Did you see it?

I woke at 1:30am and woke DH and we stayed up to see the eclipse and the red moon; beautiful clear skies and not a bit cold. We opened the bedroom window wide as the double glazing was giving us a double moon!!  DH went down stairs to go outside on the front lawn with his binoculars and camera.  We watched as the earth's shadow gradually crept across the moon.

It took 90mins!

Here is one of the photographs that DH took as it was happening.

 

 This is a professional photograph, DH camera wouldn't give as clear a picture.

  

We went back to bed just after 3! Well it won't happen again till 2033 and even if I will be still alive I guess at 91 I will be happy to stay in a warm comfy bed!!

I think I will be having a nanny nap this afternoon, but it was worth it.

Yawning already!

Chris xx

 

Ah!!... Just what we needed

We have had a lovely break away in Southwold.. sun most of the time, only had rain at night or early morning. The only time I used my umbrella was when I was sitting on a bench and the sun was too hot!! Got up last Friday morning to brilliant sunshine, so did our walk to the sea front the long way round,  so I could have my daily 30 mins walk plus!! I did more than that,  because we then wandered back through the town and popped into those shops we had promised ourselves we would. We had cakes out side the kitchen shop,  as it was the Macmillan's coffee morning and Nell nearly had a creamy cup cake because the lady dropped one on the ground!! LOL They had dog biscuits ready for your dog! Then we sat in the middle  of the high street on a bench in the shade with a take away Costa coffee,  as it was too hot in the sun!
We got back to the cottage middle of the afternoon, and decided to come home that evening so we could have all Saturday at home as the weather was supposed to be good and we had promised ourselves to get the garden a bit more sorted,.. we stopped off at Waitrose for a cooked chicken, coleslaw  and some salad bits and full fat yogurt, the last treats of our holiday!! (we like to live dangerously LOL)

Super cottage, only minutes from the town.. I ate all sorts of naughty things, so dreaded weighing and yes I have put on 3 pounds but we're back on track already. I liked to go back there for a another holiday, such a lovely little town.

My physio app. has come thro' at last, it's next Friday, so hope they are not too fierce as my arm is still very tender. I used to call them physio-terrorists after my knee op.LOL
These pretty beach huts sell for around £175,000!!  Can you believe that!!
 

 Hope you all have had a break away too and had sunny shiny days like us. Thank you for all the comments on my happiness post, this week away has almost got me back to my happy go lucky ways! And yes I had a few of these!

 Be happy.....

XX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Five on Friday... Happiness!

So many things make me happy and I have so many blessings.  Here are just five as I join with Amy on 'Five on Friday.'

Wednesday here was a very, very wet day, it was real weather for ducks!

 We were in town by 9:30 as I had a nail appointment, both pedicure and manicure so wasn't finished until nearly 11. My nails looked lovely, a deep crimson colour. I love them!  I was smiling and my nails flashed red as I walked along.

 

 

Then I went to the library as I had to see the librarian about the book group I run,  and the books I ordered for myself were in... yeh!! My happiest times have been when I have been inside a book. I can't wait to start reading....'The Paying Guests,' by Sarah Waters, 'Stranded,' by Emily Barr (one of my favourite authors) and 'My Sister's Secret,' by Tracy Buchan. Then on our way back thro' the town I stopped at one of the charity shops as they had books for 25p, I bought three.....what bliss.. lots of reading, how could I not buy books for only 25p!!

 

 .......and then in the shop, I saw a tote bag which was a Kate Spade New York!! It was £8.50 and brand new, never been used by the look of it, white  patent with seagulls on it in navy, just the sort of bag for a sea side holiday and I looked it up on line when we got home, they sell for £165 !!!! Wow I felt I had won the lottery!

‏            

Isn't absolutely gorgeous? We wore our new macs and mine is lovely, kept me dry altho' having bought that bag I wouldn't noticed the rain as I was so happy!!

And even with my broken arm, I‘ve done some sewing. DS#1's girl friend had asked me to make some cushions, using some old curtains, two days before I broke my arm!!   I did manage to sew, last week,  but it was a struggle because I can't lift my right hand up unaided, but I did them and feel I did my arm good because I had to stretch it forward,  which is one of my exercises. I couldn't match the stripes back and front as I had to cut out the material from the curtains that had rust marks on them, so was limited, but they look good and I inserted a zip in each one for removal for washing, so I was pleased. But I won't be sewing proper for a while, it was too hard and painful.  The cushions were a great success especially the zip inserted so you can’t see it, so now her mother has asked will I make some for her, but not till after Christmas as she has bought a new static holiday home in Norfolk and wants them for that, praise indeed. Although if you sew, you'll know cushions are pretty simple to make!          

    

 

And I can crochet!! wow such excitement when I realised I could. First time in 20 weeks. I am doing a stash buster item, I shall reveal it when it is done. Although you can see it is shaped so I wonder if anyone can guess what I am making?
So yes I am feeling much better. There is still lots of things I still can't do but my greatest bliss since my last hospital appointment is I can remove the brace to have a proper shower. It took me three days to get up the courage to take it off: but oh the shower was wonderful, first proper one for 22 weeks!! I felt I had turned the corner and I felt so invigorated I cleaned the kitchen and it gleamed. I sang the whole time wiping around (still left handed) And I felt normal, thank the Lord, my arm is healing. Thank you again for all your get well wishes and prayers, and all the comments, they brighten up my days. I think I've got my 'fiz' back!
 

xx

A delightful few days away.

We had to cancel our planned Italian holiday, so have been having days out and days away.

Last week we had three lovely days in Stratford Upon Avon.  

Our hotel was just five minutes stroll to the town.

We stopped each morning on the little bridge to watch barges going through the locks on the way to have breakfast at Carlucci's,

an Italian café that over looked the river.

In the sun sitting outside, we could have been in Italy!

When we lived in Coventry we visited Stratford quite often and it still holds its charm for us.

Lots of visitors there all visiting Shakespeare's house.

It always looked pretty with the pelargoniums; the floral displays were beautiful throughout the town. We mooched around, stopped at a cafés, drank lots of coffee, ate lemon cheese cake and scoffed a bag of fudge, did some shopping and bought a winter jacket each. All in all we did what we liked and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The sun shone and it was warm, even though it poured with rain as we drove there, by the time we arrived the rain and black clouds had gone. I said probably because we had forgotten our sun glasses and I had bought a mac!!

 It was nice to get away. and what I needed because  I saw a specialist on the Wednesday before we went and the news on my arm was not good. My bone has not healed, and he said it might never heal.

The brace was taken off and a new one put on.  I am to start ultra sound treatment on my arm, he advised multi-vitamins and calcium tabs. I really don't need them, as we eat a very healthy diet and I drink at least half pint of milk and eat two yogurts daily, but I have bought them and am taking them. Anything to get back to normal.

On Tuesday it will be September 1st, our first day of Autumn, I feel I have missed the whole of summer with this arm!

XX

 

Gifted Gorgeousness ( Sorry ....A day late!)

Ingrid gifted this chart to me a couple of months ago and  a lovely stitched pin keep, which said 'Believe in yourself, Follow your heart.'

 

The chart is 'La foret Enchantee Printemps' by Tralala. Isn't it pretty, I loved it as soon as I saw it. It is going to be one of my blogaversary gifts. So watch this space, it will be to celebrate 7 years of blogging, which not only do I enjoy, but I love to read other very talented women's blogs.

The little I have stitched has taken me several days, but it is getting easier each time I try. It is now 19 weeks since I broke my arm, so I should hope it would get easier to use. I have a lot of people praying for me, so I know it will mend in God's planned time.

Thank you for all the good wishes, it does give me a lift to read all your comments.

Happy days!
 

 

Back on The PLAN !!

At last we have had some real rain, just what the garden needed. Thunder and lightening last evening and still raining this morning.

But the rain  had stopped by 9 and we had glorious sunshine.. I wore my cardi out and was sweating. When we got back from shopping DH went for his Dr app. and I was left filling the fridge and I  found mushrooms galore so......we had mushroom soup for lunch and it was delish. I hadn't made it before but  there were loads of recipes on line. I nearly fell at the first hurdle because I couldn't turn the key in the garage door to get an onion, so used a red one we had in the cupboard! I also couldn't chop it finely so just chunked it. It all whizzed up ok and I managed to cut small sprigs of thyme because I couldn't cut the woody stems. This broken arm stops me doing so much and my left hand  is hopeless with a knife or scissors. Anyway it was lush for our lunch.

 

We are also using up our tomatoes as they are all ripening fast, in this warm weather, so tonight we had a super pasta meal with roasted baby toms, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. (recipe in the Waitrose mag. ) Perfect for my slimming world food plan, and this last week I lost 3 pounds!! At last I am back on plan and eating some delish meals and losing weight again since my Dr has upped my thyroxin dose which was suddenly too low. No wonder I was sleeping every time I sat down!

Happy days even with my useless right arm.

Trying to be frugal?

Last week I blog hopped and found some very interesting blogs of people that are trying and succeeding to live frugally. They made me think of how we shop.. we are the traditional shoppers, we do one weekly shop and in the same supermarket each week. But it has made me think of what we buy. We do buy the cheapest tinned tomatoes because we use them as a base for soup, curries and bolognaise sauce or whizzed for a passata, but for everything else we buy the brands we know and like. But we are savvy and don't always buy so called bargains until we have done a quick calculation,  to check if 2 small packets of the equivalent weight is cheaper than the 'bargain' larger size. Thank goodness for the mental maths lessons of our generation!

 I have always grown tomatoes and we have a veg patch where we grow salad crops,  beetroot, radish, carrots, chard, squash, courgette and runner beans. Then in pots and bags we grow potatoes, more carrots and more tomatoes. So we do have a lot of veg from our garden.

An early morning view of our small but productive patch.

A lunch of a ham and mushroom pastryless quiche (frittata) with our own veg.

And from one of the blogs, I hopped to a recipe site and made these rustic herby crackers, using chickpea flour (besan flour) and ground flaxseed and my own rosemary, sage and thyme chopped up finely. We had them for lunch with my own sweet Sungold tomatoes, picked from the plant and warm from the sun. Absolutely delish! The pate was from Mr Waitrose although we normally we would have my homemade salmon pate..

So probably not frugal but do you know, I felt as though I was 'saving' money because I never really thought about how much we grew in our modest sized garden.

Of course at the moment I am limited to what I can do one handed but I can still sow seeds and prick out seedlings so not totally useless!

Thank you for all your good wishes and comments on my Five on Friday.. and welcome to my three new followers; perhaps when I am back to normal I will write about what I can do with two working hands!

XX

 

Five On Friday

Five on Friday.

First a thank you to Amy for allowing me to join in..

My first Five things are because of my present predicament. On the 14^th April 2015 I tripped over ‘nothing?’ and broke my humerus bone in my right arm. I am right handed, so my five things are some very simple basic actions you can’t do with just one arm/hand.  Of course there is no driving, stitching, knitting, crochet, or sewing. No cooking, or housework except dusting, no lifting, no gardening. I can’t even steer the vacuum with just my left hand, make up a bed or do the washing except I can load the machine but can’t lift the washing basket. I can load and unload the dishwasher. And I can swish round the bathroom but have problems pulling on a rubber glove onto my left hand.

 So my DH literary does everything! He is my ‘Superman!’

Until you can’t do these things you don’t know how you just took it all for granted.

1.    Each morning you can hear me call to DH down stairs, ‘I‘m ready for my bra please’… because You can’t do up a bra with one hand. I didn’t wear one for 12 weeks and now my DH does it for me.

2.   The ignominy of one handedness is …… You can’t push off and pull up knickers, much too painful to use my broken arm . One of the first times I decided to wear a pair, I struggled to get them up, swore (I am afraid to admit) .. and then??? Tears of frustration as they were on back to front. Screams that frightened the dog, foot stamping and more tears. DH arrived in the bedroom and quietly and calmly pulled them off and I stepped into them and in a trice my personal bits were covered! So now I still go without in the house and have only just started wearing them in the last four weeks when we go out.

3.  The frustration when you can’t undo tops on bottles and jars, so my DH obliges. So there is no sneaking into the peanut butter when I am in the kitchen. It’s DH’s as officially I am not supposed to like it, but I tasted it once and yum yum!!

4.  It’s all very well being able to use your left hand but you don’t feel you clean your teeth properly. There is an awkwardness, so I have changed my toothpaste to one that contains bicarb. Tastes horrible, but with my electric toothbrush it’s a lot better and my teeth feel clean.

5.  And you could starve!!!  Fat chance of that! LOL…. Because You can’t cut up your food, DH cuts the meat and I struggle with the veg, but I use a spoon for things like rice and other foods, because otherwise I drop bits of food! And as for chasing those last bits of food around your plate, I give up and eat Indian style (with my fingers!)

 

It’s not just awkward using my left hand but trying to

 use my right arm is still painful 16weeks on.

There is one benefit to all this, my finger nails are

spectacular and last weekend I went for a manicure

and had them painted a orangey-pink, they look

amazing, well I think they do. My right hand is swollen

 and this too prevents me stitching as I cant hold a

needle.

 

I hope you have found my Five things of interest and perhaps funny, but I hope in a month or so time I will have use of my right arm again, I have missed it so much.

Watch out for Five on Friday to start again in September.

XX

 

 

9 Years today!!

It was a very hot and sunny day nine years ago when Mike and I married.

I had the hat made for a previous friends wedding and so just had to add some aqua feathers to the white ones to match my outfit.

Don't know why the photo is on the squiff!!  It was a very happy day and it has been a very, very happy nine years.

 DH and I were email friends, we started writing to each other in 2004. I had changed schools in 2002 and suddenly found I needed computer skills so bought my first laptop. Playing around I found a penpal site and DH was one of six people I choose to write to. We agreed to meet when DH and I had been writing for a year and a year later we married.

It has been a real blessing meeting him and I say a silent prayer of thanks hundreds of times each week and 'I love you' to him every day

 

I still write to two ladies, one in Australia who we stayed with for a few days when we visited there. And the other lives in UK and we fill pages with talk all about gardens and families..

Hope all my blogging friends have been blessed with a loving happy relationship too.

 

XX

Such a wonderful day with a wonderful grand daughter

Saskia Christine Amelia. B.Sc

My lovely grand daughter proudly standing tall for her degree ceremony, and so she should having got a 2:1

We had such a good time. She had planned and organised the day for us and then all the family met up in the evening for dinner.

She will be 21 next month, where did those years go to?

She was a beautiful baby and she has grown into a beautiful young woman, with a talent for putting people at ease and keeping her brothers in check!!

Here we are together.

 

 

 And her brothers taller than me these days.

You can see my ugly brace in this pic!

And all the family, proud parents and the other G/parents.

We had such a super time, and the three days away were like a mini holiday.

I came home tired but very, very happy

XX