sunsets, tea, and woodlice

I’m sure you can understand the slightly blurriness of this photo. There I was, dashing off the bus from work, on the way to somewhere else, with barely a second to spare, and look! Just look! I did contemplate ignoring my prior engagement and running down to the end of that street, where there’s a park which looks out over the city and the hills, and watching the sun set instead.

But there’s a time and a place for arriving late because you’ve been chasing rainbows, and this wasn’t one of them, so I juggled my camera with my bags, and stood outside the Co-op taking photographs instead, along with a fair few other people. I’m glad I did, blurry or not.

The day after this spectacular sunset, I took the day off work. Not for any good reason, I just fancied it. I hadn’t quite finished sniffling and snuffling, and I wasn’t really ready for a full week in work.

So we went out for brunch, and mightily cheerful it was too. I don’t go to this cafe very often, whenever I’m in this part of town I usually end up somewhere else, so this was a nice little treat.

This little cafe jaunt was actually a precursor to the real activity of the day – a talk at the local museum called ‘Let me introduce you to woodlice’. Well, who knew there were so many things I didn’t know about woodlice?

In fact, I was so filled with woodlouse enthusiasm after the talk that I am actually going to do a whole new post about it. I might even try a photoshoot with the woodlice living in my bathroom before I do. Hope they don’t mind posing. Hey, I could probably even tell you what type of woodlouse they are now and everything.

Yesterday I had to go back to work, but I work at home on Fridays, and sometimes it’s better if I’m away from the internet (you know those days…). So I toddled off to another cafe to pretend to be all business like. This one is usually full of children, and is quite expensive, and so isn’t my cafe of choice. But they do have plenty of space, and they don’t mind you sitting there for an hour or two working.

And yesterday I discovered this.

Just look at that! A bright orange sofa, in a corner upstairs, with stripey cushions, and sunshine, just made for beavering away for a while! I don’t know how I haven’t found it before! Maybe because they only open upstairs at bizarre times of the day. Or maybe I’ve always been too lazy to climb the stairs (quite possible).

Anyway, I’ll be heading back there at some point, of course.

And then this morning (because I can’t really deny now that this post is going to be about anything other than tea in cafes so I might as well give in to it) I found myself in another cafe, this time on the other side of town. We won’t dwell on why I was there instead of at the Women’s Institute country market cafe, my usual Saturday morning haunt (only to say that I’m thinking of selling my car and buying a horse and cart, which would probably be more use).

Still, I do like this little cafe, and I don’t get to go there very often, because it’s directly opposite my other favourite cafe, which just happens to be Peter’s favourite cafe too, so we end up in there rather more often than this one.

This morning they had just what I needed, having run out of the house with no breakfast, and no tea (very unlike me). And a free copy of the Guardian too, which I do like to dip in and out of on a Saturday, but rarely do these days.

So it’s looking like I need to go away and write about woodlice isn’t it? Because I know I can’t be the only person interested in them. Really. I mean, we also learned about woodlice in music, religion, art and literature. What’s not to love?

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