Rain And Floods

It was rather a dull day yesterday. I worked and caught up with lots I had to do, the dogs slept and slept, exhausted after their weekend. While I worked the fox cub slept on the path in the garden too. Youngest son has built such a rapport with it while we have been away, it comes and sits by the fence and he opens his window and chats to it.

When I went out to feed the birds, it had moved to the side of the garden and was sitting watching me. I put some dog biscuits down for it and it sat munching on them while I was round and about. When I walked up to the aviary I was really surprised to see another cub sitting looking at me. It was about the same size as the cub that was in the garden eating the biscuits. I have never seen two cubs together this year, I really wonder if it could be a sibling I have just not seen or maybe a cub from another nearby pair of foxes. It was quite an exciting discovery.

While I was out in the garden the sky was getting darker and darker and I could hear plops of rain starting on the aviary roof. I had to dash in as it was getting heavier and within a few minutes it was absolutely pouring. It poured and poured, thunder and lightning, it was relentless. For the first time I was worried we were going to flood. There was a small river running down the path by our back door that was getting deeper and deeper. Since our neighbours have had their extension built the water really rises on our terrace with no where to drain to in heavy rain, it is quite a worry. 

I had some shopping to do at our local shops and I waited and waited but in the end decided I would just have to get on with it. All the shops were in chaos. Every shop I went in was mopping up from flood water that had come in through the back doors and one had water pouring in through the roof as well. I felt really sorry for them all. As the woman who works in the chemist said to me "This is all we need on a Monday!" I think the problem is our little area is on quite a steep hill and it just seems to rush downwards to the shops, the more houses and extensions that are built and the more front gardens that are paved over just seem to be making the problem worse and worse. 

At least the forecast is better today, but I hate to complain when I see the terribly high temperatures and wild fires some people in the world are having to deal with. I'm off to see my Dad today, hopefully I won't get soaked again, but I'm definitely not forgetting my umbrella. Have a lovely day everyone what ever the weather. xx

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

Money Saving And Stormy Weather

 The weather has been very strange this spring. We had a brief lovely warm spell and then very cold, frosty dry weather with virtually no rain and now May is making up for that. We have some sunshine followed by such heavy showers if you are unfortunate to be out and about in it you get soaked through. I have been caught several times out with the dogs and its not much fun. I did manage to re pot sickly tomato plant which is now looking wonderful and re potted some of my apple trees even though the whole time I was out there, I was accompanied by rumbles of thunder in the distance. There was an article on the news yesterday with Prince Charles calling for us all to plant a tree for the Queen's platinum jubilee next year. I hope Her Majesty will be impressed with all my efforts! My trees are doing so well and actually seem to be really thriving in all this rain. This adverse weather has caused everything else in the garden to be much later than other years though. Youngest daughter was showing me photos of the roses in our garden from three years ago yesterday. There were quite a few in full bloom looking beautiful, but this year nothing yet. There are lots of buds so something will happen soon but it's just taking it's time.

I have been continuing with my Too Good To Go Bags and they have been really successful. Everyone says they have tried new foods they never would have thought to try. Who would have thought sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella would have been such a hit with our quiche the other evening. I have saved so much money on our food budget this week I'm on track to buy a new drill for Tom out of saved money that he has had his eye on for a while. The bags wouldn't do for vegetarians as there is always a lot of meat which I freeze straight away for the rest of the family but there is usually one vegetarian item for me. I'm also quite enjoying the walk down just before nine, I rarely walk that way so am getting a totally different view point of out area in the evening. It's much busier in that direction and it has a  different feel to our little row of shops but already I'm bumping into the same people and having a little chat with people I see each evening. I just can't resist having a little chat! The sky was so dramatic when I walked down last night I had to take some photos.

I scanned lots of photos yesterday which was very time consuming but a good job out of the way. Even though I am very pleased to have got through so many, this morning I really must try and get further with the caravan awning curtains as our break away is getting closer. I hope the weather improves, three dogs in a caravan with this rain would be a bit of a challenge! I'm going to my Dads to do his shopping today and my sister and I will be able to spend some time with him all together inside his house now. How wonderful, I just hope nothing gets worse again to spoil this freedom we are having. Have a lovely day everyone what ever you are doing. xx

Getting Through A Very Rainy Day

 Yesterday felt like a bit of a right off in many ways because of the weather so I kept busy inside. I designed my new pin board for the caravan which I am really thrilled with and just hope it turns out as nicely as I had planned and ordered the new item I need for the old Robert's radio. I will definitely be taking it to a repair cafe when all they start up, but until then I'm keeping my fingers crossed my plan works. I just hope my brain waves work! I get these ideas, usually when I'm out walking the dogs and have time to think and often they come to nothing but sometimes they work out well. I love it though as I feel so enthusiastic about things when an idea comes to me and it can get me through the darkest of rainy days. I often see items on the news about mindfulness and relaxation and I always think that's not really for me. It's new ideas and being busy that get me through. 

For a short time in the afternoon the sun came out and I went out and fed the birds, changed the ducks pool and checked the greenhouse. All this wet weather has really brought the slugs out and I have to do a snail and slug "sweep" in there every day as they have been munching on some of the seedlings. I carry them out and dump them in the hedge at the end of the garden, no doubt for them to return the next day, I'm sure I recognise some of them! I have bought my cosmos and sun flower seedlings into the house as I have lost so many. This reminds me why I should try to grow plants in the garden that slugs and snails just ignore, it is so much less trouble, I have to battle through with my dahlias yet! After only an hour this was what the sky looked like as I was returning into the house.

Within five minutes and after a large clap of thunder that set Layla off barking and barking this was the sight in the garden. I was very glad I got inside in time.

It looks like it is going to be another day of rain today, I can't believe I was moaning about how dry the garden was in April. Tom is off work for two days and he has a spot at the dump booked tomorrow as we are getting rid of my Dad's old microwave for him. He is obsessed with getting the loft tidied up which I can't really be bothered with as we can't see it. I have managed to get so much sorted out in the house during lockdown and now the boxes have all gone to the charity saleroom, I'd rather not have to sort out any more for a while but I suppose it is a way of passing this rainy day. I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday and you manage to avoid this heavy rain we are having. xx

The Sun Always Shone

 I travelled on the train to go and do the shopping for my Dad  yesterday It was a really hot day and it reminded me that wearing masks out and about on a hot day isn't very pleasant. I really hope the rules are relaxed a bit by the time we have hot weather all the time. It was so nice though to see the sunshine and Dad's roses are going to look a picture this year as they are all coming to life. 

By the time I got home in the evening Tom was already in from work and had started cooking the evening meal which was nice to arrive home too and we all had our usual catch up while sitting eating. Youngest son and daughter will be finishing work for the Easter holidays in the next day or two so they are very cheerful at the thought. While we were sitting eating our meal it said on the news this was the hottest March day since 1968. Tom and I laughed and we said "Oh we rememember that hot day in March 1968 really well!" Of course we don't, but it did make me think how when I look back on childhood days I always remember sunshine. When  I am out on a sunny day and smell freshly cut grass I am transported back to school on a summers day. 

It is not just me, my school friends and I often talk about it. We had a big grass field next to our school playground and we would all lie on it listening to transistor radios on hot summer days. We all say we only have to hear a song from those days now or smell that cut grass smell and we think of it. The boys would be playing football and showing off and the girls reading Jackie magazine and making daisy chains. The sun always seemed to shine, it's all we remember. We often joke if we had any idea in those carefree days we would all be friends in our sixties discussing cures for arthritis we  would never have believed it! 

I can't remember where we went holiday in 1968, I must ask my sister if she remembers, but it would have been a caravan holiday in this country. I feel like searching through the old box I have of diaries I kept in those days to see if I kept one for that year. I was a sporadic diary keeper, January was always well documented then I lost steam but I often kept a holiday diary. One thing I am sure of though it would have been a holiday like this one and the sun would always have shone! Happy days!

It going to be another lovely day today I had thought of planting some of my little plants out from the greenhouse but the weather forecast is very cold over Easter so I may hang on a bit longer. I will definitely get some garden jobs done though as it looks as if it may be the last day for a while it is going to be so nice. I hope where ever you are in the world and what ever the weather is like you have a lovely day. xx

All Behind Us

 Well what a difference a day made in the weather. It was horrible yesterday. Raining, cold and blowing a gale. Tom was on a late duty so he took Layla to the park before he left. It was so windy when he threw her new toy it was caught by a gust of wind and ended up caught in a tree. Sadly too high to be retrieved poor Layla had to walk home without her precious new toy to carry and I will have to order her a new one from Pets At Home.  

At lunchtime I went to my Dad's to do his shopping on the train as usual and it was so horrible sitting at the station I was glad of my mask to keep my face warm! When I arrived at the station the usually lovely view was very grey 

Even though the shops were quiet, probably made worse by the bad weather, it was really nice to see school children round and about again. It's only about four more weeks until more shops will be opening up and it will give a nicer feel to the whole village. Just to see people sitting outside the cafes again, even if they are not allowed to be inside for a while will be so nice. I did have to smile there were two old men sitting on old fashioned shooting sticks in the main street drinking cups of coffee. They looked so pleased with themselves sitting socially distanced having a chat. How resourceful people have become! One of the really good things to come out of this pandemic has been the ingenuity of so many people and businesses to keep going in some way. 

To have a clear out and raise a bit of money, our lovely little florist has put a table of very sickly looking pot plants outside asking people to help themselves but they would be ever so grateful for a donation. I took a Christmas Cactus and left some money in one of the little envelopes. It had lots of brown leaves and looked very sad. I have cut off the dead leaves and re-potted it and it is looking better already. I'm hoping by the time it flowers in the winter I will be saying "Remember when I bought this plant during lockdown, well thank goodness that is all behind us now." Fingers crossed, I'm sure it will be.

The wind blowed a gale all night and I could hear was things blowing around and banging round the whole neighbourhood. All I could imagine was my little greenhouse blowing away and ending up on the main road with all my little seedlings scattered around the garden but when I woke up to my relief everything looked fine, if a bit wind swept. Scarlett is coming this morning and another little parcel for the dolls house has arrived for her to open which I know she will be thrilled with. I hope we will be able to get out for a walk today, we'll just have to see how the weather goes. I really hope everyone has managed without too much damage from the gales and has a lovely day today hat ever you are doing. xx

Pre-Preparing Vegetables For Quick Warm Veggie Meals

I stopped eating meat 12 years ago. We decided, after years of keeping quail, we wanted to start keeping chickens. We read up about all they needed, set up our chicken coop and run and drove to get our ex battery rescue chickens. It was so exciting we couldn't wait. We drove to a big barn on a farm miles away, where the charity had put hundreds of chickens to be chosen from, with our boxes and donation money. We walked into the barn and I looked around at these poor creatures and the state they were in and I said "I am never eating meat again" and I haven't, not a mouthful. I never criticise anyone for eating meat it is entirely their choice but I knew at that moment it was not for me. 

I used to eat fish a lot but a few years ago had to go on an iodine free diet in preparation for treatment for thyroid cancer. I wasn't allowed fish, dairy, eggs, any type of prepared processed meal, take aways or even chocolate. I could have two pieces of dark 70% cocoa chocolate a day, it was hardly worth the effort! I moaned and moaned and practically went into withdrawal, but then strangely after two weeks I suddenly realised I had got used to it and on this diet of vegetables, beans, pulses and rice I was feeling incredibly well. I haven't kept it up strictly, and I admire committed vegans who are able to, but I have drastically altered the main staples in my diet since then and feel all the better for it.

As my diet has such a high fresh vegetable content, the best bit of advice I read was to prepare the food in advance. If I have some spare time at the beginning of the week I wash and prepare all the vegetables for several days and I store them in plastic containers in the fridge ready for use. How many times did I used to plan to have butternut squash or the like and then at the end of a busy day at 6 o'clock faced with a pile of vegetables to work through think I can't be bothered I'll have something else, always less healthy. Once they are prepared in the fridge it is no bother at all just to put them on. On these cold days, it's so much nicer to eat something hot for my lunch and nice for them to be already prepared. I usually have omelette and roast veg or often just roast veg with some bread. There's nothing nicer than mopping up the warm olive oil and garlic at the end with a chunk of bread.

At the same time I add more prepared vegetables in the slow cooker so they are ready to make another veggie meal in the evening.  I have a large slow cooker for the rest of the family to have their meat meals in and this little one for my vegetables. I have so many quick vegetarian meals I make once the vegetables are all cooked. Sometimes if I tell people I am a vegetarian they say, that sounds like too much hard work! I always think to myself it's the meat meals I make for the rest of the family that are hard work!

If ever there was a day I needed hot meals it was yesterday. It was freezing! I spent so much time walking around with buckets of warm water. I will be glad when the hose pipe defrosts and I'm already planning setting up some sort of new system, running the hose along the edge of the garden and lagging it to try and stop this happening in the future. It was so cold last night apparently the coldest night for 15 years. I'm just grateful for my warm house and feel so much for the people who haven't got one. Have a lovely day everyone and I hope you can keep warm. xx

Out In The Snow

 What a cold day it was yesterday! Tom was back at work after nine days holiday so I felt quite lonely. He has been going out and feeding our birds and ducks while he has been off so it was a shock to my system on such a cold day going out to see to them. It took me such a long time as all the water was frozen and the ducks little pool was frozen solid too. After the struggle of chipping all that away, of course the hose pipe was frozen so I had to walk up and down the garden with buckets of water from the kitchen. We have steps up to our garden which are pretty treacherous at the best of times so I felt I was risking life and limb doing it yesterday. I carried warm water for the ducks little pool as a treat and even though it was only just warm in the freezing cold there was steam coming off it. Scoot our female duck just sat there with her little legs floating for ages she enjoyed it so much.

The whole time I was walking up and down, the beautiful vixen who always sits at the end of our garden was watching me, no doubt in amazement at my antics. I always think she has the most perfect face I have ever seen on a fox.

I felt so sorry for her sitting in the cold and snow I went into the house and gave her a bowl of dog biscuits before I went inside. While I was sitting in the warm enjoying a cup of tea I sat and watched the fox carefully carrying some of  the biscuits and hiding them around the garden.  When I was talking to my eldest daughter on the phone yesterday evening I told her about the fox's behaviour. Before she was a police officer she worked for two years in the London Wildlife Hospital and she said if a vixen is displaying different behaviour she may be pregnant. I do hope so, she had three cubs last spring and it was such a pleasure watching their antics in the garden as they grew up. 

When youngest daughter got in from work she said she saw, on the way by, the local park was completely packed with families out sledging on the big hill there. All off school, I suppose they deserve to have a bit of fun. Tom said the buses were empty though and he spent most of the day driving round and round with only a few people on his bus. I start to wonder if the days of busy buses will ever come back.

It was such a cold night last night. We leave the kitchen heater on all night when it is cold, for our dogs and Cleo our cat who sleeps pressed up next to it. Cassie our little Yorkie sleeps on our bed and even she got under the covers! I kept waking up and thinking about the poor fox out in this snow. It is still snowing today though only lightly but I think it may be a while before this clears. I have plenty of work to do inside but I will be glad to get out walking again. Have a lovely day everyone and I hope you are all able to stay safe and warm xx

Shopping During Lockdown

 During this lockdown we have started using Click And Collect from Morrisons. Unable to get home delivery slots anywhere and fed up with queuing in the rain outside local shops I decided to give it a try, You can order it the day before, choose your slot, then Tom drives to the car park to the pick up point to collect it. If you don't want to get out of the car they will even load it in for you but Tom says there is no way he could sit there watching a couple of young girls doing all the work! On the whole we have been very pleased with the shopping, Only a few substitutions and Morrison's food is nice quality. The only time I go shopping now is for my Dad once a week and that is to his local M&S Food so isn't really that crowded which is why going to B&Q yesterday almost felt like an adventure! 

We decided to go and look at the railings there to see if they would do for our garden plans. We were so pleased with them we bought some straight away. I have learned before in B&Q sometimes they just stop stocking something, usually the one thing I decided to go back and get a while later!  Tom used his new B&Q pensioners 15% discount card. He worked there years ago and now he has turned 60 gets a very small pension from them. As the young girl on the till, who must have been new, had never seen one before Tom explained what it was. "So there you are" I said "That's something to look forward to." She looked horrified! 

I managed to fit in a little bit more tidying in the garden yesterday, more to batten down the hatches before the bad weather really. One thing I am really pleased  about is this little tree that has appeared in a pot with a small oak tree in my Dad potted for me from his garden. I'm not sure what it is and if it has germinated from a seed from his garden or ours but I will put in it's own pot soon and add it to my tree collection. I will enjoy waiting to see if I can identify it as it grows. 

The promised snow has just started here, just a few a light flurries but it is freezing cold. It seems to be on it's way from Kent and I'm really hoping it's not too heavy as Tom and youngest son and daughter are all going out to work tomorrow.  I'm planning to be out early too, travelling over to my Dad's as he has a routine doctors appointment in the morning .I'll just have to wait and see what the rest of the day brings. Have a lovely day everyone and I hope you are keeping warm. xx

Chaos, Curtains And Crochet On A Snowy Day

 Well the promised snow arrived and it all looked very pretty. Once Tom had changed the ducks frozen water and we added an extra heat lamp into the inside quarters of the aviary we decided that we would stay inside in the warm. Luckily neither Tom or my youngest son or daughter were working today. However in no time at all the usual snow chaos ensued. We only live at the top of a small hill but that is enough to cause car accidents in this sort of weather. One car had skidded into a parked car and another skidded backwards off the road into someone's fence. It happens every time we have snow. Luckily this time a pair of very enthusiastic young NHS Track and Trace workers arrived and pushed the cars up the hill and once grit from the big yellow container, that is always full in the winter, was scattered about calm was restored. I suppose with hindsight the grit should have been scattered before the snow!

In the afternoon I decided I would start making the remaining curtains I needed to make for our 1970s caravan in the hope that it won't be too long before we will be able to go and check on it, when this lockdown finally ends!  The little toilet cubicle in our caravan is ever so dark with just a tiny frosted window so I wanted to make some really bright cheerful curtains and what could  be more cheerful than Snoopy. I absolutely adore Snoopy! All my old school friends laugh at me and say I have never grown up as I used to have Snoopy all over my books at school and they are right I haven't!  Who couldn't be cheered by this lovely material.

Snoopy Fabric

The shower cubicle in the caravan is very cleverly designed. The shower tray folds up when not in use, the door folds backwards and the area becomes extra space in the caravan with a second door going outside. So I want the curtains on the window in there to match those in the rest of the caravan. Luckily I have just enough of that material left. 

1970s Curtain Fabric

I managed to cut the curtains and lining ready for sewing but unfortunately didn't have enough header tape for either pair. We are lucky enough to have a wonderful little local knitting and sewing shop but of course it is closed at the moment and sadly won't be open for the foreseeable future so I have been held up waiting for some to be delivered. 

The rest of the day was spent quite productively sewing back together squares that had come adrift on this double sized crochet blanket. I bought it for just £2 at a jumble sale (pre covid! How I miss jumble sales) and think it will look really nice in the caravan.

Crochet Blanket

Bad weather days can be quite nice sometimes. I can always find things to do around the house and feel yesterday definitely wasn't a wasted day. 

Much of the snow has melted this morning and it is lovely and sunny, but feezing. Tom is off again but our youngest son and daughter are working. The pavements look very icy so I think I will wait a bit to walk the dogs. A day of work and hopefully I will find time to get a few more bits sorted for the caravan. I hope everyone has a lovely safe day what ever you are doing. xx

Just Too Much!

   Tom and I enjoy watching Midsomer Murders. Not as much as we used to do as it always seemed to be summer once and we loved looking at the pretty villages and cottages. I know it is very far fetched and if it was real life I think M15 would be crawling all over the area as so many dead bodies turn up but it is a short while of escapism. We noticed tonight there was a new programme on which is very unusual as let's face it they love to repeat it at least 20 times in a year! We settled down with a cup of tea at 8 o'clock. Tom commented there was a new sergeant. "Oh well they all merge into one after a while." I replied. Then I realised who else had been replaced. Only the best actor in the whole programme. The one who made it worth watching. Sykes the dog. Sergeants are one thing but Sykes, that is a step too far!

Sykes in Midsomer Murders.

The new replacement. I suppose I may grow to love him. The dog not the sergeant!

   My Mum is a bit better today so I am hoping may improve a little each day. Well I'm off now to put another couple of extra blankets on the bed as they say it's going to be a cold night tonight. The gritters have already been passed the house so they must be expecting something. Hope it is not too cold for everyone tonight. 

The Day Started So Well

   The day started so well. Tom and I went to the farm to get food for the hens and ducks and I took some photos of the alpacas in the field. It was such a lovely day but very cold we stood watching them for a while. We talked about how when Tom retires we would love to move down a bit to the countryside in Kent or Sussex and have walks like this on our doorstep everyday. We came home cheerful and chatty only to be met with a phone call from my poor Dad saying my Mum wasn't well.
   My spending time in hospital bag was got ready (phone charger, banana, bottle of water) I am very well practiced at this. The G.P. came to see my Mum but she was adamant she didn't want to go into hospital again. The doctor decided to refer her for tests. As we left my Mum said "Now you look after yourselves." Typically thinking of others all the time.

I've looked at the photos again this evening but I can't quite recapture the pleasure from this morning. Every little noise I think is going to be the phone ringing. On the bright side the day is nearly over and all seems well. Fingers crossed tomorrow will be a bit better.

A Grey Day But Our Spirits Lifted By Carers

  What a grey depressing day. Constant drizzle and fog shrouding everything at the same time. Southern Rail were on strike again so Tom had to take me to my Mum and Dad's house in between jobs. One of my favourite local views is the view of Epsom Grandstand as you come round from Tattenham Corner, to see the view across the Downs whatever time of the day or season of the year is beautiful. But not today you can't even see the Grandstand.

   In the end your spirit starts to match the weather! When I arrived at my parents house two of the carers were there who come very regularly. The carers are such kind people. When we found out my Mum would be having carers four times a day at home we were worried, you hear such terrible tales on the TV. My eldest son said "You mustn't leave Grandma alone with them ever and watch your drink!" How wrong we were. They have become like family members. Several of them are Hungarian and my Mum's favourite is a male Hungarian carer who is working over here to pay for his daughters University education. I always joke with her she has always liked handsome young men! They work on zero hours contracts, long hours for little pay yet are happy to come back in their lunch breaks to do extra jobs like washing her hair that they don't have time to do on visits. Just spending some time chatting with them this morning I felt the grey go out of the day. So we have learned never to prejudge and  remember despite what you see on TV there are still the kindest of people in the world.

A Blustery Day

    It has been a really windy day today. I had to go for a blood test before a minor op as a day case the week after next. The only thing left open at Sutton Hospital is a little pre fab unit for blood tests. The rest of the building is either demolished or all boarded up now. I don't think many people are aware this little unit is there so I dashed in and out with only one person in front of me and Tom and I set off for the charity saleroom to buy some more stock before he had to go back to work. I only bought a few bits but did manage to find some really nice silver plated items which will look lovely when I have cleaned them up. Sometimes I can hardly bear to put the items up for sale but I try and be firm with myself as my little Nostalgic Store is not going to build up with me keeping all the stock!
    The wind had really got up when we returned and the barometer has dropped significantly which is never a good sign. I'm not really frightened of heights but this telephone engineers up a pole on a windy day is a braver man than me! He's not even holding on. Apparently there is a named storm heading our way in the next few days. So I think we better check all the chicken runs and hope our old roof tiles survive.

The Calm Between The Storms

     On Saturday evening there was nothing on TV Tom and I wanted to watch so we searched through the i Player and decided to watch a couple episodes of Top of The Pops from 1981. This was the year we met when we were 20 and it was very enjoyable to listen to the old songs from the year. Amazingly I could remember all the songs from the two programmes virtually word for word, but then I realised why. At the time I was training to be a nurse and was doing my paedriatric secondment at Queen Mary's Hospital for children. Radio Lollipop was on all the time on the wards and the children would constantly sing along. During the week the children had lessons and the radio started at 4pm. When that familiar tune of Lollipop, Lollipop came on sung by The Chordettes all the children would cheer. It was a really enjoyable part of my training. I also worked there for a year in 1978 with the disabled children before I started nursing in 1979. I loved every minute of my time there and look back with very fond memories. 

     When we woke up this morning the sky was clear and the sun was shining. The wind had dropped and the rain gone. I knew the weather forcast was for another storm later so we decided we had to take the dogs out to enjoy this calm in the weather and I knew exactly where I wanted to go! After breakfast we walked off in the direction of the old Queen Mary's Hospital site to the park they have made there. 

     Everyone who had any connection with Queen Mary's was devastated when it was closed down and the land sold off. All the protesting came to nothing. Now it is just a couple of wards at St Helier Hospital and houses stand on the site. There is however a park on some of the land and we often walk up there with the dogs. I can stand and remember the little train and zoo, the cafe we used to take the children to and just the feel of the place. I could be 20 again singing along with the children. Only a couple of buildings remain including the lodge and the offices where I had my interview which are now flats. The other building is the chapel in the photo which is now a day nursery.

Walking past the houses you walk out into fields and you could be in the middle of the countryside not just a few miles away from central London. It was still windy but lovely and bright. The dogs loved it.

We walked right round until we came to The Little Woodcote Estate which has smallholdings and garden nurseries. built for returning servicemen after World War 1 to encourage them to take up farming.

Views across the fields.

Yet just turn the other away and the buildings of London's skyline are only ten miles away.

Rain clouds were starting to gather so we set off  back home with an appetite built up for lunch. After an hours walking and over three miles covered the winter cobwebs were definitely blown away.

Bring Back The Sunshine

    It's been blowing a gale this evening. Our old sash windows are all banging in the wind and the rain is battering down. When I ran down to the local shop earlier an old man said to me "Nice weather for ducks!" "I have ducks in the garden" I said "and they won't come out of their house as they hate this wind and rain so much." There was a long pause and he said "Well I'll have to stop using that expression then!" Oh dear, he's probably said that for years and I have spoilt it for him!
   My eldest son flew down to Cornwall to pick up his car as he had brought up his belongings in a van. His flight was delayed by two hours so he was really fed up, as he thought flying would be so much quicker. We are not enjoying this weather. The barometer has dropped really low this evening which doesn't bode well for the next few days.

I just want some sunshine now. I found myself looking at photos of the garden in the summer. It's hard to believe on a day like today it will look like this again.

Little Cassie the Yorkshire Terrier having a sleep in the sun on a hot day. Won't be long now and it will feel like that again!