This month we start off with a happy dance for our girl J, vanquisher of cancer (almost entirely), slayer of brain tumors and wannabe uber girl gamer (XTREME SOLITAIRE!!!) and be sure that you wish her an early happy birthday (eight days to go) on the day she was told she would never see.  Here’s my “stuff that’s Australian I found in the house for a cliche photo” for you”   And now, onto my 12.

Good news this month as well, there’s no having to beg Sally to take photos while I’m at work because…I’m not at work any more.  Or rather not at the same company.  I finished up that contract a couple of weeks ago and have been on holiday (sort of) so this month shouldn’t prove to be a bottom of the barrel scraper.  Hopefully.

Starting off this month with my newest business productivity tool.  I’ve been dying to get a Nespresso machine for months, and now that I’m working from home life is way too short to drink mediocre coffee.  Here’s the wonder machine giving manna to the subjects.

Wow, George Clooney has really let himself go since advertising this stuff hasn’t he?

Will has to be restrained otherwise he will be “investigating” the new machine.

It’s Sally’s brothers birthday today, so we headed off down to Christchurch to see him.  On the way we encountered an awful lot of this.  You can’t move for roadworks at the moment, mainly thanks to the snow and ice we had back in January.

Before we went there we stopped off at the village post office to send Janelle’s birthday present and spotted these two.  They belong to the couple who run the post office and live next door.

After a morning of tea and birthday cake (which was very tasty and no I didn’t take a photo I didn’t want to have the “I do this photo blog challenge on the 12th of the month” conversation with Sally’s relatives) we headed back home for some much needed lunch.

This is from the new Waitrose “Menu” range which claims to be as good as dining out.  We had steak and dumplings and chunky chips.  Waitrose is probably our poshest supermarket here in the UK.  Not being posh, we sneak in and hope we aren’t spotted.

I had to include this photo, it’s our new bed which arrived on Monday.  I spent six hours putting this damn thing together, but it was worth the effort.  The cupboard at the food of the bed also pull open for storing shoes.  Simples things and simple minds…

We needed to walk off lunch so headed out for a wander round the village.  Clearly not much going on at the local W.I.  Not even a cake baking competition!

Afternoon tea time, and Will manages to wake himself up.  We’ve discovered he likes cheap biscuits from the 99p shop!

Hold onto your hats folks, it’s the garden centre!!  This is where “resting” IT consultants hang out on a Friday afternoon.  Actually we’re here to find a flower arrangement to take down for Sally’s Mum and place on her plaque at Christchurch Priory.

I had to include this arrangement photo because it was my favourite.

And finally this month, a reminder this Sunday is mother’s day so do something nice for yours. It doesn’t matter whether they are here or not, they’ll be watching

And just as an extra added bonus just for Steffi…more food!  This is herbed chicken with roast potato, leek, peas, carrots and sweetcorn from last night.

See you next month.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m  not entirely sure how this months entry is going to turn out.  Why?  Because I write them as the day goes on, saving a lot of photo editing and writing in the evening and we have actually gone for a joint effort this month.  As it is a week day, and I have just been to work and home again I’m starting to get desperate for photos that haven’t been done before.  So Sally has taken some with her iPhone in Christchurch today, so they will be included later.  As for my photos, I’m sorry I tried!

As an additional note, as there were a load of pictures that didn’t make the cut this month I have created a Flickr set in case anyone wants to see them.

Before we start properly, I include this pre-image as Janelle included my tweet as her first image I’m returning the favour And also to say that everyone should follow J (and me!) on Twitter, be our Facebook friends and send her some love as she battles on with cancer. 2010 is the year of remission, tell your friends.

My first photo is from my drive home from work.  England has been battered by ice and snow for the last couple of weeks which has made folks from around the globe who deal with far colder temperatures for way longer point and laugh at us.  Fortunately it is now finally on the wane, and this is the first time I have seen clear roads for over a week.  I have a really pleasant route to take into work, which half the time I never notice because I’m so focussed on getting where I need to be.  As I will be leaving this particular contract after two years at the end of February, I can enjoy it while it lasts.

Back at home and the snow is finally on its way out, just the lovely thick ice still on our driveway to go which I have a helping hand to be on its way after taking this picture.  I love the snowman across the road, I think the elderly lady who lived there had it made for her by her grandchildren.  Strange thing about it was it wasn’t there on Sunday morning, then about half an hour later I looked out the window and there he was!

Right here I was going to have a TV photo,  Food Network has just recently started broadcasting here in the UK (it’s a mix of the US shows with over UK stuff) and I relaxe with a cup of tea and Tyler’s Ultimate.  We love this show, Tyler is sort of like a US Jamie Oliver only unlike UK chefs these days HE LOOKS AT THE CAMERA!  I have also tried getting into Giada At Home, but Giada de Laurentiis scares me because she has the largest mouth on anyone I have ever seen.  Although she is extremely pleasing on the eye.

But that picture was taken away because Sally has come home with a ton of pictures so these next snaps were taken in Christchurch (where previous months pictures have proved to be popular) during her very cold lunch break.

Only January and already the Easter eggs are in Marks and Spencer.  They do look rather nice though.

Across the road from M&S, the old Christchurch town hall.

A stern warning for any witches around the borough, Christchurch still has its ducking stool!

Wondering about the life saver?  It’s because this house sits right on the rover.  Normally this photo couldn’t be taken unless you enjoy standing in the middle of a busy road.  But one of the town’s primary roads is closed for six weeks for repair works.  Bad for the local residents, good for photo enthusiasts!

Can you spot what is wrong with this picture?  The window at the top right isn’t a window.  It’s painted onto the brickwork!  The house was built when there was a tax on how many windows your property had!

Just the one more from Christchurch, more of the river houses.

Back at the homestead, Will impatiently sits on the side while I get to work cooking dinner.

And just to prove that I can actually cook!  Our Food Network fanboy gets to work.

The net result.  Steffi, I tried to get a better picture!  It was mushroom and bacon (sorry J) pasta with tomato and basil sauce topped off with some ciabatta bread.  Very nice.

And finally because he’s just so damn cute and popular.  That’s 12 of 12 done for

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Down to business then, 12 photos on the 12th day of each month to represent your day presented in glorious Technicolor(TM) and create by Mr Chad Darnell.  This month it’s blatant showboating crowd pleasing from me, plenty of animal shots   Oh and also, I know there are actually thirteen pictures here, but as one was from yesterday it doesn’t technically count

Our day starts at 7:30(ish) making tea.  I like to break out the X-Files mug every now and then.  I’ve had it since Sally and I were first together over twelve years ago, and always brings back happy memories.

The first part of our day continues from last night, as we had to take Will to the vets after he came home on Friday morning with this very unpleasant tear in his ear.

He had to stay in overnight at the vets and have it stitched together again, resulting in this:

And then two very happy owners after we picked him up at 8:30 this morning.

He’s still a bit dopey after the anaesthetic but no more than usual   I look forward to having to take him back on Monday afternoon for his post-op check up.  That cat does not like travelling in the car!

Speaking of cars, sorry but I couldn’t resist slipping in a quick photo of my new car this month.  As this is now the SIXTH car I have had from the VW Audi group I can say to my 12 of 12 friends in Germany “I LOVE YOUR CARS!”

Next up we headed down to Hengistbury Head for a walk and more importantly, some breakfast.  This is the interior of the Hiker cafe that awaits all hungry travellers.  These murals on the walls (that you can only see properly in the Flickr version of this photo) depict assorted scenes of how the site may have looked way back when.  So you can be educated while you eat!

And hungry we were, here is this mornings breakfast that kept us going until dinner!  OM NOM NOM NOM!

After that extremely hearty breakfast it was time to walk it off.  Here is a shot of the cafe from a distance.  There are plenty more snaps from the Head on the Flickr page.  But after our walk we visited some local eccentric OAPs (AKA my parents) before heading down into Christchurch.

How to scare and confuse local shoppers, take a photo of them.  We were down here to stop in at Argos and pick up a Freesat HD box, and here it is:

Free satellite channels as well as BBC HD.  Not really one for my fellow 12′ers, more the usual crowd who read my blog   Suffice to say it works like a charm and provides a good picture.  I’m glad I didn’t cut the cables when we cancelled our Sky subscription.

Sally insisted on including this picture, just to prove that I actually do actually work in the garden occasionally.  Yes it doesn’t get any more exciting than cutting your lawns does it?

We’re nearly at the end already and when I took this photo it was only about 3:30.  We took a walk to get some exercise (8865 steps on the pedometer at the time of writing) and post some letters and spotted this chap keeping a watchful eye on passers by.

And finally this month, a bit of beauty to say thanks for checking out my 12 of 12 this month.  See you next time!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.