Midweek miscellany

I have actually started to organise myself a bit better of late and that includes some sort of blog planning - you know, where I actually schedule specific posts and jot down ideas for future ones. It helps. Particularly when you get involved in link-ups and the like.

But sometimes I like to do these tying-up of the proverbial loose ends posts. A bit of this, a bit of that. Maybe what we've been up to and what I'm hoping to do in terms of new little projects.

Firstly - for those of you who were concerned about the pony in my previous post: I did make a phone call and it was followed up. The pony is 30 years old (which is pretty ancient in equine terms) and does suffer from various health issues but is well cared-for by both his owners and the local vet.

Now, onto other things.

Joe and I have been out walking again. It's feeling decidedly cold now and the leaves are whirling when the wind blows. We still need to figure the central heating out in this house. It'll come on for a (very) short while then we're back to Shiverville. So I'm all about vests, jumpers, thick socks and scarves right now.

The hosta outside is an incredible yellow colour and I'm looking forward to dividing it into smaller plants. And whilst I'm on the subject of growing, I bought some hyacinth bulbs yesterday. They're the indoor ones which have been treated to make them think winter's been and gone and they're currently residing in a dark cupboard in bulb vases. It'll be fun for Joe to see the roots reaching down for the water.

Projects: well, we're going to a Halloween party in a few weeks so I need to think up a costume fit for a toddler. He seems quite taken with pirates at the moment so that could be the way to go. Although his red and white striped T shirt disappeared at nursery several weeks ago and has never resurfaced.

While we're on the subject of losing things, Joe apparently decided to take my big wooden spoon out with him for a walk on Sunday. His grandparents were looking after him for a few hours while Jay and I had lunch on the steam train (very lovely by the way). Joe was waving the spoon about at the ducks and accidentally dropped it. So now it's sitting lodged between the stones in the River Irwell for all to see. I was quite attached to that spoon.

Another thing I'm getting into is improving my photography. It's all very well playing around with editing programmes but I'm keen to master my camera and get better shots - particularly indoors - by doing things properly (shutter speed, ISO, aperture). Oh, and using the tripod. That's going to be vital at this time of year when the light levels are low.

This time around I won't be signing up to a course. I've found so much inspirational and easy-to-follow stuff online and it's got me feeling very motivated.

I'm excited about the weekend too. I'm meeting up with a friend in Manchester for coffee and later on we have visitors, so we're cooking for them. I bought Jay this book as one of his birthday presents and he's already curing his own bacon... I suspect he'll be butcher bothering on Saturday morning. I'll do dessert so am leafing through recipe books and I definitely feel a cake coming on...