Day 335 - ASYMMETRY IN NATURE

Lots happened today. First I went for pedicure and electrolysis at Anne and Charlie's farm and their barn now has all doors and windows in and wood burning stove and underfloor heating too.. They are hoping to sleep there whilst relatives sleep in the small cottage they are living in at the moment.

 This was one of their trees on their land, very asymetrical!

I then had to take a cat box to Dstep D as her cat was very poorly, we later found he had to be put to sleep :( She came round very distressed :(
Then Mark came for lunch before seeing his GP, he is ready to go back to work, though still on anti depressants with his medication.
Peter had a Carol Concert with his choir tonight but I didn't want to go, just felt I wanted some me time :) Watching some TV recordings and had a late dinner.
It has been very cold today and a heavy frost this morning but we are nice and warm indoors!!

Day 334 - DEBRIS

Peter told me there was still debris at the bottom of our garden even though he had been to the local tip twice last week!! anyway I was out most of the morning in town and it was cold outside and realised I had made a debris in the kitchen with pittosporum and the roses that I had bought this morning.  M&S had 2 bunches of roses for £5.  I had to get Peter some flowers to take to the Crematorium as today is the anniversary of his late wife's death, 29yrs. Tomorrow will be the anniversary of my Dad, 37yrs ago. A long time ago when I was nearly 8 mths pregnant with DS2
Here is the debris and my bunch of flowers. Some sunshine in this gloomy cold weather.

Don't know the update today about DGS. We kept our car but with our 2 fuel allowances we have decided to get the car done before Christmas!! booked in for a week tomorrow!!

Day 333 - WHOLE

A late blog tonight after an eventful day with car problems and then out with Peter for lunch and afternoon tea and a housegroup meal and social tonight,
Whilst out I saw lots of whole things at a supermarket this afternnon, whole chickens, whole nuts etc

DGS has had a severe allergic reaction to something, has had 24hrs of antihistamine and still not well so back to GP tomorrow :(

Day 332 - WORN

Nothing much left in our house 'worn'. When it is worn, it is thrown out!!Gone are those days!

BUT tonight I am really WORN out!! had a lovely day with Xanthe she was lovely but being on the go with her is very tiring!!
Here I am with my feet up watching Last Tango in Halifax, loving it:)

Waiting for Dstep D to go is going to see Seadoc with DGS aged 14 who is poorly, swollen and watering eyes, high temp and a funny circular rash behind ears and neck :( Looked online, not meningitis, scarlet fever? Will let you all know tomorrow!

Day 331 - LONELY

I can be lonely at times, even though I am busy I love people and since retiring I seem to do a lot of activities at home whilst Peter goes out a lot more than me and I do miss chatting to people (I am definitely a people person!)
So a photo of lonely????? Well monkey (I made) just sits on this chair and Xanthe seems to ignore him so I guess he is pretty lonely!!

Have spent today shopping am then home sorting out breakdown cover and car insurance, can you believe that it has taken all afternoon on the computer and telephone too, sitting here waiting for a call back at 7pm, going to dish up dinner and ignore the call tonight in a moment!!
We have got our car insurance down from £398 to£333 at the moment and with car breakdown we have been quoted £414. We have been with the AA for 29 yrs and this year apparently became GOLD members for £238!! I rang them to say I could join and get all that I have now for £170 online so they have now dropped our renewal to £154..............where do they get all these figures from? We must all walk round with mug on our foreheads!!  Hope you kept up with all those figures, as you can imagine I am steaming and fed up with being conned in this life!!

off to eat, switch the phone off and play catch up incase we switch our topbox freeview to sat .............I hate modern complicated life!!!!

Day 330 - FORGOTTEN

This was Sunday day 329 when I was out all day really having fun with 2 girlfriends at a huge M&S flagship store in Shoreham, We arrived at 10.30 for opening time and left at 4pm closing time with huge bags of Christmas goodies and a few pressies for me for peter to give to family:)
So I had another day to think about the word.
Difficult to take a photo of the things I have forgotten after going up stairs and wondering what I want, OK a photo of the stairs!!
A birthday I have forgotten, that is in the pas tat the moment.
Vouchers and offers I collect and forget to use!!
I don't remember much of my past, especially collage days because I had met my first husband and was in love that was more important!!
So photos in July 1969 sent from  friend. I really do not remember these photos or the occasion except that I would be 3 mths pregnant with DS1 Mark!!!

Here I am with Pat (wh is coming on dec 28th for sleepover!)

 Here we are all together from L to R- Sue who died this yr in Canada,Pat,Me and Ann also coming for sleepover)

Have had a wonderful parcel arrive today, my lost CJ from 2011 arrived home, I am so thrilled it was our holiday album in 2009, now I can complete it, journal and put on the covers. Can you tell how excited I am? I am thrilled to bits!! I had tried to forget it as I thought I would never see it again!!

Oh and another forgotten memory. This photo came through our door last week, I was a bridesmaid to the daughter of some friends of my parents. They lived in the flat above, I was 12yrs old 1957!!

Day 329 - SAD

Many people eat and sleep slightly more in winter and dislike the dark mornings and short days. This is known as 'winter blues’. Others have more severe symptoms which such as sleep problems, withdrawal, overeating, depression, anxiety and lethargy. These often lead to difficulties at home, work and in relationships. This is a recognised problem known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

SAD is caused by the lack of bright light in winter. Light entering our eyes stimulates our brain to control our daily rhythms through hormone production. In some people, the low levels of light in winter are insufficient to regulate the hormones that affect our waking up and sleeping, our feeling energised or depressed

I immediately thought about my son Mark who is bipolar and not well at the moment so I feel sad when his manic becomes depression due to the dark morning s and evening.  November is always his worst month and fortunately he has been to his doctor and is on more medication and signed off from work until Dec 3rd

Not good photos but taken from a video 2 yrs ago when his many friends (away) clubbed together for a sad lamp for his 40th birthday. It was a real surprise for him, asthey had sent it to me and he opened it at a family party at an italian restaurant

An awful wet day here so I am not cooking again but scrapping. I spent morning with our handyman/plumber doing jobs and the TV man from Switchover (For over 70's) here for the 4th time.  We cannot get a good signal with our new topbox and he recommends freesat and a dish...which we did not want!! Peter is in London with his footie friend who supports Brentford. He has rung me wishing he was at home as it is pouring with rain there too!!

Re 10 for sleepover, NOT here LOL!! The 2 girls (my late friend Sue's daughters) and husband and fiancee are going to sleep at Carol's bungalow as she is away fro 27th. My college friends and husbands will sleep her, one couple on a blow up bed in lounge:) Have booked pub for 6 the following Sat night cos the youngsters will go back to London on 29th (I hope!!)

Day 328 - GLOOMY

I blogged early yesterday and missed showing you our sky in the afternoon whilst Peter continued to cut back the garden! We only have a small garden but boy can he cut back trees and shrubs!!
Here are the skies we had no rain fortunately so no flooding here, but the winds got up around 4pm and blew these black clouds over

Here is Mr Peter the gardener!! Chop, chop, chop.....

and as I watched I saw this Magpie? in the tree above him!!

Well here is another gloomy day! We woke to this sky though again no rain and mild.

This pm the clouds have gone and we have blue skies and once again clouds from the west coming again!
Was going to scrap pm but the kitchen sucked me in, making the mince mixture for 2 huge lasagnes for 28th Dec when we have 10 to sleep overnight!!
Tonight we are out to meet friends for a pub meal so no more cooking for me today :)

Day - 327 PAINT

We don't do painting anymore in our house...I hope!!! So went back to all the decorating we had done in the Spring. I guess you might have seen this before but here is what our decorator used for paint, cut out 2 litre milk cartons. Maybe I could patent this? A good idea eh?

I have 2 lovely home days today and tomorrow and wrote a long list of phone calls and do things which didn't include ironing, that is all done!
This morning I have cooked a pasta dish for 10 for an alpha supper in church which is being picked up for me as I am not attending it. I have managed a small dish for ourselves, pasta is not Peter's favourite but never mind! It still needs grated cheese on top and baking in the oven or under the grill and served with garlic bread and a side salad, yummy!!
                                     

I am now making the 1st chocolate roulade this year for Christmas, they feeze very well

Day 326 - CROWD

Well I try and avoid crowds so never go to town events where there are crowds!
I thought about the saying " two's company, three's a crowd" So more than 2 things can be a crowd !!
I think our 2 cats would agree with that this morning, ......mind you perhaps they left room for Peter?

Anyway I then looked for a crowd photo I took off our local TV when the Olympic torch came to Hastings

Today was a wet and grey day and we went to the cinema this afternoon and saw the latest Bond film Skyfall.  I enjoyed it and it was my first Bond film that I have ever seen!!
We came home via our sea front and luckily caught the sun setting at 4.05pm!! Here is our poor burnt out pier silhouetted against the sky. The town has won a generation bid to rebuild it.

a couple more photos then the sun disappeared behind low lying clouds but the clouds in the sky became a beautiful pink colour

Day 325 - BRIDGES again

Well we had this word back in September when Xanthe built me a bridge and I also showed a holiday collage of bridges in Venice.
Today I looked for a different bridge in my photo archives at Shrugborough in 2009 of a Japanese bridge

 A very busy day with Xanthe and DH had to go to a funeral pm, anyway dinner cooked and eaten and now relaxing in front of TV....Holby :)

Day 324 - FREE CHOICE

Well Monday again, how quickly this day comes round whether at work or retired!!
I was thankful for free choice as I left home at 8.30 with no word for the day and didn't get home until1pm,  I was there all morning  ...can you believe at Sainsburys!! ..... alone for breakfast and a newspaper and a bit of shopping for crackers and smelly candles until I met my friend Carol for coffee at 10.30pm then proper food shopping before I came home!!

Peter spent the afternoon in the gasrden too cold and very windy for me and I had decided to make our Christmas puddings and a nice meal tonight
Here is my photo for today the annual willow tree hair cut!!

 Our dinner tonight stuffed peppers..yummy!!

 Stages in making 2 Christmas puddings. All the ingredients ready to make them

Preparations

 Hand mixing and making wishes :)

Day 323 - PLAYFUL

We have 2 PLAYFUL cats Florrie and Mae named after our mothers!! They are sisters and now 4 yrs old. Not as playful as they were as kittens.

 Just to show you that when I was younger we were quite playful, here I am at a 60's night with another church member!!

Day 322 - BOOKS

Had a brilliant day with DGS Zac. He went to football with Peter to play for his team am, they lost 5.1 :(

Then we discussed going out pm but Zac wanted to stay home and do some cooking and play on the Santa site I had found on the computer

Well books.... I am quite a reader. I used to read during the day but then became a TV addict when I retired  .Here is what I am reading at the moment, a book from my kindle is a thriller from Linwood Barclay. OK for those who can see the list, yes I have Shades of Gray but after 3 pages thought it was so badly written I left it!!

Here are books still to read in our spare room, mainly from Charity shops 

 and a cupboard in our kitchen houses the cookery books I use, others are in other places in our house!!

Day 321 - FENCE

I just had to find this photo from one holiday in the state of Montana. Their fences are unique!

Here is our front fence. When we moved (downsizing) 17yrs ago we had this fence and gate done and also all down our side in the back garden, we were so proud of this new fence! Our next door neighbours had new fencing last month...how shabby ours looks now!! Have you noticed the fog? it has been horrible here today the fog is a very cold mist!!

I went to Ann's today for my fortnightly electrolysis She has just had some fencing delivered!!

The windows are all in and the wood exterior is sarting to be put on, it is ash wood I think which doesn't need treating ?

The back door is in situ and the ground dug out to the left is for the underground heating

I went inside for the first time and was amazed how snug and lovely it is already! All the beams have been kept treated and sanded and the woodburning stove is open to both the lounge and the dining/kitchen area and has dual doors for putting the wood on! The staircase to the mezzine area still has to be put in.

Day 320 - UPLIFTING

On seeing this word UPLIFTING this morning I knew I had to think about the word for today before blogging. My immediate thought was sunshine which always lifts my spirits, then perhaps the first cuppa of the day. Anyway i didn't have much time before being out with Carol to a scrapping class with Anita at Cardinal Colours this morning. We then had lunch at a big garden centre and afterwards a look for Christmas pressies in the big gift shop and Pavers shoe shop where some lovely black ankle boots just fell into my hands!!
By now I had brainstormed the word with Carol and of course she said "my hair being just right"!! Thank you Carol so into my archives I looked as I had just the photos.....I feel so uplifted when my hair has been recoloured! This was for the challenge 365 in 2008!!

Well I didn't finish blogging before we went out with friends for a pub meal tonight (yes 2 meals today :))
I asked round the table what came to mind with the word uplifting for a photo...2 replies where
1. a bra
2 jockey pants

I gave up after that!!!!

Day 319 - NOSTALGIC

A wonderful day meeting up with my college friend Ann we met and had coffee in Covent Garden, then lunch an hour later in Henrietta Street where we shared a bottle of red wine and a meze. We stayed there reminiscing about college days and our friend Sue who died in May

A lot of nostalgia as we looked at her daughter's wedding in Dec 2011 whilst Sue was still alive.

We stayed here until nearly 5pm ending up with afternoon cups of tea. It was dark when we came out and this is my first Christmas tree to be seen for 2012 all lit up in Covent Garden 

We ended up at 6pm in Carluccia's in Garrick Street for a evening meal and then trains home for us both