Thursday
It's been lovely today - sunny, bright,with the occasional shower - a lovely autumn day. Of course I was inside preparing for our visitors. the problem is that our spare bedroom acts as a store room for guides stuff, art stuff, craft stuff and it takes some clearing. We'll get there.
 I had my hair cut this afternoon and it looks OK for thin fine hair then did some more sorting.
This evening was great! Our trefoil guild had arranged an evening with Liz Burnley. Liz was our last Chief Guide and very good she was too. During her term of office her husband sadly died of motor neuron disease. She was amazing as she carried on working very hard for girlguiding uk. When her appointment was complete she and two guiding colleagues decided to climb Kilimanjaro to raise money for motor neuron association. Between them, they raised over £27,000. Her talk tonight was brilliant and kept us all enthralled with her account of the climb. 
The only bad thing about today was that I succumbed to a pie and child's portion of chips for supper. Naughty naughty.

another day!

At last I have my blog back! I got a new laptop for my 70th birthday in June and it has taken this long for me to get things right.
Life has been very busy recently so it's nice to sit and write. Today has been quite a gentle day, starting with the washing. There are only two of us, but I do lots of washing and then I end up with a pile of ironing which I hate having to do. Then, I was off to my art class. I missed two weeks so I wasn't sure what we were doing. Joy, it was pastels! I did a portrait of a cat. It's rather psychedelic but looking OK so far. I just need to finish and refine it with my pastel pencils. If it looks OK, then it will be a christmas present for someone.( I bet they can't wait!).
After art, it was time to take my gorgeous doggy off to have his hair cut. We've had a shock in the past couple of weeks. Jasper has been going  to My Petstop since he was a little puppy for everything - dog training, socialising, holidays and grooming. We rang to book a weekend for him to find it was closed. Panic! We had to find a new place for his 'holiday' and grooming. Luckily we have found both and Jasper looks gorgeous now he's had his trim.
I now must move myself. We're having visitors from France next week - Roxane, Rafael and baby Emma. We're looking forward to having them here but they will have to fit into a very busy week. Before then, I have to clean the house, and sort out the back bedroom so that the visitors plus cot can fit in. Then there's all the shopping ........oh well, it'll get done.
No pictures on this blog but you never know! Watch this space.

april 6th

Well, they say that all the English talk about is the weather, nbut is it any wonder? We have had a couple of weeks of really sunny weather, tee shirts on, doing jobs in the garden, enjoying the spring flowers which have bloomed. Then Tuesday morning we woke up to snow and REALLY cold winds and it's been damp and cold ever since. The poor daffs look a bit battered.
I've spent a lot of time at the doctors in the last week or so. I think I must be cracking up. the tablets I got for diabetes haven't worked as my sugar levels haven't dropped and now my blood pressure is too high, despite the tablets. I'm a bit fed up about it all, but I'll keep taking the tablets!
Last night Kev was out with his male friends at a centenary Masonic ceremony, so I was invited to a friend's for a meal. There were eight of us and, being female, we put the world to rights. It could have had something to do with the beautiful food or the wine but who cares? So, today has been a bit of a blur! Mind you, I did bake some chocolate and walnut brownies and two fruit cakes. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Monday 26th

I've woken up to sunshine yet again. It's another beautiful day and Jasper's ready for a walk. I have some baking to do for my Praise and Play group tomorrow. I've already made some 'birds' nests' and I shall make some bunny biscuits.

Yesterday, we were on coffee duty in church. There didn't seem to be as many people in church as usual, so we thought we'd be quick - not so! The service was good and our new vicar is settling in well. I think he's lovely and just what we need. After church I sat in the garden reading the information for today's exclusion meeting. It doesn't make for nice reading and you wonder how a youngster can end up so disruptive especially as this youngster has every sort of support given and none of them seem to have worked.

Well, I suppose I'd better go and bake my biscuits and enjoy the sunshine.

busy times.

This week has been as busy as ever and I seemed to do everything except housework! I managed 4 strokes on my own at my swimming lesson, enjoyed my art class, had several medical appointments, went visiting an old friend and had a good natter, out for a meal on Saturday with more friends and the usual Praise and Play and Sunday School. The weather has been lovely until today, when it has been cooler and trying to snow. 

Sunday daytime in this household has been declared a computer less day and it's amazing what has been done. This afternoon we sat down and made a list of everything that needed doing, from sorting out the summerhouse to working out a holiday break. It runs to a couple of pages, but we've made a start.

We have a very dear friend who lives in Gagny, very close to Paris, and she has invited us to stay with her. We had suggested getting either a cottage together in England or somewhere in France. However, she now has a little granddaughter to look after each afternoon and also, her dog is very old now and she doesn't want to leave her. SO, we're off to Paris in June. Himself is now working out how to get there. We really fancy going by Eurostar - it's ages since we did that. I'm getting quite excited and nothing's fixed yet.

We met our friend when we were involved in twinning. We took children from our school to stay with children from a school in Villemomble. We have some wonderful memories and made some good friends. Most of all I fell in love with Paris.

My beautiful goddaughter is coming up to stay at the beginning of June, with her two teenage children. I love her very much and wish we lived a bit nearer. She lives in a village outside the beautiful city of Bath. She has an old cottage which is lovely  and works as a health visitor. I'm so looking forward to seeing them all - June is going to be a great month.

It's strange, but our family is so spread out now. My mum and dad were born in Liverpool. Mum was one of 6 and dad just had one brother. Their family were mostly all in Liverpool. 

The first to move was mum's eldest sister who married a ship's carpenter and moved to London. Dad's brother moved to Chester. There were eight of us in the next generation which included me, of course. We are now spread out in Derbyshire, Liverpool, the Wirral, Cheshire, North Yorkshire and Suffolk. The children of our generation are in London, Birmingham, Northallerton, Bath and Sudbury. I wonder where their children will end up.

I do miss them all at times as we all get on quite well, but my cousins are getting on a bit and travel is a problem for them.

Anyway, I shall close for now and maybe reminisce some time.

sorted

Readers of this blog, if there are any, will have noticed yet another break in communication. This was due partly to my busy, manic life recently and partly to my lack of computer skills. My beloved has sorted me out and here I am again.
Today has been glorious - so glorious that I was out of bed at 7.15 am and walking the dog at 9am, having breakfasted, taken laundry out of the drier and put yet more washing into the washer. We had a lovely walk and Jasper ran and ran. We met his friend Rubus, a rather over-weight labrador. (Who am I to talk about being over weight?). Back home, I did two stints of ironing and even found the bottom of the basket. I sat outside in the garden, reading the paper, whilst Jasper ran around chasing flies. The sun was lovely!
I have some papers to read for Monday, when I will be part of a panel for a pupil exclusion. I'm very unsure about it as the two other panel members are very experienced, but I can only do my best. I think they must be scraping the barrel to have me! It's a lot of preparation for a voluntary job. It's very sad that pupils are being excluded from mainstream schools, but some of the behaviour is untenable.
I had a break from my swimming lesson this week as my teacher was poorly. I am so close to swimming by myself, but can't just take off - I get so cross with myself! Everyone says I'm doing well - maybe!

I'm still going to my art class and still waiting to create a masterpiece. I'll put something on my blog when I have done something worthwhile! Watch this space............

There you are - a watercolour I did last year. It is now mounted, framed and hanging on the wall.

what shall I do?

I have a huge list of things to do and don't know where to start! Shall I write my 60+ newsletter?....shall I bake the cakes for Monday?......shall I read my newspaper?.....shall I wash the kitchen floor, paint a picture, paint my toenails, brush my spaniel??????

I started by reading my husband's blog, which I quite enjoy, so I thought that I'd look at mine. To my horror, I haven't written a post since May 2010! Quel horreur!

What shall I write? Well, this morning I had my hair cut and a blow dry and don't like it very much. Then, to celebrate, I went to tesco's to do a big shop. How I hate that place!!!! Came back for lunch, had a long chat with my friend on the phone,watched Master chef on TV and now I have to do something a little more useful.

I don't know where this week has gone. Monday disappeared under a cloud of laundry, Tuesday and Wednesday I did a bit of this and a bit of that, with a girlguiding Manchester executive in the evening. Thursday, I went to visit a Trefoil Guild in the afternoon and it was our own guild last night. I enjoyed both of them. In the afternoon we had a Thinking Day quiz which was really good as we had to put the answers on a large map of the world. When we had finished, it was clear how far Guiding has spread around the world- and this was just the vision of one man- incredible! At our Guild we made easter cards which have turned out very nicely! It's been a pretty boring week so far, apart from yesterday, but it all hots up again from Sunday onwards. Then I will be looking for some time to myself again.

I'm really going to try to keep this blog going. I used to enjoy writing it and I have just got out of the habit. We'll see - maybe I'll even make it more interesting. Watch this space!!

friends

We had a lovely day today. One of our friends was 60 recently and 5 of us went out for Sunday lunch to celebrate. We went to a very nice pub in Cheadle village, Stockport. The meal was beautiful and we had a good chat and a giggle or two. I do like meeting up with friends and we don't do it often enough, especially with those who live miles away.

I'm now watching Dancing on Ice on TV. I think the celebrities are brilliant for taking up the challenge and flinging themselves around so elegantly. I'd be far too scared to try - I think I'll stick to learning to swim.

No photographs yet, but I promise I'll do some soon>