Guess who lol

As always despite my best intentions to keep up with my blog, real life keeps getting in the way all the time. Especially when the sun was shinning as much as it was not so long ago. We spent as much time as possible out and about during that spell, as it was a welcome break from all the kids off on school holidays screaming, shouting and swearing all day long. Also good to get away from the roofers that are banging from 8am in the morning ....which has been going on for at least the last 6 to 8 weeks. How I miss the peace and quiet of Anglesey sometimes..... did I say sometimes ...I mean all the time lol.

The sunny days were spent wandering along the canal, river and going to various other places. Morecambe always seems to have lots going on, so we've gone over there for various festivals. Watched bands play at The Platforms, and sand castle competitions. One day we went to a lovely place called Heysham, where we went and looked at the ruins of an old church and some viking graves, they were such small people the vikings. The village itself was also beautiful, and it's a place we'll definitely go back to time and again. We even found a beach where I can get my scooter right down too, which was a lovely bonus.

Another day Jim even managed to get me down to the banks of the River Lune, the path down to it was a bit hairy for me lol and I even had to get off once because I was so scared of falling down the side into the river lol.  Future visits will see me staying to the higher part of Crook o Lune where there's a nice cafe, which bikers tend to congregate, Jim can look at the bikes I can look at ....well I'm sure you can guess lol. We went to another cafe where bikers met up in Glasson Docks, while we were there, a couple pulled up in a very odd looking thing which looked like a cross between a bike and a car lol.

Last Sunday we went to Halton Festival, even though the weather didn't look to promising. They had live music all day, some stalls, food and all the usual stuff festivals have. Jim was really pleased to see that one of the bands were who he used to play with and was also their sound engineer. They were playing blues music something I love. So all in all it was a good day out.

I've taken loads of photo's since I was on here last as you can imagine. So I'll just put a few on for you.

No I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth .......

For those of you that have contacted me, no I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just been caught up with a lot of things going on here right now.

Sadly Jim's father in laws mental and physical health have continued to deteriorate, which has meant he isn't going to be able to continue living at home safely any more. So a lot of time recently has been spent with meetings with various official bodies etc, to find him somewhere to stay until such time as a permanent and suitable home can be found that can cope with both his physical and mental health issues. All of which takes time as you can imagine, there are nursing homes that can deal with either one issue or the other, one that can deal with a combination isn't quite so easy. But all is in hand, and seeing as two of Jim's daughters are in the nursing profession this means that they can for see or at least be alerted very quickly when Johns needs aren't being dealt with properly, which is what has happened this past week. Anyway enough of all this.

We've had some beautiful sunny days here, along with some days where torrential rain has ruled. But all in all not too bad a summer so far. But the odd sunny day does spoil us a little, and we get to enjoy the heat of that bright yellow thing in the sky lol. Unseasonable weather does seem to be happening everywhere on our planet lately though, my penpal Terry in USA at the moment is having to deal with rain and clouds, in an area which normally only see's sun in the summer, unlike us in the UK.

Jim and I have managed to get out and about despite the various things going on with his father in law and a personal issue with another family member. Apart from our usual wanderings along the river and canal which we do all the time. We've been going off to Hest Bank and also over to Morecambe too. I've really enjoyed going over to Morecambe, as it has the usual seaside events which I quite enjoy, such as a sandcastle festival etc. In the coming weeks there's a blues weekend, which weather permitting we'll go to, and also a kite flying festival we fancy having a look at as well. So happy times and things to look forward to.

Yesterday on the way back from town via the canal, I spotted some beautiful metallic blue dragonflies, and whats more they were settling on some lily pads right by the bank. IF I'd have had my big camera with me I could have got some amazing shots of these lovely creatures. But I shall be taking my big camera with me more often now I've spotted this tiny area where there's a chance I might get a decent photo of them. Last night we also went out on a wander hoping to catch a photo of the almost full moon, coming up behind Lancaster Castle, of course just as the time was right it clouded over and any hopes of getting a good picture had gone. So we came home again via the canal ( a different part of it this time ) and much to my surprise I saw my second ever kingfisher, no chance of a photo of course they're much too fast.

I seem to have lost my craft motivation altogether, I haven't been able to settle down to do anything at all since before Christmas. I've got lots of new toys to use and lots of inspiration but when it comes down to actually getting anything done ...well that's a different story. I think a big part of it is that, now I've got so much more mobility than I used to, sitting in the house isn't such an interesting proposition any more.

Here's a  few of my favourite photo's that I've taken recently

Aren't these the cutest things ever, I could have watched them all day.








An action shot from on the river just down the road from us.



Finally a fern just beginning to open its fronds.

Is it really .....

Is it really so long since I updated my blog, oh dear. How time flies when you're busy and when you're laid up with a particularly bad dose of sciatica.

Where to start, well this cold weather meant we had to spend more and more time collecting wood for the fire. At one point since I wrote last, Jim got a really bad bout of flu, and not man flu lol, the real mc coy. It laid him up for about 3 weeks, and left him weak as a kitten. Even now a couple of months later, he still hasn't got back to how he was before he had it. The flu of course meant that we couldn't go collecting wood, and we slowly ran out, and were down to our last few bits for a fire, when my son Billie came up from Stockport with his girlfriend to help us out. They managed to get us a couple of weeks worth of firewood, which saw us through till Jim was on the mend.

I've slowly but surely been gathering together the stuff together to do my latest craft idea. I'm intending to do some altered canvases. Lack of money has made it a long drawn out affair, along with lack of motivation I have to admit.But I'm almost there, and hopefully within a couple of weeks I'll have something to show you at long last.

I've also been suffering since I last wrote, arthritis of course kicked in during this prolonged bitterly cold spell. Then for the last week or so , I've had a really really painful bout of sciatica, which has left me laid up on the settee for days on end, being able to do nothing but watch catch up tv online. As we chose not to have a tv, I have to say the boredom of watching tv  soon kicked in. I can't believe how much rubbish is tv these days lol, luckily there was quite a lot of documentaries which kept me occupied for a while, and then it was film fest, I think I must have watched most of the films on Demand Five and BBC i player. I even had to resort to looking for films on youtube, things got so desperate at one point lol. Never have I been so pleased that I live with a guy that can take over any jobs that I do usually in the house, without moaning or whinging, and just gets on with things. This morning however I've woken up and I seem ( so far ) to be in no pain, whoooooopeee.

My oldest daughter was due to come down over Easter with her hubby and youngest daughter, but that was obviously not meant to be. First of all my daughter got a bad cold and achy bones, then once she recovered, their daughter got chicken pox, and is still coming out in spots. I was disappointed, as was Jim as he really enjoys playing with my grand daughter when she comes down. But as I was in pain with sciatica, maybe its just as well things turned out as they did.

Anyway here's a few of the many photo's I've taken since I wrote last. These photo's were taken as part of a theme on a forum I use a lot. The theme was a day in the life of a hippy lol. Hmmm for some reason the photo's don't seem to be showing, I'll leave it for a while and see what happens.

On our way through the local churchyard to get wood.



 A particularly pretty example of some bracken fungi.



 A couple of pretty sticks for my daughter Jenny to carve.


The bike trailer loaded up with wood.


The end result lol

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A favour to ask my blog readers.

Tonight I have a favour to ask of my blog readers. This young man I'm going to write was brought to my notice very recently. His name is Ren Gill, and has suffered from varying levels of ME/CFS for four years. At it's worst this illness has, at it's worst confined him to bed, made him unable to even raise food to his mouth, and found it very difficult to put a sentence together. 

By doing a lot of research he has found that there is a doctor in New York that has cured the particularly nasty strain of ME/CFS that he has got. His dream is to try and raise enough money to go and see this doctor to try and get a cure for himself, so he can carry on his dream of being a successful musician. Being a proud man he doesn't want to be thought of as a charity case, so he is offering to send a 5 track EP by email  to anyone that donates £5 or more. This is his donation page,  Help Ren Get Better where he explains in much more detail what exactly is wrong with him and why he is doing this. I know times are hard for a lot of people all over the world, and that like the UK a lot of countries are gripped in a recession, but if any of you can see it in your hearts to donate anything at all, it would help this young man so much. It doesn't even have to be £5, whatever you can spare will be appreciated I know. 

No show snow

Despite most of the UK getting a good healthy dumping of snow, here in Lancaster all we got was a few hours of very fine fairy dust type snow, which had no chance of settling. As I'm a lover of snow I was very disappointed. Especially as my daughter in Anglesey was posting loads of photos of all the snow they had there. If it wasn't for the fact she's got a tyre on the edge of being legal, I would have been hot footing it back to Anglesey as fast as I could !!

Last week was a very busy week for birthdays !! It was Jim's oldest daughter Kate's birthday on Monday, and also my granddaughter Rheanna's, Tuesday it was Jims youngest daughter Mary's 21st birthday and my grandson Jamie's, and then Jim's on Friday !!!

Saturday night, it was off out on the town to the Kashish restaurant. I have to say I was extremely impressed with the decor in there, it was amazing. I couldn't fault the service, it was very polite and attentive. However as there was 12 of us,  we were upstairs and when the main course arrived brought up from the kitchen downstairs, Jim and his daughter Rach's biriani meal was slightly cold round the edges, personally I would have complained but they didn't want to. Everyone else's was fine though, and the nan breads ( as you'll see from the photo's ) are the biggest I've ever seen at about 18" long !! At the end of the meal, a waiter brought over what we thought were peppermints ....wrong lol. Much to our amusement the waiter poured really hot water on the "peppermints" and they swelled up to 3 times the size and turned out to be wipes to wash our hands with.

The birthday girl herself.



Front left is Jims daughter Kate, who's birthday it was on Monday.



The peppermints lol

Back again !!

Here I am back again, and so quickly too, not like me I know ...but I'm in a writing mood so where better to waffle than on my blog.

The weather here in the UK has at long last turned a little bit more winter like, gone are mild and wet days ...hoorah. Back are cold, frosty and sometimes foggy days. I love this kind of weather, heavy frosts turn the most boring of plants into sparkling white works of art. It also means we have to try and get as much wood as we can, to keep the house warm. Going out on wood runs is one of my favourite things to do, I love being out and about in the crisp cold weather, and feeling the rush when we spy some nice seasoned wood lying on the ground just ready for being sawn up and taken home.

Jim bought a trailer for his bike, specifically for carrying the wood home on, it also comes in quite handy for when we do big food shops too. A lot of this week already had prearranged things for Jim to do, so today was the first proper day we've had this week to go out and do two wood runs. What a successful day it was too, not only two loads of normal wood, but also loads of kindling courtesy of a skip on the way to get our 2nd load. My job is to do the kindling, I can't climb all over the place like Jim does, so I sit on my scooter quite happily breaking up smaller pieces of wood, as we've had so much rain here the ground was sodden and both Jim and I ended up with our boots covered in mud !!! Jim's boots of course are proper boots, mine however are silly black suede fashion boots, so you can imagine what they look like after an afternoon of using them to smash up bits of wood on a muddy path lol. So I've bitten the bullet and ordered some half decent ones off Ebay lol.

Yesterday Jim went off for another bike ride, this time with his mate Jon Hodkin as he was down from the Western Isles of Scotland for a couple of days. The aim of the bike ride was to get Jon some practise on for his forth coming bike ride across Canada for charity. Jon has done many bike rides with his tuba across the country, doing workshops in schools, Inner Tuba is Jons website, on here you will see not only see details of his up and coming tour of Canada in 2014, but also if you click on the tab " detailed article " you can read all about Jon's other tours, it's a very interesting read.

As always a few photo's to go with my ramblings.

Firstly a couple of fungi photo's .



 

Next a very atmospheric photo of Glasson Docks in the fog.




This is Jons bike that he will use to travel across Canada.



Finally a photo of Jim's trailer loaded up with wood.

Happy New Year !!

A little late I know but Happy New Year to anyone that pops along to read my blog. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas too. Mine was great, although I have to say this being the first Christmas in 41 yrs that I haven't had any of my kids with me, it felt a bit odd and I missed them loads. My oldest daughter Emma, her hubby and my grand daughter Lacey Mae, did come and stay for a few days just before New Year, and I really enjoyed seeing them.

Seeing as it's been a while since I posted on here I thought I'd add a few extra photo's than usual. Some from the brief cold spell we had way before Christmas and some taken around Christmas and New Year time. For Christmas, Jim bought me a nice Fuji compact camera, as we've missed some really good unexpected things, just because I hadn't got my big camera with me. So now this little compact camera sits in my handbag all the time. As far as normal day time photo's go, I have to say it's excellent the quality and colour is extremely good and almost on a par with my big dslr camera. Night time and macro shots however it falls down a bit in quality, but it's so good to have a camera with us all the time, I'll forgive it.

So here we go, to start off with 3 photo's of hoar frost taken just before Christmas.

 








If you look hard at this next photo in the middle on the right hand side you'll see tiny part of a rainbow cloud I managed to capture.



This next photo was taken on New Year Eve, what a welcome change from all the grey and gloomy weather we'd been having when the sun popped out for a change. It showed off the River Lune and the Aquaduct off really well.

 



Finally, a couple of photo's Jim took when he went off for a bike ride the other day. This includes of course one of his bikes lol.

 

This is Crook O Lune