Blue blood

Every day is a school day!
I work, a few days a week in a busy hospital pharmacy, and today, on a visit to Quality Control, I learned all about the horse shoe crab and it's green/blue blood.
Apparently the horse shoe crab has copper rather than iron in it's blood, which explains the unusal colour, and it is this that is very useful for staining, and therefore detecting, bacteria.

Certain bacteria (gram negative bacteria) don't show up with more conventional stains, that are designed to stain bacteria purple, but the blood of the horse shoe crab, is an effective stain and highlights any possible contamination. The crabs blood is harvested, for use in the laboratory and then they are released back into the wild. 
It brings a whole new meaning to the term blue blood.

Say what?

I love the confusion that the English Language brings.... I still find it amusing that I was at cross purposes for so long when I was told that my car needed "a new car bonnet",  After a few times of me repeating the statement, and then asking what was was wrong with the one I'd already got, it turned out that I needed "a new carb on it"
Cols mum and dad make me smile every time they talk about the wireless, it means something so much different to most people nowadays, and when they talked about liking dance music, it turned out that they liked listening to big band music.
Today the headline in the Metro was "overdosing on tablets is killing PCs", and I started to read the article thinking that our police force were suffering from stress, but it turned out that the headline was referring to tablet computers and personal computers....

OK so it's not quite the Observer

Ok so it's not quite the Arts section in the Oberserver, but v pleased that myself (TreeHuggery), the Wood Studio and The Open Arts have been featured in the media again today - this time in The Nottingham Evening Post
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/burning-passion-art-showcased-new-Open-Studios/story-18664891-detail/story.html#axzz2Q6319YNi
All in all, it's proving a good week, I've got a new outlet at the lovely White Peacock Tea Rooms and Emporium in Eastwood (apparently their bistro nights are to die for), I've nearly finished one of my uni projects - photos soon - and am hopefully going to be involved in some outdoor art projects in the vicinity -
sooooo excited

Girls and garages

I hate taking my car into a garage, I know nothing about cars, and I could be told anything, and I wouldn't know whether I was being told the truth or not
Once, when I was working in teenage pregnancy, I took my car to have a tyre changed, - relatively straightforward huh?  except my locking wheel nut was in the boot, under boxes and boxes of condoms.  Understandibly I was attracting some very odd looks as I unloaded my wares by the side of my car, so I tried to explain it away, be gesturing towards them, with a casual "oh, it's my work".
I've never gone back there again
Today I've dropped Cols van at a new garage that we're trying out, with an Amazon reciept instead of it's MOT certificate - I so look like I know what I'm doing.....

Celebrations

It was Cols 40th birthday at the weekend - one of his cards, complete with 40 sticker, had the warning not to be given to children under 36 months .....
Despite Col not having a day off, and still working in the garden, it was a good day, the sun shone, and even working became quite leisurely.
In the evening we'd planned a Mexican meal for a few friends from the running club, and they made us laugh out loud; turning up with Mexican music blaring, sombreros, ponchos (ok aztec bath towels with a hole cut out) and drawn on moustaches.  Excellent.

I'm in the news today, oh boy

Just received some lovely publicity in our local paper about the Open Studios event I'm taking part in.
Like the Open Gardens, artists across Nottinghamshire will be opening their workshop doors giving the public a chance to see them at work.  So as well as textile artists, people can meet painters, sculptures, wood turners etc, and while I only have the link for Nottinghamshire www.osnotts.co.uk. This relatively new event is spreading around the country so there may be an event near you..

The article can be viewed here....http://www.eastwoodadvertiser.co.uk/news/eastwood-kimberley-news/artists-open-up-their-galleries-1-5543139