Day 153: Happy Birthday Mum

Completely beautiful cake made by the gloriously talented, Margaret Nelson.

Those gerberas are made of sugar icing!

Day 152: Quiet moment

Day 151: Family

From tomorrow evening I will be spending a long weekend in a large country house in Derbyshire with many members of my extended family in order to celebrate my mum (now deemed matriach of our corner of the McNeill clan) and her 70th birthday.

Is this the opening gambit of an Agatha Christie novel?

Well as long as no-one gets knocked off, it should be a fun weekend. I'll blog again sometime next week. Adieu till then.

Day 150: Footie Fan

Come on then England. You've got one more chance to convince us that you're more than just a bunch of overpaid egos in white shirts.

Day 149: Starburst

Day 148: Target practice

Sign found buried in the soil.

Day 147: Shir Shean

Went to shee a shpecial shcreening of "The Man Who Would Be King" this evening.

Sir Sean Connery was there to introduce the film, as was the charismatic Saeed Jaffrey.

We were undecided if Sir Sean had slightly overworked the Green Room bar before he came on, but what the heck, the man is a legend, he's approaching 80 and he can still charm a room of 1,500 with some panache - cider lollies or no cider lollies.

Day 146: Saturday morning across the water

No. 1 Ben 10 fan.

Day 145: Friday night across the water

Who cares that England can't play football when your hosts for the match are this lovely.

Day 144: Strawberries and Raspberries

I almost, almost plucked up enough courage to ask Sylvain Chomet if I could take his picture this evening after his appearance at the Edinburgh Film Festival. But in the end, the courage eluded me and I kicked myself all the way to the allotment. So it could have been a picture of the great, great God of animation - if you haven't seen his beautiful film Belleville Rendevous (or Les Triplettes de Belleville) I'm not sure I have enough superlatives to recommend it enough. His new film 'The Illusionist' is out on general release in August and looks to be equally brilliant.

But sadly, it was not to be. A big, fat raspberry for me and an allotment strawberry for you.

But I think I learned a good lesson this evening. I need more courage. Balls.

Day 143: Mexican on a bike?

Yes? No? Squint a bit... now can you see it?

Day 142: It's changing

Or so the barometer says, so it must be true.

Day 141: New feet

Day 140: Pond Life

Day 139: Daisies

Day 138: Legacy III

My grandfather had a Super 8 camera and he loved it. He'd mobilise the whole family into the making of these very funny films like "The Kidnapping of Katie", made when Katie, my eldest cousin, was a baby. The most memorable scenes being one where my Uncle Bill runs down a canal path with a plastic doll wrapped in a blanket and another where a large amounts of monopoly money changes hands.

I think he was also rather handy with a film camera too. I would be very pleased if I had taken this photo, I think it's gorgeous. This is of my mum wearing an all-in-one knitted suit and looking uncannily like my little neice Isy.

Day 137: Captions please

My grandfather and his buddy. I love this photo and think it's crying out for a funny caption so all suggestions welcome.

Day 136: Wedding gifts

What I love about these photos is the fact that everyone looks like immaculately dressed looters.

And these things were looked after. No Ikea 3 year shelf life for these items.

This tea trolley is still in use at my mum's house 72 years on (doesn't look in quite such good condition though - I think it doubled as the car in Greased Lighting during the late 1970s)

And this is my favourite because the finely dressed gentleman looks as if he took a liking to the prayer book holder and is leaving the church with it.

Day 135: Legacy II

I spent the evening scanning hundreds of my mum's photos. These were among the most fascinating. The Bolton wedding of my grandparents in 1938. Nancy Bruckshaw and Alec McNeill. The elegant ladies in the top photo are flanked by my grandmother's brother, Jim, who will lose his life a couple of years after this photo is taken, flying a Spitfire in the war.

The distinguished fellow below is the minister. And my great grandfather, William McNeill. I would love to earwig on the conversation the ladies in the background are having.

Tomorrow, I'll show you the wedding gifts.

Day 134: Dog Walking

Walking farm dogs is a slightly different experience to a trip to a local park with a pocket full of plastic bags. We were only out for about 15 minutes. Result: two chewed up partridge eggs and one traumatised parent partridge. Followed swiftly by one happy gun dog with the complete, fur coated carcass of a rotting rabbit in its teeth.

I was particulary proud of the ineffectual way I waved a twig at her going 'Down, girl, down' as the professional gun dog looked up at me in curious amusement with the head of a dead rabbit rocking comically against her jaw.

Ah, town girl in the countryside, you cannae beat it.

Day 133: Moo

Day 132: Flowers

Day 131: Victory

Day 130: Footie

On the beach