BEDM

I've signed up to Blog Every Day in May!  I enjoyed the challenge when I took part last November so thought I'd give it another go.

So pop over next month & see what I'm wittering on about!

Soft Skin Loveliness

I don't do beauty posts - mainly because I have such a chaotic beauty routine, partly because nothing I've done has made me beautiful!  However, last night I tried a new product that blew my mind.

Here it is ...

 It's Superdrug's Anti-Ageing Moisture Face Mask & it's brilliant!
My skin has been suffering lately - really dry, flaky & looking 'greyish'.  All part of ageing as far as I can gauge but not something that I'm enjoying. Nothing I've tried has made any real difference to it & I'd more or less resigned myself to having 'problem skin' most of the time.  It did seem to improve on the few occasions I had a professional treatment but who can afford one of those too often - apart from A-listers & Kardasians!
So when I saw these little packs in Superdrug I thought I'd give them a try, especially as they are only 99p at the moment & on a 2 for 3 offer!
The mask itself is really creamy which was a surprise.  Previous masks I've tried have been gel-like which peel off like a second skin or thick clays that dry to a hard mask   This stayed soft & creamy on my skin. When it was washed off my skin felt soft & moisturised which is what the  pack promised!  But even better than that my skin was still soft this morning.  Today, instead of needing several applications of moisturiser, one light application is all my skin has needed.  Several hours after moisturising & my skin still felt wonderful!  Such a joy! I also felt that some of my fine lines were smoothed & my skin felt fuller, 'plumped' & younger with a better skin tone than it has had lately.  Win win!
Needless to say I will be using this product again, at least once a week but definitely every time my skin feels in need of a pick-me-up.

These are my own personal opinions & not influenced by anyone else, certainly not Superdrug!

Word of the Week

This week's word is ...

Sunshine

This week has been sunny & warm.  I've enjoyed walking around without a coat & I had the added joy of a visit from a bee!

The Bee Story

I was sitting on the bus into Oxford on Tuesday when I felt something tickling my hand.  Lifting my hand up I was surprised & delighted to see a small bee sitting there.

I carefully turned my hand to get a good look at him (how was I to know what sex the bee was?  I decoded he was a boy!) He was small with pale golden stripes on his abdomen.  Beautiful, delicate fur positively glowed in the sunshine; I was in danger of falling in love!

The bus rumbled on & the little bee sat happily on my hand grooming himself.  Tiny back legs rubbed over his abdomen, front legs brushed his antennae.  Then he rubbed his back legs together & turned slowly on my hand.  The sun shone & I kept very still so as not to disturb him.

He settled down & I felt the slightest brush of abdomen fur against my hand.  We moved on towards Oxford & I hoped that he'd sit quietly until we arrived so that I could release him.

As we approached my stop he began to move again.  I thought at one point he was heading up my sleeve but at the last moment he turned & headed for my wrist again.  Relief! I didn't want to have to divest myself of my top to release a bee in the heart of Oxford! 

I carefully got off the bus & the bee flew off immediately, almost as if he knew we had reached journey's end.  I was both happy & sad to see him go but I understand that bees don't make good pets so I couldn't have kept him!

Little bit of Abingdon

So, for the first time in ages I had my phone with me when I was in Abingdon so managed to get a few shots.

This lovely archway is part of the old abbey, little of which survives now.  Henry VIII & the Dissolution of the Monasteries made sure of that!

Looking back through the archway!

I love doorways ...

 And windows ...

But this little beauty is my favourite.  I like to imagine all sorts of things behind doors like this.  It has endless possibilities.  In reality it's a small side door into the church which was the abbey church for the townspeople. But in my imagination ... well it could be a door to anywhere!

Word of the Week

A newly found blog by Jocelyn · thereadingresidence.com has prompted me to think about summing up a week in a single word.  It's harder than it sounds!

This week's word is ...  Painful!

Most week's I'd find it difficult to find a single word that would sum it all up.  But this week has been a week of pain.  The nasty pollution smog has left me with a 3 day headache which is seriously dragging me down.  I've fought the urge to medicate the hell out of the damn thing as it's not a usual headache.  It's all down to environmental things so I need to ride it out.  Thankfully it's turned into an  irritating buzz in the head rather than the sharp pain of Wednesday.

What word sums up your week?

 

Finally writing about Abingdon!

It occurred to me yesterday that, although I called this blog after my home town, I've not written about Abingdon yet.  So I'm going to address that this month.  I want to write a serious of posts about Abingdon to give you a taste of what it's like to live here and what 's going on.

Abingdon is a small market town in South Oxfordshire and at one time was the county town of Berkshire.  Now it's part of Oxfordshire albeit a rather southern outpost of the county.

I thought I'd start with my own little part of Abingdon, namely my house and garden!

We live in the north of Abingdon on the site of the old Warren Hospital - sometimes I bump into folk who were born in the hospital or had their children there which is spooky!  Our house is a 4 bed detached, simple and compact, just about big enough for the 3 of us (I'd like it to be bigger but it isn't so that's that!)

  This is a view of the rear of the house - see what I mean?  A normal, standard house, no frills here folks!

This is the view down the garden towards the shed - lovely!  As you can see I'm no gardener!  Every year I vow to clear and sort the garden and every year I fail.  Things burst into life and flower, some are even plants rather than weeds, so I leave well alone and vow to be better next year!  I also tell myself that the cats like the wild, jungle look.  Well. I can't upset the cats, can I?

  This little, out of focus fellow is chomping his way through some unidentified plants in the garden.  He's brought lots of friends with him and I hope that this means there'll be loads of butterflies later in the year.

I've also got plenty of snails munching on the rosemary.  I'm a fan of slugs and snails and have no problem with them making themselves at home in my garden.  I've never used a slug pellet since an A level Biology field trip when we counted and identified slugs on the Long Mynd.  They're fascinating creatures and I like to watch them and feel them slither over my hand - does that make me weird?

So that's my little corner of Abingdon.  Next mission is to visit and photograph some of my favourite bits of Abingdon and share them here.