Come on Spring; the camera and I are waiting...

We still have snow here in Moscow. It's decreasing, melting gradually away, but there's still plenty lying on the ground, and snow storms most days.

It's nearly April. As an English person used to temperate climates, that's bloody depressing, let me tell you.

Last year we were lucky; the winter, whilst much colder than the one we've just had, was brighter. Sure, we had days on end of -20degC and below, but the sun shone, the sky was blue, and the dazzling light reflecting off the snow took some of the edge off. Yes, it was freezing, but beautiful and exhilerating. This year, we've had fewer days like that. Milder temperatures, certainly, but somehow I prefer -20degC with blinding sunshine to grey drabness at -8degC. It's still minus when all's said and done, after all.

Spring 2010, when it arrived (at the beginning of April) was astounding, however. I've never seen such an explosion of life. My parents visited me during the second week of May and couldn't believe how in only their 8 day visit everything in the garden exploded. And don't get me started on the birds; from a veritable wasteland of wild-life at the end of March, with only a couple of squirrels and a few grey-hooded crows, our compound transformed into what sounded like a tropical paradise in only 2 - 3 weeks.

So in an attempt to maintain my sense of optimism against the snowstorms ('Spring will come, it will!'), I've decided to use the blog to make a record of the forthcoming transformation. Every Thursday morning (or thereabouts), around 9.00am, I'm going to take a photograph of the flower bed in front of our house. Well, I say 'flower bed'; it's more greenery than flowers, but you get the point. And actually, right now, it's not even greenery; just a heap of snow with one brave fern struggling through it.

Then I'm going to post it here. Just to show myself - and anyone else who's interested - how far we've come by the time June rolls around. Let me know if you're interested in joining in with photos of your own Spring-time transformation and perhaps McLinky might come out to join the fun, too...

Here it is, then. The front flower bed chez Potty, 9.10am, Thursday 31st March 2011. Roll on Spring; I sure am ready for you to make an appearance...

Hair ; Wk 52 of the Gallery

This week over at Tara's Gallery, the prompt is 'Hair'. I think she was hoping for lots of embarrassing photos of us all with poodle perms and disastrous haircuts. I do have those - by the bucket load (not for nothing was my group of friends occasionally compared to the Hair Bear Bunch at the end of the '80's) - but sadly, they're all in storage. The photos, that is, not the friends.

Instead, I'm going to show just one hair, that ended up on my fingers as I scratched my head puzzling what to use for this post. Although this is by no means my predominant hair-colour, it is also by no means the only one.

Time to visit the colourist, perhaps...

Monday morning common-sense quiz

Question:

What do you do when your Husband suggests that rather than buying a new and expensive ink cartridge for the printer, you have a shot at using the ink refilling thingy that he purchased some time ago and which says - on the packaging, so it must be true - 'Save money and simple'?

Answer:

Suggest that if it is such a good idea, he should do it himself.

If you do not take the suggested course of action, ensure you have plenty of solvent available to clean the resulting stains off the counter top and your hands and nails.

And if no solvent is available, prepare to scrub everything - including yourself - with Cif.

Then; moisturise, moisturise, moisturise.

Throw the now defunct cartridge, refilling thingy, and various stained cloths, into the bin, muttering not so quietly under your breath about Husbands and money saving ideas.*

Write a blog-post to get some of the irritation out of your system (obviously re-casting yourself as Innocent Wife who was simply humouring her Husband but who knew all along this was going to be a Bad Idea).**

Finally, climb in the car and go out to buy yourself a new printer cartridge (and some solvent), which is what you now wish you had done in the first place.

The moral of this story?

There is a reason why people don't refill their ink cartridges themselves. Consider yourselves warned.

* Do not under any circumstances call said Husband in his office to solicit sympathy and perhaps even an apology for having had the temerity to make such a patently ridiculous suggestion in the first place. He will be in the middle of being Busy and Important and the chances are his amusement at your predicament will simply make you even testier...

** Under no circumstances ask yourself why you went along with this money-saving plan. No profit in that. You will only become even crosser...

Silent Sunday

Me, Lady GaGa, and the great age debate

On the way home from school today;

Boy #1: "Lady GaGa is really rich, isn't she?"

Me: " Yes, I suppose she probably is."

Boy #1: "She's a rich, old, woman."

I nearly crash the car. "She's not old! Lady GaGa is younger than I am! Who told you she was old?"

Boy #1: "N did. He said, she's this reeeally old woman."

Boy #2: "How old IS she?"

I take a wild guess. "I don't know... 24 or 25, maybe?"

Horrified intakes of breath from the back seat.

Boy #2: "That's REALLY old... How old are you?"

Me: "I'm 44. Which is much more than Lady GaGa. Does that make me really old too?"

Cue diplomatic silence. Then;

Boy #1: "Maybe her birthday is before yours in the year, Mama. That makes her older thanyou, really..."

I'll go with that.

Note: with sincere apologies to Lady GaGa...

Making money from fresh air with The Co-operative

Sponsored Post

Whilst on a fleeting visit to the UK a couple of weekends ago, I noticed that The Co-operative has started a new advertising campaign. I like the Co-op; it's testament to the principle that a good idea can stand the test of time and succeed. In fact, the original co-operative was formed by The Rochdale Pioneers in 1844. I doubt that back then they had any idea their concept would still be working over 150 years later.

The ad campaign I mentioned features some modern-day successors of the Pioneers ideals. I particularly like the first community owned wind farm; set up in a Cumbrian village, Baywind Energy Co-operative has been running now since 1996 and typically generates enough electricity to power 30,000 homes each year. Not bad for a project that was initially set up using a loan from The Co-operative.

Co-operative ventures don't always work, obviously (the vast farms set up in Stalin's time in Russa are testament to that, sadly), but it can be a very successful business model. The Austrian village that the Potski family went skiing in this year is an example of that; the entire mountain is owned by the occupants of the village, all of whom take home a share of the profits at the end of each tourist season. Not only does this mean that improvements and investments are joint decisions - and hence implemented more efficiently than they might otherwise be - it also means that every person living in the village has a stake in ensuring that visitors enjoy their trip and hopefully return in future years. In short, everyone wins.

Which is, essentially, what The Co-operative is all about.

You can find out more about the Co-operative on their Facebook page, and can get involved and join the Revolution here.

Partage propulse par ebuzzing

When winter just won't quit...

The Russians say it's Spring here right now. Admittedly, it is above freezing for much of the time, and Mother Nature was doing her best to clear away the snow, but it seems she's taken the day off today (or Winter has come back from it's short break, who knows?) because this is what's outside my window:

(Note; the reason the trees look blurry is because they are obscured by the heavy snow falling. In March, for goodness' sake).

Oh well. At least it means that this link, to my latest offering over at In the Powder Room where I debate the rights and wrongs of wearing a helmet on the slopes (and shrug my shoulders at the resultant hair disaster) isn't quite so out of place...