40 Things for 40

I didn't get a chance to get any photos today, as I was in the office, so had some fun editing this one instead

So, I've been thinking (dangerous I know), about whether to continue to have 3 separate blogs- one general, one for my 31 things and one for my photo a day, or do I just have one? I could have 2 and so keep my photos separate, but I am not sure what to do. Therefore I've done a poll thingy to see what you guys think. Vote/ post and tell me what you think. Thank you

Sorry, I have been slacking this week. Here is one of the table decorations from the hunt ball- they were going to be chucked in the skip, so Simon 'rescued' this one.

Way too tired today. Not only was I out until 3.30am, I have also managed to get another cold. This time I think it was due to having to sit right next to one of the heaters. Normally I wouldn't mind- but this heater only had 2 settings- off and chargrill! So I was either being cooked, or freezing, or extra freezing whenever I had to go outside. So currently I am sitting here wrapped up in 2 blankets and a sleeping bag, with a fidgety, heavy hot water bottle- called Blue. But the main thing is the event went okay, despite a couple of stressful moments during the install.

A separate part of the marquee where the band performed. The lights here are normal uplighters with coloured gels, and on the truss a variety of sound to light projectors.

Getting towards the end of the Ball. The lights were all LED- so were set to change colours throughout the evening. As the top and bottom ones are set on slightly different times- we can get some interesting combinations of colours!

This is of part of the Dining marquee at the Hunt ball that I was helping Simon out with over the weekend. This was when the room was not quite finished as we had to focus the pinspots onto the centre piece of each table, pull the chains up and hide them in special bags. Also I was to spend a couple of hours on my knees tidying up cables- I have an OCD about tidy cables, but no one else does- so I get a bit stroppy when cables are untidy!

The ginger demon hound is coming!

I have been making steady progress on the exercise side of this and have been doing about an hour of walking daily (more if doing the horses). I am already feeling better for doing this as well as enjoying being out in the fresh air. Blue is getting to enjoy himself too. I am also trying to eat healthily, I'm eating dried fruit and pumpkin and sunflower seeds when I need a snack, rather than unhealthy snacks and have bran-flakes to eat for breakfast. But the problem I have is that I often do not feel hungry and then do not eat, I also do not drink as much as I should be doing either. Therefore I need to start trying to have 3 meals a day and drinking more (water/fruit juice etc- not alcohol!). To help me with this I am going to buy a litre bottle of water and each day fill it with squash to keep it with me all the time (well, except when going to the toilet obviously). Food-wise I need to think on how I can get myself to e...

Blue on his walk around the fields today. I'd only thrown a small stick into the water, and some how he decides to pick this one up and swim back with it. As soon as he had done that, he promptly lost interest!

Blue on his walk around the fields today. I'd only thrown a small stick into the water, and some how he decides to pick this one up and swim back with it. As soon as he had done that, he promptly lost interest!

Not the best picture in the world, as I had to crop and edit the photo a bit to lighten/ sharpen the image. Here are Amber and Blossom having been moved to one of the cow fields (which is huge). The had great fun galloping about- at the other end of the field! This was the closest they got, so managed to get only this photo.

Blue hinting that he would like me to stop using the computer and pay him some attention

Depraved Difference (A Detective Shakespeare Mystery, book #1) - J. Robert Kennedy What would you do if you watched the assault and murder of a young woman on a subway train? Would you help, or turn a blind eye? A video of the murder is released on the Internet, and sets off a chain of murders, all captured on video and emailed to journalist Aynslee Kai. Enter Detective Eldridge, left to solve the case on his own by his partner. I won't say too much about the plot, as I don't want to give away the twist at the ending. But it's one that is certainly a surprise! The characters are believable and well rounded, the murder 'scenes' are very well written and don't give too many clues away. I haven't read any other Detective Shakespeare mystery's yet, but I certainly intend to.

Simon brought a Kindle for Christmas, as I am a pretty avid reader and have way too many books. I think it was a hint not to get any more paperbacks (I can't help it- the charity shops sell them so cheap). At first, I was not sure if I would like one or not, but what can I say- I'm hooked. The screen is very easy to read and it's pretty much like reading a paperback. Except it's smaller and lighter than a paperback. I assumed that books would be at their published price, but again I was wrong. Lots are, but lots are also very cheap, so that was another plus.Also, there are oodles of free ones too! A lot of the classics such as those by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen are free, but so are a huge number of new authors books too. So far I have downloaded quite a few books- most of them free I hasten to add, and as such have discovered several new authors. The one debate I have with myself is in regard to the collections of books I have already started- do I carry o...

Although I have yet to cross any of the day trips off of my list, we have been going out to the pub more this month. Most of the time when we go out, it's to have a meal, but we have also gone out just for a drink and hopefully this will become more of a regular occurrence too- even if I still only drink soft drinks! I was quite gutted to find out only 3 days before hand that Apassionata was being held at the O2 Arena. If I had know earlier, I would have gotten tickets to take my mum. However, I am hoping that we can go to the cinema next week to see Sherlock Holmes. Which probably means of course that it will no longer be showing knowing my luck!

This has been going pretty well, although I have missed a couple of days. Provided I can keep going with this, then it will be feel like I have completed the task, even if the odd day has been missed here or there. The blog that I have set up is being updated every few days at the moment at the least.

This thing has been going pretty well and I hope that it will continue all year, although I doubt at the pace it has been going up until now! Most of what I have accomplished have been to do with the house. This is pretty important considering how much I dislike living here, so I've been trying to make this our house and actually like it. To be fair, it's not so much the house, but Hook that I dislike (but that's like a whole novel on its own, so won't elaborate here). So, some of what I have achieved include: Taking Blue out for longer walks Walking up to the horses Chopping tree down (on so that was mainly Simon- but I helped!) Starting to de-clutter/sort stuff around the house Doing quotes/ bits of work for Simon's business Putting up the clock Deciding on how to decorate the front room I admit not all seem like accomplishments- but each little thing is helping with at least one of my 31 things.

This thing has been going pretty well and I hope that it will continue all year, although I doubt at the pace it has been going up until now! Most of what I have accomplished have been to do with the house. This is pretty important considering how much I dislike living here, so I've been trying to make this our house and actually like it. To be fair, it's not so much the house, but Hook that I dislike (but that's like a whole novel on its own, so won't elaborate here). So, some of what I have achieved include: Taking Blue out for longer walks Walking up to the horses Chopping tree down (on so that was mainly Simon- but I helped!) Starting to de-clutter/sort stuff around the house Doing quotes/ bits of work for Simon's business Putting up the clock Deciding on how to decorate the front room I admit not all seem like accomplishments- but each little thing is helping with at least one of my 31 things.

Last week was a pretty busy one, and I managed to achieve a fair bit. Now admittedly, not everything was huge or momentous, but some had been put off for so long, it was good to get them done. In addition to those I've already mentioned, I also put up the clock in the kitchen (which has only been waiting for 18 months), along with the calender, did some sorting in the study/ room-where-everything-gets-chucked-when-we-have-company-over, organised my letters folder (and realised how many I have to reply too), tidied and cleaned the whole house and even managed to help Simon out- once to make a start on taking stuff down at the hotel and also with a permanent install at a conference centre. We also managed a meal at the Frog and Wicket again on Friday. Over the weekend, my mum came to visit. She arrived onSaturday morning. We went out in the afternoon for lunch and to do someshopping. In Basingstoke there is a big tack shop, which sells horsey equipmentlike bucket...

On Friday, I was having a busy day so didn't even have a chance to switch the computer on, hence no Rocks & Sucks. So here they are, a few days later Rocks My mum is visiting for the weekend Been feeling pretty good Managed to get quite a few bits done round the house Devising action plans for some of my 31 things Sucks Way to much crap in my house- need a clear out soon. Actually, that's about it!!!

Sleeping Blue cuddling his 'ragger' toy.

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death - M.C Beaton Agatha Raisin has always dreamed of living in the Cotswolds, and so decided to take early retirement to leave the rat-race of London and live in a tiny village. Agatha at first does not fit in to well as she is thought to be rude, cold and most of all, an outsider. When the judge of the quiche baking contest is found dead, blame first lies on Agatha, but she is determined to find out who did it. It took me a little while to get into this book, mainly because Agatha is quite a difficult character to get to like. She is a bully, rude and does not care about other people. However, once she is taken under the wing of the Vicar's wife, she begins to try to become a better person, and puts her bulling tactics to good use with fund raising and the local press.

It's a little hard to take a photo with my camera and hold a dog who wants to look/ sniff at everything. I'm just glad he didn't spot this deer (and the buck who happened to be laying down), even though he was on his lead as I think he still would have wanted to say 'hello'. We were only about 10m or so, and apart from the buck standing up, neither of them moved and watched us as we wandered past them and down the path to the left of them. Why do these moments always happen when I do not have a good camera with me!

With my mum visiting, I didn't have many opportunities to grab a photo, so will have to make do with this one!

One of the permanent install that Simon set up in the reception area of a conference centre. The lights down each side are LED and constantly scroll through the colour spectrum. The are lighting a waterfall feature although this photo does not show it very well. We discovered one problem with working near the constant sound of running water- it makes you want to go to the toilet!

Wanting to do something a bit different, so was playing around with the macro setting on my little camera. I still need more practice as this was the best one that came out

Blue likes to make sure he is cosy on the sofa!

Once again, a day where I have managed to achieve several things, so now I can sit back and bask in the glory of doing some wonderfully exciting and rewarding things today. Hmmm, better add some sarcasm to that last sentence. So, once again I was helping Simon out at a local install we have in a hotel. The marquees has been up since November and although the lighting has been adjusted a few times due to different events going on, it's been a pretty simple install. Lights go in, occasionally pop back to change things, then lights come down (this weekend in fact). After we had finished that, we went up to do the horses. As it has been cold, we first changed Amber's rug to a heavier one, then went to check the water trough. It was frozen over, so first of all, Simon tried to do this: Then he though better of this idea and found a large rock to smash the ice with instead. We discovered the ice was a little thick: Blossom found the whole thing v...

While we were up at the field today, we had to spend sometime smashing the ice in the horse' water trough. Amber was not bothered in the slightest, but Blossom though it was very exciting and scary to watch the ice being smashed and taken out of the trough! I edited this one by first cropping and then lightening it slightly. I then sharpened the image before finally turning it into black and white. Below is the original photo.

This morning I enjoyed another frosty walk in the woods with Blue. We were out for about an hour or so and Blue was very good with his recall. On the way back, I did have to put him on his lead as I saw some deer ahead- Blue likes to chase the deer! In the afternoon I tidied up the front room and hoovered, then thought it would be a good idea to sort out the cupboard under the stairs. Somehow, not only did I manage to tidy up the bits that were already in there, but made room for a few other bits too! The only place I need to find a home for is Amber's saddle, which will probably go in the study. The reasons I will not leave Amber's tack at the farm is a) theft- the container I keep my bits in is not secured and b) being as it's a metal container, it gets damp and so her saddle would just go mouldy which damages the leather and stitching.

It's a dog's life

One of Simon, concentrating hard as he tries to remember how to use the 7D again. Oh and going for the 'country' look. And yes, he is also wearing wellies. Now he just needs a shotgun and a Labrador!

Today I helped Simon to do a removal at one of the long winter installs we have done. The location is only 20 minutes down the road, although first we had to go and pick up the van from work. The removal was quite quick as we only had to take out some of the lighting. First of all, we had to drop the truss, then uncouple all of the connectors, remove some lights, add some more, cable everything up together again and all was done. The truss didn't even have to go back up in the air again as the marquee company was due in today to change the roof linings. After we had done that, we went to the field to check on the horses. Both were fine although Amber needed a little persuading to stand still and have her rug sorted out as it had slipped slightly. Blossom was in normal nosy mode, which can get a little awkward when she decides to investigate what you are doing when with Amber! Whatcha doin'?  As it was getting on, we were able to get some lov...

Taken with the new camera- a Konica Minolta Dynax 7D. Blue in the garden having fun with a stick. Anyone would think he was performing for the camera!

... I dedcided to take Blue around the woods again. It was very frosty, but not too cold as the sun was making a good effort to break through the fog. Heading down the track to the woods, trying to be artistic and get photos of the frost on the grasses/ weeds. Other side of the track. In the middle is a (overgrown) pond, which was frozen over. Come on mum, I want to have my walk! Heading towards the entrance of the woods (really called Bartley Heath). Heading on one of the paths... Past the rusty car. I think it's been there a while! Over the 'stream', which is run off from the heath and ends in a pond. This dries up during the summer. On the path the other side of the stream.  Heading towards the 'clearing'. The path to the side of the clearing.  Blue spies something on the other side of the clearing. Managed to get him back to me and put his lead on. Not everyone appreciates having a large ginger beast hurling t...