Blogger is weighing me down. I want to post but feel the need for a fresh start. The cats are old now they're no longer manic, just tired and a little grumpy... like me.

If you care to follow me I'm moving here celeste creates.

This blog is sadly neglected, but I really want to kick some life back into it. Things have been happening which need documenting.

First and biggest, is:



I'm getting married!

Porl asked me on my birthday last year, but we didn't tell anyone as we wanted to have some idea about what we wanted to do before we involved other people.
Months later and we still haven't a clue so thought if we tell people we might be inspired.
It worked. We've decided we want to get married this summer. We're going to see the registrar tomorrow.
It won't be a big affair, after 14 years it'd be a bit silly. Also we have a very close, but very small circle of friends and we're only asking direct family members. We're going to the local registry office, onto a nice pub for a meal. Then maybe a night out in Manchester.

Bryher and my nieces will be Bridesmaids. I tried to explain to her today about weddings. I said there would be a party, and me, her and my nieces would dress up like princesses (she into dressing up and princesses at the moment.) I asked her what colour dress she'd like. She said "Pink". Then said my youngest niece should wear orange, my eldest niece blue, and I should wear red. I suggested silver shoes, but she said we should all have red shoes.

Needless to say I'll not be taking the advice of a 3 year old who doesn't know all her colours yet.

In other news in the months since I last updated....

Last October I was chatting to my boss, she's very slim (in my eyes, but I realise now that doesn't matter.) She signed up to Slimming World to shed a few lbs. Apparently when she was younger she was a lot bigger but lost it and kept it off through Slimming World, but a long stint of travelling meant she'd put a few lbs back on so she wanted to lose them again.
I've always though diets like Slimming World, Weight Watchers, weren't designed for me because I'm vegetarian, I'd tried SW years ago but they didn't include Quorn back then and I was stuck for ideas so gave up after a few weeks but what my boss was eating looked great. We talked about how the diet works, and the next day I signed up to my local group.

I'm now 3 stone lighter, and 4 dress sizes smaller. I hit target a few weeks ago. Now the hard work starts, keeping it off!

This is the picture I've been carrying in my purse for months. On it I've written "I'm doing this to be healthy and happy for her".


This photo was taken last June, and I didn't have the energy or inclination to run around the beach with her.

This is me now, desperately in need of a haircut.



So that's the main news. There are other things to tell, but they'll wait till another day.
Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with news of a date!

I keep thinking about posting here... but thinking and doing aren't the same.
I've taken a load of pictures though so maybe, just maybe...

But first I have to get the house tidied. Bryher has discovered my bead stash so some reorganising/childproofing is required. I also have to sort out the garden. I managed the front at the weekend, not an easy task. It's not huge but if it was any steeper mountaineering equipment would be required.

I'm quite pleased that I've not tackled the back garden yet because it means I'll be able to take part in the Seed Swap being run over on http://marmaladekiss.blogspot.com/. I love swapping seeds and plants with people. It reminds me of that person when I see the plant. When we moved here the garden was mostly grass with very few plants. Now the back garden has no grass, half deck and a lot of plants. Most of the plants are ones I've got from my Mum, but she's had 30+ years of collecting them from people. Among my favourites are Mr Heath's Periwinkle, Joan's Rose and Peonies from Grandad and Mill Street.

So if you fancy having a reminded of a blogger in your garden then sign up over at Marmalade Kiss.

I posted this as a draft for my reference ages ago, but I've been speaking to someone about it so figured I may as well put it online.

This list was published by The Big Read a few years ago as the 100 Greatest Novels. Apparently the average person has read only 6 of the books on the list.

Bold = Read

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zifon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factoy - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Anyone who has seen the wall of books in my living room (and the 5 sets of books shelves elsewhere in the house) will agree I read a little more than the average person. I've read 49 so far. There's a few on my bookshelves that I've not got around to yet and there's a few others that I really want to read but haven't spotted in a Charity shop yet.

A few weeks ago we had a lovely weeks holiday in Anglesey. Unfortunatly (or fortunatly) someone put their small and greasy finger on the camera lense so I'm unable to bore you with too many pictures. I love Anglesey and would happily move there. The minute I drive across one of those bridges I feel more relaxed. It could be that I remember all my wonderful childhood holidays in Llanfairynghornwy, it could be being close to the sea, it could be that so long as I don't cross a big bridge again it's nigh on impossible to get lost, or it could just be something in the air.

So anyway, we had a lovely week staying here, I highly recommend it if there are just a couple of you, or if you have children who stay asleep once it gets light. We had to put towels up against windows to get Bryher to sleep past 5am. But we'd still go back, it was fantastic. I saw a young hare (very rare nowadays), and a stoat both just feet away from the cabin window.



Bryher had her first paddle in the sea. It was a bit chilly some days so we'll reserve judgement on how much she liked it. I built some sandcastles, Bryher ran round them (they're now called "round & rounds" apparently), and Porl and I did some excellent diverting of streams as the photo above just shows. Bryher showed absolutely no interest at this masterpiece of engineering.
One day she'll appreciate our skill.

The weather was glorious, (until the last day) so good in fact that we were trying to find things to do to keep us out of the sun. As usual when we go anywhere we visited lots of farm shops for Porl and lots of craft places for me. Luckily these things tend to be together, so the flour mill was also home to the craft guild shop.

My big purchase though was from a charity shop in Cemaes. We went in to look at books but there was a spinning wheel in the middle of the shop and several peg looms and drop spindles, all new. Apparently a lady went in a couple of times a week to give lessons. I've wanted to try weaving for ages, but I'd never seen a peg loom. It was a good price and they had samples made on it so I decided to buy myself an early birthday present.



Here's my first play at making "something" I'm not sure what it is, possibly a place mat, I didn't want to be too ambitious to start with. Now I'm hoping to get some raw fleece from somewhere so I can make a fake sheepskin rug. I'm tempted to go walking over the moors collecting bits off barbed wire.

My other new creative venture has been needle felting. Again something I've wanted to try for ages but I've resisted the lures of ebay. I could resist no longer though when I went to the gala in the village where I grew up and found a needle felting kit for £2.50. A night of vicious stabbing and I had created this.



Ebay was inevitable then. My kit only had 1 needle, so I bought some more of various sizes and a nice big bag of bright coloured fibre and a few days later was able to create this.



I'm addicted. I even took them into work so I could keep stabbing during my half hour lunch break.
3D is my next challenge. I think a fairy toadstool is in order.

No doubt this will be another sporadic post, but I've got pretty things to show off.

A few weeks ago I discovered Twiggypeasticks blog. Then not long after Twiggy had a giveaway and I was one of the lucky winners!

So last weekend a pretty little parcel landed on the doormat.



Luckily I got to it before the usual resident letter opener or the pretty things would have been dispersed never to bee seen again.



Yummy chocolates, pretty buttons and a lovely felt and button brooch which is now living on my work bag.



If you like the look of this and fancy one of your own then you can visit Twiggy's Emporium

Hi!

Yep, I'm still here, trying to get my act together to start posting again. I've been slowly building up the urge for a redesign, maybe even finding my own web hosting rather than blogger, then I may actually start posting again.

Quick update on life here. I have a new job as a Speech Therapy Technical Instructor. Only part time unfortunately so I'm still doing 1 shift a week on my old job. I love the new job though, really good fun, it's a great team and I feel like I'm really helping people. There's also a lot of cutting and sticking, playing on the computer and making pretty things involved so it's right up my street.

B is a star, she's nearly 21 months now, she really knows her own mind and she's got a very stubborn streak so we have quite a lot of tantrums. She's not very good at talking, in fact you could say she's rubbish, she has a few words which we understand, but we have to translate a lot. For example, "ot" (hot) could mean hot, or oven, or cup, or drink, or food depending on the situation. She certainly keeps us guessing. We're hoping when she gets better at speaking the tantrum will subside a little. I was rubbish at speaking till I was quite old so we aren't too worried. Her favourite word at the moment is "ditzth" which she uses to refer to anything she doesn't have a word for (so that's almost everything then). We constantly hear "Oooh ditzth" her tone of voice is brilliant, she sounds constantly amazed by everything.

On the crafting front I'm certainly getting my mojo back. Helped greatly by the fact that someone goes to bed without any arguments at night now. I got really into my cross-stitch again for a while (the Indian I've been doing for years has had a lot of attention, still not done though). I've also been busy knitting a cardigan, my first knitted item of clothing since I was about 7. I'm crocheting a gorgeous ripple afghan, which is about 3/4 done and I've just started some cushions to match it as the afghan has got a bit too big to cart around now.

I haven't got photos of any of these crafty endeavours, so I'll have to leave you with a picture of the gorgeous girl instead.



Hopefully I'll be back again soon.

I'm a bad blogger. 2 months without an update!

I really admire all the Mums who manage to write blogs, make stuff, and bring up small children. I can't ever imagine it happening here. If we could persuade her to nap, then I might be able to blog, but she gets by on 2 x 45 minute power naps per day, and that's on a good day.

I am managing to keep up with other blogs, and I'm trying to comment more often too... when Bryher isn't trying to eat the keyboard anyway.
I must have made the comment karma fairy happy too because I was lucky enough to win a blog giveaway celebrating Sew-Eco's 200th post. The lovely Ruby has come to live with us.

At the moment she is making friends with Looby, the doll I knitted for Bryher. Ruby's label says that she likes to sit with other toys and watch the world go by, which is good as they will be kept out of chewing distance for a while. Bryher does play with other toys I've made her, other more chewable toys, but Ruby & Looby are a bit special, and not suitable for small mouths. They are spending their days in the living room, sitting on the little rocking chair which my Grandad made for me. The rocking chair which makes Bryher squeal with laughter whenever we let her play on it.

I tried to get a nice picture of Bryher with her "off-limits" toys, but the only time she's still is when she's about to drop with exhaustion.

Bryher turned 8 months old on Thursday.
I can't get over how quickly she is learning and changing. In this past week she has learnt to clap, sit herself up, and crawl, although to be fair it's a bit of a commando crawl/drag at the moment, even so it's still forwards and purposeful, it's just a bit slower... thankfully! She's also started grunting at us in reply to things, so we have conversations in "Cave-Girl". She still hasn't mastered rolling from front to back though which is supposed to be the first movement milestone.

Unfortunately 8 months means it's also time for me to go back to work. My first shift is on Thursday. It'll be the first time I'll have left her for more than a couple of hours.
I'm going to miss my little Goblin Goon more than I care to think about.

My little girl is 6 months old today.

It's gone so fast!

I've not posted much over the past few months as I'm trying to make the most of every minute I have with her. She's such a happy, pleasant little girl. She has her whingy hour at night when she's tired, but don't we all? Generally she's a joy to be around.
I'm still saying this even though she woke me at 3:45 this morning and has survived on 4 power naps all day! Nights like that are thankfully rare and since Christmas she's usually slept from 7pm to 6am with a couple of nice long naps during the day.

Helping to wrap the Christmas presents.

She hasn't stopped fidgetting yet. She won't stay laid on her back for long now, it makes dressing and nappy changes infinitely more interesting. If you put her down she rolls straight onto her front, unfortunately she hasn't learned to roll onto her back yet so we have to keep helping her when her back starts to hurt. 3 times I had to get out of the shower the other day to help her out. Apparently it's far easier for babies to roll front to back and normally learn that about now, rolling back to front is normally learnt at about 7 months, but she's contrary... like her parents.
She's obviously desperate to be on the move, I think she'll be an early crawler.

Investigating my yarn stash.

She has a fantastic giggle. She loves me singing and dancing her around.
She finds the cats both fascinating, and hilarious, this is understandable. I pity them when she can crawl.
Less understandable is the fact that she also find cups fascinating and hilarious. Strange girl.

We've just started to wean her. She doesn't seem overly impressed. So far she's pulled faces at everything she's tasted, and some foods (broccolli and yoghurt) have resulted in whole body shudders. She might not like the foods, but at least she had a good attempt at digesting the weaning information a few weeks ago, so she should understand what's in store.

"What? You mean I'm not meant to be eating the leaflet?"

Happy Half Birthday little girl!

A long overdue post.

After 9 days unconscious, 17 in intensive care and another 9 days on a normal ward Dad was well enough to come home.
We were flabbergasted as we were expecting him to be in for weeks/months. Only a few days before they had been saying he might be well enough to come home for the day on Christmas day. As it was his good health before the operation, and his determination to be out for Christmas meant he was well enough to come home a week and a half before Christmas Day.
He was still very weak when he got home, but he's slowly getting his strength back. It's going to be a long recovery, but we don't care, we're just so so pleased to still have him.

We spent Christmas Day at my parents house, my brother sister-in-law and niece were there too. We opened presents, ate a lot, laughed at my nieces antics, she took her first steps on the day Dad woke up so she's never still now. then we came home just as it started to get dark. Bryher was completely oblivious to the fuss, but did like the rain stick we bought her. the tickle-me-Elmo was less interesting to her, and terrified my niece.

A last minute change of plan means we're spending New Year at home. Playing online poker (not for real money). Bryher is sleeping through now, but has had a few unsettled nights becuase of her teeth, the Calpol is great though. Tomorrow we will go to Ormskirk for a day of music and merriment with friends and family.

I think overall this year has been good.
Bryher is a little star. She's so cheery and laid back all the time, she's a joy to be around and cheers everyone up. I've wanted kids for so long, and I'm so pleased that when we did finally get around to it we were blessed with such a fantastic one.
The end of November was a horrendous emotional rollercoaster, but it all worked out okay. One part of those horrid few weeks which I have enjoyed though was spending time with my family, especially my niece. She is great fun, loves Bryher, and I hope they grow up to be great friends. Bryher has another cousin on the way in March, so next Christmas could be a riot with 2 walking and 1 crawling.

I can't think what I have to look forward to in 2008, except for seeing Bryher grow and develop, she learnt to roll onto her front just before Christmas, so life is already more interesting. It'll be easier when she can roll onto her back again.
I have to go back to work in April, which I'm dreading, but I have 3 months of freedom first.

I hope 2008 bring everyone all they wish for, as well as good things you don't wish for.

Now I have to rush off to hear the chimes.

Happy New Year!

Dad's op didn't go as planned and at this moment he is back in surgery a week after the original one.

I came back home to Stalybridge a few hours ago as Bryher is due her jabs tomorrow. I went to the hospital just before I left and the surgeon said he was stable and getting slightly better though he's still very poorly. He's been sedated for the past week since the operation but they were talking about lifting it and letting him come round.

Then Mum phoned an hour ago and said they had taken him back down to theatre. Mum isn't sure what's happened. They were going to remove some drains from his chest and now they've found a bleed around his heart.

The original operation was to repair one of his heart valves as he has a heart murmur, we knew there was a 2% risk of complications but as Dad was fit and healthy we thought everything would be fine, and this was the best time to do it. It wasn't until they opened him up that they found out what state his valve was really in. They tried repairing the valve twice, but it burst both times so they had to replace it. By this time he had been on heart bypass for about 10 hours and a lot of his organs had packed up. We were expecting him out of theatre at about 5pm, at 8:30pm Mum, my brother and I went down to the hospital and they had sorted out a room for us to use for the duration of his stay. That's when I realised it was serious. I had to go back to my brothers house at 10:30pm to feed Bryher, around midnight my brother phoned to tell us he was out of theatre and what had happened.

Over the week we've had ups and downs, he's been on and off dialysis and he's had a chest infection. They found a bleed in his heart so yesterday they did tests to try to find where it was bleeding into. Last night Mum phoned to say not to visit as they might be taking him back into theatre to repair the bleed so I might not get to see him anyway, she also said that his heart monitor was showing a systolic. Mum didn't know what that meant, but my brother and I did so we both made a mad dash for the hospital (Porl and I managed to pack up Bryher and everything she needed for an overnight stay in 15 minutes and were at the hospital in 30 minutes.) As we were rushing in the main entrance my sister-in-law phoned and said not to panic Dad wasn't going anywhere. They had decided the operation wasn't necessary right now, and he hadn't gone a systolic, it was just that his heart rate was dropping lower than the machine liked and so a pacing box was kicking in and the machine was flashing up a systolic.


It's taken hours to write this post, and Dad is now out of theatre, back on the ward, stable again and better than he was 4 hours ago... I can breathe again.


We've been told Dad will be in intensive care for weeks/months. It's going to be a very long slow recovery, and we will have ups and downs like this. He has all the top people looking after him, not just in that hospital, but consultants in other parts of the country too, we just have to hope for the best.
I'm trying my hardest not to think about the alternative outcome.

Mum has been staying at the hospital most of the time, we have been at her house and fielding phone calls. We have only told a few people he's in hospital, but if all the people who are phoning asking after him and wishing him well are anything to go by then he has to get better. Most people didn't know he had a heart problem never mind needed an operation so it's been a total shock.



I'm a big believer in Kama. Not that Dad deserves any of this, he's such a kind generous, soft hearted man... so all the people phoning keep reminding us of... but we need all the help we can get right now, so I've decided to join in with some others and Pay It Forwards.

The first 3 people who comment on here will get a handmade gift from me at some point in the next 365 days. A year to make 3 things seems just about achievable right now.
All I ask in return is you do something nice for someone else. Many people doing Pay It Forward ask that you post this same offer on your own blog, but I know some non-bloggy, non-crafty people read this, so I'll allow you to Pay It Forward in your own way.

My other request is that you keep your fingers, toes, eyes, and every other body part possible crossed for my Dad.

Not surprisingly the blogging every day failed as a result of this past week.

Dad is checked in at hospital, probably doped up to the eyeballs by now fast asleep. Apparently he asked them to keep him like that until the worst is over and he'll be feeling okay again.

Bryher and I are going over tomorrow for a few days to keep my Mum company. I've spent today trying to catch up with washing so Bryher has some clothes to wear. I'm thinking for 3 days away we'll be okay with 6 outfits. We can always wash there.

I've also been packing crafty pursuits to keep me occupied. Mum and Dad finally got broadband a fortnight ago after months of me pestering them, but playing on the internet all day would be a bit rude. I've started crocheting a scarf. At the rate I'm going I'll have finished it by tomorrow evening so I'll have to have a rummage in the morning for something else I can make once the scarf is finished.

I know a few people are reading... even though they aren't commenting, so I'll make sure to update tomorrow so you know how Dad has got on.
I don't do prayers, but if you could keep your fingers crossed it all goes smoothly I'd be grateful. Thanks.

We had a great night at a friends house in Ormskirk yesterday. I miss our friends in Ormskirk so much, but it's nice that even with Bryher around now we can go to people's houses, put her in a room at 7pm and not have to worry about her until about 11pm.
It's also great catching up with friends... and I had risotto... and for the first time ever I enjoyed eating rice!

Writing how good Bryher is has jinxed it though as for the first time in weeks she's woken before 11pm. Curse her teeth. Pass the Calpol.

Well that puts a stop to todays post anyway.

Night night.

Going away for the day. Won't be back till late.

Must... still... post...

Teeth.
Aren't they fun... or not.
Bryher cried for half an hour this morning. She's normally so happy in the morning so I knew something was wrong. I tried all the usual remedies but nothing was working. Then she grabbed my hand and put it in her mouth. Rather than suckling like she normally would she started chomping down on my fingers... Ahh teeth!
A dose of calpol and 15 minutes later she's happy again.

So the fun starts. She's been showing signs fo teething for a while, red cheeks, chewing on anything. the last couple of days I've noticed she's constantly had a toy or her fingers in her mouth, but this morning were the first signs of being in pain. Hopefully it'll pass quickly.

Later we went for a walk to buy some bonjela. It's bitter cold out and the fresh air knockd her out so she slept for an hour after we got home. She woke up in a very good mood so to kkeep her happy I put her in the carry pouch. We spent the afternoon dancing round the kitchen and making cookies.

She's getting an early education in baking and music. I have to get her liking my (eclectic) music taste before her Dad gets her all to himself and she learns to like his music choices. He says my music taste is dreadful... he may have a point, but I like it anyway. So far Bryher seems to like Nina Simone and Louis Armstrong, they have lots of songs about "baby" which have to be sung to her, resulting in lots of grins and wiggles. Teenage Fanclub is quite popular too. In fact I've come to the conclusion that many musicians are very broody as so many of them write songs about babies.

If you're reading this, Well Done! Somehow I managed to let the manickitty address expire... I thought I'd updated the payment details but it obviously didn't work.

I found out last night so was going to sort it out today but The Lurg has hit the household again and Porl and I feel rotten. So far Bryher seems okay.

Porl started feeling ill yesterday and felt worse today. I didn't start feeling rough until later this afternoon. Porl normally does all the cooking, but as he was ill I decided to make some comfort food to cheer him up.
Shepherds Pie... or Cottage Pie... I'm never sure what the difference is.
Either way it tastes lovely.
One of the few good things about having a meat eater and a vegetarian in the house is that we end up with HUGE amounts when we make meals like this. It means for the next 2-3 days we don't have to think about what to eat.

I've just nipped out to the shops and I noticed there are 2 (two) houses on our street which have their full Christmas decorations up!

Two!

It's the 14th of November!
5 weeks and 6 days till Christmas! (I only know that because Dads birthday is 6 weeks before Christmas.)
If they keep the lights up until 12th night (which I'm sure they will and far beyond) they'll have had them up for 2 months!
One sixth of a year!

They haven't even turned the Christmas lights on in town yet!

Sorry far too many exclamation marks, but I'm both shocked and horrified.

The worst bit is that neither of these houses is the one which goes berserk with their decorations. No doubt they'll realise they have competition and put them up this weekend.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love this photo. I must have been less than a month old. I'm judging that on the fact my brother is wearing shorts.

Unfortunately Dad spent this afternoon in hospital having a few last tests ready for next week. Hardly the best birthday ever.

This time last year I'd just got back from spending the weekend at my parents and Porl was excitedly phoning round all our friends letting them know I was pregnant. I'd done the test earlier that day. No waiting till the 2nd trimester for us.

Yesterday I was going to write about how colourful my garden is looking for mid-November. I even took pictures, there were so many things in bloom. Not only my passion flower and nasturtiums, but also poppies, geraniums and several other things I don't know the names of.

But then I decided to make my life a little easier and save that post for today.

At 6:30am this morning Bryher decided she was bored of being asleep. I'm not a morning person so if it's before 7am I try to persuade her with a few cuddles and a little rocking that bed is the best place. But this morning she was having none of it.
We came downstairs to a very cold house and a frosty looking world.

All the flowers in the garden are looking decidedly limp now.


I freely admit that I cheated. I couldn't get a photo of both the pretty sky and the frosty hills so I took 2 and merged them.

The verdict is (almost) in on the type trays. The seller got back to me and he's had them stored away wrapped in plastic for a very long time. So any woodworm is likely to be long gone. I gave them a good bash this afternoon to see if any sawdust fell off them and there was nothing and it's put my mind at rest.

I'm not being hasty and bringing them in yet though. I've got far too much lovely wooden furniture to risk it. I'm going to give them a good clean down... they need it. I might even see what effect Mums steam cleaner has on them. Then I'll wrap them in plastic and put them back in the greenhouse for another couple of weeks (the greenhouse is the only dry, non-wood storage place we have.) If when I unwrap them there's still no sawdust then I'll give them house room.

I really hope they pass the tests.