I'll be in trouble..but..



My beautiful girl..

.. what the hell!

..and even on my phone camera it works ok outside..she knew I wouldn't wait til she got home with 'proper pics'

Small memory that two years ago Uncle Bill was our resident photographer for Zac's prom; he was over for his sister's funeral...

Sounds like ...

..my JB has her school prom this evening and I just spent half an hour with her, scrunch drying her hair, just hangling out. We went shopping earlier... we both bought shoes we don't actually need that much (but aren't they just about the best kind..) and had a lovely lunch, her being a grown-up girl has kind of snuck up on me and it's just lovely.

So here I am, about to do some ironing, with my choice on iTunes.. and that means a little Carly Simon, some Cat Stevens and the perfect roll-back tracks from David Cassidy....it only takes a few bars of Some Kind of a Summer or one of the more well known tracks to transport me back to 1973 and my last summer in Penberth.. yeah, same old thing, hot summers, almost a teenager, not having to work, laying about, listening to the radio...

.. but then again, my mate Teddy would come along and add his ten penneth... some Roxy Music or something much more hip, either way they all whisk me back to 'way back when'..

...and in the light of Linda's comment below..just for you.. (I have it still, and Cherish..and Dreams Are Nuthin' More than..Wishes..)

And another thing...

... thought for last evening...

'You know it's time to lose some of the weight around your belly when you are wearing a short(ish) summer top and you manage to burn it whilst ironing!

...sad sad day.. so sad though it just makes you reach for more chocolate..xx

Baby days..

While Mum & Dad went for this week's hospital appointment with the baby, Lilly and I amused ourselves with the park. It never was my favourite place; I probably enjoyed it best when I had the elder children and me and my girlie pals took all our kids for a play and a natter. Picnics and playgrounds were a novelty to us new mums and a great place to wear the children out before bed.

By the time I had my youngest I was more than grateful for Nans and Grans to do their duties and I managed to avoid most of the Bird Paradise and park trips for lots of years!

But today I was the Nan and off we went to Hayle 'rec', luckily a school day as I'm not sure who'd have been least pleased if I'd met Kate and her posse hanging out there too.

It was actually quite fun taking these pics, even on my phone, it has a kind of delay before it 'takes' so it's a kind of photo roulette!  I mastered the art of taking the pic before anything happened and by the time it shot, I normally got something nice..I like the 'caged' one, even though you can't see her face!

Good reports from the hospital, seems like the little hip harness is doing its work and they can see real progress in two weeks, so we're hoping it'll be the minimum period having it on, about 3 months in total.  Dear thing, she is so the second child, contentedly taking in the world and growing and responding to everything around her.. can't wait til one day when I can cuddle her up and we can have a proper 'chat'...xx

Just for the Record..

A couple of before and during pictures of our front garden. It is currently in a 'during'state as we have dug out some of the grass to make a bigger eating & sitting area.. always popular with us.. eating and sitting!

This is how it looked about three years ago, at its peak I'd say. all spruced up before a big family gathering; the result of several days intensive tidying on the part of the menfolk!

And here's how it looks today.. a lot less green but not actually as bad as it feels.. you just have to imagine the digger scars in the grass and large areas of gravel!  But as they say 'a work in progress..'

For my sins I have taken ownership of the flower beds and it's not a bad job at the minute, no weeds, just planting and everything at waist height: the idea is I take a cup of tea out there every few days and give it the once over with my weeding fingers!

So far I have planted a few hydrangeas & fuschias so they can spread and take care of most of the space and also some primroses / polyanthus which are one of my favourite flowers, so hardy and always appearing with the promise of spring.  Admittedly they won't look much right now but once rested they should come back to welcome Spring 2012!  I think next stop will be the plant stalls for some lobelia and those untidy freinds of theirs, just to edge the area and make it look like I'm some kind of great gardener... mind you the lovely wall topped with slates must be credited to Ross and Pops, my resident builders!

 You'll notice the very fetching oil tanks  in the background, well they're gong to be fenced off and the woody planks mark the spot where Ross is planning to set up his 'cabin' as the summer progresses.  Did I hear someone say'Swiss Family Jones'? x

Time goes by..

Colin & I have been married 19 years today, amazing. And his nephew is 18 years old tomorrow.

Sometimes it seems like forever to get to the end of a week, but then suddenly years have passed and people you know are talking about retirement.  Funny old thing, time.

Everyone here is getting into doing their own thing so it's been an easy kind of day. We had our first Newlyn Ice Cream of the year. 

I remember hearing Thandi Newton talk on GMTV a couple of years ago about walking from Lamorna to Mousehole on the cliff path and finishing the day off with a 'Jelbert's' ice cream...I could never work out why they didn't have a sign in the window saying 'as advertised by Thandi Newton'

For those of you frowning, Thandi is a Penzance girl who is now the face of Olay and starred a few years ago in Mission Impossible 2.  (oh and my small claim to fame, (which I bore my kids with whenever she appears on TV) is that I babysat her once.. just for a few hours one afternoon, but I think that would definitely qualify for one of Chris Evan's tenuous links..) 

Okay, I can see even more frowning, I'd best go to bed now.. after all, it is my anniversary!

New tradition?

I got up late this morning and tried to recall what Easter usually entailed when I was younger. Baring the usual trip to St Buryan and the trail (or is that trial) up to chapel with Auntie Edna with roast to follow, I can't really remember much.

When I lived in Mousehole I remember loads of us ('the youth of the day') would walk from Mousehole to Lamorna along the cliff path and many would make their way back worse for wear after plenty to drink at the Wink pub. I can remember one year, Easter must have been early and me and my girlie pal had just done half the walk; later on one of the Newlyn lads stumbled into the village with a cut (on his head I think), said he'd fallen over 'it was sunny when I fell (asleep) and snowing when I woke up...'  I think Phil, my step-dad ran him to Penzance to get his cuts seen to!

Much the same today weatherwise, I got up too late to really enjoy the sunshine, but as soon as I got to town it rained.. me and Kate in summer wear, dodging the raindrops so it didn't wet my shoes... or make Kate's hair go curly!  That's the trouble with Easter, you can't really hang your hat on the weather... mind you, that's England any time of year I guess!

So I've stumbled on a new tradition I think.. a day of baking all things nice.. flapjacks, light fruit cake and now a boiled fruit cake, just like Gran's used to bake!  Kate tried a microwave cake, it looks a bit of a dubious mess all turned out on a plate, but with chocolate in it and on it, I guess it'll pass the taste test! 

Happy Easter!!

Just wondering..

..if the thing for teenagers to straighten their hair will ever give way to natural again..Kate washed her hair and dried it tied up, dropped it down to straighten and for just 'one night only', or a moment to be precise.. this was the beautiful result.. I guess it'll have to be someone she really 'rates' who makes her try it this way!

Brilliant.. she who loves cake!

..night yesterday at the Hall for Cornwall.. I love Sarah Millican, she really enjoys her work, giggles all the way through.. and is so naughty but gets away with it because she looks like your pal down the road!  Oh and the fat free fruit cake there is to die for (Jenney!), though I'm sure it doesn't qualify as a 'cake' if it's fat free does it?

We were tempted to go again tonight for an evening with Neil Morrissey (Tony from Men Behaving Badly days) but we have early start tomorrow to go up to Sussex for Henry's funeral, so probably best to have an easy evening....mind you, where it says easy evening, for Colin, read digger work

It's been a beautiful day again today, I only got to enjoy a bit of it, playing taxi, but hopefully it'll stay for the weekend.  It's been a strange day in some ways, Kate at home (yes, all day!) doing chores; she's off to Plymouth shopping tomorrow and looking for spending money.. hey, if it gets my ironing done and the fridge cleaned etc, what's the cost of a dress or two between friends!

Oh, and we had a minor emergency on Sunday.... Colin called our machine handy-man Monday and told him so.... the dishwasher broke....well it's emergency enough for us lot..!

Gardeners!

... can you answer me a question? What function in the circle of life do ivy and brambles have?  Okay, so I know the brambles give us blackberries sometimes and ivies provide the strangulation / support for trees everywhere, but in my garden they are everywhere, choking everything! 

Well if I am honest this is my first proper gardening episode for about two years and never did care for it much. I'm a kind of hanging basket gardener, you know, clean compost, boxes of bought plants and ta-da, it's done! Look what I did!  But our garden is a kind of mow me / strim me / hedge cut me kind of old Cornish garden...but I'm trying.  The men in these parts have been on remodelling mode and a digger and dumper truck have been involved, along with new walls and plans for a much larger eating / sitting out area... ahah, now you know whay I'm trying to look and act willing!

Seriously, it was nice to get out, though if I'm to do more I need new Secateurs (pref yellow ones just like mum had when I was a kid, so heavy I could hardly hold them!) and maybe I should acquaint myself with some of those electrical toys the boys seem to love so much..

Anyway, Lilly came by in the week and loved her mini-adventure on the digger with Uncle Zac..

Pleased and prompt..

... at the moment but my laziness since getting home could mean that in an hour I will be 'running late'!  Unpacking some food, eating crisps, drinking tea, uploading pics and blogging is NOT why I came home early...but I think it's what they call 'relaxing'

I had a lovely morning catching up with the Scarpbook Massive at Newlyn. We mostly all did clocks and bunting layouts and I was more than pleased with mine. True to form I took way too many photos but ended up using only one, but the papers, words and layout fell together really comfortably. 

I used my most relaxed image of our time in Kuredu and used up several random pieces of 'scrap' like buttons, a piece of printed / inked paper from Tregenna w/e and a famous piece of well travelled sticky pink felt as well.  And on reflection, the inked paper balanced the suntanned feel of the picture really nicely... if I say it myself!

Jordan has given me her old digi camera and I can get the pics easily onto our new computer, so we could be in business... the only thing is, the camera is very 'light', kind of feels like it needs some balast!

Ahh well, best be off to make it look like I did something in the last hour, give the digger guys a cup of tea, and see if my slate is still laid or in slate heaven! ....x

Oh and a morning's scrapbooking...

...mmm.. what pictures to choose...??? Will it be our 'honeymoon' trip to Kuredu last November or Lyla's birth-day?

All I know is that these flowers and the Maldivian sun always take me back there.. the heat, the smells, the breeze.. and the time off!

Looking forward...

.. to the weekend. Usually I write about what's been and gone, but today it's mostly a look forward blog. Off tomorrow to collect on our Christmas gift from Lisa & co .. tickets to see John Bishop in Plymouth. I love stand up comedy, watched Rhod Gilbert last evening and Al Murray... just can't get enough of it! 

 The idea was to stay overnight but... we have a digger in and the sun is shining...so we'll set off later and catch a Domino's pizza for tea, then drive back after the show...that way it's a mini lie-in Sunday, then hopefully a day in the garden...a large area to change / landscape etc... Oh, I'm kidding myself, my job is generally weeding and catering.. which suits me okay really!

It's 8.30pm now and Zac & Colin are still out playing with the digger and dump truck, lots of trees to move, hedges to create and hopefully sunny windtraps too!
..............

Just a little moment's reflection, we lost an old friend this week. Henry Crawford, the original inventor of our trolley patent died, aged 95 years and a month. We met him about 12 years ago, he was a super super guy, had a million quiet stories from his life and was probably the most honourable gentleman we've ever known. 

Henry always said that we'd added to his life and he definitely added to ours, I remember going to the Tomorrow's World Live show with him, we were exhibiting the new invention at the Inventor's Fair part of the show. The three of us stayed in a small Earl's Court hotel and it was such fun to take him around London in the evenings, spotting all the company buildings he had visited as a Senior Civil servant in 1950's.  Later he and his family had retired to develop a Newquay camp site, back in the days of two sheets of loo paper per visit and all that!

A long life later, he was tired and had his final struggle this week, sad to leave his sister companion who has cared for him so much this past five years.  And hopefully STS and all that we make it can be his legacy, a life well lived....xxxx

Men are from Mars...etc

Linda just set the April challenge for the Just Scrapbooking Saturday crew!  Scrapbook 5 items you would take if you had to leave everything else behind, for whatever reason.... well it has caused considerable debate in our house already..(like we need anything else to debate and disagree on!)

Jordan and I started instantly with family heirlooms which mean a lot to us.. jewelry we had from mums, grans and nans alongside treasured photos we don't have on disc etc etc.

In come the boys... Zac & Colin to be precise..and their list was full of ammunition, gadgets, survival aids.. oh and a 2lb bag of sugar for Colin.. 'need to keep my energy up'

Ross on the other hand had to have his van, surfboard and camera.. a getaway vehicle I guess and just in case there's a tsunami on the horizon!

Sooo... what to scrap then.. I guess most of us scrapbook addicts will go down the emotional route, but you never know...

Best blogging..

... is generally done after a few glasses of wine and some chocolate!

Jordan, Kate and I are here making short work of a packet of Viscount chocolate biscuits...on a bit of a feeding frenzy and quite hyper.

I just mentioned to Jordan how well the orthodontic work is going on her teeth.... she had four teeth out and one 'revealed' back in the autumn, quite an ordeal and already the new tooth has taken pride of place in the line-up.  Just a little tweaking and securing for a year or so and she can show us the sparkley whites and I can post a picture!

'Ahhh, they make me look normal',  Jordan commented... followed by 'now all I need to do is act normal'!!

She's so cool.....xxx

..and here's those pics of her Graphics project...Murder at the Mall.

Job done...

Jordan text me earlier this week with the message ..'I've finished!'.. a reference to her long laboured over Design Technology Graphics project, a race & chase game, based on Cleudo.

She has worked so hard in all aspects, developing the game, so many hours Photoshopping and poring over the detail..I wanted to add in here some pictures, but all I have access to at the minute are her line-up of murder suspects.. more to follow, I'm so proud of the quality of work and it looks fab!

Then Zac had some great news too., he got offered a place on the Deck Officer cadet scheme with Princess Cruises.  In September he'll be off to Warsash Maritime Academy for initial training, sea-survival / fire-fighting / medicals before his first 7 months at sea from January 2012... some of last years recruits have picked ships up in the likes of Sydney, Perth, Fort Lauderdale and the like!
He gave me a lovely card for Mother's Day, all scrapbook 3D looking and suggested he'll have to send one from somewhere exotic next year....we had a big cuddle and I said I'd be happy with an e-card, things will be so much easier keeping in touch with the electronic wizardry of the 21st century!  Not sure I'd be so happy seeing him set off if we were going to be relying on pidgeon post and Postman Pat!

Mother's Day..

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.                                                

~Rajneesh

 
Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers.

                                             ~Author Unknown

The woman who bore me is no longer alive, but I seem to be her daughter in increasingly profound ways.

~Johnnetta Betsch Cole