Storm Arwen......

 
Really lovely visit from Son on Sunday, it seemed ages since we last saw him. 

I'd made the most of Saturday while Hubby was out fundraising, and stripped our bed and washed it all after I'd already done three machine loads which all has to go on clothes horses upstairs, then remade our bed, plus a few other jobs, which meant lots of up-and-down the stairs, so I enjoyed just sitting and chatting to Son on Sunday even more. 

SisterP reminded us this week of some photos as she had saved them digitally to save online, and sent myself and sisterS copies. 
It was 1985 and we managed to get the whole family to meet at a photographic studio in Ilford Essex. Not easy finding a date we could all do and a couple could only get there late while a couple had to leave early but we managed. 

The reason was to get the best present for our parents' combined birthdays and upcoming 45th wedding anniversary. 

At that time they had...

Five children

Four children's spouses

And seven grandchildren. 

Their family portrait was huge and framed and hung on their wall until mum moved into sheltered housing in 2008 and of course it was immediately hung there. 

While we were at the studio we arranged for each family to pose, just the children to pose, just the siblings and also one of just the men, which we all chose to have small prints of in a concertina wallet. 

This was us way back then (I loved that curly perm). 

Unfortunately the quality of the studio's developing was seriously lacking and all the ones we framed and displayed have faded and even though sisterP had kept her wallet in a draw these images are poor but still a wonderful reminder of a fun day with my wonderful family. 

Tuesday O and the dog were here while Daughter was working. O wanted me to measure him against the bathroom doorframe, our permanent record,

and wow he had grown 2 inches in 2 months! He's been taller than me for a long time 😂

I'm worried about friendL who we should have lunched with last week but her and her husband had tested positive. Scarily she was taken into hospital earlier this week as she has asthma and was suffering. She is on the Covid ward so very very limited visiting. We play "Words With Friends" (online scrabble) together anyway so I'm trying to take my turn and get the games back to her as soon as I can to help with her distraction. Keeping everything crossed for her 🤞

Storm Arwen is threatening all sorts of horrid weather this weekend. Hubby and the SERVSC gang should be doing a two day fundraiser event, however where they pitch is on concrete so they can't anchor the gazebo down and there's very high winds forecast..... so at 6:30am today it was cancelled and everyone was informed..... then at 7:45am when it still looked quite calm through the window event leader was having second thoughts and messages were going back and forth. So hard dealing with a storm but even harder trying to deal with the anticipation of a storm! Pleased I'm not involved. 

So batten down your hatches if you need to. I'm off to make another cuppa.

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Yummy Eating Week........

I ended the last post with our beautiful tulip tree in gold so I thought I'd start this post sharing our beech tree while it's a stunning burnt orange. I love autumn! 

Hubby still had to mow the lawn this week, mid-November and it's still growing thick and fast! Beautiful when the sun comes out but chillier now and needed coat and gloves for coffee morning. 

Tuesday had a lovely catchup lunch with friendM. We went to Belstead Brook Hotel (they have a midweek pensioners special deal) two courses and coffee. This was my treat as friendM had a birthday just before she went on holiday so a postponed celebration. In fact Thursday we had another postponed celebration for her birthday but as our usual group of six event. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant I'd not been to before. They don't have a website so can't add a link. It was all really lovely food and they were happy to present the birthday cake with candles that we'd brought in. Funny when they just plunged the whole restaurant into darkness and walked over with the cake singing happy birthday 🎂 

Well after all the years of being told to keep switching our energy suppliers to maintain the best deals our supplier was one of those that sank under the pressure of rising prices in their supplies. Hubby has just had bills in and has now calculated that with People's Energy we were paying £85.77 per month and we were left with some credit in our account, but now with British Gas we have to pay £227.28 per month!!! I'm lost for words! 

And Friday lunch was out to The Square and Compasses with friendsL&K. Sadly there should have been six of us but friendsL&M are at home in bed suffering with covid even though M is triple jabbed and L is double jabbed, in fact her booster should have been the day she tested positive! 

Please remember it's still out there and nobody is 100% protected so carry on doing all you can to stay safe.

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Making An Early Start........

 
You may remember that last week's post ended on a cliffhanger as Hubby and I had just had PCR tests....... both negative! 

Also pleased to report that M and O who were both positive are not suffering symptoms apart from O having some very minor smell issues. Daughter and R are still negative so fingers crossed it stays that way. 

I've made a start on writing the Christmas cards. Thankfully they can just stay out on the table as I can't sit for long so I write a few then go off and do something else and maybe pop back to write a few more. 

A lot of our Suffolk cards will be delivered by the Scouts. They provide a great service every year, saving me more than half the cost of a stamp, saving me having to hand deliver very local ones and raising substantial and much needed funds for the scout groups involved. Only downside is they have to go into their collection boxes quite early. 

I've started buying a few bits towards Christmas presents and making a few too, none of which I can tell you about here of course. 

So as nothing else has happened this week I'll share my beautiful tulip tree wearing autumn gold. You may just spot Hubby busy vacuuming up the leaves although it is a bit windy so more are falling all the time. I doubt it will be long before the tree is naked. 

Same time same place next Saturday then? 

Stay safe.

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Testing Times..........

 
Sunday night Halloween dinner here as Daughter back late from Kentwell and collecting R and the dog anyway, plus O enjoys being the one to hand out the sweets to the trick-or-treaters. No pumpkins carved this year but R and O did decorate outside and our table. No special spooky recipes this year either just these dumpling skulls (which look a bit more like mummy heads than skulls) as requested by O, they topped the swampy veg casserole to go with a table full of normal stuff. 

They left soon after dinner so no going out in the garden to see the witches fly over and hopefully collect the sweets they drop, even O is now too old for that. In fact O didn't even want a handful of sweets from the stash even though R took a good handful home with her. End of another era eh? 

The dog went home Sunday night and was back again Tuesday as O wanted to go to the HE roller skating session at Bury St Edmunds which left nobody at home! 

She was supposed to come back Thursday as Emma and O had planned a day in London, however on Wednesday M had to go for a PCR test as he'd had a couple of positive home tests. So everyone in their house is playing safe and are staying home. They were all here Sunday and two of them again Tuesday so Hubby and I did LFTs and they were both negative.

M had a positive PCR. Daughter, R and O had negative LFTs, then O had a positive LFT on Thursday, so the three of them went for PCRs and the girls were negative but sadly O was positive. Daughter had a track and trace chap on the phone for 40 mins asking every possible detail more than once and because we had contact with them recently our details were given. Daughter phoned to warn us. Then very soon afterwards Hubby and I both got texts and had to fill out online forms and book tests for Saturday morning. 

We've just got back, that was efficient but horrible of course. 

And really there's nothing else to report on. I've been slowly re-patching some very worn bits on my patchwork peg bag. Another huge amount of soft toys landed here that all need to go through the washing/ drying/ brushing up process. Plus the Christmas cards and list are ready for me to start writing, always a daunting prospect but fine once I get started. 

Enjoy the weekend, and hope any fireworks are a pleasure not a problem.

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