Journals75
Newest
Many new things to report
5 min read
I always start these with 'well it's been ages since I wrote anything...' but you guys aren't stupid, you can read dates and figure that out for yourselves!
I guess the big news is that I've now been living with my boyfriend Kyle for a month! I've never moved in with a boyfriend before, but it's going pretty well so far, probably helps that we were going out for over a year and half beforehand (it'll be 2 years in February! eep!).
Long story short, my parents are convinced that with the current fininicial climate, me and my brothers won't have a pension or much to speak of in the future - probably true! So they paid the deposit on a modest 2 bedroom flat and put it in our names - so we're responsible for the mortage, and then it's an investment for us. We were going to rent it out cos for various reasons none of my brothers wanted to move at the moment. But it was then agreed that me and Kyle could move in!
The flat had been owned by an elderly lady, and I don't think it had been decorated since the '70s! The carpets were so swirlingly brown and yellow and hideous. We had the schedule with us at the carpet shop for the measurements that were on it, the salesman saw the photos, called his colleague over to comment "wow that's cracker! we've not seen that pattern in years!"
Basically me and Kyle, with a lot of help from my parents, worked our arses off in our evenings and weekends for nearly a month, stripping wallpaper, replastering holes in walls, pulling up carpet so old it was nailed down! and finally painting it pretty colours. I have to say, I love my flat now, it's a bit of a hodge-podge of furniture, but the walls are nice and colourful, it's cosy and it feels like a home.
So, to go with our new home.... a new cat! (Don't worry, my pretty little tabby fav.me/d2sj6zy still lives at my old house with my brother, I don't think she'd move well, and she's my brother's cat too). Kyle works at the new SSPCA centre just outside Aberdeen, and he'd had his eye on this lovely ginger cat that wasn't up for rehoming yet as he was still recovering from his injuries. So as soon as he was ready for a home, we reserved him. He's a gorgeous long-haired floofy ginger lazy lump. (there will be photos soon). He's called Kenny (SSPCA named him, but I couldn't change it, it suits him!), and he was found locally in a terrible state. He had multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a broken jaw and shattered teeth, and when the opened him up they found his intestines etc had been pushed up into his chest cavity! It's not clear how he was injured, a car accident was the main suspect, but the tell-tale sign of scuffed claws was missing - I'd hate to think someone could have beaten up a cat to that extent!
Thankfully, he got his happy ending as he ended up at the SSPCA, and the staff reckon he recovered so well as he's so lazy and relaxed he just chilled out and let himself get better. He seems to suffer no ill-effects despite what he's been through, and even with teeth on only one side of his mouth, he seems to love dry food more than most cats! He's such a sweet cuddly cat, and likes nothing better than to try to climb onto my lap/chest when I have my laptop on my knee, forcing me to abandon the internet and give him cuddles. At the moment he also has a paper' fort' of packaging paper on the floor that he likes to sit whilst looking smug - the paper was just tossed there until I was heading out the door to the bins, but I don't think I'm allowed to throw it out now!
Finally the 3rd new thing - Embroidery! I wanted to try a new craft for these long winter nights and I stumbled across this website: www.sublimestitching.com/ bought a starters kit and few patterns, and now I'm hooked! I've done a couple things for Christmas gifts, I'll post pictures when the recipients have opened their presents, I'm halfway through a wall-hanging for the new flat, and I'm going to do an apron for myself next. I'm quite excited about the possibilities of using my own designs, I'd love to do an art noveau series, one for each season perhaps, inspired by one of my old sketches: fav.me/dw2pel
If you're interested I'd encourage you to give embroidery a try - I still have a lot to learn, but it's not as hard as I thought!
So, I'll end with a Merry Christmas to you all, and best wishes for 2012 whatever it may bring you.
I guess the big news is that I've now been living with my boyfriend Kyle for a month! I've never moved in with a boyfriend before, but it's going pretty well so far, probably helps that we were going out for over a year and half beforehand (it'll be 2 years in February! eep!).
Long story short, my parents are convinced that with the current fininicial climate, me and my brothers won't have a pension or much to speak of in the future - probably true! So they paid the deposit on a modest 2 bedroom flat and put it in our names - so we're responsible for the mortage, and then it's an investment for us. We were going to rent it out cos for various reasons none of my brothers wanted to move at the moment. But it was then agreed that me and Kyle could move in!
The flat had been owned by an elderly lady, and I don't think it had been decorated since the '70s! The carpets were so swirlingly brown and yellow and hideous. We had the schedule with us at the carpet shop for the measurements that were on it, the salesman saw the photos, called his colleague over to comment "wow that's cracker! we've not seen that pattern in years!"
Basically me and Kyle, with a lot of help from my parents, worked our arses off in our evenings and weekends for nearly a month, stripping wallpaper, replastering holes in walls, pulling up carpet so old it was nailed down! and finally painting it pretty colours. I have to say, I love my flat now, it's a bit of a hodge-podge of furniture, but the walls are nice and colourful, it's cosy and it feels like a home.
So, to go with our new home.... a new cat! (Don't worry, my pretty little tabby fav.me/d2sj6zy still lives at my old house with my brother, I don't think she'd move well, and she's my brother's cat too). Kyle works at the new SSPCA centre just outside Aberdeen, and he'd had his eye on this lovely ginger cat that wasn't up for rehoming yet as he was still recovering from his injuries. So as soon as he was ready for a home, we reserved him. He's a gorgeous long-haired floofy ginger lazy lump. (there will be photos soon). He's called Kenny (SSPCA named him, but I couldn't change it, it suits him!), and he was found locally in a terrible state. He had multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a broken jaw and shattered teeth, and when the opened him up they found his intestines etc had been pushed up into his chest cavity! It's not clear how he was injured, a car accident was the main suspect, but the tell-tale sign of scuffed claws was missing - I'd hate to think someone could have beaten up a cat to that extent!
Thankfully, he got his happy ending as he ended up at the SSPCA, and the staff reckon he recovered so well as he's so lazy and relaxed he just chilled out and let himself get better. He seems to suffer no ill-effects despite what he's been through, and even with teeth on only one side of his mouth, he seems to love dry food more than most cats! He's such a sweet cuddly cat, and likes nothing better than to try to climb onto my lap/chest when I have my laptop on my knee, forcing me to abandon the internet and give him cuddles. At the moment he also has a paper' fort' of packaging paper on the floor that he likes to sit whilst looking smug - the paper was just tossed there until I was heading out the door to the bins, but I don't think I'm allowed to throw it out now!
Finally the 3rd new thing - Embroidery! I wanted to try a new craft for these long winter nights and I stumbled across this website: www.sublimestitching.com/ bought a starters kit and few patterns, and now I'm hooked! I've done a couple things for Christmas gifts, I'll post pictures when the recipients have opened their presents, I'm halfway through a wall-hanging for the new flat, and I'm going to do an apron for myself next. I'm quite excited about the possibilities of using my own designs, I'd love to do an art noveau series, one for each season perhaps, inspired by one of my old sketches: fav.me/dw2pel
If you're interested I'd encourage you to give embroidery a try - I still have a lot to learn, but it's not as hard as I thought!
So, I'll end with a Merry Christmas to you all, and best wishes for 2012 whatever it may bring you.
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Watching the (wild) world go by
4 min read
Deary me, It's been over a year since I've written anything here! Oops.
Oh well. I felt motivated to write here as I've starting keeping a wildlife journal. I bought a lovely moleskine notebook, a fountain pen with blue ink, by spending a wee bit of money on nice things I thought I'd be more likely to keep writing in it, and it seems to be working so far!
I've always been interested in wildlife, but the last few years I feel I've been appreciating and watching it more, really watching it - noticing little things for the first time. I was lucky enough to spend my childhood in the countryside, and I think I took it all somewhat for granted. It took me until I moved away to Glasgow for University to realise that not everyone spends summer mornings listening to skylarks and watching hares flash across the fields whilst waiting for the school bus!
This weekend was a good weekend in terms of wildlife.
I've been exploring all the nature reserves nearby, so yesterday I visited RSPB Fowlsheugh for the first time www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide… it's literally just a 30min drive away. I'm so lucky to be able to live in a reasonably large city, and still have so much wildlife on my doorstep! There's Forvie Sands just up the road in the other direction which has the largest breeding colony of Eider Duck in the UK, and an internationally important ternery, that's next on my list for a sunny weeked!(I've been in the winter and loved watching the waders at low tide, but I can't wait to see the terns!)
Anyway, at Fowlsheugh I saw heaps of Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Herring Gulls. Because of the way the cliffs are shaped it's possible to get pretty close, and get great views of birds without binoculars. I think the razorbills are my favourite, they're such pretty little birds. I didn't see any puffins, but after spending a week on Sumburgh Head in Shetland last year, in the middle of a Puffin colony, I've seen my fair share! But I think what really made my heart glad was the sight of a happily grazing hare, off in the distance, just as we were walking back to the carpark. It's the first one I've seen in months, and there is something truly magical about them.
Returning home to dry off (it had been drizzling away all day and it got a bit chilly up on the cliff tops), whilst enjoying a well earned cup of tea, I spotted an interesting bit of bird behaviour. I have these 'flower' bird feeders, they're basically metal cups mounted on metal stakes that you stick in the ground and fill up with birdy treats! I like to use them at this time of year in addition to the normal feeders as I notice the parent birds are usually happy for an easy meal whilst feeding chicks. However, a Magpie decided to hijack them, he was landing and stuffing his beak with mealworms and suet nuggets, then flying a few feet away to bury them in my vegetable patch! He proceeded to do this for about 10 minutes, and was also stashing food in next doors plant pots. I've never seen this before, but after looking it up it's apparently normal behaviour! But then, you'd expect that from a Crow wouldn't you, crafty buggers.
But the wildlife revelations didn't stop there! I live close to the River Don, and it's a great place to go for a wee walk when I can't be bothered starting the car to go further afield. I never see huge numbers of birds down there, but I always see something interesting, often the highlight is just sitting on a bench watching the resident Dippers for the few minutes. But today I got a new species for my own 'list' (not a real list, just one in my head), me and my boyfriend spotted a couple of colourful birds hopping about on the rocks by the edge of the river, taking advantage of the clouds of mayflies. We looked it up when we got home and it was a Grey Wagtail. I'm sure to people who really know their birds, it's not too exciting, but now they are my grey wagtails on my local stretch of river, and I now I know what they are, I won't forget, and I'll look for them every time I'm down there.
So, keep your eyes peeled and your binoculars close at hand, you never know what you might see!
Oh well. I felt motivated to write here as I've starting keeping a wildlife journal. I bought a lovely moleskine notebook, a fountain pen with blue ink, by spending a wee bit of money on nice things I thought I'd be more likely to keep writing in it, and it seems to be working so far!
I've always been interested in wildlife, but the last few years I feel I've been appreciating and watching it more, really watching it - noticing little things for the first time. I was lucky enough to spend my childhood in the countryside, and I think I took it all somewhat for granted. It took me until I moved away to Glasgow for University to realise that not everyone spends summer mornings listening to skylarks and watching hares flash across the fields whilst waiting for the school bus!
This weekend was a good weekend in terms of wildlife.
I've been exploring all the nature reserves nearby, so yesterday I visited RSPB Fowlsheugh for the first time www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide… it's literally just a 30min drive away. I'm so lucky to be able to live in a reasonably large city, and still have so much wildlife on my doorstep! There's Forvie Sands just up the road in the other direction which has the largest breeding colony of Eider Duck in the UK, and an internationally important ternery, that's next on my list for a sunny weeked!(I've been in the winter and loved watching the waders at low tide, but I can't wait to see the terns!)
Anyway, at Fowlsheugh I saw heaps of Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Herring Gulls. Because of the way the cliffs are shaped it's possible to get pretty close, and get great views of birds without binoculars. I think the razorbills are my favourite, they're such pretty little birds. I didn't see any puffins, but after spending a week on Sumburgh Head in Shetland last year, in the middle of a Puffin colony, I've seen my fair share! But I think what really made my heart glad was the sight of a happily grazing hare, off in the distance, just as we were walking back to the carpark. It's the first one I've seen in months, and there is something truly magical about them.
Returning home to dry off (it had been drizzling away all day and it got a bit chilly up on the cliff tops), whilst enjoying a well earned cup of tea, I spotted an interesting bit of bird behaviour. I have these 'flower' bird feeders, they're basically metal cups mounted on metal stakes that you stick in the ground and fill up with birdy treats! I like to use them at this time of year in addition to the normal feeders as I notice the parent birds are usually happy for an easy meal whilst feeding chicks. However, a Magpie decided to hijack them, he was landing and stuffing his beak with mealworms and suet nuggets, then flying a few feet away to bury them in my vegetable patch! He proceeded to do this for about 10 minutes, and was also stashing food in next doors plant pots. I've never seen this before, but after looking it up it's apparently normal behaviour! But then, you'd expect that from a Crow wouldn't you, crafty buggers.
But the wildlife revelations didn't stop there! I live close to the River Don, and it's a great place to go for a wee walk when I can't be bothered starting the car to go further afield. I never see huge numbers of birds down there, but I always see something interesting, often the highlight is just sitting on a bench watching the resident Dippers for the few minutes. But today I got a new species for my own 'list' (not a real list, just one in my head), me and my boyfriend spotted a couple of colourful birds hopping about on the rocks by the edge of the river, taking advantage of the clouds of mayflies. We looked it up when we got home and it was a Grey Wagtail. I'm sure to people who really know their birds, it's not too exciting, but now they are my grey wagtails on my local stretch of river, and I now I know what they are, I won't forget, and I'll look for them every time I'm down there.
So, keep your eyes peeled and your binoculars close at hand, you never know what you might see!
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Photo a day for February
2 min read
I've heard of these 365 or PAD (Photo a Day) challenges. I'm really not sure I could do it for a whole year. So I decided to try something a bit more manageable, a month, which just happens to be the shortest month of the year!
Maybe I'll extend it and try and do a month for each season, so maybe do April, July and October too, we'll see. My only worry is I'm rarely out and about in daylight other than weekends just now. So it may turn into a 'let's-see-how-long-it-takes-Jane-to-get-bored-of-taking-photos-inside-her-house' challenge. I'm hoping it'll help to get me more familar with all the functions of my new camera, which is my first ever D-SLR.
On another note, you know you can count on your family when they help you dispose of a body....
...One of my pet rats, Fran, died yesterday, poor wee soul. But the dilemma was what to do with the body, we have a couple inches of snow at the moment, so digging a hole was out of the question (I tried, but the ground's pretty damn solid!). Chucking him in the bin just seemed mean. So we decided upon a burial at sea, he had a nice shoe-box, with some flowers and pretty ribbon, and a brick, as if he floated I worried seagulls would eat him. So my wee brother drove us out to the harbour at 10pm last night, and even threw poor wee Fran off into the ocean for me. He sleeps with the fishes now.
I'm still undecided about getting Bernard the rat a new cagemate. He's quite dominant, I'd worry if I got a baby rat from a pet shop he'd just harass the wee thing. I'll check out my local rehoming centre and see if they have any rats about his age in need of a home.
First pic of the Feb challenge here: blue-eyed-kelpie.deviantart.co…
On yet another note, new tattoo tomorrow!!
(you'll find out later what it is)
Maybe I'll extend it and try and do a month for each season, so maybe do April, July and October too, we'll see. My only worry is I'm rarely out and about in daylight other than weekends just now. So it may turn into a 'let's-see-how-long-it-takes-Jane-to-get-bored-of-taking-photos-inside-her-house' challenge. I'm hoping it'll help to get me more familar with all the functions of my new camera, which is my first ever D-SLR.
On another note, you know you can count on your family when they help you dispose of a body....
...One of my pet rats, Fran, died yesterday, poor wee soul. But the dilemma was what to do with the body, we have a couple inches of snow at the moment, so digging a hole was out of the question (I tried, but the ground's pretty damn solid!). Chucking him in the bin just seemed mean. So we decided upon a burial at sea, he had a nice shoe-box, with some flowers and pretty ribbon, and a brick, as if he floated I worried seagulls would eat him. So my wee brother drove us out to the harbour at 10pm last night, and even threw poor wee Fran off into the ocean for me. He sleeps with the fishes now.
I'm still undecided about getting Bernard the rat a new cagemate. He's quite dominant, I'd worry if I got a baby rat from a pet shop he'd just harass the wee thing. I'll check out my local rehoming centre and see if they have any rats about his age in need of a home.
First pic of the Feb challenge here: blue-eyed-kelpie.deviantart.co…
On yet another note, new tattoo tomorrow!!
(you'll find out later what it is)
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New year, new camera!
2 min read
I just treated myself to my very first SLR type camera, I now have a Panasonic Lumix G1. I don't know what all the buttons do, but I'll have fun figuring it out!
It's getting it's first outing tonight, I'm a little paranoid about taking it out of the safety of the house, I think it's the most expensive thing I've ever bought! But there's no point in having a nice camera if I'm not going to take it out and about!
I'll be spending tonight at a traditional Scots hogmany gathering, the fireballs at the nearby coastal town of Stonehaven. Basically burly men in kilts (or a more practical boilersuit) swing fireballs on chains around their heads, walking up and down the mainstreet a couple times, then throw the burning balls in the harbour. It's supposed to ward off evil spirts, thus bringing good fortune for the coming year. I've been just once before, and it's a great spectacle! So I'm hoping to get some great photos, watch this space!
I hope all of you have great fun seeing the bells in tonight, and wish you the best for the coming year!
2010, it still sound like THE FUTURE to me!
It's getting it's first outing tonight, I'm a little paranoid about taking it out of the safety of the house, I think it's the most expensive thing I've ever bought! But there's no point in having a nice camera if I'm not going to take it out and about!
I'll be spending tonight at a traditional Scots hogmany gathering, the fireballs at the nearby coastal town of Stonehaven. Basically burly men in kilts (or a more practical boilersuit) swing fireballs on chains around their heads, walking up and down the mainstreet a couple times, then throw the burning balls in the harbour. It's supposed to ward off evil spirts, thus bringing good fortune for the coming year. I've been just once before, and it's a great spectacle! So I'm hoping to get some great photos, watch this space!
I hope all of you have great fun seeing the bells in tonight, and wish you the best for the coming year!
2010, it still sound like THE FUTURE to me!
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SNOW!
1 min read
SNOW SNOW SNOW,
SNOW SNOW SNOW,
SNOW SNOW SNOW, SNOW SNOW!
That is all.
SNOW SNOW SNOW,
SNOW SNOW SNOW, SNOW SNOW!
That is all.
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