I actually went out in the garden and pulled some weeds today. This is unlike me. I haven't done much gardening for the past month. Summer is, however, more about maintenance than actual work: this is my excuse for not doing any. I deadhead my flowers and that's enough for me. They have gotten big enough so that they mostly suppress the weeds anyway. However, my new asparagus bed was overflowing with volunteer poppies, drowning the poor baby asparagus and I bit the bullet and got it razed. While out there, I picked a variety of bouquets, then took a few snaps for your viewing pleasure.

I'm quite happy with my lilies; they were a new acquisition this spring. I hope they keep coming back. And of course my old favorites, the orange dahlias; what would I do without them? Probably have very sparse flower arrangements. The one you see before you is the pretty much my first dahlia of the season. Oh, and my collection of doilies come from my mother's and grandmother's respective stashes. I love a nice doily.

When I got home from work yesterday I was astonished to see the sofa cushion covers washed, the lawn mowed, and the computer room slightly tidied. For Partner, this is a very big deal. He doesn't normally have this kind of initiative. When I got a full-time job, he promised he would take over half the housework from me (during my part-time years I did most of the household chores). I think he forgot that he ever made such a promise. Or maybe (charitably speaking) he doesn't realize just how much housework there actually is. He does dishes and occasionally sparks up the vacuum cleaner. He used to brush out the toilet once in a while but I think he's stopped doing that. If I ask him to do stuff, he's pretty good about doing it. But it sucks to keep having to ask. It feels like he's doing me a favor when he does it because I ask. It doesn't feel like equal division of labor. So maybe this is the start of a new trend.

This morning while hunting as a pack (aka taking the dog for a walk), Partner and I saw thirteen tiny ducklings, only just hatched. Most of the ducklings on the pond are now burly adolescents who've left home already. These ducklings had two mommies who shouted at the dog every time she tried to get a closer look. So cute.

I've nearly finished the blue starred skirt I had in mind. Well, when I say nearly finished, I mean I need to put on the waistband, the sash, and hem the bugger. But I drafted a very successful pattern when fits me exceptionally well. I made liberal use of the tape measure and straight edge. I plan on finishing it today and I may have enough material left over to make a top. The only downside to making my own patterns is sewing projects take a lot of time. I have to make the pattern first, then figure out how it's supposed to all fit together. I think I've worked out the skirt though; maybe I should write myself directions on the pattern for next time. I've been using newspaper sheets glued together to cut out patterns. It seems to work quite well. Back when I was a teenager I used brown paper bags. You don't get them in this country, though.




A few runner beans next to a flowerbed, taken this morning. All the latest garden photos are at:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/cosmicharley/Garden%20of%20Galadriel/July%202008/

I finished the white blouse earlier today and I'm happy to say it fits perfectly and is super cute. I will try and get a proper photo of me in it. This last weekend Partner and I went shopping and I bought three yards each of blue star print and white and red polka dot cotton fabric. I have visions of a light polka dot dress and possibly a blue skirt. However, I'm not entirely decided and what I want the most for my wardrobe at the moment are cute tops. So I'll just have to see. Shopping was great fun, though, and I saw all kinds of prints I would have loved to have bought, if only they were 100% cotton. I didn't want any polyester.

We went to the indoor market at Leeds and I took photos as promised. My father-in-law kindly donated his old phone to Partner who in turn bequeathed it to me; it takes much better photos than my old phone. I wanted to take a picture of a halibut at the fish market, but the best I could do was turbot. Still, as a flatfish, it's pretty darn cool. Since it swims on the bottom of the ocean, its eyes are on the top of its head, but unlike a normal fish with a dorsal fin on top and arms on either side, it evolved so that it actually swims on its side with an arm on top and bottom and the dorsal fin on one side. It's so freakish and utterly neat.



Red snapper on the left, and those little bundles are razorfish (actually a type of shellfish)



Mackerel



This is the turbot. You kind kinda make out its asymmetric eyes. Cool, huh?




Various fish in bins



More random fishies

Here is the nearly finished first sewing project. I only need to add buttons and buttonholes--everything else is completely done. I'm really happy with the design of it, and I will definitely use the pattern again, though I may modify the sleeves and collar, and possibly make it more fitted around the waist. There are some slight flaws to the attachment of the lining which you totally cannot see from the outside, but I will have to work on it next time. I couldn't work out how to attach the sleeves and the sleeve lining smoothly, so unfortunately there is a raw edge on the inside there. And I need to figure out how to do the hem attached to the lining as well. Still, all in all I'm very pleased, especially since I not only sewed it myself, but designed and drafted the pattern myself. Oh, and it's being modeled not by the Venus de Milo but by my aforementioned duct tape dressmaker's form. I found some very helpful pattern-making resources online for making the sleeves and collar, and for help in utilizing the blind hem stitch option on my sewing machine, including:

http://vintagesewing.info/1940s/42-mpd/mpd-02.html#measurements
http://www.burdastyle.com/howtos/show/218
http://www.freesewingpattern.net/freesewingpattern01.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdKe9crSHac

I have a few other projects in mind for some bits of material I have hanging about the place. I have about two or so yards of some red satiny material and about a yard of some gray woolly stuff (it may have once been a blanket). I might put them together to make a gray jacket with red lining, or I might do them separately as a red dress and a gray skirt. I also want to make a trip to the fabric store and pick up any bargains I can find. My only prerequisite is that the material be made of a natural fiber such as cotton or linen. I looked through a few shops while in London but most of the material looked like it ought to be a curtain or possibly a pair of disco pants.

I am an avid follower of several blogs, and am always interested in other people's pictures, so I will try and break out my camera more often and post more photos. As one blogger put it, what fun is a blog without pictures?

Partner wrapped me up in two rolls of duct tape last week to make a dressmaker's form. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but once I was cut out of it and stuffed it, the thing is a pretty near double of my shape and size. I've already begun making a pattern on it for a shirt. I can foresee that making patterns will be much much easier. Before, I basically had to work things out on myself in front of a mirror. Now I can pin and tuck and cut efficiently.

I spent the last week in London with a cousin, mostly trying to find great landmarks and getting lost in the process. We saw a West End musical, a Leicester Square film, several museums, and all sorts of comings and goings. I actually think my favorite place was the street we went shopping in East London with all the charity shops and cheap clothing stores. I bought a new pair of shoes (bit of a shock--I haven't bought shoes in years), a couple books, and some hand-embroidered doilies. I love nice handmade doilies and tablecloths and the like, especially embroidered. I like old jugs and bowls and vases for flower arrangements, though I didn't find any this time. I also adore rhinestone brooches and I always have a look for them (once I found a gorgeous silver dragonfly). I used to just look at clothing in charity shops, but now it's more household items.

The cousin is now (hopefully) back home, as am I. It's good to be back--I hadn't seen Partner in a week, though now we're home he's downstairs on the edge of his seat watching a car race. The house is only slightly untidy. And he cooked himself dinner every night while I was gone, he claims. I'm impressed. Clever man.

These daisies grow abundantly everywhere in my garden. Partner assures me they didn't come from a wildflower seed packet, but actually are weeds. I think they're great, looking equally fabulous indoors or out. And if they creep into already occupied beds, they're easy enough to pull out.



I've spent the last hour or so tidying up in my house, but there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference. I did, however, find a few old letters I sent to Partner before we got married, one of which was on homemade stationary. I remember the events happening which I describe in the letter, but I don't remember making the stationary at all. I recognize my own drawing style, so I do know it's mine, but what a surprise to see it. Actually, while I'll often remember things I wrote down years ago, more than once I've found old drawings I don't recall at all.


















All June garden photos are here:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/cosmicharley/Garden%20of%20Galadriel/June%202008/

Back from a whirlwind trip to Belgium, I'm completely exhausted. We tried Belgian waffles, beer, and chocolates. To tell the truth, of those three I liked the beer the best, and I'm not even a beer drinker. We went to an art museum in Bruges, had a look around a fruit and flower market, and nearly got run over by several bicycles over the course of four days; there were a Lot of Bicycles. We found out at the end of our trip that you can borrow a bicycle for free at the town where we stayed. If we ever go back I'll want to try it. I took some pictures but only got one picture taken of me. As we were walking along a residential area in Bruges, I took notice of some of the doors that we passed and took a few pictures to show my mother; I thought she might like to see the handle in the center of the door. It was only by chance that I happened to see this particular one with the door above. I have no idea why there is a door above. It was obviously not built with a balcony, and both doors are much smaller and more old-fashioned than the one next to them. I also took several photos of the churches we visited. I'm not sure why, but a lot of my pictures turned out a bit blurry. I think that since the resolution was so high it was extremely motion sensitive. I got some decent photos, regardless.

It rained a lot while we were gone and all my new plants grew about six inches in those four days. My bulb irises are all in flower, as are some of my roses, my montana clematis, and lupins. It's a good time for flower arranging. Two of my favorite bouquet fillers are simply weeds that grow everywhere: daisies and cow parsley. I did three arrangements for the house today and then Partner said, "Can I pick one too?" He filled my lovely green jug with red peonies and purple lupin. I think he used the Golden Ratio when arranging it: it looks really simple and nice. I kind of try for the Ratio in my artistic efforts (especially photos), though it doesn't seem to appear much in my flower arrangements.

I made myself a pair of pyjama pants recently with some material I had lying around. I've got a matching top to finish as well. I was thinking I might do a little embroidery on the top, though I haven't decided what. It's a plain white cotton camisole with red gingham straps and edging. The bottoms are the same white cotton with gingham patchwork panels going up the outside of each leg. I thought I might make Partner a similar pair but maybe without the patchwork. Or maybe with. He told me I ought to wear them to his Grateful Dead tribute concert next month. Maybe he secretly cherishes the notion of dressing like a hip'n'happenin'hippie. I have a block of corduroy patchwork I made back in the day when I was a trendy hippie, but even then I never wore patchwork trousies. The block is leftover from a shoulder bag.

Complete Belgium photos:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/cosmicharley/Belgium%202008/

Some of those seedlings have been transplanted and are happy in the ground. The runner beans fiercely love their new bamboo canes. A dahlia and a zinnia both got torn stems and needed emergency reconstructive surgery using medical tape; both are recovering. The snails really like zinnias and cosmos, but I think most of them are ok. And somehow snails invaded the greenhouse to eat holes in my basil. I have no idea how they climbed the rungs. I did find a big snail caught between the bars of the barbecue out back. It's just a thin metal grill really--no way a snail could slime its way on. I think a bird dropped it from above. We do have snail-eating thrushes who come all the time and tap tap tap on the snails' doors. Then I find empty shells on the patio and feel all warm inside. When I catch them I just step on them. My gramma used to salt them, but I think that's unnecessarily cruel. Just get it over quickly.

Partner and I are going to Belgium next week. I don't know much about this country other than they have two languages, don't have strict laws governing the ingredients in beer, and have a yearly Formula One race. But Partner really likes it there, and I'm looking forward to seeing Hieronymus Bosch paintings.

I got myself a bit of a sunburn yesterday while gardening. All my seedlings need to go in, but my spring bulbs aren't even finished yet. So a few key beds are still unavailable and my seedlings are languishing in my greenhouse. While tidying up some beds earlier in the week, I discovered one of my shrubs had propagated itself by layer which means a branch resting on the ground grew roots. There were two of these new shrubs so I was happy to move them to an empty shady corner. I don't even know what kind of shrub it is, other than it is evergreen and has tiny pink flowers. I also found that a few delphiniums that I planted last year did not in fact drown as I had thought.

We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream, an opera by Benjamin Britten. Talk about cool. Who knew that an opera could be funny? And have appeal to children? Or that counter-tenors could have major roles? The music was really weird, the set design and costumes were really weird, the lighting was really weird. But weird as in weird and wonderful rather than weird and wrong. I've never had so much fun at an opera. We saw Don Giovanni a while back, also sung in English, but it was a bit ho-hum and the end was dreadfully anti-climactic. In Amadeus, the staged bit of Don Giovanni ends with the don being confronted with his sins and facing an eternity of torment--a suitably dark ending with him plunging into the pit. In actuality, it ends with the cast singing a sickeningly chirpy little number about sinners burning in hell. A Midsummer Night's Dream was so much better than Swan Lake, I thought, even though of course they are two different genres and even musical periods. I always considered that I preferred Romantic era music above all else, but I have decided Tchaikowsky, at least, is boring. Bring on the utter weirdness of the Twentieth Century.

I'm learning, albeit erratically, Rhapsody in Blue for piano. I've got sheet music and a CD sans piano (though I haven't progressed that far yet). It's a tough piece, encompassing a lot of jazzy chords at a very fast pace. And at about fifty pages or so, the length can be daunting. It's good for my sight-reading skills. I rather wish I had more time to devote to the piano. One of my friends in high school was quite regimental about her practicing and the results were excellent.

Today being the first real warm sunny day this spring, I spent a few hours in the garden, both planting, weeding, and working on a painting; in other words, I spent the day getting dirty. I ordered several plants via a catalogue this year, and nearly all of them have arrived and been planted. Two I'm excited about: asparagus and rhubarb. Both are just beginning to sprout, having been in the ground for a few weeks now. The only problem is I have to wait till next year before I can harvest them. Still, I'm very confident it'll be worth the wait.

Partner is downstairs with his guitar students. The little girl is about nine I think, and she's a beginner, but I think the lesson is getting frustrating for her. They are just working on one thing over and over again. I think if they were my students, I'd take a break from the hard stuff to work on the fun stuff, then back to the hard stuff. Otherwise she might get too bored and annoyed with herself for not seeming to advance, and just give up altogether. I think learning a skill has more to do with the abilities of the teacher than the student. But I do think Partner is very good at guitar and he is enthusiastic about it.

At last I got the snow I've been dreaming of, even though it came on Easter day, which spoiled my plans for an egg hunt. Then again, it's virtually impossible to dye eggs here, as they only seem to sell the brown ones at the stores. The only white eggs I've seen here were duck eggs at a market. Once. I made my snowman, threw my snowball, and had a good munch on a bit of clean snow off a shrub (never off the ground--the dog uses our back yard as a toilet). So all my snow cravings have been filled--except one: I didn't have enough snow to build a snow fort and initiate a snowball battle.

The snow lasted most of the afternoon, but by evening it had begun to melt and my snowman was the only bit of snow left over the next day. And even he was just a snowtot by then.

We went to see Swan Lake last week, Partner and I. Though the music was pretty schmaltzy, the swan, Odette, was excellent. However, I thought the story was a bit confusing. And here I thought it was about swans on a lake, but it was really about this prince and he doesn't even meet Odette or any swans until the fourth act. And the whole time I thought the black swan was Odette's mean husband which is why she kept running away from the prince (well, that and the fact he kept pointing a crossbow at her). Then at the end she throws herself into the lake--silly way for a swan to die, because everyone knows they are inherently buoyant. And I'm not even sure why she kills herself, because the prince was there to save her and she just kept running away from him. So my marks are as follows: Dancing: A, Sets and Scenery: A, Storyline: C-, Music: C. And, I might add, I enjoyed seeing those skin-tight trousers on the male dancers. It's a bit of role reversal when the women are all angular and the men are the one with the excellent curves on the back, on the legs, on the bottom...

All my Easter photos are here:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/cosmicharley/Garden%20of%20Galadriel%20Easter%202008/?albumview=grid

I've been in bed for the past couple days but I've found it in me to wobble out and have a go on the computer this morning. I was awakened at nine by a knocking on the door. Hoping it was a delivery of plants I'd ordered, I blearily opened the bedroom window. But it was just a man asking if I had any scrap metal. I don't know if he was shocked at my haystack hair; I didn't have my glasses on. I'm sure in his world, all reasonable people are up and awake, ready to meet callers at nine AM.

So while I've been in bed, Partner's been in charge of the housekeeping. He got really excited at the prospect of laundry, which he is normally not allowed to touch. He said, I'm going to do all the towels together. I said, don't you dare put the white towels in with the dark towels!

My trays of seedlings are excitingly full of greenery now, and the cuttings I took are still not dead yet. I had a look around my garden and some volunteer snapdragons have invited themselves in already. I didn't have any last year, even though I like them so much. They just seem to self-seed in the oddest places. I wonder if they could be increased through cuttings or something. Or maybe I should just gather them all in one place, rather than leaving them randomly dotted about. I've got one in the front that keeps coming back year after year, though it's under a hebe bush. Obviously it's been there longer than the bush, yet the hebe has been here longer than I have. I wonder if it would mind being moved to a more comfortable location?

I noticed on our walk yesterday the ducks at the pond are swimming in twos and Partner swears he saw frog eggs there the other day but to be honest I didn't look very hard. Dog rolled in something foul. I turned around to see her working her back into it with a big grin. So it was straight upstairs into the bathtub when we got home.

Making the most of the sunshine and relative warmth outside, I did some heavy-duty weeding and hoeing today (and now my hands are numb). The weeds came up easily as the soil is quite damp; even the tenth generation dandelions gave little fight. The only stubborn ones: the nettles. But I persevered and they are all at the bottom of the bin. It's a lovely day for working in the garden; I must have spent about an hour out there. The dog was bored though, and kept asking me if she could go back inside. I kind of like to keep an eye on her when I'm at home as she likes to get into mischief. No doubt she had plans to jump on all the furniture and turn on bad daytime tv very loudly while eating cookies and getting crumbs on the floor. Which is what I suspect she does when she's home alone.

A runaway bunny appeared in our yard the other morning. White and fluffy with lop ears, it obviously had owners, but as to who or where, I had no clue. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded it staying but it was nibbling my new spring growth in the garden. So I went out and introduced myself and it eventually allowed me near enough to stroke and then grab. After a very brief struggle, it stayed still in my arms and I brought it inside. The dog met us at the door with the happiest look on her face: all her dreams had just come true. "It's for me! It's for me!" she shouted for joy as she bounced up and down. It was soon apparent to her than the rabbit was actually for me, so she rushed outside happily to catch one of her own, giving me a chance to hustle the bunny upstairs into the bathroom to await an owner. I figured a little cottontail could do the least damage there as far as munching and pelleting. After a morning of asking around, someone finally turned up at the door to claim it. A mother and her two children whisked it away gratefully (the little boy kept saying, "Wasn't it nice of her to take care of him?" As if he'd expected me to be mean to a widdle wabbit) and another adventure ends well.

Yesterday a freezing fog hung thick all day in our area. Every outline, from twigs on trees, to blades of grass and forgotten cobwebs was individually outlined in pure white frost. While lovely to look at, it was bitterly cold; the heat was off in the house when I got home from work and I never recovered from the chill. Even today I still have a little residual shiver. I think maybe one of my houseplants got frostbite; the poor thing wilts listlessly today. The daffodils rolled over and played dead, but in the slightly warmer temperatures today (compared to yesterday it's practically balmy) they are frolicking again.

Partner got me some French piano music from the turn of the twentieth century: Satie and Debussy. The word I use to describe them: Weird. Ok, even Bach can be weird but at least when he's not making sense, he's still sticking to form. These late French composers don't really have forms. Satie doesn't like key signatures, time signatures, tempos, or any kind of notation at all whatsoever. It seems more like rambling impromptu stuff rather than actual music written down for other people to play. And Debussy...don't get me started. He writes using three staves; I can't decide if the music is meant to be played by two people or a three-armed megamonkey. And I'm neither.

Partner's laptop is offline for the time being and there is a marked improvement in internet loading times. I bet the rest of the computer processes are speeded up too though I haven't tried them yet. He clogs up the network with his constant downloading of very large music files. He's done it for so long, I'd forgotten how fast the connection really ought to be.

The first of my many daffodils opened today. I've had three crocuses make an appearance--I'm hoping for more. I planted them in the lawn last year. The frogs in the pond are pairing up. And I had the most peculiar feeling as I waited for my laundry to dry outside...a feeling I haven't had in many months: a sudden urge to visit the garden center. It was such a strong compulsion I couldn't resist and returned with several packets of seeds, a few bags of gladiolas, and a sack of potting compost.

A very unsightly hole marks the back of my hand where a big drop of hot grease splattered me at work. It blistered, broke, and made a near-perfect circle, but it looks like a disreputable injury. Rather like a cigarette burn or something. I was cooking about twenty steaks on the griddle during the dinner time rush and grease was flying and a particularly pernicious globule struck. I can remember shaking my hand and seeing an angry red mark, but not thinking much of it at the time. I've had plenty of time to ponder it since. Last time I burnt myself badly (a fiery hot potato exploded in the palm of my hand) I applied ice for several hours and escaped a blister.

I had the quietest haircut of my life last week. I figured it was about time I got rid of the split ends and stopped into a cheapie salon in town for a quick trim. The only words the hairdresser said to me were: "how much do you want off?" and "that's £5.50." Maybe I exaggerate slightly, but there was absolutely no small talk involved whatsoever. Personally I don't find it easy to make small talk with strangers. But really. You don't go in for a haircut, you go in for a forced chat about your personal life. I feel gypped.

I was only relieved of about two inches of hair. On the whole it is much neater and not so ragged. I think I will have to get another inch off in a few months, to annihilate the next generation of split ends before they take over. I read in the style section of the newspaper that the best way to be stylish is to have a good haircut. It didn't actually say what constitutes a good haircut. So I can't tell if I'm stylish or not.

Now at the advanced age of 27, I have ventured into the strange realm of skincare. In my past, skincare has been random and sporadic. Maybe a dab of sunscreen in the summer, a tube of face wash once in a great while, application of makeup rarely though amateurishly. But now I contemplate my age and my future. I am on the downhill slide of youth and soon I will be climbing the hill of middle age. Obviously I have a few more years of the youthy slidey bit, but I can see that hill a'coming. And so I have bought a few skincare products. One is a moisturizer which slightly intimidates me. Along with the usual "light, non-greasy" spiel, it claims to reveal younger looking skin upon use. When I bought it, I kind of just looked at the front label for a 15 SPF and it was really the first to hand. I also bought an exfoliating facial wash, which upon closer examination claims the same as the moisturizer. I can't believe I'm so old that I need beauty tonics for my face to make me look younger. I can't believe I'm so old that I need to look younger.

Partner got a laser mouse for his laptop. The kind without a roller thingie. So I type this on his laptop and try out his mouse. But it's hard to balance the computer on my lap and maneuver the mouse without a mousepad.

The dog and I went on Walkies though really today it should be termed as Swimmies. There is a reclaimed mine area a few blocks from our house which is something between a wildlife refuge and a public park. We almost always go there for our walk. The paths today were running with rainwater and the ponds were overflowing. Beauty sprinted across the football pitch (soccer field) and did a Moses impression. When we got home it was straight upstairs to the bathtub for a rinse.

I've registered for an online correspondence course for next September. I'm going to study IT and computing. I want a BSc. And then I'll be cool. I've tried my best to register for universities around here but it's stumped me. They have a cut-off date for applications and classes all start in the fall. My dad's university is much easier to register for and students can join in at the start of semesters, rather than the start of the academic year. The cut-off date here is in January. And they don't make it easy for foreign nationals to become students. They wanted me to pick what school I went to from a drop-down menu--seeing as I didn't attend school in this country I couldn't complete that part of the application, rendering the entire document void. But registering for online courses seemed easy enough and a lot cheaper and I don't have to give up my job to study.

I had a fun birthday and Christmas. Partner got me some new art supplies. I think he is hinting I should be working on it more. As a child and teenager I drew constantly, always practicing. Then I kind of gave up because I had more pressing concerns, not the least of which I was afraid of being merely mediocre. I am mediocre. Oh well. I can only improve. Same with my piano playing. I'm not overly talented, I just practiced enough when I was younger to become proficient, not brilliant. I think some people used to have the misconception about me that I was good at everything. It wasn't inherent. I just tried harder than those people. These days, my candle is slightly obscured by a bushel. I don't think people consider me so accomplished any more.

I did practice with my new art supplies today. I painted my nude redheaded woman. She's a subject I fall back on a lot. I'm working on her. I used to do fantasy illustration. Mermaids and princesses were a repeating motif. And unicorns. And roses. I haven't done a good rose in a long time. I looked at one of my friend's notebook a little while ago and was stunned at how much his technique has improved compared to mine. We both used to do dragons but now his leave mine in the dust. Though I admit it's been a while since I've done a dragon.

My hair has grown quite long in the past year since I haven't had it cut. It falls barely past my ribs now but it needs trimming of excess split ends. In 2003 it was about an inch long. Now at the end of 2007 it's just about two feet long.

I think pretty much all of my Christmas shopping is done. I enjoy spending money but I abhor fighting through crowds. Internet shopping is the way forward. I left my medium coat at my mother-in-law's house so I've been choosing between my light jacket and heavy coat to go out in. The heavy coat is lovely and warm but weighs a lot (it's wool and reaches below my knees) so I get tired out quicker when I wear it. My medium coat is also wool but just goes to my hips. And it's bright red. So it's my favorite. I need it back.

It's about time I went and took the dog for walkies. There difference between unwalked and post-walked behavior is markedly different. The unwalked dog is tense and irritating. The post-walked dog is calm and obedient. When she doesn't get walked for a few days she starts to act out. I call it walkie frustration.