you're not wearing any clothes in the bath).

I'm not suggesting that many people adore public nudity (nudists and naturists aside) but I mean I have a terrible issue with it. It makes me want to throw up and poke my eyes out at the same time.

I know that there shouldn't be anything wrong with the naked body, it is God's form blah blah blah. I just don't want God's form in front of me. Sans clothes. And I'm not hypocritical, it's not just other people being naked, I don't particularly like to be naked in front of myself. I'm just not a happy naked person.

Unfortunately, when you go to the gym, the chances of you experiencing nakedness rise tenfold from other every day activities. Now I go to the gym already changed, my friend who picks me up on her way home from work, goes in to one of the cubicles and changes and I sit on the bench in the main changing room and gab away to her.

Except....

A couple of times now I have come quite literally face to face with my worst fear. A stranger. Naked.

As much as I am not a naked person, there are people out there who are very much naked people. They are perfectly comfortable with their form and feel no shame. Hurray to them I say. But I also say in an equally loud voice, "OH MY GOD COVER YOURSELF UP!"

I know that technically the ladies changing room is not a public place as such but I just don't understand the need to...well.....parade, which is what this woman does (yes I've come across her more than once). I mean what's the harm in coming out of the shower area, in to the changing room with a towel round you? And there really are plenty of cubicles available, it's never busy, maybe you could apply your talcum powder in one of those? Anything but just please do not do any of these activities in front of me. There is a part of me that feels she is possibly an exhibitionist, I've never known someone to wander about being that naked for that long, it can't possibly be necessary.

Whatever it is it makes me terribly flustered. What I really want to do is immediately get up and walk away but then that would be offensive wouldn't it? It's not her problem that I have this affliction and to walk away would be an insult to her that I'm not really intending. It just sends me in to a total fluster, I am completely unable to carry on whatever conversation I'm having with my friend, who is oblivious in the cubicle, and I've nearly caused myself serious chiropractical (is that a word?!) damage, trying not to look directly at what is happening in front of me. It's not that she's terribly ugly or out of shape or anything - to be honest I couldn't tell you what colour hair she has, so determined am I to avoid eye contact.

I just have to pray that my friend gets changed quickly so she can come out and get me out of the terrible situation I've found myself in.

It certainly doesn't put me in the mood to start sweating on the cross trainer...

My very first award

I got some rather exciting news at the end of last week. I had been given a Blog Award!! For ages now, whilst I've been trawling through blogs and having a nosy, I've seen these awards and hoped and wished that I would one day get one for myself.

And The Curious Cat answered my hopes and wishes!!

I have been awarded the Honest Scrap award. And proudly shall I display it.

Now apparently I've got to pass the award on to 10 other bloggers and then share 10 things that no-one else knows.

However I have a little problem in that I don't have 10 other people that I can pass it on to! Although I'm getting in to the swing of writing the blog, I'm not so good at going through the blogs and finding ones that I want to read. The blogs that I do really like I have mostly found through The Curious Cat and damn her, she's got their first and already awarded it to them!

So I'm going to hang on to this one for a little while until I've found more people to pass it on to.

I won't be a total kill joy though and I have had a go at sharing 10 things that no-one else knows with you....

1. I get scared that cheating on your partner is hereditary in my family
2. I wish I had a better relationship with my father but am resigned to the fact that I won't

3. I care what other people think of me far too much

4. I get annoyed that no-one in my family takes me seriously

5. I wish I was in contact with more people from my school days

6. I worry that I'm turning into my mother

7. I would love to have children and would like to have them as soon as possible but I am absolutely terrified of the responsibility

8. If money was no object I'd jack it all in and just spend the rest of my life at university, learning stuff (first on the list will be a history degree)
9. I hate making an effort with my appearance but then beat myself up for not looking as nice as everyone-else

10. I worry that I'm not doing enough with my life

I hope that makes it ok that I haven't passed it on to anybody yet!

I would like to just say thank you to The Curious Cat - she's pretty much my only regular reader and she makes me feel loved out here in the big ol' blogosphere. She is a very cool lady who lives in the big smoke but is not all horrible and nasty and 'London-like', she is warm and intelligent and has a wonderful way with words, as well as an excellent outlook on life and I hope she continues to blog when she eventually goes off on her travels!

Things I love about my house....Part 1

People seem to have little themes on their blogs, something that happens with some regularity. And I, not being one to be left out, have decided to get in on the act.

Seeing as this is my first home, even if it only rented, I've decided to photograph all the little things that make it the place I want to come back to at the end of every day at work.

This week.....

TINA TEASPOON
The very first TV programme that I watched when I was a small person was Button Moon. I have very very vague recollections of watching it but my family have told me many stories of my extreme excitement whenever it came on telly.

I apparently called it Button Moom.

A while ago my sister got me a Tina Teaspoon and a VHS video of Button Moon which I have unfortunately lost somewhere in the Land of Moving. It's ok though, thanks to You Tube it can be found and enjoyed again. Like all things you watched when you were a child, when you see them as an adult you wonder about your sanity at the time. I mean Button Moon is particularly crap - I wonder what my nephews would make of it now. They've grown up on a diet on Pokemon and sophisticated animations, I think they would be somewhat unimpressed with a spaceship made of a funnel, a baked bean tin and a tuna can.

I love Tina though and when you press her tummy she sings the theme tune, transporting me back to a very young age. And I've also discovered that babies still like her, she was entertaining Sam earlier this week, a very discerning 3 month old who doesn't like just any toy.

If you happen not to know what on earth I'm talking about then feel free to go here. And be amazed!

Come dine with me

I do most of the cooking in our little household of two. It's not that we're being terribly traditional or anything it's convenience more than anything. The boyfriend's actually a great cook and really enjoys doing it but he doesn't get home until nearly 7pm and if we waited for him to cook, we'd be eating way too late for my stomach.

I'm kind of getting into it but it's a bit of a pain to be honest. Just having to come up with something new to cook every evening. I'm trying to get better and I being a little more inventive, but life was much easier at uni, when I lived by myself. I didn't mind having salad and a baked potato 5 days in a row. But I'm trying to mix it up a little.

However I do a little private dance for joy on the nights that I don't have to cook. Last night was one such night as I was off to the cinema and was gone before the boyfriend got home.

"You'll have to look after yourself!!" I trilled to him the evening before.

The boyfriend's version of "Looking after himself" is to go to the nearest takeaway (and when I say nearest it's literally across the road) and get something horrific. Last night was no exception - I opened the bin in the kitchen to see the tell-tale polystyrene tray lying there, the poor excuse of salad that came with the donner meat, rejected and poking out of the side.

I do wish he would look after himself a little better. It's bad enough that he smokes (yes I know! But only about 6 a day and I'm working on him) but he drinks too much coffee and doesn't eat food which is bursting with nutritional value.

"But you can cook so why don't you just cook for yourself when you get in?"

"I can't be bothered when I get in"

I inwardly sighed and then decided to try another tack. Logic. It never fails.

"Well what you do if you lived on your own?" I said. Aha. The smug levels were high, he'd have to be realistic and answer this one I thought to myself.

"Well I'd be lonely" he said with a pretty mischievious smile on his face.

Smart move Counsellor.

Case closed.

2012 is beckoning...

I am still going to the gym although it still not my favourite activity. I force myself to go and if it wasn't for the fact that I go with a friend, then I have to admit I probably wouldn't go at all.


I'm not at the point yet where I actually enjoy going but sometimes I do feel like I want to go. Which is progress I think. When I say "I do feel like I want to go" that doesn't mean that I'm hopping to go as soon as I go in, more that when I haven't been for a few days there's a sort of slight notion in the back of my head that I want to go.


I'm getting there.


As for results?


Erm......there aren't really any yet.


BUT I'm not putting more weight on so that's got to be good - right??


I figure that now I'm mastering the gym, it's time to start cutting down on the amount of crap I eat. One small stage at a time.


In terms of fitness though? Well. Gains have been made. When we started a few months ago, I couldn't do 15 sit ups in a row. Now I can do 25 (sometimes 30 on a good day). As for the running; well for a start it's definitely not running, it's definitely jogging. Any improvements have been impeded by my crap knees. My knees have been the bane in my life since I was at school, and much hockey and netball playing effectively ruined them for good. Since then they are always a little bit on the dodgy side and tend to threaten to give way as soon as any demands are placed upon them.


I've discovered that I really can't jog on the treadmill for more than 10/15 minutes without them either a) giving way completely or b) seeming fine but then causing me immense pain for the next 3 days.


It's very inconvenient.


They especially don't like it when I go to the gym two days in a row.


Like tonight.


I am currently sat with legs up on the settee. Knees feel like they're pulsing a bit with the pain. The boyfriend doesn't know why I do it to myself but I'll tell you why...


...because he supplies my crisp habit.

It's a dirty filthy habit but I just can't enough of their salty goodness. Any kind will do but I go through phases of having favourites. Monster Munch is the current leader. The boyfriend knows that the crisps make me happy and he just wants me to be happy so he gets them for me. But he really shouldn't. Because if they're there, I'll eat them.


I am doing my best however and with small steps I'll get there. I guess as long as my fitness is improving then that's a good thing. And it is improving, when we first started I couldn't jog for more than 5 minutes without having to stop and walk for a while. Yesterday I managed to jog for a whole 12 minutes.


And for the first time I ran a mile.


A 12 minute mile. Impressive, no?

Well there are 3 years til the next Olympics...I'd better call my physio.

Sweet & Simple Bakes - Jammy Doughnut Muffins

Aaaaaaand WHIZZ! Another month flies by and it's time for this months Sweet & Simple Bake. This month it was these jammy doughnut mufifns and I was eager to get stuck in after last month's carrot cake success.

Unfortunately this wasn't my best production for S&S. I think I had the shelf a bit too far down I think because I baked them for ages and ages and convinced myself that they were done, only to find that they weren't done.

My bad.

This was also probably why they weren't all lovely and golden brown on the top.

Oh yeah and my other clue was that they weren't cooked all the way through. Bit of a give away that one.

Luckily they weren't all a disaster - there were some that were properly baked and they were rather marvellous. I loved the jam running through the middle, a delightful surprise as you bit through the muffin.

So I didn't do amazingly well this month. But I have high hopes for the next!

Find the recipe here.

Sweet & Simple Bakes