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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Easter fun and car stresses

Just before Easter my daughter took her car into our regular garage as there was a knocking noise when she went round corners. The guy in the garage took the wheel off to have a look and found that the brake callipers were worn and rusty. So advised my daughter to go round to another guy that does car repairs to get him to have a look and see if he could get it done quicker. To cut a long story short, the brake callipers got sorted out, but much to my daughters dismay the original knocking was still there !! This causes so much stress as any car repairs are a major financial headache in this house, so she knew that even more money was going to have to be spent on the car. However lack of cash was going to stop the 2nd job from being done anyway.

My daughter was so het up about the car later in the day, she accidentally let it slip that one of my sons was planning a surprise visit with some friends of ours from Birmingham the next day !! Friday duly arrived and my son and our friends arrived a little fraught as the traffic on the M6 was terrible. After some discussion they booked into the Auckland Arms in Menai Bridge for two days. I felt terrible when they went to drop off their luggage and came back saying that the place was way below the standard they expected from the website. The kettles were filthy inside and had to be brought round to my house to be scoured out before being used. Not a good start !!! They came back and we talked quite late into the night catching up on each others news, and my son bought us a chinese meal for our dinner ...I had king prawn curry it was yummmmmm lol. Then off they went to their B&B for the night.

The following day they came round ready for a day out sightseeing. It turned out that things didn't improve when they got back to the Auckland Arms, as the beds were very uncomfortable, also the breakfast in the morning wasn't up to much either. It took ages to get served and even when it did arrive it wasn't very warm, the toast had been put on top of the disgusting tasting beans, making it go soggy. My friends were not impressed !!! At £240 for the two nights they were here they expected better, so I advise anyone looking for B&B's on Anglesey to avoid the one I've mentioned here. It's obvious from the link that follows that my friends weren't the only ones that found this place substandard either, just wish I'd found these reviews before they'd booked in there !! Trip Advisor.Co.Uk

It was a warm and sunny day, so we set off to Porthmadog's black rock sands, for a day on the beach followed by a trip through the mountains on the way home. Much fun was had by all, playing frisbee and football.My youngest sons huge 6ft kite was the most popular thing to have a go at though lol. My friend Mandy went off to the loo and was gone for at least an hour and half, we were all wondering where she'd got to when she back clutching a load of leaflets and telling us all to get in the minibus she'd got us an invite to a free bbq lol. She'd gone to have a look round a caravan holiday park and the owners had invited her and the remaining 6 of us to go to the bbq too. By the time we left there, there's no doubt in our minds that if she'd have had the money to buy one of the holiday homes there and then she would have, she was so impressed. After that we took a leisurely drive back through the mountains to get home. We were quite surprised how much snow there was still on the ground in places, some of it quite thick.

Another sunny day dawned on Sunday, and we'd arranged to go to the car boot at Mona. Much to my surprise my youngest son and his heavily pregnant girlfriend had managed to get up in time to come too. This son is not known for getting up early I might add lol. I was disappointed to see that there were only 4 rows of booters even though it was Easter, but I suppose as the weather had been so unpredictable earlier in the week, it wasn't that surprising. I managed to find myself some new books to read, a little tea light lamp and a cardi. My friends Mandy and Mart surpassed themselves and bought an X box and a motorbike lol. That's the first time in all the years I've gone to car boots that I've known anyone spend over £600 lol.

Once we'd got back to my house and had a coffee, my older son decided he wanted to treat us to Sunday lunch before they set off back home. As we all have healthy appetites it was decided to try and find a carvery not too far away. We found one in Pentraeth but sadly it was already packed to the rafters, so we carried on towards Benllech and found a little pub which didn't do a carvery but their food was gorgeous. I just wish I could remember the name of it to give them a plug but I can't :o( All to soon it was time was my son and our friends to start their journey back home to the Midlands again. The time had gone way to fast, but we'd all enjoyed it !!