We had the most fabulous day at Royal Ascot on Saturday (daaahling!), although I hadn't planned on it being *quite* so warm - am now sporting a fabulous does of 'lobster' skin, complete with white patches where my straps were! Oh well. Had a bet (won 6 quid!), drank some champers, lounged in the sun and watched the Queen go past in her open carriage! All in all a lovely day at the races :)

Hats and turf at Ascot...

Three lovely Laaaaydies at the G-G's! Sarra (in the middle) and Krysta - champers and race guide in hand!

Stu with our visiting kitty....

We had the most lovely weekend with Iain and Cesca and gorgeous Little Man Frederick Bell last weekend. Freddie is almost one year old, and is sweet natured happy little chappie. Iain cooked the *most* delicious food, as always, and I've already nabbed and cooked for myself one of his recipes! Greens beans mixed with a yoghurt, cinnamon and garlic combination - divine! Iain and Cesca have been busy planting their little garden up, although with the rolling green hills, fields and alcoves of trees surrounding their house the little garden is the icing on the cake! We'll be back in their glorious Sussex countryside for the first birthday celebrations towards the end of July :)

Little Freddie is almost walking on his own..here's me giving him a few pointers!!

I don't know if any of you were up to watch the game but oh my god was it a game. For all you plebs who say football (soccer) is not exciting I challenge you to have watched this game and not been on the edge of your seat. Cath and Bill watched it with us and I feel sorry for our neighbours because we went ballistic when they scored the first, and insane when they equalised!! And Stu was as delighted as we were!!! I'm so proud of the Roos. Just when you think it's all over they pull some magic out of the hat. Let's see what we can do with the last 16...

Come on the Socceroos! Apart from having to listening to the massively irritating commentary by English people who though I'd much rather hear the gossip about the England players than what was happening in the Australia match (I listened to it at work), BLIMEY!! What a game! Well, most of the game was actually cr*p but those goals! Very very nice boys, same again on Sunday ;) (wishful thinking...)

I generally try to keep the tone of my blog light and upbeat cos I figure everyone has enough going on in their lives without me adding to it. But, last week, something happened that has taken me a while to process, to try to comprehend, and I haven�t known what to say. I still don�t really. Someone I knew since I was a kid unexpectedly took her life. I�m not going to go into details, and neither am I going to say all the standard things you say when someone dies, other than: �Joy, rest in peace�. I don�t agree with what you did, and you�ve left one hell of a mess in your wake. But I hope you are now at a quiet, restful, untroubled peace, wherever you may be now. Your family are in my thoughts.

My oriental poppy opened over night and it is a thing of incredible beauty. I studied my first bloom for ages this morning, taking in its crisp red crinkles from when it shed its green casing and unfurled to the morning sun, the stunning mauve stamens surrounding the perfectly segmented inner circle ,and the artistically swiped black splotches around the centre on the flower. My big fluffy bumble bee visitors are going to love it! Nature has its own order, does things to its own schedule. I've been nurturing this beautiful plant for several weeks and checking its ever growing blooms impatiently every day, and the reward is absolutely worth every minute of the wait. It's silky softness, array of red shades shimmering in the sun, black stripes radiating from the base of the bloom, a reminder that nature's time is the perfect one, not my hurry hurry hurry one!

The World Cup has landed. We watched the England game in a pub behind Waterloo (called the Elusive Camel!) with a few friends, inlcuding the ever charming and highly photographic Doug and Stu(!) Twas a gorgeous day, we sat in the beer garden soaking up some rays after downing two jugs of Pimms and lemonade (followed in the evening by two jugs of sangria with Cath and Bill in a tapas restaurant's dining garden!) God summer in England can be fabulous!!

Balcony view 1 - coriander, thyme, basil, parsely, sage, oregano, chives, and some ivy and my poppy! Have also now added a chilli and a capsicum - talk about maximising space!!

Balcony view 2 - from left: coriander, mint, tomatoes, more tomatoes, rosemary & basil & parsely and my lovely pansies!

First bbq of the season on Thursday night...the weather has been absolutely magnificent this week, above 25 all week long, a stupendous 28 yesterday and today and hitting the big 3 - 0 on Monday - bliss! It's also light until 10pm which makes sitting on the balcony in the warm evening air even better! My skin is sucking in all the UV and slowly moving a few shades up from pure white too (big smile)!

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. The World Cup is HERE!

And look who we have to play next Sunday - click here (scroll down the page and watch the videos). Aye carumba.

I've got my green and gold flag, Stu has his red and white hat, let's hope Australia and England don't meet in the tournament or there might well be a divorce!

C'Mon the Roos!

I wanna bite someone's head off (hence the JAWS mugshot). Just got in, got the mail, opened my credit card statement and whaddaya know. Apparently I booked a holiday on Sunday and spent 150 quid on parking at Heathrow yesterday. Some git has cloned my credit card and has been having a merry old time. At least the tw*ts were stupid enough to use it to pay for airline tickets and home delivered shopping (200 quid's worth). The fraud department should be able to track them down. But it's all just a pain having to cancel cards, fill in statements and prove to them that I wasn't where the money was spent. ARGH.

Congratulations to my fabulous Stu who is now No Longer Redundant! Yes that's right, Stu has a new job, and in just over a month, will be working for.....Telstra UK as a billing analyst!!

Graffiti I agree with.

My herbs are growing beautifully, ably assisted by the 25 degree weather we are savouring all of this week. Exams are finally over and I am beginning the sleep catch up process, much needed. This pic is of my oriental poppy that has two beautiful fat buds on it at the moment, can't wait for them to open! I love gently running my finger over the teensy hairs on the bud, feels in a way like crushed velvet.

First round scores: McBastard the Squirrel - 1, Jodie - 0. These little rodents can run up walls. They can't run up glass, so I stuck my bird feeders at the very top of the window. But they can jump onto door handles and from there launch themselves onto your feeders and swing from them until they crash to the ground.

Round 2: McBastard - 1, Jodie - 1; They can't jump onto bird feeders from door handles if you stick a cardboard barrier to the door and sticky tape to the door handle.

Round 3: McBastard - 2, Jodie - 1; But they can run up walls, and have sharp little teeth that can totally tear your peanut feeder to little shreds that they nicely leave on your balcony for you to find, sans peanuts.

Round 4: McBastard - 3, Jodie - 1; Yep, he can still run up walls, and has developed a superhero-like ability to clutch onto the sheer brick wall with one hand, while using the other to stuff into the bird feeder and pull out fistfuls of sunflower seeds - as seen in the mugshot next to this post. And you wonder why he gets called 'McBastard'!

Mum took this exquisite photo of a sunset down south, I think near Dwellingup? Mum is turning into quite the photographer!