Photo diary: Project 365, week 23

 An overall uneventful week... After last Friday's trip to the bowling place, I managed to lose my voice, and have been croaking for days, which wasn't the most pleasant experience.

My husband was away from Sunday until Friday evening, visiting Colombia. He likes doing a disappearing act, not telling me exactly where he travels. I knew he was somewhere unsafe, as it's his usual trick just to message me with short sentences, and only told me where he was once he came back, supposedly as not to worry me. Yep, that works. 

 Last week's Penandinkchallenge prompts were all Succulents-related, and I painted fairies of all kinds, including this Ice Plant Fairy.

What a striking shape and colour of a poppy, growing in the street, just next to the stone wall.

Eddie's after-school meal of choice, noodles with a poached egg. He likes Soba the best, but says Batchelors is not too shabby either.

On Wednesday morning we were supposed to have a chat on Teams with Sasha's new social worker. He left me a reminder message on my phone, and the transcription made me laugh. Selena Scary is my new name.

On Thursday my art prize from Manuscript has finally arrived. I won it a month ago, and the package got "lost", aka stolen in transit. I don't know what people who took it expected to find, it's a very niche product. Unless you are into calligraphy and painting with inks, it's pretty useless.

I was delighted with my stash. The shimmer inks are so beautiful, and the glass dip pen is good quality too.

I wanted to try the new inks at once. The Queen of the Night is painted on Clairefontaine Mixed Media Denim paper.

It was such a wet week, raining almost every day. I haven't had a chance to do much in the garden, and the weeds are growing, well, like weeds.

Roses look beautiful in any weather.

One of my pet peeves - when supermarkets do a sneaky ploy to make you buy things which look like an offer, but are not on offer. Passing by the stand in Waitrose, saw the Dettol wipes on offer for £2.50, grab a yellow pack only to realise once I paid that I picked the wrong pack for £6. Why are those packs in the aisle corner of offers? It's clearly a strategy, not a mistake. Super annoying.

Operation De-clutter Children's Books continues. 

I enjoyed At the Sign of The Sugared Plum and Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper, and will take them today to the charity shop, hoping that someone else will like them as much. They are probably more suitable for tweens/teens rather than younger children as they deal with such harrowing themes as the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666 in London. 

Both books are a mix of historical fiction and coming of age stories. If you're interested in the history of medicine, the first book gives a fascinating account of what it was like to live through the Plague and what remedies people thought would work to keep you safe (from powdered dried toads to Abracadabra amulets). 

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