There's Nothing Like a Good Friend

 

Despite being very tired last night, I woke at 4am and just couldn't  get back to sleep.

So I decided to get up and make some Elijah bread for my friend's breakfast.

I added a huge handful of fresh blueberries, another handful of dried cherries finally some pumpkin seeds.

When she came down for breakfast, she was delighted to see the warm "loaf" awaiting her on the table. She loved it and had two huge slices, adding some butter to it ( never thought of that before!)

 

 

The morning was spent having lots of cups of tea, and catching up on the three years since we last saw each other.

She is such good company.

After a short walk around our local pond we had an early lunch and then whilst waiting for the dreaded hour when we had to say goodbye, she showed me a quick game using Scrabble tiles

 

 

All the Scrabble tiles are put in the lid of the box, face down. Each player takes 7 tiles each. You then have to make words, crossword style. The first person to use all their tiles says "one more" and everyone takes another tile...the aim is to be the person to take the last tile, meaning everyone else has any unused tiles deducted from their score. The tiles can be rearranged at any time, although I found that too time consuming! To score you add all the horizontal and then all the vertical ( so some tiles will be included twice.)

I won today, mainly because I had the Q and Z which were used in two words, giving me a 40 head start!

I didn't notice at the time, but proper nouns were obviously ok to use! It was good fun and something we could pop in a bag to use when waiting at airports, restaurants etc.

 

 

 

Having dropped my friend off at the station, I had time to stop off at Farm Foods and get ten bags of sugar!! At 39p a bag  I think I may be popping by again soon. With three people in the family who take sugar in their tea and plenty of baking going on, sugar is something we get through quite a bit of at times.

 

 

Tonight I intend to take it easy!

Tuesday's blog...A Rollercoaster Ride of Emotions

 

My apologies for not being able to post as usual yesterday afternoon.

As indicated in the title of yesterday's blog, the day was one filled with various emotions, which has left me feeling rather drained!

It started happily, dropping Teen One off at work, then putting together a picnic, ready for meeting  cousins down from Greater London.

The youngest lad was desperate to go crabbing, although rather like the other week, the crabs weren't showing up for their free lunch...but we had plenty of fish instead.

The young lad was really delighted with his catch and was eager to let other passing children enjoy some of the fun too, showing them how to hold them etc.

 

 

The weather was not very kind to us, windy and cold and at one point we had to make a dash for a nearby tree to take cover from the pelting rain!

 

 

 

Midway through the happy morning, I had to abandon the family to attend the funeral of my late Brown Owl.

It was lovely to hear things about her life, much of which I had heard from her over the past year. At the end it was very touching when the Trefoil Guild ladies sang as the coffin was taken away.

Funerals are generally very emotional, and this one was no different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It's wonderful to be able to celebrate a life that has been spent in Service for the Lord, but the loss of a friend/loved one  and final goodbye is always hard.

 

 

 

Whilst still feeling a little emotional, I then received a rather sad text which plummeted my spirits even lower!

 

 

and then a text from Grandma to say Grandad's op had been cancelled indefinitely was the final blow!

 

 

 

But those tears had to be wiped away as I had to return to the family who were still enjoying their time at the seafront.

 

 

and I reminded myself that our tears are not forever.

 

 

 

The skies had brightened up and the family had moved on from the picnic and the park to try their hand at flying a kite. It was, however, a little too windy, if that is possible!

So instead they had a mini work out on the pedalos!

 

 

 

 

With the wind against them, it was hard work!

 

 

Mid afternoon I had to whizz off to go and collect Teen One from work, then we reunited with the family at another location ready for an early dinner.

 

 

Three more family members came down to meet us and we had a table for 12 at Café Rouge.

Teen Two was encouraged to try snails for the first time....

 

 

 

... it got as far as his mouth...then back on the plate!

 

 

I had to leave the proceedings a little earlier than the others, as I had received an email from a friend asking to stay over for one night, so off to the ferry I went to collect her. It was a shame to break up the party as we had a lovely time catching up with them all, we really need to do it more often!

 

 

She has been a faithful and uplifting friend over many years and as she is a missionary in Botswana, our opportunities to meet up are rare, so I value every hour I can get with her!

It was unfortunate her visit coincided with so many other commitments.

We talked and talked of course, and it was approaching midnight before we said our goodnights...a rarity for me to be up that late!

 

 

I attempted to put a few words together for the blog but...

 

 

 

 

so instead it was time to....

 

 

 

Tomorrow was another day, I had had a rollercoaster of emotions and just not up for any more!

It was comforting to remember that the Lord Jesus is " the same yesterday, today and forever"

no matter what my emotional state may be, He is the One Constant.

PTL.

Patiently Waiting

 

My day started with a nice little surprise...my Recycled Teenager next door thrust £5 in my hand and told me to buy myself a box of choccies! My protests fell on deaf ears and he reminded me that I take him in a Sunday roast each week, which if he chose to go out and buy, would cost far more, so I graciously accepted his kind gesture and put it in the holiday fund tin.

 

Today was Teen One's first day at "work." It seemed very strange I have to say, having my baby starting to earn some real money! Even if it is only for a couple of weeks, its a start and will be valuable experience.

 

 

Having dropped Teen One off at work, it was time to visit my Monday Recycled Teenager, with Teen Two of course in tow.

After a nice cuppa and catch up it was time to take our weekly trip to...

 

 

 

We managed to bag a few bargains and Teen Two spied a DVD he had been looking forward to being released....

 

 

It wasn't until we came home that we realised he had been overcharged by £3....so we had to make a return trip later in the day, he received a refund without any quibble....just a shame we had to check the receipt to see we had been overcharged.

 

If you like a bargain and have one of these stores nearby...

 

 

my neighbour told me they are selling sugar for 39p at the moment! The price of cheap sugar had been a topic of conversation last week....this however is the cheapest I have ever seen!

 

 

 

The afternoon was spent doing very mundane housework. The attic room is now spic and span ready for a friend staying over tomorrow night. Every floor has been vacuumed  and amazingly enough the washing is up to date!!

 

 

 

However the ironing is not!

 

 

 

Due to a lack of one of these...

 

 

 

Grandad has not been able to start his stay in hospital...its waiting game now to see if there is one available tomorrow.

 

It seems we need to have a little.....

 

 

if you will pardon the pun!

Sweet P's

 

Today has been a very typical quiet Sunday.

Church in the morning, followed by roast chicken for lunch ( and all the trimmings of course) and a bit of crochet in the afternoon.

 

 

 

Of course with Grandma here, no Sunday afternoon is complete without a game of Scrabble.

Hubby managed to create a great score of 50  by placing down only two tiles, with a face score of 9! Not bad going aye! At the end of the day though, it was Teen One who was declared the winner, although it was a close run thing between her and her dad!

 

 

 

Whilst playing, we all felt a bit peckish and I suddenly remembered a bargain I had spied last week!

A box of Scottish butter tablet ( a bit like home made fudge!) from £3.99 down to just 30p!! It was delicious...if only the calories reduced with the price!

 

 

 

For the month of August, we take a break from having Sunday school each week, which means we get an extra hour in our Sunday afternoon...infact its an extra couple of hours as there is no hanging around between the services and no clear up at the end! So with today's extra time, I managed to plant out some Swiss Chard. It looks rather weedy at the moment, I may have left it too long in the seeding pots...lets see what it looks like in a few weeks.

 

 

 

For tea I made a fresh cream strawberry sponge. Teen One doesn't like it when I leave the strawberry leaves on, but I think it looks so pretty like that! Sorry Teen One xxx

 

 

I saw this today, and it reminded me of Teen One shelling peas with her Grandad last week.

 

He is going in for an op tomorrow, so both he and Grandma are very much on our minds and in our prayers....this is for them...

 

 

 

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty..."

Zephaniah 3 v 17

The Tiger Who Came To Tea!

 

 

 

Today has been a catching up day. All those wonderful days out last week and time spent with the family, meant the usual day to day stuff more or less didn't happen!

The washing machine has been paying it's way today, and the wonderful weather means I have managed to dry six line loads!

"The Tiger Who Came To Tea" is a children's classic, and always reminds me of my daughter going to school for the first time. Her teacher had a dressing up day and came in dressed up as Sophie.

Today we had our own tiger come to visit us...but not quite the same one as Sophie....

 

 

 

I saw this unusual moth sitting on the grass and wondered what on earth it was!

 

 

I touched it gently and it opened it's wings to show off the most amazing orange wings and body!

 

 

 

I came inside to get my camera, and also check out our little library of "Observer Books"

These books are rather old but the illustrations are delightful.

 

 

Thumbing through the pages, I quickly found who our visitor was, a Garden Tiger Moth.

In their larvae form they are the very easy to spot "Woolly Bear Caterpillars" which have the most amazing long brown "fur." Whilst I have seen many woolly bear caterpillars, I don't recall seeing them in their beautiful moth form.

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of googling suggests they are becoming rare, so if you see one, take a moment to appreciate it beauty

 

 

Whilst out in the garden, hanging out washing, bringing it in, cutting the grass etc, I noticed how prolific the little veggie patch had become!

Those courgettes really had taken off with all that rain we had early last week!

 

 

 

We even have some baby courgettes growing! I am soooo excited!! I had forgotten they were going to be yellow as well!

 

 

 

Hubby too has been playing catch up and spent this afternoon giving the dresser another coat of paint and starting the doors and drawers. I am so excited to see it finished, its looking so good already!

 

The Teens have been occupying themselves ( isn't it great when your kids are old enough to not need you every minute of the day!) and walked round our local pond where the local Baptist church had a free event on and also the local community run a car boot sale. The only thing they bought was an ice cream, but they did at least get some fresh air, exercise and listened to some Christian music in the open air.