Birthday Shoes

Almost 11-year-olds know exactly what they do and do not want to put on their feet so today's trip round the shoe shops of Utrecht was a series of very efficient scans, as Julia already had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted before we left home. The choice was soon narrowed down to 2 and these were the winners.

They can be worn in several ways, with the tongue flap under or over the laces/straps depending on what is being worn above the ankles. And of course there are also coloured silky turquoise laces for even more variety.

Anti Cat Hat?

This photo was shown to me as an example of an effective way of keeping birds from digging up bits of flower beds. Apparantly they think it's a person. So I've decided to see if it succeeds in keeping cats from crapping in my wee bit of garden... It would be nice if they wouldn't stage howling banshee sessions directly outside my bedroom window in the middle of the night too.

Pre-Prince

Saved a frog yesterday from one of the nasty bloodthirsty cats which are always yowling at each other and hunting birds and generally being a nuisance around here. She was holding it down with one of her paws. It was a bit stunned at first but after a while seemed to perk up a bit. Brought it to a nearby pond to release it in a less dangerous place.

The Last of the Summer Dog

These are the Summer Lodgerdog photos which didn't make it into earlier blogs. His family are coming to collect him sometime in the next few days so this is to let them see what he's been up to while they were away.
This is our 'windmill out the back' favourite and nearest walking place.


Ready for a good nap after the canoe adventure.

In the mobile dogkennel that my wee blue van usually is.

Whilst I was working Rimmer lay outside and wagged his tail at passers by.

"Hmm... ducks... they tell me I was bred to hunt ducks. I should be doing something here, but what?"

Relaxing in the garden at home.

Flowery Tea

I've been admiring this wee box of special tea every time I've been in the shop but I don't have a glass teapot and know no-one with a glass teapot I could give it to so up till now have resisted buying it.
However the other day I found a rather nice cut-glass tankard/mug thing in a 2nd hand shop and thought that this would be just the thing to show off this tea. I did worry slightly that it might not be suitable for boiling water... It wasn't. All went well at first but after a minute there was a loud cracking sound and a small crack had shot from the top of the handle to the top edge. Ah well, it still looks quite pretty and isn't actually leaking yet.
(The tea is very good.)

Chopsticks Are Go!

Japanese theme continues. Rianne, inspired by the film Megane tried out various Japanese recipes on her birthday guests. The marinated (??) chicken was wondrous, the mini-hamburger thingies were very good too but as far as I'm concerned the stars of the edible show were the fish-shaped toastie-type things filled with sweet beans which she got from the sushi-bar which is to be found on the biological market in Utrecht on Friday. Shame I forgot to take a photo of them... I also forgot to take pictures of the various heads of hair I transformed into Japanese style with the help of a few chopsticks, but here is Ellen's, the one that worked best of all:


And this is Rianne looking about as manic as she's ever likely to get. (She's usually sO calm ;-) If anyone can tell me why it's appropriate to make a V sign when trying to look Japanese, please do. I'm told it's the done thing.