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.

Shop displays

Aylesbury shopping is getting a bit limited in that there are fewer small shops to choose from. There are bigger shops like BHS, Beatties and Woolworths, and the ubiquitous supermarkets. I'm glad to say that a new health store has opened in Bourbon Street, just opposite the side entrance to Friars Square. Down that same street there's a bridal shop, that last week had one of the most striking displays I've seen for ages. I noticed other people stop to look too. This week's isn't as striking - I was too late to photograph last week's.

Uncle Bill's drawing

Recently looking through my family history files I came across this cartoon that U. Bill did of me in June 1963. I'm wearing my school velour hat, which was a very expensive piece of uniform. The occasion that elicited this cartoon was that I'd got into this school. The eleven plus system at the time would pay a grant to the direct grant schools for all the children that the authority deemed had passed the eleven plus. I'd taken the 11+ but the county education authority did not deem me suitable for grammar school. However, such schools would still take suitable children, if the school liked them and the parents were willing to pay, something like £20 a term. The school liked me; I got in. To celebrate my success, U. Bill, who the family considered had the fewest brains, drew me this picture and wrote me this ode:

I knew you'd pass this Exam without any fuss or flurry.
I told you in the Café that you had no need to worry.
It was plain to me the Convent would accept you back but still
How could they have refused you when you've brains like Uncle Bill!

Cork tour

Daughter was tired so we took our time leaving today. We passed on our maps, guides and spare food to people in the hostel. I had a printout of the spec for the eeepc (I've just bought one, and left that for the woman C, who had been fascinated by it. She said that she was sorting out things, starting afresh I think, and thinking creatively about how to set up her own business in event management, so an eeepc would suit her situation well.

We caught the round-town bus up to the gaol, where they sentenced us to serve time and charged us 6 euro. Cork gaol is just as forbidding a place as any other gaol, but rather cold too. Its history is that it served as a prison for both men and women since before the 19^th century. It doesn't seem to have been overcrowded and the first Catholic governor, Murphy, seems to have been a sympathetic man who managed both the scoundrels and the political prisoners.

The bus tour included a guide to various sights, including mentioning the citizens' pride in the Cork town hall, not exactly a sky-scraper, but the tallest building in the country, currently.

We also stopped off at the Butter Museum for an excellent lesson in marketing, branding and advertising, then nipped across the road to St Anne's church (see photo) where I sat and minded our luggage, while daughter went up the tower to ring the bells of Shandon.

We caught the tour bus back into town, with just the time to collect some souvenirs from the tourist office before waiting for the Skybus back to the airport. It was 10 minutes late and we were both getting worried, when two buses arrived at once. On the plane, we sat next to a priest Father MS) who had some interesting tales to tell us about some of his experiences, such as unclean hospitals, and characterful people with few close relatives around when they died.

Got home with time to see husband enjoy his three bottles of whiskey (miniatures) - daughter delighted in buying them and showing her passport as evidence of her 18 years to the cashier, who wasn't interested.

Kinsale

We took the bus to Kinsale this morning, There's a cool wind today and daughter is a bit off colour, cold and sleepy. We had a look round, the city in the morning, stopping at the Crawford art gallery where we had scones and a drink and then nipped back to the hostel for daughter to have a quick nap, and we fetched warmer coats.

The road to Kinsale is lined with golden gorse and cordylines - an odd combination. Daughter slept.

We wandered around first, found the Tourist Information to get a map, and then, being as this is the gourmet capital of Ireland, treated ourselves to a light lunch of sea food and tabbouleh in Max's wine bar followed by a rhubarb tiramisu and a succes cake (meringue & caramel). We then strolled round to see sights. We observed the influence of the British history in the post boxes.



Another thing that interested me was the brightly painted houses. There are terraces of them in Kinsale and Cork.

The most interesting place to my mind was Desmond Castle. This has a long history as a customs house, an arsenal for the Spanish and a prison for French prisoners in the 17th century. It might have been rather overcrowded and there was a disaster in 1747 when a fire killed 54 prisoners. It is now a national museum and includes an exhibition not only of the gaol but also of the history of Irish wine links. Being a port, Cork has imported wine from Spain and France for centuries if not millenia.

Cork

We're in the Bru hostel. We arrived in Cork yesterday afternoon to lovely weather - balmy and spring like. The hostel, Bru, is not too bad - worth a few asteroids, if not stars. It's clean and quiet (if you're not in the bar) and we are sharing our room with a couple of young women from New Orleans. (What does 'bru' mean?) It's right in the middle of the city, but from our walk last night, I'd guess that this side of the river is less salubrious than the other, which seems to be the shopping side.

We walked past the Cork Opera House, which was advertising Spanish Harlem that evening and strolled though a square , where we could hear the birds' evening chorus, round a church and onto the main street. We found a couple of alley ways, the Huguenot quarter, where there were a number of cafes and restaurants. We got ourselves some pasta in one.

The air was still warm as we wandered back to the hostel, avoiding the cheerful drunks, “are ye off for the night? one inquired of daughter. We bought a box of chamomile tea, and brewed up in the hostel kitchen, played with my new eeepc a bit, but haven't got the wi-fi up yet, then retired to bed in our two bunk, i.e. four berth room with a couple of women from New Orleans, Julie and Susan.

We visited Blarney Castle. Baloney and Blarney. What's the difference? It seems baloney's where you say something flattering that is obviously untrue, like telling a 50 year old that she looks 18, but blarney is more realistic flattery. And today daughter kissed the Blarney Stone, which is supposed to make the kisser eloquent; she spent the rest of the afternoon telling me I was huggable.

We wandered round the fascinating grounds in spring sunshine, following the 'rock trail' that is supposed to show us the witch's steps and kitchen, ancient stones and formations of circles. Here's a picture of the witch's stone.

In the woodland and pathways, I was delighted to see spring flowers that I haven't seen for decades: ladies smock, marsh marigolds and wild garlic. I nibbled a fresh leaf. Then we caught a mid afternoon bus back to the city in time to return to the English market. We'd visited it in the morning and found the huge variety of butchers, green grocers (with fresh turmeric even), grocers and fishmongers. We bought whiting, mushrooms and rice to prepare for supper in the hostel kitchen, and stopped for tea and cake in the cafe. We found a variety of fascinating small shops in the alleys near Patrick's Street, including a glass designer - and I would really like some of this to lighten our windowless bathroom.



After dumping our shopping in the hostel, we strolled up to University College, round the campus a little, and back to Fin Barr's Cathedral, its gold glinting in the evening sun.
Now our feet are really tired. I wonder how much walking we'll do tomorrow because we're thinking of visiting Kinsale.

18 today

Planning trip to Cork

Daughter and I are planning a few days away next week, in Cork. We're flying out with just the one bag each, so no hanging around for baggage, and we're staying in a cheap hostel. Now we're looking for things to do there. I understand there's a small art gallery and fascinating old gaol and I found a tourist bus trip round the city, which I think we should do on the first day there.

Birthday boy

Son has friends round to celebrate his 20th birthday tomorrow. They've made a fondue. I find that fascinating because there was a decade when it was naff to have a fondue and when I gave someone a set as a present it went down like a load of curdled cold cheese fondue. Yeuch! Yet his father and I always used fondues for fun meals, and had cheese ones when vegetarian friends and relatives came. How nice that son sees fondues as fun too.

Spring time

Yesterday the scent of the clematis armandi was heady and beautiful. Today, it's covered in snow and there's no smell.