Rain, Rain, Rain And Learning Welsh

 Well it poured and poured yesterday on and off. I can tell you the exact moment it rained at it's heaviest. It was when my sister and I were out shopping for my Dad! We were soaked, it was bouncing off the pavements and stupidly I had forgotten my umbrella as it had been glorious sunshine when I left home, so had to share my sister's one. What a sight we were carrying bags of shopping and trying without success to avoid the massive puddles on the pavement, under one little umbrella. As my sister said "Oh to be in England now that spring is here!" The annoying thing was, the second we arrived back at my Dad's house it stopped and the sun came out again. I think it will take days for my shoes to dry out! Despite all the rain and cold my Dad's beautiful orange azalea has come into flower. I look forward every year to seeing this. 

Yesterday I made a decision for Tom and I to try to learn to speak Welsh again. Tom's Dad was Welsh and he would love to find out more about his family tree on that side. His Mum and Dad are long dead and his Dad never talked about his childhood at all, Tom didn't even know his grandparent's names. I have tried to find out more on online sites but having one of the most common names in Wales doesn't help at all. I found his Grandparents names but that was it. At the beginning of last year we had planned a trip to Wales to try and find out more but of course along came coronavirus. Tom and I decided we needed to fully embrace "The Land Of His Fathers" as Tom likes to call it and learn the language. 

I downloaded the Duolingo app and started learning while I was on the train. I'm not sure what my fellow passengers must have made of me sitting with earphones in saying "Welcome Dragon" in Welsh but I felt I was making progress (I'm not sure how useful that would be, but still that is what the app said). We started talking Welsh at home and even youngest son and daughter entered into the spirit of it all, although it was hard to take youngest son seriously as for some reason he insisted on taking on the demeanour of Merlin casting a spell in the TV programme as he said that is what it sounded like. Then we all caught coronavirus and for several weeks forgot all about it, after that we had unfortunately lost the momentum. 

Yesterday I downloaded the app again and was amazed how much I remembered. By the time I got off the train I was saying things like "Good Afternoon Owen" in almost perfect Welsh. I was very pleased with myself. In the evening, after we had eaten we were all practicing again . The app has a leader board of people who are learning and you can see how well you are doing in comparison to other people. After all my efforts yesterday I had jumped into 10th place, there I was Jane, above people like Domingo and Gustavo. I was so pleased! I was showing youngest son as I have never been on one of these boards before and it definitely has awakened my competitive spirit. "Who's number one?" asked youngest son. I looked "Someone called Sayeed" He has a profile picture and there is a young Asian man smiling back at me. "I can get there" I said. Youngest son replied "Mum you need to learn something  I learned years ago, on every online leader board, there will be a young Asian at the top, it is the way it it is!" Well that is a challenge I intend to take on!

It's raining again today so I think apart from trying to coincide walking the dogs with a dry spell I will be inside most of the day. Plenty of time to practice my Welsh whilst I'm working! I hope everyone has a lovely day whatever the weather. xx

Queuing, Planting And Badgers

 It as a lovely sunny day yesterday. I caught the train into Sutton first thing to go to Morrisons and it was hard not to feel cheerful despite all these reports of third waves and variants. I thought I'm just getting on with my day and not thinking about it. There is blossom everywhere and that lovely spring feeling. It does seem strange with all the shops, but a few closed. I thought I would pop down to Wilkinson's and see how long the queue was. Luckily it was very short so I went in and bought some dahlia tubers and lily bulbs, by the time I came out the queue stretched to the top of the hill so I had got in just in time.

Morrisons was very quiet and I bought my food shopping and a couple of plants. They has quite a good selection but a lot I hadn't heard of, so I went along the shelf photographing them all so I could do a bit of research when I got home! These are the two I bought. I do love a Fuchsia and the Centaurea looks very pretty and attracts bees too.

On the way home on the train I saw something that really dented my good mood, it was a dead badger lying at the side of the railway track just outside Sutton station. I was surprised to see one as I had no idea there would be badgers in Sutton but I felt so sad as I kept imagining the poor thing just walking along and then being hit by a train. Last year we did manage to film a badger on the wildlife camera I set up in my Dad's garden and I think I'm going to look into how many badgers may be around in our area too.

When I got off the train I walked round to the bakers to buy a loaf of their delicious bread and was a bit daunted by the long queue there but decided I would wait as everyone in our house loves it so much. Luckily for me a traffic warden walked by the shop and three quarters of the queue ran off in panic so I managed to get into the shop really quickly! It was really worth it as I had a lunch of salad and warm wholemeal bread. 

I spent the afternoon out in the garden planting all my new purchases. I have never had much luck with dahlias as they always get eaten by slugs and snails as soon as they appear out of the ground so I'm going to keep them in pots in the greenhouse until they are big enough to put out and see if that is a bit more successful. I also planted out a rose bush I have grown from a cutting last year. I'm really looking forward to it flowering to see which rose it is as I have no idea.

The sunny flowerbed is starting to look a lot more spring like. It is full of blue bells and forget me nots which will be flowering soon. It is a year today since the start of the first lockdown, what a year it has been. If there is one thing I have decided in the last year it is that I'm just going to get on with my little life and make the best of the things around me which bring me pleasure. I'm going to my Dad's again today to do his shopping so more being out and about. I hope everyone has a lovely day and manages to get a little bit of normality and sunshine. xx

Little Pointless Facts

 The 1st of March is finally here. My Dad has taken, now the weather has improved, to walking up to the church at the end of the lane near where he lives each day. It is just a nice distance, once round the graveyard and then home. It has led to a regular evening conversation on the phone that goes something like this. "Do you remember so and so who used to live at the end of the lane years ago." "Yes I do, the family had a Labrador dog and a tabby cat." "I can't remember that but they had a Rover car." "Yes he grew vegetables and always had bonfire going in the garden." "That's the one, he had a little cheerful wife." "Yes I remember her now, how are they?" "Dead, I saw their grave in the graveyard." "Oh dear." I'm really not sure how uplifting these walks are turning out to be but at least it keeps him fit and he is enjoying admiring all the spring flowers coming to life. 

However these evening conversations have made me realise another thing. Our brains are full of snippets of information we have stored there over the years. Sometimes I think everything is there just waiting for something to remind us of them and they come to the surface. Except maybe how to solve maths problems. I think that may have gone forever! Little things we store away about people and things that happen throughout our life, put in a box in our brain marked "Save For Later" Whenever I look at flowers starting to bloom at this time of year and little shoots coming through I remember a poem we would recite at school about spring. 

A Spike Of Green

When I went out

The sun was hot

It shone upon 

my flower pot.

And there I saw 

A spike of green

That no one else 

Had ever seen.

On other days

The things I see

Are mostly old

Except for me.

But this green spike

So new and small

Has never yet

Been seen at all.

It's so strange when I look at green shoots appearing everywhere I can't get this poem out of my head. I could be eight and reciting it at school. We used to have hand writing cards with short poems on, that we had to copy in our best handwriting. It was on one of those handwriting cards and I wonder if because I wrote it down as well as reciting it, is why I learned it so well. How is it still there in my brain after all this time. Maybe it has stayed there because even after all these years I still find the sight of these little green shoots appearing everywhere so special. My favourite time of the year. Everything to look forward to and the darkest days behind us. Never have I felt it more than this year. Spring really does feel very precious. I hope everyone has a lovely 1st March what ever you are doing and Happy St David's Day. xx

The Temptation In Queuing

 How many years campaigners have called for sweets and chocolate bars to be removed from shelves right by checkouts. When my children were little it would annoy me so much, that queuing nightmare with little ones within hands reach to all those tempting sweets. I understand times have improved now however I never take Scarlett to supermarkets so I'm not really sure. Suddenly, for me, with this coronavirus pandemic the temptations have changed. I stand outside the Co-op in the queue with my mask on, socially distanced, waiting to be let in. I hate queuing  it's so boring, I look at my phone, no connection, smile at a few people walking by, they ignore me probably can't see me smiling as I have a mask on, read the headlines on the newspapers outside on the newspaper stand, far too depressing, then I shuffle along  to the plant stand. If I have Scarlett with me this is how the conversation goes "That's pretty Nanny" "Yes it is a primrose." "I like that" "It's only £2 that is cheap, shall I buy it?" "Yes I like that". 

For the first time in my life I am picking up items to buy before I go into the shop! If they look as if they need care and watering then that is it! It's lucky I only have one pair of hands!  I think it may be because I am so desperate for signs of spring, I want brightness and normality or is it simply that standing looking at pretty flowers for a while is just too much temptation. I know spring will come but somehow those little flowers around the house seem to bring it closer. 

Yesterday having a move around to make space for books resulted in me moving a lot of items around. Am I the only one who does this? My family groan when I come home with a new painting from a car boot sale as it can lead to a chain of events which ends up with furniture being moved! My Dad always was, until his hands have become painful with arthritis, an avid model maker. One of my main memories as a child was him sitting at the dining room table with a model ship or aeroplane on the go. I had a detailed Tiger Moth aeroplane, a model he made of the plane he used to fly in the Royal Air Force, hanging on my bedroom ceiling when I was little. I wish I still had it.

Over the years he has made beautiful dolls house rooms, not for children to play with but with a glass front and tiny little details that can keep you absorbed for a long time staring in. I have three he has made and they have been up on high shelves but yesterday I brought one of them down to the dresser. It was a really fiddly process as I had to take the glass of the front to put everything back into place and they have to be dusted with a little paintbrush. I thought now Scarlett is a bit older and can be trusted not to touch she would love to look into them. Unfortunately I couldn't get the lights to work despite an hour of fiddling with fuses. They come on but there must be a loose connection as they keep going off. I have bought a new lighting plug box on ebay and am keeping my fingers crossed I may be able to fix it before Scarlett comes on Thursday. This is one of my favourite photos of my Dad building a model ship taken in 1962 and it's one of the clearest memories from my early childhood.

Today is Shrove Tuesday and I'm looking forward to making pancakes later on. I do really enjoy these sorts of traditions as I think it builds happy memories for my children, even though they are adults, for the future. I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever you are doing. xx