Happy Monday!

How cute are these items of Bunny Jewellery?

Both are available from Rabidfox at Etsy

(the Octopus ring is ace too)

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I love Neil Gaiman (and the books he writes too obv).

Image via RedLipsandIceCream

This picture is really good.

Image via RedLipsandIceCream

This website makes me giggle, a lot.

This post in particular.

Hope you had a super weekend.

x

THE DARKLING THRUSH
by: Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

LEANT upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seem'd to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seem'd fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carollings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessèd Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

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Good week thus far I hope!

Love

x

Image via here and via here

Fruit Market.

I went to the fruit market

And took lots of pictures

It was fun.

Have a nice day, back tomorrow with Poetry Thursday!

x

Happy Monday.

This made me laugh:

Beartato: Last Autumn Leaf

This necklace is pretty and from Trophies on Etsy:

This is a good picture:

Image originally from Jill Willcott on Flikr

I like cake:

Image originally from Cinammon on Flikr.

Image originally from Little Doodles on Flikr.

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a gooood weekend

x

I Love...

... this movie.

I by chance stumbled across one of the songs featured in the movie on Youtube this morning and have subsequently spent all day listening to the brilliant soundtrack, listing as follows:

1. A Story Of Boy Meets Girl - 500 Days Of Summer

2. Us (Remastered) - Regina Spektor

3. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths*

4. Bad Kids - The Black Lip

5. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths

6. There Goes The Fear - Doves

7. You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates

8. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap

9. Quelqu’un M’a Dit - Carla Bruni

10. Mushaboom - Feist

11. Hero - Regina Spektor

12. Bookends - Simon And Garfunkel

13. Vagabond - Wolfmother

14. She’s Got You High - Mumm-ra

15. Here Comes Your Man - Meaghan Smith

16. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want - She & Him

(500) Days of Summer is super duper and I love it and if you havn't seen it I Command you to watch it (cue evil laugh) for the following reasons:

1. Zooey Deschanel is ridiculously pretty,
2. and her clothes are fab (total Girl Crush),
3. Joseph-Gordon Levitt is a dish,
4. the music is awesome,
5. and the storyline excellent,
6. j'adore!
7. Because what I say goes (just kidding obv!)**

So yeah, pretty ace all round.

Well, have a good weekend everyone, I'm going to sleep tomorrow and see New Moon on Sunday and see you Monday!

x

* Cue bad impression of Smiths from me "if a double decker buuus crashes into us...to die by your side is such a heavenly way to dieeee"

** As you can see, I quite like lists.

Images via here and here and here and here

November!

November!

by Thomas Hood

No sun--no moon!

No morn--no noon!

No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--

No sky--no earthly view--

No distance looking blue--

No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--

No end to any Row--

No indications where the Crescents go--

No top to any steeple--

No recognitions of familiar people--

No courtesies for showing 'em--

No knowing 'em!

No traveling at all--no locomotion--

No inkling of the way--no notion--

"No go" by land or ocean--

No mail--no post--

No news from any foreign coast--

No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--

No company--no nobility--

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

No comfortable feel in any member--

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--

November!

Hope you enjoy!

x

Images via Wili Hybrid on Flikr via the blue hour via AudreyHepburn Complex

Another Wednesday marks the middle of another week. I was supposed to be at this job for one month (beginning of September until the end) but I have now been here for 11 weeks. However, the end of the project is in sight and I am now once again staring down the black hole of unemployment.

I got the offer of an interview next week.

Part of me thinks I should feel happy to be offered anything in the current economic climate, but the other part of me, my gut instinct if you will, says this isn't really what I'm looking for and that I should hold out for something better.

Also that the first interview is in a Holiday Inn rather than their offices does seem a leeeetle weird, right? Like I should be delivering a brown paper package or drinking champagne (maybe only fizzy white wine at a Holiday Inn come to think of it) with a wealthy businessman!

Just feels wrong to turn down an interview is all.

I'm sure you will be hearing a lot more about how things progress on here in the coming weeks.

And now onto something completely different

this picture totally captured my heart. So sweet and clever I love it.

Have a good afternoon and evening dear readers.

Back tomorrow with Poetry Thursday.

x

Images via Red Lips & Ice Cream and Marnie Pill on Flickr respectively.

Rain Rain Go Away?

Picture this, if you will.

I wake up to my radio alarm which is playing a pop song much to cheery for 6:30am.

It is dark and raining.

It does not get light before I leave the house as it normally does but continues to stay the gloomy darkness of late twilight despite the earliness of the hour. The rain patters slowly but firmly on the windows as I get ready to leave the house. I pull on my knee high flat boots (no loafers today of course), my wintery coat and a very stripy umbrella.

As I step out of my front door, across the porch and half way down the drive so begins a downpouring of torrential proportions. End Of The World type rain with drops so big they hurt when they hit your skin and so heavy cars have to slow almost to a halt as the drivers can't see out of their windscreens. The umbrella whips around in the wind yet keeps my face and most of my hair dry but the rain is now coming down at a 45 degree angle, soaking the few inches of my skirt which peep below my coat and my tights above my boots so they cling to my legs (boots which it turns out do not stand up to puddles the size of ponds oddly enough) .

I swear to myself repeatedly as I walk along (as though this mantra of curses will somehow keep me dry) and fear I am unfortunately overheard by my nextdoor neighbour as he cycles slowly by in a very luminous jacket.

The bus seems to take an age to arrive and by the time it does the elements of me exposed to the weather are thoroughly soaked. I miss my normal train as the traffic is so bad and have to get a later one which is not direct to London so adds another 15 minutes to my journey. I sit down next to the window, peel off my damp layers, lay out my dripping umbrella under my seat, put on my Mp3 player and close my eyes. I manage to doze for most of the journey but wake up about 10 minutes from London at which point an Elbow song from their album Seldom Seen Kid starts to play and just at that moment, the sun emerges from behind the heavy charcoal grey clouds, and reveals to me that behind this curtain of dark there are huge white clouds and bright blue skies. All this I see only for a moment before the curtain is back, the sun disappears and spots of rain reappear, running down in tracks on the window.

Like a character in some corny movie I feel any annoyance at the dreadful weather, the traffic, the still being rather damp and the being later into work than I like, slip quietly away.

Such big weather and such natural beauty made me feel quite small in a way I rather like and Elbow's song made me breathe a breath of calm as it always does. As soon as I step off the train, the hustle and bustle shake me from my pleasing reverie but I am still left with a small bright bubble of happiness inside.

Funny what music can do.

Funny what the beauty of nature can do.

Just Say...

OK,

Good things which have happened to me today:

+ Got a seat on the train this morning

+ Got a free Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks

+ Ate a yummy cheese, ham and tomato croissant from Pret a Manger

+ Finally got round to ordering a new camera off Ebuyer

+ My plum coloured corduroy trousers (that's right, plum corduroy) from Uniqlo have been dispatched

+ I got paid

+ Was sold some delicious carrot cake by a man dressed as Robin Hood

+ Have a really good weekend planned involving shopping with my sister, lunch with one of my dearest friends and new episode of Doctor Who on Sunday evening.

Bad things that have happened to me today:

- Supposed to be going to something this evening which I don't want to but am too much of a wimp to get out of.

It seems ridiculous to me that all the positives can be cancelled out by One Negative (which I should have said no too when it first came up but didn't because I was a WIMP. Do you see a pattern emerging here?)

Silly silly silly silly me.

I make myself so mad sometimes because I can't say no to people. I just care too much what they think of me, even if I don't like them.

Does this A) make me a good person because I don't want to create disputes or offend others?

Or

Does this B) make me an idiot for not thinking about what I want?

Will I ever learn? Is this something that comes with age?

I jolly well hope so.

I shall let you know how it goes.

Have a stupendous weekend readers of mine.

x

Picture via WeHeartIt

~Read Me~

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

BOAT, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July--

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear--

Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?

For you, my dears.

Hope you are having a nice week.

x

You do the Maths

Don't you just love it when things you love come together to make an object for uber adoration? For example:

David Tennant + Hamlet = David Tennant playing Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company

Sausages + Yorkshire Puddings = Toad in the Hole

Leggings + The colour plum = these beauties from American Apparel

As such...

Love of gardening + Love of all things minature + Love of glassware = these adorable Terrariums from TortoiseLovesDonkey on Etsy.

I think these are so lovely and am definitely putting them on my Christmas list!

Have a good day!

x

p.s. I originally came across the Terrariums on a great blog called Ponder and Stitch

Back in Time....?

Ok, for some weird reason Blogger has decided I actually went back in time and posted todays post last Wednesday.
Needless to say, I can't actually time travel and am sorry for any confusion caused!
x

Remember remember

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Short but sweet on the poetry front today! Happy fireworks night to all!

x

All images via we heart it

Hello and Goodbye

Good afternoon readers.

I had a really good good weekend, hope you did too.

Seeing as it is Monday thought I would offer:

this rather amusing story to enjoy

and

this pretty picture to admire:

Picture via red lips and ice cream

and

this rather lovely dress available at Etsy to drool over

Have fun!

However, just before I say toodle oo, I have a concern to voice as follows. I came into work this morning, checked my emails, looked on facebook etc with nothing untoward to report. However, when I log into Blogger, I see I now have 7 followers rather than the 8 I had on Friday.

Without being melodramatic- Whhhhhhyyyyyyy?!?!

Do I not post enough? Am I not relatively interesting?? Are the pretty pictures and cute animals unsatisfactory???

I would like to take this moment to mourn the loss of one of the few *sniffsniff*.

In fact, I am now too emotional to carry on.

Fare thee well my faithful 7!

x

Guess What.

I made it!

'Hurrah!' I hear you cry!

I heartily concur with this sentiment!

I didn't walk after all and in fact cheated by leaving work early to get the bus (which took an Eeeenormous detour) to the station. My highly logical and completely sane reasoning behind all this was primarily that I suddenly realised I was wearing the same black roll neck sweater that I was wearing when I got lost last time!!!!
Coincidence??

More than likely yes, but I didn't want to take any chances. As the coffee says, it all happens for a reason.

So there.

Pip pip, back tomorrow.

x

image via weheartit

Walk this way...

Due to the turning on of Christmas lights at St Pauls Cathedral just down the road from me, and the resulting bus chaos that will ensue, I am having to walk some or all of the way to the train station this evening. Bearing in mind this post from a couple of weeks ago this may be a Bad Idea.

If I never post again it was nice knowing you *gulp*

Au revoir (I hope)

x

ps. two posts in one day? I know!!

If I were a painter...

...I would paint a reverie.

But I am not.

My sister on the other hand is extraordinarily talented in the painting department and these pictures were taken of her paints and brushes.

Hope you are having a nice Tuesday despite the rain my dears.

Toodle-oo

x