Everything was going so well ...

 

When I don't hear from my sons I know everything in their worlds is going well, and then the other day they both contacted me minutes apart.  I'm used to it and the lack of contact doesn't faze me at all, we all plod along in our own little worlds and connect when we need to ... it's just a boy thing.

The sudden double messaging and wanting to talk to Mum was a real 'sh*t hitting fan' moment for sure!!  

Are you allowed to put your boys up for adoption when they reach 35 and 41 ... no I thought not 😄😆😅

I'm only kidding ... I'm always here for them and they know it, they just need to learn to pace themselves and have crisis' that are more staggered and maybe give me slightly more than a ten minute break between having to offer an ear, advice and the voice of reason.

In a nutshell ... and not giving away too much of their personal information ... my younger son now has Covid for the second time (triple jabbed and careful when out and about so no fault of his own) and my eldest is right at the beginning of a split from his partner after it being verbally on and off for a few weeks.

It makes our home life seem very peaceful at the moment, I shouldn't say that should I something is bound to go wrong now!!  Enough of my waffle anyway but I thought I would make an appearance to tell you why there is a lack of appearances this week.

I'm going to write me a menu plan and do something 'normal'.

Sue xx

What a Lot of Weather!!

Warm soup on a cold, cold day just what is needed.

 But rather weirdly I'm just not in a soup mood much recently, so the last two portions of this weeks Vegetable Soup have been put into tubs and popped into the freezer, which luckily due to me eating a few meals from it over the course of this last week finally has some space for homemade things to go in.

We have thick snow falling outside at the moment, but I really don't think it will stick for long as the huge flakes dissolve so quickly if you catch one, and also the air temperature seems much warmer than the last few days.  Mavis doesn't like the snow at all, and after dashing out to go into Alan's patio doors on seeing them shut she immediately tippy-toed back into mine and settled herself back in bed.

I hate seeing huge old trees being uprooted and crashing to the ground, but I was especially sad to read on Facebook via my sons girlfriend that a gundogs kennels have suffered the loss of 13 of their dogs.  They were electrocuted when their kennel runs were electrified after being hit by a power line that was brought down by a falling tree.  Two Cockers and eleven black Labradors lost their lives so sad.

So much sadness, but also so much bravery being shown by so many people during all this bad weather ... and as for the three idiots that wanted to go in the sea for a swim and had to be ordered out by the Coastguard ... words fail me!!

I hope all my blogging buddies and readers are staying safe. 💗

Sue xx

Christmas is Coming ... Just Do It YOUR Way

 

Christmas is coming in at us at a pace this year.  

The Christmas ads are urging us to spend, spend, spend more than ever before.  Seemingly because of last year we are all being encouraged to spend twice as much this year.  Yes, we were 'confined to barracks' so to speak, but most of us managed to muddle through with the help of alcohol, food and television.  Do we really need twice as much money spent or food to eat this year?  Now I actually like watching Christmas adverts on the whole, after all they make a pleasant change from insurance, funerals and charities begging for just £2 of your money once a month for life to save all the poor little doggies ... for God's sake spend the £50,000 the advertising has cost you ON the actual doggies!! Sorry for the little side rant, where did that come from!!  What I was going to say was at least they show happy families, nice food and glamourous people in evening attire doing ridiculous things clutching bottles of perfume.  How the other half live eh!!

But the pressure on parents must be enormous these days, it seemed bad enough when my two were little all those years ago and I remember spending more money than I should have at the last minute due to advertising pressure.  But spending the following weeks child benefit and thus the food shopping money on a couple of extra gifts for each of them to open under the Christmas tree never made them happier or made Christmas 'more special'.  What made it special was time with us, playing games together, visiting their grandparents and playing snooker with Uncle Graham.  Those are the memories that they treasure now in their 30s and 40s.  (It always shocks your opponent when you play snooker or pool left-handed and you are a right-handed person ... those lessons were worth it!)

And while I understood the need for sparkle and early fairy lights last year why are there so many houses fully decorated already ... and I hasten to add a lot of these have been up and twinkling through windows in the dark of the evening since October. 

 Pumpkins and Christmas Trees a lovely double celebration ... gosh it must get confusing 😁😂

Of course there are those that say this ☝

And yes you are more than entitled to your opinion, but I am firmly in the camp of at least wait until the 1st December.  I mean think of the layers of dust .... or do you actually dust your Christmas tree?  I mean I see December as the once a year month I have off from dusting, I just lay out a garland, stand cards on every surface and warn everyone NOT to write their names in the dust or Santa will be cross. 🎅

But my main message is, no matter what everyone else says ... me included ... do Christmas your way and resist pressure to spend more than you can afford to spend.  If you have thousands in the bank and no other use for it, ignore all the frugal bloggers making Christmas crackers out of newspaper and trees out of twigs and wrapping gifts they bought in the January sales and just blow it on all the Christmas things we are told we need and have to have to enjoy the holiday season, the Christmas bedding, the cushions, the crockery, the magazines, the Advent calendars, the excessive gift buying BUT and yes it is that great big but ... if you don't have that much just keep things simple.

Watch the Christmas movies, you know the ones that started on the Christmas Movie Channel and Channel 5 on 1st October and ones that make you go 'awww' when the girl always gets the guy, the dog always get a new home, and Santa always saves the day.  Read the books ... the charity shops always have lots of brilliant children's Christmas books at this time of year.  Have a games day, or a Harry Potter marathon movie watching day with popcorn and hot chocolate.  In short do the things that make the memories ... one day in the future that could be what you treasure the most.

When asked a few years ago about his favourite childhood memories of Christmas Day, one of my sons said it was the year we got wrapped up and walked on the beach in the afternoon and thought we were in quicksand when it got boggy, but his Dad saved the day and rescued us.  The Game Gear that we had maxed out the credit card to buy was third on the list ... second place went to the mint flavoured Vienetta that we had instead of Christmas pudding.

It puts a lot into perspective doesn't it!!

Sue xx

Walking into Autumn ... and Trapping the Sunshine

After a weekend of not enjoying her walks, suddenly yesterday Suky found her stride again.  

We wandered along the high bank that comes between the flood defence field over the river from the caravan park, and the mixed area of skips, hardstanding and general detritus that a caravan park throws up over to our right.

It doesn't sound like a good walk does it, but it's good if you keep your eyes on the nature and greenery all around you, watch the sheep through the gap in the trees ahead and the horses in the field and stables beyond the skips, ignoring the deserted steps, fridge-freezers and various caravan parts that litter the ground waiting to be enough to be collected for scrap metal, or called into service in some unexpected way by the campsites brilliant handyman. 

Suky loves it when it's just the two of us and lots of delightful doggy smells, she runs ahead then stops and sinks her face into the long grass burying her face in the smells that she loves so much.  Dogs can pick up so much from the scents around them and to see her enjoying herself makes me smile as I catch up and then overtake.

Two minutes later she streams past me again, her little curly tail waggling away in her happy rush to find the next delicious odour on her adventure.  We took our time and as I stood and took some photos and drank in the fresh air and blue skies it was on my mind that Summer is over.  Best to enjoy any patch of blue sky that comes our way and really make the most of it.

So when we got back to the Van I watered the houseplants ... Van plants? ... and put them out on the decking for them to soak up some sunshine for a few hours.

Later in the day the regular coolness came back. 

The nights have been drawing in quickly for the past week or so, and each evening I go round the Van closing the curtains on the shady side and making sure the curtains on the side that catches the evening sun are wide open.  As soon as the sun dips low in the sky all the curtains are drawn and for a while the Van fells cosy and warm.

 I've only succumbed to the central heating a couple of times, usually in the morning and only for an hour or so even then.  Free heat is good heat so trapping any warmth from the sun is good, once again this year I have had a gas bottle that has lasted me far longer than is usual.  So each morning my shower feels like a game of Russian Roulette ... will this be the day that I get the drenching in ice cold water as the gas runs out and the boiler switches off?

I've been lucky up to now ... but how long this luck will last I have no idea.

Sue xx

Completely Out of Sorts

I have been having a bad few days.  

Yes I know myself that these too will pass, indeed I am already coming out the other side.  But walking the Black Dog as well as the Pug is tiring, demoralising and just plain shite.

I can't talk to the one person I would love to talk to about it as he has absolutely no comprehension of depression.  It's all in your head  he says ... YES, I FUCKING WELL KNOW IT IS I retort.

Marriages can't survive this, lives barely can at times.

But it has, they have.  Hey ho the sun is shining!!

Things being up in the air with selling in Wales hasn't helped.  Alan working all the hours under the sun and then visiting the Van only to do more work, sleep and needing to be fed hasn't helped. 

I am one for action, for doing, for accomplishing things quickly.  

Decisions and action in my world have to be close bedfellows.  Talking, planning, setting off, doing a bit and stalling are the absolute opposite.  I need to pack a bag and vanish and come back when everything is done and dusted ... oh if only life was that simple.

There I've whinged at you all.  There's no sympathy required in the comments or messages telling me to pull up my big girls pants and just get on with it.  I know all that,  you'll only get my back up... 

AND THAT COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS JUST NOW   

Sue xx

❤

Just Be kind, Inane Chatter and Saving Lives

We need to be kind in these crazy Covid-19 fuelled days.  

Be kind to people even if they do come close looking at you as though you are about to murder them with a sneeze.  Be kind to people you don't know and maybe even more importantly be kind to those that you do.

It's hard when you're cooped up with someone day in day out, but being kind to those closest to you should always be a pre-requisite of day to day living.  It's easy to forget and to not give those that you love the most the same telephone voice you  that you give everyone else.

I do my best, but I'm not perfect.  But Alan is still alive so that's saying something ... surely!!

I was kind to a wasp yesterday, after a false start. 

 I was busy washing pots, daydreaming as you do, half looking out of the window at the birds splashing in the birdbath in the old rhubarb bed, half watching as the dried on bits of pasta gradually dissolved as I scrubbed and scrubbed at the baking tray, when I heard the littlest of thuds on the windowsill.  I looked up and there was the body of a wasp, legs upwards.  I'll see if I can revive him when I've finished the pots was my immediate thought.  So I did, I finished the pots and then got a spoonful of sugar added a few drops of water to form a sticky mess and put it near the prone wasp.  It showed no interest, so I gave him the littlest of pokes.  Nothing ... as dead as a dodo and almost as stiff.  Oh well I thought, and put his little body in the compost bucket ... I'm nothing if not environmentally friendly, ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that.

Then an hour or so later when I was putting something else in the compost bucket I moved it slightly and there behind it was the body of another wasp.  Aha ... thought I this is the one that fell off the window!!  So I repeated my sugar, water, spoon trick and put it right next to the prone, but legs still kicking wasp.  Immediately his little proboscis started twitching and he climbed up, making a pretty remarkable recovery.  I gave him a minute to drink up some of the sugary water and then took him and the spoon outside and placed them near some flowers. 

I don't know how long he lasted or where he is now, but a little life saved for how ever long it lasts is worth feeling pleased about. 

I'm kind like this on a daily basis to all the little insects I find in the sheep's water buckets, fishing them out with pieces of grass or leaves and putting them on the grass to dry out.  A life a day is my current rate of rescue.

Every little helps ... to quote a famous supermarket that cares not a jot for bugs!!

Sue xx

Corners of Home, Waffle and Inane Chatter

I was recently asked if after over twelve years of blogging I ever run out of inspiration for a post, run out of things to say or simply want to stop.

Well I have stopped blogging a couple of times, but always come back.  I have run specific blogs for year long Challenges and usually pretty much seen them through, there has been an odd exception ... I mean I got to December once on a year long challenge and then gave up!!

I have seen blogging buddies come and go and still somehow I am still here with over 600 views a day on this particular blog, my old blog had a much higher following and higher viewing figures but I never let that make me carry something on.  The secret to continuous blogging is that although you are letting the world in on your ramblings you are rambling mostly for your own benefit.

It's like I'm talking to myself, my fingers run over the keyboard as fast as the words whizz through my head.  Some days I can be lost for what to say on that days post, then a walk round the paddock with the dogs or a photo loaded onto the computer from my camera will trigger a whole myriad of words tumbling from my fingers to the keyboard.

A simple photo of a corner of home can trigger a post.

Someone asking for a recipe can mean I set to and photograph myself making something.  The recipe for these muffins is over on my other blog, where today the theme is potatoes ... see I can waffle on about anything!!

You can see for yourself here ... Challenging Myself

I have readers who have read my inane ramblings for years, some have vanished completely, some pop up when I least expect them too with a comment or an email and it's nice that we have a roving band of blogging fraternity.

I have met a few fellow bloggers, and quite a large number of readers when they have ventured into my area.  One lovely reader swerving up and onto our drive with such speed her poor husband who was behind the wheel of the car and was suddenly instructed to turn right ... immediately ... had no idea why his wife wanted to visit a random house on a Welsh hillside, but he took it in good fun once his heart rate had returned to normal over a mug of coffee while he drank in the liquid and the calming view.

But always we have gotten on well,  drank coffee, ate biscuits and waffled on together in real life.  And that's why I think I find it so easy to have ideas for blog posts, I am literally just chatting to my friends over a cup of coffee and a keyboard.

Nice to have you out there .... you are out there right?

Hellooooo!!

Sue xx