Every time I do Blog Blast for Peace I think of a song I used to listen to, back in the early seventies. I haven’t been able to find it on YouTube.  This year I managed to get hold of an mp3 of it.  It’s written and sung by Tom Paxton and says it all really.   As most of you know, it’s been a hard time for me to think about blogging lately but I didn’t want to miss this day.

I put this little movie together at the last minute.

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When I was a little girl, not long after WWII (Eeeek!), food was not plentiful.  It was rationed and you had to use coupons to buy it.  Once the coupons for a particular food were used up, you could buy no more of that food until the next book was issued.  There was a ‘Black Market’ and some people would get hold of food without coupons – for a price.

A vivid memory for me was going round to a friends house with one of my sisters.  Her mother was never in and unlike us, who always had our mum home, the kids did their own thing all day, and possibly into the night.  The first thing she would do was raid the food cupboard.  I have no way of knowing if it was black market food or gifts from American GI’s but she always had food in her cupboards.  On this particular day she lifted out a large jar.  She unscrewed the lid, and we watched in amazement as she scooped out the contents with large tablespoons.  She handed each of us a heaped spoon of this orangy brown delight.  We had never tasted anything like it before.  It was like a spoonful of heaven to us.

As there were seven of us kids we never had any luxury items.  Mum would have to swap those coupons with people who didn’t need so many basic foods.  The swapping of ration coupons went on a lot.  Because of this, us younger kids had never tasted foods that were not deemed to be essential.  They were tough times but what we had never had we didn’t miss.

It’s nearly sixty years since I first tasted that little bit of heaven, known as Peanut Butter, but you will always find a jar of it in our cupboard.

How do I eat it?  On a spoon of course!

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Just a few Autumn photos I took last week.  We were collecting conkers again.  If you look closely you can see some that we couldn’t reach.

You can click to enlarge them a bit,  for better quality.

I hope to be back blogging very soon.

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This post is in memory of our beautiful niece Sindie, who passed away this evening at 39 years of age.

Our lives will never be the same.

Sindie and her brother, having just finished the Pink Ribbon walk.

________________________________________________________________

This is what a friend wrote about Sindie yesterday – It says it all.

“Sindie is a remarkable woman. Always positive in adversity, always looking on the positive and lighter side, always concerned for others, a fighter to the end.”

It was Sindie’s wish that donations be made to the ‘The Cavendish Centre’. For any of her friends that wish to donate, and leave a comment, here is the link to the site.

I’ll be back blogging soon.

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Remember our invasion of the shrooms?

They came back a couple of months ago but the weather was too hot and they shrivelled up within a day.  I was a bit disappointed because they look quite nice in the garden.  Well they’re back again!  You can’t keep a good shroom down!

Though you can’t see in the photo, there are lots of stones amongst the mushrooms because they forced there way up from under the shingle.  I think I will consider these similar to an autumn shrub and look forward to them each year now.  Maybe twice a year, and maybe we’ll keep the stones off that tree stump to make sure they have a nice clean entry in future.

Am I alone in thinking they are quite attractive?

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I just need to set the scene for you here.

My computer sits in the corner of the room, I sit facing the wall, with my back to the kitchen door, which is about 7ft away.  We have a very dark carpet and when Mo goes up she turns off all the lamps, leaving only one small lamp on and my computer screen.  As you can imagine it’s not a lot of light for a 24ft lounge with a dark carpet (the dark carpet being the problem) but it’s enough for me most times.

It was about 1am, I was sitting at my computer.  Mo had gone to bed and my only company was the cats (again).

I went into the kitchen for something, and when I returned, Mitzi (the hunter) was sitting in front of my computer looking at the floor.  She had that look on her face that says “I’m watching you”.  I quickly turned on the overhead light and saw the biggest spider ever!  Right behind my chair!  I had walked past it to go to the kitchen!  Probably stepped right over it!  Now, I like most creatures, but spiders I HATE.  They really give me the creeps.  My rate of fear is aligned with the size of the spider, and this one was a MONSTER!

“Don’t just look at it! GET it!” I said to Mitzi.  She looked up at me.  “Don’t look at me!  GET THE SPIDER!” She looked down again but made no attempt at catching it.  Now my mind was seeing all eventualities.

• Mitzi gently patting it, making it run somewhere and losing it. I would have been panicking then!
• Mitzi gently patting it so it ran straight for me!  BLIND PANIC!
• Mitzi NOT patting it, and just looking at it – all night long! I couldn’t have gone to bed and left that monster in our lounge,  Well I could but it’d have to be dead.

I have faith in Mitzi’s spider catching abilities because I have found two dead spiders in our kitchen before, but she was taking too long for me.

I’m sorry spider lovers, but when you have a real fear of something, you can’t possibly think about catching it – ALIVE? And CARRYING IT? Even getting close enough to catch it would send me into terror mode.

I searched for something, anything I could use to kill it. I couldn’t leave the room to get the spider catcher. I would have been too scared to use that anyway.  You have to carry it through the house alive! All I could see was a tiny (A5) magazine.  I picked it up, walked as close as I could bare to, threw the magazine at the spider, missed the spider and scared Mitzi away!!!!  FOR GOODNESS SAKES! Now I had no spider watcher to pat it if IT moved.  IT didn’t move, IT wasn’t scared, only me!  Actually I think it was scared and playing dead or something, though it was fooling nobody. I grabbed Mitzi, whist keeping my eye on the monster, and put her down next to IT .  “Get it Mitzi”  I said.  Mitzi ran away from the magazine again.

There was nothing for it, I had to be braver.  I found the TV magazine, which is a bit bigger, held it in both hands and inched my way closer to IT , shuddering with every step.  I not only had to get within a foot of this thing, but down low and personal too!  “Do it quickly”  I thought.

OH ….. MY….. WHAM!

I did what every good blogger does and got my camera.

I was cropping the photo and, much to my disgust, had a large image of IT on my screen. I don’t mind telling you, even the image was freaking me out.  Sukie (the other cat) brushed herself on my legs, I went into a “Oh what’s on me?” panic, shot off my chair, discovered it was Sukie, breathed a nervous sigh of relief, saved the image, cleaned out the rubbish from my photo album and emptied the trash. All in one, jittery, moment.

“Where’s my photo of IT ?” ………. Gone.

You’ll just have to put up with doodles – Aren’t you glad?

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I promised you I’d get the camera next time there was an accident in our house didn’t I?  Well I am true to my word – this time.

I was sitting at my computer the other evening, and I heard a strange noise.  I didn’t take much notice as there are always strange noises coming from the TV.  I carried on with what I was doing, until I heard the noise again.  It was louder this time. A kind of baaaaeeeaaaaeeeeaaaaaabbsssssss noise.  A pitiful whining noise.  A bit like the noise our cat Livvie makes when she demands something but doesn’t know what she wants.  You can go through every ritual – food? garden? drink? cuddle? upstairs on the bed?  She doesn’t want any of these things.  She just sits there, looking at you and demanding anyway.

I decided I’d better find out what this whining was, so I followed the sound.  It wasn’t coming from the TV.  I went to the foot of the stairs and looked up to see Mo resting on the landing.  Funny place to take a rest, I thought. “What are you doing there?” I asked.  “I fell down the stairs” Mo said.  I could see she was looking for sympathy so I said “Hold on! I’ll just get my camera.”

What I thought weird was that she was laying, or should I say sitting, facing the stairs she had fallen down.  “How did you do that?” I asked.  “I don’t knoooowwww”  came the pitiful reply.  ‘Click’ ‘click’  “Hold on, let me go up the top and get one looking down”  ‘Click’ ‘click’.

Now just look at the colour of that face.  Should I feel sorry for someone who had just spent a week sunning herself on a beach in Devon while I looked after the cats?  Should I?

No humans were hurt in the incident that led to the photographic shoot

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My mum and dad loved their garden.  They tended it lovingly, planting all sorts of flowers and shrubs, including some lovely daisies that were mums pride and joy.  She loved them and they grew in abundance.

This photo was taken on August 4th 1984.  It was mums last birthday and we organized a garden party, inviting everyone that had ever meant anything to her.  The sun shone all day and though mum was very ill, she kept smiling and chatting throughout.  Mum always did.

Here’s mum, sitting next to her daisies.

After she had passed away my sister Sandie took a small clump of the daisies, because mum loved them so much, and planted it in her garden hoping it would survive the upheaval. It did.

Sandie has moved house three times since then, and each time she has taken a small clump of the daisies to plant in her new garden, and each time they’ve thrived.

Last year she gave a clump to us and Mo planted it in our front garden.

I bet mum would never have thought that 25 years on her beloved daisy plant would have journeyed to so many different parts of the UK and still be going strong.

Every time I look out the window and see them, I think of mum.

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A chance would be a fine thing!

This is where Mo spent last week, while I was stuck at home with only the cats to talk to, or not as was the case.

She had a great time.  Well, who wouldn’t with a view like that to look at every day?  She phoned me one time and I could hear the sea over the phone.  It didn’t help me feel good, I can tell you.

It was only made better by the fact that Mo bought me back some of this.  It’s Devons famous clotted cream fudge.  I don’t like clotted cream but the fudge is melt-in-the-mouth delicious.   It’s a good job I don’t live in Devon.  I could eat it non stop.

I got something else too.  I am famed for letting my drinks go cold.  I love a nice cup of tea but always end up drinking lukewarm tea because I forget it. I can still clearly hear my mum saying “Babs, your tea!”  Then I would have to gulp down a cup of lukewarm, or cold tea!  I didn’t like it but it would have been ungrateful to throw it away, wouldn’t it?  Those were the days before microwaves, so there was no way to reheat it.

Anyway, look at the pretty mug I got. 

What makes this one special is the lid that sits on the top, keeping the drink nice and hot.  I’ve used it since Mo got back and each time I’ve had a nice hot cuppa!  Now I just need to remember to actually put the lid on it!

Do you think this was a fair exchange for a week by the sea?

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Mo is away in Devon this week. She goes every year for a holiday with her sister, and I hate it.  The house is so quiet.  I only have the cats to keep me company……

Resigned to the silence, I go back to my computer.

*SIGH*

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