The bank holiday...

...is on the horizon.   Not many plans, except to visit the local Farmers Market, then to Walsingham to the farm shop and barns...and maybe a walk along the coast path.  The male of the household treated himself to a camera, and he's just been waiting for an opportunity to take proper photos and not just point and snap at anything which moves! 

I remain with my trusty photo taker...evidence below...some new beads...

Awhile...a time...

...a broken laptop...


I mentioned my laptop is feeling exceedingly sorry for itself, and I'm using the PC, which means I'm tucked away, and I don't like that...which is my excuse for doing what I have to and then disappearing back to the touchable world again.


Anyway, in my touchable world I've been making my little spacers, interpersed with experiments of other things...and decorating or titivating.  I did find out about previous owners of our house and why they renamed it...we know Norfolk's reputedly flat, but it does have hills and we nestle in a little hollow, and have not much height...we're a low cottage, and from across the fields it looks like a little boat sailing in the waves...and that's how it got it's name change.


Also spacers...here's some I made earlier!!

....just a small selection, but it proves I have been busy!

Football...Foxes and...

...Flowers...

The first is dealt with easily, my team have just had a management buyout.  Well, it's called that with Richard Murray a long time supporter, board member and chairman, taking outright control of the club.

"This has been a critical time for the club. Our future was uncertain, and financially this was potentially one of our darkest hours.


"However, agreement has been reached with my fellow directors for me to take sole control of the club through what is effectively a management buyout (MBO) of the plc subsidiaries. The new money I am injecting into the club will ensure we go into the new season with a competitive team.

"I shall be appointing a new interim board of directors, and we will now go forward and actively seek new investment.
 
http://www.cafc.co.uk/newsview.ink?nid=36314
 
With that...I'm happy...
 
Now, foxes!  My absence (yet again) has been due to visiting my Mum's and trying to get some order into her garden.  Not a huge garden, just a normal suburban one, but one which has had foxes make their home at the end of it, due to the over grown shrubs let run rampant by a "professional" gardening neighbour who didn't like interference, Mum didn't want to upset, and who recently retired from helping.  Now the shrubs are trimmed back...the debris of the foxes home has been cleared, and hopefully we can keep this now tidy.  By all accounts the foxes did come to check, sat and looked awhile, and then trotted off somewhere else.  Now all I have to do is weed, dig...prune and trim the rest of the garden! 
 
...and flowers.  That'd be in my garden.  Over the last few months I've been collecting an array of herbaceous plants, roses and small shrubs, trimming back overgrown shrubs in my own garden and yesterday I, at last, got to plant some.  We'd decided to make a new bed across the garden to break up a sharp slope, this we started to dig.  Then we found some photos of the house and garden fourteen years ago, (behind the old kitchen cabinets we've dismantled)...and lo and behold there was the garden bed full of plants just where we were digging ours!  Stranger still were some other photos showing the front of the house, with a garden just where we had decided to put another one! 

Oh, and my laptop has decided that it's had enough.  Not completely dead, but on the verge of dying...it's power cable is broken and it's virtual memory...it's been telling me for the last two to three years it keeps having to find more!  So I guess that's what I'll be saving for...

Damp...

...at last!


After such scorching weather the rain fell softly yesterday. 


Wimbledon is over...the World Cup is over...and Spain is celebrating.  Of course, we did have winners at Wimbledon with two young men winning the Boys Double title, and we did have representation on the World Cup final pitch with Howard Webb refereeing.  Blame and accusation have started...as has the pre-season friendlies.  My team lost on Saturday to AFC Wimbledon, and won tonight at Welling United, but these are exercises...no clue to the performances to come with so many changes and substitutions throughout the matches...but tonight saw the return of Jon Fortune (yay), maybe only for this...but I'd bite your hand off to get him back, and then there's the forthcoming talk with Christian Dailly...mix those staying with new signings and youngsters, that defence could be stronger than last year. 

I've been looking to go to Kettering, but ticket information seems a little scarce...

I nearly went to Lynn tonight to watch the match between the newly reformed King's Lynn club and a Norwich City XI...I wish I had now...Lynn won 2 - 0.    Norwich put a team of academy and senior players who didn't travel to Germany out.  I'll watch both teams with interest. 

My local team, Fakenham Town, haven't started their pre-season yet...

I know...

...it's almost a month since I've written!  I have excuses...reasons, but I won't bore you with those!

Except, we went to a wonderful wedding in Kent.  The bride was beautiful, and very "princessy", which is what she always wanted.  And we went to my sister's brilliant party...also in Kent, and had a great time!

So, the rest...seems at my team's headquarters things they are a changing!  Some departures have been announced, with second goalkeeper leaving for Motherwell where he's been guaranteed the number one shirt in a three year deal...I'm sure that will help his international aspirations (Ireland), instead of signing a one year contract with us.  Spring(released anyway) going to Leyton Orient...  Stuart Fleetwood off to Hereford...after numerous loan deals with clubs.  The Nicky Bailey saga goes on, with a deal imminent for his move to Middlesbrough...this is money we sorely need.  Jonjo Shelvey already at Liverpool, with a far better manager now than the one he signed for!  I always had a "what if" feeling about Roy Hodgson, us rather than Fulham...if only!!  Steve Gritt is leaving...an unfortunate casualty in the monetary reality of League One football.  He will be sorely missed, by all...he was a Charlton stalwart and had been there longer than some fans!  Another Steve...this time Waggott, who left this week...and redundancy warnings have been announced too, not actuality yet, but it's a nasty feeling having hanging over you!  Yassin Moutaouakil has had his contract terminated...so a weight off our wage bill!  We have signed our youngster Alex Stavrinou on a one year contract...and also, I'm glad, Chris Solly.  Two good young players, and with the new rules of youngsters who signed for a club three years before their twenty first birthday being in the squad, these two are positive news.  It's reported that Frazer Richardson and Jose Semedo both came back to training this week...and it's players of experience in the mix of youngsters we need.  We can't go out and sign a relatively "big name", but if we carefully blend youth with experience we could hold our own next season, and surprise those doubters!  One thing that makes me feel as though I'm chewing feathers is...we're financially tight...squeaky tight, but we're still there...others have gone into administration and bounced out...if not smelling of roses, at least still alive.  You tell me that's right! 

Oh, and I won't be watching the World Cup final, nor either of the Wimbledon finals...ce la vie!  As they say in France! 

It's strange...

...who you meet in your local shop.

Having gone to one of the local village's shops yesterday, I found the owner and a regular customer chatting about the coming World Cup and the Rio injury.  Being a person who can't resist a conversation about football...or most other sports either, I made a small comment, and found they both thought a certain Darren Bent should have gone instead of Emile Heskey.  I then found I was talking to someone whose nephew played with Darren at Charlton.  Thinking through who it could be, I discovered it was another Darren...Darren Ambrose.  It was mentioned that it was no surprise he didn't flourish at Charlton, as he was consistently played out of his favoured position, by all the managers...and as soon as he went to Warnock he rediscovered his niche in his best position...and is now happy.

Apart from that, wallpaper is being stuck to walls, paint is being brushed onto wood, a garden is being weeded and glass is being wrapped around mandrels!

...and another week starts....speculation within the wider Charlton blogging world is rife, and at the end of the week we'll all settle down to see how far all the teams get.  Maybe ours will raise a trophy just as the cricket team did.

We'll see!

Another busy...

...and gloriously sunny weekend.

We started by painting the ceiling of our "new" kitchen...and now it's all white, rather than an off white flavoured with an underlay of green shades.

Then off to town(Fakenham) as the monthly Farmer's Market was in full swing, arriving just as some were packing away.  If you're around on the fourth Saturday of a month it's well worth a visit...with stalls as diverse as Norfolk wine, to handmade willow baskets, bread, cakes(the nice lady gave us two slices of each), plants...meat, fish...veggies, handmade shoes, bird seed...etc...  We did pick up some bits we wanted, including a perfect willow basket for the kitchen...then into the church for the Craft Market...there I bought a little box for a forthcoming project, and a "love" cushion for the spare bedroom(I'm making the rest, but couldn't resist the little embroidered butterflies).

Like most towns we have a local department store, here it's Aldiss, and sells things from sofas to towels...and even has a chocolate factory outlet (Kinnertons) in the corner.  Anyway, another bargain was found...and we came away with a knocked about "posh" kitchen trolley, for a fraction of the original price!  Chipped paint after having a bit of sandpaper brushed over it, gives just the right look.

So a successful visit....

On my way into and from town I pass a fellow bloggers home, and as she was having an Open Studio weekend, (also the next two)...we used the excuse and went to visit.  Debbie Osborn Art and Design

is a genius at making things from the unusual, as well as a creative artist...and makes the most sublime and welcomed elderflower cordial...for which I must get her recipe!  Being followed around her garden by Louise, Martha, Miriam and Tildy(I think that's right!), with Katie hiding in the undergrowth having a squawk at us...  I'm sure they were checking Debbie wasn't going too far from sight.  We wish her and Mr O the best with the open weekends. 

And then home to check the ceiling...fine!  Dig...paint...finish plinths...cheer Blackpool...

Now all that's left to finish is to hang the lining paper and paint...plus find a piece of wood!

I'm trying...

...to rake up enough enthusiasm and energy to walk to work,  I did work until midnight last night, having given myself the evening off to watch my team in the League One play off semi final, we lost on penalties having gone into the second leg behind and having then played ourselves into a lead last night, we had a loose moment in defence and their eighteen year old became a hero for the second match, to draw them level.  I hate penalty shoot outs, I always have...some say they give the game excitement, but I've always detested them, ever since their inception.  So it's not sour grapes because we lost, and I'm not sure how you'd replace them either...I'm not a mover and shaker within the game!  Maybe the third team should be promoted...in this case Millwall, after all they did get the points!  Okay, so shoot me!

So now, where does that leave my beloved team...if you read certain accounts, from certain papers...we have a whistle blower...since when have we had those?  We had always been a friendly, family orientated, well run club...held up as such, but now we have, reportedly, a whistle blower?!  Or cause for one...which is more to the point!  I'm sure some will take great delight in that...but, as supporters of the game of football, not your or my specific allegiance, we have to wonder where this game of ours is going.  With parachute payments for the clubs coming down from the Premier League set to rise to £48m over four years from £16m over two, where exactly does that leave everyone else!?  We know from experience being relegated is expensive, trying to cut your cloth accordingly for the income of a lower league, and those contracts with players and managers are signed in blood it seems....air tight, water tight, and fireproof!  And if you subsisted on the weekly turnover of the Premier League...you might be lucky if you can keep your team together for a push straight back, probably though you couldn't.  Then you need to gather together a team to be ready for the next season, that bouncing straight back...but, you have to have them in place, playing together from the outset...and that's not always possible, throw in some injuries during a season and...you see where this goes...  That £48m even at £12m a year is a good starting point to keeping your team or the nucleus of it, together.  Go lower and what's happened to Leeds over the last few years shows what can happen.  To get the right manager with the right players at the right time...it's expertise, isn't it?  Or maybe just plain luck!

So last night...Nicky Bailey missed one penalty, one shot of the game...one second in a lifetime.  It was cruel...he was devastated...but, at least he was brave enough to put himself there, to place that ball on that little white spot and try... Me?  I wouldn't have even been able to pick the ball up, let alone run and kick the thing. 

So I hope he'll be there next season to lead, but I have a feeling he won't be...I hope the team that played their hearts out last might will be there, but they won't be, either returning to their home clubs from loan...or moving on.  And please don't say Liverpool to me!  What about our youngsters?

Okay, now I'm walking to work!

However...

...did I have time to go out to work!

I spent the morning making beads, including these focals...

The two different types of glass I've used give the beautiful metallic finish, when heated differently in the flame.  I love making focals...I don't do that enough!

I top-dressed my herb garden...spread some muck about!

Put some chicken wire along the top of the fence behind our summer house, as the horse in the field that wraps around two sides of our garden, could put his head over and was chewing the back window ledge on the summer house.

Cleaned and finished the beads made this morning...

Normal house things in between...and chasing up some of the new kitchen bits.

....though I did get some time to do some embroidery when my dinner was cooking!  

I know how I get more time these days...it's being content doing what I do!

I'm a...

...newbie again!

I've just put my first item on Folksy.  http://www.folksy.com/shops/EithneGlass

I know it's only one item with one photo, but I have to change my way of cropping pictures so they're square...but it's there... ;)