Happy New Year! I've been enjoying having some time off work, doing nothing in particular and recharging my batteries.
We've been watching plenty of new films, but despite having high hopes for lots of them, most of them weren’t that impressive. Catfish had been highly recommended by a few people, but everyone said ‘don't look it up online first or you'll spoil it’. I wish I had looked it up online, because I wouldn't have watched it if I'd known how boring it was going to be. I guess if you use Facebook/Twitter and talk to strangers it might open your eyes to the fact that some people aren't quite what they seem online, but come on, surely we didn't need a film to point that out? We also watched Kick Ass which didn't impress me much, despite getting some glowing reviews. Waitress was OK, lots of nice pies, but not amazing. Inception was confusing and over complicated, maybe because I was half asleep. We watched Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon, which was alright, but nothing worth writing home about.
Whatever happened to decent films? Hollywood seems to be pumping out films without coming up with a good story first. Come on, it can't be that hard, can it?
I haven't watched Leaves of Grass yet. I'm still hoping for a UK cinema release. That's one film I know won't be a let down, so I'm saving it a little longer. I did watch Death to Smoochy whilst doing my Christmas wrapping, and it was as good as ever. I also watched Lost Boys, which surprisingly I'd never seen before, but I thought it was a cool film. I'm also looking forward to Mike Leigh's Another Year, which I'm sure won't be a let down, but who knows? Maybe I've got an odd taste in films.
On Tuesday I noticed one of my car tyres was completely flat so I had it replaced and whilst I was in town I nipped into a traditional cake shop called Manning's and and I bought a quarter of a cake. My Grandma used to buy cakes from Manning's on a Saturday afternoon. The sponge was golden yellow, the jam bright red and the icing thick and sweet, but it was perfect with a cup of tea. Manning's cakes sell out quickly so you have to go there early to get the best choice.
When I got home I looked at the flowers I pressed in October.
Then I made a collage of flowers from our garden and framed it. I'd like to make a different collage every year to show the different types of flowers we've grown.
And I used the rest to make some greetings cards.
I used kitchen paper to press the flowers inside books. With hindsight, I should have used blotting paper as the kitchen paper's pattern has shown up on the pressed flowers. But they still look lovely and I will definitely be pressing lots more flowers this year. Starting with the crocuses, daffodils and forget me nots in spring.
I also got a laminator and made some bookmarks with flowers inside. The laminator will come in handy when I make posters for the allotment gates.
We decided not to go out on New Year's Eve and just had a chilled one at home.
On New Year's Day Chris went to the allotment and had a bonfire. He also dug up the parsnips. They're massive.
I spotted a lovely flower on the frosty leaved plant in the hanging baskets.
The violas are hanging in there as always.
I swept the garden again because it was covered in bird food after the snow cleared.
Chris planted up the mini cactus plants using some recycled terracotta candle pots.
I finally got out the sewing machine that Ray gave me. It works a dream, and is really easy to use. I've ordered a couple of sewing books off Amazon to inspire me to learn more.
Chris made a cool box with painted leaves on the front.
The Embassy World Darts championship is on telly, we like to have a laugh and watch it every January.
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