A treasury: cakes, cats playing instruments, food, jumpers and Doctor Who!

Hello there!!! Hope all is well with you!

I thought I'd do a little summary of some random pictures and things that don't really make a post by themselves! A bit like one of those instagram sum-up thingies!

 Went to my niece's 6th birthday party! Lovely to see all, or most of my family altogether!  Here I was with my sister, looking lovely in polka dots, my beautiful niece, resplendent in white lacy flowers and me in er- THAT Miss Patina cat blouse and TARDIS blue tights and skirt!

It would be lovely to have a really nice picture of it up close so you could see the cats really nicely and the collar but that double chin business happened as usual! So I've cropped my chin out!!!

My Mum has created magic in cake-form again- here was K's Cinderella birthday cake!

 Let's have a look at that sparkly dress up close!

 She also made one that we could cut on this day as the Cinderella one was for her birthday party this weekend!

 There were also cupcakes galore! I also took home a big parcel of food which served as lunch for two days!

 My niece is learning the flute (she started this term) so it was nice to see her flute. I played for her which she really liked although I'm not sure everyone at the party appreciated my playing! ;-)
It was quite funny showing people how to blow it properly though as everyone wanted a go and I think I helped them to improve their tone, especially my brother-in-law! I played Star Wars themes for him!
Oh yes, she was given a Dorothy dress for her birthday by someone so that's why she changed!

 Onto other random things:  Wearing all the foxes! Had a break from brooches!

 Oh and CBC has a light-sabre app on his phone- it does the noises when you brandish it as- er, a lightsabre!

 I nipped into town after work and saw some pretty decorations already up in the shopping centre.
Does feel a bit like a Christmas wormhole with the bauble being sucked in!

 And here's the front view!

 I like the observatory-style roof!

 And a lower view!

 It's definitely become hat weather again- I cannot cope without one now! I decided that leopard looks a bit like dalmation!

 My favourite food in Indonesia was Tempeh so I was chuffed to buy a tin of tempeh curry in the health food shop. It was delicious! I added veg and rice.

 MMmm, tempeh...

 And made a really delicious vegetable pasta with chilli-flakes. CBC thinks I am now obsessed with chilli flakes (perhaps I am!)

 Oh and my Mum sent me some more cake pictures- I thought I'd show you three cool ones!
Who wants a ballpool cake!?!?!

 And here was my 3rd birthday party cake. Yes, er, that would be a bathroom with toilet.  Yes, I was a bit weird.  I had an obsession with toilets. I HAD to see the toilet in every house I visited and so my Mum made me a toilet cake complete with blue food dye in the loo!!!

 And for my crafty friends, how about wool balls in icing!?

 And there sits fair Rapunzel in her tower!

Ok, so here is the geeky Doctor Who bit where I say what I think about Doctor Who- feel free to skip onto the comments section if you please!
So... I think that Clara was the intended target all along.  When Ashilda first greeted her in the episode, she said, "You are as beautiful as all your photos!"- what photos?  Who took these? Certainly no one in the episode she met Clara in.  I can't help but think that it was intended that she sacrifice herself.

The fact that they kept saying, "Don't run, they always run!" about those who face the Raven and Clara didn't run seems significant. I think that the irrepressible Missy, AKA the Master will have something to do with all this and will be in the finale- I think she arranged it all- she hated Clara and also, in the Series 9 trailer, there is a scene where Missy opens her eyes slowly looking like she is staring at something in an amazed fashion which I am almost certain we haven't seen yet in the episodes she was in (you can see it in the trailer at 0:45) so she will turn up in the finale.

I know Clara will turn up in the finale- but I'm actually not sure if that is the REAL Clara or it is one of the Clara splinters and she'll end by telling him, "Run you clever boy and remember...."

As for the Lady Vintage Competition-   I somehow feel it is a bit impossible for me to win it now, I've got 174 likes which is amazing but sadly the pretty Flamingo girl has 289 likes- ahrgh!! But good for her!
I'll include a little plug for it again just in case though!
PINK ALERT:
P.S.
In case, you missed it, I have entered Lady Vintage's Hall of Fame photo competition with my outfit and I would be SO grateful if you liked my outfit out of those who have entered enough to give it a like on Facebook.   If your husband, boyfriend, cat, dog or significant other felt so inclined to take a look too, (like a few have!), I would be very grateful!  Especially as I am now 100 behind the leader!!! Waaaaah!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.864013323713000.1073741877.144939495620390&type=1&l=8c4891a181

If you wanted to share the album too, I wouldn't be adverse to that!!!




What's happening with you then?
xxx P.S. Linking to Passion for Fashion with Rachel the hat Linking to Creative Mondays with lovely Claire Justine and Visible Mondays with wonderful Patti! I will wear what I like with Catherine at Not dressed as lamb And finally,the brilliant Passion for Fashion on Friday with Rachel the Hat

Over hill, over dale. Thorough bush, thorough briar

Hello! 
I return from camp! I come avec escalated nasty cold (three weeks, ya? Not fun!) but having had a marvellous time!  I cannot upload any more photos at present due to Picasa being meanies again, but here are a few. There were so many wonderful moments!

Dance night:
CBC came up to see me (he couldn't come to camp this year because of Olympic committments) when we had Dance Night and we had a wonderful time swinging away to Big Band music and laughing with friends.  The barn was already beginning to be decked out with decorations for 'A midsummer night's dream' so it was beautiful.  I missed him!
A midsummer night's dream
As you may have remembered in a previous post, I said I had been asked to direct A midsummernight's dream which we were playing. We did a heavily-cut version of the play interspersed with Mendelsohn's score (including the famous wedding March).  It was simply magical and an evening to remember.  All the actors were brilliant, it was hilarious and the set, organised by an amazing lady called Ceilia, was beautiful.  The whole barn was strung with garlands of greenery and followers.  Titania's bower was decked in flowers, drapes, another arch to the side, the moon on a pulley system, logs and tree stumps and flowers everywhere.  The orchestra acted as the forest, so a lot of the action actually took place amongst them.  We asked them to decorate their music-stands and themselves with foliage which they did with alacrity!  The whole set up was literally other-wordly!
Many people asked me, 'So, have you found your new niche as a director?'.  Well, though I enjoyed the new experience, whilst I wont refuse the job, I will not actively seek to direct.  I really missed acting and felt a little leftout in the performance, being one of the only people, not involved-actively in the performance.  I don't get to act very often and so I crave those opportunities that do arise.  The chance to act in Shakespeare in an amateur-setting doesn't come round too often and since the last time MND was done at camp was 25 years ago, I think I'll be a little too old to play Puck, Titania, Hermia or Helena in 25 years hence!

Mathis der Maler
I finally got to play Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony, playing 1st flute which was an utter dream!  He really is an underrated composer! My flute playing in this was described by someone I really really respect (he being a super flautist himself) as Radiant and my tone as ' beautifully light but with gravitas' and suitably loud when needed, which means the world to me to hear this from him, and "Bloody marvellous!" by a French-horn player.

Muddy walks:
On the afternoon we were supposed to have a picnic and cricketmatch, I decided to stay behind at camp and it bucketed it down with rain, so I was most fortunate.  However, I enjoyed a lovely muddy walk through the woods (with wellies and coat) with 2 new friends which was very exciting and fitting after MND)

A child of our time
We played a performance of Tippett's 'A child of our time' a choral and orchestral work based on the events of 1933 in which a Nazi prisonguard was killed by a young Jewish boy and the awful events that followed.  It follows the oratorio form like other choral works but 'chorales are replaced by spirituals like Deep river) Again in which I played 1st, which was so moving that I and the male 2nd flautist were in tears at the end.  I cannot express the feeling you get of playing music sometimes which holds in it, so much meaning, poignance, power and memory.
  Present and singing in the choir were 2 people- one of whom was one of the children who was brought to England in the Kindertransport (Children's Transport) in 1938.  (This was an informal name of several  rescue efforts to bring many thousands of refugee Jewish children to the UK from Nazi Germany from 1938-1940.  This followed horrifically violent pogroms known as Kristallnacht unleashed by the Nazi authorities following the death of a prisonguard by the hand of a young Jewish boy) .  Anyway, this man, now in his 80's, who had incidentally celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary that same day, told of how he his life had changed under the Nazis and how when he escaped on the Kindertransport, he was the only one from his class and all the rest, plus his parents had been massacred by the Nazis.  He said, we must forgive, but not forget).  If this wasn't poignant enough, at the end of the performance, when I was already in tears, a second man stood up and said that his mother was one of those who welcomed the kindertransport refugees to London which he'd only found out about 2 years ago, having no idea of what his mother had done until a newpaper managed to track her down and had a photo of her standing on the platform.

Impromptu ceilidh
To celebrate the diamond wedding anniversary, a hasty ceilidh was organised after the performance, where a variety of recorders and violins gathered round the piano to play Scottish reels whilst the rest of us, danced manic Scottish dances.  This was so much fun and actually, a bit of vigorous exercise did my illfeelings the world of good! The Gay Gordons was a bit crazy as I was completely and utterly dizzy and I only didn't fall over because I kept spinning!

Diamond cakes!
The celebrations included a wonderfully sunny tea-party in the courtyard where we enjoyed cakes, scones, and more delicacies! Wine and nibbles on the table in the evening before dinner, and the delight in seeing this obviously still very much in love couple. 2 days later, we celebrated a 40th wedding anniversary in a similar way!

Food:
The food was absolutely marvellous!  We had a new head cook who just concocted some amazing dishes for us to eat for each and every meal, varied and amazing.  10 days worth of food, 3 meals a day, 2 courses per meal, cake and tea at 11 and 4, cocoa and biccies at 10.30pm plus music hire etc for 100 pounds- bargain, I say!

Dance night swinging with CBC

Beautiful cloud-formations

The barn roof decorated for Midsummer night's dream



The path beside the barn



We ate fairy-cakes after the performance!

Just a little view of the barn with its decoration

Diamond wedding anniversary cakes

Diamond wedding scones

Have you, my loyal, much-valued  and long-established reader, entered my giveaway?  For the chance to win a bunting necklace or a long stripy maxi dress, click here and leave a comment to enter!  You must be a GFC follower (and none of that, entering and leaving afterwards shenanigans, that's rather rude!) but it's open internationally too!