Grey and Yellow

In honour of our lovely cockatiel, Gertie, then I thought I could do a grey and yellow themed folsky friday :]

Below is a Gertie, having a wee shower with me, earlier this year when we were minding her. It's not that interesting, really, but I fear I have "proud pet owner" syndrome.

Read about how we got Gertie on the post before this one. Or here :]

Pemberley, Corfu and Gertie

Well, it feels like years since I wrote a blog last. As opposed to a month. But quite a lot has been going on in the Graham/Vincent household! Firstly, it was recently my 22nd birthday and to celebrate, amongst other things, we went to "Pemberley". Well, Lyme Park. But in my heart, Pembeley! :]

And secondly, after my birthday, we went off to Corfu. Which was lovely and hot! And I'm as tanned as I'll ever be (which is still not very tanned).

Last, and by no means least, is Gertie. Now, despite this sounding like the beginning of a good, old fashioned joke, it's not. A man was walking down the street. And this cockatiel (AKA Gertie) landed on his shoulder and refused to get off. So off he went to the vets and as she was such a sociable bird, they couldn't keep her there so she went to a neighbour and friend, Jill, who loved her very much for quite a while!


The only problem is she gets a little loud. Well, very loud to be precise. Especially when you come home and she's excited. This, unfortunately was too much for Jill. And as we'd looked after her a few times and really like her, she's now with us on a trial bases. A trial because Jill may want her back. And because, as we live in a flat, we may get maimed for having such a loud pet.


Anyway! Currently, it's all going well! And I love her very much indeed, and this is Gertie. She's currently sat on my shoulder, switching between preening herself, preening my hair and rubbing her face to my face for cuddles :]

And now it's back to life and reality and University,

Stripes

Well! Goodness me, it has been a long time! I am so snowed under at work, that I just don’t have time to sneak in a wee blog. And at home, well apart from being busy my office chair is now at a very strange angle and I fear that if I do sit on it, I may end up on the floor. And the floor, especially in my office, is not a safe place to be!

But I am having a wee tea break at work today to pop in a Folksy Friday.

Today’s theme is in honour of the chaos that is going on around us. Being from Manchester, it’s particularly sore. I chose stripes to represent classic prison uniforms…

(Also, I know it's Thursday. I'm just being prepared :] )

Black, White and Everything in Between

Sophisticated, underrated monochrome colours today.

Wasps and My Dislike of Them

To be honest, I've never met a person who actually likes wasps. No one is ever pleased to find them in the car with you, and they are hardly ever welcomed at picnics. I myself really dislike them. My partner is petrified of them! (Yet he can stomach spiders. Very odd.) But today a particular article was highlighted to me that made the wasp fall even further down in my estimation.

This article points out that there is a parasitic wasp that lays its eggs in a ladybird. A Lady bird! And...no shit...the tiny wasp thing then eats the ladybird host's insides! It then bursts out of the poor ladybird (quite like in Alien, I imagine) and then gets the ladybird to protect it while it builds a cocoon. And if that weren't bad enough, the ladybird protects it by twitching because they think it's been poisoned!

That has actually ruined my day a little bit. (Though I imagine there are quite a few smug greenfly.)

OK so it's not all wasps that do that. But still, it's not giving them a good name.

Anyway, here's the article.

Albertine

Wow. I have really neglected my blog. Sorry! (In case anyone actually did notice.) Mainly, this has been the fault of University. I had masses of work and exams on, and as soon as they were over I have started my summer job (and enjoying free weekends).

But I have my results and I am quite pleased (not over the moon, but happy enough!) to say that I got a 2:1 for year 2. And it’s all on with my partner’s family, as he now has two siblings engaged and the third is expecting a child (well, his girlfriend is).

Which is very exciting (though I am a tiny bit jealous, too. I have no problems admitting this flaw in my personality!). This has got me thinking about babies and children and life and what not (which is on hold, as I am determined to build or renovate a house before we settle down!) but one of the names I really like for a girl is Albertine, and as this is a pink rose, what better Folksy Friday theme?

Crystal Shoes and Lambs

You may or may not (more likely not) have seen in the forums that I have been wanting to “strass” my shoes. I believe “strass” is “covering in diamantes”. It’s how I’m using it anyway. Now although I’m not finished with my shoes, I have done quite a bit! About 10 hours worth of mind numbing work. But I can tell it’s going to be worth it. So I am going to show you where I am up to so far.

But first, a couple of pictures because they are so cute! This weekend we popped up to Blaze farm (google it). They are fantastic with chickens and lambs and cows and their own homemade to-die-for ice cream. I highly recommend the rum and raison. They people are lovely, especially the farms wife, with whom we struck up a conversation and she actually got us the lambs to hold. (Too many children to get anywhere near them at first.)

Anyway, here are the lambs and us. And then my shoes.