7 plus 1 plus 99...maybe!

My weekend:

7 kinds of bread at the Pendeen Market (Saturday)

So we took advantage of some fab weather and a favourable tide and got a few hours 'out West' yesterday.. only ONE place to head when you are in the boat and the weather is fine!

Zoomed in : Penberth (Rowe family?!

I am kind of trying to think of a tenuous link to why this should be a picture for 99!    Maybe there are a number of captions available:

'What do you mean a taxi to Hayle will be 99 pounds?'

'Do you know how many spots are on my dress?'

'How many different ways are there to wear hair extensions?'

'What is an ice cream with a chocolate flake in it usually called.. and why!?'

Windows ..of opportunity and a small window

Well I waited to picture this small window at St Levan Church today.. It was my Dad's birthday last week.. He would have been 92 ... and he died aged 47 so it has been a long time .. and his Anniversary is next week so I always make sure I have been this week, it was windy and blustery but we left carnations and chrysanthemums which will be quite hardy.  

 I plan.. as I have forever.. to get a headstone for him and Mum but somehow it always remains a plan and not an action.

I used to think it odd when my step-grandmother could tell you dates and ages of people no longer here but as I get older I understand .. Jordan and I sometimes say we should have a day of the Dead like in some Latin countries so we could celebrate their lives but somehow we are just too British, don't you think!

Daffodils are making an appearance 'out West' and I spotted a whole field of them near Penzance..I guess the Scilly Isles have been sending them to London markets for several weeks already..It is so mild down here.

Breezy though today and the kite surfers at Marazion took the chance .. or is that their 'windows of opportunity'

It is a phrase we also are aware of this week, things to decide on and plans to get sorted as our planning for two factory type units jn our field is up and the three objections are from our nearest neighbours .... but have been negated by the agencies concerned.. as I put it .. We and Cols dad live next to the workshops so if it's okay for us what would it affect someone 100 yards away?. and after all I am not planning to build a nuclear power station or a pig farm!

..and I thought this view of my special place in cartoon mode was cute.

Vulnerable..draw on your reserves.

Over at Lucky Snapping here.. Anne has asked us what we do when we feel Vulnerable..

What do you do when you feel vulnerable, what do you eat, what do you say, how do you dress, whom do you talk to, what do you avoid doing, what do you do much more ?


Do you dress in bright colors, do you go clubbing, do you hibernate, do you go for long walks, do you cuddle your Teddy in your PJs all day, do you read a book, do you raid your local supermarket for chocolate, do you look at yourself in a mirror and do faces ?

We all have our own small things we do to try and feel better and I would like we share them with each other, as we never have too many ways of trying to feel better, do we ?

This week, we open a massive savings account ( at least one that won't go bust, LOL) and we all deposit our little secret remedies. At the end of the week, we all will feel richer and more prepared to fight grey days, would they come.

I like the idea Anne has of banking good feelings and suggestions for when we feel low and vulnerable. I don't think I have as many of these days as I did when I had teenagers, money worries and dependant elderly relatives...perhaps when I do have a low day I look back and remember what a really low day was... but I am also grateful for those experiences as they put today and other people's worries and problems into perspective..

Funny too, Col always liked a comment he heard on the radio, someone was asked the secret of a great marriage.. it's all about banking the love and  great feelings when you have them and drawing on them when life brings stresses and frustrations which may mean you don't get on so well.. I think we all have days when we have to draw on the love bank to make us feel like we love the other one as much as yesterday..
.. so I guess the vulnerable days can be counteracted by  bank of good vibes too?

I think ticking some boxes is one of my ways to get back on the horse.. get busy, clean up, tidy, put some order back in and see the fruits of my efforts.. (I am not hot on housework and have inherited from my Mum the enjoyment of a good tidy which can actually be noticed rather than being on the case all the time and never having a thing out of place..)

I have mentioned it before but cannot leave it out.. in the summer I love to top up my reserves with a trip 'out west', preferrably on the boat, but failing that just for a visit.  The granite of the cliffs out towards Land's End remind me how some things will always remain constant, like your history and where you really came from, where you feel you belong..it's like some kind of spiritual reserve.. knowing that when I am there it has hardly changed in 50 or 500 years..and that for me gives me a link to my past which was all too short..

 It's interesting that as I look through all my pictures I realise two things more.. that most of best ways to stock up is to go to the sea anywhere, in fact just recall days there, perhaps through revisiting my scrapbooks..



If I were a salmon this is where I would be heading..



Kuredu, memories of hot sunny evenings, always beside the sea..

I have one other way to lift the spirits.. but I am setting that now as a follow on for next week's challenge.. so see you there tomorrow!

BFF?

Well I have prompted my blog friends to explore the stories of the BFF Best Friends Forever... and here I am wondering if I ever had one?  It's not a sad thing, it's just I don't remember ever having a friend I was that way with, you know, inseparable, had to sleep over all the time, couldn't go a day without talking to...

..I grew up in a small community where most of us were related, our parents were cousins and despite us not being very closely related like first cousins we had a common history and even now we share the same memories and we have not fallen far from the trees.. 

As I was kind of an only child, my brother was 11 and at Secondary School when I was born, perhaps I grew up happy enough to not have someone around me all the time..I recall my eldest daughter commenting once that she would hate to live alone, and that was at a time when all I thought she wanted was to be away from us.  Living in our extended family has definitely made all our kids able to enjoy company but also make a space for themselves when they needed some quiet.

At our local school, St Levan, we often had children coming to us for only a few terms, their parents worked at Porthcurno Cable & Wireless Station and would often be moved around after a few years, others had Dads in the Coastguard Service and again it was a shame when a new friend had to move away when you were just getting to know each other. 

I remember Alison Normanton, and her sister Carol, gorgeous girls with blonde curly hair, at our Junior school. They wore uniform gym slips and shirts and ties but we didn't have uniform, I guess it was from their previous school.. they really stood out in the year photos.   Alison was so funny, she got a big telling off one day for miming the story across the desk to me as our Head was reading us some tedious book on a Friday afternoon.  Two years or so and they were gone, I think to Wogga Wogga(?) in Australia, we never did do well on the pen-pal thing though.

Other times names cropped up many years later.. I recall a cute little lad called Nicky Nash, I think a bit younger than me, but I had a soft spot for him when I was about 7, you know how cute 5 year old boys are when you are getting gangly at 7!
Turns out he is now a captain with Princess cruise ships, though my Zac has not met him yet, and he only lives about five miles from here, even though he left the school after a year or so..story goes he hit one of his ships against a rock or something and got the nickname Crash-Nash!

Probably my best girl friendships came at 16 when some new girls joined our group to do 'A' levels, we stayed in touch after we all went to Uni but it kind of tailed off when we all got married and didn't stay too friendly. Now I bump into them sometimes, but it isn't the same, again we are all close to home and have raised our kids, in fact Ross often comes home with a new Facebook pal and turns out I was at school with their mum!

Of course I had almost forgotten my best childhood friend, Teddy, I have written about him before., last year this time actually.. here!  He lived right opposite me, about three years older and was probably more like a brother growing up than my teen hero!
I was a sweet gullible thing, believed everything he told me...and this is the best one.. In July 1965 Ronald Biggs the infamous Train Robber escaped from prison and it must have been on the television and the radio (we didn't have  TV til I was 9) as big news. Teddy let me into a huge secret....

'you know that Ronald Biggs who escaped from prison.. (not sure I did to be fair!)... well he is hiding up Jonack Lane, near the crabpot stands'

                            ... well, you know, I didn't know whether I believed him, but I sure as hell didn't go up that Lane for ages!

Even when I moved in 1973 we stayed in touch, met up for lazy Saturday lunches and evenings listening to Roxy Music and Bowie, (and for this musical influence I thank him wholeheartedly) but again marriage beckoned to other people..even though lots of people thought we were a pair!... and we lost touch, but now and then I see his family and hear his news..

Impossible not to..love the view!

..and impossible not to appreciate the bright blue skies, the gorgeous much-missed sunshine and the blustery winds as we went out west today!   After the grim, grey week both weatherwise and in my body and soul it was fantastic to blow the grey cobwebs out and enjoy these scenes at Porthcurno.

My faith in camera phones was restored when I looked at these, I bemoan the phone for it's impossibly rubbish camera but really I ask too much of it to work indoors in a not well lit house. Like me, give the phone some sunshine and good vibrations and it comes good! ;-)

Those who know me will notice that I have included a gorgeous little springer spaniel doing what they do best; chasing sand, running for all they are worth and getting good and deep to ensure the spaniel aroma is on max-setting when they get in the car!  Three more of them arrived together just as we were leaving.. crazy dogs, they launch themselves off the cliffs with a leap of faith / stupidity that usually comes good, quite simply they are energy on legs, in my experience the more you walked them, the farther they would run! xx

The cobalt blue sky as we left the church having taken flowers for Dad (91 yesterday).

Col remarked on the simple vapour trail of the plane and pondered on the conversations taking place above us.. champagne in First Class, just cruising over Land's End etc..

Certainly I topped up my levels today..and red pepper soup at the Logan Rock beside a log fire was the perfect end to the trip out..xx


Oh and here, somewhat belated is my February visit to Porthcurno for 'the View'

February



 

January

...still quite barren from a growth point of view but much brighter and rougher today than in January..

365/362-3 Special - something I'd change..

Mmm, well it's been like a holiday..well a holiday where you get lots of R&R. We are not known for getting ourselves out of bed early, and with late nights too we have been living a midday to midnight life the past few days.  Not lots to report, just enjoyable lazy days with or without a houseful of various family.   Lovely evening Friday night with a niece and her family, really great, want to do more of that!

I had the children for a bit on Thursday and the docs checked on no3 who is still breech but they are going to try and turn 'it' on New Year's Eve...mm, not an area of my expertise but worth a try to avoid a caesarian they think...if it works she is just back to normal plans for delivery and after two fairly easy ones that would be nice..we will see..

Col's brother arrives for a few hours later Saturday so that will be just right, not amongst the hubbub of young children and some time to just catch up...oh and make a big curry!

Special..this picture a cousin sent me over the holiday, she thought I might like it.. sure do..

it is of my Mum at St Levan sports Day back in 2003. She is third from the left, in the grey lurex type trouser suit (ahhh don't you ove Daxon). I can see her hand movements and imagine her talking about something and listening to Penny next to her (who grew up with my brother) and her Mum Val (on the left)   Gill's Mum Auntie Jean is quietly watching and listening to my Mum, obviously on local catch-up mode!  Funny really as Val, Mum & Jean are the mothers of my core bunch of pals as a kid..we were cousins but may as well have been first close cousins as we spent so much time together..

.....ummmmmm. something I'd change...

Funny really as in life we seem to spend quite a bit of time wishing things were different.. the days sunnier, the weeks longer or the pounds easier to lose!  But then you are asked the question...ummmm...probably for me the amount of time it will take to make my extension, the mud and upheaval..the digger, the skip, the blocks, the days rained off, the choosing of windows and doors and the just watching wishing it would be all done and I could be sitting in there in the summer evening sun...

.. I just asked Zac and our biggest moan in our lives is .. 'the weather'!!!

 swap some of this...





for more of this....xxx

365/356-7 Something Red..and Green

Oh I am loving these latest prompts, no-one could find it hard to find pictures for these most festive of colours. As you may have read before my house has many bits of redness, walls in the kitchen and carpets in most of the rest of the house. Being granite and kind of dark inside when you wish for light, the red makes up for it with warmth.

I am writing on Saturday but I think my Christmas break officially started on Thursday when I got to have the girls overnight.  I was laid back Thursday, just let them play at home so by Friday morning there was a need to get out.. and get out we did.. firstly Ross cut my holly.. yes, he got what he called promotion to 'tree cutting son'.. haha, not like Zac is fighting for that job really!   The weather was due to turn wet wet wet again today so I figured grab a window of dryness and get cutting.

 April and I took the girls and Pops came out too, we all like to consider the main branches, whether they are prickly enough and how they will look when pushed into the corner of my kitchen.   

The tree is now in the porch and Zac and I are going to hang it up soon.

After this we went over to Porthcurno and Kate came too, it was not cold or windy but there was a big surf coming in. Ross went off and took some photos for my monthly view in case we don't get that way during January Week 1... he is buying into it with me.  For anyone who is wondering what I'm on about, have a look at the pre-January notes here: 2013 Blogging.

....I must also take this chance to introduce to our 365+1 crew a new recruit for 2013, Joy from the USA and I found each other and as she is new to blogging and I suggested she might like to jion us next year to use ur challenges and photo prompts to give her something to strat a blod enty about.., you know how one blog comment and 'Next Post' browsing can bring you to reading someone's blog.  Joy has joined our challenge and I am following her, you can catch up with Joy here.

the best of days..

The main reason for the trip out west..we took flowers to my Mum & Dad..it's as much part of Christmas as the things we all do at home.. special places and people, all of them.

I had to go out for an hour so left Ross and April in charge.. well the girls were in charge really but Ross had two trumpcards: a tired baby girl and Elf, the movie..he is proving to be quite an Uncle..

By the time I got back Zac had arrived straight from college..and Lisa & Tom soon after , so a quieter evening. Kate at work but when she got hom, ready for bed I was struck by how alike she and Zac look..



.. and the red & green for your Christmas album..

a robin at Porthcurno and Zac securing my holly in the kitchen today..

fully dressed pictures tomorrow..xx

365/349-51 health-blanket-wealth

Well despite my good intentions here I am on catch up again.. but I have been following the trail and sneaking a peek at everyone's blogs even if I haven't managed to comment!  Good on everyone for their efforts, I feel kind of flawed in that I didn't join 365+1 until about day 20 but I think it would be wierd to play catch up now.. (and to be fair I was retrospectively blogging our holiday well into January)

So.. what's new here.. well the health of us all is okay now.. Kate is on recovery mode and will be back at school tomorrow but she has been laid low a bit, sore neck and not much appetite, but no more sickness and hopefully we contained it! (she didn't move off the sofa all day Thurs / Friday so no worries she was trailing it around the house.. that girl knows how to do 'sick' but at least once she is better she gets bored and is up pretty soon!)

I don't have pics of the health or the blanket on the day but here is our Lilly modelling the blanket one day a while back!

April and I were on tidy mode Friday so I have been having a great positive feeling about the forthcoming weeks. It is so nice to have the kids grown up, they all seem to pitch in with plans and chores and getting great gifts for each other, and with JB baking too my pre-Christmas suddenly got a lot more of a group activity than a trial for me alone and then the feelings of martyrdom that used to accompany it! (but none of that, it is for years gone past!)

I have missed the input of our Mums a lot in recent years but now having almost grown women about again, even if that makes me the elder, it is .. all good..xx

 

Saturday was a lazy day, Col in recovery after the long week driving and visiting customers. I was due out in the evening and as everyone was out I languished in a long bath.  JB's chap was part of a group singing the Messiah in Penzance so we went along to watch. It was quite long but lovely, though church seats have not got any more comfortable since I went as a child!  I whispered half way through that at this point my Mum would produce some sweets to make the time pass a little., so Jordan put her hand out.. another time when I realised I am failing in some of the 'Mum' duties my Mum was so reliable for! ;-)

Today we went for lunch in St Ives, Jordan was working so we went there, I had a gorgeous cauli and cheddar soup, full of cheese and milk, somewhat different to my curried cauli soup handed down from his Mum's days at WeightWatchers!

St  Ives was gorgeous as usual, a host of independant and very tasteful shops, though fairly expensive too.. a reflection of the wealth it enjoys and attracts.

the Porthminster Hotel used to have a dreary car park opposite and this is the underground car parking with Spa they have built in its place.. you wouldn't believe they could use the space so well.

 

 And tonight was a wealth of Christmasness for me and the start to our official Christmas week.. carols at St Levan, abley (sp?) organised by Lynne and her posse. I loved being there, seeing so many people I knew and chatted with someone I was at primary with, we laughed and agreed we were still really twenty five years old.. or was that ten!?  I told her about the blog and how I always think of the first (of two) times I ever sat on a horse.. it was her pony and I was about nine.. I never did get the whole pony thing!

The church was lit with candles and fairy lights and we stayed behind a while for mulled wine and snacks. Ross and the others ended up planning a festive get-together in the next few weeks and I came away with a feeling that in the plan of things, in the plan of making sure family traditions and links are secured 'my work is done'.

.. for good measure a healthy looking Ross & April buying into my Christmas magical mystery tour!

365/319 Nostalgic

So this is what most people think should be my middle name ... (and to be fair is much preferable to the middle name I do have!!) I stop well short of being one of those people who has a 40's styled house, or one who wears a certain style of clothing relating to a period.. but I do fit the definition perfectly..

Nostalgia : a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time
I read Anne's definition and blog and understand that slant and how it can be a painted negative emotion but mine is more 'wistful' and 'sentimental' purely I think because I had a lovely childhood and as I moved home at 13 it compounded the fact that I was leaving not only a place but also a time.

The place has hardly changed since then and some of the same people live there still and I can go back and reminisce about things so it's a nice feeling all round... my family refer to a return visit (it is only about 15 miles away) as Mum's Nostalgia Tour and they tease me about taking new family members there so I can recount the tales to a new audience!

But I know it is them teasing me and one day, in fact already, they have tales of their own about Penberth.. Ross' first paddle, seing a snake and going there with Will & Michele in the bitter cold and with Uncle Bill taking river photos.

this is a double layout I did when one of Ross' friends got the Nostalgia Tour treatment out west a few years ago....

... and Nostalgic feelings can be conjured up even about quite recent things.. our Zac had hours of fun with Squawky the parrot when he was young. It just says everything you say back to it and seems to be a favourite with toddlers forever...he was featured with vintage model cars in a nauticalia magazing I saw in the office today, of all days!

.. we have one still and I think it is the third or fourth we have owned since Zac's! Lilly likes to make him wear a Pirate's hat too!

One for Linda!

 

(I am blogging early tonight, planning to watch Erin Brockovich with Ross & April..(I love that film.. @*$%! ugly shoes! ).... oh and off to find a fatted calf.. Zac is home for the weekend!!)

365/314-6 Ponder..warm..memories.

Hi.. me again! Just playing a minor catch up. I could post three times and pretend they are daily entries but hey.. I even think the three words work well together as a phrase which fits well to today and this special time of year when we remember all those we have lost, not only the soldiers in the wars.

So, to recap.. Friday.. poor Col, a tough few days driving and spending time with customers, then a day in the office fighting proverbial fires on the technical front as is the case when you make bespoke units from concept to delivery in about 16 weeks!.. he was quite worn out by the end of the day and was in need of a gin or two!  We have been dieting a bit (well eating a lot less bread, very few cakes and loads less wine and chocolates..yes, eating normally!) the last few weeks with some decent results, and me playing teen taxi also helps us drink less of an evening.. but on Fridays we usually do start the evening with something relaxing!

As you know Jen, Anne and I have been pondering the details of the challenge for next year and we know one of the weekly photos will be a view, so we can see how it grows and changes over the seasons.  I plan to use a view across the field at the bottom of our yard, Col has plans to build a new workshop / shed there so he says the view may not be improved, so i hope to include ths ite and some vegetation to help show the seasons..

BUT my main picture will be of my view across Porthcurno bay.  I have often taken the shot from the top of the hill (just by the place where we had outr wedding meal, the hotel is now holiday lets and one of those flats is on my personal 'Iwantoneofthose' lists!

I chatted to the rest of the family about it (the image I should choose, sadly not about buying a holiday let!) and we agreed that we do get up there, about ten miles away, every month or so and the view will change with sea state and tide, as well as the light quality..and what better excuse to get out there for a walk every few weeks. (It is close to where my M&D are buried so it is a cause for visiting most months in any case, what with special days to remember for them throughout the year)



My view for 2013



So, today I went with Ross & April and another of their pals and we did an extended walk there, not very long, but more than the usual trip.. across the top of the beach, up the steps to the Minack, refreshment break and then onwards along to Porthchapel and up to church and back along the road.  It was fab.. great weather, huge waves, sunshine and a great topping of the usual nostalgia..and they all indulged me so kindly! Crazy old lady!

We decided a view from the top of the beach would give us vegetation in the picture to show the seasons too.. I can't see me using only one of these views!  This is the view over the next headland as you walk from the Minack towards PorthChapel, the seas were huge and as it was almost high tide we didn't get down on the beach..



Porthchapel beach

Yesterday I went to town, got my nails done, a vain attempt to make my scuffed up hands tidy for the Christmas season, and did some bits & bobs for stockings.. yes, they still have all those fillers even at 15 to 26 years old!  But it is great having the young ones to buy for, all those Dot to Dot books and stuff..

Later the girls came over so JB could babysit as we went to Truro with M&D to see Greg Davies (the headmaster form the Inbetweeners) do his stand-up show.  We ate first and the show was really good, a full house and he clearly enjoys and is amused by the whole thing he does..xx 

Lilly was very happy with her new jumper and this duck which Dom helped her make a shiny foil helmet for.. but she made me promise to 'fix the red-eye' before I posted this.. Lilly in her warm new fleece.

I just love those fleece jamas too, she loves them because they are more boyish and have dinosaurs!

Memories always feature heavily whenever we drive to the west of Penzance, especially so when we get close to the sea. It's amazing how replenished I feel being there, it's as if the sea is a link to the life we had as kids, as if the same sea touched my family all those years ago..

.. I also loved this shot of the sky as we drove away, towards Sennen, I always love when the sun peeks through the sky, like someone somewhere is saying Hi..

.. it was Mum's birthday last week, she would have been 87. Every day I hear myself say something or I feel something which makes me understand better the way she was..

This is an old layout I did of the Minack which kind of says it all really...

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 >>