A Pogimal day out

Posted on May 10, 2011 by thepogblog

Due to popular demand (ok, just the one suggestion, but what a genius suggestion it was), the guest blogger today is…

Lord Humbug!

lord humbug

Good evening.  Today my good self and my comrades Spike, Miss Fancy Pants and Beanie accompanied Pog to what I believe is called ‘The Dentist’.  The Dentist is a strange place where Pog lay down and tried to talk while another person poked sticks in her mouth.  I have to say it was rather undignified.

Spike and Beanie became terribly excited by the chair that moved up and down and wanted to try it out.  This was a little beneath me, but being the gentleman I am, I felt it my duty to accompany the lady of the group – Miss Fancy Pants.

 I admit…I found the experience quite titillating.

Nobody tried poking in our mouths, but then Pog explained…it was because we lacked these:

Maybe one day we will grow some of these things although they look a little large for our mouths.  Pog says we won’t because they are too difficult to make from socks.  I have no idea what the woman is talking about.  I am however, looking forward to our next jaunt together – there seems to be quite a lot outside of the big door of Pog Towers.

So there you go.  Any suggestions of where you would like the next excursion to be will be considered (as long as there is only a minor possibility of arrest or sectioning) :o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Feet thoughts

Posted on May 8, 2011 by thepogblog

I don’t like feet.  They are icky.  Nevertheless though, they have provided some interest in the last few days:

I got caught in a downpour 7 miles from home on my bike and managed to get a little tide mark where my sock had been:

Sister 1 has demonstrated the downside of spray of tans:

 

And Sister 2 has demonstrated a total lack of fashion sense (ok, she just got cold feet and had no other shoes with her):

Well, these feet made me smile.  And things that make you smile can’t be that bad.  So maybe I should give feet a second chance… Oh who am I kidding?  Feet always have been and always will be icky… :o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cat arse-imal of the week

Posted on May 6, 2011 by thepogblog

I may have mentioned once or twice before that Pog Towers is the smallest house in the world.  It has a lounge / kitchen at the front, a little bathroom in the middle and a bedroom with an ensuite back garden (don’t get me wrong, I love it.  I love the fact that I can clean it at speed even more…)

I have some odd neighbours.  One side spends the summer wandering around his back garden in his white Y fronts (I have trained myself to never glance in that direction once the sun comes out) and the other side never goes in their garden preferring instead to all go and sit in the A-team style van while it is parked in their drive way (yes, really).  As a result, I don’t tend to think about either side on the days when I work from home.

This morning on my way to hang out the washing I stopped at the foot of my bed and, in the style of slightly mad person living alone, stood looking at my bed and said:

 ‘Boys, is there any danger of you getting up at some point this morning?  I’ve done a 10 mile bike ride and a couple of hours work and neither of you have moved since last night.  Are you both really that exhausted?’

And then I went to find the washing line and spotted a mop of male hair (attached to a body I assume, although I didn’t actually see that) sitting in the garden of the A-team van side.  It wasn’t either of my neighbours as one is a girl and the other two are bald. I can only assume that my rant at the two boys in my bed scared the bloke, whoever he may be, as I watched the mop of hair creep along the fence (which would have involved him bending double as the fence is only 4 feet) before he scuttled into their back door. 

Because what he wouldn’t have known is that the boys were of course Charlie and Norman, my furballs… :o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Birthday celebrations furball style.

Posted on May 4, 2011 by thepogblog

teeny Charlie Cat

I think I have finally embraced and accepted my inner mad cat woman. I missed my train tonight and took the opportunity to go to every shop at London Bridge station trying to find posh cat meat (M&S are missing a trick there). Finally I found a couple of dusty pouches and felt like a half decent working mad cat woman.

Norman has always been quite chilled

Because today is the boys first birthday! Don’t worry – I didn’t sing to them or anything, but posh cat meat was the feline equivalent of a birthday cake for them so I am hoping that they felt special for the 2 minutes or so that it took them to inhale it…

Happy Birthday Charlie Cat and Normous Norman!

:o)

These days they view the king size bed as their cat basket...

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s back to work I go…

Posted on May 2, 2011 by thepogblog

Oh humpharama, tomorrow I am back to work after 11 days of lazing around doing nothing.  Actually, I’ve done a few things.  I’ve:

  • Made 48 lavender bags (not advisable when sitting on the sofa with a sleepy head on)
  • Played midwife to 24 Pogimals (accidently creating a couple of new species in the process)

    New species - Marion Martian

  • Got the mortgage completely and utterly sorted (hooray!)
  • Learned to make bags from the legs of a pair of tracksuit bottoms which had found a new lease of life as a pair of shorts
  • Become rather involved in a couple of pipe dreams (which are pretty definitely just that – dreams – but I’ll hold onto them just a little longer if you don’t mind)
  • Built a step (and there wasn’t even one sock involved)
  • Been on a brooch making course
  • Made a lot of brooches
  • Protected the house from an infestation of slow worms courtesy of the fur balls (they brought in one each the other night)
  • Arranged to have a table at a local village fair on the next Bank Holiday to sell Pogimals (and lavender bags and brooches, hence the rather frantic ‘making’ element to this list)
  • Cycled 60 miles (in total, not all in one go)
  • Made Pogimal bunting (in preparation for the fair – not to decorate Pog Towers)
  • Rediscovered the front garden (with a lot of help from my green fingered mum)

And for those people who comment that I should perhaps get out a little more often, I’ve been to pubs and houses for dinners, lunches, bbqs and high tea (well, it was the Royal Wedding…)

I’m knackered!  Maybe it’s a good thing that the holiday is over after all.  Sort of… :o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Some things I didn’t know

Posted on April 28, 2011 by thepogblog

I didn’t know that about 2 inches of the rear end of a slow worm (possibly a small snake) could wriggle for over half an hour despite being the new toy of a certain Charlie cat.

I didn’t know the same rear portion of the slow worm would be so icky that I would have to ask the cat to take it back in the garden when he brought it in to show me that it was still wriggling (and amazingly, Charlie cat did exactly as he was asked).

I don’t know where the slow worm ended up which makes me a little nervous about going to bed – maybe Charlie was lulling me into a false sense of security and is going to do a cat variation of the mafia horses head in the bed…

I also didn’t know that black ants bite.  Hard.  To be fair, I was moving their house in my attempt to re build my step, but they did nothing for the tenant / landlady relationship.  (For the record, most of them were returned when I put the step back together.  The rest have relocated to my parent’s garden waste bin.  Well, that’ll teach ‘em for their biting behaviours).

It's not pretty but I am quite proud of my DIY / ant rehoming efforts...

:o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Some things I didn’t know

Return of the Domestic Pogess

Posted on April 27, 2011 by thepogblog

I just thought I’d make a note of the quickest pudding I think I have ever made that may be useful if you are having a bank holiday type gathering.  So here we go:

 Fizzy elderflower and strawberry jelly

  •  Elderflower cordial
  • Gelatine (get the veggie version if your guests prefer not to add cow to their pudding)
  • Strawberries or any other fresh fruit you fancy
  • Sparkling water

 

  •  Cut up the fruit and pop it in a bowl
  • Make up the gelatine as per the packet instructions
  • Make up the cordial with the sparkling water
  • Add to the gelatine mixture
  • Pour over the fruit
  • Leave in the fridge until set

 Et voila!

(Note: one pack of gelatine sets 1 pint of liquid.  If, like me, numbers get you in a muddle, make up 1 pint of cordial.  Add sufficient to the gelatine mixture to make up a pint in total and drink the left over (that way you don’t have to subtract the liquid in the gelatine mixture from the amount of cordial you need…)

:o)x

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Return of the Domestic Pogess

Heffalumps, chicks and a rogue pigeon

Posted on April 25, 2011 by thepogblog

Finally my top secret project has been revealed!  Mainly because I couldn’t wait until the christening of gorgeous godson to be…  I have to say, he wasn’t terribly impressed, but then I guess when you are not even two months old, the finer points of appliqué pass you by….  His mummy and daddy seemed to like it though so all is good.  

Presenting:  My top secret project – the heffalump quilt…

And a little late (but I was incapable of posting after a bbq in the lovely sun which resulted in a Pog of great drunkenness  – thank god for lovely neighbours who let you know when you’ve left your front door keys in the front door)…sorry…a little late, but happy easter eggs to you :o)

(Yes, I know the large blue one at the top looks more like a pigeon than an Easter chick…)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Cat arse-imal of the Week

Posted on April 21, 2011 by thepogblog

I went to Tesco tonight (well, it is a Thursday and Thursday night is Tesco night).  There’s a small part in the fridge cabinets that is dedicated to bargains at the end of the day and it’s like bees round a honey pot.  I finally battled my way to the front and noticed a Tesco employee crouching down trying to sort out the bargains.  I pointed out that she was either brave or daft.  She said that she only got cross after she’d been thumped with the third or fourth handbag.

Then I moved something (A ham and cheese calzone which I was never going to buy due to the un-fatness plan, but wanted to look at it in a loving kind or a way) and showered the Tesco employee in cut price Weight Watchers chocolate mousses…

She said it wasn’t quite as bad as handbags but she wasn’t very convincing.  I beat a hasty retreat in embarrassment.  And I guess it must have been the embarrassment that caused me to pick up two cut price cream and apple turnovers (well, Weight Watchers mousses?  Perleeease!)  :o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Make Do and Mend…

Posted on April 18, 2011 by thepogblog

I think I may have aged overnight.  This has nothing to do with the crows feet I’ve been collecting around my eyes (they are not all laughter lines – nothing is that funny…).  No, it’s to do with my sudden enthusiastic adoption of my parents ‘make do and mend’ views.

Yesterday morning I dropped my deodorant and the bottom split.  I now have a lovely ‘Shower Fresh’ smelling bathroom carpet and a totally knackered roll- on.  I started walking to the bin thinking that I couldn’t quite face doing battle with it every morning in its current state but en route, I spied the selleotape.  My deodorant is now trussed up with tape like a prize turkey and balanced precariously upside down in case any additional escapings occur…

Next, I realised that the chair I sit on was a bit wobbly.  It turned out that the bottom has started to make a break for freedom (I blame Norman).  ‘How convenient that I have a spare that has been squirreled in the loft for 4 years’ I thought to myself.  ‘Just goes to show that you should never throw anything away’. (That is the attitude that resulted in my parents loft, garage and shed being full to breaking point for decades.  I will be at that point very soon).

Finally (well, they come in threes don’t they?) I managed to break the teeniest, tiniest piece of plastic off my camera.  Unfortunately this minuscule piece of plastic seems to hold the entire thing together and now the batteries fall out every time I hold the camera upright.  Not ideal for taking pictures.  I admit, I did have a bit of a panic and start looking up on the internet how much a replacement would be, but I have fount a temporary solution.  I have bound it all together with a giant red elastic band.  Not the height of fashion and I can’t use all the buttons but I can at least take a picture now.  Just. 

My parents will be so proud… (However, if you see any evidence of this in public – plasters sticking my glasses in one piece, elastic bands holding my shoes together etc, please send me home at the earliest opportunity…)    :o)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment