I tweeted several weeks ago "I don't dislike Bent. I dislike that he gets so much credit for so little" and that is still very much the case, probably more so than when I originally tweeted it.

As part of the incredibly exciting "The Face Project", which comprises many ideas such as a performance of chamber opera "Face on the Ballroom Floor", a video installation and a virtual choir, it was suggested that a good idea would be an art exhibition depicting faces affected by facial palsy. This ties in nicely with the opera, in which there is a scene where an artist is painting a face on the ballroom floor, and led to the suggestion of an art competition with the winning piece becoming the "Face on the Ballroom Floor".

It wasn't a great day in Croyde for taking photos of surfers; the waves were seriously messy, but a few managed to stay up while others opted to stand on the beach and look at it ponderously.

With Gabriel Agbonlahor in arguably the form of his life right now, it should have been a no-brainer for Capello to include him in the squad for Saturday's friendly against Spain. I think most Villa fan's would agree that they are delighted for him and that he fully deserves it, but I'm not sure, from a selfish point of view, I'm entirely happy.

No-one can complain about the very convincing 41-10 scoreline against a very physical Georgia side, and in any game scoring 6 tries is not bad going at all. It was certainly a much better performance than against Argentina; we moved the ball faster and there seemed to be far more intent going forward as a team, but the number of penalties we are conceding is still something of a concern.

Those who are still disappointed with our lack of signings (did you not read my previous post?) should consider that we no longer have as much scope to strengthen our squad thanks to the FA rules brought in last year. Just in case you missed them, a club must register a squad of up to 25 players including a minimum of 8 home grown players (those that have been affiliated to the FA for a minimum of 36 months prior to their 21st birthday) and a maximum of 17 foreign players, which may be supplemented by an unlimited number of players under 21.

So summer is over, well not officially until September 23rd but in terms of football at least, and where does that leave us?

Having lost Webcam and Pid, NRC, Big Brad, several bit-part and youth team players, and perhaps most devastatingly Mike Bradley (I still haven't got over it) the mood amongst most Villa fans was fairly negative, just for a change. However, I'm fairly happy with the business we have conducted this transfer window.

There were plenty of times last season when we heard moaning about half our squad being out on loan, and admittedly it was quite hard to keep track of with John Carew at Stoke, Barry Bannan and Eric Lichaj at Leeds, Andi Weimann at Watford, Brad Guzan at Hull, Nathan Delfouneso at Burnley, Stephen Ireland at Newcastle, Curtis Davies at Leicester, Jonathan Hogg at Portsmouth, Shane Lowry at Sheffield United - did I forget anyone?

From Vermont we headed south to Lenox in the heart of The Berkshires, nestled in amongst the rolling Appalachian Mountains, to the historic 100 year old Cranwell Golf and Spa resort set on 380 acres. At check in I think I might have been mistaken for someone else as I was greeted with "Welcome back Miss Hickey" and it was assumed I knew where Beecher's Cottage, where we were staying, and the Mansion, where breakfast is served, were. I really wouldn't mind being a regular at all, and the only disappointment was that we were only staying one night.

The drive from Conway to Stowe was spectacular. First through the White Mountains, climbing to around 3000ft, and then into the Green Mountains of Vermont. We were only 49 miles from Canada when we had to stop on the Interstate to allow a family of wild turkeys to cross the road.

After grabbing lobster rolls and root beer to go we set off from Kennebunkport towards New Hampshire. The sat nav pronounced we were at our destination but we found ourselves at a Doggy Daycare Centre instead. Driving up and down the "White Mountain Highway" we were starting to get worried. The road had intermittent run-down clapboard buildings and abandoned diners, certainly nowhere we would want to stay.

My trip to New England was more than just a holiday. I had a mission.  My mission, although I had little choice to accept it, was to find Stu a robe and bring it back. Sadly I failed, sorry Stu. Out of nine hotels I only found three robes and one of those was at the hotel where we left the car at Heathrow. I wasn't going to take a robe all the way to the States to bring it back, so I left that one there, and unfortunately due to the baby clothes for my new niece, Red Sox merchandise and a Michael Kors handbag we had to bring back, there was no room in my case to bring the others back either. So I'm afraid Stu you'll have to make do with photographs and my sincerest apologies.

From New York we caught the Amtrak up the East Coast to Boston. It was a long journey but between the huge comfortable seats, masses of leg room and amazing views of the ocean and small New England towns through the windows, four hours passed in no time at all. Boston is an incredible city and soon cemented it's place as one of my favourite cities in the world. We had barely been there half an hour and were enthralled by the people, the shops, the restaurants, the architecture, the history, and this just grew the longer we spent there.

New York was the first stop on our trip to the States. It didn't originally feature in our plans but we decided as we were going to be fairly local we may as well go while we were there. New York is an amazing and fascinating city, and I'm really glad that we went, but it was hot and noisy and busy, and I won't be hurrying back. I would certainly recommend visiting if you get the chance but I think once was enough for me.

Birds aren't easy to photograph; they move too quickly or fly away just as you're about to get the perfect shot, but they are quite fascinating. I took these on my recent trip to New England for @photomoments (who is far better with birds than me so check out http://www.photomoments.me.uk/)

The RFU have managed to upset most of New Zealand ahead of the Rugby World Cup in September by launching a black change kit. Officials had gained the approval of their New Zealand counterparts, amid fears that the use of black would rile supporters of the All Blacks, but it still looks like Johnson's team will be public enemy No 1 when they land in Auckland. The RFU has attempted to justify the choice by saying the traditional white shirt clashes with Argentina and Wales, and I can buy the Argentina point but Wales play in red, which I'm pretty sure doesn't look anything like white.

When Brazil's men missed all 4 of their penalties this evening I didn't sit here and say things like "yeah well they should stick to DIY" or "they'd be better off staying in the pub" - a) because it would be a completely ridiculous and irrelevant thing to say and b) because I'm not a total ass.

I've never really understood why people think that Shakespeare is for 'posh people', but then I've never really understood why everybody doesn't love Shakespeare.  Two years before making his serious stage debut as Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lenny Henry summed up his attitude to Shakespeare. “It seemed to me that Shakespeare was very much in the province of posh people,” he said on a Radio 4 series about the Bard. “I’m black, I’m from Dudley, I’m working class. Shakespeare’s not for people like us.”

After almost 11 years of the left side of my face being paralysed I don't really think about how it affects my life on a physical day to day basis anymore, you just kind of get on with it. It wasn't until recently that a conversation prompted me to think of the things that I can and can't do because of my facial palsy.

Back in May I stated the case for returning Thomas Hitzlsperger to his rightful English home in 'My Source Tells Me...' at the time for around £500k, and now it's even better because he's on a free. What's more he wants to come home to Villa Park (told you it was down to a communication error he ended up at West Ham!), so what is the problem?

From Hypnos' poppy potion that induced slumber in Greek mythology to the poppy field which threatens to send Dorothy and her friends to everlasting sleep in the Wizard of Oz to In Flanders Fields by John McCrae the poppy has long been associated with both sleep and death due to the opiate extracted from the plant and  the common blood-red colour, but is also associated with rest and healing. It is one of the prettiest weeds commonly found across Europe and incredibly striking.

Whilst propped on the sofa attempting to cough my lungs right out of my chest this week I have learnt a lot about my photography. I was challenged yesterday to take a fresh look at it and today's #qschallenge of "Street Life" gave me an excuse to further challenge my own perception of a good shot.

I've never really been happy with many of my non-flower shots but a very clever man and excellent photographer challenged me to be less predictable and show a wider range of subjects, so with a little help from Instagram filters here is a selection of my other subjects:

For the first time in almost 11 years I really feel I'm starting to get my smile back. It's not that I've been miserable or depressed for 11 years, far from it, rather that I've had Bell's Palsy three times with very little recovery each time, which has left the left side of my face mostly paralysed.

Reports are that Aston Villa have agreed to pay Birmingham City £2m in compensation with Alex McLeish set to be officially announced as Villa's new manager by tomorrow. Although I admit to having spent a large part of today wishing for some sort of miracle where Randy has just caught up with reading my blog and realised that Quique is a far more attractive proposition, in more ways than one, now is the time to accept that the decision has been made and Quique will forever be the one that got away.

There have been a lot of people labelled the "bad guys" during Aston Villa's protracted managerial search from Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner to McLeish to Peter Pannu to sections of the fans and even Martin O'Neill (really, get over it), but the media seem to have borne the brunt of it.

Accusations have been flying that they don't know what they are doing, they are anti-Villa and even that they make things up off the tops of their heads and tell blatant lies. Don't get me wrong, I think there are certain news organisations that have distinctly warped moral compasses and certain journalists who certainly seem to have their own agendas, but on the whole they do not knowingly report untruths.

Ok, I think my heart may officially be broken. Randy has completely let me down and failed to deliver on the one tiny little thing I asked for for my birthday, and now I find out that Kinky Florist wants the Villa job!

So after all the rumour and speculation Aston Villa have declared that they are to interview Alex McLeish "imminently in order to make a decision regarding his candidacy to become Villa manager", which is exactly what Villa fans did not want to hear.

While it was just being reported by TalkSPORT and Sky Sports News many fans felt they could just ignore it, as the media are evil people who tell lies and make things up just to upset the fans apparently, or so they've been told about a million times over the past few weeks, but the club statement makes the appointment of McLeish a very real possibility.

Amid the debate and bickering over who people think should take over the managerial reigns at Aston Villa, the phrase "We're a big club" has been used almost as much as Jamie Redknapp uses the word literally; but are we?

What defines a "big club"? Is it the fans? The financial resources? Exposure outside of the UK? The trophies and titles won?

I'm now really quite gutted that El Guapo won't be heading to Villa Park, but the already huge respect I had for the man has just skyrocketed. There are not many football managers that would turn down the opportunity to discuss a vacancy at a bigger club out of loyalty to his current club and chairman.

At the time of writing this the fans and the media are no closer to really knowing who will succeed Gerard as Villa boss thanks to the "totally professional manner" in which they have conducted themselves and the speculation of smokescreens being thrown up by Randy.

I admit to getting slightly over excited yesterday amid unfounded speculation that Randy's jet had flown to Madrid, and surely that could only mean one thing - he obviously reads my blog and was going to fetch the Kinky Florist. Or not.

Apparently I'm terrible to buy for because I never know what I want, but I really don't need anything and if I see something I want I usually just get it. Having said that I always appreciate my presents, whatever they may be, so I don't really think I'm that bad.

One thing that does make my birthday list is Pep; not necessarily as Villa manager, just wrapped up and delivered to my door will do. Seeing as both of those things are about as likely as Wayne Rooney's recent hair transplant actually looking good, I'd be happy to settle for another swarthy Spaniard.

Our mission today was two-fold; firstly to see if VMF's regular menu stood up to the menu we were served at the food champion's evening two weeks ago and secondly to keep an eye out for anybody who looked like they may be even remotely associated with a certain Italian or Dutch football manager.

On the second point we failed, but VMF certainly didn't.

My son and I, with the help of a long forgotten origami book, paper from our arts and crafts drawer and a couple of 2 lev notes, decided to have a go at creating our own art from paper today.

Having being inspired by @quaystock and @The_LukeBarnes to go and get my camera out today, I decided to venture out into my back garden in the dark and have a mess around with the macro function to see what I might find.

Schadenfreude describes pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. We all do it; laughing at someone falling over, sniggering at the person that walks into the glass door, delighting in the relegation of Birmingham City. But at what point does this turn from healthy and cathartic to something more sinister?

We've been planning our road trip to New England since October, but only really sat down this weekend to properly plan the itinerary. All the hotels were booked before Christmas but we only had a vague idea of what we wanted to do in each place. One of the things we were pretty certain we'd be doing was driving up Mount Washington. Let's just say I'm glad I did some research, because it's an insane idea!

Paper is all around us. We write on it, read from it, screw it up, but some artists do far more with it and create stunning pieces of art. Papercraft takes the ordinary and turns it into the extraordinary. These examples demonstrate the potential for beauty in even the most mundane everyday items.

Last night was a good night; good food, good wine and Barcelona FC lifted the Champion's League trophy. I may have jumped around a little, and sent ill advised text messages to a couple of United supporters and I refuse to apologise for not supporting the English team, not least because my mother was born in Manchester and grew up a City fan before moving to Birmingham and being converted to Aston Villa as a teenager.

Myself and the recently crowned Miss Birmingham, Natalie Cutler, both attended VMF's most recent food champions evening. Mr Brown decided that he'd rather interview Miss Birmingham than me, can't possibly think why...must be the sash.

So I'll do my own review.

I have fond memories of playing with candles as a teenager, trying to create interesting patterns and shapes with the melting wax and carving patterns into them (which I have a scar to prove thanks to Stan Collymore scoring for Aston Villa while I was simultaneously carving a candle and listening to the game on the radio), so I found this video quite mesmeric.

Bluebells have always been one of my favourite flowers, and the last few years I have made the trip in late April or early May to the Bluebell Woods at Yoxall Lodge. Here's a selection of this year's delights.

I was in a bar recently and was asked if I'd like a drink, so I  replied "I'll have a Jamesons and coke please". I may as well have said "I'll have a chalice of freshly squeezed blood from the cutest fluffiest kitten you can find". What is so peculiar about a woman drinking whiskey?

The Premier League season finished less than a week ago and already the rumour-mill is in full swing. So-and-so's staying. No, he's going. He's going here, or there, or maybe even there. His best friend's girlfriend's hairdresser's dog-walker told me - it must be true. Arrgh, enough already! I awoke one morning earlier this week to the news that Brad Friedel had signed for both WBA and Liverpool (neither of which is actually true...yet, anyway). Until Messrs Brown and Harrison decide to tell me something's actually happened, I believe nothing.

Alessandro Del Piero - that's it. What do you mean that's not enough? Ok, fine. Maldini, Totti (the most aptly named footballer ever), Cannavaro....need I go on. Ok, so none of these are actually the reason I fell  in love with Italian football, but they sure help.

Now this topic may be slightly last week, but I thought I should explain the 'Moldovaness' in my bio. For about a week either side of the Eurovision Song Contest I became ever so slightly obsessed with the Moldova entry, thanks to @StuartJHarper (who also happens to be a Serie A Z-list celeb, but more of that later). I may have consumed a few too many glasses of wine when he suggested I download the Moldovan Eurovision entry by Zdob Si Zdub, but hey it was only 99p, and our friendship is hopefully worth more than that.