Five on Friday

Now that I am a lady of leisure I find that the weeks are flying by and sometimes I wonder what I did with my time. So for the first time I thought I would join in with Five of Friday a way of capturing five things that have happened to me during the week.
Blog Badge Design
Following on from my blog revamp last month, I have had a blog badge/logo created, which is already in use on my Facebook page. I am currently debating whether to replace the photo of me (on the right of your screen, just there do you see me) with this lovely logo. I will then move my photo onto the About Me page, which seems more appropriate.  I should say they I do not have the skill to create this little beauty myself, I used a website called Fiverr. Where you can commission work from creative people from all of the world, starting from £5, although mine cost me £25 from a lady in Canada. 
Narcissus Bulbs
A good friend brought me a vase and pebble set complete with some Narcissus bulbs for a Christmas present. The bulbs were already sprouting green when I opened them. By Boxing Day they were in the vase with water, and few weeks later 2 of the bulbs put out roots but the other 2,  nothing. Six weeks since Christmas and one of the bulbs is exceptionally tall and in flower, with a delightful scent. The second bulb is exceptionally short and just starting to bud, quite bizarre but equally beautiful. 
Knitting work in progressI am currently wrestling with my latest knitting project, a scarf, which is proving a little tricky. I am too embarrassed to include a photograph, as I had to unpick around two evenings worth of knitting. I think I had become distracted by the tv, and repeated a row twice. It has lots of taking the yarn forward and slipping stitches, so when unpicking the knitting  you soon lose where the yarn forwards are. The only solution was to strip it back and start again. Never mind, I can only improve my knitting from learning from my mistakes.
Fire
Some of you may already know that I am a conservation volunteer at the National Trust property 'Sunnycroft'. Today the Thursday volunteers went out for lunch to a local pub hotel. In the bar and restaurant area they had some lovely warming fires. Well that's what you first think, but once you approach them you soon realize they are television screens! But don't they look realistic, they even had the crackle sound a fire makes. Very convincing indeed.
Opera La TraviataI'm typing this having returned home from watching my first ever opera. La Traviata performed live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden but broadcast live to thousands of cinemas around the world. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the singing as you would expect was excellent and the costumes exquisite. Sang in Italian but with subtitles allowing viewers to truly understand the story. When the performance breaks for intervals, those of us watching at the cinema get to enjoy behind the scenes interviews, as well as a chance to get that all important ice cream. One of the huge draws to watching this at the cinema, it only took me 10 minutes to get home. My nearest main theater is at Birmingham and it would of taken me that long just to make it out of the theater.
You can find out more about Five on Friday by visiting Amy at Love Made My Home