Blue spots, out on the river....

I wonder, when you come up with blog titles, do you struggle? How do you come up with them?  I know some people use lyrics for theirs and sometimes, these are spot on although sometimes come across a bit melancholy to me when they are love lyrics but I am in awe of how you think of them!  I realise that I come up with pretty stupid titles but then I suppose at least they come into my mind quickly!

Wearing an ASOS dress, F&F cardie, cloche-ish hat- boutique at Spitalfields (present), boots- Next (sale)

Linking up with the lovely Patti at Visible Monday with this outfit.  Actually not, it's the week off!!! Linking with Monday Mingle at Momtrends. A hat alone makes me feel visible as I am often the only one wearing them when I am with other people and they always comment on it.  I like that. It's nice for the hat to have some love!


I've had rather a lovely weekend- quite packed but nice.

It started with Saturday morning- we went for a 10 o' clock swim at the localish Olympic-sized swimming pool.  It's a bit of an informal resolution for CBC and I to go swimming as we want to be a bit more organised in the fitness department, especially as we didn't make this week's planned Wednesday swing dance lesson since I was ill.  After, we had a cheeky toasted tea cake and tea in the cafe and then sped off to the nearest island to see my sister, brother-in-law and niece for belated Christmas present sharing.
My sister has recently had an op on her knee so she is unable to go to work so I was able to rarely catch her!  An utter delight to spend time with her. We chatted over tea and unwrapped presents!  My niece was delighted with the book Grandma Bendy we bought her (by a relative of mine)

Great book!

and my sister was equally pleased with her crafting dies for her Bigshot.

After that, we had to reluctantly leave in order to meet my Mum back at my house who had brought over what I hope is the last of the stuff from my old house- it's got a buyer so we're doing the final final final clearout (it's been a LONG time of removing!).  She brought stuff in and again, more tea was drunk, more chocolates and biscuits (from our Waitrose retro radio tin- bought at Christmas as dented!) were  eaten, photos looked at etc.

Actually houses biscuits

After my Mum sadly left, I headed into the garden to put the garden tools she brought over into our summer house and then decided to attack out big red, woody bush (that's a technical term ya?) with the secateurs as it's resembling that Doctor Who monster from the Seeds of Doom.

Image borowed from here

A good hour later, I had a pile of dead wood and a nice blister on my thumb.  It still appears to be on the rampage from above, suggesting ladder is needed to attack from above but at ground level, looks a bit less voracious!

I watched some Sherlock on iplayer- oh my, isn't it super!?!?!?!?! After seeing various bloggers including Ang talk about it, I wanted to watch it and it's certainly great!!! Ha, did you guess Appledore was in his mind?  I did!

CBC cooked a beetroot and goats cheese pizza for us and then we headed out to the cinema to see Frozen!!

I absolutely loved it- I had no idea it was a musical, nor that it had the fabulous Idina Menzel as Elsa (she was the original Elphaba in Wicked).  Plus, it had a brilliant twist!!! I had NO idea what would happen when Anna returned to Arandell and I was shocked. CBC looked sceptically at me when I gasped- was NOT expecting that character twist to happen?!  CBC is NOT a fan of musicals and so I thought it was very sacrificial and loving for him to sit with me and the other 12-year olds through it!

We came home and I sat and uploaded photos to Flickr before we went to bed.

This morning, I woke up for church and headed along to the local church. The vicar gives such lovely clear sermons-this morning there was a baptism so it was aimed at all ages, based on Nicodemus meeting Jesus and he put it to us-What would you ask Jesus if you had the chance?  It then moved onto Nicodemus's answer from Jesus of being born again.

 I sat next to a lovely woman who I'd sat with 2 weeks ago and we had a lovely chat at the end.  I went for tea and got chatting to the Vicar's wife who is really kind and lovely and she introduced me to her 16 year old son who leads the 3rd Sunday worship team and asked if perhaps I might play keyboard some time if they need me. I nervously acquiesced- I do feel nervous playing piano in church which is is silly!

After church, I headed home and CBC and I ate soup before heading out to Maldon to meet our friends for a delightful walk.  It is on the river Chelmer and is full of  boats.  I sailed there on a sailing holiday when I was very young.  We ate tea and cake on the Hydrogen, a tea barge before heading home.

Lovely day for it!

Tea aboard the Hydrogen (we sat inside the cabin!)

Glorious sunshine

Some Essex earl

Wish this was my boat

Alternative hattage for the walk!

Enjoying fresh air and vitamin D was good for me as I have felt a little bit less well today! If only the cough would go, then all would be well- snot I can cope with!