There are many companies making commemorative items for the Jubilee, but I was very excited to discover that Twinings had made a special blend of tea just for the Jubilee.  Even better, it comes in a lovely tin!  I had to get some!

The Diamond Jubilee Tea Blend comes in three tins – green, blue and pink.  I ordered all three (you can get them as a set), and my Mum’s having the pink, I’m keeping the blue and I’m giving the green to my French Grandma (it’s uniquely British!).

How cute is the tin!  I don’t know why I keep buying pots to store my teas in, I should just buy tea that comes in tins.

Inside the tin, you get 20 teabags of the commemorative blend.  You can get a loose leaf version as well, but the tins are circular and I wanted a rectangular tin!  The teabags are individually packaged, as Twinings teas often are.

As for the tea itself, I’ve never met a black tea I didn’t like, so I’m not really in a position to critically analyse it.  I think it’s lighter than breakfast tea, and it has a slightly fruitier flavour (like a very very mild version of an Earl Grey, perhaps).  It’s very nice, so I think you should try it!

Have you bought any limited edition items to celebrate the Jubilee?

First, I wore my new red flip flops (Havianas).

My toes were pleased to be out and about! I read in the sun for a while. We don’t have any proper garden loungers at the moment, so I put my feet up on the patio table (we rarely use it as it’s hardly ever warm enough!).

I did a tiny bit of my MSc, but I was tired and couldn’t focus. Still, I got to use my yellow Lamy for a few minutes.

I decided to weed and tidy the garden. All my gardening equipment was in the back of the car (which my Mum had), so I used a seed tray as a bucket and the trowel that I bent last weekend at the allotment. It’s very flexible now so only suitable for light digging tasks! I also had some Chocolate tea and some bird feed for the robins.

I made that aqua flowerpot as a small child, and my Mum kept it all these years I re-potted an Aloe Vera into it.

I made some iced mint tea with lemon, but it was a bit disappointing. I didn’t give it long enough to brew and it wasn’t very minty. I might try again later this week.

At the end of the afternoon, I relaxed on the patio at the end of the garden with my feet on the patio wall. Archie came and squeezed between my feet and the neighbouring flower pot. I don’t know if she was being affectionate or telling me it was tea time.

And that was my Tuesday. I feel like I squished a whole summer into one day. It was a proper summer day that lasted forever. They don’t happen often as an adult.

I hope you all have a lovely Wednesday.

This week’s Link Tag is brought to you by a hot summer evening, sad love songs and frantic tapping on a virtual keyboard. My computer is having party that I wasn’t invited to, so I’m having to write this on my iPad. There are therefore no bullet points because I don’t know how to do them on here!

It’s late because the sun’s been shining all day and I was outside Anyway, on with the show…

- 10 Uninhabited Islands. I don’t know about you, but I’d certainly like to buy an island of my own. Nobody would be allowed on it without a written invitation, and I would have big burly guards to make sure the rule was enforced. You’re all invited, don’t worry!

- Gentian did a review of these brilliant pencil caps, which mean that you can connect the pencils together. No more missing pencils! I think it’s a brilliant idea.

- kimbofo, blogging over at Reading Matters, did a recent blog series on her (his?) adventures in the world of book selling. Part One. Part Two. Part Three. When I was a teenager, I worked in a book store. I loved it, I was made for that job! I don’t have stories like Kimbofo’s to share though. My customers were fairly normal.

- Y’all know I’m a big geek and an Earth Science nerd, so you can only imagine my delight when I discovered this ring made of ACTUAL METEORITE. Is it not the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?? I can’t really afford it ($3600!!), but oh how pretty it is. It’s so many levels of geekiness, my mind doesn’t even compute.

[has a break and drinks some tea]

- Back to more Earthly matters, Kaizen has done a list of journalling fears, and how to overcome them. As regular readers will know, I keep a journal, and I think everyone should. It’s fun, and it will give you something to look back on in your grey years! I don’t really agree that journalling is good for your psyche – after all, I’ve journalled since I was 17 and at 25 I’m still dealing with the after-effects of my Father’s mind games! Still, as a scientist I should tell you that one negative result doesn’t mean the theory has no merit. Journalling seems to make lots of people saner! But do it for yourself, not for your health or someone else. Then you’ll get something out of it.

- The Ecologist has tested some environmentally-friendly lip balms for you. I shared this link on Twitter a few months ago, but I haven’t shared it on here yet (I think…). We all know I love a good lip balm. I’m currently using the new range from The Body Shop: Born Lippy. As I type this I’m wearing Pomengranate. It smells divine.

- Feeling a bit lost in the world? Unicorns for Socialism did a post of 7 questions to ask yourself. Worth a read and a think.

- And finally, how awesome is this organisation system for storing games consoles?! Granted, if you need a system like this you probably have too much stuff in your life, but it’s cool nonetheless:

[Source]

I hope you had a lovely Tuesday! I’ll show you mine tomorrow

On Saturday I had all my hair chopped off! I’m always trying to grow my hair long, but I get bored and cut it short. I’ve never had long hair! I tried to take some photos for you, without pulling a face. I failed.

I did one serious face at the end, so I thought I’d share the whole sequence of photos with you, from “don’t pull a face” to “Oh, go on then…” to “Right, just smile and then it’s done”.

I’m also loving how my yellow Lamy matches my current journal.

Happy Monday!

A chaffinch.

Another chaffinch, pinching some seeds off the floor!

One goldfinch…

Shortly followed by a second.  These two birds scared all the other birds off the feeder.

A great tit

A house sparrow.  This took me ages to ID, but they’re really common!

A swallow!  Summer is officially here!

The rest of these photos are all the same robin couple from my garden.  I have a nesting pair

Happy Saturday!

Earlier this week, I bought the Limited Edition 2012 green Lamy I mentioned earlier in the year.

Here it is, inked with the standard Lamy blue cartridge you receive with pen purchases.  I will eventually ink it with J.Herbin Lie de The.

Archie, thief of all that moves and glitters, didn’t take long to play with it herself.  You can’t leave anything light out in this house, because if it can be moved it will be flicked and stolen!

After buying the green Lamy, I realised that I needed a yellow Lamy in order to complete my collection.  Tsk tsk.  To use another food slogan, Once you pop you can’t stop…

So, after receiving the yellow Lamy yesterday from The Paperie (excellent service, as ever!), here’s my rainbow:

And my personal fave shot…

It’s the simple things in life!  German engineering at its best.

Have a colourful Friday!

I’ve never personally been a victim of serious theft. I had my mobile stolen when I was a teenager, but apart from the financial impact (I’d only had it a day and it was top of the line – I’d bought it with my part-time wages!), it wasn’t that traumatic. My phone company had blocked the phone within an hour of me reporting the theft and all that was left was to get a new phone.

Nowadays, though, my wallet is a positive cornucopia of information! As is my phone. I think I’d be more distraught with the theft of my phone, but Apple solved that problem with their nifty software for wiping a phone (or iPad) memory remotely. Thanks, Apple!

So, back to my wallet. I can’t have that wiped remotely (yet – hurry up, technology!). After looking at my purse, I’ve decided that I’m stupid to carry so much of my personal stuff around with me! I have a large pink purse full of library cards, loyalty cards, medical and identity cards, business cards, membership cards, credit cards… This for a person who rarely goes shopping, buys most items through Amazon, uses her library’s online facilities and hasn’t gone abroad for three years! I cannot think of a situation where I would have to prove beyond a doubt that I’m a Fellow of the Geological Society on pain of death, so why do I carry the identity card with me??

In the UK, you don’t have to carry identification with you. If you get stopped by the police for whatever reason, you have 24 hours to visit a police station with some ID. The only reason you’d probably like ID on you is in case you get in an accident, so the lovely hospital that treats you can get access to your medical records. Unless you want to be hardcore and tattoo your name and medical details on your arm for them to find… However, in these circumstances, a paramedic will probably just identify you by the name on your credit cards if he has to.

So, I’ve decided to move to a small purse and only carry the essentials with me daily. I can carry a full purse on proper shopping trips. The purse I’m switching to (on the left, above) is from Etsy, from a seller called Green Grass. I love all her items, go check them out!

Here’s what I now have for daily use:

I have a credit card, a small penknife and some loose change. I’d recommend more change, but I’m all out at the moment! I will also point out that if you get pulled over by the police with that purse then a lack of ID is going to be the least of your concerns. That penknife is 3mm (that’s right, 3mm!!) over the legal limit! Insane! I assume the law in Switzerland permits the carrying of larger knives, otherwise it seems a bit stupid for a manufacturer to make blades that are 3mm over the legal size for “concealment” (I’ve never tested this theory, but I assume keeping a knife in a purse counts as concealment of a weapon). Anyhow, the knife is for use at the allotment and cutting loose threads etc. I have no criminal intent!

This is the purse when it’s filled:

Nice and small and compact! And no danger of identity theft if it’s stolen!

What size is your purse? Maybe it’s time to downsize!

My Mother set to planting peas and beans, and Julia (the person we share the allotment with) went to work on the new strawberry plants. I cleared an area of weeds for the new strawberry patch.

Here’s a before pic:

Last year this area had parsnips on it – how did it get so unmangeable in 6 months?!

After I’d cleared half the area, we were ready to put the new strawberry plants in:

Strawberry plants only produce fruit for a few years, so you need to plan ahead and start new plants so as not to lose any crop. These babies were grown on from the plants in our current patch. This means that for this year we’ll have two strawberry patches – the old one and the new one. We’re clear the old one at the end of the year, but the plants are flowering so they’ll stay for now!

Hopefully we’ll get lots of strawberries (if it stops raining daily!) and I can eat them all! I love strawberries!

• The May Carnival of Pens is here!  Go and check it out on Okami’s blog!
• I love these cross-stitch designs recently shared on How About Orange.  I haven’t cross-stitched since I was a child, but these patterns have me tempted to start again!
• 25 ways to get motivated today.  I need to re-read this post.  I had some news I didn’t want today, and I’m feeling very unmotivated right now!  I was going to skip writing Link tag Tuesday, but I’ve made myself do it whilst listening to early 00s music to cheer myself up (my teenage years!)!
• This list made me laugh a lot: The 35 greatest animal photobombers of all time!  Number 3 is my favourite I think.

That’s it for this week I’m afraid!  I’ve not been reading much on the web this week again, as I’ve been a busy little bee in the garden and crocheting!

Happy Tuesday!

It turns out that it’s very easy to make! I followed the recipe from nuts.com (not a porn site!). My supermarket sells unsalted cashews so it wasn’t difficult to get hold of the ingredients. A health food store should stock them if you’re having problems finding them.

It takes about 10-15 mins to whizz up the cashews into a paste. Then it takes about 5 seconds to eat! It’s got a milder nutty flavour than peanut butter. It’s very nice on toasted bagels.

I’m not sure it’s more cost efficient to make your own: I can buy organic peanut butter at my supermarket for 60p less than I can buy unsalted cashews, but it was fun to make my own and see how easy it was. I’m going to try again with some other nuts to see what other nut butters taste like.