Juggling balls

It's been a really mixed up kind of a day one way and another. Lots of interruptions of various kinds, as well as Wimbledon to keep distracting me!

For the second day running I didn't wake until 8am which is really late for me. I tend to wake at around six or six thirty so I never set the alarm unless I have a train to catch of course! If I do sleep any longer, a certain pair of moggies generally let me know that breakfast is overdue but not today. So, I felt I was playing catch up all day really.

At about 9am my neighbour called round at the back of the house for a quick chat and, whilst we were standing by the conservatory door I noticed something appear by my gates that had obviously come from the field or the lane. It was a deer! I bolted inside for my camera, which, typically was on charge, but I was too late to get a picture. So, I shall keep an eye open, camera nearby, and will try to photograph it next time. It was quite small and a darkish brown, so I'm not sure if it was a youngster or just one of the smaller breeds of UK deer. Exciting to see though, and my neighbour and I were both saying how lucky we are to have so much wildlife on our doorstep.

The juggling part of my post refers to a canvas that I made today and which I have added to my Etsy shop. It's called "Life is a Juggling Act" and it features Gwendoline, one of my Doo Lally characters. I used some calico on this one, dying it with inks and fraying the edges to create a sort of grass effect.

 I really had fun creating this canvas and I'll be using the calico idea again too. I'm part way through some other items and this was the state of my table when I finally caved in and sat down to watch the rest of the tennis instead!

As I missed just about the whole of the first week of the championship I don't feel too guilty about spending a lot of today goggle boxing....hence the balls part of tonight's blog post title! I'll be completing the above project tomorrow with a bit of luck, so I'll share that with you once it's ready. As you can see, I remain as untidy a worker as ever!

Because of the men's semi finals being back to back and the first one lasting five and a half hours (which I only watched intermittently) I found myself trying to get things done between points, games and sets this evening! As I've been having one of those weeks where I just can't seem to get to sleep at night, I decided to change the bedding and then I picked some lavender and put some in a vase on the bedside table as well as sprinkling some of the flower heads into my pillow case. I've also had an oil burner giving off soothing aromas in the bedroom all evening, so I'm hoping that, along with my shower and fresh PJ's I might have a chance of some sleep tonight. Hopefully too, that will mean I'll be awake nice and early instead of missing half of the morning!

Dinner tonight was also made in a rush between tennis matches. No slipping of standards though, it was still freshly cooked! David would find it hilarious that I'm actually posting my "recipes" here as he was the chef and I very rarely cooked anything. So, tonight's delicacy was unplanned and not thought through as I didn't have much in the fridge really. I made a sort of (!) Biryani and it only took about seven or eight minutes in total! I chopped and fried an onion in a touch of olive oil with a pinch of salt, then added the remaining half of a yellow pepper, also chopped. I stirred in a couple of spoonfuls of Madras curry paste (I prefer it to powdered spices as it's more unctuous and there's no worry about having to fry off any bitterness) and added some vegetable stock. I put a pack of  Basmati rice in the microwave for two minutes.....I don't boil rice anymore as the microwave ones are foolproof as well as being quick and mess free. Then it was into the garden to cut some Rainbow Chard leaves and some French beans, both of which got chopped and added to the pan. I then stirred the rice through the mix, added some halved cherry tomatoes and a dash of soy sauce and dinner was served! It was really tasty and no meat required!

I thought you might like to see a couple more photos taken in the garden today as well. These are the blooms on David's rose which is called "Moment in Time"....

....he'd have loved these flowers which are a much deeper red than they look here. The climbing rose that I planted a couple of months ago is flowering now too. These little blooms are only about an inch across and so delicate.....

 .....aren't they lovely. The rose is called "Little Rambler" and there are oodles of buds on it, so it's going to be covered with little flowers all Summer I think.

Well, it's pretty late, and that lovely fresh bed is calling me, so I'm going to try and get some sleep now. Oh, before I go though, this was the sight that met me this morning when I walked into the lounge....

 ....one little pest, and I suspect it was Tara, had found the bag of catnip leaves, dragged it onto the floor, chewed through the bag and scattered them everywhere. What a mess! I didn't have the heart to hoover it up as they have both been rolling around in it off and on all day...with rather dreamy looks in their eyes! So, with the hope of dreamy looks in my eyes, I shall away to my bed!