365/121 Dessert.

The other day we went to Seafood Cafe in St Ives and JB loved their lemon possett. She made it the next week and again last night.. Zac loves lemon too, he made some epic cheesecakes when he was at school.. I like them too but when you have to buy the cream and ingredients it's hard to enjoy it so much with the calories and all in mind!

The original had raspberry coulis in the bottom but I had this one for me.. with a lovely dollop of passion fruit on top... they smell exquisite and I always eat them on holiday, much the kid's disgust as they never get past the 'frog's spawn' image ..!

(it was made yesterday, hence the slightly sunken fruit element!)

365/120 Lights.

.. at the end of the tunnel, the lasagne is being prepared, apple cakes and crumble made, cupcakes decorated, beds made, dresser dusted (after a fashion.. what mum would call a lick and a promise.. to do it better later!)...blog entries done up to date.. Col out doing videos of kit which is being sent out tomorrow, beers in fridge and a nice catch up evening planned.. haha, there's even a MotoGP race to share..)

..our Zac's coming home after his first sea trip, twelve weeks out of LA on the Sapphire Princess.. we missed him, but never really worried, he's old enough and we've done everything we could to ready him for this..

..lights..? mm, say 'Go', all ready to see him come on home for a few weeks..maybe I'll put

the dresser lights on to celebrate...(sorry images acting up.. so here's one of Zac trying to untangle Xmas lights a couple years back.. after the tree cutting event!.. he has staying power you see, didn't just cut the holly and run, he hung in for the duration..me as a mum, good training for anything!)

oh.. just the stairs to hoover, maybe Zac will do that for me when he's here at a loose end this week...they never made him do that as a deck cadet!

365/119 Handmade.

I never think that we are a particularly crafty crew here, but plenty of odd examples about the place.. in honour of Zac's impending return at teatime today I photographed his two tealight holders which sit on our mantlepiece..made in junior school..

.. and JB makes all kinds, but most regularly her cakes.. todays are for April's birthday .. coffee cupcakes with choc coffee beans on top..

.. Kate made this cushion cover in textiles at school, she's not keen but actually did do the screen print in the centre too.. we won't mention the lack of fasteners yet!

.. and as for me, in my past life I was known to cross stitch a little , this snap of a birth teddy for my eldest girl, JB did a matching one for each of her girls.. doesn't time race by!

Oh.. and here's 5 I hand reared...does that count??

xxx

365/118 Art

Not sure my scrap pages count as art but it's probably the closest thing you'll get.. it may not be painting as such, but I like  the glimmermist on otherwise plain cardstock in the first page and the 10 second studio metalwork on the second.

'

The Grower'

Layout inspired by a choc cake box from Tesco!

Jordan is the artist in our family and has done some lovely original stuff..she's hoping to do a year at Falmouth after 'A's so she can see if there's something she doesn't yet know she is good at or loves! (hoping she won't ask me to take this off when she gets in!)..Major OOOppps there.. it isn't her pic!!

but this is..

365/117 Tradition.

Cutting the Christmas holly tree from the hedge across the field and Mum's nostalgia tour spring instantly to mind..more on that later! 

.. on a light note, we used to joke about how Col's Mum used to shop for food at M&S whenever his brother came to stay, like the prodigal son (but I get teased for similar these days when I plan things for Zac's impending return..) but at least we'll all get to enjoy fresh orange juice and croissants for special occasion breakfast and Jordan's cakes baked for birthdays and most other 'events' and in our family that's pretty often!

I have blogged the holly cutting at Christmas several years now, it began when I was a kid and we got local holly and then when I left the cove we used to make a kind of pilgrimage back there to visit and get some branches...In recent years zac has become my cutter of choice and I guess he will be here this year but maybe the year after he'll be away and Col or Ross will be in charge (well in my charge) again!  It used to be a subject of some tension with me and Col as he was always busy and I was whittering on about 'my holly'.. he wore welding gauntlets to avoid getting prickled whilst I positively liked the feeling, knowing it meant Christmas was here!

.. my Nostalgia tour.. when family or freinds come to visit we usually have a trip 'out west'ard' and go to Penberth, St Levan and stuff. The family joke about having to take a stool and a book for when I meet someone I know, and I ramble on about where I grew up, how the post box opposite used to get bees nesting in it and how we used the phone box like a personal phone line (there was no TV and so few cars you could hear the phone ring from inside the house in the evening!)

..this is a layout I did for one of our trips out there...

365/116 Powerful.

Again I imagined I might find this one a problem, but then I had to go along the Prom in Penzance on the way to getting a haircut. The stormy weather wasn't too apparent apart from the remnants in the sea, a grey brown with a really heavy swell, the spray was full of water even though it was really white.

There's nothing quite like the powerof the sea for me, I grew up within 150 yards of the cove and living about 5 miles from it now feels 'too far east'! so it's always great to be close to it and feel at home..


Travelling back from Newlyn about 7pm I realised why it looked so heavy, the tide was as high as I've seen it and the waves were crashing against the promenade...lazy me though, I took this from the car on the opposite side of the road..

365/115 Tower.

I imagined I would find this prompt tricky, but luckily I had few hours out of here today and on the way home I was stick in a queue of traffic in Camborne, near the new housing development beside the train station... and there it was..towering above me!

I met up with Karen (memycameraeye) and we chewed all the fat we could think of over a couple of drinks at the County Arms in Truro.  It was nice to step off the usual treadmill and make the time to catch up..

It's a strange place, the guy behind the bar didn't want to sell me a coffee, despite the lovely coffee machine alongside, he kept suggesting I should have a J2O instead... but I stuck it out and got the coffee.. then we almost managed to order some desserts in lieu of the cake we fancied.  I asked the same guy if we could have some pecan pie and treacle tart, but he said that he'd thrown the last of the pecan pie out that morning, and asked where we saw it available so I pointed out the dessert board propped against the bar...'You're really selling it to us' I said as he set off to find the aforementioned board.. not to return and to be honest, we had decided that we would be best advised to give the desserts a miss ( not least of all since Karen has openly planned to eat less etc etc!!)  :-) xx

365/114 Cross.

Whilst I realise the connection with St. George's Day I have to say this is a day for me to put a 'cross' in the box...or as I would usually say 'ticking the box'

Not wishing to labour us notching up that twenty year milestone ( I think I like to acknowledge it as my dear Mum didn't manage to get to the revered Silver Wedding twice over as she was sadly twice widowed, so appreciate each year for what it is), but today Jordan passed her driving theory test and Kate bagged herself a Saturday job all by her own efforts at a local hair salon... go girls, big milestones in their respective years...xxxx

Reacquainted with the mixer..

.. today. Since Jordan got to love baking more and more she has been the cake and bun provider around here and I usually get busy in the kitchen for the main meals and bake only when it's a kind of 'event'

.. but today I just had a fancy to bake.. well I had half promised our guys cakes on Friday as lots of people were on leave and I wanted to treat those still here.. but I forgot, so delivering tomorrow to save face!

..talking of events, only 168 hours, that's one week til our Zac gets home.. so maybe a fruit cake will be the aroma sometime this week.. our favourite!

365/113 Symbolic.

Perhaps a little predictable to choose my wedding ring, but it is a little unconventional and that in itself symbolises some elements of our early days!  I was still married (to the person we refer to as 'the worst husband I ever had'.. that makes us smile as it implies Col is my best.. but that there could always be more as worst and best are a choice of two.... we laugh!) and as I was with Col but having two young children I wanted some kind of ring to wear.

Col was never a big fan of bling and stones which catch in everything, he probably had several more babies planned for me and lots of house making(!) so this is what he bought.

It is one ring with two grooves which make it look a bit like a puzzle ring, then with 9 small diamonds... suited what I wanted perfectly...it was not quite a traditional engagement by any means and looked like a wedding ring if anyone wanted to think about it (yeah, people were kinda bothered in those days..!)

About six months later we got married, in what I not so kindly refer to as the third filing cabinet on the left, what was then Penzance Register Office.. lucky it was a weekday as on a saturday in those days we may have been lucky enough to be married in the court room where I used to sit in and watch probation clients sentenced for their troubles!  BUT.. we went to the Minack for photos and the day was just great..

.. 20 years ago tomorrow.. so I had to choose the ring today really didn't I?
(and isn't it cool laying on a bed of... err.. kitchen roll!)

365/112 Precious.

I knew I would ponder this prompt as soon as I saw the word. Last year I did a layout challenge with our group and we had to choose 5 items you would have to 'take away with you' if you left your life... hard call and most people chose practical things like technology which would allow you to take your memories as digital photos etc. I took the humourous route and chose things like tweezers and clean undies!

 

Anyway, I digress (as ever) but this is probably the one thing I regard as truly precious and is always with me and I would feel huge loss if I lost it. 

It is my Mum's wedding ring which I have worn since she married my step-dad in 1973.  She had worn it from 1946 til then, I think the only time she took it off was when she had an op, before the days when they put a plaster over it.

It is still a perfect circle and has no hallmark as it was made post-war and only has 22ct stamped inside, though I wonder if it is actually 9ct as it has been so hard and never got mishapen over the years. 

I wear it on my right hand and used to wear an eternity ring of Mums but it broke and used to catch in things, so I modernised it a bit with two silver rings with stones, I love hiding it between them, like a secret I always have with me, reminding me who I am and where I came from.

365/109-11 Entrance-Small-Flag

..a quiet week from a blogability point of view and I thought I'd let a few days pass and see what came up.  Sitting here savouring a lazy Friday evening, watching some aimless TV with Col we are both pretty weary, he from driving and visiting for four days flat out and me from just being here without him... The girls are out so no wines for us, oh the teen taxi days !


The phone rang an hour ago, Col's Uncle Bill from the USA, undoubtedly one of  our
favourite family members, he had some great news...Col's cousin Michelle has just had twins to add to her little girl , they tripled the children in one go!  A baby boy about 7lbs and a girl almost 5lbs, all doing good.


Uncle Bill & Maya make an entrance!



... we chatted and ooohed and aaahhed , new babies are such a joy in any family, but for Uncle Bill he is especially blessed to once again have his 'magic three' feature in his life, this time his (current!) number of grandchildren!!

Then it came to me... entrance.. small (but perfectly formed).... flags out everyone!!

Now to find some pictures!



Our Lilly (small) and Kate





Flags out in this layout!



.. tenuous links I know, but hey all's fair in love and blogging.. xxx

365/108 Bold.

..mmm...? ...to boldly go.. bit of a Star Trek moment.. Captain's Log..did you ever know anyone who used to think it was a real log, like a piece of wood spinning through space? ( you have to be a fan of Men Behaving Badly to appreciate that..)

..Bold..as in when you need to draw attention to something.. I like BOLD when I type so I can draw attention to the date and time I want someone to agree to a visit!

.. or maybe I'll just post the boldest image I can find on my tablet..well the best one which would upload (secretly I chose a great pic of Col on his motorbike, but it wouldn't upload).. so here is my gorgeous vase of poppies Col bought me, complete with vase .. he went into the shop, spotted the flowers and bought the vase they were in as well..

.. they have lived on my chest of drawers for several years and will now get extra attention as they are on the floor beside the .. 'new wardrobe'!!

365/107 Tree

One of those weeks coming up.. Col is out on calls and the house is kind of in

 limbo. The others come and go but the heart of the house, me and him I guess, is different..

Looking out to the front I realised my tree choice wasn't going to be the best as it looks pretty much the same all year.. but the state of the grass and hedges will change, not to mention the improving view of the deck and new tables we picked up last week.. they are a metre sqare and we got two, at least that size was going to fit in the car!

Tenuous link I know but I can't not mention the pleasure I have in our new wardrobe. Fitting the three wardrobe sections together and then to the wall was arduous especially when I noticed the back panel was inside out!  But sanity prevailed and I made the ten drawers myself while Col did all the less glory work!  But I smiled myself to sleep, not even sure I need to see the sliding doors fitted.. it's like an open wardobe system from a hotel at the moment, and even better being filled..xxx

365/106 Alive

Nostalgia for my childhood is alive and well and existing in every rusty bit of chain and every board of a fishing boat.. chaos it may be, but transports me back, right back to those moments.. all I need is a coil of creosoted rope and I'm complete!

365/105 Coiled

Well now you will know why I am inspired again, we went to Newlyn for our first 'Jelbert's' of the year.. a clotted cream ice cream (only vanilla) with a big dollop of extra cream on top. I always have a cornet and play an unspoken (well almost!) game of seeing if I can eat the ice cream to the cornet and still have some clotted left!  Crazy woman, yes I know.

We always wander across to the old railings and eat them, today it was just us two, but we recalled the many times we have had a Jelberts there with Col's Mum and also her brother Uncle Bill.. probably every time he has ever visited, it's a kind of 'have to do' thing.

(awhhh, our last family trip, at the very spot..taken by U Bill in Sept 2011)

Today we fought the chilly wind and walked up the old pier at Newlyn. I marvelled at how little it had changed since I was a kid and acknowledged to my dear progressive Colin that he would be lamenting the same fact; that it had not changed, had not been tidied or improved..(sometimes it's good to understand each others differences!).. but some great photos, again of the chaos that is an old harbour with abandoned boats alongside..

365/104 Petal

..well I was going to show another in the development of my re-flowering orchids, but somehow the 'bor-ing' echo came into my head so I waited a couple of days til the feeling was right..and after a couple of days in the 'doldrums' as I would call it, not much happening of note and not much inspiration, I have some nice bits to share.

The Ikea boxes are part unpacked and after several sessions we now have the shell of the wardrobe done, but cannot add contents (drawers, shelves etc) until it is levelled and fixed.. and anyone who knows my Col will know that this is a job which has to be done properly and in his own time.. to be fair he is being swallowed up with STS stuff at the moment, quotes, visits to do all week and yesterday the installation of his new 'toy' / process machine, a huge VibroPolisher.  It is, to be fair, very impressive!  As he says it is good to have a machine that does the job a whole bunch of men would never achieve in many hours and grumblings and works whilst they can progress something else..  (I should take a pic of it really.. maybe when the prompt permits?!)

In the meantime.. the prompt required some petal work.. a small corner of our garden has polyanthus, forget-me-nots and foxgloves, quiet homage to the wildflowers so loved by my Mum..xxx

365/103 Shocking..

... how many pieces an Ikea wardrobe has when you have to open it up and carry each piece upstairs..and this is just the carcass..there are ten drawers and lots of shelves too.. all in flat pack pieces.. oh joy of joys..x


..and my lovely Lisa and Tom have been married four years today.. small shocks at how time passes and how many life changing events there have been for us all in those four years..

365/102 Elegant..Bristol!



I always wanted to live in a flat.. but one like this!

 We had the best day yesterday.. sunshine and city walking, it was almost like Paris in the Springtime! I took Col shopping and we had so many laughs, well you can't have a new wardrobe and fill it with all your old tee shirts and stuff can you... so he is the proud owner of new shorts, shirts and tees.. and it was almost as much fun as buying for me!

After a super lunch of swordfish at Mud Dock we snuck into Ikea and picked up a couple of new tables so we have tables as nice as the decking!

365/101 Clutter.

I heard a woman discussing 'Clutter' on the radio yesterday evening. She reckons that if you haven't used it in a year and you don't love it, then it is clutter and you should get rid of it!

In that case the sight in my scrap room is not clutter.. I love it all and have used (some) of it in the last two months!  That allowed, it does need a bloody good sorting out!

365/100 Gentle..Easter Monday!

Well there was a gentle feel to the whole day, getting things done and dusted (no, not that kind of dusting! whatever next..) so Col and I could sneak off for a couple of nights in Bristol. We left in a gentle drizzle, pure Cornish weather turning to a good soaking for the ground by the time we got to Bristol.


Stolen image, but gently does it!



We stopped at Exeter and crossed the Cathedral Square to get some food at Pizza Express, one of our favourite haunts when we have been there before. It was such a lovely moment when we stopped at the same time on the cathedral steps and remembered that it was almost 21 years ago exactly that we met there and had our first kiss.... awhhh, we had such a lovely meal, remeniscing about the last twenty years and picking out our 'best bits'!!



365/99 Lots and lots.

Well we were expecting Lilly to burst through the door today, proclaiming the arrival of the East Bunny at their house, followed by the discovery here of many things for sticking and gluing which he (and I) had purchased a few weeks back, but a nasty bug had descended at their house mid-week and kindly they have given us all a wide berth whilst recovery continues...

 

Colin and Ross have been busy the last few weekends getting two more batches of decking down, it's looking great.. the plan is to box a piece in around the edge for seating.. but all we really need is a new table or two and we're good for summer..

 

..lots and lots of decking!

 

(Oh and a footnote on the popular Crunchie cookies.. we add the chocolates after so they aren't destryed in the baking!.. just so you know.. x)

365/98 Girlie.

  



This should be easy! I have three girls and two boys and two grand-daughters, but what to use as my photo ...mmmm....only one of the girls has been truly girlie from an 'all things pink perspective', but as they've grown older the other two have traded their greys and now you could say they definitely have their own womanly style.



As a brood we females of the Jones clan have a penchant for all things lace up and a trip to Plymouth shopping (near birthdays in July and December usually) have become easier now we kind of all know each others girlie style...

Jordan always manages to modify something to make it her own.. even at New Year she made her own 'Sea' costume while the rest of us went all traditional ooo-ar Pirate-ish!

JB loves to cook, especially desserts and cakes, and yesterday when I finally got out of bed it was to the whaft of chocolate cookies she was making her her b/f's birthday.   At my suggestion (well I have to take some credit as she is now the family baker and I am somewhat redundant!) she added chunks of crunchie , fudge, white choc and maltesers instead of the usual MnM's.. and they were delicious.. maybe she has made herself a little Easter family tradition!

365/97 Pastel

Well not much in our lives is pastel..! We joke that Colin sees most things in black and white, it'seither right or it's wrong and as I am the peacekeeper of the family I suppose you could say I must be pastel... though if you wander about my house it is generally Red!

So, browsing through my gallery I found this distressed layout of Ross surfing at Sennen.. almost pastel coloured I reckon!

365/96 What is that?

Oooohhh, a difficult prompt today. Loads of scope but nothing has happened to make me say this to myself, or anyone else for that fact..so from the comfort of my sofa, after the day is almost done I have chance to consider the options!

You may recall we had a party for New Year and Col and the kids set up a couple of projectors and screens for showing music videos.. it was a lot of hard work for JB and Zac getting all the videos but it made the party.  So, about three months on we still have all the hardware in place and in the kitchen of a weekend we still have our own mini music session!  

Another party is due mid May, with Super Heroes and Rock Stars as the theme.. anyone who is larger than life really! ... so it seems daft to take it all down now...doesn't it?.. heck, I am getting very laid back in my old age, one time I would have been really nagging to tidy the ceilings up, but hey, does it matter... or maybe I am nagging but as it falls on deaf ears it really doesn't count!

The second pic is of a beautiful metal piece of art Col gave me a couple of Christmases ago.. a shoal of metal mackeral, so symbolic for me, the mainstay of my family's income during my childhood..

365/95 Noisy.

.. well day 95 passed pretty uneventfully and come the evening I wasn't inspired.. and then it happened..our Zac man arranged to call us from San Francisco and we planned to Skype!  Well I do have Skype on my tablet and we have done it before on the kitchen computer with Will & Michelle (but no webcam there now) so tablet it was...

... Kate reported that Zac was now on Facebook and his contact was.. imminent!! So the Skype call came through... and it was so noisy!!.. lots of interference, we could just about hear him but in between there was lots of what you can only describe as a cross between radio squelch and Dr Who special effects..I suggested we resort to text messaging on Google or something but I would tell both Zac and Col were reluctant to plump for writing when talking was an option!

So eventually Zac managed to find a nice little corner in Starbicks on San Francisco Pier and called us with Skype (voice only though) on his HTC instead of his laptop.. it was about 9.15pm by then.. and we all got to chat with him, despite a few mis-connections later.. and I even managed to get the ironing done and go fetch JB from work in the time we chatted with him, Ross and April too.. JB got to have a bit of a natter too, but she misses him so much it was kind of too hard as she obviously had so much she wanted to ask / tell / moan about with him..but he'll be back for all of May and they will play X-box and catch up big style!

Almost three hours later we had to drag ourselves to close the chat.. and when we woke up this morning we had that kind of sweet awakening feeling you have when you know last night had been a good one!

365/94 Teeny weeny... thoughts of Rob xx

I was thinking I'd be stumped for a picture or story for this prompt, but Lilly was over for the day and I asked her how much she loved me... she reached behind her back and touched her hands together and then brought them round..'this much' she said.

Then Kate was here with her b/f Liam and I asked Lilly if she thought Kate loved Liam and she pinched her finger and thumb together, almost touching... 'ahhh, teeny weeny' I suggested and she agreed!

The main subject today has to be a small tribute to our lovely dog Rob.. he's been getting old and tired of late and this weekend his legs called it a day and yesterday we took him on his last journey, a little quieter and less excited than usual, but still our calm faithful bud..but safe in the knowledge that he will be long loved and remembered..

 

 

...he was a 'P-reg' according to Simon who owned him on the farm before he came to live with us.. (he wasn't much for rounding up sheep, preferred people and to sit beside you with his head on your leg.)  So Rob came to live at ours about ten or eleven years ago and soon became part of the family.  he was such great company for Zac especially on his adventures down the field.. one night he and Joe slept out in their tree house and Rob slept under it, he was growling before Colin got within 50 yards of checking up on them... so protective.



Bathtime for Uncle Bill's visit

I had to email Zac but had kind of forewarned him, which made it a little easier.  I guess that's how it goes when you're away from home a lot, there's things you can plan to be here for and things you are going to have to hear in a letter or phone call.. big hugs and wishes we could make the world a little bit 'teeny-weeny' so I could give Zac a cuddle right now... but hey, he'll be home this month!  Yay!!