365/297-8 B&W Family Portrait & free choice

Well this will take a bit of nostalgia. This is my Dad's Dad and his brother Uncle Fred, at the crabpot pit in Penberth where the grand work of making withey crabpots went on in the bad weather months ready for the summer crabbing. 

The men in my Dad's line were all called Thomas Thomas, but they had different middle names. Dad was Thomas Gordon, his Dad was Thomas Henry and his dad was Thomas Botterell. In the family dad was called 'Boy Tommy', his dad was 'Father Tommy' and his dad 'Granfer Tommy'... oh such great imagination! 

Neither my Mum or my brother's children have kept it on, no baby Tommy Thomas's since the 1920's., but I have snuck it into Ross' name and my neice has a son Thomas with her married surname. I always fancied Tamsin as the Cornish derivative for a girl but it didn't happen.

Uncle Fred was married to a lovely lady Auntie Elsie who was like a Gran to me, lived up the road, always had time for me and I think she had been a teacher (she was from Northumberland originally, not that that would denote her being a teacher!) and taught me lots of things. You can see a great picture of her here.

My brother tells me Fred loved the ladies, not in a bad way, but if they were going to sea and he was late it was probably because he had stopped several times on the way down cove from his house (about 200 yards) to chat to one of the ladies out doing her chores, putting out washing or something.   They didn't have their own children so were our favourite aunt and uncle really.

I loved him and called a teddy I had after him. I was also impressed to have an Uncle Fred, the same as Teddy Bear from the comics, who had a threadbare Uncle FredBear who always wore tatty clothes but had big cars in his garage!

This is my free choice B&W to keep in the theme. A portrait of my Mum, probably in her late teens, early twenties.  I found lots of these type pictures in her and my auntie's stuff. I guess in those days, like now, it was the thing to go get your photos taken.

 

..and just to see how my dad was around the same time, him and some of his Navy pals, about 1943-5.

Sometimes I try to imagine what courtship was like then. They only lived three miles apart but she heard he was home from sea (during the War) from someone on the bus as she travelled home from work.. so the next time you'buse your mobile or the internet, think on the 40's

Night everyone!

365/296 B&W repeating patterns

 Happy Monday!

Things going swimmingly today! People from abroad who cancelled an order meant we had a spare unit just sitting here have decided they do want it and have paid for it! Result!

Had the girls over and this is a colourful picture of Lyla on dessert.. well sausage dipped in youghurt is dessert isn't it?!  She is just on the verge of talking and comes out with lovey long jabbers, all inflection and everything, but only the odd word we know.. it's lovely!

I made tea for them and M&D to save them time. One of our guys said what a great Gran I am.. 'ahhh but it wasn't long ago my Mum was doing this for me',  I said ....

'Pay it Forward'

Quick sortie upstairs and here are three options on today's prompt. I have two new skirts and the other with the rose is a dress, well worn, I love it but when I look closely it is getting done.. had to leave in the roses in red, it just didn't look good in all B&W .. x 

Oh and for Janice.. the dolphins were just off Porthcurno, bout three miles into Mounts Bay from Land's End...

365/294-5 B&W Portraits and close-up

Well it's been a chores done and children friendly weekend!  Col and I got a load of jobs done Saturday, the girls pitched in too. It was nice to get some things done, especially as they kind of happened rather than being planned and having a list which invariably you don't achieve .. setting yourself up to fail and all that!

In the evening JB and I went to see her b/f in the Wizard of Oz and took Lilly along. She did great especially as it went on til ten and she had been to a party in the afternoon. She has only seen the film once and whad remembered all about the two witches and everything! Dom did great as the scarecrow, all battered and bruised and he says when he puts wellies on it makes him feel like he should walk funny!

Today the girls came by while Daddy prepped the paintball 'jungle'(!) hoping that he and Zac will get a game or two when Zac is home for a weekend. We almost went out on the boat early on but the wind was promised SE and sure enough it came, along with the rain... so we watched MotoGP in bed before a lazy get up.. proper Sunday!  My, and how it rained in Sepang, Malaysia for the racing!

I haven't really excelled at this B&W challenge, kind of tweaked a few snaps I took earlier, not quite the effort I intended.. but hey..here's our two girlies..and below is a portrait of me by Lilly!

 

We had a good laugh, I found some school books from when Lisa was not much older than Lilly is now..it's amazing how time comes around. The close up is taken from a video of the dolphins we saw back in September. I was trying to link into a video which you might like....maybe later!

365/293 B&W Landscape

 Well it's lazy Friday evening for me.. a root to my photo files which was the first thought when I saw B&W landscape.. so to be fair I haven't really tried to take a new one today.    

Col and I went to Truro and had a few hours out this afternoon, we ate out and wandered and we got a new sewing machine as mine is about 25 years old and keeps acting up on JB.

It was lovely and a nice start to the weekend.. not least of all because we got back to find some tasty orders and letters of 'intent' to buy... go weekend!

As Autumn settles in for a few fine crispy days I thought these snow pics from January 2011 are almost black and white..

.. so, have a great weeknd everyone.. we're off to see the Wizard of Oz with Jb's fella as the Scarecrow.. and maybe some housework, I feel a Christmas coming on.. or maybe not!

365/292 Public transport

Writing this in drafts at lunchtime, Col bought home some Subway salads last night and I just had one for lunch.. not bad at all.. his attempts to detour past Domino's so he can have some gins and chocolate in the evening if he has eaten better! Oh how we like to play with pains and rewards when it comes to eating and drinking nice things!

Few titbits of info.. a quote of the week from our Lilly...'I'm not happy at all Mummy, I cought hiccups off someone at school'  Priceless.. and yesterday she was the Harvest Mouse at school.. so so cute. You just have so much more time to enjoy the little moments with grand children, I guess if I am honest it's because you don't have to do the every day stuff... Lisa says that 'Grandchildren are your reward for having teenagers!'   She should know.. but what doesn't kill you makes you.. stronger? (or maybe it just makes you more realistic when yours become teenagers too ;-)..)

Off to get my hair cut later.. should be able to get something for the prompt.. the bridge beneath the hairdressers is small and full of traffic at tea time.. cute though, not like a motorway.. will see what I can do.

The guy who cuts my hair came down here from Gloucester before I had Lisa and she is 24 now! He rented a seat to start with and then got his own salon and came round to tell me, I was still pregnant with her then.  25 years later he has three grown up kids and mine all still go to him, Lisa with her two girls as well.. we laugh that we should have a silver anniversary.. maybe if I am early I'll take him some chocs!   We have seen each other through all kinds of stuff and when you spend a few hours together every six weeks or so you do end up as friends don't you, in fact I guess I see him more than some of my friends.. and as you know you can tell your hairdresser anything!!.. but it's funny, we'd probably not know what to say if we met at the pub!

Well I missed the daylight traffic chaos at teatime on Newlyn Bridge, but this is my view from Penzance Harbour car park at 7.30pm.  You can just see the Scillonian all lit up across the harbour.. clearly a nicer pic than the local bus!

(PS and such a high tide, as I drove down Newlyn Pier it was like driving through a marina, the boats all at pier level getting ready for the fine weather trip!)

365/291 Pipes

Quickie.. man coming through door.. don't worry, it's my husband!
I'm sure there will be lots of pipes under this water feature in Bristol.. on a much warmer sunnier day...x

365/289-90 Door-cement..

(Monday) Just pre-empting by writing this in the office..then grabbing the quick moment indoors when I can upload this. I am not sure which door will feature, the one which springs to mind is St Levan church door, I remember wishing I was old enough to manage the handle when I was a kid and now I am always quietly pleased when I can open it easily.. big kid that I am..

..it's a case of lift, pull towards you and turn whilst keeping it lifted.. ahh that loud noise when someone fights the handle to get the latch to lift and then the creak of the door and the turn of heads to see who is late..

We (that's him and me) are off out tonight to see Mark Watson at Hall for Cornwall in Truro. It's a bit of a spur of the moment thing, as opposed to the long awaited job when we have seen Rhod Gilbert or Micky Flanagan..

.. we are trying hard to diet so I am starving hungry.. a bowl of porridge and then maybe a salady pizza thing from Pizza express at 10.30 if I am lucky.. but the rain has started and that could put a damper on my evening....see you!

(Tuesday)  well in case you didn't know it, let me tell you that Truro closes at 9.50pm precisely on a Monday!  The show was good ( a very energetic guy and consistently funny, not side splittingly so, but reliably and sometimes unexpectedly!) 
I was looking forward to my Pizza..but alas it was not to be.. we were turned away at Pizza Express and Mannings and then Ask was 'Open til 11pm' but the girl said she would have to 'check with the kitchen' as it was empty and we guessed they were hoping for an early finish. We told them not to bother, not feeling like eating something made by a pissed off chef!

Luckily Kate finished work early and zac called as we were driving home so it all fell into place, though eating beans on toast at 11pm in my sitting troom was a little less than I had planned..good though, almost double cooked and with curry paste! mmmmm

More hmmms.. this time pondering.. cement!?  Well it's a library pic for me today.. but you know when you go to an air day and from a girlie point of view all you can see is cement.. as far as the eye can see?  Well Zac and Col (and JB for that fact this year, making a mockery of my last comment) can't see the cement for the wonderful planes and air displays.

.. 2010 in Farnborough >>

365/286-7-8 Architecture-street scene-chimneys

 I always think of trips to France when I think of architecture. These are a couple of an amzing (hotel I think) copper clad building near Lille Central Station.. and then something more traditional in the town centre there..sun always helps!

 

A bit of a picture heavy post to catch up. It's been quite a nice weekend, I spent time at the local college yesterday with Kate, looking at different beauty courses and how the apprenticeship wrks as opposed to the diplomas. Luckily she seems to have made a good impression with the people who run the courses, they have been to her school and one of them is at the Pole Dancing class (!) so it's looking a little more sorted for next year, which makes me a little comfier... she doesn't seem desperate to do anything in particular but I think when she realises she is learning some sellable skills she will really get into it..

 

Today Col and I went over to St Ives, I have waxed lyrical about it before, whilst dissing 'my town' and it sure did deliver. Great shops, yeah a little posh and touristy but hey, if it works, don't knock it.. all open on a Sunday, great places to eat (especially Seafood Cafe... still so, so reliably wonderful!) and just a looked after feeling. 

So I took my street scenes there and as we travelled home I took a rare sky picture.. and there were chimneys too!

The last one is our own chimney..

365/284-9 Barren-distance

(Weds) Well the office has been busy and the day long mist made the atmosphere quite wearying, so Col and I set out for Penzance after work. We were about an hour behind the game, the grey foggy stuff was almost rain by the time we parked on the promenade.  There is nothing quite like a seaside promenade in the offseason, grey-brown sea, a cloud settled over half the village ahead and in the distance the Mount nowhere to be seen, quite eerie!

We walked for a bit and I took these pictures, we laughed in a sad way, imagining if people thought we were tourists taking bad pictures of the town...

(on reflection the flash has made it look much bruighter than it was!)

 Barren, unfruitful, unprofitable, desolate, arid buildings on the seafront where they have built Lidls and Co-ops facing 70s concrete bus parks full of recycling banks.  We walked a bit more, I suggested people might think we were a couple having an affair, as why else would a couple our age be out walking in the twilight area of a declining town one October evening..surely we had a home to go to.. ;-)

You know writing this blog the past week or so has made me realise just how sad our town has become, the beaches strewn with sea weed, hotels and restaurants boarded up and those that remain sporting tacky signs to entice the recession driven bargain hunters..

(Thurs) .. we spoke about the town this morning at work, a couple of us regard the town as 'home' and are saddened by the misery which exudes from the dirty pavements, the ubiquitous poundshops and charity shops which abound when all the tatseful boutiques and chain stores have gone.. perhaps it's the time of year when the hanging baskets and festival flags are tattered or gone, perhaps it in the 'end-of-the-line' mentality which seems to bring the sad and bad to our locality..and how can the local council be so short sited to discourage change and development which is not of a concrete nature?

It's such a shame as our weekly paper, the Cornishman is asking who we would vote for to have the Freedom of our Town and lists a number of famous offspring : Tandi Newton (yes, and I babysat her one afternoon, my top tenuous link and five minutes of fame!) and Helen Glover (who incidentally is working tirelessly to promote the town and all things good, she went to the Cheshire Home last week to thank residents for their support) amongst others.

If only the look of the place could match the enthusiasm some people put into the place.. it needs MONEY!!

Sorry.. shuting up now.. here's my offering for today.. the cloud obliterated so much of the skyline, quite odd.



Newlyn.. are you there.. somewhere..in the distance?



I am hoping Suzie will give us a more uplifing prompt at the weekend! 

Ahh and Thursday is the new Friday in our house I hope.. open the Gallo someone!

365/283 Sky

I think most of the south of English is sporting the same grey murky sky today and lucky old noth and east have that high pressure we all desire.. well, without the chill of course!

I was pondering how to ring the changes when I saw this set of pictures ..

On patrol on the Falkland Islands ...

and it looks like I can link into them..there is a decent and varied range of skies in almost every image.. love that sunset as usual!

You couldn't get much further away could you, but worth remembering the people who are a long way from home on days like this..xx

So I can grab a thumbnail for the ink this is a sky layout I did of a pic Uncle Bill took in Alexandria, Washington in 2009.

365/282 Overgrown.

There's only one picture I need to show you today (well maybe two).. our house about 15 and half years ago when we first caught sight of it.  We had in mind to buy a place with Col's folks so we could have more space and they could grow old with us, after they had helped us raise the family of course!  I spotted the place in the paper, it was in a village five miles from where we then lived, but not somewhere I knew very well.  We couldn't believe our luck that whilst being on the outskirts of a village (perfect for the social side of things for the oldies) it was also not way down a lane in the middle of nowhere..

My Mum lived near us and came in on it too, probably just as well, I may have been driving to and fro to hers for the next ten years otherwise, and she was an integral part of what we were doing.  She and Col's folks were going to have new accomodation in converted barns and stuff and we were going to live in the house.. we all moved into a 4 bedroom bungalow for ten weeks until the house was gutted and made just about liveable .. oh and the two caravans were ready for the elders to settle into!  What great sports they were, settled into it pretty well but Col's Mum did let on in later years that she and my Mum often sat and wondered out loud if we knew what we were doing!

I just loved the garden, it was overgrown and real old fashioned, little pathways and very mature bushes... oh and ivy a foot deep on the walls and trees with roots pushing up inside the floors.   My heart wanted to maintain it all, cut it back and nurture it but we had five kids under 12 and over the years I understood that making things easy to manage is sometimes the most aesthically pleasing option after all... and the rose bushes were so mature the thorns were an inch ong, not great for kids Hide & Seek!

The place probably looked its best in 2008 when Col's folks had their Golden Wedding and we were sporting a new roof and a grit blasted front...not quite so romantic a look but way less bugs from the ivy and the rooms weren't dark from foliage at the windows! But the monkey tree still stands as you know!

Sad when you think of how our lives have changed since then, but the memories of late nights outside with fires in the barbecues and children playing in building sand and wheelbarrows while we made houses for our Mums, it was all worth it and despite what I sometimes say.. I do realise how much we have done since we saw the lost garden and house above in 1997!

365/280-281 Peak or valley & natural framing

Apologies for the blogless weekend, I have been kind of in limbo, not really much to report and hoping some photographic opportunity or inspiration would come to me, though I do have a couple of ideas of pics that came to mind as soon as I saw the prompts! (incidentally neither of which I have ended up using!)

Yesterday we did a trip out with JB, previewed her some kitchen and bathroom ideas and changed her laptop without hassle at Tesco (luckily she got it less than 30 days ago and it has a shutting down thingy going on..) 

We also went and paid for our new sofa which arrives tomorrow, we have arrived in the land of desiring sensible seating as Col suffers with quite a lot of back trouble, a nagging ache really, not the awful sciatica he had before his two ops back in 2008.  We had two sofas about three years ago but he soon had to lie on them as they are too soft and he just gets sore straight away.  So we are trying out a nice Stressless sofa and if it goes okay we may get another. We tried a chair out too at the shop and to be fair they are actually more comfy than the sofa but somehow we seem to favour two sofas these days rather than single chairs (a remnant of nightmare Sundays spent at my aunties with no sofas or TV!.. God bless the Methodists and their curled up edged sandwiches and brimless hats.. sorry, but that's the stereotypical views from the eyes of a reluctant ten year old staying with me!)

Still every cloud etc.. the sofas move down the line, as is the way, and was the way when I was a young newly wed.. the spare sofa will go to our eldest girl's tomorrow night.

I have browsed my gallery and found a couple of pictures fit for that Sunday storytelling that Jen is so good at doing..as well as our prompts..

As the guys I work with know (as I ponder and mumble about it on regular basis), I grew up in a small fishing cove, at the bottom of Penberth Valley, just a valley or two east of the more famous Porthcurno, where the Transatlantic telegraph cables originally came ashore a hundred years ago. 

My Dad was a small cove fisherman and market gardener as was his Dad before him and my brother after, (though he hated the land work and managed to make the sea his home year round as soon as he could). We lived a simple quiet life (quiet as in no TV, telephone and very little radio.. can you hear that quiet.. not even the humm of a fridge, just the crackle of a fire and perhaps a sigh from my Mum as she wondered if the fish would bite or the violets would make a good price at Covent Garden next month..oh, and the Archers.. and the Fishing News.. Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, and a hush as we got to 'Plymouth'..)   I know I guild the life with a sheen I am sure would be more tarnished if we were living it ourselves, but they were happy and the material world of the 1970's was but a wonder of the future..

Sundays were a day of rest, they probably really needed it, even if money wasn't plentiful it was unlikely that a day's extra fish or hoeing or picking flowers would make the books that much brighter to make a family day worth missing.  If the boats went out it was to take old friends out who came to visit and the women and children went along, it was a rare event and I cried a lot with fear as the few fish we caught beat themselves against the fish rooms doubling up as seats.. would I ever make it as the daughter of a fisherman I bet they wondered..

Sundays then..  My Dad always shaved in the mornings (he was a stubble sporting man again by teatime and it felt strange to ride on his shoulders and feel his face smooth and try to avoid the Brylcreem hair..), sometimes we went out on the cliffs for a walk, perhaps up to our friends at the farm a couple of miles across the fields or perhaps to my Gran's at St Buryan, but this was a decent walk and it would have been when I was in the pushchair. 

The cove always got its fair share of visitors, usually someone we knew, in the photo below I am in my pushchair with Dad and his cousin's wife (Auntie June) is talking to me, I think showing me some shiny necklace, not sure if you know them.. a string of cut glass beads, all the fashion in 1962 I guess and I called them 'Johnny Noddies'.. don't ask as I don't know!  

I found a site called Dear Photograph here a while ago which is worth a look and this picture is a quickie attempt to make my own.. a picture of the past, in the same place in the present .... me and dad with Auntie June, in Penberth Valley, in 1962, in 2011.  (ideally it would line up better and be focused so the common areas look seamless, but JB was impatient and I was agreeable!)

And here is the end of that same valley last year, in fact if you turn 180 degrees from the site of the first picture, I love crabpots, though to be authentic I want mine in whithey but hey..and the lichen on the rocks, they reckon it only grows on housetops and rocks where the air is so very clean..  is that good enough natural framing I wonder?

(and there I was, again, with nothing to say..)

PS I have added this to Sian's Story telling and realised there is a theme.. ahh well, we did always dress up a little for a Sunday..

365/279 A local landmark.

  

Well being lucky enough to live in Cornwall I guess lots of people are familiar with some of our most well known local landmarks: St. Michael's Mount, Land's End and my best place view of Porthcurno Bay across to Treryn Castle headland.  Without boring everyone more than usual about this but to be there on the sea-side is just heaven for me, or as close as it gets, even Col understands the replenishment those granite cliffs give me..am I turning into a granite hugging pagan in my old age I wonder!?

Blogger is still not enjoying tablet world so I am writing here and will adjourn to the kitchen to find a nice picture.

Col travelled home from Hampshire today, he spent the evening with Zac and his flatmate last evening, good food and lots of seafaring chat, just what he likes!  Today he had to go to Portland and through Weymouth, he is so envious of the southcoast marinas.

Sadly Penzance has not utilised its natural features to the best advantage and only has one meagre slipway that is now usable and no decent moorings really, a real bug bear, especially as the harbour has been occupied with a huge carpark instead of a decent development, it took 30 years to do and 30 years on it is a carbuncle on our coastline. Add to that the bureaucratic debacle which has allowed us to lose the helicopter link and not fully develop the sea link to Scilly and our local town has fallen into disrepair and is so much in the shadow of our beautiful sisters at St Ives and Falmouth.

..ahh well, it is said.. on reflection the best bit about the town is probably now the bypass which takes you directly towards my little piece of heaven on the A30. 

Despite that unexpected rant I do not feel passionately enough to get involved in making anything else happen, I think my community spiritedness was sucked up in my youth when I was involved with all kinds of things organising Raft Races, Harbour Xmas Lights, charity fundraising and my first and last love the Pz Phab Club which was such a big part of my life in my early 20's....

awhh, I kind of miss it now sometimes, probably the good people you get to meet and the feeling of achievement, but at his own admission my Col is not a community spirited type (yes, he would do anything for you, but is pretty much fully utilised in his efforts to make work happen and look after and provide for his family.. )and having done my bit in our current village when our Mums were about; all those coffee mornings, table sales and socials at the chapel, and of course the school based stuff which seemed to go on forever,(well it does when you have 5 kids across eleven years I guess!) I must have enjoyed at the time..

So, now I just don't 'feel it'. maybe it's something you do when your kids are young and then again when you retire, but I did a couple of years on the Village Hall committee and tried hard to buck the trend where only 25 of the same stalwart villagers turned out and spent their pounds to keep alive a Hall only used by the 25 who supported it (there's a moral there somewhere) Some events nights would find me making soups and cakes and attending with maybe one or two of the kids an almost funny (yes, just 'almost funny') comedy nights, whilst the rest of my family were laid out at home in front the fire watching X-factor! 

Eventually I stuck to my guns and now enjoy the fire too, along with Blog world and all it offers.. sad but true.. x  And as for you all, thanks for making Jb feel so welcome on her cake blog.. tonight's project she has is making bunting.. gosh, I can visualise her in years to come in a New England shaker kitchen wearing a gingham dress and putting up chequered bunting for the summer cream teas.... are you all coming then?

We could even take in a song and dance show at the Minack...(now that is another story!)

365/278 Asymmetrical

...mmm is it aaaaaassymetrical or Aaayyyyssymetrical.. JB is doing English and tells me it is Ayy and I say aaaassss   Are you getting this? Me and JB, or is it JB and me.. oh dear, English was never my subject, despite being such a prolific ... err.. talker!

We are sitting here on blogger this evening.. well I spent a while trying to get to grips with Facebook but I'm not sure it is for me. Yes, I love the odd snoop and a nice goss but all this being offered to be friends with folk just because they are friends with someone else I know is quite... odd.    I have enough people I hardly speak to close to home, let alone all over the world! And I actually like my blogger pals the best.. Lynne wants to say hi so maybe we could make a little 365-er group, I know Jennie does a bit of G+ing but I haven't fallen in love with that too much either.. it's trying too hard methinks!

Jb has started her cooking blog and despite a plan to get into Wordpress she has chosen Blogger.. maybe as we did set her up on it a while back when we were all trying to keep in touch with relatives in the USA.  So I have linked into her blog and you can see it on my sidebar, the Cornish Cupcakes one.. and thanks all of you for being so welcoming.

Oh and I am not sure if you can find me on FBk Lynne, I  have a Moomin on a pink Mug picture as my logo, the intention was to be incognito as Moomin Blogger but Ross set me up with my name and the rest is history!

Now, where can I go with asymmetrical, my first thoughts are hemlines or haircuts, they don't lie well with me, being a Virgo with an undercurrent of tidy symmetrical imagey!  Though I have a few tops lately which are longer at the back than the front and with the ubiquitous black leggings they do avoid a Max wall look.. I hope..though if Mum were here she might murmur that I look like the ''back end of a bus' in that top.. ahh well at least I haven't yet succombed to a animal print onesie Jen! (not that yours is animal print, but Kate's is!) 

This is my Jordan with her hair all asymmetrical..>>>>

365/276-7 Still Life - above & below

 Still life.. well I referred to the folders and this is the nearest I can offer. It features a gorgeous cup and saucer and sunglasses with my book of the week on holiday a couple of years ago.. it was a ten day trip with Col on my own, our kind of honeymoon many years late and my 50th rolled into one!

It's funny how that as the evenings pull in and it gets cooler and damper I am thinking about holidays. For years we never managed holidays but after 2004 when we took all five of the kids on a holiday of a lifetime, a sunny warm fortnight has been one of the highlights of our year.. well, to be fair, the highlight of our 18 months!  It was great to take them all and now that we go with only maybe the girls or a smaller contingent it is slightly sad to leave some behind... but still, not sad enough to say no!

It was good of everyone to 'vote' for a holiday or a kitchen, but I think the kitchen / extension will win, mainly as Lisa is due to have the baby in January so I wouldn't want to be away from early Dec onwards, and that is when we usually flit away, plus the girls have college / school exams and maybe this year I should let sense prevail, when in the past I have been known not to be too bothered about that old moan from schools about holidays in term time (we always feel like they have the kids all term and if they haven't got it by now, two more weeks of herding and threatened detentions etc isn't likely to make another grade..) 

Also we have had a grim old porch which was once a lean-to extension kitchen but was condemned when we moved here 15 years ago, hence it becoming a damp but useful porch....housing over the years everything from dogs, kittens and shoes to Xmas Tesco shops and all those bits and bobs like lightbulbs and Lego that you just may need next week!

The last year or so have seen our family gatherings grow again and we want a bigger space to have our family evenings and JB wants more space to bake.. oh and I want more sunshine in my kitchen.. I currently live with the lights on andin winter feel quite S.A.D.!!

Talking of which (JB baking that is!) she made a fab gingerbread today.. and has started herself a baking blog, which she tells me I have to nidge her to complete weekly at least. She so wants to bake for a living, but we are just not sure how it will or can manifest itself.. time will tell and in the meantime she will carry on woth photography and graphics and see how it all pans out..

.. and so today's prompt.. above and below.. sticking with some holiday snaps... perfect for an October evening!....I think they just about cover it..xxxxx

365/275 Wall.

Quick one tonight.. I have hit that physical and mental wall a few times today and it's only Monday. I had a severe weary on this afternoon so we went to Marazion for a walk after work to blow the cobwebs away, worked too, I even cooked proper tea when I got in!

I browsed my photos and thought about including several wall pictures, one from Arras cemetery in France, with the war Memorials as this is a reflective time of year I think for everyone... then I spotted this card, it is on my scraproom wall and reminds me of a time when we had a houseful of teens.. life is easier now, but it is always good to remember, and to remind them too.. but not so much that I would put this where they saw it all the time, I am too nice!

As I am here writing this whilst my wonderful man is on the late night teen taxi run (there, I schmoosed him for being so kind!) I also found this picture of two of the best wall views we know.. the infinity pool and the breakwaters at Kuramathi.. last December.. awhhh, time for a holiday? I know Col really needs a break... nah, that kitchen is going to get built this year and no mistake!