Slightly spooky house in the woods (scary toilet!)

This old house is in my local park, I think some part of the building is used for council offices or it has been until quite recently. The front facade of the house still looks pretty elegant, the columns are tall and strong and the climbing ivy is attractive in the autumn sunlight.

The back of the house is a slightly different matter, the stone walls are covered in snail slime, windows are broken, paint is peeling, moss climbs over through the gutters and over the roof and spider webs seal the doors.

 Though really this is more a case of neglect rather than anything spooky, as its Halloween I thought we could imagine. I'd be quite intrigued to go inside the building as some of it is definitely unused or even abandoned

 

Next to the  Hall is this building which is a little unpleasant. A former public toilet!

 

 

 With a broken roof but a chained and padlocked gate, this looks like exactly the place for a gruesome horror to occur, the sort of place if a character in a film went into you'd be shouting at them that it wasn't safe and something bad would happen.

Things from the internet

Firstly a picture of duck billed platypuses(platypi?) wearing tiny little hats.

I thought platypuses were about the size of seals until I was recounting a dream to a friend about them swimming through a stream in our town and she said that they're only about as big as squirrels, this was somehow hugely disappointing, for all I know these hat wearing ones here could be fully grown.



I made this Martha Stewart recipe for cabbage for tea tonight; yum! so much nicer than any cabbage I've had before (might be due to the amount of olive oil I included!)

Love Katie and Reuben's blog, they're very honest about the life they're trying to lead and difficulties and other people's opinions about that. Also they have cute pets and lovely crocheted and knitted stuff.

 

Here's a great video if you're going out tonight and haven't decided what to wear yet, I love Mollie and Shameeka's song and I love a little creativity for costumes; I once was Noah's ark for a fancy dress party with a huge brown dress and tiny animals pined to me, I drew Noah on my face and had a rainbow headband and blue tights and shoes for the sea.

Autumn Brights

I love love love bright colours
I love them in my house, I love them on my body, I love them in my food
I love bright colours especially in nature
Last Sunday was a particularly fine day, bright sunshine, blue skies, Autumnal leaves in shades of green, yellow orange and red. Just lovely
I went out for a little walk around my local area and a large park and woodland area not too far away from me.

 Not too sure what this is, some kind of seed head? It's pretty fancy looking whatever it is though.

 That pear is on top of a mill called, funnily enough Pear Tree Mill

Today the weather is decidedly more miserable the sky is so grey it looks much later than 4pm, it has been raining consistently since midday which has led to a leak in my bedroom so I have a bucket plunking and gently filling up. I was hoping to go to a Diwali Mela this afternoon but I think the weather might be too bad for venturing out far to stand in a park, even for a lantern parade, fireworks and the possibility of mhendi and falooda.

Library Books

This is my latest library haul.
I guess you can tell a bit of what's been on my mind lately by the book choices I made.
Cath Kidston; Vintage Style
Roopa Farooki; Corner Shop
John-Paul Flintoff; Sew your own
Scott Schuman; The Sartorialist
Cali Bird; Don't give up your day job
Helen Rappaport; Beautiful for ever

Not too many stories as I have a couple at home that I've started reading and need to finish. I have half term this week so I'm eager to get reading. I've flicked through the Cath Kidston one as its mostly pictures but I'm really keen to read Beautiful for Ever, the sub title is Madame Rachel of Bond Street; Cosmetician, con-artist and blackmailer, sounds fun!

Things from the internet

This might be something that is appreciated by a tiny minority of people but as I've already come out as a huge Hanson fan I thought I'd share my joy of this site Texts from Hanson

 Love these cute hedgehog clothes from People Tree, so sweet.

I wish I understood Norwegian. I love looking at the pictures  from this blog called ...Pynt, such dreamy colours.

Finally, here is something cheery and lovely. Walking on Sunshine by the Soweto Gospel Choir

Lucca

Exactly a year a go today I was in the beautiful, tiny town of Lucca in Tuscany. Last Autumn I was working as an au pair in Rome and visited Pisa and Lucca for the weekend with two other lovely au pairs, Allyson and Jordan.
I have a slight case of itchy feet at the moment, even though I spent a month in west Africa over the summer I'd still love to do another trip somewhere this year. Until thats possible I'm looking back at old pictures.
This is a bit of a photo dump really, and my camera had run out of batteries so they're mostly taken with my phone and are not the best quality.

I'd never really heard of Lucca, but we wanted to climb the leaning tower of Pisa and Lucca is close by. We spent the first day of the weekend in Pisa and got to Lucca at about 4 in the afternoon. There was a large organised run happening over the weekend which led to an already touristy town being rather packed.
We checked in to the lovely hostel we were staying in, bought food from a supermarket and had a bench picnic, then wondered around trying to find somewhere with a bit of atmosphere. Lucca is quiet after dark!

The next day, after breakfast of coffee in the most beautiful enclosed piazza, we climbed towers, walked along the fortified walls that surround the town, had amazing food at a confusing restaurant/ take away, ate fancy chocolate and wondered into huge churches that contained a mummified skeleton on display and a decorated black Jesus.