I've no idea! I'm wearing red and blue and have been to vote for my local yellow candidate, so I'm a complete mix.

Many years ago I was in Selfridges in London on Christmas Eve 1992. I saw this collection of high quality animal glove puppets like the ones that Brian (It's a puppet!) Conley has used. I bought a squirrel one as a surprse present for my mother and gave it to her on the following day.

She fell in love with it and started writing little verses to tell us each day. She kept this going until her health deteriorated and she had to go into hospital. She passed away in January and I inherited the puppet who stiil lives in his original house box. He lives on top of my writing desk.

You might wonder why I have mentioned this. It's very simple. She called him Squiggle. I don't have a modern mobile phone so can't post a photo of him. If I can ever bring myself to look at mother's little book where she wrote her squiggles, and if I can decipher her appalling handwriting, I might post one or two of the better ones, but most of them are too personal to post.

Awww El Loro, I feel honoured now. She sounds like a lady after my own heart.  Joyron so glad you are feeling less tired now, way to go wearing all blue I'm in pink and lavender so I must be real confused NOT! Yogi so glad you are back to normal and no I am afraid the dandelions are winning at the mo, I will gather my forces again some time and go into action, but not yet. Hope you all have a lovely day despite the rain

Well I've been to cast my vote.  We are actually in a new constituency this year so it will be interesting to see if we get the right result.  At least I've done my bit.

Will be back later. 

Hello again everyone.
I have been with youngest son to cast our votes. Hubby and middle son will go after they finish work.
Squiggle, sorry the dandelions are winning the battle - but I have every faith that you will win the war.
Joyron, I am glad you are feeling a little less tired today. I never thought of co-ordinating my outfit to match my vote.
El Loro, your presence is very welcome and I found your post about your mum very moving.

Evening everyone.  Well it's just under 4 1/2 hours until the polls close.  I wonder IF we will know the result in the morning??

Yogi, it wasn't so much co-ordinating my clothes to my vote as not wanting to go out in red.  Didn't want to give the wrong impression.  As I said previously we are voting in a new constituency today so there is no telling how the vote might go.

My hubby is out tonight so he voted first thing; in fact he told me he was the first person to vote at our little polling station.

Hope to catch up with you all later. 

I am  and  tonight because my laptop doesn't appear to be fixed after all. The new charger was working yesterday but it has given up the ghost today. I don't want to buy another battery, only to find out that isn't the problem after all. So, I think it will have to go back to the shop. In the meantime, I'm back to borrowing hubby's laptop.

In case I don't get back later, I wish you all a goodnight.  
Perhaps we will know the election result in the morning - I think it might be later than that though.

I will say night, night too Yogi.  I have a feeling there will still be no "real" result in the morning.

Hope you manage to get the computer problems sorted out before too long. 

Night, night folks! I'm off to bed as it will be hours before anything clear emerges from the election results.

Hi everyone, hope you have a lovely Friday despite the uncertain election result.  Woke up with a migraine this morning and feel a bit shivery so might not be on much today

Good morning everyone.
The weather is as uncertain as the election result. I wonder how long it will be, before we know who will govern us for the next five years.
Squiggle, I hope you feel better soon.

Just to cheer squiggle up, and I hope your migraine goes quickly, here are three little squiggles from my mother's notebook written shortly before one Christmas. Besides Squiggle, my mother had hordes of cuddly toy animals, all of whom she named. In these squiggles, she mentions Rusty who must be a dog and Honey who is a bear. She also mentions Spencer who isn't a toy animal but a phantom spider who has pemanent residence.

"I want a Christmas tree" said Rusty
"Thats just 10 inches tall,
So I can reach the decorations.
SAUSAGES! And eat them all."

"My Christmas tree" said little Spencer,
"Must be as high as me,
Decorated with mince pies
And sugar made flies!"

"I don't want a tree at all
But mistletoe in my hall"
Said Honey, "And I'll wait there
In hopes there'll pass a lady bear!"

Thanks for that El Loro.  I have had a little sleep and feel a bit brighter but still washed out.  Luckily I don't have to go out today because I don't think I would be up to driving.

Afternoon everyone.  Sorry you were not been feeling too well this morning Squiggle; but pleased that you are feeling a little better now.  Just have a quiet, restful day and hopefully you will feel a lot better tomorrow.

Oh how I wish all this election business had been sorted out last night.  All this indecision is just what the country does not need.  Let's hope some definite arrangements are in place before much longer.

Hope to catch up again later. 

Plans have changed.  Probably going out this evening so I won't be around again until tomorrow.

Squiggle, what did you think of David Cameron's address this afternoon.  I thought he handled himself pretty well.  Cannot wait to see how things eventually turn out.

Will catch up when I can. 

Afternoon everyone.
Squiggle and Joyron, sorry you aren't feeling well.

Hi everyone, feeling OKish until I do something   Joyron I thought David Cameron was statemanslike, dignified and got it perfectly right.  I watched some of the new Conservative MP's down here in the South West where I live and they were just what you would want.  Down to earth, ordinary people who are not career politicians but genuinely want to make a difference.  There was a woman doctor, and a lovely lady with very short blonde hair who is just the sort of MP that you want, as far removed from the Ed Balls, Harriet Harman type as you can get.  This is the way we need to go and I think David Cameron can deliver it.  I certainly am hopeful.

Just had to pop in to see if you had responded Squiggle.  I am so glad that we, again, seem to see things the same way.  I thought David Cameron gave a much better presentation than GB.  GB just looked old and tired.  Your words, as always, give me hope that something good WILL come out of all this mess.  Incidentally the Conservative MP for our new constituency got in with a landslide, I'm pleased to report.  We only have one lone Liberal Democrat in the whole of our area now.  Hoorah!!!

Evening Yogi.  I'm feeling a little better today but didn't get a lot of sleep last night (understandably).  I will catch up on the zzzzz's tonight (I hope) 

Joyron at the end of the day we have to remember that Conservative polled 2 million more votes than Labour.  I am sure I heard this figure through my fuzzy head this morning.  That does put it into perspective doesn't it?

*RUNS IN*

*GOES TO BED*

Goodnight Renton.

Joyron and Squiggle, after all the election excitement, I suggest a good night's rest for both of you.

Oooh, I've got most of the smilies tonight. 

Good morning everyone. It's a lovely sunny day up here, - hope the weather is nice where you are.
Hubby and I are off to the garden centre later today, just for a look, not to buy anything. At least, that's what hubby thinks.
Speak to you all, later. xxxxx (Half my smilies have gone missing again)

Morning everyone, now now Yogi don't spend too much at the garden centre - I'm a fine one to talk, I get carried away.  When we used to have quite a small garden my poor husband would say 'we've got nowhere to put it' and I would always say we would find room.  Although the garden when we moved in was a patch of mud and weeds and when we left we left a beautiful garden  (which they then razed to the ground )

Good morning Squiggle and Yogi.   Hope you are well.  It's cold, dull and wet here this morning and it's not expected to change today at all.

Have a good time at the garden centre Yogi but don't spend too much!!

Hope to catch up again later. 

Hello again everyone.
We had a lovely time at the garden centre. I persuaded hubby that we needed some beautiful scented pinks for the front garden. I have been out and planted them and I'm sure they will look lovely when they bloom.
Eldest son is quite green-fingered and has started growing vegetables this year, and we found a great book for him in the garden centre.
They also sell Yankee Candles, so naturally I had to buy a few of them, too.
There is a pet section as well, so we got some chews for the dogs (we've been minding my eldest son's labrador for a couple of days).
I think you will agree, I was quite restrained in my purchases. Hubby doesn't believe me when I say I could have bought sooooo much more.
Will be back later, xxxxxx.

Hello Yogi.    I agree you were restrained in your purchases.  I would have bought more!!

Just had some really good news.  My No.2 son, whose been out of work for over two months following being made redundant, has just been offered a job he went for in the week.  He says it's the job he really wanted and he so happy; which makes me happy too.

Will try and get back later but No.1 son is staying with us this weekend and he's on my computer all the time.   Will catch up with you all when I can. 

So pleased for your son Joyron, well done to him.  Yogi you were very restrained, I am impressed.

Obviously very busy Freddsters at the moment.  Hi to everyone whenever you pop in, hope you have a lovely Sunday with not too much rain.

Good morning Squiggle, I love the twinkly rose. It's a shame they don't sell them in the garden centres.
Many congratulations to your son, Joyron. Being unemployed can be so disheartening, so it's wonderful news that he has not only found a job, but one that he really wanted. Well done No2 son.

I have got visitors today, so I may not be back until tonight. Hope you all have a lovely day. xxxxxxx

Good morning Squiggle and Yogi.   Hope all is well with you.  It's another damp day here.  The forecasters did say we would have sun; don't know where it's got to!!

Thank you for your good wishes for my son.  I feel so much more settled knowing that he now has a job to go to that he really wants.

Hope you have an enjoyable day with your visitors Yogi.  Hope to catch up with you later.  Squiggle, I wonder whether anything will finally get settled today on the election front? 

Hi Joyron, I just watched the Andrew Marr show and it was just so refreshing to see the guy from the Parliamentary Standards Commission (or something like that??) saying how honest and transparent MP's are going to have to be from now on.  At last.  Do you think after years and years of this dishonesty we may get openness from Westminster?  Wouldn't that be wonderful?  I am just so sick of it.

Although discounted by many Labour supporters I do think that the Gordon Brown telephone call with Nick Clegg story is probably the truth.  It has been reported as coming from a senior Lib Dem source.  So hopefully progress can be made in the only morally supportable direction.  Labour has lost the election.  That much is certainly true.  And we do need electoral reform (although not proportional representation which in my view would not be good for this country) because David Cameron did in fact win more votes than Tony Blair and Tony Blair ended up with 66 more seats.  So some re-jigging of the boundaries back to where they were before the Labour Party started moving them seems to be needed.  Just my opinion of course but certainly 66 more seats for the same number of votes seems a little odd to me, what about you?

Just a quick bump for the thread, I hope to be back later tonight.

Evening everyone.    Not been able to get on the computer for most of the day!!

Squiggle. the more I watch on the TV the more I think David Cameron should just walk away from it all and say "Okay Gordon, over to you.  See what you can do."  I'm beginning to think that power has gone to Nick Clegg's head and if he thinks he can get a better deal going in with GB then he should do so.  I'm sure there would be another election within the next six months and we might get something more stable from that.  That's my view anyway.  I maybe missing something but I'm just fed up with all this indecision.  I bet the markets will go frantic tomorrow.

Signing out for tonight.  Will catch up with you all again tomorrow. 

We have to trust them now Joyron.  I would far rather they hammer out a workable agreement now than find themselves doing this all over again later on in the year.

Good morning all, hope its a good week.  Look forward to good news on the politics front.

Good morning everyone.
Sorry I didn't get back here last night, my visitors stayed later than expected.
Joyron and Squiggle, I am hopeful that David Cameron and Nick Clegg will reach an agreement today. The sooner the matter is resolved, the better for everyone.

Morning Yogi

Morning Squiggle. I'd vote for Freddie.

Good morning Squiggle and Yogi.    Freddie would certainly get my vote.  What an excellent solution to this whole horrible mess.

I know you are right about the talks coming to a satisfactory conclusion Squiggle but I wish it would happen sooner rather than later.  I just hope NC is serious about forming a working government with DC and not just stringing him along.  He has to put the country first rather than his own party's wish for PR (at the moment at least).  I just hope that GB putting his nose in and stirring the pot doesn't work!!

The sun is shining here for a change, but it's still far too cold for this time of year.  I've just finished sorting through my two freezers so that I could put the stuff I don't want out with the rubbish this morning.  I really must keep a better grip on what I buy and store.  There was loads of stuff which was well pass it's use byl time.  At least I've got room to put more stuff in now!!

Will catch up with you both again later. 

Joyron NC is really in a 'lose lose' situation.  DC needs to keep his head, NC hasn't got much clout and not much choice either.  If he backs Gordon he knows it would be a colossal error, if he refuses to back DC on much-needed reform he will be very unpopular.  I don't envy him.

I know where you are coming from on the 'big clear-out' I did the same in my larder earlier on and the weight of the black bin bags!!!   Feels good to have a clear-out though, you and Government both

I'd better give another little bump as everyone seems to be very busy today.