Project 365+1: Days 279 - 286

It's been a quiet sort of week here, with the cold dark nights we've not really felt like doing a great deal so on an evening it's been a case of walking the dog, bundling up in the warm with something good on TV and something filling on the plate, before heading to bed with the laptop and a DVD. We've been watching the old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, which make for good viewing on a sleepy Autumn evening. They're pretty short and I can sit and write or study or read while we watch it, knowing that we won't be turning the lights off too late.

The weather's not exactly been brilliant (aside from one nice dry day when I managed to get all the laundry out and and dry and put away within twenty-four hours). It's been a bit dismal and damp, so hardly the right sort of weather for taking my camera out (so no more nice Autumnal photos this week).

Day 279: Fallen Leaves

I had a slight panic when I was getting ready to upload all these photos, because I was checking the dates and couldn't find the one for the 6th. I've been religious about taking a photo each day and so I was a little bit worried that I might have missed one nearly 300 days into the project. Luckily I remembered that I'd already edited some of the photos for posting online.

Of the thirteen photos from our walk, it was tricky to pick an absolute favourite for the day. I liked the trees and the blue sky with the leaves, but I think that this one of all the leaves is probably one of my top ones. I took a couple of snaps of these leaves and played around with the focus; in a couple the focus was right at the front, but I like this one where the focus falls in the middle.

Yesterday we walked with Tara back to Kerrycroy again (it's become a bit of a routine on days off now, we stay in bed late, then give the dog a nice long walk to tire her out for the afternoon) and there were even more leaves here (you can see a bit of grass poking through in the picture above, even that's covered up now). Tara just wanted to burrow in them all, which was fine but it'd been raining and so they were all damp so we spent the rest of the journey home picking bits off wet leaf off her face, collar, ears and halti!

Day 280: Ascog

Tara's been getting a fair bit of walking this week. She was being a big pest last Sunday at my in-laws'. They've sort of adopted a stray cat and it was in the living room and she just wouldn't. leave. it. alone. The cat kept on batting at her, which Tara didn't seem to bother with, but then she was getting more exciteable and the cat was getting more annoyed, so I took her out for a long walk to tire her out/give the cat, Tara and us a break.

There's a watertower about a mile away from my in-laws' house that we usually walk to/round before going back. But it was a nice day and once I'd gotten that far I thought we'd just keep going a bit further. So we got to the next landmark (a nursing home) and I realised that I could practically see the signpost for Ascog, so we kept on going. Of course, once we got here (about 1.5/2 miles away) I realised that we'd have to walk back, and I was hot and Tara was hot, and we wanted a drink, so I sent John a text and he came and got us.

But it certainly tired Tara out. And impressively, by the time you get to this point, you're almost halfway home. So I'm thinking I might try doing the whole walk home at some point (either with or without the dog), when I'm feeling brave enough.

Day 281: Top Shelf

This is the very top of our bookcase which has had a bit of a change just recently. John's degree certificate arrived this last week so he got it framed, so now from left to right we've got a photo from our wedding, our wedding gift from the drama group, John's graduation photo and now his certificate. I'm planning on getting a nice double frame for when I graduate, then we'll actually hang the degrees up on the wall as well.

It also shows how desperately I need to rearrange all of my books on my bookcase, almost all of the shelves look like this. Luckily I've nearly finished all the Terry Pratchett books (three more to go of the Discworld series) and so if I hurry up with those (oh dear, that means buying two more books, what a shame) I'll be able to get all those books reorganised. I've got a bunch of old children's books that I'm wanting to dig out to reread (among others, I've got a whole linguistics section to fit onto the shelf somewhere alongside my literature course books). It sounds a bit sad, but I love rearranging my bookcase.

Day 282: Book Post

I've been needing to take a trip to the post office (read: send Mr Click to the post office) for a few weeks now. The bottom parcel is to send on for the book tree, the top is to send on to Jen because we're doing a mini book tree between ourselves. I've sent a copy of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Works of Robert Frost and Lewis Carroll's Jaberwocky; the top books are the ones that Jen has sent to me. I've popped them into alphabetical order (purely because that saves me from having to pick which of the three I want to read first) so just as soon as I finish The Duchess of Malfi I'm going to read Ted Hughes' Crow. I used to read a lot of poetry, but nowadays I only tend to read what comes my way, either from one of Jen's book trees, or which Jen has sent up like this, she's kind of my poetry guru.

Day 283: Late Night Movie

These are the films we've been watching in bed at night. They're grainy old versions which are in 4:3 format with a wobbly line at the top (and occasionally one in the middle) because they've not been digitally remastered. I never used to like watching black and white movies, though as I've gotten older, I've found them easier to watch.

We set the laptop up on a box lid (otherwise it gets really overheated), snuggle up under the covers and watch it. They're all set during the war (generally when they were made) and at least one ends with an advertisement for war bonds. Watson is kind of a bumbling idiot (though at times he kind of reminds me of Sam in the Lord of the Rings films); Holmes on the other hand is very Holmes-ish, I've always thought of him along the lines of Jeremy Brett's version, but Rathbone looks a lot more as I pictured him in the books - probably heavily influenced by Rathbone, even if I've never really watched these before.

We're about halfway through these right now and it's becoming a really good Autumn/Winter tradition, so I think we're going to have to find something else to watch soon. I think we'll probably go with some more of John's series because mine tend to be longer when compared to his, plus lots of my choices we have on blu-ray and until I upgrade my laptop we'll just have to make do with bedtime DVDs.

Day 284: Unseen Academicals

I took this photo to show have I gather quotes for my book journal while I'm reading. Before John got me these magnetic bookmarks for my birthday I would divide the number of pages by five (because I've got enough room in the quotes section for about five quotes - depending on their lengths). Then within each 1/5th chunk I'd have to remember which pages the good quotes were on, then copy them out when I got to the end of each fifth. It worked, but it wasn't alway practicaly, mainly because I'd get confused about the page numbers.

So John got me these bookmarks. I just clip them onto each page as I find a quote that I like and then go back through and choose the best of three at the end of each fifth (although with Terry Pratchett I struggle to just choose one and so ended up squeezing in eight quotes from this book instead).

Day 285: Yumminess

When Mr Click met me from work with a big bag of goodies, I had no idea that this was one of his treats. It's a Dairy Milk bar, with Oreo inside it. There's a sort of milk chocolate shell, then there's a white inside with the creamy stuff from the Oreo middle and bits of Oreo in that. It's just pure yumminess. I controlled myself and only ate some on Friday night (then polished off the rest while I was studying - because chocolate helps the information go in).

Unfortunately I have a dentist appointment in the next couple of weeks. And a crack in the enamel on one of my teeth that's been there for ages, but they monitor it to see if it gets any bigger and needs a filling. I had a dream last night that two of my teeth came out (plus the rebuilt bit on my front tooth where part of it chipped off). Hopefully that's not a premonition of what's to come!

Day 286: Saturday Afternoon Snuggles

This was my view on Saturday afternoon while we were watching Toy Story. Tara had been lying on the sofa while he cooked lunch and was a little bit put out when he came back and pushed her off. So when he lay down, she decided to make herself comfortable.

Daft doggy!