Gotta start somewhere................

No blog for a while but back now - didya miss me?  I like to think so, my ego needs a lift from time to time!

Well you know if it wasn't for this internet thingy I would have more time to spend here and update my blog  - but I don't have time because of the internet thingy.

Like keeping up with friends - erm, that needs the internet thingy. That's why I got myself a FaceBook page.  Great idea?

Well it was till I discovered the games, or should that be apps? (*note to self, ask the grandchildren) So now now I just peruse what my friends and family have been up to and then it's straight to CityVille, that's my city, above.

Are you  impressed??
No ??  I tell you Ii sweated for hours to achieve this!

Well what about my Farm on Farmville ? Surely you can see the hours of work, the imagination and skill needed to set the farm out in a proper manner.  You can't ?

See, really that's my point.  If I added up the hours I spent on just the two activities above I would be horrified at such a waste of talent  flair, aptitude.... oh bum, OK it's a straightforward waste of time, not clever, not skillful,  just a plain old time waster.  When you get to my age that's worrying.  I need to use my time in a more sensible way and stop frittering it away as if I had all the time in the world.

At first I thought I would unsubscribe from FaceBook - I had heard it can be done and requires little or no anaesthetic!  But if I did that I would lose touch with some lovely people.  So I have made the decision to abandon both my City and Farm, I would 'unsubscribe' but cannot work out how to do it.  So I'll just convince myself they are not 'there'.

Impressed?  Bet you are.  I am.  I can now get down to doing the things I have promised I will do. 

• Like the Church website needs updating,
• Richard is waiting for me to get the Harveyshill site up on the net. 
• I need to do the finance reports for the next JCC meeting at Church. 
• I really should sort out the bedroom chest of drawers and get the winter woollies packed away.

So, that's that - I'll go and make a start right away....................................................

well I would but,  have you seen the latest FaceBook app ?

One foot in front of the other.............



Barbara & Ted



Eddy, Barbara and Ted all managed to get to Isabel's Pony Club event yesterday.  She did really well and got two clear rounds!  She was going over jumps set at 2ft 6ins and the judges commended her for not only clear rounds but keeping a steady pace all the way through.  I am so proud of her!

Unfortunatley I wasn't well enough to go so got all the days events second hand.  Never mind, the pictures were great.  Richard had told izzy that Eddy might not make it as I was unwell, Izzy stated that Grandad had promised and he would not let her down!.  Just shows how careful you must be when making promises to kids.  Eddy said after that he hadn't thought Isabel was really listening when he said it as she was busy grooming at the tme.  But our Izzy is a women I told him and we multi-task from birth!

Today, weatherwise, has been another sunny with clear blue skys morning and early afternoon .  This afternoon (I am typing this at 3.30pm,)  it has clouded over but it's still warm.  Feeling rough still, I could so just have stayesd in bed today.  But decided to just put one foot in front of the over and keep going.  So far I have done the basics and even managed a short walk with the dogs!  Could have done with my electric scooter but that was locked in the car and i couldn't find the keys. :(  Walking slowly through the lane with B & T and all four dogs was great but I am now exhausted.  But it was worth it as now I am tired for a reason and not because I have been stuck in bed.  So one foot in front of the other is going to be my personal mantra

Walking on sunshine..................

Where am I ??   Have I been whisked to Florida without noticing?


I think I need to be assured that this is really England, in April and yet the sun seems to have decided that it cannot wait for summer!  The weather can only be described as gorgeous, blue skies, bright sunshine and a cool breeze.  Who would have thought it?

I for one am going to make the most of it just in case Mother Nature realises her mistake.

We have Eddy's brother Ted and his wife Barbara staying with us so we took advantage of the sunshine and made a couple of visits. 

First stop was our son Richard's farm in Luffenhall.  Izzy had just got back from riding as we arrived. She gets bigger every time we see her even though it has been only days between visits!

 Isabel is a member of the local pony club and is competing at Tetworth on Sunday. 

Bluebell, her pony, had worked up a sweat so the first thing we did was to wash her, ready for tomorrow.  Izzy did that bit then we walked her through the farm and up on to a nice juicy grassed area so that Bluebell could graze while we hosed her down.  

She is such a well behaved pony and put up with our ministrations  very well.  Even when I tried my hand at squeegeeing her down, and it's been years since I was involved properly with horses, but even though I say so myself, I did a pretty reasonable  job!

It was such a perfect day and to spend an hour or two with my son and his family made it even more so.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with our friends, John and Daphne, in Aston.  Cream tea on the terrace was just so perfect!  Eddy did the shopping for Daphne so chose Roddas clotted Cornish cream.    The view from the terrace is so lovely.  It was very peaceful and time spent with John and Daphne precious.

All in all a truly memorable day.  Having Ted and Barbara with us made everything perfect!

Spring has sprung....................

At last, it really feels that Spring and warmer days are with us. I love this time of renewal. I watch the trees go from bare branches to tiny pin head buds and then watch the buds shoot fresh green leaflets. It's the most amazing thing to me. The days roll on and the tiny leaflets become recognisable leaves and the crowning glory, the beginning of the flower which will transform a plain deciduous tree into a magnificent Pieris, like the one on the left.  This is 'Forest Flame' and was uprooted from my Dad's house in 2000 and has been living with us ever since.  Every two years or so we replant it in a larger pot.  It's now, in it's pot, about 7 - 8ft tall!.

Last year my white lilac just had one flower stem. I was so disappointed as this is a lilac with the most gorgeous scent. But, this year it is smothered in mini flower buds, so now I cannot wait to see it in all it's glory. I tried to take a photo but was in a bit of a rush so the foreground is out of focus, but if you look closely you can see the flower buds just emerging to the left of this photograph. 

Elaine and Richard, my eldest son and his wife, bought me a Camellia in a little pot 3 mothering Sundays ago.  So after three years growth the photo to the right shows what it looks like now.  It is full of buds and a beautiful colour.  But will need to re-pot it this year as you can see, it has well grown out of it's original container. :o)



I haven’t introduced the members of our family. That is the four legged members. We are blessed with three dogs and three cats. Without them, before Eddy retired, I truly would have been not only lonely but miserable too.

First comes Max, he is a 14 year old spaniel and the best friend I had when I was recovering from my stroke back in 1997.  He is getting on now and is deaf and has very poor sight, but his tail still wags for England and walks and foods are the most important things to him now, oh yes and snoozing, which he does most of the time.  Thank goodness he doesn't snore!

Next in order of age is Thomas our oldest Cat.  Loved to bits, Tom is 19 years old and we are praying that he will manage to reach 20.  He suffers from kidney disease and has lost a terrific amount of weight but he is still soldiering on.  Loved to bits,.  The KD really takes it's toll and the first sign that a cat with KBD is coming to the end of their lives is when they stop eating and drinking.  Tom did this a few weeks ago and I really thought we were about to lose him.  After three days of not eating or drinking.  Sitting in a sphinx like position, not looking at all comfortable I believed this was the end.  But as a last resort we opened a can of tuna and tried tempting him.  He sniffed for a bit then wolfed half a small tin!  Next he stood at the fridge meowing for milk, so we put a small amount in his saucer and he slurped that down.  He hasn’t looked back since.  I know it is so the wrong diet, but he is eating and drinking so if that’s what he wants he shall have it!
 

 
 
 
Orla is our middle dog,and will be 10 in December.  Orla is a rescued ex racing greyhound from Ireland.  She won a number of races and then when she stopped earning her syndicate money she was due to be bumped on the head.  Luckily a terrific rescue organisation called Greyhound Gap saved her.  She has totally forgotten that she is a greyhound and happily plays tag with all the kitten and with Poppy.  If her Greyhound mates could see her now they would disown her.  She has to be the laziest dog and is usually found lying flat out on the sofa, legs in the air (she is such a tart!) and tongue lolling out.  Yes, a bit like her pose here.
 

Yes, she does have ears and legs, just to prove it I am going to have to add another picture of this lazy, lazy girl. See what I mean! Bit of a fuzzy photograph, but you get the idea!




So, that's the first half introduced I'll get you to meet the other three in my next blog update.



As I started at the beginning of this post, it's truly spring like today. We took a ride out and a mozzie around the shops during the morning with my best buddy, Janet, JEB to her friends, well special friends, ermmm well, just to me then! JEB is the mother of Kevin and Rachael and Rachael, aka fluffy muffin,  has her own blog In My Own Little World If you need to get a smile on your face in the mornings her blogs will do it for you!


I love spending time with JEB as we have known each other from almost the Spring of our lives and now into the Autumn. (getting quite poetic aren't I, it wont last!) Today we arrived early to pick her up so she came wandering down the stairs with her hair still wet from the shower. That gave me an excuse to practice my blow drying skills and took me back thirty years or more to the days when I not only blow dried Jan's hair but coloured it too! I have a fab photo of her in those days but darned if I can lay hands on it when I want it so will perhaps put it in another posting. Anyway we had a lovely time the three of us and now, what with all that fresh air and all this typing it's time for my siesta!

The rambles begin.............

My new year resolution was to start a blog, mainly for me, to scribble in when the fancy took me. I know, April seems a bit late in the day for new year resolutions but hey, I was always a bit of a late starter. Well in some things I was. Like walking, apparently I was a lazy baby and didn't start trying to use my own legs till well over 15 months. Scrabbling around on my bottom must have seemed, at that time, the best way to get around. That or be carried or wheeled. Strange, here I am at the beginning of Autumn in my life and I still getting wheeled around and I often find I am on my derrière and it's easier to stay there and shuffle to where I want to go, just as I did in the early years, rather than risk getting up, with all the effort that entails, just to risk falling down again! Wasn't always this way, I had a good 40 years being what is laughingly called normal. Then the MS decided it wanted a new recruit, and so there I was, in many ways, back to my babyhood, relying on others and probably being just as impatient as when I was in my terrible twos!

Thinking of terrible two's brings to mind my incredible two, Two of the most amazing sons. Hand on heart, two boys who have never caused me a day's trouble and have grown into men I admire, respect and love. With a father like theirs though it could only have turned out this way I guess my 'naughty' genes were suppressed and his kind, strong, good genes took over.Their dad is the best role model they could have had. My life could have been tough when at 50 I had a stroke and then a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, but my family just didn't allow that to happen, with my rock Eddy, two sons and the best D-in-L's and five terrific grandchildren things changed and eventually I started to enjoy life again.

And that is just about enough of reminiscing. So from the next post it will be on to what this is supposed to be, a ramble, and if you're wondering about the 'Spider Cottage' bit - that's the picture of the cottage at the top, we are close to a beautiful wood and we have spiders galore, nothing dangerous I add, just lovely creeping scrabbling spiders!