Latest..

..I thought maybe you'd think I died under a pile of nut cutlets or empty port bottles, so thought I should keep you posted. Really fantastic to keep on getting scrappers posting on our team site.. really getting into the swing of it now.

Christmas has been really great,lots of eating, drinking, family time.. not always very rested but certainly rejuvenated, and the lie-ins certainly come high on the list of best bits!!

Scrapping wise my boys surpassed themselves, they got me a Cuttlebug! (embossing and cutting machine) Didn't think for a minute they'd organise themselves that well, I was joking about it all the time as I was dead sure it wasn't going to happen.. even teased Zac I might buy one on Christmas Eve with Pops' money pressie! (lucky the shop was shut or I may have given him something to really worry about!)  Apologies to Linda though, but I'm sure someone somewhere needs to home a surplus Bug??

Amazing but I haven't taken a single picture this holiday as U Bill is here and kind of adopts official photographer status, cheap to keep really for having him on tap 24 hours a day.  His lady and her daughter arrived yesterday and we had a long lazy meal and have plans for the Mount, Mousehole and St Ives I think before Thursday. 

I bought them a few little gifts and shared with them the thought that Jordan and I had found it quite hard not to buy gifts for ladies this year., all the shops seem to have things like notebooks, diaries, scarves, little boxes, all things which we would have bought mine and Cols mum's in past years.

Bah humbug!

.. despite the feeling of loving it all in my heart I've been bah humbug all day... no-one seems very festive around here!  We went to have lunch where Ross was working.. but way too busy.. like why didn't someone book us a table.. who? me? Ross? Bah, that's what you get when everyone relies on you having sorted it!  (Just wasn't the same when we ended up having pizza somewhere else...and it was too late then to venture down an icy Sennen Hill for hot chocs and fruit cake at the Beach.)

But the highlights of my day were seeing Noami my Polish pal, who has invited us for mince pies and mulled wine.. (and we're actually going to go.. dear heart my Col must have started reading my mood at last.. hahah!..she always makes me laugh and we have a bottle of port to damage that's been waiting two years she says) ... and also our mate Chris who has a garden and decorations to die for.. helps when you run a gardening business I guess.

Oh and reading tweets, blog entries and comments from scrapping friends.. it was lovely to hear from everyone... have yourselves a merry little Christmas.. oo, I feel a song coming on!

Happy Birthday Michele..

..working that they are 5 hours behind us Michele should be having her very special night out in Baltimore right now.. a spectacular restaurant by all accounts.  And travel south for the holiday on Christmas Eve!

Just a little reminder of the cold weekend we shared last year, the decoration she gave us .. now has pride of place in my kitchen amongst the holly above my fridge!

Icey!

... in our yard all day yesterday and today.. the winter sun lies so low that it didn't get to the icey hails which covered the yard before we got up yesterday.. I hate it...all that almost slipping, makes you appreciate walking normally!  Bet it's much nicer to crunch through inches of snow like our friends in Maryland and Munich!

Uncle Bill arrived safely, he was delayed States side as they chased Washington's worst blizzard in recent history ., but he got an extra night there but got to see his grand-daughter enjoy the snow.. as they say Flip-It and see the best in a situation!

We cut the holly yesterday (for we read Zac, who is now my lights master as well as tree cutter)  and it has pride of place in my kitchen..but it is a smaller version than last year and it is surely groaning under the weight of every decoration we own... from the 60 year old bells to the 2006 gingerbread men .. in fact it looks a little like one of those shrines you see covered in pieces of material offered up by religious followers (ahh, a little like me and Christmas tree I suppose!.. this blogging is sooo revealing) 

...that's the trouble with having 5 children, when you buy new decorations it is times 5... but gradually I guess they will dwindle as I pack them up for them to use in their own houses one day... if they are even remotely nostagic for their past that is..I could turn them into modern minimalist adults the way I am going.

U Bill was recording all the events, more to scrap.. and when I look back it is amazing to realise how many of his photos I have already scrapped this year.. Zac's prom, Colin's eyes, paintball..

Little mention too to say how great it was to go with Gillian to Carols at St Levan, great company, beautiful night, and the mulled wine and mince pies went down well too. Saw Sarah our cousin and we always have a little reminisce, and swap some new stories, perhaps they'll be the folklore for our kids.. like how she got her pounds and kilos mixed up and now has a very large turkey for Friday!  Thinking of you guys..

Funny when you see so many faces you know, and it made me think that 40 years ago we'd have all been there as kids but now we are the grown ups...so who's in charge ???

Online shopping...

... used to seem a bit of a cop-out when it first started, but boy, now I love it!  Just receiving the boxes in the post is good enough for me, it doesn't matter who the actual gift is for!!
And it also means you can relax and enjoy the town shopping looking for those extras and seeing friends for coffee instead!

But earlier this week a beautiful hamper arrived for us all from Uncle Bill and Deborah, they will spend almost 2 weeks with us, and it was such a nice parcel to unpack... jams, biscuits, humbugs (for Bah Humbugs.. you know who you are.. but to be fair Col is getting a little more relaxed and in the flow..), champagne, chutneys, all we need is the cheese and dippers!

Christmas brainwashing...

... going on here the past two Saturdays!  I bought a couple of new Christmas music CDs, old Bing and his mates, Johnny Cash and added to the triple CD from last year, I have a great Christmas section in my iTunes.   It always seems a shame kids today aren't as exposed to Christmas carols and oldies, so quietly I'm playing them in the background and hoping they'll be like me... 'I like this one.. who is it?' (but usually for me it's a track I hated last week when I first heard it!

Plenty of cleaning going on here, Jordan stayed back from the video-watching last day of school yesterday and got next door ready for Uncle Bill bar a few tree decorations, and indoors today I have Zac booked to make up a new sofa for the kitchen, and Ross is allocated to cleaning the bathroom with me this afternoon...have to make use of his OCD in a positive way don't I!?

Oh, and Jordan almondpasted her first cake this week..

Mr (and Mrs) Happy!

Colin is showing definite signs of Christmas Cheer.. he has, it must be said, cracked several sad but undeniably humourous jokes this week and it is lovely to see him relax a little. I'm not sure if it is the sheer volume of work we have in which is making his head a little light or the idea of a few days break .. or perhaps the promise of a good holiday come springtime... whichever I'm happy to go along for the ride!

Examples of said humour...

• 'I bought lots more cereal today when I was out.. I'm a serial shopper!!'
• 'I used  a store discount card to scrape ice off the windscreen, pity it only removed 10% of the ice!'

.. see I said sad.

Been out twice this week for a meal at the Dolphin in Penzance. Took the crew from STS on Monday and last night caught up with cousins, both evenings lubricated nicely with hot mulled wine which if I can recall, runs well into the New Year.. sounds good to me. May take Uncle Bill there next week for the Chrsitmas Carol-oke, hoping this is the 21st Century version of a Carolaire as opposed to individual singing, but who knows.

Heading out to St Levan for the annual Christingle on Sunday evening. I have been the past 3 years now and love to take that bit of time out to reacquaint myself with places and faces from the days 'way back when'...each year I ask the kids if any of them want to come along, they all give me that funny look, like 'do I have to?'. I then let them off the hook saying that I am happy to go alone, and they should only come if they want and by no accounts come along just to please me.

Consequently I go alone, head off to meet Gill and the others ...It's so special to travel out west on my own, music and thoughts to myself, drift back to the days when Father Christmas decorated our holly on Christmas Eve as an extra gift and we ran across the road to show old Auntie Janie our presents as soon as the door was open!

(It was only as a much older child I realised that the tree decorating was done so late cos Mum & Dad had been so busy and the present of a decorated tree made up for having small presents if fishing had been tough the weeks leading up to Christmas.. and appreciate too the year I got a fab dolls cot in February when there had been a good week's fishing, to make up for a sad Christmas.. we only realise the sacrifices when they have long passed don't we?)

Accomplishments for today...

4 blog entries.. check !

Ainsley's Mum's cake.. in oven .. check!

Two red wine fruit cakes, almost done.. check!

Tesco shop, lots of store cupboard stuff..check!

Sitting room tree.. bought .. check!

Same... decorated.. by Kate.. looks absolutely.. well you wouldn't believe it, she must have the makings of a window dresser..CHECK
....this out!!  ( I can hear Linda laughing from here, at how pleased I must be by such an organised look to my tree... haha, but hey I do do chaos when it comes to my holly!)

This is it!

Kate has just joined the ranks of tree-meister in our household.  Those who know me will know that I have only ever bought one Christmas Tree (and that was the year JB was born 20 days before Christmas, so I had a good excuse), it meant buying a tree rather than offing out to have one cut from a holly, either in our hedge or, in the years before we lived here, from down Penberth , and all that entailed... visiting long-lost (well since last year) relatives and doing the old nostalgia trip and having to fit prickley holly in car with upwards of at least 3 children.

Zac joined the tree-meister ranks when he cut his first holly, I think 2 or 3 years ago when Col had a bad back.

Last year we had huge holly in my kitchen, which I loved since it is my domain and in the sitting room I don't get to enjoy it all day..but this year, as Kate always wishes for a tree earlier than cutting holly will allow (22nd Dec at earliest).. I said we'd have an early fir tree in the sitting room, so she can enjoy it with the X-Factor final and the numerous episodes of Friends she has taped in the run up the the big day.... and then I would have a smaller, less co-ordinated holly event in my kitchen to be cut / hung/ decorated and fully photographed by U Bill after he arrives in the run up,.. you see there IS method in my madness (I know the quality of his pictures will be so great and give me brill scrapping opportunites for months to come!)

Anyways, Kate is arranging the tree (I succombed not to a £60 cut tree which my dearest husband advised me would  be worthless firewood in 3 weeks, thus devaluing at £20 per week... but to a vastly more expensive but good looking imitation tree.. you know me, cost per wear / cost per airing of the tree...I should be quids in and break even by 6th January 2011.. and actually I am not as traumatised by the buying of a 'fake' tree as I thought I'd be)

I have, I hasten to add, still not made the cakes, and while I write the fruit awaits the Ainsley / BBC Veggie Christmas treatment to be transformed ... pictures of tree and cakes follow.. watch this space.

Shhh.....but when Col seemed to disappear while we were at the Garden Centre I half expected to find him curled up and quivering in the garden tools section, (a little like Damien in Omen films when made to visit a church) .........having been beaten by the energy sapping bug he feels when Christmas is mentioned (you know, the same one boys and men get when dragged into New Look or M&S... Kryptonite Zac calls it!).. ...he is by no means humbug about Christmas, just wishes it could be a long rest!

Review..

.. of the year seems to be order of the day on TV at this time of year.. just wanted to share the page I speed-scrapped yesterday and then doodled at leisure this morning for an hour...slight artistic license keeping in a photo of Will & Michele's visit last Christmas (technically 2008), and letting the last 3 months be reflected by just boating, but maybe that's how the year felt!

Hard to believe the pictures are of the same page.. bah, humbug, phone mumblings! If I could find the proper camera charger would help, but then the images are so huge it takes ages to upload..never happy, mumble mumble.

Ross has gone off on a roadtrip today, visiting friends from here to Edinburgh. Good old Google maps (do I get points for bigging up Google on Blogger??) says it's going to be 1300 miles in 7 days, sounds like an epic trip until I realise Colin has 900 miles in 2 and half days PLUS 4 customer calls, and a few sad lonely nights in a Travel Inn to boot.. and not always, may I say, the Travel Inns that Lenny Henry would be proud to feature in his adverts either!

Last scrap of the year...

... sounds like a street fight in our village!  Seriously though, we had a great day yesterday, few festive nibbles (well a minor feast to be honest) and some great canvases created, as usual inspired ideas from Linda.  Last year for Christmas Jordan gave me a 12" deep frame so I gave pride of place to this picture of my Mum and Ross, so this Christmas I wanted a nice layout of Jean to share the space in our kitchen.

I tried to incorporate a range of photos, some of them not usually seen in our collections, Zac liked the one of Nan riding the quad back in...about 1995 I think, and I like the one a few years ago with Kate making the famous smiley face which seems to be the genetic link between her and Lisa, caught on camera! 

The layout wouldn't be complete without a few grungeboard letters and some bling!  (and I'm sure the paint I used was red, but now it seems pink!)

....I am less than happy though with the quality of photos coming out of my new camera phone.. it's an LG touchscreen but it is beaten hands down by my faithful old Motorola!

The advent of Advent..

..so Christmas must be on it's way now for sure.. as I heaved my sorry ass out of bed this morning and set about weighing and measuring out the fruit for three cakes I plan to bake later this week. I am going to make two Red Wine Fruit Cakes, recipe courtesy of some friends at Leedstown School (thanks Mary) and one mega cake which will be an amalgamation of Ainsley Harriots's Mum's cake (where did that come from?!) and a Deluxe Cake from an old BBC Veggie Christmas magazine which has been languishing on my kitchen shelf for years.

So... 90 ounces of fruit later (sultanas, apricots, dates, cherries.. you know, all the things your Mum tried to get you to eat as a kid, but you hated, then miraculously find irresistable as you reach the summit of your I'm- in-charge-of-festiveness-realisation at the age of 30+ somewhere).. and a pint of red wine and some port and Old Monk's Rum in the other. 

(Ainsley reckons you need to start this process some 4 weeks at least before you bake the cake, but unless I started back in October and then discovered a festering bowl of fruit packed away forgotten in some dark cupboard somewhere, a few days will have to do...he also says to blitz 2/3 of the fruit before cooking but that's not going to happen as the best bit is picking out the pieces of fruit...isn't it?)  So you can see how the recipe is an amalgamation, I will put in the best bits of both.... like the veggie mag cake doesn't even include spices.. what's THAT all about?!

The Old Monk's Rum by the way has long sat on the roof of our dresser or kitchen units, only of interest on this one day a year..a bit like a alcoholic sad version of One Little Christmas Tree!  Col got given it by someone when they worked in India, the only time it has been drunk for real was when Ross took a swig (aged 10 or 11) as I teased him that Lisa had tried it already....his swig prompted cries of agony about tongue and lips on fire / burning etc..he always did like to make a drama out of a crisis.. can't think where he gets THAT from either!

It'll be great to get out my Christmas scrapped album, all 9 long pages of it, made it in January so it will get a nice airing over Christmas this year while Uncle Bill and Deborah come to spend some time with us... I only hope it's not quite such an icey snap this year as last when Will & Michele appeared to bring a New York chill with them!

PS Sorry about the repeat pics, I have a new camera phone but it has a sad, very sad camera and those candid shots require the subjects to 'hold it like that' for about 30 seconds while I get this to 'take'.. need less to say Santa is threatening to get me another tiny, lightweight one for scrap subjects..

Making the effort..

.. good attempts going on here to stop the winter rot (read SAD syndrome?) setting in, so Col and I have been swimming twice this week after work at St Ives.   We meet Ross there and get a few lengths under our belt. Kate came along today and not long before the whole brood gets in on the act! 

We're hoping it'll be good for Col's back, still suffering with too much office work and then a frenzy of manual work at weekends in the cold. As for me I'm fighting the usual tense neck, (the domain of most mums I reckon) but it's already feeling a bit easier to notch up a length.

Not sure whether going before or after tea is the right idea.... Monday we were a bit beached as we ate first, but tonight followed the exercise with a bag of Hoola Hoops and half a Boost bar each! (only half each.. could have been twice as bad eh?)   The lovely soup I had prepared (ala super-Mum mode whilst cooking tea yesterday) still found a good home when we got in... and no-one seemd worse for wear having a meal at 8.30pm either!

Lots going on in the office, big big job in the last stages of manufacture, for a nuclear fuels company... big piles of paperwork required..all for tomorrow,so it'll be early night and early start tomorrow.....what is a Life Time Quality Record Index anyways?

Hahaa,, looking for a pic to suit.. my last swim venue!... and if you look real close I'm sure you can see that despite evryone saying the kids all look like Col, these three DO look like me after all!

Be funky.. or be square!

Linda just twittered this brilliant link to a site which cartoonises your images..and see what it did to Ross..

and it would seem perfect for some part of the latest Twitter Challenge.. 'Living the Dream!'

Blogging-block!

Mmmmmmmmmm, a bit disconcerting, but I appear to have Bloggers Block! Not quite sure about the reason for this but it does concern me that I have only written once in November.. what's THAT all about!

It's not that I am not busy, or that I have not got thoughts about stuff, it's just I don't know what to say next....I even have some brilliantly good email chats from Will in the US, but still I am bereft of creative chat on here....answers on a postcard please..

Great job Ross! Here comes Christmas!!!

The eyes have it! My lovely Ross, his eyes are like mine and my Mum's, they show his heart and his smile..so I guess look out if you get a smile without them moving!

He's had a great couple of weeks, and I'm so proud of him. He got his Lifeguard qualification and yesterday he heard that he has passed his Higher Level Teaching Assistant so as promised he's added more to his CV and the world is his oyster! I know he has itchy feet sometimes, but so loving having him about. (not to mention the decorated bedroom, and the porch which he seems to have taken ownership of this w/e..) 

We had a laugh one day cos I have him on my mobile as my ICE (In Case of Emergency), I joke that he's the only one who has his phone strapped to his leg 24-7, but seriously I know we can always rely on each other I.C.E.!

Last bit of news for now, Col's Uncle Bill will be here with us for Christmas!! I think he is staying for about 2 weeks, to make the journey from Washington worthwhile... it will be soooo good, a few nice trips out to nostalgia-ville for us (well Penberth cliffs and Eden skating at least eh, Ross?).. and plenty of evenings putting the world to rights with the help of a bottle of wine and a late night snacking session! 

Dear Colin he always likes the idea of a dead relaxing Christmas, laid out in front of the TV, but it never happens, he gets busy on chores way too soon, and I end up spending ten days shuffling from one meal to another... needless to say I'll jump at any chance to make an event of the time off.. and Uncle Bill is the best reason I can imagine, and it will be especially nice for us to spend New Year together and quietly look back on the year .... how we have all lived and grown in the family, how we have loved and lost and learnt to live again...xxxx

Quite a quote!

Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.

...you should have seen Kate's face yesterday as she cuddled her friend's new Springer Spaniel puppy called Flossie.. the puppy snuggled into her, all 8 weeks worth of her, and Kate looked at me in turn with puppy dog eyes!

I did tell her though, that if I bought her every animal she asked for, then this month alone we'd be proud owners of a hamster, a horse and a puppy!

Family heirloom.

It's half term and I took a few hours off this afternoon to bake with Kate.. we made a whole batch of buns, (some with Rolos melted inside...!), flapjacks, apple cake and Mum's favourite Coffee cake.

I have my Mum's old scales too.. a 1946 wedding present, used and loved for over 60 years, with an enamel pan and original Imperial weights. In fact the 16oz weight went missing and the replacement, if it were to be returned to rightful owners, would be down Penberth Cove on the fish weigh scales!

Jordan has earmarked the scales for her kitchen of the future, guess dating back to her grandparent's wedding, they will be quite a point of interest for her kids too!

At last!

So Jordan got a layout at last.. she is so often behind the camera, and a pic of us together is even harder to find!

This offering for a Scrap a Film Challenge I set on twitter.. just in case anyone who reads this doesn't follow our sister blog at www.justusscrapbooking.blogspot.com

Sorry the pic is so rubbish.. taken indoors, bad light and acetate!

Sunshine sister.

A bit of a rave from the grave...When we were challenged to Scrap the Big Picture I knew this great picture of Lisa & Jordan would be perfect.  Lisa was about 10 years old and such a great big sister to the other 3, guess it holds in good stead now she's a Mum herself.

My Mum took the photos and in her things I found a batch of other photos from the same day, back in August 1998, they make a great layout, and I used some of the words Mum wrote on the backs for journalling bullet points.

Parent highs.

Had a lovely thought provoking email from our friend Will in the US on Friday. I love to get his family chat emails, and have even saved some of the priceless emails he sent me when Ross  was staying with Will & Michele after his time with Camp America .

Will said he was having what he called a 'Parent High' .....he had been asked by his son to go along with him to his former college where he was giving a career talk. Will had taken Ben to Thailand once on business and now he was joining his son on a similar 'journey'.  (Had had to promise not to do the overtly proud Dad thing, but I'm sure body language would have said it all, and Will's big smile!)


I know exactly what he means about Parent Highs, sadly I guess by nature of the title you have to have some lows to appreciate the highs!  But at least with 5 kids you can generally glean some high moments from amongst the less good!


Zac takes his driving test tomorrow and we're hoping all goes brilliant for him!

Lucky!

My mind was still on the layout with a Film Title and this photo is one I had planned to scrap sometime for Tayla, Zac's girlfriend...so I was telling her how I thought 'Mr & Mrs Smith' might be a fun title, (like incognito names for when you'e staying in a hotel)...and this picture was taken when we spent a week at Centre Parks earlier this year.

Luckily Tayla said she thinks it's a bit of a cheesy picture.. and hey! isn't that the film where the couple were always trying to kill each other..!!

Back to the drawing board! Looking forward to seeing some of the girls for scrapping on Weds..x

Film Titles.

....it was my turn to set a scrapping Twitter challenge, though I didn't realise when Linda set hers that it would turn into a rotating challenge in itself to set the challenge each month.. though happy to step up to the plate!

Find or take a photo and make the layout title a Film Name.. at first I thought maybe it was too hard and toyed with things like The Remains of the Day and Apocalypse Now, wondering what we could all do....but overnight I have had a few great ideas.. I owe Jordan several layouts and could offer her 'A Grand Day Out' for her birthday skate at Eden last year or maybe Waterworld' for some of her fishing pics? 

We'll see. All I need now is the time allocated...

Star in the sky!

In the office til 10.30pm last evening sending out quotes and letters... all in a good cause.. to stop the phone ringing off the wall this morning while we took time off to make the most of a chilly but clear and windless morning.

We went as far as the Runnelstone, fishing was not great (we left fishing mascot Kate home to go to school) but did get a few pollock and Pops caught our first bass!
The sun shone and the sky was blue, save for the vapour trails over Land's End..almost a star shape!

In by 1pm and an afternoon at work, that's what living and working in Cornwall is meant to be about!

One for Karen?

I often keep a note on here of the quotes which feature at random with one of the gadgets attached to the blog.. for tomorrow they will be gone..today's is one for Karen, our scrapbooking photographer..

Life is like a good black and white photograph, there's black, there's white, and lots of shades in between...George Harrison
(Not sure when he said / wrote that but I guess there were a good few psychadelic colours in his view too!)

After the great weekend, doing what you love best with the people you like, it's certainly a grey day to have to chug back into routine of packed lunches / work / more meals / more washing / ironing eh?

On a roll now..

.. so I may as well post the Paintball layout I did, again using beads, but on ribbons and using some of the Autumn stash Linda had supplied, but the colours fitted real well with the beads I took with Zac's paintball pics in mind!

I had a great Superdry bag which is bright orange outside with a camoflage pattern inside, and I was able to use this for matting and making the journal pocket....all in the essence of true SCRAPbooking! 

Wet, Wild & a bit of a Fluke!

This was my first layout of the weekend, quite untidy and grungy for me, but I really like it now!  The idea was to work with wire, beads & passport size photos and I had just the set ready, Kate out on the boat after a knee boarding session! (She wasn't well pleased at the prospect, but loves it now.. obviously 'hip' enough!)  

We all started with white 'bumpy / pimply' paper and worked up some chalking / inking for colour.  Whilst getting a nice bracket chalked on I managed to stick the frame to the lower part of the bottom photos and when I peeled them off half the image went too... thus the 'distressed' sepia effect on all the photos as I had to follow through and make it seem intentional! 

I do love the bead fish I bought specially.. oh and homage to K8, but we will have to wait to see some trendy shots of D+ (D..add..Dad!)

Weekend scrapbooking!

Just had my third coffee since getting in, dragged my sorry ass off the sofa and thought I'd have a peek at the pics I took of my layouts I did yesterday and this morning at Linda's weekend at Polurrian Hotel in Mullion.
(needed couple of hours to blob after getting home as it was pretty busy, scrapping from 10am til past 11 last evening... oh, with great food, lovely company and lots of laughs along the way)

So pleased with the layouts and the photos of them I couldn't resist putting them on here. I did a couple which were quite in my usual style, quite square and neat...a single photo, or way too many..and of photos which are long overdue for a layout, it was now or never. 

Both use transparencies and this one of Kate last year at Truro on a Christmas Shopping night has silver embossed letters and I used some great pink papers, even an old favourite which has been lurking in my special papers box for over a year!


I had a whole lot of snow photos from last February and made a double spread below.. the whitewash core papers put through the Cuttlebug with snowflake design and then sandpapered was perfect for under the acetates.

Weekend wishes..

Well it's the weekend... and I'm off to spend a day and a half at Linda's Scrapbook Weekend at the Polurrian Hotel, Mullion. Hope the mizzle which has descended on us today is not in for the weekend , otherwise I may not be able to see the Island from the hotel. Years ago we went to Mullion with Ross when he was about 5 years old, he saw Mullion Island and some other bits of rock off the coast and promptly asked 'Which one is the Brison's?'  We laughed, mainly as he sounded so knowledgable and also 'cos it reflected just how often he had stood at Cape Cornwall or Sennen with his Dad peering out to the Brison's wishing he could see the treasure which might have awaited an avid diver!

It's been a while since I blogged, been a bit preoccupied with my 'sister-blog' which I have created with the girls from the Just Scrapbooking classes. http://www.justusscrapbooking.blogspot.com/  Now I'm not sure where to post stuff, as wouldn't want to bore readers of both! But here's a big picture page I did last week, playing with Castaway Inks and stamps.

Funny to see me with Zac, he's like the grown-up when we go snorkelling, hard to believe he was my little Zac-man just a few years ago!

Weekend thoughts should go to three of our close friends... Frans.. who celebrates his birthday on Tuesday (I think), remembering his visit last year and how it was that Mum had worked her magic putting us in touch again at such a poignant time.  Have a great day Frans, I guess you may have something special planned for the weekend?

Secondly to Will & Michele in the US, who have close friends needing some TLC, I am thinking of you guys x

Worth keeping!

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.   Thomas Szasz

Think I'm really turning into a jaded old woman!

Sad and beautiful.

Not sure when it started but I just LOVE anemones!  You never seem to see them in a florists window or a special bouquet, more often than not they are crowded together in a plastic bucket outside the shop or at a farm stall on the road, all closed up and rather overlooked.

Those of us who know, buy them, take them home and marvel at the fantastic colours as they open up, pinks, purples, reds.  After a day or two the flowers seem to turn inside out until the petals fall off, they seem to be straining for your attention, until the effort is too much. Sad but beautiful.

Thought for the day..

'Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body'
(Martha Graham)

So since I do not and cannot dance, does this mean I have no soul?

Now I'm worried..............Answers on a postcard please..

.... but cheered by this wonderful pic of our caunce at Penberth, and the blue sky above..sod it, yes, I have soul, it's just there, not in a dance..x

Shhhh..

..okay, so no-one reads this right? Well I'm gonna spill a secret! ... after an appropriate build up of tension..
..I'm not sure I like fish! After filleting a good number, (admittedly getting a bit better with each one, but creating what appeared to be too large an amount of cast away bones and skin!) cooking some for tea last evening, eating same and then finding two more dishes full awaiting some kind of treatment or other in my fridge, I am not sure if I like them at all. Well not pollock, to eat, that is.

This is the girl (damn, ...woman..do I have to be?.. well maybe next year when I hit 50) who buys her tuna, swordfish and salmon vacuum packed from the 'local fishmonger' at Newlyn, perhaps that should have been hint enough!  My brother sometimes gives me a binbag full off his boat, but again it is freezer ready, huge pieces filleted and ready for turning into tasty fish pie ala microwave and masher!

I feel slightly guilty about it you see, always muttering on about my heritage etc and not really being assed to prepare and cook the standard  (may I say beautiful) fish we get in our own back yard (for yard read Bay), but I do do a mean marinated mackeral and Ross is testament to that, yeah, he loves it.. is your taste for food in your genes I wonder..or is he just happy to travel along on my nostalgia tour with me, dear heart?

Anyways, I love crab and lobster too, so perhaps it's just the fish I have to fiddle with first which causes such a turn off?  Any offerings of ready picked and dressed crab or lobster always welcome, or get me a nut cracker and a skewer if I have to pick it out myself!...signing off now to eat Indian..now there's a thing!

All big!

For bassing, read pollocking! We left Penzance about 9am, (after a merry dance around the numerous dingys left abandoned at the slipway.. abandoned just in the hope that they might deter us motorboaters from ever gracing the harbour again?).. headed off under a cloudy sky, but on a flat sea, for the Runnelstone.

The new lures did their trick, we caught about 20 pollock in less than an hour, even threw back some smaller ones.. the perspective on this one makes it look big enough to eat Kate, but it really WAS good size and great fun to bring in... Kate would get so excited when she got a bite she would go all weak and girlie and Zac teased her about lying on her back with her legs and arms thrashing about trying to land the fish!

Dear Col, he has the gutting job, tried to get Zac into it but it is on Zac's list of things he isn't bothered to learn.. haha, hope this blog still exists when HE is a dad! 

(On the way in across Mount's Bay the sun came out and I closed my eyes and said a small thank you for the chance to be out on the sea again, it's often been a wish these past years, and I'm very happy to be back there, where it all started..)

Mind your language!

Zac made me laugh this morning...he has been to Hayle Community School..'A Language College' for the past 5 years, and he has a real maths -science brain.  He was never keen on languages and when Kate asked him the Spanish for 'school' he shrugged, thought for a second and suggested 'Schoolio?' Pretty evident that 3 years worth of studying Spanish will make all the difference in his future life!

Really made me laugh, but reminds me of the annoyance I felt when we chose his Secondary School..he was geographically allocated to Hayle which had Language College status, but would probably have been much better suited to Helston, a Technology College.  If he had chosen Helston we would have had to apply, then if he did get in we would have had to pay for his bus fare, or get him there ourselves....what was going to happen to the allocation of funds which were paying for his free bus to Hayle if he chose another school I wondered. 

But I guess it's a fight for another day. It would be a full time job if we were all to chase down the stupidness of so many idiosyncratic laws we come across...perhaps we should all vote for Jeremy Clarkson for PM..interesting news if nothing else!