I tried to post and entry and it longed me out, gave me a blank page other than spaces which looked as though they were intended for login and password, then lost my post.

Grrr.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I spent a few days with Mum the other weekend and I'm pleased to report that, although it's hard for her to get about, she is mangeing it and is happy to be at home. We made some significant progress in sorting out papers too!

Last Saturday I had a very concerned letter from Mum's neighbours which set me off feeling anxious again but N and I replied to it carefully and I realised that some of the issues they raised had already been addressed as much as possible. I had forgotten to update them, because N was ill when I came home and it drove things like who knows what out of my mind. He's much better now.

Last weekend my sister, her husband and their baby visited. The baby is magic! She seems to transform even non-baby-minded people into her fans! Mum rang me after they left, full of praise for her, and generally seeming very happy that they had visited. They also took back some more of my sister's huge collection of books (the ones I am always saying would need a pantechnicon to move) so Mum can reclaim some bookcase space.

Well, that's about it on Mum for the time being, except to say that the visit has inspired me to sort a few more of the papers here! There does seem to be some sort of paper effect though, whereby removing them gives them licence to breed...

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I heard someone get up at seven this morning, and the front door clicked. That's how I knew without looking that it had been snowing! H had woken up and seen straight out of the window, seeing as the boys' room still has no curtains (the decorating moved a little further on today but has stopped till we get more white paint).

Anyway we had a couple of inches of the old deep and crisp and even... it was like waking up in Narnia! There are pine trees at the top of our garden, and they were laden with snow, just like in pictures of it, but minus Mr. Tumnus, of course. Last night I had been saying that we could pretend it was Christmas Eve and that we were waking up to white Christmas. Well, it wasn't quite that, but it was a treat just the same. When we got to Church, my friend's boys, who live nearby, had made a super snowman in the churchyard, though there was less of him when we came out and most of the snow has since melted. N and L went up to the 'snow line' at Osmotherly (a village on the moors) and L showed me photos on her phone of the hills covered in snow. And yet, the sun was warm on my back when I went into the garden for a few minutes.

I missed a lot of the service this morning as I decided I'd rather go and 'help' with the children (they would have coped fine without me but I enjoyed it!) I belatedly put my name back on the Electoral Roll, having forgotten to renew it last last year, so now I can vote at the AGM which comes up soon. I have also come to the conclusion I need to step down from a role I have had at church for the past few years - maybe someone else will give it a new lease of life! I sent a note to the Parish Administrator, asking him to take my name off a poster, which makes it seem more final. I'm not good at giving things up.

Home, and a feast because it's Easter, and afterwards, easter eggs. N and I were being so good, and not buying for each other; neither of us needs the calories! Somehow a bag of mini eggs, a chocolate bunny and a bar of 'Divine' chocolate got in under the ban, though! The kids all had their eggs then, much to our surprise, H presented N and I each with a big egg which had taken up about a week's pocket money each! He is such a sweetie: it was a really generous gesture and I hope he realises it means a lot to us.

This evening... TV! :-D There was the final part of The Passion and I have to admit I've only seen snippets. N has been gripped by it. Both of us loved what we saw, even though it's not kept strictly to the letter of the Bible. Now for me to love something that doesn't stick to the book, either I have not to have read the book, or it has to have some very special aspect. I've read the Bible, or at least the parts on which the film was based, and this wasn't verbatim. To me the letter of the Bible is the Last Word - nothing takes its place. However, translations and understandings vary, and I think sometimes even a good translation inevitably loses something. After all, words don't necessarily have exact equivalents in other languages, and different cultures have different concepts so what one culture may see as significant, another may bypass as not worthy of notice. Similarly, paraphrases of God's Word may lose nuances but bring out meanings that a strict translation does not. I think this film was rather like that, or like a song or an icon which explains someone's understanding of something about God. It showed me a credible, compassionate Jesus.

After watching this we went straight on to the final episode of Larkrise, followed by The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency, both of which were worth watching too. Why is nearly all the good TV on Sunday evening? I only missed Time Team because, having given up computer games for Lent, I finally had the chance to play J's latest version of The Sims!

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

This is my second attempt on this post - the first disappeared when I tried to insert a smiley, so if I appear a bit grim, it's nothing personal.

It's a great day when all our children decide on something constructive to do, and go off and do it! This weekend it's been about revamping rooms. L has taken out the purple carpet she's had for about five years, and the ancient green office-style carpet that was under it and was considerably older. She has also taken out huge amounts of rubbish, which to my mind is quite an accomplishment. She wants to paint the floorboards white.

The boys - especially J - have begun a huge project to redecorate their room. There is a large pile of junk waiting to go - I have been sorting through, retrieving things I think deserve better than landfill, putting paper into recycling, and occasionally finding a treasure, such as a photo of J aged about 18 months, making his way up the steps of a mobile library when we lived down in Dorset. His trademark shock of white-blond hair shows up from a distance! Then there was another from a couple of years ago, on a school trip to Germany, where he's sharing a chairlift with a girl whose name I don't know.

Today he has been painting the royal blue walls white. The plan is three white walls and a navy blue one. He has taken down the curtain rail and his bed is pulled out at an odd angle, so all in all the room is a tip, half painted and strewn with debris, but it's headed in the right direction. J's idea is that once the painting is done, he will replace the old carpet with laminate flooring.

Soooo... my main activity has been reshuffling the 'stuff with a lid' - and N's has been getting some of it out of the door! There is also an enormous amount of laundry, partly because the weather hasn't been kind recently, and partly because of the clear-out. Today I had to drag it in off the line in a hurry - we had woken up to snow this morning (!), but it thawed, then we had further brief showers of hard snow in the afternoon, and it wasn't worth bring in the things off the line because they didn't really get wet. Then, suddenly, there was a heavy hail shower followed by great flakes of snow falling quite fast.

I probably spent a couple of hours using the warning beeper on the iron as a kind of timer - iron a few clothes, then set the iron down, put the clothes away, grab and sort another handful of stuff from the boys' room, hear the 'you have left me alone and I'm still plugged in' beep going on the iron, hurry back to do another garment...

Rearranging stuff under it's lid - where does that come in the eternal perspective? I am glad some of it is gone as we couldn't take it with us!

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I owe you an update... so sorry I haven't made it back before. There's no good reason apart from tiredness and a bit of time needed to get to this point mentally.

Things are going a lot better - the big reassurance came from Mum's lovely cleaner who rang and told me that, having spent a couple of hours with mum, she was vastly improved on how she had been before hospital. Mum still gets very tired but at least she has accepted a couple of hours' help from her cleaner on another day so I know she gets some input three days out of seven. I do hope and pray she will make this a permanent arrangement and add in a Saturday, which would break up the long run of days when she manages on her own.

N is soooo much better and back at work. Today he went for a cycle ride - the second since being ill. After the first he decided he had a way to go to get fit again, but after this one he seemed to recover more quickly, though I suspect he will feel it later. At present he is taking J on driving practice.

H has a hacking cough but otherwise seems fine - I think he has whatever N had but it hasn't got as much of a grip on him. L has a cold - she seems prone to them as I was at her age - but I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary.

And it's spring. It's definitely spring. It decided to be spring on my birthday, which was a good day for it to happen! I no longer feel I am straining in the dark for something that looks like hope. I saw just one glimpse of it just a couple of hours before we had the phone call from Mum that set this whole thing in motion. I was tense and anxious, being unable to get through on the phone and knowing mum was in very poor shape physically, and N took me for a walk across some farmland and up into a little wood. There I saw sunlight shining through the trees on the path ahead of me and to me it looked like hope... nothing had had quite that effect for some time and it came just when I needed it, because after that came a time when I needed it. Now there are signs of hope all around: the white tips on the damson branches, the daffodils, the warmer air, the fact there is still daylight at six o'clock in the evening. It all makes it much easier.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well, I'm back! I spent about a week at Mum's. The day after I arrived she had a  fall and I had to call the ambulance out to get her upright. She refused further help and spent the rest of the day in a chair but in the evening we found she couldn't get out of it. She couldn't even slide onto another chair placed next to her. After two hours of trying and getting no-where, it was time to call the ambulance out again and, perhaps because she recognised there was nothing else to be done, Mum agreed.

She was admitted to hospital and they ran all kinds of tests before discovering she had had a minor stroke and this seems to be what caused the memory problems. I think the inability to stand was due to exhaustion and arthritis. She is still in there and I spent some days at her place, visiting her and sorting out some things for her. I came home a week later to find N was really quite ill: he's now off work and on antibiotics for a chest infection, as well as a flare-up of a chronic condition that hasn't bothered him much for a long time. The hospital apparently wanted to admit him while I was away but he wanted me to have the time with Mum, and had the children to look after, so he refused.

Today has been the first day he hasn't had a raised temperature, but I have had a bit of a job stopping him from being too active all along! He isn't good at doing nothing!

The upshot of this is that I can't really go back to see Mum - my sister and her family went over the other day and a neighbour is feeding the cat for her, but I have to stay out of it for now. I get terribly anxious about these two invalids and it's been an exercise in faith and discipline not to go under mentally. I did crack up and raged at H for not doing as he was told yesterday, but I've apologised to him for that. N and I spent some time this afternoon curled up on the sofa watching a recording of Time Team which was really good for us - both of us stopped and just relaxed and I feel a lot better for it. I have been so tired!

That reminds me - time for bed!

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Thanks for the comment DeeDee :-)

I am nearly ready to set off for the train... have spent this morning sorting out stuff at home so N doesn't have too much to do on top of work & keeping kids from fighting, and it's a glorious morning.

The out of hours doctor came to see Mum at about midnight last night! There were a couple of answers to prayer WRT the timing. Earlier I had said to N (after hours of fruitless attempts to contact either Mum or her neighbour by phone) that if God could work out the timing for my clearance to come through for working with children (which it did by the lunchtime post on Saturday, after several months, so I could work with them on my own at Church on Sunday), then he could work out timing so the doctor could see Mum. Well, God did it again. He seems to make a special point of making things happen absolutely at the last minute, and I say that respectfully. So many times things have happened when it was really too late for earthly intervention, but still in time. Good for my faith, ha!

Well, yesterday he did it again. I rang the neighbour at a quarter past ten - just as he arrived back from holiday. He literally had to put me on hold to let his wife in at the door! He has been marvellous and been there when I couldn't be. Then I had a phone call from him just after midnight to say the doctor had been, and to fill me in on everything, and after all those phone calls when I couldn't get hold of Mum, and another neighbour being unable to attract her attention to let her know the doctor was coming, Mum heard the door and answered it to the doctor! Even though it was midnight!

I had just got back to sleep when the doctor phoned to give the same details I had just had (!) - basically she could find nothing physically wrong and Mum is otherwise mentally okay (knows time, who the doctor was etc.) except that she was worried about Dad being 'out'. She (the doctor) wasn't able to run full tests so J (the neighbour) has sorted out for Mum's own doctor to come after lunch today.

I will also be there, so will M's cleaner, so will the nice policeman (like in books, LOL!), so will J, who has cancelled his plans for today, bless him, so it will be like Piccadilly Circus for a while!

Anyway, time I went. Still nervous of course. I hope this is a good opportunity to get more regular care in for Mum and maybe make progress in various other directions. Most of all I pray it will be something that can be treated with antibiotics, and also that I can cope with it if she goes on insisting Dad's missing.

• Comments (4) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I have to go to visit Mum tomorrow - I'm really worried. We went last week (she lives at a distance), and she was clearly unwell - the house was hot but she couldn't get warm, couldn't sleep, was having a lot of difficulty walking. I have been worried about her ever since, though she rang after we got home and sounded much more her usual self - I assumed she had had some sleep.

Today she rang to say Dad had gone missing - but he left to go to hospital about two years ago and died that May. She knows this, so when I gently challenged her and said I thought she must have forgotten, she said 'Oh yes, I remember that, but when I woke up this moring he wasn't there.' This is completely unlike her. She has since called the Police to look for Dad.

I have called the out-of-hours Doctor and all the neighbours - I am hoping someone can get her attention to let the doctor in, in the next hour - not easy as it will be midnight! The neighbours are all being wonderful. I have rung and rung but she is very deaf and can't hear the phone.

I feel exhausted: I'm going to have a quick bath and get some sleep - though they may ring me after visiting, even if they can't get in. Tomorrow I will get the train over there and the neighbour has a key so I can get in.

Your prayers are appreciated, especially for her to get the right treatment and to have peace of mind about Dad. I guess I could do with some peace of mind too!

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Hi guys and thanks for the concern :-) We are okay, the waters stopped short of property damage in this area and last weekend's high winds did the same. After some very mild weather previously it all felt doubly wintery, especially as we had snow too! The A66, one of the roads that runs East-West across the country across some high ground, had to be closed as cars skidded and lorries jack-knifed. Apparently it wasn't the snow that caused it, but the sudden fall in temperature that turned the ground icy. You may have seen that the rough weather caused a ferry and a trawler to run aground and a man was killed in a traffic accident in the west. Yup, winter arrived for a while.

Anyway that's in the past now, it's a bit warmer now and there are snowdrops and crocuses in some gardens, always a welcome sight. I was able to dry the washing on the line today - it nearly did dry too - and the buds are swelling on the forsythia. I went to the garden centre recently and bought some seeds. I always have more than I can possibly plant, in much the same way that crafters have a stash. Sometimes I get nice surprises from ancient packets that really ought to have been used years ago, often I try something new. This year I am wondering about growing some vegetables but I haven't done very well with them in the past. Last year's onions were funny - about the size of pickling onions, I've no idea why. I suppose at least I got some result!

Well, it's late and time for bed, I just thought I'd drop in and say hi. Today's title, by the way, is from Julian of Norwich. I can't quote her (yes, Julian was a woman) verbatim but, as well as the line above, she is remembered for saying 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well'.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I'm grateful to report the rain has stopped and the news this morning mentioned one of the Yorkshire rivers being about a metre lower.

General pictures here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7200457.stm

and some from York here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/image_galleries/flooding_january_2008_gallery.shtml

Cod Beck in Thirsk is the same that runs near here, though Thirsk is downstream. The King's Arms in York holds happy memories of picnicing by the river in drier times, but it's known as 'the pub that floods', so there are any number of pictures of it looking like an island!

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I phoned my friend back, now that the rain is easing, and although the water is in their road, it's not into the house. Where we usually park when at hers for home group is under water!

There are two official flood warnings in place locally - for the north of Northallerton, where the beck goes under the road, and for areas of Brompton, the village immediately to the north, which is rather used to floods in parts: they even have an area called 'water end'.

There's one local severe flood warning, phrased in alarmingly general terms, for 'properties in Thirsk' (the next market town to the south: James Herriot's 'Darrowby'). Either the flood warning people didn't have a reliable map or the whole town is under threat. Let's hope it's the former! Thirsk is downstream from us so they must be getting the water that came through here earlier, plus some more from their hinterland.

Further south in Yorkshire has it much worse: a factory was evacuated, for instance.

Anyway I had better think about getting ready to go out because if there's another break in the rain I want to get to the shops.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I woke to an ominous sound this morning - steady rain, falling heavily. We've had weeks of wet weather and for some days the news has been showing film of rising waters around Tewkesbury, where there were major floods in summer. Even here, a long way from that, the ground is saturated: I didn't put the rabbits in their runs yesterday although it wasn't raining because it was just too wet.

Half way through the morning I had a call from the friend who was due to host home group this afternoon. "We're calling it off," she said. "The beck is rising and I just wouldn't be able to concentrate."

A beck is a Yorkshire word for a stream or small river: there is one flowing just feet from her home, but normally well below the level of the houses. The beck flooded in November 2000 and theirs was one of the houses where the water came in. They had to have floors replaced and are understandably nervous now the water is again pouring across the terrace six feet or so from their back door. I remember that in 2000, someone told me they had 20 minutes from when water appeared in their road, until it came into the house. Since then, the Council has done a lot of work to improve the water course but even with this work in place, it threatens to be overwhelmed now. Not only is water falling on the town, it's pouring down from the moors, which means there will be more to come once that water reaches lower ground.

I looked out of our window at the back garden, which is on a slope. When houses were built behind us a few years ago, one small patch of lawn developed the ability to collect a puddle of water, but it only comes when the weather has been very wet. I suppose the housing and roads having replaced the agricultural land, means that that area no longer absorbs water so well (a reminder that those of us with gardens shouldn't pave them over!)

Anyway, you guessed it - the puddle has reappeared and what's more, there is a new puddle to one side.

Now, wet though it is, the position of this house means we are highly unlikely to flood, for which I'm thankful. The rest of the week is forecast much nicer weather, so once this water has a chance to go down, it should do. However, there is just no let-up in the rain this morning: the beck must still be rising.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I had a New Year's Resolution to blog every week... well, the best intentions sometimes need practice! I had one of the infections that's going the rounds, like a very bad cold but over in about 48 hours. It set me back right at the beginning of the year and I haven't called in since. :-(

There isn't much to say really... cold, wet January, with flooding in Gloucestershire just as there was last summer, though it doesn't look as though it will get as deep. Here in the Vale of York, the ground is saturated but I'm quite excited: tomorrow's forecast is for 13 Celcius - the highest it's been for months!

Well, today has been a rotten day at work. I'm struggling with a new element that was introduced to my job during the summer. I'm a Word Processor Operator/Admin Assistant but, in the interests of fair pay, jobs have been evaluated and some elements moved around. It hasn't affected my post much financially (some people have taken pay cuts of thousands of pounds or even found themselves no longer wanted, whilst others have benefitted financially) but I have been landed with the necessity of learning aspects of Human Resources work. My view on this is that if I had known what was coming I would never have applied for the job, as it's completely alien to me. Not only does it not play to my strengths, it seems to have found a complete blind spot, comparable to Maths or Physics, but possibly worse than Maths, which I have found makes sense if I take enough time about it. It took me most of the day to do a piece of work that should take under an hour - what a waste of both my time and my employers' time & money! Yet I have to do it because it's now part of my job.

I hope they give future WP Operators an aptitude test for this kind of work before appointing them. Incidentally my colleague appears to have taken to it with no trouble!

And yes, I've had several months of training, though it felt, and still feels, as though it's in a foreign language.

There are still blessings in it: I'm earning, which helps the family, I'm gaining experience and it adds enough time tension to my week to keep me on the move and less susceptible to depression. I also have enough time when I don't have to be at work and the balance suits me fine: just two days at work and five at home!

I tell myself that a lot of people have far worse, and that I have to keep praying about it, that it's good for me not to be good at it (keeps me humble, LOL!). that I am learning and I can do it if I keep on long enough...

Oh well, just one more day and it's the weekend and maybe next week the perfect job will be advertised!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Happy New Year!

I meant to write before but I got a cold... (pause for sympathy). We had a  lovely new year, H's friend's parents asked us to their party, L and H came too and H stayed overnight. L had been going to go to a party with friends but it fell through and she told me she enjoyed the one she went to with us very much! Not bad for a teenager! She was somewhere in the middle of the age range: the youngest was four and the oldest...h'mm... older than I am, anyway.

I love all-age parties.

J went out with friends; it would have been nice to have him with us and I think he would have liked it too.

My cold took a turn for the better this afternoon so I have spent a long time on the computer, not just playing Age of Kings but going to Special Notices only on one of my favourite groups - at present I just can't keep up with the amount of traffic there.

I've also given notice to the members of our church Internet group that I'm closing it down for lack of support, and I'm thinking and praying hard about my position in regard to a role I have in church which just doesn't seem to be working. Poor N must be so tired of me bending his ear about it so I'm thinking of contacting the ladies I used to meet with for prayer. We only stopped meeting because our increasing work committments got in the way, but I do miss them and of course they know me well and know the situation and might be able to advise me.

That's almost it for today. I want to follow my good example of the past few days and get to bed this side of midnight, though it was more necessity than virtue that did it as I really needed the rest to shake off the germs.

• Comments (4) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I've just had a chat with my Mum who's been trying to chose a cat to adopt for a friend. This is the story behind it:

Mum has always had cats but when Dad was ill and her own health was poor it seemed she wouldn't be able to have any more. About that time a friend mentioned she had been given a gift of sponsorship for a cat in the Malcolm Cat Protection Society in Cyprus (http://www.malcolmcat.org/). Knowing that Mum loves to care for any living thing, I got the details and set up a sponsorship for a half-blind cat called Paparelli. Now Mum has taken on the sponsorship for herself (although she now has her own cat at home), and she is looking among the Malcolm Cat sponsorships for a cat to sponsor for another friend whose health is making it increasingly hard to have a cat of her own.

Isn't it nice that my friend's friend's gift idea has had this knock-on effect and the cat sanctuary is benefitting several times over!

Another way to benefit animals is to click on the Animal Rescue Site which you can reach via www.thehungersite.com - advertisers pay towards food for rescued animals when we click on the button and besdies, there are several sister sites in the same cluster. It only takes a minute to click through them all and fund food for the needy, mammograms, child health. literacy and Rain Forest preservation too.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I have just sent a message to a new blogger who is doing remarkably well - why not pop across and meet Dorothy?

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dorothy123/

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I didn't think of it in time to make a donation 'for' my Dad this year but I realised I have been playing Christmas Carols from his old piano book - he wanted to learn but had to give up lessons because he couldn't practice while we were little in case he woke us. It means a lot to know I am fulfilling his dream. The carol book is ancient and tattered but I won't replace it!

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

I am amazed at how much one fits in one these days before Christmas! Apart from work on Thursday, we went to the school fair at our children's former primary school. They've all outgrown it now but it was fun to go back - it felt just as if nothing had changed! We followed that by a hurried dash down to the Methodist church in case anyone was in (whoich they weren't) so that we could retrieve the coat L left on Monday (which we couldn't - but she got it back the next day). Then there was a trip to Tesco for the 'big shop' after which I tidied the kitchen a bit, made a lot of soup (in an attempt to eat healthily) and found a packet of cranberries in the back of the freezer, so I've also made cranberry sauce for Christmas, this last not without a twinge of guilt as I noticed they came from Wisconsin and must have been flown over so there are air miles in them.

Today, Saturday, has also been very full. It's been below freezing for a few days so I really didn't feel like going out but realised I could get a lift to Middlesbrough with N and save myself a train journey in the week. I'm very glad I did, as a single trip to Matalan got H several items of clothing he needed, and a Christmas present for N. Meanwhile N did some significant Christmas shopping of his own, before we all (N, H and I) dashed home and went to the chippie for lunch to save time. J works on Saturday morning now and as it was so cold N nipped out to collect him when his shift finished, then we piled into the car again and N, H and I arrived at the Leisure Centre just in time for L's gymnastics show. Very slick this year, and done in combination with a show by the trampoline club. L and her friend E did a routine using ribbons, which don't seem to feature so much in British gymnastics as they do in the States.

Then... it was all back in the car (again) and back home (dropping L's friend - a different E, at her house) for L to get changed and go back to a roller disco with gymnastics... of course N had a trip out later to collect her again, before which he somehow fitted in Tesco and I cleaned out the rabbits then dozed off in an armchair, which could be because I stopped moving! H was also dozing off, but that could be the result of road-testing his new PJs!

This evening it's thawed to some extent - the little icicles on the shed roof may be gone by morning - and I went back to Tesco for bits we'd forgotten... coming back to find H had cleared some of the ironing pile (a pre-condition to putting up the Christmas tree) and the furniture had been moved to its Christmas places so the tree could go in the window. J has been out with his mates, L has been mooching round and making cups of tea (she has taken to drinking a lot of this recently) and H still hasn't cleaned out the Roborovskies (they are dwarf hamsters).

All in all a successful day, but I still need to put a load in the washing machine before I go to bed... roll on the holidays!

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

'Tis I again.

Thanks for the comment DeeDee, it's nice to know I was missed.

I haven't time right now for my planned blog on stuff with a cover on (watch this space) as I'm planning a trip into Darlington in search of a Bible as a Baptism gift. Yes, H is to be baptised on Sunday! That's just two days before the anniversary of my own baptism.

I do hope he remembers to get to his baptism class tonight! Last week he went and couldn't see anyone around so he set off for home, missing the fact they'd moved to another room. That one needs prayer - too easy for it to go by the wayside because it makes it harder to go back.

I have a few other 'musts' for my list today. I'm going for coffee and to collect a bottle of stout from my friend. One of those odd consequences of being in a Bible study group: I'm sure there are enough stories to write a whole series of books of anecdotes entitled 'Things I learned in Bible Study': it wouldn't necessarily have anything biblical at all between the covers! Our group was sharing prayer requests and my friend gave thanks that she had made all her Christm,as puddings on Sunday, and when we'd all finished exclaiming in admiration (none of us has got that far yet) she told us how she'd asked her son to buy the stout for the recipe (he's in his fifties, by the way, she wasn't leading a child astray!) and had found they only came in a four-pack and what was she going to do with the other three? I offered to take one off her hands as my pudding has advanced as far as soaking the fruit in brandy and I was wondering about putting something other than milk in it - the recipe allows for stout or ale. Oh, dear, we do sound like a boozy lot! I feel I ought to confess we have just started both the sloe gin from two years ago and the damson I made last year, and both are fantastic. They are a very special treat, though.

Other must-do jobs: there is a rose tree to plant but yesterday was just bitterly cold so I chickened out. Ironing - what's new there?! Put more stuff on Ebay... I am looking forward to the day I complete that job! There is a lot to list. Clean out the fish tank, change the bedding... I had better get moving.

• Comments (3) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Hello, it's been a loooong time, far too long, since I've blogged at all. I'm so sorry

Not that the reading public has been pounding a tearful path to my door or anything, but I haven't kept up with my friemds here and although I'm back right now, I'm due at home group soon and don't have time for any browsing.

My excuses... faulty computer, much better new computer that won't let me do anything on Firefox, sudden loss of my friend Sue (those on Flying groups in the UK will know how much we all miss her) and lately, Mum's poor health as her leg ulcer is healing but she has lots of other problems.

Anyway, here I am, a freezing cold autumn evening but there are still tomatoes ripening on the vine and the beautiful leaves of a couple of weeks ago haven't all gone.

I had a quick look at my home page and realised I need to do a bit of a tidy-up. Rabbit of the week has been there since the summer - don't they ever update him? Hopefully he has found a good home by now. My Avatar has been stuck in the same clothes for a couple of months because the new computer won't let me change her: I must remember to do it using a work computer. I noticed someone has put their Amazon wish list on their blog and thought - what a good idea, especially with Christmas coming up and all...

And Homeschool Blogger keeps putting a space between my paragraphs. I wonder if that's the default when using small type? No time to find out right now. At least I'm back - hope you're all good? Look after yourselves. I want to come back in a couple of days and write about stuff with a cover on - which was how I heard a house defined recently. Loverly  Can anyone enlighten me as to who said it originally?

Okay, I've gotta go. Be warned - I shall return!

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link