How many days to Christmas?

I know that I’m not the first person to mention Christmas. The local garden centre is already unpacking Christmas decorations which seems a little premature but it probably isn’t too soon to start gathering ideas for books to buy for family and friends.

Grubson Pug’s Christmas Voyage by Jane Anne Hodgson, published by Whistling Cat looks like it may well be an ideal Christmas present that could become a family favourite to be re-read every year as the Christmas anticipation builds.

Whistling Cat Books is a new publisher, based in Oxfordshire, that “believes in nourishing children’s imaginations through amusing, engaging, original stories which are traditionally illustrated (hand-drawn rather than computer generated) and produced with care and attention to detail.”

The Loom Turns

Another weekend gone. Where? TLM (The Loom Monkey) is off to Uni at the end of the month and so he had a farewell barbeque with old school friends, friends from work and friends from church. This involved tidying the garden, removing clutter from the kitchen so it could become a servery area and of course going shopping.

So that was most of Saturday gone. After meeting everyone I thought it best for us to remove ourselves to the piano nobile with only a brief foray down below to provide lighting. I hadn’t realised how dark getting it gets these evenings. Our slinky lights in a tube hadn’t been out of their boxes since we had an impromptu family disco in the kitchen. The cousins from what I consider to be “oop North” but they adamantly insist is the East Midlands were staying with us and there’s a limit to how many Disney films you can watch. Instead we had a really cheesy disco. It was wonderful! If you know me you know how unlikely it is for me to rave about … well a rave. I just don’t do that sort of thing.

I couldn’t sleep on Saturday night so eventually got out of bed at 4 am and finished up the tidying up that TLM had done the night before. It was a bit eerie, all that there was to show that there had been a party was a dishwasher full of brightly coloured garden/picnic plates and bowls, loads of food in the fridge, including a ton of tuna, sweetcorn and pasta salad and the kitchen table turned 90 deg and pushed against a wall. So it only took me about 3o mins to empty dishwasher, turn table and bring the hidden clutter back to its rightful place.

I crept back to bed later and had a little snooze. The sight of tidiness led me to believe that the erroneously named “Dining Room” could really be tackled. This is where my 4-shaft, George Harris floor loom resides and since I acquired it I have desperately been attempting to clear the rest of the room around it. It’s rather like one of those little plastic puzzles. There is one piece empty and you have to keep moving everything around until it is in the correct order. Well now I have more than one piece empty after a trip to the charity shop and the filling of a large bin bag. But still the room is full. if I was brave I would post a pic, but I daren’t. Then I had a brainwave. If I turned the loom it would take up less space! So with great difficulty, I turned it 9o deg so that now it has turned 180 deg from the way we first put it together! So the loom turned. Unfortunately B I G is B I G whichever way, or in whatever light you look at it. I’ll just have to plod on with sorting all the other stuff in the room. Watch this space. What space? That’s the whole problem!!!

Togetherness

Just when you think they don’t want to spend any time with you EVER again they surprise you. My little darling couldn’t wait to show me what she had learnt at her guitar lesson.

 

 

 

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This is her 5th guitar lesson and I believe she is getting so much out of it because she started her lessons when she was older. We even ended up almost playing together, she playing her newly learnt Led Zeppelin riff and me attempting to play the music from the film Jeux Interdits, on one string!

My Darling Little Dragonfly

Mouth open as usual to answer back! You wouldn’t expect any more from a teenager, would you? Off to her last exam (for now) Unfortunately she takes after her mother in the Maths dept so I know how excruciating this morning will be for her.

Never mind, Dragonfly then has all summer to fly around. Have a wonderful summer!

Me and “My Little Darling”

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Me and “My Little Darling” on the bank of the Chichester Ship Canal. This photo echoes a similar one taken ten years ago but I’ll need to rummage a bit to find that one.

Making my birthday card

How to wear a hat

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The latest trend in blogland seems to be to post an old photo and confess that you don’t know how to wear a hat. I’m only going to join in with part of this fashion. I have posted the photo, probably taken sometime in the summer of ’59 judging by the inability of my sister to escape on two legs but I will not join those who say they know not how to wear a hat. For someone of such tender years I wear it well AND with a charming smile.

It’s strange how small the garden of our brand-new bungalow looks. To me it always seemed enormous and I was convinced that both lions and tigers lived at the bottom, not to mention the snakes.

Who’s next in the hat parade?

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Big Daddy & Big Brother

While Big Daddy is away in the Lone Star State for six whole weeks, Big Brother decided to come home for the weekend. So that means meals for four again instead of a rather civilized three that we have been reduced to for just over a week.

Much as I would have liked to avoid the dreaded weekly shop with Big Brother temporarily in residence there was no chance. Big Brother has a B I G appetite. Shopping done, most of it put away and a wonderful surpise, BB cooked dinner for all of us. OK it was his favourite dinner but I’m never one for complaining about the menu if it is someone else’s responsibility.

Are you wondering what the favourite repast is? Cheese and Potaoe Pie. Nothing fancy, nothing exotic, nothing complicated.

INGREDIENTS: Potatoes – tons & Strong Cheddar Cheese – tons OPTIONAL: Cherry Tomatoes

METHOD: Spud bash & mash the tons of potatoes. Mix in 80% of the cheese. Put Cherry toms, cut in half, face up in interesting patterns of top of potato & cheese mash. Sprinkle remaining cheese all over top. Put under pre-heated grill and grill till cheese begins to brown and bubble.

NO PIC – Sorry … all too busy eating…

Posted in family, food. 1 Comment »

Aaahhhh!

Children never listen to what you tell them do they? I told my eldest that he was absolutely NOT to buy us anything for Christmas. Financially things are extremely tough for him at the moment even a penny spent is a penny too much. But…. this is how he disobeyed me – see above. Bought in the Christmas German market, a salt and pepper set, in one of my favourite colour combinations., blue and orange.
Group hug everyone… aaaah!

Posted in family. 3 Comments »