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!

Bassing.

Well looks like summer finally graced us in September again..what a great week it's been (and we are sooo English, the weather being our main topic of conversation!) Planning another boat trip tomorrow, 'make hay while the sun shines' or.. 'go boating while it's harry-flatters' as we say in our house.

Col fancies some bassing tomorrow and has been out and bought some special bass lures ... he saw Hugh Fernly-Whatsit bassing off Porthcurno and whatever Hugh can do, we can have a bash at!
                                                                                                              James who works with us says that a squirt of WD40 on the lure is meant to do the trick, but I'm not sure if it will add to the flavour as well??  Will keep you posted.

Not completely happy with the photo as using a rod and line kind of rubs against the grain with my cove girl heritage, Dad and Ken have never used a rod for fishing...but I'll play the girlie / tourist card and smile sweetly!

Left is a great pic we have of Dad,  he didn't like it though because whoever took the pic told him to hold the rod and the fish, but he'd never used the rod!

Quotes and more quotes..

.. funny how sometimes a few words, well chosen by others can hit the nail on the head.. here's a couple I fell upon today, origins in some site which is following my twittering !

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.~Herm Albright

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember-the only taste of success some people have when they take a bite out of you.~Zig Ziglar

Looking for some words of wisdom for a forthcoming scrap day but not sure I have the pics which will go with these! Keep searching..

Thomas Family The Penberth Years >1969

2K's : The Penberth Years

This is new to me, but I think if you click this link it will go to a Picasa album showing the pictures of my album I did for Ken... it was going to be a gadget on the side but a little small.. trying to get a slide show like Karen's but think that's another uploading job.
(Oh and apologies for the clarity of some pics, done in a hurry on a mobile, mainly so I had a copy, may even replicate for my own crowd)

People person..

... had an hour to kill in town when Kate was at Acro so peeked inside the door at Blue Snappa where Ross works evenings, half expecting him to be there supping a large American flat white ( ..!) and chatting to the staff , but it was real busy and he was behind the bar beavering away on a split shift.

He had just come from Surf session with kids at Sennen beach, but was still real perky and it touched me to see him chatting with customers. He has the knack of showing an interest and making them all feel special ... could imagine him running his own place one day... and with all the friends he has he'd keep it running just on his facebook and phone contacts list!

(Mind you he'd have to have an extra special sofa to accomodate him when the weary set in and hoodie was on!)

He reminded me of Mum when she did B&B over Mousehole for so many years. I think having different people coming and going all through the summer, and lots returning year on year, (esp you Frans) kept her going socially. Missed her today, saw several ladies out enjoying lunch with friends and family, doing a bit of shopping and wished I'd appreciated those times a bit more when I had them, life seemed so busy then, but I think we'd all say the same about the past eh?

(Almost a year now and having a bit of a peak.. is it significant? I know some faiths have a stone unveiling at this point and people can find it hard.. is this why? .. or will every anniversary feel the same..maybe so, I know she was sad most years come Easter time having lost her own Dad and then my dad at this time of year.)

Village shows.

Just been to deliver the girls entries to the local village show...the place is teeming with people of all generations arranging rock buns, collages, fridge magnets and all sizes and kinds of fruit and vegetable you can imagine. It is like a scene from a Channel 4 off-the-wall documentary, with the personalities and long established traditions and habits shining through with an undercurrent of competitiveness and edge!

Shame though that we all make the huge effort for these annual events, but it is hard grind to get the same support on a more regular basis.. the same old war cry I guess for village halls everywhere.

I remember as a kid having to go to Sunday School Anniversary in St Buryan and learning poems etc to recite, I hated it all, even the new dress my dear spinster aunt would make me... but I was too good a kid to revolt.. mind you, I think we all were then. Can't imagine a similar situation now, life is too full of X Factors and surf wear for there to be room for being press ganged into poems and home-made dresses! (not to mention lack of inclination on our part to begin the press ganging.. makes me wonder now if my own Mum was only doing it out of obligation to a domineering sister or because honestly there was nothing else to do!)

(not sure if I should change name of this blog to Grumpy Old Woman, I hear echoes of my Gran asking me why I was playing cards on a Sunday with a 21st century slant!)

...here's a couple of pics the girls entered in the On or In the Water section of the photography class today.

The Eyes have It!

Just wanted to share the two pages I did at our social scrap session in the week...for Lilly's eyes I used some of the words I'd written below, to convey the feeling the perfectly bright eyes gave me ..

The pics of Colin were taken last May when Uncle Bill was over for his mum's funeral. It was a sad but thankful time and they spent some time in Mousehole where Uncle Bill captured these pics. I like scrapping his photos, often of a time and place where I was not about...in fact the ones of Class of '09 were also taken by him.

I've used the words of a song we had for Jean, but the words suit Col too (soppy cow!)

and just how, how, how...do you get these blogs to show as laid out on here when you click publish..I keep getting words where I want spaces and vice versa..eeeeeeeeeekkkk

Jordan can be nice!

Couldn't resist sharing this one.... earlier this evening Linda was over and Jordan said she would do something for me, I commented that this was a nice thing for her to do (which is not always common, she will admit)


'I can be nice sometimes' she said.... and commented ...'I know, I was shocked when I found out as well'

Blog-itis?

Just a snappy note to tell you that I have set up a new blog for us girls who scrap together with Linda at Just Scrapbooking...not sure how it will work for me as don't want to bore people with repeated stuf but I do want to contribute to both. email me if you want to contribute..

Have a look .. http://www.justusscrapbooking.blogspot.com/ , would love to hear your comments..

.. got to go, fetching Kate from Club 2K where she is out on a Neon Night for under-16's...why do I feel like I've been here before ?

To Twitter.. or not to Twitter?

So, what is the Question?

Linda started it.. honest! I think I like it, I find it quite odd, but compulsive (as can be seen by the more than seemingly uninterested amount of tweets I have contributed)... and yesterday when I discovered the gorgeous Dawn Porter's blog I thought maybe I'd give it time.. and she was in Penzance the other day!!.. says she felt like she was in the corner of the world.. and I guess that's how we are really, that means that most of the time we can do just as we please without the rest of the world finding out..and I guess we like it too.

Anyways, Linda (JustScrapbookin on Twitter) has set her first Twitter Challenge .. to photograph some eyes and then journal them. I have tried, honest I have, but not to the best results..noses seem so huge when cut off at the bridge.. so I am cheating and using some crops of 'good eye' pics..

I thought this one might be interesting to journal, esp with the sunglasses element.

And what clear eyes these are.. so untainted .. no cut knees, no shampoo stings, no eye liner, no mascara, no hangover, no broken hearted tears...if only we could all keep them this way.

And here's our Joey, piercing eyes, he would eat us all if he was sized in proportion to us.. he is a rat catching, bad-ass cat who ran the new female moggies out of town .....and we love him, if we can get close enough and it's on his terms!

Maybe I'll do the cat as somehow I find it a bit hard to journal the people's eyes, like it's too personal.. but we shall see.. may try for it on Weds eve at our first Social Just Scrapbooking evening..not so sure it will be JUST (as in only) Scrapbooking though, so much chat and so little time!

Sorted!

What a brilliant morning I've had! Delivered the now famous album to Ken, he sat for half an hour in the car and we looked through it, it was such a pleasure to know he has so many photos now (.. he lost a good few with a fire in their house a few years ago.) I left him on Newlyn Quay and he had the book out again showing his crew the pictures of his school days where the guys Dad had been in his class at Humphrey Davy Boy's Grammar in 1961! .. that was such a moment for me..xxx

Followed that with a quick lunch with Ross, we had so much to catch up on we kept losing track of who/ what / when we were gassing about....he's doing great, loving his new job and as usual the girlies love him!

Then fetched Zac & Tayla from college and headed home, detouring only for cream cakes to celebrate my birthday tomorrow with the guys at STS....finishing off the pre-birthday-day with a few coffees with Linda, chewing the fat at tea time...hey, and it's not even my-day yet!

And off to see Michael MacIntyre Friday.. so looks like one of those week-long events!

PS Full marks to Ross' mate Kerry who has full funding now and is a 'professional athlete', keeping the Cornish end up in the 2012 Olympics.

Excited.

Not sure if I mentioned it but my brother Ken turned 60 back in July (yeah, still my big brother!).. of course I did.. I posted the 'Covers' page...doh!
Well since late July I've been working away on an 8x8 scrapbook album for him .. and tomorrow I get to give it to him! It really is great to be able to give him something I have made, and something I just know will be unique.. and I hope special to him too
(Okay so I don't expect him to quite understand the scrapbook fever which accompanies such a project, but so long as he smiles I'm cool.. and he knows it's a pressie I want to see him open, so he is warned!.. will certainly beat the laughing mirror he gave me 15 years ago!)


I guess it's also for his children, an elementary family history, using lots of the pics I have, mostly found in Mum's and Aunt Edna's photo albums. Of course the most beloved are the ones of our Dad, down at Penberth, mainly with a 'Fish, Boats and Fish Again' theme, probably because he died so young and the pics we have of him are less and more poignant ... but anyway I just wanted Ken to have copies and be able to share them with his brood.


As he lives in France and his younger children are most definitely 'French' his grandchildren in turn might be interested to see pictures of their Cornish roots. I've covered our parents and their parents, and our lives in Penberth, the nostalgia in me is huge, as I reckon it is for just about anyone who was lucky enough to have lived a carefree childhood there.

I will post more later, but this is the title page...

Class of '09.

I'm getting used to scrapping pictures someone else has taken now, and the ones above are again credited to Uncle Bill who was over when Zac and Tayla had their School Leaver's formal dinner back in May.

I spent so long on the Newquay layouts that this page was a kind of speed scrap, done and dusted in about an hour (dusted being the operative word as even more sanding!) I found the patterened paper in Linda's box of sad and lonelies (I think it was in the Magnolia range, but I always cut the page name off and fling it before I think of noting the name!)

I'm not sure if the pink accents jar with the orange flowers, but blame Katie's dress for starting the pink thing.

A few of our group have decided to meet up for social scrapping (sounds like a kind of friendly street fight) so it will be great to meet up more often and hear everyone's news..they tell me several read my blog and I was thinking maybe we could have a group / team blog for the Just Scrapbookers ..(no worries Linda, we'd def have the usual disclaimer at the bottom!)

I could set it up a bit like my other family blog I have where lots of people can add...so howabout it girls, if you can email and Facebook you could def add to a blog??

It was a sandpapering frenzy!

Such a good day yesterday...as I said before the emphasis was on Vintage, but hopefully with a Summer theme.. how do you think I did?

I wanted to use a really busy paper but everyone (Linda and Emma to be exact) laughed at me, so I got sensible and subtle (neither lies very comfy with me as a natural state!) and used a distressed sand cardstock and featured lots of cuttlebugged and sanded whitewash core papers, also a lovely wordy piece from the Martha Stewart paper sent over from the States by Michele.

It was a real experiment for the Newquay title (as you may be able to deduce) I used gesso primer on the letters and paper, then moved the letters down and recoloured them, and actually I think it worked.. Most of us also enjoyed this little pocket affair which I made out of more embossed and sanded core paper and hid the memories and chat I don't want everyone to see!

Trench Rats!

Zac, Tom and Paul, aka the Trench Rats are off to Somerset tomorrow for Children of the Corn (well a maize maze) weekend paintballing. It's been the subject of many a late night debate and dicussion on X-box, and they are all really excited... guess it's the ultimate boys with toys eh?

Just wish I could magic up a photo of Zac the day he wore camo kit pressie from Santa all day on Christmas Day, but in those days his arena was the field and his weapons were dried balls of mud..cheaper though!

Happy Birthday Zac!

We are but 8 minutes into the day and Zac is out on the open road..! He said he'd probably be blogged by the time he got back and who I am to disappoint? So proud of him and Col as they sat in the car running through all those special technical points, and I shivered in the cold, but did my duty as Mom to wait and watch until they left the yard. Colin has so much confidence in him he said he'd be happy to drive to Manchester .. xx

We had a great eve at Lisa & Tom's house, Indian take-away for Zac's 17th birthday tea and plenty of yap! We all love their new place, it's a proper little home and I think they're going to make a great family there. I suggested they charge a toll for people to leave and maybe they could put it towards a deposit to buy it someday!

All of us were there, that is bar Ross, who starts a new job this eve, I think this is his fourth job he has on the go...his real one and the three that fund, and are in fact his social life! There is talk of him and a mate running an evening 'groove lounge' in the winter.. a scene from Tom Cruise's Cocktail film springs to mind...go for it Ross!


Got my scrapping bag all ready last eve because I knew tonight would be a non-starter, so I'm all ready for tomorrow's day at Newlyn.. Linda has planned a Summer theme, but with a vintage angle, kind of Shabby Chic she called it.



I found some sweet photos from 1970, a St. Buryan Sunday School outing to Newquay, and in 3 of them my Mum is on her knees making sandcastles, digging or playing the fool. It is so touching to see her so much younger, she was younger than I am now, but I really don't remember her like that..but in fact I guess she really was quite a cool mum and what a thing to be widowed and on her own with a 10 year old in those days, it was a hard slog and certainly not as normal a situation as it would be today.















I used Picasa to enhance some of the images and it was really touching to see people's faces come alive, bigger and clearer. Only then did I see myself and my old pal Carol (Pengelly) were in the pictures..I bet her folks would like to see them too, the little boy is her brother Andrew and their folks go to the Centre in newlyn where ourScrap class is so who knows?
(Love the thumb mark too, think I shall have to be inventive with the effects, or maybe leave it, after all it does show you the state of 1970's photography too!)