Phones or Books

 Dame Jacqueline Wilson has said parents on phones are the cause in falling literacy in children. If the parents don't read, how will the children learn the pleasure of books? Do you agree I wonder?

I can't remember one day of my life, when I didn't read. I can remember, when I had my first baby I used to read while feeding her, especially if it was a book I was enjoying. Then as she got older I read to her while feeding her! And all four of my children were actively encouraged to read. Saturday mornings was a visit to the library. Once one of my son's girl friend, when he was in his twenties. was astounded to hear that's what we did every Saturday and asked why, he answered to change our books of course! 

It wasn't like that for me, my Grand mother, being of the Victorian era, thought reading for girls was a waste of time. I did most of my reading at the library after school. The librarian kept my book and that suited me.. my grand mother didn't really know what time school finished, so that was fine. Also my aunty had books, so I sneaked those to bed and there were some sexy romance ones, so I was well educated in those matters!! And of course my Aunt paid for me to go to that private school, when I was 10, which were the happiest days of my school days, and as a Boarder I loved it. So books were my life and how I lived.. 

It is strange how some people remember you, when I was in a Slimming World group, when living in Billericay one of the helpers there, started to talk to me and said she remembered me because she worked in the library. She told me how all the staff remembered me, because I trooped into the library every Saturday followed by my trail of four children!  

I think children of today are missing out, where's the adventure, the scary moments, the monster under the bed, and fizzy pop and jam sandwiches if you're not reading? 

If there was ever a day when I couldn't read I'd be bereft!

Chrisxx

More Money than Sense!

 'More money than sense,' was one of the sayings my Aunt that brought me up often said! And the other night I heard her saying just that to me. 

This is our present book club read, I decided to down load a sample onto my kindle to see if I liked it. I didn't read the previous month's book, called 'The Durrells in Corfu', I didn't take to the a TV series and I didn't like the book either, so for once didn't read book club choice. 

So I thought I'd check this new book on my kindle ..it was reading nicely and decided I'd read the book in the morning and I settled down to sleep and was asleep in no time.  However, at just after 3:00 am, I was in the wide awake club, so picked up my kindle to read and carried on reading the Sample... then I got to the end of it, and it was so easy to press 'buy this book' from my comfy warm bed.  And yes that's when I heard my Aunty Glad's voice saying...more money than sense! I am enjoying the book!

Chrisxx

A lot to do...

 We have loads to do to get the garden straight before winter sets in.. we've planted new bulbs in pots, and the new rose in the garden. And the new front pots are planted up, we added some wall flowers in them, the scent in the ones last year was lovely as we opened the front door.

We've dug up the damson tree we brought with us from Suffolk, as it was a new one, but it has never fruited, altho it had some blossom last year but it never came to anything. So that one bed looks fairly tidy. But we have foxglove seedlings and aquilegia to plant, some weeding and the grass needs cutting one last time and two more flower beds to weed and tidy.

All we need is the 'umph' to get going, so perhaps tomorrow??

We did sweep the leaves from the front yesterday, we get a lot from the tall trees that border the school drive about 100 yards from us. Then popped out and bought a tub of yellow chrysanthemums and new pot, to have by the front door. 

It looks very bright and pretty and we felt we had done something.

Is your garden ready and tidy for winter?

Chrisxx

£20 bought happiness!

 My favourite film is 'The Bridges of Madison County' I read the book, bought a cassette tape, read by the author, Robert James Waller and bought the DVD.

Recently I wanted to listen to the tape, but couldn't remember where my cassette player was. Dh had an idea it was still in a drawer from when we moved 4 years ago. So off he went to look and it was in a drawer with some electronic bits, and wow, he also had the tape in the same drawer! With a new battery it worked! I was so pleased and sat with my head phones listening yesterday afternoon with some knitting.. cosy! 

Then he produced the DVD, but we remembered we'd got rid of the DVD player years ago, I was just a bit upset, but Dh looked up how much to rent it via Prime.. hardly any cost so we thought we could do that at the weekend.

I'd forgotten all about it... however then this morning (Friday) when I got up, Dh asked when I'd like to watch the DVD.. because when I'd gone to get ready for bed the night before, he'd looked at DVD player's on Amazon, and bought one, only £20, and it arrived at 8:00 am that morning!! He was so pleased he'd got it for me. So we've got out the other films we have and are going to watch some on those evenings, when the TV is rubbish!

Better get my tissues ready!!

Chrisxx

Was that move a brave one?

 It was very brave to buy that house, you're right Kirsty, but it appealed to me as soon as I stepped through that front  door.

After paying the costs to move I had less than £30 left in my every day account, and enough in my bill account for one month, altho I did have some money in savings account, but I had to give 3 months notice to withdraw some, so not easy. But I had to do something to change the way my life was, I was stressed and at my lowest ebb.

Why did that house appeal to me?

It had a good size hall, so it didn't feel small. 

A reasonable size garden, very important!!

An inside wall that wasn't joined to next door, for my beloved piano!

The road itself, all the houses had tidy front gardens so looked pretty.

And that was all I saw!! 

Against it .....It had a very small galley kitchen, it had false tudor style beams on the walls in the lounge/ dining room (ugh) a horrible dirty carpet, it smelt, and no double gazing, and it needed a good clean and a stained pink bathroom. It had dormer bedrooms with flat roofs, which the surveyor said would need replacing with a 18 months. I'd left a large house with 2 bathrooms and and her toilet and in perfect condition.  Was I mad buying it? It meant no mortgage, and I wouldn't have that job that I felt was making me ill. 

So I stepped out in faith.. that first night, two of my sons who had helped me move, bought fish and chips. then later the dog, Boysie  who I had then and I went to sleep, with boxes all around, but I was happy. 

I did no work that first week, but with my youngest son, we took the false beams off the walls, and bit by bit lifted the carpet and the awful dog pee soaked underlay and dumped it all outside.  He sawed the one work surface in the kitchen, to fit in the washing machine and the dishwasher and then I used their tops as work surfaces. I then painted the doors of the two wall cupboards and one base unit, a mellow yellow, as that's what a friend had going spare! It was lovely, I thought.

Then I did supply work, but only 4 days week, to allow me to get straight....  the garden first of course, I had loads of plants in pots and seeds.. it was May,  so nice gardening weather.  I saved the money after the bills and with no mortgage or endowment  to pay,  I had quite a bit. I gradually changed the windows and all the doors, had the walls plastered and sorted out the floors. I had an unexpectant a large tax rebate and so bought what I had always wanted, a raspberry pink carpet throughout downstairs, the hall, stairs and landing.. I had been there 2 years before I had that carpet and I was 60, so I had my pension.. 

Then in time I had a large extension, kitchen/ breakfast room, down stairs loo and new bathroom built.. plus the new roofs, on the dormer bedrooms. I redesigned the front garden, had paths and steps laid and enjoyed my home and garden. It took close on 5 years before it was really finished. 

 Pic is to show the carpet.. much later with Nell!

Parts of the new kitchen 

 

And the garden when I left there.

Not big, but just right for me at that time.

Chrisxx

The open road to???

  I had a message this week about someone  I used to know slightly years ago. He had gone missing after leaving his home and wife for work one morning and not heard of again. Not a trace of him even with country wide police searches.

It was assumed he had an accident and his body never found.

But I've learnt recently that he had gone to Australia and started a new life.. stranger than fiction? Cruel I think,  to leave someone and they always wonder what happened. How did he think his wife and family would cope. I didn't know him or his family that well. but if I had I think I'd have given him a piece of mind!

But one day I had an inkling as to what might have happened. I used to drive along lanes like these to work and on sunny mornings driving into the sunshine, I once had a feeling of driving and driving and driving, into the green leafy lane and escaping!! Where to? And where from?? Daft because I lived by myself, in my own beautiful house in the Essex town which I loved.

When I got home that night I phoned my best friend and after a long chat with her, I sat down and wrote my resignation letter!

I decided I'd down size... It wasn't an easy decision I earned a very good salary as Deputy, but I wasn't happy, so why was I doing something that was causing me stress. When I left that school I wasn't 60, so no retirement money and for a few months no wages. And living in a house, where one of my friends burst into tears when she saw it,  because it did indeed look pretty awful compared to the big house I left. But it was a life saver for me and became beautiful; I was working within weeks and I slowly changed that house with my  youngest son's help and after living there for 13 years it had tripled in price. 

It was a lovely house and I loved it, probably because it didn't just give me a home, but healed my mind. 

If you've ever felt like escaping from your life, you'll know how I felt that morning.

Chrisxx 

Such a naughty one or a pest.

 This naughty little fellow has been digging in our front lawn burying conkers! Just as we were leaving our home yesterday, Dh stopped me to look and there was the squirrel digging away! Do hope the conker doesn't grow, I don't really fancy a Horse Chestnut tree in my front garden. We've only ever seen him before in our the back,  skipping along our back fence.

But our neighbour in #15 has told us that, he had seen it going into #10,  as they live straight opposite,  so have a view from their kitchen window.

It seems, it is going in under the over hang of the roof, so probably into the roof space. #10 is being refurbished so the builder isn't there all the time. I know squirrels can be real pests, because a friend of mine had them take over her loft, and had to hire a marks man to shoot them!

I think our neighbour is getting in touch with the builder to inform him. Sad to think what I think is a cute little fellow, is a very big pest. We always check our roof over hang and have the gutters and the over hand cleaned regularly.

Chrisxx

Loving her more and more.

 I've now read 9 books by Elizabeth Berg, there is something about her gentle writing that appeals to me and I look forward to bed time, when I'm reading one of her books.

'Open House' revolves around Sam, Samantha. When her husband said he was leaving her, it came as a big and unpleasant surprise. This is one of those books written in the 'true voice,' that makes you feel you're there at the kitchen table with the characters going through the painful divorce. I so admire Elizabeth Berg's style, to me she is so talented in putting words together to form the most breathtaking sentences. 

This is not your book of the older woman left, who then meets the handsome young man, who just happens to be her gardener, oh no, not at all. I laughed at her mother's advice of getting a pedicure and then getting out there! I loved Sam, her resilience in the face of adversity, planning to do something totally foreign to her. 

But she does have to find a way to support herself and her eleven year old son. Hence the 'Open House,' when she decides to take in lodgers, some rather quirky, like 'Lavender Blue' the girl who lived in the basement, a metaphor for the lost and aimless in love,  and one that proved to become an unexpected friend.  We learn about her lodgers and their relationship with Sam and her son. I love the conversations between the characters, nothing false but like real people talking, there is the element of comedy.. She meets up with King, who helps her by directing her to an agency, so she has some part time jobs, dog walking, furniture moving and telemarketing. King is a friend that really helps her, as she attempts to survive this new way of life. 

The one criticism I have, is that it ended too quickly, but I was saved from being lost as I had another Elizabeth Berg book waiting for me, as of course I would.

Chrisxx 

My night time life!

 Yes I'm sorry I didn't post, for a while there weren't any words in my head, now there too many, all jumbled up! Seeing. what seemed to us a moon light flit from the house down our road, which of course it wasn't at all, we just didn't see them go. It got me thinking how you don't know what you can't do, till you can't. For example I didn't know I couldn't balance on a moving upward travellator, till I fell on it! By the way my botty is still bruised and tender!

Its old age, it sort of creeps up on you, like a cat with socks on, you don't know its there, until it is! Each night part of my prayers for myself is that, I'll sleep well. I read until I feel my eyes closing and then at approximately 23:23 each night the same time, I put my pillow flat and after one last loo visit,  settle down to sleep. 

I can usually go till about 01:30 when my bladder says 'yo-hoo' and I shuffle the 16 steps to the bathroom, the door is left open and the toilet seat up.. after all its only me up, Dh sleeps all night! I repeat the 16 steps there and 16 back, twice more times before the morning.. altho at the first pit stop I take my thyroxin tab and at my last I take some tabs for my aches and pains, and after that it means I sleep for as long as three hours plus! I didn't know three years ago I would have to get up three time every night. It used to concern me, but when speaking to other women in my age group, I learnt they too get up three times each night, I didn't feel so concerned. I just wish my Dr had told me, it wasn't just me, it would have saved me some grief! 

So there you are, my night time life, which arrived unannounced approx. three years ago.. I take my time in the mornings and sit with my first cup of tea and watch the birds on our feeders and slowly wake up, talking to God and saying a thank you that at Dh and I are awake together. Old age arrived and I didn't realise it would so fast, but do you know, its not so bad, I don't worry about dust or the odd cobweb, its not important to me any more and the quiet of a new day allows me to 'wool gather' and talk to you.

Chrisxx

Squirrels/Bulbs/Garden.

 We still have quite a bit of colour in our garden and this is thriving, It was a small snippet I brought with me from Suffolk. Fuchsias always make a great show, the way they spill out over pathways.

We have planted new tulip bulbs in pots and a selection of daffodils, they all go on the patio out the back because I love to look out at them from the lounge. Dh has planted yet more Snowdrops, although I'm not convinced they will grow. All the ones we planted in the 'green' disappeared, but we have found walnut shells buried near to where we planted them, and as we've seen the squirrel skipping along the fence carrying a walnut, we assume he has feasted on our 150 snowdrop bulbs! 

So we're gradually putting our garden to bed as it were for the winter. There will be one more cut of the lawn and we top dress our flower beds and I lightly prune the roses.. this year we've decided to leave the dahlias in the ground as one I missed year survived the winter..  We don't get very severe frosts and with a good 2 inch top dressing they should survive. What do you do to get through the winter in the garden?

Chrisxx