Photo an Hour l 19th April

09.40 Late start to Photo an Hour, mostly because I'd forgotten what day it was. One of the annoying things about living on your own is that there's no-one to try and bug to make you a cup of tea. It annoys me endlessly, especially on weekend mornings.

10.30 Ironing a shirt. Because just wearing something ready to wear from my wardrobe is simply too difficult

11.25 In the car and ready to have an adventure, I was off to meet up with Janet for another stomp around Bradgate Park

12.20 Whilst stomping around we discovered the most amazing tree which was completely hollow. Standing inside and looking I spied a Janet!

13.30 Stomping over it was time for tea drinking and toastie eating. And a lot of gossiping.

14.45 Back home to this gorgeous little face. Just look at him.

15.30 Time to dig out the yarn and get going on a project I've been working on for the past few weeks. These colours make me happy to my very core.

16.35 Deep in amigurumi-ing

17.30 Still crocheting and the shape is beginning to take form. Can you tell what it is yet?

18.47 In the middle of Skypeing with American Girl. I. Love. Technology.

19.30 Still Skypeing and enjoying how sunny and light it was outside at 7,30pm

20.40 Skype session over and food time. No I did not really make this dinner myself, this was a leftover lamb shank my sister had saved for me the week before. All this girl needed to do was microwave a bag of new potatoes and mixed vegetables. Cooking for the lazy.

21.40 My favourites Sunday night activity. Watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. I don't even care. I love it.

22.30 Retired to bed but there is still crocheting to do. And catching up of The Archers to do.

23.30 Finished for the day! And a finished article. One fat bird who is part of a bird army I have been crocheting (blog post to follow when I eventually get around to blogging again.)

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Thank you to Jane and Louise for hosting. Check in with them to find out the date for May's Photo an Hour post and don't forget to join in on Twitter and/or Instagram using #PhotoAnHour

2015 Photo an Hour posts
January
February 
March

Photo an Hour l 21st March

06.35 : Up frightfully early for a weekend because I was about to embark on a huge journey. Not before fuelling up with Marmite on toast & a cup of tea though.

07.20 : In the car and ready to drive down the M5 to Somerset to visit my Dad. The prospect of a 3.5 hour trip down there was not making me feel excited.

09.25 : No photo for 8am as driving (safety first everyone!) But I did have a stop off at the Services after hitting a stressful diversion on the M5 which was closed for 4 junctions due to a lorry overturning and spilling about 600 litres of fuel all over the place.

11.10 : Destination reached! Hurrah! Cup of tea for the weary traveller.

12.30 : Oh no I'm back in a car again! But luckily not driving this time. Instead we were headed for an adventure...

13.30 : To the sea!! I love the sea! Technically not the sea, but the English Channel. And a stroll along the beach at Burton Bradstock. It was beautiful and there will obviously be a separate blog post devoted to it where I will spam your face with pictures of it.

14.30 : Some people go to the beach and have fish & chips - I do it in style baby. Messy style, but style nonetheless.

15.40 : Back at home and Shadow is not a happy girl. She did not enjoy the water and did not enjoy the sand. It's safe to say she's not a beach fan.

16.30 : Sat down to do a spot of crocheting, obviously there's something new on my hook...

17.30 : Dedication people. I will get back into running, I will. And so determined was I that I brought my stuff with me to go for a run at my Dad's. Not one of my best decisions, Crewkerne is absolutely littered with hills. They are everywhere. And because I was just aimlessly running I didn't know where I was going and I swear at one point I thought I had devised a route which only contained uphill streets and I was never going to make it back down again. Still. Felt smug at the end of it though.

18.30 : Back crocheting and admiring my awesome stitch markers.

19.40 : It's starting to take shape - but can you tell what it is yet?!

20.15 : Late dinner of breakfast. Obviously.

21.20 : What? More crochet? Oh go on then.

22.30 : BED. Too much adventuring for one girl to take.

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Thanks as always to Jane and Louisa for hosting. Check in with them to find out the date for April's Photo an Hour post and don't forget to join in on Twitter and/or Instagram using #PhotoAnHour

2015 Photo an Hour posts

January

February

Can't blog, reading

I seem incapable of focusing on more than one thing at the moment. Once life starts happening, blogging stops happening, which shouldn't really come as a surprise to me.

Anyway, I've been reading and then talking about said reading for Alex's March Blogging Good Read and you can go and read about what I read by clicking right HERE.

Go get some book recommendations.

A little bit of internet love: Part VI

I know I should do these more often and then these posts wouldn't be showing you links to posts that were written about three weeks ago which I always worry makes me look ever so slightly creepy. "Oh hai, I've been saving this blog post of yours to share with people....along with the cutting of your hair that I took when I crept into your room last night..."

Anyway. Enough of being creepy. Time to share the love...


1. You may have noticed that I talk a lot about the fact that I'm from Hull - I'm a fan of anyone who talks about their love for Hull, and although our experiences of living in Hull are vastly different, Ryan's post, In Defence of Hull and his love for our city resonates with me.

2. Elise has been crocheting from a book that I've had for ages but have yet to dip into - check out this little Grim Reaper...

3. I'm going to sneakily move into Janet's house and set up camp at her new home office. Don't tell her I'm going to do it though...

4. Chloe talked about feeling attractive and I wholeheartedly agree with what she said. Especially about getting a shower/washing your hair - whenever I feel crappy I always force myself into the shower and it never fails to make me feel a little bit better.

5. Rachael wrote a post called Don't Assume Your Blog Followers... which really resonated with me in a couple of places. Especially the bit about assuming people use Bloglovin'.

6. Hayles went to a Black Heart Creatives jewellery workshop and I am outrageously jealous about it.

7. Christa over at A Voluptuous Mind posted Shall I Rise, a poem by Maya Angelou. It came at an incredibly appropriate time for me and I cried big, fat, blobby tears when I read it. It is beautiful.

Photo an Hour l 21st February

I should have been in Manchester this weekend, after my last weekend was cancelled. This weekend got cancelled as well. Need to cut these flaky people out of my life really don't I?

Anyway. No plans. Nothing happening. Yet another Photo an Hour date came round and I had a day of nothingness ahead of me. These Photo an Hour posts that I'm taking part in seem to serve the purpose of highlighting how crap my life is...

This was Saturday 21st February...

9am Slow start to the day as it was a late night the day before. Got up and made myself a cup of tea and retreated back to my lair to watch Goldfrapp videos on You Tube. For absolutely no reason.

10am It's not a weekend unless bacon is involved somewhere, at some point. This might be the finest bacon sandwich I've ever made myself, I got the perfect crispiness.

11am Decided to get up and get dressed but was faced with the everlasting problem of a wardrobe full of clothes and nothing to wear. My plan was to head straight out but got waylaid by a lengthy phone call with my Mum and the weather going absolutely batshit crazy - hailing with blue skies? What?

12pm Suddenly remembered that I needed to send off a package to a friend. I finally managed to crochet one hundred hearts for my friend's wedding and needed to send them off to her. Made use of my washi tape stash - everyone loves pretty post, right?

1pm Finally made it into town and to the Farmer's Market which takes place just beside the ruins of the castle. Thankfully the weather seemed to have calmed down and I did a big race around, ticking off everything that I wanted to get done in record time.

2pm Back home and noticed the rather lovely shadow being cast in my bedroom

3pm Turns out one of my headlights has gone out so I ventured out to Halfords to buy a bulb and get it fitted. Yeah you can fit them yourself but for the stress of it I'd rather just pay £7 and get it sorted thanks. Also, trying to take a surreptitious photo of someone fitting your new headlight is really hard.

4pm Time for a cup of tea and crochet time. Already got another couple of things waiting on my order book so time to get knuckled down. Care to venture a guess as to what it's going to be?

5pm More tea needed. This time accompanied by a beast of a doughnut that I bought earlier in the day at the Farmer's Market.

6pm Went to my sister's for dinner which means lots of time with my favourites - Rosie was in the middle of taking all her toys out of her toybox and sitting down surrounded by them.

7pm Whenever Blinky behaves like a normal cat it freaks us all out a little bit. Nobody really knew what to do when she jumped up on my sister's chair at the dining table - and certainly nobody wanted to risk moving her, you can never be sure when she will strike...

8pm TV watching with my bestie, Rowan. I actually think that if I could take Rowan home with me all the time then I wouldn't miss having a man in the house at all - I'd just hug her all night and it would be brilliant.

9pm On the way back home I figured it was essential to go to the 24 hour Tesco and stock up on crisps and booze for the rest of the evening. Late night shopping is my all time favourite - it's so empty you feel like you're doing something you shouldn't be doing.

10pm 30 Rock time. It arrived this week and I've been dying to watch it, perfect Saturday night TV.

11pm Still there, watching 30 Rock. Where I remained until much much later on. I think I watched eight episodes in a row which may be considered overkill by some people.

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So I don't know, I'm torn between thinking "Hey I did do some stuff, even though I had nothing really planned" and thinking "Well. This highlights how empty my life is doesn't it?"

Only time will tell...

Thanks as always to Jane and Louisa for hosting. Check in with them for March's Photo an Hour date and don't forget to join in on Twitter and Instagram using #PhotoAnHour

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2015 Photo an Hour Posts
January

A little bit of of internet love: Part V

I got into the habit towards the end of last year of spreading the internet love but it faded somewhat a while back, mostly because my To Be Read list on Feedly was a dreadfully terrifying number and I kept putting off catching up with blogs.

But I read this post on Bonjour Blogger the other day and it reminded me that it's important to keep the love going - talk about the posts you like, tell the bloggers that you liked it etc etc.

Plus, if I can fill a blog post with other people's blog posts then that's like blogging without actually blogging.

I've already said the words "blog" and "blogging" too much and now I feel a bit nauseous.

Anyway. On with the love...

1. Have you read any of the Under the Paw books? You should, they are hilarious. But that's an aside. Tom Cox has a Facebook page you should follow, not just because his posts are funny, but because he seems to be followed by a genuinely enormous number of followers who just don't understand that he's joking when he posts. Case in point - this little snippet.

2. More love for the boys coming at you in the shape of a post by Mr X Stitch, the frickin' coolest guy cross stitching that I know. I had already heard wind of The Big Comic Relief Crafternoon and was beyond excited to discover that it's got a pattern in there from Mr X Stitch himself! You know what's missing from your walls? A cross-stitched picture of a Wrestling Guinea Pig, that's what.

3. Juliet has finally given me an excuse to buy Crayola pencil crayons. You can only bloody turn them into lipstick!

4. Oh and if you were feeling hungry, Sarah posted earlier in the month about some incredibly lip-smacking recipes. I've made the blue cheese pasta before and it was so glorious it has stayed with me forever. Now I'm feeling an insatiable urge to make it again...

5. It wouldn't be a little bit of internet love post without a post from Janet. To be fair, I sometimes just feel like linking to her entire blog because everything she writes I love and wish I could claim as my own. At the moment she and another lovely lady called Steph, are organising a Big Blog Clothes Swap an online swap for all shapes and sizes, all you need to do is sign up and you'll be matched with someone else and you can get swapping!

6. Louisa posted an amazing tutorial for some absolutely brilliant looking Tunnocks Teacakes coasters. They look so great and are easy peasy to do. Plus you get to eat for the sake of crafting.

7. Ben over at The Running Dad wrote a very interesting post entitled "Do we really need to run like The Hulk?" a sentiment which I really need to keep in my brain when I go out running. It's not about "smashing it" and being the best there is, it's about just going out and enjoying yourself, something I definitely need to do more of.

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So that's a little bit of internet love for you - how about you get sharing too - spread the love people, spread the love.

Photo an Hour l 17th January

When I discovered that first Photo an Hour date was set for the 17th January I immediately thought to myself that I wouldn't bother. I knew that Saturday 17th January was going to be a fairly rubbish day for me. It would be the first day off I had had in thirteen days as I had gone straight from my first week back at work, straight through a week on-site in Barcelona, straight to another event in London.

In other words I was going to be absolutely shattered.

But I sucked it up and got on with it. After all, someone's day might be busy and someone's day might be lazy - what would mine have in store?

This was Saturday 17th January...

09.30 Quite the luxurious lie in compared to the days I'd had in the previous weeks but I was still shattered as I had not been to bed until gone 4am the day before. Not because I was being a huge party animal, but because other people were being huge party animals and I ended up taking care of some people - taking them to bed when it was time for the party to end, returning them to bed when they decided their party wasn't over...I was incredibly unimpressed. I felt I deserved a fry up.

10.30 In hindsight I should have just packed up and gone home. I left my house at 4.30am the previous Saturday and was keen to just get home, but being the nice person I am I was checking on people and making sure they were ok and helping them to get ready to check out, helping them pack their bags, ringing their rooms to make sure they were still alive etc etc. Oh I'm being serious. There were some real party people and I was rapidly losing my patience, wanting to be out of the hotel and on a train.

11.30 Everyone rounded up, in a taxi and finally at St Pancras station ready to return home.

12.20 Essential train snackagement.

13.30 No photo as I was train sleeping after train snacking

14.20 The best photo of my day. Finally back at home and finally getting to see my two little gerbil bums. I had missed them so much whilst I was away and you know what? I think they missed me.

15.30 Unpacking. A.k.a. chucking everything all over my bed and then sifting through the debris and putting a load of washing on.

16.30 Washing finished and hung up. On-site uniform is where super boring ugly clothes come to die. Black dresses, white shirts, black tights - bleurgh.

17.30 Time to catch up with The Archers after my week away. I could wait for the omnibus the next day but what would be the fun in that when the podcasts are downloaded and ready to go?

18.30 No food in the house. What better excuse than to order a takeaway...

19.45 ...which didn't arrive for over an hour. I was ridiculously hungry.

20.40 On the sofa beneath cushions, blanket and big wrap. I was not up for moving any time soon.

21.30 After a brief nap under my cushion/blanket/wrap pile I decided it was time to blow the candles out before I burned down the flat and take myself to bed where I promptly slept for over twelve hours.

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Many thanks to Louisa for hosting - check out her blog for February's Photo an Hour date and don't forget that you can join in on Twitter and Instagram using #photoanhour

The Not Really Resolutions 2015 - The Introduction

It's time. I'm ready for you 2015.

If there's nothing else this blog is good for, it's been absolutely awesome at getting me to set myself some actual goals and then attempt to see them through. Ok, they're not massive huge things, they're usually just stuff that I really needed to do anything but will never get done because I have a tendency to sit in front of the TV watching something with absolutely zero cultural merit.

I can't actually believe that this is the fifth year of doing these - anyone bored yet?!

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1. Read ten Classics/Non-Fiction
So for the past four years I have set myself the challenge of reading twelve Classics throughout the year. The idea behind this originally was just to try and expand my reading repertoire and it's been great at doing that but lately it's started to feel like a chore. It's become something that I've started to get a bit stressed out about and that's no good to anyone.

I've also realised that I don't read a lot of non-fiction and I wanted to rectify that. I didn't want to add in reading non-fiction on top of Classics as I'm not the speediest of readers so I thought I'd take my foot off the pedal a little bit and set myself the challenge of reading 10 books that are either Classics or non-fiction.

2. Go to two Park Runs a month (on average)
When I was looking at getting my car one of the reasons I was really looking forward to it was the freedom it would give me to do more. There is a Park Run tantalisingly close to me but inaccessible unless you have your own transport so now I've got it there can be no more excuses.

(I put in the "on average" when I realised that I'll be away for the first 3 weekends of January...)

This will also tie in nicely with number 3...

3. Beat my 10k time
Last year was the worst year ever when it came to running for me. It feels like I was injured in one form of the other for the whole year - I spent a ridiculous amount of money on physiotherapists and osteopaths and I was completely incapable of winning the battle between myself and my head when I was out stomping around the streets.

But this year is the year that I sort all this out. No more injuries. Just no. No no no no. Well I mean there probably will be, but hopefully nothing too debilitating.

I am roping in the help of my blogger friends with this one - I'm hoping that the encouragement of excellent runners like Miss Pond and Lucy will help me achieve this goal.

4. Design and make my own amigurumi
Last year was the Year of the Amigurumi and it felt like all I did in 2014 was crochet zebras, elephants and horses. But I'm still very much a slave to the pattern and don't have the confidence to take it off the page and out of my head.

But I know I have all the tools to make my own animal/character - amigurumi is basically just a series of shapes and once you can do one you can do any of the others - but I just need to take the time out to sit and design something myself.

5. Crochet an item of clothing
Amigurumi is sorted. Blankets are sorted. But I don't feel that skill-wise I'm really going anywhere at the moment. I see people who have never crocheted before picking up a hook and a couple of months later are dashing about in jumpers and cardigans that they've made. I need to take the plunge and do something out of my comfort zone.

(And no I promise I won't crochet a scarf and call this one complete :) )

6. Blog 3x a week (on average)
I'm an advocate of saying that blogging should be fun and shouldn't feel like a chore and I really do feel that way, but sometimes even with the fun stuff there needs to be a little planning and preparation that goes in to it. I always feel as if I have lots to blog about but I don't get myself organised and then it's easy to be lazy and then there's no point really doing it....etc etc. It's time to get organised. Three posts a week shouldn't be that hard.

She says...

7. Finish one cross stitch piece that's just for me
I have a couple of things on the go at the moment that I've put to one side in favour of crocheting. The trouble is that in comparison to crocheting, cross stitch just takes such a long time. The results are nowhere near as immediate and that can start to become off-putting.

8. Tetris blanket
No seriously. THIS is the year. I've neglected this for way too long. This year will make it the third year that it has appeared on a Not Really Resolution list. I'm not even going to say "Finish Tetris blanket" I'm just making it a statement and whenever I'm looking for something else to put on my hook I will hear a voice in my head that just says "Tetris Blanket" with a slightly disapproving tone.

9. Go somewhere I've never been before each month
This is a follow on from 2014's Do One Interesting Thing each month. I don't want to fall into a rut of doing the same interesting thing each month though - I need to keep challenging myself and now I have a little car of my own it should make adventuring even more fun.

10. Makeover three pieces of furniture
I've been slowly plugging away at getting the flat looking how I would like it to look. I figured it was time to do it so I can stop living life like a student, plus it's a nice distraction. I figure that as I'll be spending a lot of time in it given that I'm the only person responsible for all the bills now, it might as well look nice whilst I'm at it.

Furniture-wise I probably have everything that I need but it is still all a bit of a mish mash which is adding to the weird studenty vibe. Just giving something a little slap of paint will make all the difference I'm hoping.

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So there we have it.

Come at me 2015.

Photo an Hour l 8th November

I am loving these Photo an Hour posts you know. It means I have a guaranteed topic to post about once a month - anything to save me from the horror of working out what I'm supposed to write about.

I was initially quite excited about the choice of the 8th November as I knew I was going to be away visiting my Dad in Somerset - a change of scenery is usually a good omen from some more interesting photos than when you're just twatting about at home - but unfortunately the heavens poured down upon us most of the day so you can expect a fairly crochet-laden post coming up.

Pop over to Is That You Darling to see others' posts and to find out the date of the next Photo an Hour day which will be in December. And remember you can also join in on Twitter and Instagram using #photoanhour

This was Saturday 8th November...

10am - A late start to the day with a little read in bed. Mrs Dalloway is November's Classic as part of my Not Really Resolutions - I purposely picked quite a thin one as I have been running a bit behind schedule lately!

11am - Ablutions time. Anyone else remember a day when just getting ready was a case of splashing your face with some water and being good to go? I'm not even a girly girl and I'm astonished at the amount of paraphernalia I seem to cart about with me, although that's mostly due to the fact that I don't empty anything out and just add more to the pile...

12.10pm - Rubbish weather? Can only mean one thing - time for crochet. But what on earth could it be that I'm making?

1.10pm - Lunchtime and a continuation of the absolutely god-awful weather

2.10pm - What am I making? A Father Christmas of course! Since swearing that I was going to make a job lot of them and sell them at Christmas I made three and then promptly made no more. It is time to get my bum in gear because these guys really don't take that long to work up. In fact this would have been completed much earlier if it wasn't for the fact that I had a complete brain malfunction and forgot to change back to red wool and merrily crocheted along for 6 rows of 42-odd stitches. Yaaaaaay.

3.15pm - Finished! I had no idea these guys worked up this quickly. Thank goodness for Photo an Hour, I would never have known that it takes roughly an hour to work up the bobble for Father Christmas' hat, his hat trim, his face, beard and moustache, attach all the above and sew on a little face. Good to know these things.

4.30pm - This is how I know I'm in the country. You go somewhere to buy dog food and outside they have what can only be described as a fuckton of carrots. It's an official measurement. For a second I thought that people in Somerset really liked their rabbits, before twigging that they're probably for horses.

5.25pm - You see this is why Photo an Hour is brilliant. There I was idly browsing through #photoanhour tweets when I came across Louisa who was talking about editing some Carnival photos. I couldn't believe it as I was on my way to the North Petherton Carnival, something I had never ever heard about until Dad piped up that it would be where we would be spending our evening. How very cool is that?! (Check out Louisa's post from last year which explains what exactly it is I'm talking about). Anyway. 5.25pm we were stuck in some immense carnival traffic trying to get off the M5 and into North Petherton before the road closed for the Carnival.

6.20pm - Officially trapped in North Petherton with time to kill before the Carnival started at 7pm there was nothing for it but to hunker down in the bowling club house with a hot dog and pint of cider.

7.35pm - One of my least favourite things is standing still in the cold. Be warned that going to a Carnival involves a lot of standing still in the cold. I was just thankful it wasn't wet as well. To keep warm I jumped about like an idiot in to the road to see if I could see the start of it. We had a long wait on our hands...

8.30pm - The first float! Hurrah. After an hour and a half of standing in the cold staring at a hedge this was a welcome sight. Little did I know what I was about to witness. It was absolutely mind boggling.

9.25pm - Honestly. When someone says you're going to see an illuminated float parade you don't really know what's in store for you. This was insane and will clearly have a post of its own once I've gone through the 4,000 pictures that I took and begun to compose my thoughts about it.

10.30pm - Back in the car and on the way home down the back roads

11.30pm - Back home feeling cold to our very bones and glad to be in the warmth. Max was also happy to see us but mostly sad that he had been abandoned for the evening.

A little bit of internet love: Part IV

I am slowly starting to return to 'normal'. or rather creating a new normal for me. It involves all sorts of strange things, mostly working too late too often, taking a lot of baths and bringing the gerbilarium into the bedroom with me so the guys can keep me company.

One thing I have been woefully behind on is catching up with blogs and finding out what's going on in my internet world. People don't realise how intensive it is, this blog reading malarkey, you've got to invest some time if you're going to keep up with everything.

After having a good read the other day and starting to make a dent in my to be read list I figured it was probably time for a little round up of the posts I have enjoyed lately.


Rachael wrote a very interesting post covering some misconceptions about expat life. I guess it's easy to forget that when people move abroad, they're not just going for an extended holiday, they're going to live life and all that that means in a different place.


Miss Pond went on a Birmingham Adventure. Birmingham isn't a million miles away from me and I'm heading there in November with some friends, I've already requested we go to the place that sells gin in a watering can. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a gimmick.


So the calendar flipped to October and the weather flicked a switch and became Autumn over night. Prattle & Froth's 15 Reasons to Love Autumn made me feel happy inside.


Vivtramp's How to be a good friend to someone with an illness is definitely one to keep bookmarked just in case. It's always a minefield when something life-changing happens to someone and far too often people get so freaked out about doing the wrong thing that they don't do anything.


I caught 19 times Carrie Bradshaw was an impossibly awful human doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter a while ago and it absolutely made me howl. I feel as if I've been the only person talking about this sometimes. She was awful!


It couldn't be internet love without a cat video. You. Are. Welcome.

Photo an Hour l 11th October 2014

It feels as if this month's Photo an Hour post has come around incredibly quickly, but I think that's just a result of the past month being kind of mental for me and that I've only just got around to posting September's Photo an Hour post.

Pop over to Is That You Darling to see others' posts and to find out the date of the next Photo an Hour day which will be in November and you can join in on Twitter and Instagram using #photoanhour

This was Saturday 11th October 2014...

9am - Woke up with raging hangover from a fairly decent session on the Friday night. Lily didn't mind my probably outrageous breath and sat beside me hoping for toast.

10am - Went to my brother & sister-in-law's house for the morning and played with some brilliant sticky mosaic tiles that were supposedly something my 4 year old niece was supposed to be doing. It was so massively therapeutic I can't even tell you.

11am - One finished creation!

12pm - This is Lucinda, my brother's cat. She has the loudest miaow and purr ever. She comes storming in, yelling her head off and isn't fussed at all about who gives her attention. She's so loving and I want to just pick her up and smoosh her forever.

1pm - My niece was going out in the afternoon for a party so put her party frock on. I need shoes like this. I also need to start wearing hot pink tights with silver sparkly shoes. It's a winner.

2pm - All of us played a very confusing game of Kerplunk! in which the kids seemed to think that when the marbles dropped that meant you won. It actually worked quite well because it meant that I was happy that I didn't have to do badly on purpose to let them win (my most hated part of playing with kids because I'm such a sore loser) and they had a brilliant time every time they did it wrong.

3pm - Back in Hull and a quick trip into town with Mumsie

4pm - The Grand Return of the Missing Bag. The previous day I had gone to Waterstones and bought some lovely things. Mum was looking after the bag and left it on the bus. She was absolutely devastated so I had to play things down but there was a fairly large part of me that wanted to throw myself on the ground and scream. On the way back from town on Saturday we stopped in at lost property to check and it had been handed in. Hurrah!

Kind of. Turned out my "Good Samaritan" had taken some stuff out of the bag and left the books in there. Ah well. Can't get too mad about it...

5pm - Got back home for a cup of tea and a muffin. It was needed. With a hangover like mine on this day it's a wonder I even got this far through the day without collapsing.

6pm - Lily gets down to the important business of foot washing and nail biting.

7pm - Starting to sit down for dinner. Salad + garlic bread + steak + onion rings - the way to make me a very happy person.

8pm - Mum and I were still sat round the table talking when I glanced over and spotted this super creepy Lily sitting and waiting to see if we were finished so she could try and attack our plates.

9pm - Sat down with super cool lounge pants and thick socks and cider and promptly fell asleep in front of Midsomer Murders. Form an orderly queue gentleman...

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I feel terrible that Fred didn't even get a look in on these photos so here's a bonus Fred picture...

Photo an Hour l 13th September 2014

I've been unsure how to proceed with blogging at the moment. I have such a massive backlog of things that I wanted to blog about but after recent events it has thrown me slightly. Everything that I wanted to blog about involves him in some  way and there's a part of me that just wants to forget about everything that has anything to do with him.

But at the same time they are my memories too and even if they are painful, this blog has been used as a vessel to document my life for better or worse.

I've had this post saved in my drafts for some time. I was really excited when the Is That You Darling Photo an Hour challenge for September landed on one of the days that I was at my Dad's house in France. I dutifully took my photos and as soon as I was back I got them all lined up ready to post. Unfortunately the next day he left me and then....well....the rest is history.

But fuck it. This was my holiday - so what if during the taking of these photos I was blissfully unaware that my boyfriend already had a flat lined up for him to move into and had his furniture from Argos on standby? At the time I was blissfully unaware and I can't let hindsight ruin everything I have done.

And so. This was Saturday 13th September 2014...

9am - The view out of the window of the attic room we were staying in at Dad's house. 

10am - Jean-Louis is the farmer who lives opposite Dad. This is his tractor. The view, the view belongs to everyone.

11am - Took the dogs, Max and Shadow, for a little pootle about the roads, stopping to take photos of road signs along the way...

12pm - Relaxing was the order of the day. Dad had asked if we wanted to do a lot of activities and I declined. I needed to just chill out and take advantage of the glorious sunshine, reading my book and drinking cherry juice.

1pm - Lunchtime. Crunchy bread with ham and massive slices of cheese. Perfection.

2pm - Unending, glorious sunshine. I couldn't get enough of it.

3pm - Took a walk down the road from Dad's house to a little graveyard a couple of minutes down the road. I was particularly taken with the simplicity of this marker. What an incredibly peaceful place for your final resting place.

4pm - The nearby Sarrans Dam is currently being drained by EDF for maintenance work to take place. It's almost impossible to imagine but the water is normally up to the treeline. Mind boggling. If you take a look at page 2 of this brochure you can see what it normally looks like...

5pm - Following on from the trip to the Sarrans Dam we took Max and Shadow for a walk along the river. Max, in true Golden Retriever style loves swimming. Unfortunately he threw himself in a particularly deep part of the lake and shortly after this photo was taken I had to almost jump in to haul him out.

6pm - Chopping up green beans for dinner

7pm - Dinner, featuring the world's strongest mustard known to man.

8pm - Time to take a million pictures of the sun setting. No matter how hard I try, I'll never be able to take a picture of a sunset which is as beautiful as the real thing.

9pm - In an attempt to sample an authentic part of French life we decided to be cultural and go to a local music night in the next village along featuring some local choirs. In hindsight this turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes we've ever made. It was outrageously dull and incomprehensibly long and seriously not a single person speaks English and my French GCSE is but a distant memory. But, hey, at least I can say I did it.

10pm - Singing. Singing and singing and singing

11pm - Interval time. Note the time. 11pm. And this was the interval. We didn't get home until after midnight, and never have I been more relieved to crawl into bed.

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Next Photo an Hour is set for Saturday October 11th - people join in via Twitter or Instagram using #photoanhour.

I should warn you, this date I will be back at my Mum's so there are basically going to be a lot of photos of Fred & Lily...

11 things

What better way to try and get back into the swing of blogging than by doing one of those "Tell us stuff about yourself?" Janet tagged me in the Liebster thingy and it spurred me on to try and get myself back in the game.

I'm supposed to write 11 things about myself, answer the 11 questions set and then pose 11 questions of my own.

That was all too much for my addled brain, so I'm going to answer Janet's questions and then we'll call it done - ok? By answering the 11 questions I'm basically telling you 11 things about myself, so by my reckoning I'm 2/3s of the way there and that's majority.

No?

1. Why did you start blogging?

I was in my MSc year at the University of Manchester and discovered MSN Spaces. I think my cousin had one and I’d clicked on to it when I talking to her on MSN Messenger one day - I thought - “Cool, I can write stuff on here!” and set about. I don’t think even I knew what the purpose was. I just liked writing and always have. There wasn’t the blogosphere as you knew it back then!

2. What post are you most proud of?

I’m proud of any of the posts where I’ve really said what I feel. I’ll be honest they’re few and far between because it’s hard to put something out there that’s particularly personal - especially when there are some people from ‘real life’ who read my blog - but they’re always the ones I feel best about and they’re usually the ones that receive the most interesting comments. I really appreciate the time that people take to write comments on those posts because thought-provoking posts mean that people have to have a little think about what they write, that means a lot.

Particular posts I'm proud of are: 

The one who moves away (it got me in more trouble than I can even go into - but I stand by it. And one day I'll tell you why)

Extroverts don't have it easy you know

My grass isn't greener

How I ended up being nearly 30 and bullied

3. What’s your favourite thing about blogging?  And a least favourite?

It’s the thing that everyone says - it’s the people! Since moving to my current location I haven’t been able to make any friends here. There are people that I get on with, don’t get me wrong, but no ‘friendships’ if you get me. The people I count as friends are the people I talk to every day either via blogging or on Twitter.

I love that moment of discovering a new blog and thinking “Oh my god I like that TOO!” and realising that there are other people doing the same kind of things as you.

My least favourite? The other thing that everyone says. Blogging aint what it used to be and more and more I find it harder and harder to come across blogs that I immediately connect with because they’re either the same as every. other. blog. Or they’re so full of sponsored content that I don’t feel like I actually really “know” the person behind the blog. There has to be an element of personal stuff on there for me to want to be bothered to read.

4. What’s your favourite kind of sweet? And least favourite?

I always hit up the purples and the reds. Poor yellows and greens, they always get left ‘til last don’t they? I feel bad for them because actually I’m a citrus lover.

Although I have recently realised that Janet & I have the same problem when it comes to sweets in that I have to eat them like this…

…or else my brain goes funny.

5. What’s your favourite flower?

I love an Alstroemeria me. They’re not usually massive expensive. You can usually get some colourful ones. And they last. for. ages. Only problem is that they have a name which I can’t spell...

6. Did you have a favourite dressing up outfit as a child?

As an adult I hate fancy dress and all that it means but as a kid I loved wearing an old bridesmaid’s dress of my sister’s. It was from the early 80s so was full on. Light blue, chiffony, puffy sleeves and an actual hoop in it. I used to wear it and pretend to be a bride. One time me and 2 friends got dressed up - I wore the dress, my friend wore a vampire cape which made her the vicar and my other friend wore one of my Mum’s fur coats and was mother of the bride. I don’t even know what we did about a Groom. Probably used my cat...

7. Zayn or Harry?

You see I don’t want to like Harry because it’s so obvious and because I imagine he’s quite the rogue but damn him he does have a lovely face. Definitely not Zayn. Actually I like another one but I don’t know his name...

8. What was your best holiday and why?

This is where I say “I really need to finish blogging about my trip to America in March 2014”, a sentence which I’m pretty sure I’ve put in every blog post since April. But it was amazing. It was an experience and a half. I loved going to Corfu last year and it was a brilliant lazing on the beach holiday but our America trip will take some beating.

I think the reason why I loved it so much was that it was the first holiday I’ve been on where I felt like a grown up on holiday. I know that sounds ridiculous but I haven’t had a summer holiday away (apart from a trip to the US in 2008) since I was a teenager. This was the first  ‘big’ holiday I’ve been on where we did some major travelling by ourselves and had to do a lot of planning.

And obviously just the places that we got to go and the sights we saw, as well as being topped by watching my best friend get married - that has to make it the best holiday!

9. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

It would have to be the US. I’m not really up for learning any new languages and I’m definitely not up for being somewhere remote where not a lot is happening, so I’d need to be in a city in America somewhere. I would say Arizona given that that is where American Girl & Boy reside  but I know the heat in summer would kill me dead so  I’m guessing I need to go for somewhere like San Diego which is still vaguely near but isn’t going to cause me to perspire to death.

But the thought of no NHS, lack of annual leave and the chance of getting shot by some random kind of freaks me out.

10. What’s your favourite Christmas tradition?

Christmas Eve. Bath with Lush bathbomb. New pyjamas. Boom. Basically ALL I am interested in at Christmas.

11. Do you have a nickname?

Not anymore really. Family call me Beedlebum - the origins of which are too complicated and potentially too boring to explain. It’s one of those stories that just don’t make sense, you know?

I got nicknamed out at school - all manner of variations on my last name and the ever so wonderful Teen Wolf. A result of being an extraordinarily hairy child. Aren’t kids nice?