Palm Sunday rolls on.........but worrying times ahead because it looks as if gigantic birds have been living inside St. Hils.....yikes!

Dear All
Another week has almost passed us by but lets not dwell on that old chestnut and instead I will let you know what I have been doing today after coming home this lunch time from my last working day of the week.

I have been busy trying to work towards finishing my Palm Sunday page and knowing time is now short, wanted to do some more today and hopefully finish tomorrow evening.  I am quite excited though because it is the bi-annual Miniatura Dollshouse Show at Birmingham's NEC tomorrow and Saturday and, of course, I am going as per usual.  Andrew always enjoys coming along with me and it is just as well that he does really because he is a good financial barometer when I am liable to get carried away!  So it may be I come home tomorrow and Sunday with........well....almost anything really as it just depends what takes my fancy on the day.  Palm Sunday, therefore, may have a twist I don't know about yet as a result. 

I have had a couple of faux pas whilst photographing this afternoon and evening. See my first one below........

You are NOT imagining it........that IS my big clumsy thumb occupying the top left hand side of the photos.  HOW did that happen?  I was so keen to get the focus right as this was one that I take freehand with a macro lens and flash I neglected to ensure my fingers were out of the way.  You can't see too well but I can let you know that Robert Alexander has brought Georgie, his pet dog, along and so Prince, the yellow labrador, is teaching HER how to make a palm cross having watched Ambrose SO carefully.....WHAT a clever dog he is!

The enlargement above is rather blurred but I think you can see that there is another faux pas.  I confess to a a spot of laziness here and have decided not to turn the book the right way up and retake the photographs.  I wonder if Amelia was bored with the very idea of making palm crosses and just opened her book whilst it was upside down as a kind of distraction?  After all she has been holding that book for rather a long time now and perhaps she can read the words upside down now she has read it so many times?  I hope she sets to soon and decides to help the others make the palm crosses.......

Gracie's "Gracie cakes" have, sadly, caught the attention of both Esme and Ernest as you can see.  Grace left them for the others to enjoy but only AFTER they had finished the palm cross makiing but the pair of ducks from the village pond had other plans......!  I hope you all don't think that the two ducks' beak repairs look too bad.

Ambrose and Alice are ready to help put the tea out for the children here.  Can you see two rogue rodents in the frame.............?  This is not my best photo and will not be on the actual page but I had to include it here because Nunc Dimittis is on the floor and I have to confess that, when I took the photo, I had completely forgottten he was there!  He IS difficult to spot but you will see a something of him if you check out the bottom right of the picture on the floor.

I expect some of you may have noticed that Grace has been missing from the above photos............that is because I had taken her downstairs to include her in the church. 

However as I prepared Grace's pose for her to be photographed I had to remove one pew but, in the process, I was made painfully aware that the pew behind the removed one had something rather odd on?  I had to pick it up to realise what it was and do you know what it was?  Sunflower seed husks.  Naturally it was not difficult to work out the culprit because it was our hand reared cockatiel, Pebbles whose most recent habit is to pick up a stray sunflower off the floor (sad to say he is a VERY messy eater but fair play because he DOES pick up after himself.........after a fashion as he does here.....) and fly on to the top of the towel covered church to dehusk it.   He will then fly back to the floor and repeat the trick.........  It must be something to do with  male cockatiels or something.  So the husks must fall down but WHERE?  Plainly IN the church.  I have yet to work out how he manages this trick given that gravity would normally work against him here as they would normally go straight to the floor.

 Hang on.....Andrew has just come up to see what I am up to and he reckons that Pebbles also drops them as he flies and, if one of the pews is outside for any reason when I am doing some photographs, the seed husks drop neatly on to them..........clever Pebbles!  I have to confess that we do have our friends comment that they always know if something has come from us because there are a few stray seeds in the bag!

I hope you like the picture as above. I am pretty pleased with it really because it was a "one off" for a change using the tripod, daylight bulb and delay timer with my Ixus 980. That is the joy of my latest camera. It does hold the possibility of occasionally taking THE perfect photo on the first attempt. I am pretty pleased too that Gracie agreed to stand without too many arguments with her 14 different joints. (slight exaggeration there!)  

Gracie decided she fancied practising for the Palm Sunday procession because she was determined to hold her palm leaf AND play her tambourine whilst singing AND processing.  I think you will agree she is doing well here?  I do admit to a little bit of cheating here because I have used the pew just a tiny little bit in order to balance her.  I have to say it.......I ADORE her socks and sandals and the way that the ankle joints enable me to tilt her little feet up and down as well as side to side.  Of course that means you have to ensure her feet are flat enough to stand as well as having her waist joint set so that the centre of gravity for the doll is correct too. 

Well wish me luck at the Miniatura tomorrow. I have got it in mind to seek out anything that is remotely Easter related but whatEVER I bring back be assured....you will all be the first to find out!
Till the next time.........