Well the week has flown by again and even as host this week it has been hard to get and blog (especially as I do not have sound on my office PC) ....so here I am!
We have had a great week, finished in good time several days and went for a walk by the sea at Marazion and in St Ives, just makes for a nicer end to the day than falling across the yard from office to cooking the tea! Col is cooking me a meal this evening, it's our 21st wedding anniversary on Tuesday and we both feel it is kind of special this year, maybe as the kids are older and it's the start of some more us-time?
My Bonnie.. This is one of the first songs I remember. My great Aunt Elsie who was like a stand-in Gran to me was always singing it to me and in turn I sang it lots to JB and Kate when they were young... they loved it too..
Auntie Elsie also used to sing me this.. she was from Northumberland and her lilt was perfect and it brought back memories when there was a series called 'When the Boat Comes In'..I liked this video too.. guess this is why she sang it me..
So, I got older, my brother had big influence on the tunes which stayed with mefrom my early years.. like this one .. Bits & Pieces. I used to bang on the wall to let him know it was on.. it may not even have been his favourite, who knows!
So I grew up to a teenager and a new influence, my pal Teddy from over the road.. he again was a bit older and didn't really have conventional pop music interests..so alongside my love for David Cassidy, I loved and still shiver at the opening bars of Life on Mars and pretty much anything David Bowie turned out in the early 70's.. yes I just felt it again!!!
Thriough my Uni years and early days of motherhood I kind of went with the flow, loved most things once I had been exposed to them for a while.. Madonna, Cher, Eurythmics etc..but then once again my kids got older and some of their much played tracks have stayed with me and despite some troubled years with teens the theme songs they played don't hurt at all... Pink's Family Portrait..and Trouble ..
Life relaxed a little and I loved, all on my own Norah Jones and Adele.. yeah, predictable current stuff..
... oh and I cannot, just cannot end this offering without two or three of the most moving songs I have in my life.. I won't get into details but they both move me..
and last but by no means least..my song for Zac..never far from home my love..
... just love them all...... hope you guys do too.. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well I did get here again before February Week 3 was over..it's been a busy few days in trolley world and the Jones household!
The builders are coming! Currently next Wednesday is the most up-to-date arrival date, but my porch is empty and ready to be knocked down after 16 years, ready for our new space .. and hopefully before the year end, my new kitchen. It's not that it will take til December but we are thinking that maybe we will live with the space a little while til we decide how we want it.. lots of cupboards and storage but it is going to be our family space for the next 15 years so kind of a big deal.
Col has gone off today, he is seeing distributors in France and Belgium and I am going up to meet him and see Zac on Thursday, out to see Al Murray (the Pub landlord comedian) on Friday and then a lazy trip home by Sunday. It always takes a bit of organising, in my head as much as logistically with the kids etc, but I am looking forward to it. As they say a change is almost as good as a rest!
Ross, April, Pops and I were out in the garden a bit this weekend, it doesn't happen often but we were all pleased with what we did, we all like to see results, what with gardening not being 'our thing'. Lots of weeding, removal of the detritus of many years and consequently some extreme barbering of the bushes! I am glad Ross isn't looking to have a career in hairdressing, everyone would be on a Number 1 short back & sides.
and this was just the start of it!
Clearing up.. for now!
The front garden has old walls and pathways hidden under many years of overgrown woody bushes, brambles and ivy so we have decided to tackle it, so a tidy up job turns out much larger, just hope we manage to see it through.
Needed to give you a couple of sunset shots Kate took in the car the other day, I was saying to her how you can understand seeing that why the pagans worshipped the sun. Imagine not really knowing how the world was but realising that this huge orb of warmth would disappear each night and reappear next morning, the days gradually getting longer and then shorter again. In tropical countries when you are on holiday sunsets seem to take on a big significance too, maybe it's just the honeymoon romantics..
...talking of romance, here is mine and Col's 'love song'. It's really a little cheesy and not very well known, but it is probably the only single he ever gave me, I think it was on cassette. He was a big fan of Feargal Sharkey, he was the lead for the Undertones (think Teenage Kicks, My Perfect Cousin .. Col's era, even if I was a bit of a Motown Girl!)
Well in 1991 I was 30 years old, married, not particularly unhappily, but kind of treading water with two young children. I spent a lot of time alone with the children as their Dad worked away and when he was home family-time was not the easiest option for him, being not a very relaxed or emotionally settled kind of person, often I would tell him to go scuba-diving or something if he needed to get his head straight after being away, after all I was operating pretty much as a single parent most of the time in any case.. (he was a saturation / deep-sea diver which involved living in a chamber for several weeks at a time, and it wasn't an easy transition for him when he came home)
Add to this the fact that I had been 18 when we started out, ended up being 30 years old and not exactly the person he wanted 'in the box' he had allocated me ( ;-) ) I think I wanted more children, a full family and this wasn't on his agenda, he always wanted 'this phase' to be over so we could do one or other of the wonderful things which would be on the greener side of life, you know over the hedge, where everyone else appeared to be living.
Well we had a few close friends, one of them was a lady who I knew he liked, this made me see things more clearly, she was nothing like me, I was never going to fit in the box was I ? (Nor was she as it happened..) The other pal was Col. He had known us since he moved to Cornwall around the time we got married. He used to go sport diving with my husband and then come home and hang out with us, often chatting to me about this and that while 'he' had his head in a book..I think it suited him to have someone to amuse me and we were a happy band of pals. Col helped out a lot, house moves, looking after stuff if we were away, he even saw Lisa first and collected her Dad from the airport when he got home...
As time passed I tried to find Col a girlfriend amongst my pals, usually they had a ready made family, but I wanted him to find someone amongst our crew. We talked a lot and it emerged that his ideal girl was .. well.. very like me. Now my self-esteem wasn't so great and I didn't quite get it, but I did eventually. You see, I had to fill the space I had been trying to fill with some of my pals! We talked loads, Col was really honourable but it was clear to him I wasn't getting the care I needed (nor were the children in my friend's opinions afterwards, which was interesting). I examined my current existence (and to be fair it wasn't much more, school, toddlers, mumsy chat and the domestic routine..) and I wasn't really 'looked after' in the way I wanted, emotionally..
One thing led to another, many hours of soul searching, putting it right in my head, justifying that this was going to be an okay decision for others as well as me.. Until this point we had never been together, despite some people thinking it was odd how friendly we were, but within four months it was done and dusted, I moved out with the children and into a rented house. Col joined us and it seemed auspicious that even the first day the kids didn't bat an eyelid about me having him there. I think the fact that Col also worked away and I was the constant parent, things didn't really upset them too much.
Well ... it was a little more complicated, and to be truthful, quite hard at times, but we were meant to be together...one day before I left I was having a real tough time making sense of the potential anguish everyone would suffer, Col even suggested I stay put for a few months to be sure it was the right call for me, but I was anxious that we never had bad history, you know, when you look back and there is a period you wish was more positive and no room for recrimination..he told me that whilst we might not always have lots of money, might not always have it settled and easy, might have some ups and some downs, he would always look after me and put me first..( I did ask a few times in the first ten years when the ups were coming .. but they did, we worked hard together and I think that working together for the same aims if the best way to grow together in the same direction)
This is the song he bought me in the first few months we were together..
Just in case you have just fallen upon my blog, I am part of the LuckySnappingin2013 challenge which is happening over here and this week Anne has asked up to keep an eye or ear open for ...Serendipitous moments! (and by the way, the challenge is great so far, expanding on our chat and exploring our lives, or homes and our ..heads!)
So.. to Serendipity.. I think the first time I really heard this word was in Sri Lanka in 1982 when I spent almost 4 weeks there travelling about. I went with a boyfriend (later to be my first husband, Ross & Lisa's Dad); I had just finished Uni and had worked the season in a hotel to save up. Funny really, it must have been a bit like when kids go travelling now, but it wasn't quite backpacking. We travelled cheap on minibuses and third class trains but wanted to stay in nicer accomodation than you would expect students to stay in....he was working so he didn't really get the student thing (he never did really, even when I was studying... I think it is how offshore workers regarded tax dodging 'students' (in the voice of the Hardware cast..if you ever saw that series!) ) and really it was just an extended holiday.
Well the word was used to descibe the whole island, like a jewel dropped into the ocean just off India, the gorgeous sun and the blue blue seas and that lush vegetation... you can imagine it was an amazing unexpected discovery for many as the found the island for the first time...
..this is what I found on Wikipaedia ... The name stems from Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka (aka Ceylon), Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. The word has been voted one of the ten English words hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company.[1] However, due to its sociological use, the word has been exported into many other languages.
Many years later in 2004 I had a similar but stronger feeling when we visited Kuramathi for the first time. Life with five children, grandparents to think about and a business to run had been quite hectic and at last we had taken a holiday away, just us and the kids. Now two of them were teens and not home too much, not very chatty and plenty of fetching and carrying..... one of them even came home about an hour before we left for the airport!
So there we were, heading for a remote island, no teen taxi calls, no cooking, no driving, no work demands to juggle with the school run or teatime... we walked off the boat onto a baking hot wooden jetty and all we had imagined disappeared with the reality of it being there, right in front of us, stepping into the postcard paradise for real!!!
The overwhelming heat, the intense bright sunshine and oh that crystal water and fish you had only seen in miniature in a fishtank shop.....all naturally ocurring and ours for two whole weeks.
I was speechless, almost tearful at the relief of the change in routine, the escape from the stresses we had built up over about five years of hard slog... and an hour later as I stood in the shade of the palm trees and subconsciously counted each of my children, ticking off the virtual boxes in my mind as I must have done daily for many years (and for sure I still do.. just logging in my head where every one of them is.. this week it is when I have missed our Zac, noting as I come downstairs each morning that he is not in his room, that the door is open again all night..) .. that moment seeing all my children together swimming, in one place, no demands, nothing to make us leave the moment.. that was and is still is a serendipity moment for me.
But, back to the reality of mizzley Cornish January (to be fair there have been pockets of blue sky, but not pockets you could store many handfuls of pebbles in mind you)...how has today given me some (not quite so momentous ) but still nicely warming moments?... I shall list them..
..the Tremeloes singing 'Silence is Golden' as I drove to collect Kate.
..buying a meal for two for ten pounds at M&S, adding veg and ice cream and stretching it to feed three, almost four and feeling like we were having a real treat!
.. spending the evening with the kids, JB making jewelry (will her creativity just sit still for one!), Kate exercising and showing me snippets of a nice routine combining the pole exercise with old gym and acrobatics, Ross just hanging out.. and doing the dishes (ohh the pleasure that gave me!)
..watching a part of David Attenborough's Africa where an elephant mother refused to leave her dying calf, being glad we were human and that someone invented penicillin
..and last night watching the opening episodes of Gavin & Stacey with two kids who like it too and no husband who is only watching it because he knows I just love it! (sweet guy x)
...oh and having a lovely comment about my ramblings from my pal Yvonne... thank you hun x
Here are the Tremeloes for those who may love that memory too.. it was probably one of the first songs I loved, my brother being eleven years older was well into pop and I was only six..
We used to have to put his radio on the pelmet to get a decent reception .. and if his favourites came on I would bang on the wall under his bedroom to let him know.. sad, but true.. wonder if he remembers.. always the kid sister huh! xx
Difficult word to pick a photo for instantly.. well, not true.. the first one I thought of was my rocks layout but I have posted that before and waxed lyrical about the great feelings of 'topping up' I get when we go there, especially on the seaward side..
A kind of different slant today.. Music!
Uplifting :To raise to spiritual or emotional heights; exalt: music that uplifts the spirit.
well we love a good music session. the other day Col was playing Pink or Robbie or maybe the Undertones 'Teenage Kicks' I expect and Jordan whispered to me that she thinks he may be getting a little deaf... wll that's rich coming from the teenagers huh! i explained that despite our increasing years, we had always had children in the house and had never really had much opportunity to play loud music and please ourselves..
..but the odd evening when they do.. listen out.. lots of Robbie, the Jam, Pink and Charlotte Church (no, not the voice of an angel phase!)
oh and this is a big favourite..
Maybe turning back time is what we are trying to do, but a good session with YouTibe is our way of doing it! Lats New Year and for our 'Zac's going away' party we got loads of music videos and had them on screens in two rooms.. us oldies were the last standing and the teens were laying in bed at 2.30am!!
Great day today, a few hours in town, on my ownsome and that doesn't happen often...so I took time to go spend a voucher in my favourite Crafty Corner dating back to my birthday last September! Oh I enjoyed that... a Cuttlebug folder I have admired in Linda's collection, some adhesive ribbon, paper, alphas (of course!) and some cards and Easter stuff to enjoy with our babe when she is over to sleep!
Hair cut next ( well, roots to be fair) and then bumped into Ross and his pal so we coffee-ed and caught up, then a food shop. Col had been busy too, prepping the mower to last another year and the sun was getting low in the sky when we decided to make a dash for a wander on the beach near the Mount ... followed of course by Domino's , well it is no-cook on a Saturday if I can wangle it so it was the perfect end to a pretty much me-day!.. and it's not even 'my' day til tomorrow!
Thinking about the prompt on the beach walk, I thought I would improvise a little and use a song title , that is music isn't it...
There's not a picture I can think of for my blissful evening.. but sure I'll come up with something as I write! Ross was at the gym, JB at work and Pops out too so it was us two and Kate..who headed for Friday bath and hair, getting ready for the weekend!
Col put on some music videos from our New Year Party and once again I revel at the amazing way music can transport you back to the moment.. the video for Sweet singing 'Ballroom Blitz' will age me but I cannot deny that as I hear the opening bars I have to close my eyes and just listen... I used to play it really loud and if Teddy my pal from over the road was in we'd turn the lights off .. and just listen to it... nothing else, just thought listening to music in the dark was the thing to do in 1973! Maybe that's why I double guess the teenagers in my family as it seems only yesterday that it was me there being 13 or 14!
Ahhh, Port and GN!
A nice glass of port and Graham Norton with great guests as ever makes or a blissful evening and a great start to the weekend... hair tomorrow and Mother's Day on Sunday.. more bliss as Ross has agreed to 'give' me hours of help OCDing my scrap space..
..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..)
This is the accompanying page to Uncle Bill's photo below.. when I saw his pic I just knew these two would make a great double page layout... especially as each of them is my 'picture for Mum'.
I originally blogged this photo on its own back in January when this glorious 'Morning had Broken' for me too..
I chose this Queen song for my music scrap last weekend and really enjoyed working on the LP for the front page..I used greens and oranges in circle shapes to brighten things as I knew I'd have lots of black & white pics.
When I looked through photos I found several old and new ones featuring the same houses at Penberth where Ken & I grew up, and where Dad and his Dad also grew up.
The front page shows the thatched house opposite our home, I hid some other pics of exactly the same spot, and the Penberth Cove sign for the National Trust. On the double layout I used acetates and vellum with the lyrics, the pictures again featured old family photos of Dad & Grandad with colourful pictures of the same spot taken in August when we visited with Colin's Uncle Bill. On the last page I covered a CD with music on vellum and a few new pictures, also one of Kate splashing her feet in Penberth's (always) icey water..so we show 3 generation of my family all on one page.
Mum told me that in the picture of my Dad as a child, he is seen holding a fish, but he didn't like having his picture taken and afterwards hit the photographer with the fish!
..........When we were kids when we were young Thing seemed so perfect - you know The days were endless we were crazy we were young The sun was always shinin - we just lived for fun............
Well away again to Christmas prep... enjoyed the interlude..x
Can't believe it was a month ago I last wrote, it's been a busy time but not really worthy of much comment..but we've had a nice weekend and here's the latest ... Had fun day Saturday at Linda's Just Scrapbooking session at the Centre in Newlyn (what a great place they have made there, so welcoming and so well supported)
We had Music as the theme for the day and we used an old vinyl LP and CDs as a base. I chose the Queen track 'These are the days of our lives' and manged to match a bunch of old photos of Dad and Grandad at Penberth with ones I took in August when we were on the way to the Minack with Uncle Bill... came out real nice and the words fitted how I feel about life there so well...
When we were kids when we were young Things seemed so perfect - you know The days were endless we were crazy we were young The sun was always shinin' - we just lived for fun .........Cos these are the days of our lives They've flown in the swiftness of time These days are all gone now but some things remain When I look and I find no change ....I still love you...
Promise to post the scrapped pages, now my Zacman has showed me how to load my phone pics onto PC (old duffer Mum!)... and for those of you who have read previous posts, Mum's Cornish sun came out on a grey morning as I drove towards Newlyn, and I smiled back.
Just had to tell you...have been flitting about a lot this morning and twice got in the car to hear the best songs ever from my past...there must be about 50 songs which could fall into this category but the two from today were real raves from the grave...
Dave Edmonds : Girls Talk and then Thin Lizzy : Boys are Back in Town...recently revived to great effect in A Knight's Tale..lovely when our oldies get approval in the kid's world... though I was pleased when Walk the Line was big and we overloaded on Johnny Cash and even the kids were onboard.
Girls Talk was a huge favourite when I was at Uni in Exeter, along with Crazy Little Thing called Love (Queen) and Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army...well that'll date us!
