Friday..Fun, Fishing plus..

F is for Friday, fishing and a fun afternoon with some pals.

Also my August Mount view!

Getting reacquainted! July views! Food and more food..etc!

WARNING.. VERY HEAVY PICTURE POST FOLLOWS !! ;-)

Oh my goodness a month has passed since I last wrote, lots of things have taken place, people have come and gone and events have happened, but it is so hard to get back on the blogging horse when there is so much to say.   I know I should just pick up here and run with it but as I kind of diarise it is hard to 'miss a bit'

As a starter I will go the easy route and share my July views..as ever excuse the quality of some of these pictures!

This is the latest July yard view.. I have a verandah almost! 

The kitchen arrives late July so August will see a lot of boxes in my window view, but in July we have used the new room for some dining..

 This is the view into the new room where my window view 'was' ... ahhh we had just got home from a trip to Manchester (more on that later) and Zac was having his last few days with us; also our pals from the States were staying to work on a trolley venture and spend some time ..that's Ben between JB and Colin, food is the theme again here!!

 The view from further back shows that Kate's pole will still find a home, even amongst the building! I will probably lose the red theme on the walls and see if a nice light feeling can permeate the room... at least til I get a red splashback!! hahah... more food!

A little more restful was the Porthcurno July view, slightly ringing the changes, the view from the top of the hill, a peaceful sea, we should have been boating perhaps!..this was just before the glorious weather began.

Ahh Jordan came out boating last week, she is going to be a great boater, learning lots from Colin and never afraid to get wet!  It was a good chance to grab a Mount View, this was about 7pm and the sun was still nice and warm

Annabelle is just fab.. she is smiling and reaching for things and doesn't answer back yet so she is Ross' favourite!!  We had the three girls last week for Lisa & Tom to get a meal out, she is just 25 and I am just so proud of her, a Mum to three lovely girls, working so hard to make their business a success and giving her girls so much fun and love too.



The sofa was full with us two and the girls, I really should use the decent camera instead of my phone, esp in the evenings, but the moments just happens! 


 I have the other sofa view too, Ross and April were great keeping the girls (and us) amused with old style TV via Ross' Apple TV .. Sesame Street, the Magic Roundabout and the Clangers!

 

Since last I wrote Zac has left for his next sea phase, he is out of Seattle for three months and off to Alaska each week, like a geography field trip for work! Glaciers everywhere!

Before he left he had a few days in Southampton for the naming ceremony of the new Royal Princess.. and as you can see his camera is much better than mine!..the Sky walk piece of the new ship lets you walk out 'over the sea' and it has a glass floor!


























Oh hello there!

But it hasn't just been Zac out with the paps.. Col and I went to Manchester mid June to see Robbie Williams, our Christmas gift from Lisa and Tom. I have really enjoyed planning the trip and while there we had a great time, saw some old friends, ate and drank lots and just chilled in grown-up fashion.

Ollie Murs was the support act and I just loved every minute of the stadium experience at ManCity / Ethihad.  Oh and my breakfast at the hotel should no go unmentioned..

When Ollie met Robbie..

Banana waffles of the MalMaison variety!

So now I am going to look at the calendar to see if there are any big events I have missed..of course July is a busy birthday month for us here..Ross turned 27, Lisa 25 and our gorgeous Lilly is 5 today..JB did them proud once again with Cake.. a Genoese sponge with raspberry / strawberry coulis and fresh fruit.
















It's amazing I have been blogging almost five years now as Lilly's birth and my Mum's passing a few months after really spurred me on to put fingers to keyboard and preserve the memory!  I have found it hard to settle into blogging and also scrapbooking the last few months, the house has been in turmoil with the building work and somehow it doesn't make me feel very organised to relax and do cerebral memory things.

I wonder too if maybe five years on I am coming out of the shadows, the worries that if I don't chronicle things for the family 'history' etc that it will pass unnoticed.. I don't know.  

Getting the room sorted and space again to work on some pictures will hopefully give me chance to finish some of the half started scrap projects for Zac and JB.. and anyway with Zac away I have to blog to keep him breast of the family news.

As a PS I have just looked back over the challenges that Lynne and Anne have set and I hope that maybe this post shows just how 'Lucky' I have been with such a busy lovely life and how I am still taking the pics even if I'm not posting every day! 

 I am not sure the life I have sounds very 'Relaxing' as Anne prompted in June but I am thoroughly chilled and when we can Col and I have been grabbing a few hours to lay about and even nipping away for a few days. It is quite strange but very therapeutic, my favourite relax is Sunday brunch in a little cafe in Torquay where there is a free jukebox and we play Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison and lots of other 60s stuff.  Yes, that's our relax, some 'old tunes' on the stereo and some great memories!

Birthday boy and views of June!

So, after a couple of weeks of celebrations here and there somewhat like an Indian Wedding my Col turned 50 on 5th June. We had a few days away on our own last weekend and spent the time in Torquay (again!)  

The weather was fab and we bought this lovely little guy to remember Col's birthday by... we both love this stainless type finish and I think he'll look brill in the new kitchen..the guys in our office bought him a huge hurricane lamp for the decking, but secretly I want it in the kitchen too!

We got the boat in the water finally and have grabbed some time out, though it is still always a little chilly if I'm honest. Last Tuesday Zac and Pops posed for this month's June Mount view, nice to have a variation on the theme..  

June Mount View..

 The good weather has had us eating outside and really trying to grab the week of summer whilst it is here. That's the only trouble in England, you just never know if or when the sun will be back!







I had the girls today while M&D did a car boot and we made mini gardens and had a picnic.  

Annabelle is growing away, she is the cutest thing and, well No 3 just gets carried along don't they!

Lilly is still my glue and glitter girl, she isn't five til next month but wrote this all by herself..

My favourite view of the month in June is definitely the view towards 'where my porch once was. Yes, the new room is all but finished and this is my offering from today... Yesterday Kate won a blow up paddling pool in the shape of a car.. Col and Zac were minding the girls a minute and this was what I found when I came back into the room; they'll do anything to stop the fight over 'who's driving' !!

I am sure there is a lot I should have told you, but hey, hope this catches us up.. I still owe some thought to Lynne's thought provoking quote last week, but I need a little time for that..xx

Land of the Living! Views..

Just saying Hi and yes I am in the land of the living! Just not blog land!

We have had family home for two weeks, the Easter break and a couple of nights away, plus my admin lady has been on long break so I have had to work too!

Love to all, I will be posting my challenge and a mega catch up tomorrow evening! Loves K x

In the meantime, whilst I have a moment here are some of my views to catch up...        

 



Annabelle April 3 months!





April Mount, still grey days here!



Uncle Ross & Lilly chillin' Easter Sunday after Roast!

Chasing my tail..Views and Laughs

Where did that week go.. STS was busy and I was running about with all kinds of family stuff..

Kate got herself a place for college next year, she is going to do beauty but may venture into Travel & Tourism later if she wants to go travel and work..ahh it all comes eventually. And of course we had to go do a bit of shopping afterwards.. 

Ross went to London on a school trip, he does good on these as he is the 'cool teacher' guy the kids like to have accompany them.  Yesterday I had the girls for Lisa to reorganise things at their house, little Lyla is still under the weather two weeks on from the start. She is perking up a bit but it's never easy having a babe that is poorly.

Col goes away for a few days next week but will manage tea with Zac tomorrow so that makes it seem much less like a trial!  He is sorting his van now while I write and we are going to have an hour in st Ives with a bite to eat to make the 'day before he goes' nicer.

I am so far back on the photos, I even forgot that I usually do a Mount view, but who knows, that may come later today..here for good measure are two of my owings..

Window view... can you see what I can see? Yes, a cement mixer just outside.. and you know what that means..

Ding dong the porch is dead! never to be seen again, our blimp on the back of our house is gone!  The builders are great , the concrete for the slab goes in this week and then some scaffolding up to allow them to work all weathers..haha, maybe that will give us good weather for six weeks because we are expecting rain to stop play!

If you compare the yard pictures you can also see the hard work Ross and his mate are putting into the trees and hedges, we are pretty overdue for a tidy up after ten years of letting everything just grow away..



Anne has challenged us to share some laughs this week..nice to lift the mood and share the things which tweak our own funny bones. 

When I think of laughs I had as a kid I remember being in a cafe in Babbacombe with my Mum, on a holiday staying at a B&B in Torquay. (I realise now that Mum must have worked hard, not only to save the money but to actually take a ten year old who was in between playing with dolls and being a teen on a week's holiday to the English Riviera in 1970!)

Well Mum, being a fisherman's widow knew there was rain coming before long so we headed for a cafe., and rain it did, stair-rods rain, you know the type. We sat and drank tea, watching the less weather-wise rush to get cover. One lady, I guess she was quite old, couldn't walk down the big stone steps with a flourish, she had to go one step at a time, you know, the way little old ladies do sometimes.. but imagine watching her do it, in a rush, as fast as she could to avoid the downpour which was well under way, one foot on step, next foot joins it, next step, next foot joins it.. sad but oh so funny when Mum and I realised we were both watching her.. we cried laughing but I think we didn't miss the point Mum said, that one day it would be her who would take those steps one at a time..awhh, we used to remind each other of it as the years went by.. lovely memories..

 As you know we love stand-up comedy and over the years we have seen lots of the more popular acts doing the circuit. With Dave showing Live at the Apollo almost on a loop and so many television shows having snippets of different routines there are some phrases which as a family we use now on a daily basis! 

Micky Flanagan does a piece about telling the careers teacher he wanted to drive a van.. to be told .. 'nah, no-one from this school ever left to drive a van, this school supplies people to carry stuff to the van...'  Col says this was like his school on the Wirral in the late 70's.

We love all his stuff about dating in the 80's, I guess because we were there...'if a girl wants a wine glass with a bed of lettuce with prawns on top, served with the sauce of a thousand island, then that's what she will get..a prawn cocktail'

I have tried to find a Micky Flanagan video you might like, but most of them include maybe bits you would cringe at.. so here is another classic sketch from Rhod Gilbert..we never tire of this story..he has ways of relating a story about the mundane and making it hilarious.

... oh and as I browse youtube, I just have to share this, Rhod Gilbert did 'Work Experience' as a farmer.. will surely appeal to Janice way up there on her farm..

... and lastly here is my Mount view for March, nice to see some people out and about.. and the pockets of blue sky..

The views from here!

Well I am here racking my brains as to why I haven't posted anything since last Monday... no real reason, but in winter I do find I have weeks where I just want to curl up and hide until it's over.. you know the kind of cold-to-your-bones damp days when there isn't much nice going on and not much to report.



Week 4..xxx



Kate had a horrible cold, they always manifest with her as bad ears, throat and she also had/ has an awful night cough, so she was home several days and somehow that throws me out, her not getting going in the morning kind of makes me sluggish too!  Lyla was over a couple of days with April, it's nice to have the family all working together though, JB and Kate seeing plenty of their nieces.  

Lisa came by yesterday with the three girls, Tom was away overnight visiting Zac for a very wet, boggy painball game so we did the girlie day. That was nice, more eating, drinking tea aftetr tea and of course I got to bath Annabelle..lovely! 

It was so lovely going to fetch them all, a super-mum and her tiny baby and two little girls, both in bunches, chatting away to me in a real animated way... they reminded me of the little 'uns in the Sound of Music, you know, the one who is always out of time and shouting loud at the end of the line!

In the evening Col and went out late and saw that new film 'I Give it a Year', good fun, not a must-see at the cinema but lots of laughs even if it was a little chickflickish, an easy night out anyways and a nice end to the weekend...

.....before another day in office-land.  Poor Col, he had an afternoon of it, he tries so hard to keep everyone in the loop, gives them the chance to have an opinion and be part of what we do, then they just make you feel like you should be a lot less bothered and not try to be so personable with the crew!   You know sometimes he hates his job, he says he never did want to work in an office and he never got told at the interview what he would have to do.. that's a laugh, no-one interviews you when you are self-employed do they!  Other times he says he would sack himself if he could!  He just isn't an office bod you see and sending quotes, selling equipment and dealing with funding and projects all means you drive a desk a lot of the week!  



Yard view.

At least at the weekend he got outside and some clearing up done with Ross, lots of granite to move from the new room site.

Meanwhile April and I cleared the porch..so much junk, so much you don't need but don't want to throw away. My Mum's place is becoming more and more a safe haven for things you don't want to 'shedify'.  Also we store some food and drink out there so it had to be brought into the kitchen to find a home, makes everywhere seem crammed and untidy, but I just hope I get more storage and can 'cleanse' it when we are done.



Window view.



I joke that once I have this new room my plan for the next 15 year revival is to have our upstairs and Mums flat made into one and a super kitchen built so we can live out our retirement there..well if I plan it now, 15 years is about right for the birth of a new kitchen 'round here! (all good humoured banter and I do love to ponder a plan for the future.. so you see I am no completely rooted in my past! ;-) )

I used to feel real cabin fever when I didn't get out of the house, but lately I am enjoying the time here just chillin'.  So I never got to POrthcurno or the Mount for my views away from home.. oh dear.. but there's a plan. My Dad's birthday next Saturday so I will venture west with flowers and get my Porthcurno picture for Feb then.



And yesterday Ross & April kindly got me some great pics of the Mount.. better than I could have hoped for.. not sure which one to choose either..  (it is okay if someone else takes them, especially if it was for the challenge!)

January: Views and more views!

What a good idea to have a picture of a scene you see every day from / towards your window.

I have chosen the view from our breakfast bar across to the last remaining original window in our 'dining end' which will be replaced by the end of the year. Col says I have set it in stone now and the pressure is on to get the 'porch ' /old 'lean-to-kitchen' knocked down and an extension built to replace it and extend it for a decent size kitchen / living room, as that is where we all hang out and live. 

We have had planning on doing this for 15 years but have done everything else first, but now renewed and changed the plans a bit, so in 2013 we are doing it!  Col is 50 in June and Zac goes away to sea again late May so I am planning a party before he goes; well you could hardly have a party for Dad a week after Zac goes away could you!  My SIL Tom teases me and Zac about the fuss I make, he said the other day to Zac that he heard a big celebrity was due in the village.. funny guy!  But we enjoy the parties and I think the fancy dress may be storybook theme, so April can be Cinderella as she is so good at dishwashing chores... awwhhh !

So... the extension at least should be ready for the party, even if the kitchen is still under debate and consideration...

So here is my view..correction, here are my views (well you know I can never do just ONE!!)

 

Last 2012/13 Christmastime breakfast!


We just slipped out for half an hour and here is my view which should give us the most variety.. the view of St Michael's Mount from the Marazion slipway. No sign of snow, just that awful Cornish mizzle..a combination of drizzle and mist!

January Mount View

 ..and for good measure the outside of our house where the extension is going to be..

Family update:

The yard is looking empty today as Zac has just left for college and a fortnight's worth os assessments and exams. He says the X-box may stay in the box til after, but I doubt it.

It's going to be a busy few weeks for us now, Col has some time away and that pesky baby no3 is still 'not for turning' so they have been booked in for a C-section in about ten days, so I will be on Nanny mode on and off during January...it was such a shame, but Mum is a petite little thing and it seems the babe is not keen to move round...and we all so hoped this would be uneventful, but surely better than an emergency. 

I feel kind of helpless at this point as I had my brood without too much fuss and I can't offer any real alternative, advice or consolation.  It is a very odd aspect of motherhood when you are mother to an adult who cannot be shielded from discomfort or pain or a situation you would more happily take on in their place...and this is just childbirth, it doesn't bear thinking about if a truly intolerable situation arose..

...and before I sign off to go find my StoryTelling Sunday precious piece I will give you my first choice view, that little square mile of beach and sea out west..

No Snow Porthcurno Jan 2013