Bronwen and I woke up so early this morning that we decided to go for a long walk while it was quite. So at 6:45 we where walking around the neighbourhood looking at all the buildings, it was so peaceful everyone was still asleep and it was even quieter than usual being a bank holiday.

One of the many rows of terrace houses, this one looks like a gingerbread house.

A beautiful garden with a cat statue.

My favourite thing, beautiful trees. This is in the park up the road from us, a lot of open ground with some big old trees.

The pathway around the edge of the park.

And then the return path, the avenues of trees look incredible.

I had to include this photo of the abandoned chair. It just seems to look right sitting there.

A fairy doorway in an old tree, it makes you start daydreaming of secrets, surprises and magical things.

This just looks so lovely.

A friendly neighbour, he was peacefully sleeping outside and I had to disturb him. He was very happy to see us and let me pick him up and stroke him, I could have kept it up for hours as far as he was concerned. He got all comfy in my arms with his head resting just right and started dribbling.
I really do miss my kitties so it was lovely to meet this boy on our walk.

One last photo, The Forest Gate Hotel, another lovely old building. I hope you enjoyed the walk with us, we certainly had a nice time.

It has been a quite week, I have only been out to go to the supermarket. I have been sitting at my desk working on the bears for the Stratford-upon-Avon show. The photo is of the work in progress.

When not sewing Bronwen and I have got stuck in and started cleaning this house, some peoples ideas of clean are not the same as others, the bathroom and kitchen were looking very grubby.
Martin the French guy who it turns out is Polish ( the landlord doesn't seem to know his countries very well) is also a very fastidious person so between him and Adeel ( one of the Pakistani guys) and the two of us we now have a spotless house.
I was involved in more of a supervisory way, meaning that I got to stand around and watch most of the hard work as they were using very harsh chemicals that Bronwen was worried would set off my asthma.

Bronwen saw a funfair being set up on her drive to the quarantine kennels today and just like any little sister is nagging to go. So tomorrow or Monday, which is a bank holiday here, we might go and see what it is all about.

There is a lot to report since the last blog entry. I had a lovely time in France but the day before Wendy and my Dad came back, I found Mischka cat sitting on the couch looking all bedraggled and injured. He couldn't walk on his back or front paw. So on the Saturday we had to brave the French language and find a vet, luckily we found a lovely man who spoke English and soon had the poor kitty sorted out with medicine and a painkiller.
You can read all about his adventures on Wendy's blog, this is him sitting very happily on a hot water bottle to help with the damaged paws.

I really didn't want to leave France, it is so lovely and peaceful there but I had left Bronwen in the process of moving and had to come back to London to move my stuff. She had been fantastic and moved a lot of our belongings so we just had to load the car up one last time when she picked me up from the bus station on Wednesday and then there was only the furniture to move.

On Saturday we arranged for a man and van to come and move 2 bookcases, a small chest of drawers and a chair. He phoned late on the Friday night to ask if he could make the collection time earlier and we readily agreed. So at 8:30 we are standing out in the street with the furniture and we now get a phone call that he will be late and only get there at 9:00 ( the original time). I think we made a very funny picture, the two of us standing with the furniture waiting for him to arrive which he finally did at 9:20.
It took a bit of time but we are all arranged in our room, it is a very big room in a house share. We are on the ground floor, next door are 3 Bulgarians. Upstairs are 2 Pakistanis, a French guy, a Nigerian and his Polish girlfriend. It certainly is a multi cultural house, very interesting and they all seem very nice.
The beautiful roses are from a couple of rose bushes that have been left to go wild in the back garden. The pink rose smells absolutely fantastic. The street photo is a view of the houses across the road.
This is the front of our house, the lovely bay window is our room and my plants are right outside.

I have put a new bear in our Etsy shop so if you have a minute please go and visit him. I am busy trying to make bears for the Bear Fair in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is rapidly arriving. Wendy has been redesigning our webpage so please go and have a look and I hope to have photos of the show bears to preview soon.

Lots of photos to share. Bronwen and I did some of our packing and moved stuff to the new house share and then I went and left her to do a last load while I caught the bus to the airport. I will finish moving my stuff when I get back to London.

This is my clematis plant, flowering beautifully, I can't believe that I have managed to grow a plant and not kill it.
A photo out of the bus window, the bus was on the way to Stansted Airport so we were driving through Essex, the yellow fields look so amazing.

The airport trip was interesting, traveling with Ryan Air you don't want to pay for extra luggage so I had my toiletries in my carry on bag. My suitcase was taken to one side and searched as it had made the x-ray machine unhappy. I had some shower soap in a bottle which was almost finished and was far less than the 100ml that you are allowed to travel with but I had the audacity to still have it in the big bottle so even though you could see that there was almost no liquid left because the bottle was so big they took it away from me, who knew I was a potential terror suspect.

On Sunday we went to a 'boot market', there where about 300 stalls to look at and before we where half way through we were exhausted. So many lovely things, beautiful furniture and old linen and books, the list of things that you want to bring home gets very long. I also wonder if some of the stuff is ever sold, it seems like such a lot of junk. It really is fun to look at and I think that going to these markets is a Sunday tradition in this country.
We had a lovely time and came home with some lovely old lace and embroidery thread.

These are some photos of the back garden, it is looking so beautiful. It has changed so much since I was here last. The trees are full of leaves and flowers. The cats absolutely love playing in this garden.