FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, after three months of solid work I finally handed in my completed dissertation. It looked lovely in its black hardback cover, but to be honest I never want to see it again. I enjoyed reading all the books and I quite liked the field research parts (except when it was snowing), but writing it all up was a nightmare. Doing stuff like this is for 'real students', the ones who have time to write a dissertation in between watching day time tv and going to the pub. Getting home from work at 7.30pm and then working until the early hours before getting up and going back to work - for three months - is no fun. I am VERY tired but sleep tonight will be good, as for the first time in weeks I'll be dreaming about knitting, gardening and watching movies rather than whether I remembered to properly reference Natural England on page 107 or if I worked out my percentages right before I did the correlations. Phew, never again!

Winterama

Today I had the day off work to do some work on my dissertation. When I got up, the snow was twinkling and the sun shining, so I got as far as gathering all my books and putting them on the table. I then spent the rest of the day playing with the animals, making winter vegetable broth and after dark, watching movies. I guess I'll just have to catch up at the weekend.
















I moved all of my cacti out of the greenhouse after the wind broke most of the glass. To my amazement I discovered that one appears to be starting to flower. I have had this plant since I was at university (about 1992!!!!!!) and it has never done this before. A good sign I think.













Tonight we watched 'a series of unfortunate events'. It was on sale at the supermarket for 5.99 which seemed like a good deal, and so it was. I especially enjoyed all the costumes, I can see I'll be hunting down some black voile to create some nice puff sleeves.















I am unavoidably influenced by movies and have been wearing my hair in head plaits since seeing 'secretary' a few weeks ago.





















I suspect Dolly and J are unavoidably influenced by the photos on my blog.





















I saw white cat have a wash for the first time EVER today, so I let him sit with us on the sofa for a while. Hopefully this positive reinforcement may lead him to wash again at some point!





















Peahead has been grumpy as usual, phone glued to ear.

Our friend and Spike's dad Billy appears in the latest Badly Drawn Boy video for 'a journey from a to b'. He's the one on the sofa chatting up the ladies. Spike is very proud.

Out of hibernation

Been hibernating for a while, but the bad weather woke me with a bang. The new year was starting to look good, but 90 mph winds with a bit of frozen rain thrown in for free has devastated my beloved greenhouse.





















The fence took a bashing too.





















Next door lost their guttering, and the chimney looks dodgy too (what d'you think dad - is this gonna fall through my roof or what?).








































Shed lost a few slates, but our house is still all here.

This cheered me up though!






















As did this. Play people and goats. Two of my favourite things.

There's a moose loose...

Today Peahead finally fixed my new hall light. I love it. It looks like hundreds of little birds flying up the stairs.















He put up my moose light too, so together the whole staircase looks magical. I think I may sleep in there tonight! Thanks, Peahead, I love it.





















In an attempt to become more domesticated this weekend, I started wearing my new pinny that I got from the car boot sale a couple of weeks ago. I got two, a pink one and a brown one. I like to imagine some old lady made them in the 70's.













White cat has been feeling a little left out as he hasn't got his own bed. For weeks now, he has been hanging around the other cats and taking every opportunity to sit on their beds when they aren't looking. Since he is here to stay, I figured it was only right he got his very own so I made him one out of an old jumper that doesn't fit me any more. He seemed quite pleased with it, but already it is covered in white hair.

Goat walking

As usual we have been very busy. Inspired by this picture, I devised a way to save time. I taught the goats to take themselves for a walk. Now I just need to teach them to chop their own veg, fill their own water bucket and muck the shed out!













Although I have been slacking with my posts as usual, I do add pictures to flickr quite often as it's a bit quicker to do.

Sunny sunday smile

Only had to work a few hours this morning, so on the way home called at Gisburn car boot. For the grand total of £4.50 I picked up an old metal mopping bucket (much nicer than the horrid grey plastic one I have been using), a lovely Kenojuak Ashevak print (not an original!), two cute Shelleys cake plates and a beautiful vintage bead necklace with a pretty silver clasp.

I have loved this kind of Inuit and Native Canadian art since my mama took me to visit relatives in British Columbia when I was young. I would love a real Kenojuak print - if anyone has a few grand to splash out on a present for me, this is one of my favourites.

This picture of Kenojuak is stuck to the back of the print I bought.

Later I went for a walk. Bosie and white cat came along too. I tried to get Oscar to come but he was being stubborn and just sat down when I put his lead on.











Surprisingly, Bo didn't seem to mind being without Osc (they are normally inseparablee) and he enjoyed lots of tasty leaves and thistles which don't grow in his field.




















He insisted on taking some samples back to share with Oscar though!

Lancashire Country Show

Today I worked at the Royal Lancashire Show. It's about the fourth time I have done it and even though it's a really hard day, it's always lots of fun.





















The lamas and alpacas were lovely. The alpacas had been shaved to make wool and they looked like baby camels with poodle cuts.

What's with this fringe?













This is the biggest sheep i have ever seen!













This was the little guy I wanted to bring home.













Perhaps one of these would be better - apparently the smallest sheep in the world. It would take years to get enough wool to knit a pair of mittens from one of these little chaps.













I also got time to go see the nubians and had a chat with a nice man who showed me how to cut the babes toe nails. It doesnt seem too difficult, so I may invest in a good knife and give it a go. His goats were realy well groomed. He said that he had given them two baths before the show, but somehow I don't think Oscar and Bosie are the bathing type!