Coming together to say goodbye.......

As I've mentioned many times, we live in a great Close of just 27 houses and between us we all know each other with most of us knowing most residents because they've/we've lived here a very long time. Hubby and I moved in when the house was just 4 years old and that was 33 years ago! We have a strong sense of community.

A neighbour sadly died on new year's day and today was his funeral. 15 neighbours attended which made up nearly half the congregation! Giving love, support and offers of help to his widow........I always feel grateful for living here!
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Happy Anniversary.......

Hard to believe the first month of this year has finished already, however the first Monday of February is when we started holding a monthly coffee morning for our neighbours, four years ago now! So today was a happy fourth anniversary.

Eleven of us today and conversations round the table were varied as always.....
- Who was going to the funeral this Friday of another neighbour and car sharing.
- The sad news of Sir Terry Wogan's death and remembering so many celebrities that have died already in just 31 days of 2016.
- The new baby born to a lovely young couple who have lived in our Close for about two years now.
- The sighting of an Estate Agent at a house which is currently a rental now being sold.
- First discussions of a street party we want to arrange to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday.
- Holidays booked or planned.
- A future arts and crafts sale being held locally in April and did I want to book my own table.
- Solicitor's meetings to finalise a divorce settlement.
- And Hubby passing on to other aircraft enthusiasts how he spotted a Russian plane over our house being escorted by a British plane and how he tracked its journey online to eventually being escorted off of British air space. Don't think it was anything more than a training exercise.

I love our coffee mornings!
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Muddy mild meander........

Daughter messaged yesterday morning asking if we wanted to join them for a walk somewhere but unfortunately I'd just started defrosting the freezer and had all the food packed in a pile on the worktop so had to move fast to melt and scrape the severely built up ice and get the food back....so reluctantly I declined.

Today Daughter messaged again and we arranged to meet her and O in the car park by Spring Wood (it's local). Such a lovely warm day, can't believe it's January! It has been wet recently and the paths through the woods were very muddy

It was a lovely walk with so much worth photographing

Another quick catchup......

We had our usual coffee morning and the Christmas decorations disappeared (with a fair bit of effort) back up into the loft and life slipped back into normal, deliciously punctuated by eating up leftover goodies.

So as you see nothing much to write about apart from a major altercation in our usual Wednesday night pub so we'll be eating elsewhere on a Wednesday in future.

I've two early summer mums-to-be I need to be crafting/knitting for.
The low winter sun is showing up all the housework I need to be doing.
And I've a pile of books I want to read, so hopefully there'll be something more interesting to write about soon.
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2015 reading....

LEAVING TIME by Jodie Picoult
eBook. Paid for download to Kindle reader, recommended by Lesley.
Started 13/02/2015 - finished 21/03/2015
Shouldn't have taken me so long as it was a really good read. The story unfolds from the different perspectives of four characters. Based around elephant sanctuaries and their researchers, we are given lots of interesting information about elephant relationships and feelings which seem very relevant to human behaviour too. I won't give anything away about this story of a teenage girl looking for her mother and trying to find the answers to a tragic night ten years before. The ending had me quite choked.

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY by Candida Lycett Green
Paperback. From my pile of donated "waiting to read" books.
Started 27/04/2015  - finished 5/5/2015
True story or more of a diary than a story of the author getting back her life after cancer. Candida is the daughter of the late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman so grew up in upper class England in a world full of horses and famous people although that doesn't detract from her telling of struggles and victories. Written to paint beautiful images of where she had been.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT by Mark Haddon
Paperback. Second hand from our Isle of Wight holiday
Started 22/07/2015 - finished 09/08/2015
A very moving insight into the mind of a 15 year old boy with Aspergers Syndrome. It started with the murder of a neighbour's dog which Christopher has to investigate but the story moves a long way from that. Excellent descriptions of what he does and how he feels.

DURING THE DANCE by Mark Lawrence
eBook. Free download to my new Kindle Paperwhite.
A short story of 2,000 words
Started 19/09/2015 - finished 25 minutes later
An unusual fantasy fairytale that has quite sad undertones. Excellent as a short story.

PAYBACK AND A BOTTLE OF MERLOT by Bria Marche
eBook. Free download to Kindle.
Started  27/9/2015 - finished 3/10/2015
It's a chic romance comedy ish, about a group of wine drinking young women who band together to give out some justified revenge, but you must have guessed that from the title! A good light holiday read.

SKINNY ME by Charlene Carr
eBook. Free download to Kindle.
Started  24/10/2015 - finished 6/11/2015
As a reader who has experienced a lot of what this is about (fat girl becoming skinny girl but it's not the answer to happiness) I think it's quite well written, highlighting the struggles with relationships because she struggles with liking herself. Also brings home the message that health is more important than image.

ROSE OF THORNE by Mia Michelle
eBook. Free download to Kindle.
Started 8/11/2015 - finished 29/11/2015
A good holiday read although very repetitive to drag it out to be a whole book. Lots of secrets, lots of sex, lots of caught just in time before the worst happens and an inconclusive end so you buy the next book. ....I'll not bother.

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO THREE by Mark Haysom
eBook. Free download to Kindle (advertised on facebook).
Started  11/11/2015 - finished in about an hour.
An excellent short story written from a seven year old's view, about a camping adventure and relationships. Made me cry!

THE GIFT by Mark Haysom
eBook. Free download to Kindle.
Started 1/12/2015 - finished in about an hour on flight home.
Another deeply moving short story about a grandmothers desperate need to do well for her family.
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Happy New Year.......

2016, doesn't time just fly by?
I've read good wishes and passed on good wishes all yesterday on all forms of social media and even to real people in person, and now my wishes are for you all.

The traditional toast here is for "Health, Wealth and Happiness" and for me that means taking responsibility for my own health as much as I can, eating sensibly most of the time but no fad diets or depriving myself of treats that give me pleasure, everything in moderation as they say! My exercise will come from housework and gardening, dancing when the mood takes me and getting out in the fresh air so I also get that buzz of achievements. Wealth should be measured in love, closeness of family and strong friendships and richness of life experiencing new places and hobbies and being open minded to others opinions. Happiness is laughing out loud or quiet contentment and taking the time to count my blessings and share it with others.

So yes I wholeheartedly wish you all Health, Wealth and Happiness for 2016 xx
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A present for me by me.......

I needed a foot stool that's not as high as the one that came with the lounge furniture and I've looked around for a while now but our suite is very dark navy leather but you'd only really realise it's navy if you try to put black next to it.....seems navy isn't a fashionable colour right now as I've seen almost every other colour in various fabrics that won't go, so I decided I'd have to make my own.

The last time it was mentioned I was out shopping with Daughter and E in a shop that had unsuitable ones,  and I thought just in case they decided to hunt something down or make as my Christmas present I'd better wait. They didn't and I got lots and lots of other lovely stuff (I'm so lucky).

Boxing day I made a start with a pair of jeans that didn't fit anymore and repurposed three large cushions that were just being ornamental on an upstairs spare bed. Because I was using ready made cushion shapes and not just stuffing a box all three sides of the base had to be hand sewn which took some time and pliers for the tough denim bits that the needle (and my fingers) struggled with.

I'm really pleased with my new pouffe, and it has pockets hahaha

Christmas 2015......

The day before (known as Christmas Eve to most people but this one didn't involve E) and Daughter invited us to join them at Suffolk Food Hall for hot drinks and cake. When we got there O was already bouncing on the outdoor bouncy pillow thing

But it was too chilly for us all to stay outside for long so inside and a mix of teas, latte, hot chocolate and a milkshake plus cakes and although it was really busy there we got seats yaay. Afterwards O very quickly got bored of looking round the gifty/crafty/household stuff and dragged Granddad outside for more bouncing while Daughter, R and I did the farm food shop and I got some focaccia and another gift Hubby chose for himself. All back to our house and eventually we got tomorrow's veg prepped

Christmas Day and my one and only Christmas LP has to play as it has done every Christmas morning for as long as we've been married, even though we now have long gone past records, cassettes and even CDs and Hubby likes using his digital download on a memory stick. ...but he willingly rearranges all the entertainment equipment wiring so our record deck can come through the speakers this one morning every year!

I'm sure the rest of our Christmas day is much the same as almost everyone else's so I won't need to repeat all that just be pleased to know that Daughter&co all came, dinner was delicious (everyone said so) and everyone loved all their gifts. Daughter hand stitched this one for Hubby and I and it made me cry a little

We played a game and I won even though I didn't understand (and still don't) how to play! Quite a while after they went home Hubby and I had our Christmas pudding as we were all too full to have dessert after starter and main course.

Boxing Day and I spent all morning rearranging food so the huge amount of leftovers were frozen in suitable ways. The afternoon I managed to do some crafting.

Sunday Daughter came over so O could have a bath, then she "nipped" out with Hubby to buy a microwave, O and I played games. About an hour later Daughter text to say now heading back but they didn't actually arrive here for another hour as her girls had messaged to say could they have a lift into town so she'd done lots of driving and collecting and dropping off. While she was here she got a message from some second cousins saying they were now hoping to come to our family day here tomorrow....so when Daughter and O went home I shot out to buy three more gifts as they hadn't been included in the secret Santa list. I'd just finished wrapping the extra gifts when I get another message to say that actually they can't come!!! So some housework, furniture rearranging for tomorrow and a lovely long phone call from our Son and I never got back to my crafting at all.

Bank Holiday Monday (as Boxing Day was a Saturday) and this is my whole family day. If you follow my ramblings you'll know we do this every year and more recent years it's been held here. There were 28 of us this time (2 who never come, 2 too unwell to come and 4 children who couldn't come for various reasons) so a lovely noisy full house.

This isn't everyone as some are just never in the right place when I snap! Everyone contributes to the buffet table and as usual the table was heaving! My children, a sibling, an in-law, nieces, nephews,  great nephew, great nieces and lots of their partners......My lovely lovely family :)
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It's party time, refined and raucous..........

FriendN had been planning celebrating her 60th for some time and held a ladies only afternoon tea for about 65 of her relations and friends

Scones with cream and jam came round too and the tea pots were constantly being refilled. She'd been collecting all the fancy china from charity shops. It was so lovely. Everyone having a good chat and as well as friends I do keep in touch with there were friends there from over 30 years ago, so a great time for catchups too. Some of our men had gone together to 10 pin bowling and we all met back at friendN's house and eventually left giving their eldest a lift home as he lives right near us so saved him needing a lift to the station and a train and walk home. 

I've had lunch out this week with two ladies I've known for 25 years, we met when one was a student with me for art A-level, and the other was our teacher. Over the years we've lost touch with the other students but the three of us have always managed our pre-Christmas get together. 

Another evening out for a full Christmas dinner at a lovely hotel. We were quite noisy hahaha. A waiter took this photo just before we left

Our last art group meeting this week and we all took nibbles in to share, and cards to swap, and one lady always makes a gift to hang on our tree, this year's was a small rosemary circle tied with red ribbon. 

Tonight I'm meeting up with another old friend. Because I booked our table in September for their "festive fare" we get 30% discount - yippeee

Tomorrow night BfriendM is hosting a Christmas dinner for our usual crowd so I've made my famous cheesecake for dessert as I've promised her partner another baked cheesecake as he says mine beat any he's ever had! Bless him, flattery always goes a long way :-)

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Theatre: Holy Mackerel........

It's already been a busy Monday (forgot this was sitting in draft) with Coffee Morning for our neighbours in the morning then a quick turn around so neighbourC and I could spend the afternoon having our nails done, my poor nail technician had a hard job getting all that glitter varnish off. A brief gap between then dinner and then I'm out again!

OK Christmas can begin now as we have been to the Eastern Angles "panto", Holy Mackerel, which is usually the first festive thing I do (although we did have our first Christmas dinner last Friday)

Five actors who could sing and act and play musical instruments....so far so good,
a story based on truth of how the East Anglian fishermen caused riots in a religious Cornwall by fishing on a Sunday.....still good,
some very funny innuendos.....that's good too.

The script was very repetitive to the point of being boring.....not good,
the seats were sooo uncomfortable.....more not good,
the story ended a good ten minutes earlier than we were allowed to leave because they dragged it out with a pointless finale......worse than not good.

But all that being said, I do love a night at the theatre with friends.
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