Its later than you think

ooking back, most of my posts this year have been about what's been going wrong (I do seem to be giving off some sort of pheromone that is driving people crazy, and definitely NOT in a good way...). So I figured I'd do one about one of the things that has been going very right -

BAAAABY HOOORSE!!!!

(with apologies in advance to those of you who have suffered the deluge of Roxy Pics on fb ;p)

So! Last year we introduced Ms Ziggy to one Mr Oke Boy . Things obviously went well, because after a Full YEAR of waiting, she produced...


Ms Roxy! A creature of much prettiness, fluffiness and legs. Mostly Legs.

we brought her home and she grew and grew and we have had a LOT of fun teaching her stuff and playing around....

( MOAR BB horse  )

Best Thing Ever.

Lately I seem to have posted mostly when things are a bit crap. however I have just had a very lovely weekend of watching hot dark angsty men with being_here, drinking cider pottering about on ziggy, hanging out with family, tidying up the house a bit then more hot angsty mens. h

( In pictures my weekend went... )

After that, just to end the evening, the ever wonderful and resourceful thipe found THIS - videos of Aidan Turner as Rosetti, reading POMES. Watched til brain EXPLODED FROM HOT.


Damnit stupid embedding thing not working. Video of DEATH BY HOT here http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgqgmu_dante-gabriel-rossetti-lovesight_creation

Hello F'list! I am still alive ;) I have been... well not even that busy and I keep (as ever) MEANING to post but never quite getting to it.
However I have finally done something exciting to post about - gone to pony camp!!
Except pony camp was a lot of hard work and riding and horse stuff and drinking wine later and I am too sleepy to post coherently. So instead, pictures!




( my loooovely horse )

Will try to post more comprehensive post tomorrow, when I may have Moar Brane (aslo I want to record a lot of what we did and the technical parts we were taught before i forget it all).

In summary, pony camp = AWESOME.

Hello! and Happy Solstice ! I have been meaning to post for aaaages, but just never seem to get to it! The last few weeks have been busy, but mostly in a good way, actual nights out in pubs, having fun with the horse and even doing interesting stuff at work!
Even the work christmas do was good fun, tasty foods, tasty drink in comfy, uncrowded bar.

This weekend, I even had visitors! thesme_01 and lazy_hoor arrived on sat. afternoon, after doing some very Unpatriotic Shopping around Belfast. We exchanged Tasteful And Interesing Presents (they got me the tastful one ;p), then went for foods and cinema.
2012 is great, if you like giggling at terrible terrible disaster movies that MAKE NO SENSE. The special effects tho are pretty damn awesome, but there should been more of them and less 'plot', 'dialogue' and pull-ups. On the plus side, Giraffe!
After 3 hours of that (THREE HOURS!) we returned home to sip fine, fizzy wines and discuss the issues of the day (that part is actually true!). BUt then, SNOW! Thesme took photos and had weathergasms, so we had to pelt her with snowballs to calm her down again, like the TROO FWENDS we are. Then, MOAR WINE. All this AND we got to see teh hoors Relaxoslacks. They are awesome, I want some!

Sunday was Cold and Snowy. After the ladies departed back for the south, I remained on the sofa for some time, til I could put off going up to the stables no longer. There was much thawing tho, so I figured it would be safe to take the windy, hilly, little lane rather than take the much longer route round the main roads.
It was all fine at first, then I turned a corner and... Oh dear.




'Maybe it'll get better further on' I thought...
(  moar snow! )

So there we go! Today we had a Solstice Day at work, in which I had to demonstrate our web mapping/database thingsy to The Public, then there was a talk on astro-archaeology and solstices, followed by an excellent (if less relevent) talk on tree rings, comets and mythology, which you can read about here and here, if you like that kind of thing.

Tomorrow, normal work day, the wed, Last Day, which usually means pub. Then HOLIDAY. For nearly a week! Hurrah!

How are y'all doing out there? I have been reading lj, if not quite managing commenting/posting, but have probably missed plenty!

Oh and, btw (if you are still reading) if you don't want do sit through THREE HOURS of 2012, Cleolinda has done a 15 minute review, here!

So! We made it all the way to Orkney! Wed morning was first Van Unloading -well, first it was tea and toast and shuffling about in pjs, THEN it was Van Unloading. But once that was done it was time for....
Exciting Archaeology and Architecture!!



(  are you excited? )

Ok so more architecture there than archaeology, but now we get to the exciting stuff! if you like that kind of thing. After Stromness, we headed to the Ring of Brodgar stone circle (the stone at the top is one from the circle, split after it got hit by lightening).

( many stones. In circles! )
After that, you will probably be glad to hear, we decided we had seen enough for one day, and were now tired, hungry and COLD. So we returned to Casa Unhurt to thaw out, then went back in to Kirkwall for a very tasty dinner! Nom Nom Nom. And cider/wine.
Which might explain the very serious and earnest debate in the taxi back on the viability of Orkney as a place to retreat when the zombies rise and attack. Even the taxi driver joined in!

Then Moar Cider and much insistance that the Puma-Struck Toe was FINE and I could almost even walk on it. Sort of. Good thing I packed all those painkillers really ;p

Still to come! More Scenerey and SKARA BRAE OMG! Woohoo!

Nicked from mollydot

Every day for 6 days (is it 6?), post something that made you happy that day.

Not surprisingly, today is the Kitchen Is Almost Done! Which neatly allows me to move to the kitchen progres picspam demanded by thesme_01

( Kitchen progress )

Currently the corgi man and the electrician are in there sorting out the gas hob, the oven and all the lights etc. Then its just waiting for the worktops and tiling...

From thesme_01. To see how many times to could get THE BLACK CHAMBERS OF MY HEART into a post.

Obviously the best way to do this is to tell you all about the black chambers of my heart and Thesme's place within them. For she holds a very special place with in the deep black chambers of my heart.

When I met Thesme many many years ago, the black chambers of my heart were closed up tightly, inhabited only the Badgers of Leave Me Alone and I'm Fine. And even in places blocked off by the Mudslides of Life.



Damp, cold water seeped through, but otherwise the black chambers of my heart remained sealed tight and buried, forgotten by all.

And then one day, one glorious day, Thesme came along and ploughed up the lintel, exposing the black chambers of my heart to daylight and fresh air and insanity and overstretched anaologies and many other wonderous things.

The bright light of thesmeness flooded into the black chambers. The Badgers of Leave Me Alone and I'm Fine snarled and growled and threated to bite, but she was not afraid! Bravely, she explored the deepest crevices of the black chambers of my heart (except where the mudslides blocked parts off), rooting around in the debris built up over centuries in the hope of finding a rare cast-off gem. Though mostly it's just crappy bits of broken pottery.

THE BROKEN POTTERY OF MY LIFE DISCARDED AND CRUMBLING IN THE BLACK CHAMBERS OF MY HEART.




Of course Thesme is not a blonde lady. Perhaps she is behind the blonde lady, illuminating the black chambers of my heart with the glow of her insanity Twu Fwienditude.

Perhaps the blonde lady represents YOU. All of you wonderful people who can now enter the black chambers of my heart, through the hole Thesme had torn in my seemingly well-secured, deeply buried and expertly corbelled roof. Even the Badgers of LMA & IF retreat before her wonderous gleaming (tho they do still snarl and threaten to bite).
Sometimes, whene bored of hoking in the gloomy corners of the black chambers of my heart, and emboldened by wine, she even pokes at the Badgers to provoke them.

Now at dawn the bats of Joy and Glee and Songs of Death and Zombies and Various Sea-creatures and Writing a Lot of Nonsense can fly into the black chambers of my heart, to roost there in safety until night falls and they can fly out, fly and be FREE and eat flies and I'm really not quite sure where I'm going with this one. There are probably weevils in there too somewhere.

So, since meeting the Wonder THat Is Thesme, the Black Chambers of My Heart Now Look Like

( this )
You REALLY don't want to know what she's done to my brain.

Did I win? Is there a prize?

There is actually SUNSHINE out there. BLUE SKIES! It's WARM. Quite amazing. So, since I am doing bugger all else today (due to fun with nail surgery yesterday), I decided a spot of pottering about the garden was in order. Deheading roses, mild weeding, that kind of thing.

Back in May, adelpha and kelemvor came to visit and among other adventures, they helped me plant lots of Lovely Things in the garden and I promised photos of how everything was doing. Then it RAINED for the next three months.

However all the planted things have indeed survived! Except the blue poppy, which sadly fell victim to trampling by the guys who cut the hedge :/ Due to the rainy summer and laziness, there are also a few weeds in there too. And some stuff I know we never planted, but just appeared!

So. ( gardeny picspam )

Can't get into weed out the midde due to stupid bandages on toes and only being able toe wear sandals. But, I made some inroads ;p And everything we planted is still alive! So, yay ;)

Had a great trip to the osteopath on Friday, got back fixed and she even prodded and twisted the foot about some. Well, tried to twist it, but it was doing the NO MOVING thing again.

She suggested massaging it every evening - not just rubbing it but "really getting into it", and also suggested using olive oil to massage it with (which is what the physio used too). So I thought fair enough and gave it a go.

( What happens when you take advice from people who don't own cats... )

Tho, the massage DID help, so I guess it was a win all round ;p

For themse_01. and lazy_hoor and... anyone else who fancies some Hot Twin Doctors (and who wouldn't?)

For the unintiated the Hot Twin Doctors are travelling to Remote Places to try Native Medicines. For... science, or something. In the very Scientifically titled Medicine Men Go Wild.
It is very informative and educational and there is much comparing of Native Practices to Western Medicines and also hot sweaty twin angst.

With Crocodiles!


(  Oh my... )

So, in conclusion? SCIENCE.




Whack and unwrap indeed ;p