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.

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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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POST CONTAINS A CREEPY CRAWLY PHOTO!

The other day I noticed a fly laying on it’s back on the kitchen window ledge.  As I went to remove it, he wriggled his legs frantically in a vain attempt at getting on his feet in order to invade any food he might find laying around on the surfaces.  He assumes we are silly enough to leave food out and uncovered.  He was obviously close to death so I left him to end his moments naturally. I say ‘he’ because anything that ugly cant be female.  Sorry if there are any men reading this, but isn’t that so ladies?  Well Ok, I know there are females really, but ughhh, they are ugly!

As a dutiful blogger who [ahem] always has her camera at the ready, I decided, for your perusal, I would do a bit of happy snapping.  Those who don’t like looking at ugly creatures need to shut there eyes at this point, because I cropped in close in order to see the pretty detail on his body! Actually, I don’t want you to shut your eyes really. I want you to see my exquisit photography.

Anyway, I checked the photos on my computer and settled down for the evening, with no more thoughts of the fly in the kitchen. Before I went to bed I would dispose of it.

At 3am I went into the kitchen to unplug everything before going up, and saw the fly.  I was about to get a tissue to remove him when he wriggled his legs just as frantically as before!  He was still alive!  He’d wriggled so hard his leg had dropped off!  Really! One of his legs was laying beside him! I quickly scrunched him up in the tissue to put him out of his misery. Why do they take so long to die?

As ugly as he was ….. poor little thing.

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Mo and I always eat our evening meal on individual tables in the lounge while watching the evening news.  Last night was a little different because our sister, Tina, was staying with us so there were three eating.
We were having one of my favourites – Spaghetti Bolognese.  I prefer the Bolognese to have a fair amount of liquid rather than a thick sauce, and Mo always makes it just the way I like it, aside from the fact that there is always enough big chunks of garlic in it to sink a battleship.  Mo loves chunks of garlic, I don’t.  Why does the mountain of garlic chunks always end up on my plate?

Anyway, things were not running quite as smoothly as usual.  Our tables are usually set up before the meal is ready.  Tonight I hadn’t set them yet when Mo handed me my plate of Bolognese along with my cutlery.  I put my cutlery on the table and went to put my plate down.  What the……? My plate was empty! I mean EMPTY! I stood, puzzled.  Where’s my dinner?  I gazed, confused at my plate but no, there was definitely no Bolognese there.  On closer scrutiny I saw that there was a single strand of spaghetti on the plate.  A single strand?  Had Mo put me on a diet?  ONE strand of spaghetti?  Then I saw it.

Spread out on our lounge carpet was a 2ft projectile of Bolognese topped with a liberal amount of spaghetti.  My plate was clean, and when I say clean I mean clean.  Aside from the one piece of spaghetti there was no sign anything had been there.  I stood looking in disbelief at my lovely meal spread out on the carpet and soaking in more with every second that passed.  How had it happened? When did it decide to go skating off my plate?  What made it go so far?  I would love to have been a fly on the wall and seen it happen.  Preferably in slow motion.

“Mo! Come and see this” I called, in a state of shock but with a laugh bubbling up inside. “I’m busy” Mo said, but Tina came rushing in. I looked at her and started to giggle.  Tina looked at me and giggled. Mo came in and was a little less than amused.  “Oh you are SO clumsy! Just look at the carpet” Mo said, in a slightly more colourful way than that.  I giggled, Tina giggled and Mo threw out a few more irate comments as she went back into the kitchen to get their meals.  The more irate Mo got, the funnier it was to me. It wouldn’t have been so funny though, if it were not for the fact that Mo always cooks enough for two days, so I was safe in the knowledge that I would be eating Bolognese that night.

By the time we had eaten Mo saw the funny side of it.  I knew she would.  It just takes her a little longer to laugh at these sort of accidents.

And now I’m thinking of firing myself as a blogger.  I didn’t take a photograph of it before I cleaned it up, and I don’t think that suggesting a re-enactment of the scene for photographic reference would have gone down too well, do you?

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