Remembering them...

Well it is hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since the devastating attacks in America on 9/11. 

Its one of those days where everyone knows where they were when it happened. We don't seem to have many of them now, and when we do they are only really for sad things. The other one I remember is the death of Princess Diana. The most recent one will be the royal wedding, it is nice to have a good date that pulls everyone together.

Remembering where we were when we heard the news is all part of remembering the people it affected most. 

I was 14 at the time and was in school, one of my friends was off ill that day and we kept on receiving updates from her as it was happening because she was watching the news. It didn't sink in properly that it was really happening until I was in the car on the way from the bus stop to a dentists appointment and heard it on the radio.

My thoughts are with those who lost people that day. Sue posted a lovely poem and I echo the sentiment.

Absence

Recently I have not been on here at all. I have been having some personal issues and so have been hiding away in my own little world at home.

On top of this I have been ill too and was confined to my bed for nearly a week! Overall not so much fun.

I will be back soon with an update on the veg in the garden. What went well this year and what didn't.

I will leave you saying that there has been some progress on my tomatoes which is wonderful, there are a number of green fruits teasing me. I am waiting for them to turn red...

London Riots

Well whilst I currently live in Southampton this is not where I am from. My parents live just on the outskirts of London and currently this is where I am! 

I have gone back to my parents for a few days to help out with work and bring my sisters hiking stuff up from Southampton.

I think it is awful what is happening in London and would like to extend my thanks and support to the Police officers who are trying to keep it under control, also to the fire fighters and ambulance/hospital staff out there. 

Last night I found it hard to sleep knowing that a number of my friends were in London at the time and a number very close to what was happening. 

Sometime after midnight I heard a series of loud bangs and knowing that some of the rioting had reached local towns I wondered if something had gone down near me. 

Looking out of my bedroom window I saw a plume of what could have been smoke against the orange glow from London (this is normal due to the street lights etc) but when my dad had a look it had spread out and looked a lot more like a cloud.

After this I had a very restless nights sleep, but upon waking up this morning the smoke/cloud was still there with barely another cloud in the sky and I realised I had been right in my first assumption that it was probably smoke. 

Driving to work this morning this was undeniably confirmed when huge clouds of black smoke were pouring off a nearby industrial estate.

 

Reuters

 Reuters

Here is to hoping everyone I know and anyone you know is still safe xxx

The weather...

The weather has finally broken...

It is pouring down with rain. And whilst this is good for my garden it did mean that I didn't want to get out of bed this morning! But it is at just the right time. I am going to have to go home for a day of work tomorrow and was really worrying about how long I could leave the garden for with out killing my veg.

Especially the courgettes, they are very thirsty and have been battling with a bout of powdery mildew. I have found the best way to fight this is to water them almost every day!

Thank you rain, although please stop for my dash to the train station later x

Productivity

Lately I have been lacking in motivation and therefore productivity. Hopefully this will be changing soon, I am slowly getting my motivation back and have been accomplishing things.

Yesterday I went into town and accomplished a few thing but most important was writing the letter to my nan which has been put off for a while because I didnt have time, and had lost my writing paper in the big kitchen clear up.

Before leaving for town I made myself a dress which was nicely satisfying to be wearing something that you had made that morning.

Here is a photo of the dress. It does look slightly like I am still wearing the duvet (or a hospital gown :p) but it was so nice and breezy which was amazing on the stupidly hot day yesterday.

Last night I made it through my Google Reader back log and came across this post which even though I almost never know which day of the week it is so Sunday doesn't hold a special place for me making bread certainly seemed like a good thing to do.

Waking up this morning I have put washing on, started making bread, harvested as many blackberries as I could (putting a step ladder in the veg patch to reach the blackberries with a unwound coat hanger is not something I would advise for any other reason than the comedy value!), a few plums and some strawberries. The strawberries went onto breakfast with a few from the other day. 

This mornings harvest...

Its not even 10 yet and the washing is out on the line and the bread is rising in the sun (as I can never find a place warm enough to rise bread in my house).

Next task is to make spiced plum jam and source some cooking apples to make blackberry jam with... That and cook the bread :D

Wishing everyone else a productive day. There should be a post on the Herb Garden later in the day, if I can get my camera working with the computer again :D

Satisfaction

This morning I have a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. The last few days have gone well and I have actually got a lot of things done, although my To Do list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter! I keep thinking of more things to put on it!

Yesterday I decided to see what the potato plants had or hadn't done. Recently they keeled over, I think I may have neglected their watering a little bit as they are in one of the patio bags... Ohps. 

Well I dug around and transferred the soil into another container and low and behold there were a number of potatoes :o

Although a number had already succumbed to the slugs! Nasty little buggers...

Combining this with some Chard from my garden (I used the leaves for this meal):

Greek yoghurt pot for size comparison :p and yes I did take this picture on my floor...

These combined to make dinner where only the chicken didn't come from my garden (def don't have room for them here)

Again Blogger has rotatoed a picture for no reason!

Also I have made a dress this morning which I am going to be wearing when I go to town this afternoon :D 

Made along the lines of this pattern, but out of a gingham duvet cover :p lovely and soft but I definitely need a better belt to wear it with...

And to top it off I have a half full Herb bed. A blog post to follow on this shortly. (hopfully I will have my proper camera talking to my computer by then...)

Wishing you all a good day. xx

Graduation.

This week has been a busy week and has mostly been overshadowed by the fact that on Tuesday I graduated!!

Shocking to think that this day has finally come. I have been a student for so long that it is going to take me a long time to get used to not being one. And I am going to miss having all of my friends in Southampton, meeting up just got a lot more complicated :p

Actually graduating. Being asked what my future plans where by the Vice Chancellor.

Group photos were taken after much deliberation of where to take them :p :

Me with a few from our course, part of a larger photo but there are not that many on the course, only 16!

And a number of attempts were had to take the mandatory hat throwing photo:

(all photos have been taken by parents of my course mates, mine are still sat on the camera)

Coloured Lavender

Today I have been lacking in motivation. Im not 100% sure why but it is turning into one of those weeks. From Friday onwards I am going to be super busy, with my results coming out on Friday, then having to be at the boat for 4:30 in the morning on Saturday to go sailing :o then either travelling to Oxford for a family reunion or travelling to Falmouth for work! 

Busy busy busy...

But for now I am taking it slow, too slow if anything. So to kick start myself I went to Portswood (the local highstreet) today and went charity shop touring and was good and only bought books (ok and one necklace to cannibalise) and met with a friend for coffee.

This trick seemed to have worked for a little time, and when I got back from town I headed out into the garden to do a little work. On the way into the garden I stopped to look at the Lavender bush that is starting to block the steps...

There are the typical Lavender flowers (deep purple casings and flowers) 

 ... and flowers which have pale casings on the flowers. Taking a closer look at these I have found that the inside flowers appear to be both pink and purple, although they have not really started to open yet.

I appologise for the quality of the photos my proper camera has decided to stop talking to my computer so I have to utilise the mobile phone camera for this.

Pink:

and Purple:

You can see the purple better in the close up:

I will have to look into taking cuttings of Lavender and glowing some new plants from them as I am planning on moving the Lavender hedge next year and having different colours in it would be wonderful.

Green Spaces

Today on my way to NOCS I stopped in town to get breakfast and by lunch before heading on for a heavy day of dissertation work.
After buying breakfast and a much needed Latte (I didn't have any milk in the house this morning due to a very forgetfull moment last night and leaving it in my friends fridge when popping by for a catch up) I decided to have my breakfast in the park in the middle of town.
I have to say a very grateful thank you to southampton council for keeping up the park in such a nice state. It was wonderfull to sit in such a green and luschous area in the middle of a busy town. You coudl still hear the busses and cars driving past but they were shut off from view and cancelled out by the sounds of birds in the park.

Since starting writing this post a lot has happened. Today I have spent more time updating the BBC news site than ever before. My uni building is inside the dock and there has been an incident upon the nuclear submarine that is docked down here at the moment and a sailor was killed. This makes me even more apreciative of the time I took to reflect this morning. I will make sure I tell M I love him this evening remembering that life is short...
I hope that everyone else remembers this too but doesnt have reason to be reminded of it often...