Remember, remember.......

November is upon us and it unseasonably warm. The trees are looking wonderful because we have had no frost here yet to knock them to the ground.
I remember many a Firework Night as a child absolutely FREEEZING trying to keep warm by the fire but not this year I doubt.

 Adam is now firmly ensconced in the house in Leeds with his friends. He has been trying hard for months to find a job and has finally got one in HMV in Leeds. It is a huge store with 2 floors and he has been there two days and loves it. Phew, that's one weight off my mind!... a huge one!
 He popped back home with a bad foot after a skateboard accident a few weeks ago but is right as rain now.

Roger was knocked to the ground face first by a reversing van last week! He was on the phone to Adam and suddenly was sent flying forwards and his phone went the opposite way across the concrete!! What with his bad hands and knees anyway, the force went up his arms and down his sides. After a couple of days rest he too is now fine!

Thomas hasn't had any accidents (touch wood) and is getting on very well in his job in the City.

Arsenal seem to be picking up a bit lately...obviously they couldn't get much worse!! :)

Here's a couple of photos I took recently when I finally remembered to take the camera out on a walk with Lewis!

September

In comes September... best month (as it's my birthday month!! )

Very mixed weather as usual.

I drove up to Derbyshire in the Peak District on Wednesday, to see my friends Margie & Mal and their lovely Cavaliers while they were on holiday there.

We had a lovely day, a lovely meal, and Lewis thoroughly enjoyed playing with their "boys"! 

It was a 3hr drive each way  but seeing as I go up to Yorkshire so often, it really didn't seem that far for me.

Lewis

Serge

Branden

Tom is still enjoying working in London, and Adam has been gone up to Leeds and moved in with some friends for about 6 weeks now.. very quiet here!!

Roger walked into the garden the other evening and picked an apple off the tree and came and sat in the lounge to eat it while watching TV.

Lewis was sitting staring up at him as he likes apples, but Roger said in a gruff voice "NO", as we don't like him staring when we are eating.

Lewis ran quickly out of the room and we thought no more about it.

About 3 or 4 minutes later, Lewis came trotting back into the room with a pear in his mouth from the garden and lay on the lounge floor eating it!!! :)

Clever boy!! :)

Sparrows, horse-chestnuts, and Sudocrem!

June was very cool and rather damp after our strange hot April/May, but it seems to be bowing out with a rage of sunshine and heat... 30C here!

I found a baby sparrow on the paving slabs yesterday.  I know it is best to leave them and their mums will find them, but I was worried about my cats and dog, and also, even if the mother found it on the ground, there is not much she could do with it there.

I held it up to let her see it, then placed it into some shrubbery and hope something comes of it.   She can at least feed it with flies etc and hopefully it may fly one day, although I can't see how it can take off if it is on the ground! :(

Hoping our huge horse chestnut tree in the front garden doesn't get the dreaded canker again this year.  It  had it last year, was ok the year before that, but had it the year before.

I have noticed hundreds of others are suffering the same, but they don't die but start from scratch again the following year.
The leaves go brown in July and fall off. It looks very strange along the hedgerows to see all these brown trees in the midst of the summer green.   Mainly in the S.E. of England I think.

Lewis has been scratching and biting at his stomach and underneath his rear haunches for the past few days, making big pink lumps everywhere.   He doesn't have any signs of fleas at all, so I didn't know what it was.

Roger had a brainwave that it could be where Lewis lies on the grass with his back legs stretched out the back like a frog!  We have ants on our lawn and if he was bitten quite a few times, he then scratched and nibbled and made them all worse.
A quick smooth on of some Sudocrem and it had all gone the next day......magic stuff, I keep a tub in the house since the babies were born some 23 years ago!  (Not the same tub!)

May has begun, well it's a third of the way through!   Where is the year going?

Beautiful weather for the last few weeks, although I guess we DO need rain for the crops and gardens.

I have started going to watch Thomas play cricket for Matching Green on Saturdays again now, it is very relaxing and makes me feel great when he does well.  (Which he is doing lately with his new bat!!) :)

He scored 59 last week, so had to buy a jug in the pub afterwards!!

Oh the price of success!!  :)

He is also the wicket keeper.

oOo----------------------------------------------- oOo

It is baby bird time of the year again.  We have Great Tits nesting in the mailbox again!

It is hard when you have cats and you also like wildlife.  We had a young blackbird brought in by one of the cats last night.  They are nesting in the ivy on the garage wall.

It is getting near the time for my gall bladder surgery, 2nd June.  I am starting to have the odd twinge again lately.   Glad it will soon be gone.

Today the weather is perfect, and I think I am going to have a rather special day!

My friend Sue, who I went to school with and lived in the same road as, moved to Australia with her husband and young son a few years ago.  We keep in touch by email and Facebook.   She emailed to say she is over here briefly and could we meet up (her sister Sally is here too, from France)

I haven't seen Sue (apart from a school reunion in 1993) for SOOOO long!   We did have some times together from about 1970 - 1977!! :)

Looking forward to seeing Sue & Sally again and reliving the old days! 

Spring has sprung

April is here, we have been through snowdrops, crocuses, and now daffodils, with tulips heads hanging around ready to open a little later on.

The weather is a bit blustery and blowy but I suppose that is March winds and April showers for you!

Took Lewis for a nice walk in Hatfield Forest last weekend.  Owing to the lovely weather it was pretty busy with parents and children with bikes and scooters, pushchairs, and dogs.
Lewis played with lots of other dogs and had a wonderful time, did the pair of us good!

Mother's Day on Sunday, no doubt I will be popping over to Chelmsford to see my mum. Don't know what to take her but it will probably be a plant or flowers.  Because I have always seen HER on Mother's Day, I tend to forget that I am a mum and it's MY day too!! :)

Doctors and drinks

Half way through February already and spring is on its way.
There are snowdrops out and crocuses just starting to open.

Best news of all is that Thomas has got a job in Fenchurch Street in London at an insurance underwriters.
He has been for many interviews up there and the good news came on Monday.

Well done son, we are all very proud of you xx

Today I had my abdominal scan to see if I have indeed got gallstones.
Apparently I have no stones but I have some "debris".
I asked if this meant a shopping trolley, an old boot and a goldfish !!  :)

When I walked into the scan room I could smell the overwhelming smell of underarm B.O. the type that smells like raw onions!  There was only he and a nurse in the room and as he sat next to me, to my dismay, I realised it was HIM!

He then proceeded to say "Take a very deep breath in"!!  AARGHH!!... which was followed by about another 20 deep breaths!  I nearly passed out!

AND it bloody well hurt!!

However, all done now and we shall see what the outcome is after a doctor's appointment.

Watch this space.

This photo is of a pleasant drink in a pub while doing a recce for a wedding I am photographing in May in Saffron Walden.

A rather strange January.

As the title says, its been a rather strange January all in all.

From the day after New Year's Day when I had two very nasty gall stone attacks... through the middle of the month when an old trauma of the lower spine from 2008 came back to haunt me to now.. when when a house move seems very imminent. :)

My abdominal scan is planned for 16th February so they can see for sure if there are any gall stones... and if so they will operate and remove the whole gall bladder.

I have had 4 X-rays on my lower spine to see if there was a break or whatever when I slipped up on the stairs and landed with the lower 2 stairs across my lower back.  At the time the doctor thought Id probably broken a rib at the back and left it to heal, as they do.

It has been playing up recently so we shall see on 31st January what's to be seen.

I have to cut out all fat and red meat and cheese etc etc whilst waiting for the gallstone confirmation, so decided that would be a good time to go on a general diet.

It has been going very well, I'm quite happy eating carefully and have managed to lose a stone.

I really want to get back down to about 12 stoneish  but I will make each target at half a stone intervals. 

Set myself up for success!  :)

Have to move out of our rented house soon, so we are in the process of collecting stuff together at the moment.  Haven't found anywhere yet but its all a vicious circle, do you find somewhere first, or after you give notice!

When we moved to this house, my mind was was locked and I was so depressed all I could do was cry,  I had almost had a mental breakdown with the culmination of finding we were going to have the house repossessed if we didn't sell it quickly.

I hardly remember the move... we did it ourselves with the van and cars over a week, back and forth a  million times.

My medication has me on a level now and the thought of another move in the same way doesn't seem to bother me in the least. 

Also, having lost weight, and being excited at the prospect at losing more, I seem to be in a much happier frame of mind lately.  "Good,  say my family!!! :)

I lost half a stone during the last move, so maybe I will do so again!!  Now that's optimism for you!! :)

I will leave with a photo of me testing the background studio lights in 2007, weighing a bit more than I  want to get back to!