Orange legged spider

Does anyone know what sort of beastie this is? Isn't it weird! It's got a red thorax, orange legs and a huge white abdomen. It walked across our patio this morning, and none of us has seen a spider like it before, not in England, nor in Italy.

I'll put up the other photos of it on my flickr site.

Aunty's teeth

Through GenesReunited, I've recently got in touch with a cousin whom I never met but we share a common pair of great-grandparents. We've been comparing notes on what oral history we know so I checked a story with my mother about cousin's grandmother and my mother's aunty. It is so funny that I should share it.

She was teaching her class poetry, 'The charge of the Light Brigade' and they were reciting it in a very lackadaisical manner. 'Put some life into it' she said. 'FORWARD the Light Brigade!!' and her teeth  shot out and landed on the floor between the desks!  'Leave those' she  barked, and marched up, picked them up, turned her back to put them in, fixed the class with a beady eye and continued with the lesson! She had excellent discipline and there wasn't a titter but I bet they didn't half laugh when they got out. As she did. She told the tale with great aplomb many times. 

I wonder if the children there still remember the incident.

Local food

When I'm working at home, I often nip up the road to my favourite coffee shop. I drink an espresso and a glass of water, but I avoid the cakes. The cakes are delicious. It's very difficult to avoid them. I didn't avoid this one because it's a chocolate espresso. The top is all fudgy and delicious.

Blue Angel Bakeries make them and cookies and tiffin, and sell them at the Aylesbury farmer's market once a month. My children give me orders every month, even from university where son plans to sell them because they are good enough to compete with Ben's cookies. Bank of mother is getting a bit fed up with these withdrawals and has decided to stop funding them. Instead, I'm copying my children and buying a tray of cookies to take into work. Rachel does specials for the market like raspberry sparkles for Christmas. They look amazing as well as being scrumptious.

Tae for two

We do tae kwondo, my daughter, my grandson and me - well, all right, to be exact, my step-grandson. We all go together on Sunday evening. We're different grades.

• Grandson is white belt - for innocence and beginner.
• I'm blue tag, so my belt is green with a blue strip. It means the grade is half way between green and blue - for growing and getting there.
• Daughter is red tag, which is half way between blue and red - red means danger and she's getting quite scarily good.

We start with jogging and warm ups and then perhaps sparring in pairs. This Sunday for the first time, grandson and I got paired together. Imagine it! It's not often that Nanna and six-year old get to beat each other up.

Now grandson doesn't talk much - a bit like his grandfather but he can laugh. He didn't say a word as we hit with one fist, ducked and hit with the other fist, but he laughed fit to burst as he jumped to tag me on my head. And he laughed and laughed as we sparred. And when we had to take up press up position and try to knock each other off balance by pulling or knocking an arm, we both collapsed on the floor laughing.

That's why I do tae kwondo because it makes me laugh.

Art exhibition

I have been rather honoured that my work colleague asked me to come to an exhibition of children's art. Her little boy was one of only 600 out of 6000 entrants to be chosen to have his work displayed at the Royal College of Art. They have an exhibition each year, run by volunteers in aid of cancer research.

The theme they were asked to work to was "As I see it" and her son's work shows a crocodile that appears to be snapping at insects in the air. I love the detail of the dragonfly. And he is only in year 2. Here's his proud mother.


It is a magnificent exhibition. I wish that more state schools had their pupils work on display too.

Cacti photos

The cactus is even better now.

House plants

This splendid cactus comes out once a year. This is its best show yet.

Husband has anticipated this blog posting and has admired the array of pink and red cacti on the window sill.

Sunny weather

The weather has turned really nice, warm and sunny though not too hot. This is what is was like in India in January, when the brightness hurt my eyes that had been used to winter dark. As spring has come gradually, the days have got longer and brighter.

The garden is at its best this week and next, and then will need loads of tidying up in time for the opening of the Secret Gardens of Aylesbury Old Town in June.

I planted three cistus (what sort of cistus is it?) about 7 years ago and this one has grown huge and splendid. The others are invisible runts.

Austria connection

I'm pleased for daughter who had a phone call last night from Ellie in Austria, offering her a job (don't know what though!) and asking for her CV. We got up early this morning to check through it before emailing it really early, before daughter went to school.

The connection is because Ellie has come over to Aylesbury for years, bringing a group of Austria students around 13-16 years old to learn English, and we've acted as host families to some of them. Last year, daughter took over all the sandwich preparation and breakfasting them because I was going out to the office, worrying about getting my Master's dissertation in on time for September. Daughter did a lot of the work, and Ellie knew it. When she saw daughter last, she asked her if she'd like to come to Austria, and of course, after A-levels are done, daughter has weeks free until the results come out in August.

Now we wait and see what Ellie has to offer.

Politics

Not that I get involved, I just watch politics, but I did like this from Newsbiscuit.

For those of you abroad, the building is London's council offices, and the wig might have come off the head of the newly elected mayor of London, Boris, who's ousted the labour incumbent.

Endometriosis

I've just found this link to some research on endometriosis. As endometriosis has been my problem, it interests me, and this poster gives a little about the progress on a possible genetic cause as well as hinting at the dioxin connection.