Tuesday 30 September 2008

Freecycle

I believe that Freecycle started somewhere in USA. But now it is definitely over here in the UK as well.
I am a member of my local group, and get regular e-mails with OFFERED and WANTED listed, sometimes they don't catch my eye, but tonight two have.
I will always see what anyone offering "various" has to offer. The various e-mail I looked at tonight has a huge list of items, a workshop clearance.
The other that caught my eye was a WANTED request, "Big Cat Carrier", I'm sure this is a punctuation mistake, and they aren't wanting a huge basket to put a lion, tiger or some other such creature in, but who knows?


Any way, I think I should share the list of "various"

All to be picked up Wednesday evening from 6pm. Please note all a bit dusty from being in the shed.
2 besoms (broomsticks) one needs a bit of filling out
2 irons, one relatively new, the other old
Duster - yellow nylon
Toaster - small and old but works
CD player/radio
Watering can
Seed trays
Basket of old fabric paints and dyes
Budgie cage stand
Wire hanging basket
Old metal bell - has a good dong
Basket of sponges for craft purposes
Tin of drill bits
Morrocan lantern, ornate metal, in three pieces. Needs repair.
3 hand saws
3 traffic cones
Plastic containers/buckets. Various sizes
Electric seed tray/incubator type thing.
Pile of cushions. Various sizes and quality.
2 bin bags of old jumpers. Meant for felting etc but never got round to it...
Carved pine mirror on stand. Very pretty but water stained.
Pine slatted storage box. 30cm high, 37cm square.
Plastic landscape - for playing with plastic animals. Bit tatty.
Large orange fishing net. Good for displays.
Wooden folding chair
Wind break
Halogen heater
2 rotary clothes lines
Wooden play pen. No base, 3 dowels missing.
Mirror. Approx 1m high by 35cm
Bag of fabric for bunting - some pre cut.
3 cork notice boards 1 x A1, 2 x A2
3carry mats, bit tatty but useful?
Wicker paper bin
Coathangers, mainly wooden
3 oil filled radiators, one large,2 small with broken legs.
2 bookshelves approx 6ft high. Black MDF, insides decorated with colourful images.
2 clothes airers. 1 concertina, one fold out.
Phone. Scruffy but works.
Rag rug in a spider web design. Needs a good clean.
3 stacking tins (plant pot holders?)
Small white coffee cups and ceramic dishes - good for ceramic painting.
3 stacking pots. Red with white spots. Used for plant pots.
2 compost bins. 1 large dalek style, the other small and green.
Compost kitchen caddy
Terracotta tiles. Small pile measure 20cm x 20cm
Blue plastic shell (sand pit?)
Bag of decorative 'bits'.
Wooden box (garden trug?). Has handle. May need small repair.

Please email me and I'll send directions,Jen



For the background on Freecycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freecycle_Network

Sunday 28 September 2008

Knitting

I have been looking at http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.com/ lately, and thought it was about time I did some knitting.

The other week I bought some variegated pastel "fur" yarn, and am just knitting it into a very thin "scarf", mainly to see how far one ball of wool will go.

I also found a project on Craftster, where a member has made Cookie Monster, in crochet, and I thought I might be able to knit a Cookie Monster, have bought yarn for that.

Other craft projects on the go.

A patchwork bedspread for my bed, and bag making. I am trying to use home made strong cloth bags for shopping these days so I don't have to use plastic carrier bags from the supermarket. But Oliver took two of them back to uni, so I need to make more.


Pulling?



Tonight my daughter, Sam, wanted me to drive her into Lancaster to meet up with friends. When she wants a taxi service I agree these days, but drive her in her car.

This is fun, I get to drive a car that looks like a cow.

Can't remember if I have blogged about Sam's car, but will rectify that now, by showing pictures. Also, as I was driving her, another car passed us with lads around Sam's age in it, they shouted to us. Sam said..."that's not fair, I never pull when I'm driving" Don't think I had pulled, just brightened someone's day up.

And now for something completely different!

Yes! I love Monty Python.
So, I nicked the title.yay!!!!!!
On Wednesday it is the 1st of October, which means I will be able to walk the dogs on the beach at the bottom of the road. I think I miss not going on the beach as much as they do. There is a beach I could take them on during the summer, but have only just got to walking that sortof distance without being worn out by the time I have got there, (and still have to get back!)So...if I'm not around on Wednesday it's because I am on the beach with the dogs, and possibly flying one of my new kites

Hard winter? Perhaps.

Am just wondering if we are in for quite a hard winter.why? Cos the past two nights I have heard the geese flying over. Thing is, I'm sure that they are around a month earlier than they usually are. And forgaging. Well, am not fit enough to do that, but around here there seem to be lots of bird friendly berries by the sides of the roads. Lots of elderberries and haws, also loads of rosehips, but have never seen birds eating them, rosehips that is.

Saturday Evening...again!

Yes, it happened again last night!
People yelling and screaming at each other in the street.
This time it was a male and female, but they were further away, so must have been really yelling at each other. The woman kept on screaming.
You know, I think if a Saturday evening goes past without such a happening I will probably wake wondering what is wrong, thinking the world has ended, and I am the only person left alive. (Joking!) But it is so regular that I am getting quite good at turning over and going straight back to sleep again.

Saturday 27 September 2008

Two weeks later!

OK, first apologies. I haven't been awfully well, mostly just very tired lately.....so I haven't blogged. Hope you will forgive me?

Last Saturday evening/night ran true to form. At around 12.30-12.45 I was awoken by screaming banshees, well maybe not banshees in the true dictionary meaning of the word, but the neighbours from the row at the bottom had decided Saturday evening was a good time to have a screaming match at each other over the garden fence. That I was disturbed by, but what else I heard bothered me. At least one child was upset by what was going on, and was outside at that time of the night screaming, just as I was beginning to wonder if it would ever quieten down it went quiet. I hope someone had called the police.

Tonight I am feeling very tired, and may go off to bed early.

I saw the podiatrist on Tuesday, and she told me that I have to have the insoles in my shoes more or less forever, as if I don't my foot will collapse again, and this time it will not be able to be put right. Wonderful, no more ladylike shoes for me. Not that I went in for ladylike, but I do like my sandals. Still I'd rather be able to walk properly.
So, for future reference, if you ever see me, I'm the one with the clunky shoes, and mad socks. The stripey-er and more colourful the better as far as I'm concerned!

Sunday 14 September 2008

Yet another Saturday night!

well, it was in the early-ish hours of Sunday morning really.
Yes! you guessed it, the neighbours couldn't let the weekend pass without some kind of entertainment.
Just before 5am a voice was shouting "move your [swearword] car!" Then there was the sound of a car being moved, and another voice yelling "don't you ever [swearword] touch my car again!" more shouting ensued. this went on for a short while, then the owner of the first voice drove off. Only to return shortly afterwards, and thump the door of the house almost! Nope! not mine, the one he lives at. But the door wasn't opened, so he kept thumping, and yelling. Just before 6am I got fed up with it all, so rang the police about the "disturbance". They said they would send someone, I don't know if they did, as I eventually managed to get back to sleep.
Who said cul-de-sacs are quiet?

Friday 5 September 2008

Random Thoughts

Does anyone else have daft random thoughts pop into their head?
I like to watch Coronation Street, (for non UK reader's a several times a week soap,) and tonight I noticed a "theme" that the scriptwriters might be pursuing, or at least a variation on a theme.After Roy and Ken were released from the police Station, and walked down the street, was it only me who saw the echo of a "Wizard of Oz" theme? Especially as Becki linked arms with Roy and Ken and tried to get them to "skip" down the street away from camera.My cast list would be Becki as Dorothy, Roy as the Tin Man, Ken as the Cowardly Lion and Vernon as the scarecrow, and Ken does have that silly dog if the dog MUST be there as well. I just wonder who the Wizard will turn out to be, if the scriptwriters have decided on a Wizard of Oz mini plot, please don't let it be Norris.

I just thought I'd share one of my random tangents with you.

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Gadgets!

Well, tonight on the news they did a "filler" story.
CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC......" Books are on the way out"

Sorry, the way they presented the story was funny. They gave the example of videos giving way to DVD's, Walkmans to mp3 players and i pods. Apparently books will be superseded by e-books, these wonderful machines can store up to 160 full length novels. Sounds good you might think, you can take this e-book with you wherever you go. It is only the size of a standard paperback, and ...if you finished your book, well it can store 160, so you wouldn't run out of reading material, ever again, or would you?
These are what I see as the drawbacks. The experts say that you should take a est from working at a PC, handheld games, etc, so surely the same applies to the e-book. And something else, it must work on some kind of battery. So, you are just getting to a really interesting part of the book..........
and the battery fails. Wouldn't that just annoy you? It would me.

I think it would be a nice "gadget"to have, but I'll stick with the real thing. After all, there are still orchestras, and musicians, even though there is a huge range of recorded music. And despite digital cameras people still use "real" cameras. And I do like to have a book, and as the presenter pointed out, you would serious damage your e-book if you read in the bath, and accidentally dropped it in.

And another last thought to leave you with, wouldn't it take the pleasure out of having a good old browse in a bookshop, carefully picking your next book?