Parades, poached eggs and pressies

The first Saturday in May is one of my favourites. Not only is it the start of a Bank Holiday Weekend, but it marks the start of the Brighton Festival and the Children's Parade. Every year children from schools across the city and beyond take part in this parade that wanders through the city to mark the opening of the Festival. Teachers, parents and children dress up and join in the fun. The children had spent hours practising in their samba bands, dance groups and adults helped with the very messy process of model making! It is a great celebration of everything arty, colourful, musical, youthful and fun and that just about sums up the Festival and the city during May!
It is also a chance to catch up with friends you haven't seen for years, bump into old neighbours, children who you remember as toddlers and who are now teenagers, people who you would rather not see whilst you're in full fancy dress in broad daylight and, yesterday, I even met the lovely midwife who delivered one of my babies! It is a day when Brighton feels like a town rather than a city, it is a day when you can hop on the bus home wearing goodness knows what and nobody bats an eyelid. It is a day that promises so much for the rest of the month.

Today we will be visiting some of the Open Houses that are taking part this year, so really looking forward to that. Hopefully, we will also be spending some time in the garden which has been neglected over the past week or two. Amongst the forget-me-nots yesterday I noticed this poached egg plant that I planted ages ago and had forgotten about. I am not a great fan of yellow but this looks lovely particularly next to the delicate blue of the forget-me-nots. I love forget-me-nots; did you know that they were worn hundreds of years ago by lovers not wishing to be forgotten by their lovers. According to legend a knight in full armour was walking by the river with his lady, he stooped to pick some flowers to give her and, because of the weight of his armour, fell in shouting, forget me not, and promptly drowned!

Two people I musn't forget to mention here are Alison and Betty. Alison bought a tea cosy and corsage from me last week and then promptly sent me some lovely goodies! These are the gorgeous cards, gift tags and heart in the photo! Alison has a lovely blog and is always busy making new and wonderful things - thank you Alison. Betty drew my name out of her hat for a giveaway she was running on her blog and my name was chosen and these goodies turned up yesterday- so thank you too! Betty makes gorgeous bags from lovely fabrics!
Betty also tagged me yesterday (what a day) - so I have to list 7 weird things about me. So here goes:
1. I find it painfully hard to make lists - don't ask me to compile a list of favourites or dislikes, I just can't do it! My children have had to help with this one!
2. I HATE mashed potato - ever since I was a little girl I've been haunted by visions of scoops of grey, lumpy mash served to me by grumpy dinner ladies at school! Makes my stomach turn just writing about it!
3. I am unable to close a door or drawer behind me, you always know when I've been looking for things!
4. I bite my tongue whenever I say anything bad to stop it happening! (don't know why ...)
5. I can't eat the crusts of my toasts or sandwiches but spend an inordinate amount of time nagging my kids to.
6. I speak to my cats in a language that is not my own, don't know where it comes from but they tell me they understand every word!
7. My toes have a life of their own, are all double jointed and can do strange things.
Hope you still want to visit after that little list.
I in turn must now tag so here is my list picked randomly from people who left comments on the last post:
Anna, Mary, Louise, Alison, Mirre.