So long, farewell, adieu......

It is with a heavy heart

 that tonight I pull the plug on

 mostly older than me.

This blog has been about the family

our dreams, our plans.

Now I have to find my own dreams

and make my own plans

and those dreams and plans

deserve a place of their own

But it is important that I not

leave here without

saying how much I have enjoyed the trip

and a huge thank you to

those wonderful people who

have travelled it with me. 

To Kerry, Renee, Jane and Tina 

who held my hand over the last

seven months and made

sure I came back


and the friends I met who have also been there
through the long hall
Vicki from Vicki lane mysteries
Anita from Castles Crowns and Castles,
  Semi expat in Oz,
A-M
Life in the Country Lane
James
Karina,
Gigi
A room for everyone
and Ann 


There are so many other wonderful people I met
who have widened my view of the world
who allowed me to share some of their
tears and laughter who
gave me a glimpse of their lives
and who taught me that
goodness still abounds in this
world of ours


I thank you one and all


hopefully I will catch up again in the near future
but for the last time from here


Goodnight

tidying up loose ends

Following up and tidying up loose ends

On my sidebar is a link to 

Stratford House

a house that was built by 

Ambrose and Bridget Rotton

without whom I would not be here!!!!

in the post I wondered what

it would have been like inside

and UK daughter promised to visit.

She did and we have lovely photos

of........

 Offices!!!!!!

But we were not to be totally denied a vision

into the past as we then discovered

that Bridget's brother had built a

house a few years before

 and it was this house that Ambrose and Bridget

obviously got some of their ideas from

they are incredibly similar.

and this house, called Blakesley Hall,

is also still standing

and is in fact a museum so

if you would like to have a look hop over here to

Blakesley Hall

and check out how they lived in the 1600's!

Maybe find a few ideas for your new interiors!!!!!!!!!!

Goodnight

The joys of downloading!!!!!!

What a wondrous world

hangs out there in the ether!

We disposed of the cameras upload program

downloaded another

and here we are!!!

don't know if this is all going to work

but if it does

the pic is a rather wonderful shot

taken by the clever

Gregoir

just before my first guests arrived

for my first 

"entertaining"!!!!

So lets see how this works!

Goodnight

My computer has taken

exception to the fact

that it has had little use in the

past 6 months

It absolutely refuses to allow me to load

any photos.

The minute I try I get the dreaded

blue screen.

Don't know how long it is going

to continue this sulk...

but we will continue anyway

and hope it forgives me 

for being absent so long!!

Blogger on the other hand has 

recovered from it's sulk and

is now allowing me to log in to my dashboard instead of

just the new post page!

So after this very boring tirade

it would appear that  

I am back

Thank you

for all those wonderful comments

and emails that have kept me going

you are a truly wonderful group of people

Hugs to you all

and Goodnight

Goodnight

I have a problem

I am not allowed to log on but I can post!

Some good news at last...!

15000 rioting people

100's of riot police

tear gas hanging in the air for hours,

two days of transport strike!

Did I say good news?!!!

Well yes...

because

 despite all the carrying on in Athens 

our beautiful  Harry

ignored it all

and he and his team

played wonderfully and he brought home 

a bronze medal

from the

World Special Olympics!

His parents, sister, aunt and Gregoir

all braved the elements to watch

him play.

Harry 

Papa would have been soooooo proud!

and as usual you continue to amaze me

with your sporting abilities,

your sportsmanship,

your team spirit,

your indomitable spirit and your 

truly wonderful sense of humour.

You enrich my life Harry

 and I love you very much

Goodnight

another goodbye...!!!!!

He was a large puppy

an even larger dog

who had a friendly wag for everyone

but behind that

cheerful look and wagging tail

there lived a fierce protector

but at 15 years and without Top and Maggie

John Wellington Wells (or Wells for short)

decided on Sunday that it was time for him to go too.

Travel safely Wells till you find the other two.

Goodnight

The tomato lady soup...!

1 large onion chopped

half a medium pumpkin chopped

6 - 8 medium ripe tomatoes

2 cups of chicken stock (4-5 cubes)

2 teaspoons crushed garlic

2 teaspoons basil

Put everything in a soup pot. Bring to the boil, 

cover and simmer

 until pumpkin is soft.

Puree and then strain

Serve with lots of black pepper and sour cream

Once you have made this soup using the recipe above

you can then improvise like I do

garlic not crushed, basil not chopped

sometimes more pumpkin than tomato

sometimes the other way round!!

and truly, somewhere in there, there is also pumpkin

Top hated pumpkin soup and really disliked tomato soup

but this is one of his absolute favourites

and every year I fill a freezer drawer full.

on Sunday night a warm bowl and some crusty bread 

WOW!!!

In the height of summer sieve twice 

so it is like velvet and serve cold

WOW! WOW!!!

at the moment my freezer is full of many different types of soup

made by incredibly wonderful women

but there is no Tomato Lady Soup!!!

I thought you might like to try this with me

and we can all share a bowl

Goodnight

This is my world....!

This is my view

at present

I am

surrounded 

by wonderful people

but

even with 

a full house 

the loneliness

is unrelenting!

Goodnight

thinking rationally?....I don't think so.

My concentration and rational thinking 

are rather limited at present

This morning I 

put the tea bag in the dishwasher

and the spoon in the bin

Took the wash out of the washing machine

went into answer the phone

came back out

put the wash back in the machine and washed it again!!!!!!

Maggie joined Top last week

so they are walking together now.

I will come back soon

 I thank you all

for the well wishes here and the emails

 Goodnight

Thank you Kerry

I can't do this at the moment so 

thank you Kerry from

 a tranquil townhouse

for doing it for me

I will be back

and I will need you all

Goodnight

A very happy Easter

A decision we do not want to make

has to be made this weekend

so while we see things that are not there

and wish for things to be different

and struggle to accept our decision

and know that it is the right one

I wish all of you a wonderfully

happy Easter 

full of all the joy of this life

that is our gift

God bless you all

Goodnight

a relaxing day and impossible things!!!!!

It feels like forever since I have been here!

I have so much catching up to do

that it now seems an impossible task

Today we went out to lunch

and I have fallen in love with this building

it is what I would like our

next home to look like 

on a much slightly smaller scale

the alfresco dining is just beautiful 

and the different areas

make it hard to choose a place to sit

so I tried them all!!!!!!

This turned out to be my favourite and

over coffee we discussed other

impossible things

 like ipods and iphones

do I get one or both???

and what is the difference anyway? 

But the reason we went to lunch

 was to celebrate the fact

that, today,

 I am a whole year younger 

than I thought I was!!!!!

( so I am just going to pick up that missing year

 and there I intend to stay for the next ten years

until people say...

poor thing, she hasn't aged at all  well has she!!)

truly, old age can be really quite exciting sometimes!

Goodnight

explanations....!

For those of you who think

I am totally mad.

my unwillingness to cut flowers

                                                                                                                         from here

began with a tree, twice the size of this

and a chain like this

hanging from the branches

and a gentle old lady

The tree was an almond tree and it was covered in fruit.

The wonderfully gentle elderly woman reached up

and picked a handful of the dried fruit and

showed me how to discover the nut inside.

Twice, I hit my head on the chains that were hanging

from one of the branches

(rather nasty, rusty old chain with three heavy strands

attached to a ring large enough to put your hand into)

Being the curious type I asked why it was hanging there

"Oh, dear, that's the tree beater"

"The what?"

"The tree beater,

 when we first came here, 50 years ago,

 the tree didn't bear fruit

so after a few years 

my Jack put this chain together for me and each year

I beat the tree, every day for a week, around the trunk,

and it has never failed to produce a crop like this."

Well I did have to ask why,  didn't I?!

The answer was that apparently almond trees

bear more fruit if they are stressed

and beating the trunk with a heavy chain rope

stresses the tree

Now the problem is that I have never forgotten that

and I figure if someone beat me with a chain

I would be stressed to

because

it would hurt!!!!!!

So

the question is

do you think it is possible that plant life might feel pain?

Just in case the answer is yes I no longer 

go on the attack with the secateurs!!!!!

What do you think?

Goodnight

I did promise I'd try....!

Jane does this count?????

I have a secret to confess

but before I tell

Jane you must promise you will still speak to me

OK

promise?

I have terrible trouble picking flowers or pruning shrubs

the reason I have trouble is...

I am not totally convinced that it is painless

to the said shrub or flower!!!!!

What if the plant is soundlessly screaming

 as I have at it with the secateurs?

Dumb...I know....really dumb!

but every time I go to cut

I get this terrible picture in my head and just can't do it.

AND

that is the reason for my dashing pink paper roses!

and why I enjoy this in my garden 

Now to see really beautiful floral arrangements in the home

go to

 Jane at Small but Charming

and just enjoy her utterly charming blog

Goodnight 

shades of green....!

Petty jealousy is really very boring!!!!

and not something I normally suffer from

...thank goodness!

BUT... 

a wonderfully eccentric friend 

rang tonight for a chat

and half way through the conversation said

go and check out where I have been staying!

so I did

and I could so see myself lying by the pool

enjoying a wee pre dinner drink

then settling in for the night

perhaps grabbing a good read of the shelves

and day dreaming

after lunch in the shade before another dip

or wandering through the beautiful gardens

so I suggested next time she went she had better take me!!!

                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                        all images from here

Alas....too late

 as it will probably be sold

she replied

So

 just slightly

 tinged green am I!!!!!

Goodnight