Photo of the Day

365 - 263 Carrots

I just realized I forgot to upload the photo of the cut up purple carrots. Interestingly they are orange in the middle and they colour the cooking water purple. I wonder whether that could be used as a dye. The taste, however, is just like in any other orange carrot.

365 - 330 and a new project

We went to build a super duper enormous train track at Mrs Wookie's house.


Big Monkey wasn't as keen so she made Potato Heads.


I know the photos are out of focus but that's the fun of the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone. I love the results, they always are so unexpected. So I thought it would be good fun to make an album. As it is I'm a bit behind with the Stacy Julian class on Big Picture Scrapbooking and the task for the week for me is to think up an idea for a new theme album. Sorted. I like it when things come together naturally.

365 - 198

Last time Daddy Monkey went to Berlin for a business trip he brought back some presents. Including an ice cube tray with shapes in form of the traffic light man. I simply love his hat.

365 - 187 Scary Monster

At Big Monkey's school summer fayre they created scary monsters:


And fed them cakes...


Let them gamble for pots of golden honey and pan for gold and hunt ducks.




But they didn't give the parents any tea... or they hid it somewhere.

365 - 186 Spelling anyone?

I spotted this sign while driving past in a taxi this afternoon. In case you can't read it, it says "Reident permit holders only"...

365 - 185 Clouds

365 - 184

I think I'm a day behind with my photos...


Unfortunately this is also the case for the weather, today is a lot cooler than that today.

365 - 183 Public Transport

Monday was our six monthly visit to the Eastman Dental Hospital. I was again surprised how efficient and well equipped this hospital is. There were the usual toys and magazines and then there was the Nintendo WII. And it worked! That was what amazed me the most. There are often very nice toys in waiting rooms but there are always parts missing or the batteries are empty but this not only had all the necessary controllers, it worked perfectly. Not that Big Monkey had much chance to play on as we only had to wait for a few minutes. After we came back from the X-rays the dentist was actually waiting for us!


All this took a while so it was rush hour which made us reluctant to go by tube so we found our way with the bus which was actually quite pleasant. We got a place at the top, part of the journey we even managed to scramble for the first row. Simply "The best" place in a bus!


We were well equipped and prepared for the long journey.

365 - 182 School Sport Picnic

Today was Big Monkey's School Sports Picnic in Kenwood House. There are races, sack races and egg & spoon races. But mainly it's a big get- together with the chance for the kids to run around madly and the parents have a nice chat and something to eat.

365 - 178 Pink is gone...

Finally blogger has let me upload pictures again, the past two days it didn't want me to. So I'm a bit behind.


Big Monkey has decided she doesn't like pink anymore. At all. So we've started a de-pink-ification process. I started by painting the former pink peg board green and blue. I also changed the colours for her board for keeping hair clips. She has decided to grow her hair again so hopefully the clips and its holder will see a lot more use again.


I'm pleased that she has chosen different colours for her room. I don't mind pink but I prefer other colours a lot more. I always hated to go into shops when she was smaller with all the girls clothes all pink and sparkly with no choice of any other colour. Not even white. Thankfully that has changed now a little bit, there are other colours but still a lot of pink. I often bought some boy's jumpers for her or jeans but generally boys clothes tend to be very drab and ugly here.

365 - 177 Little Monkey is a Big Monkey really

Last week Little Monkey decided that he is a really big boy and he doesn't want nappies in the night anymore. He hasn't had a nappy since he turned 2 but in the night he still wore one. Today was the very first morning the bed was dry when we got up.

365 - 176 Summer Fridge disaster

Today was really hot and sunny. Really hot but still no reason I thought for the fridge to behave like a freezer and freeze half of the food in there. If you didn't know this before, salad should not be frozen. Neither should mayo, cucumbers and a host of other things. Daddy Monkey had to go and buy some more meat for the BBQ because the chicken drumsticks didn't look very appetizing. It might have been frozen but neither as fast nor as cold as in a proper freezer. To say I am not very happy with my fridge right now is an understatement. Especially when I discovered the exploded milk bottle hidden behind the frozen bag of rocket. At least the bottle didn't break the frozen milk only lifted the foil lid, ran down the glass and formed a memorable sculpture and connected itself to the jam jar (frozen of course too). Inside the bottle: a lovely big milk ice cube. Yum!

Here a lovely frozen cabbage, not good for freezing like this.


Other than an impromptu fridge cleaning session we had a relaxing day with the Monkeys running amok with the water hose.

365 - 175 Organizing

Now that I got my room back all newly decorated I want it to look neat and tidy. I took all the magazines apart that I had accumulated over the past 5 years and only kept the pictures and articles that are of interest to me. These I put into two folders and a spiral book. Now Mrs Wookie thinks that I won't look at these anymore than I did at the magazines. But I figure even if I don't I can always throw them out at my next big clear out. Maybe I do need to challenge myself to take out a folder and pick something to do every week?




I tried to keep it really simple, techniques to try out and photography and photoshop tutorials in the folder, nice pictures in the spiral book. At first I tried to come up with a detailed system on where to put the pictures but then I just glued them into three categories, colour, handmade books and everything else. Nice and simple. Then I added a label on the outside and an index for one of the folders. Of course as soon as I thought I had finished it all I found another magazine folder hiding upstairs pretending to be business magazines. Now I have to get those into the folders too, so I'll see immediately whether my system of sorting or lack thereof works.

365 - 174 She's back

We are really happy to have our Big Monkey back.


Today we picked up Big Monkey after her trip. I really missed her, it was rather quiet without her chattering. She had an amazing time though, she went fencing, built a shelter out of twigs and branches, abseiled from really high up, made up a poem and told it to all her school mates in front of the camp fire. She fed ponies and goats and generally enjoyed herself thoroughly. Her teacher promised photos to look at. I can't wait although I shall be very scared seeing her climbing all the way up a wall as high as the first floor. I don't do heights, so the thought alone has me sweating.


The Monkeys spent the afternoon harvesting carrots and watering the plants.

365 - 173 Painting the front door

Decisions, decisions... What colour to choose?

365 - 172 Big, Big Monkey

Big Monkey is away on a residential trip in Wiltshire for two nights.


Her room is all empty except for a lonely dragon and a rabble of stick insects (I don't know whether that's the correct collective noun, stick insects don't feature much in these collections.)It's awfully quiet with only one Monkey scrambling around. He tries his best though...


We miss her, we haven't heard anything of her so she must have a good time. We presume. And hope. She's just so little still, of course she would roll her eyes big time at me saying that. They grow up so fast, don't you agree?

365 - 171 My parents

I hardly have any photos of my parents together so these photos are extra special to me.

365 - 170 Funny...

... how grumpy it makes me feel to drive a different car.


Now what is she complaining about you're asking seeing it's a nice Mercedes. It's not the car, it's a perfectly good and lovely car. It's just not mine. My snack bag isn't there or my music and the parking permit and it just feels plain weird. Mainly because it's low and my car isn't and I feel like I'm dragging my behind on the road. Everything else is so much higher. Weird... Just weird. But at least Daddy Monkey has learned that the best station on the radio is Kiss FM. So I don't feel the lack of my music as harshly any more and Daddy Monkey doesn't have to complain that I have changed everything including the radio. By the time I arrived back home I normally am quite happy driving it but still, I'm glad that tomorrow I'm back in my car. Big Monkey prefers that too. Not my music, strangely she prefers the radio. Wonder why that is?

365 - 169

For today's Father's Day we drove to St Albans to have lunch at the Waffle House. Daddy Monkey chose this as his treat. As always it was really full but it's always worth it. Afterwards we went to pick some strawberries. Why is it that the moment you arrive at your destination after spending a stupid amount of time waiting at a temporary traffic light with lovely sunshine. The very moment you step out of the car it starts pouring, not a little drizzle no a big, strong downpour? Why? Why is that. So like we hadn't spent enough time in the car, we spent some more time in the car to wait out the rain. At least it didn't take long and we could go and pick strawberries. We went to a farm we hadn't been before and it was a whole lot bigger than we expected and of course the plants closest to the entrance had already been picked empty. When it started to rain we nearly turned around again but we soldered on, Little Monkey with the little box for putting the picked strawberries in on his head.

The furthest field, of course, had lovely strawberries and lots of them.


Here is Daddy Monkey with the painting that Big Monkey made for him.