29th April

What a fortnight we have had. As it was Easter there were a lot of cards to be made, naughtily i didn't make as many as i should.

I enjoyed playing though. I did make a few more, but forgot to take any photo's of them.

Katy drove Tanay down and then had to dash back to Westminster to collect Alex from Uni.

We had lots of chocolate on Easter Sunday which was a relief because I hadn't been able to eat any all Lent and i was getting a bit desperate. I told Tanay i was going to have some just after midnight on Easter Sunday, but she said i couldn't have any until she got up in the morning. Luckily Poppy was on my side and got her out of bed early.

Janis and Tanay went on most of the rides at Flambards - alright i know there aren't many of them, but what there are they went on. I did try to get photo's of Tanay but she is very good at moving her head just as the camera clicks.

She and Janis are terrible when together. He comes out with all his old jokes and she laughs which spurs him on to naughtier jokes and i end up being the school marm to their naughty children act.

It wasn't a very full holiday. Tanay is having some health problems at the moment so we took it slowly, which we all regret now but there will be lots more holidays.

We have found a house!!!! and move in on the 7th May. It is a three bedroomed bungalow on the outskirts of Falmouth so plenty of room for family and friends to come and stay. I am leaving my craft room at Mums and will spend most days with her as i do now. We still want to move back into the village if a bungalow goes up for rent here, but at least we will have somewhere of our own in the meantime.

For lunch yesterday we went to the WI hall for Soup and a Pud, the last one until October as it only done through the colder months. The waitress was very young, and the queue for the Pud very long. Everything is made by the WI volunteers and is always good.

Janis and i celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and yes (to those who know me) I am sure i would have remembered without Janis and my phone reminding me. I might not have thought about it in time to make a card, but it would have sunk into my brain at some point.  We took Mum to our favourite pub and had Sea Bream and a whisky and a bottle of wine. Very nice. We forgot the champagne though so that is still in the fridge. By the time we got home we were too full to manage another bite or drink of anything.

Whilst writing this i am sniffing and thinking horrible thoughts about Janis who has passed on his head cold so well. We need to register with a doctor and a dentist but neither are going to too happy to meet us in this condition. Grrrr

I thought that when we moved down here there would be plenty of time to keep in touch with people, to write letters and update blogs and make cards etc, instead of which i dont seem to have time to do anything much at all. How did i ever find the time to work full time? Amazing.

April 13th

This has been a week of typical Cornish weather, from wind and rain through to warm sunshine.

I have managed to get some cards made again, at long last. I thought i ought to make some manly cards, as i don't have many, having completely forgotten that it is Easter any moment now. Stupid really. Anyway i hid myself away in my craft room and some of the cards have come out well, some i don't like and some are screwed up in the bottom of the bin. A normal week.

On Sunday we went to Trelowarren for the preview of the Spring art show which Mum has three paintings in. It was very full and there was wine to sip but because of the number of people crowded into the room it wasn't all that easy to see all the paintings. 

We went round the craft gallery there as well. It is full of the most amazing pottery and weaving and glass all of which would be lovely to have but all of which was outside my pay scale. I nearly bought a couple of buttons for my card making because they were very beautiful and at £1.50 I thought i could afford a couple. In the end i left them.

One of the ladies who care for Mum had a terrible experience this week. She went to see the doc because her eye has been giving her problems and was told she had a detached retina and needed to go to Bristol Hospital for an operation straight away. I cannot imagine how frightened she must have felt. It is a 4 hour drive to Bristol from here and someone took her, only to find that there were no beds at the eye hospital and she was sent to a hospital across the road. She stayed for three days and was then told that they would not do the operation and she was sent home again. I have no idea what she is going to do now. What a terrible mix up.

We think we have finally found somewhere to live. It is a three bedroomed bungalow on the outskirts of Falmouth. When we looked around the only things against it were 
1. It has storage heating and from the look of the extra heaters in every room they arent' very efficient
2. It isn't in Constantine
3. It is very expensive
However those apart we have filled in the paperwork and wait with baited breath.

 I bought some new Sue Wilson Dies and thought i had better try them out. I love the roses and leaves but i am not at all sure about the above stepper card. It seems to cluttered. I hope that someone will like it because it took a while to make. 

 This one is much nicer. I like the colours and the dies look really good.

This one is a bit of a hotch potch of bits all cobbled together but the overall effect is quite nice.

We have had a terrible problem with rats this spring. There is a nest in the bank between our garden and next door and one rat - a huge orange colour with brown patches - has driven Janis to drink with his cheeky wanderings. We bought a humane trap but the dratted rats never went near it. For a while we were thinking we had wasted £20 then one morning there was the rat, inside the trap. Janis took it off in the car and dropped it off some miles away. Since then there have been no more sightings at all. Fingers crossed.

On Thursday afternoon, after picking Mum up from her pottery class, we went to Maenporth beach and walked the dogs. It isn't a large beach but it was nice to walk across and the cafe was open so we had an ice cream in the car before driving home

Charlie was very naughty. He wouldn't come when called and paid a lot of attention to a family group feeding a baby in the hopes some of the food would fall off the spoon. Little demon. It reminded us all of the time when Gary had to run across Perranporth beach to fetch Charlie who had wandered off with a different group altogether. Gary was shouting "I hate your dog; I hate your dog" all the way. Ha ha.

We took Mum to Manaccan for her art group on Friday morning. A lovely day. On the way back we got stuck because the road was blocked by the car in front of us and a car coming the other way. As there were three of us going our way we waited for the other car to reverse but it wouldn't. We were there for ten minutes. A car came behind the one blocking the way and it reversed a little way back so the blocking car could reverse into the overtaking bit which was almost level with its rear bumper. No. So I put my reversing lights on to show the car behind me that i thought we were going to have to bite the bullet. Rather than accept that the driver behind me shot out of his seat and shouted abuse at the blocking car.  It was a bit of an impasse. Finally we had to squeeze past. The car behind me was a long time catching up and I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall to hear what was said between the two drivers.

Its Inara's birthday today (Janis' sister) so I made her this card. The one above is a get well soon card i made and above that the male cards i was playing with.

On Thursday morning we went to the Budock Vean Hotel for a Save the Children coffee morning. There was a woman making jewellery using polymer clay and a pasta maker of course as soon as i saw that i thought to myself that would make really lovely buttons for my cards. Another thing to play with.

Last night we went to a One Woman show at the Tolmen centre and had a lovely meal, a glass of red wine and the show. I would recommend going to see her if ever you see her name; Caroline Horton. The show was one she wrote about her grandmothers romance in war torn France and England and was very entertaining. 

Well i think that had better be it for this week. Hopefully i will have a lot more news next week. 

6th April

Well it has been a long long time since I updated this and during that time we have cleared out the house in Stafford and spent some wonderful family/ friend time whilst doing it. So that is one chapter closed. I didn't take photos of the house empty because for reasons known to those closest to me, I hated that house from the moment I went in through the front door until the final moment we closed the front door on Friday 28th March and drove away without a backward glance.
There are a lot of people I will miss in Stafford and surrounding areas, too many to name. I miss my family being close enough to visit whenever I want, friends taking me out for curry or snuggling up beneath a blanket with to watch movies. But I know they are still there and Stafford is only a motorway or two away.

Goodbye Furniture, have a good trip

We couldn't have managed any of the packing etc without all the help we had. Boxes galore from Tim and Andy and Gary; hefting and hauling from Gary and Andy and Dani; packing and picking with Katy and Andy and Dani. Dani told me off for not throwing more away and I must admit I am unsure why we have paid to keep boxes and boxes of rubbish in storage, but there you go, it seemed a good idea at the time. Janis spent days clearing out the loft and finding treasures galore. Bless him he was covered in dust almost all the time. 

On the last day, furniture gone, just the last bits to fit into the car, Katy and Tanay came over to help. Tanay found somewhere comfy to cuddle , which was quite an achievement as all the furniture had gone and the only things to sit on where a pouffe and a garden chair with a throw over it that had been my throne since all the furniture left. 

 Hard to see I know but there is a Tanay in there somewhere

Charlie got very worried, wandering from empty room to empty room

We took time out between packing to catch up with the family. Lily remembered me as it had only been a week since our last Sunday morning cuddle. I think she needs to work on her photo pose - perhaps she is already understanding the "keep the chin high" but think the wide open mouth needs review.

Chin Up

Not sure about the open mouth though

When she isn't posing for the camera she is so cute, but as she has the knack of knowing exactly when and where the camera is pointing it isn't easy to catch her unaware.

Reading herself a story in her play tent. 

The journey down to Cornwall was alright, although there seemed a lot of traffic. Gary and Dani were travelling down as well, but we had no idea where they were, which is why it was such a surprise to stop at the services only for them to walk through the doors some minutes later. So we had a burger lunch together in a crowded cafe.

We got home about half five, dashed about making beds and sorting rooms and were in the pub for seven, celebrating the end of the Blakiston Street house and the years ahead. 

Dinner at the Trengilly Wartha Inn

We had a great weekend. Gary and Dani bought Eddie down with them and we made sure he had lots of walks. He is a different dog with Gary around, much better behaved.

On Saturday we dropped mothers paintings of at Trelowarren for the exhibition (we are off there this lunch time for the opening) and then took the dogs to Poldhu Cove for a walk. It was cold and grey but for a while there was no rain. Of course Ed was straight into the water. Mum made the wise decision to look after the car from the inside. 

A frozen Dani who didn't come dressed for a Cornish wind

The dogs had a wonderful time

Charlie and Poppy chasing after a very wet Eddie up the beach

We left the dogs at home and went into Falmouth for Fish and Chips at the wonderful Harbour Lights cafe and then a wander around Trego Mills which is a delight of a shop with hidden corners of everything you could ever want.

We saw this ship from the restaurant window. Its called Discovery and is a laboratory ship

 When we got back Eddie looked very sorry for himself and his tail looked as though he had broken it in three places. Dani checked online and it turned out to be caused by him swimming in freezing cold water. Its a wonder it hasn't happened before now. It took until Monday to sort itself out but slowly it improved. Poor silly dog.

Sunday was Mothers day. I had cards and pressies and a wonderful lunch at the Norway Inn in Perranaworthal with Gary and Dani and Mum and Janis. 

The week since then has been spent getting back into the rhythm of our lives. On Tuesday Janis and I went into Helston and sorted all the money so that we can get what little interest there is on savings nowadays.

Wednesday evening Mum and I went to the Tolmen Centre for dinner and to watch the film Philomena. We got there really early and put our coats on the comfy sofa right at the front. No hard chairs for us. It is a great film and I laughed and cried and felt all the indignation as needed. Hard to believe what people did in the name of religion. Hard and Sad.

On Friday I took Mum to Manaccan for her art group and stopped in Gweek on the way back to take photos of the creek which actually had some water in it. So often it is just mud and the boats look so sad stranded and lopsided. 

By the way Jackie, nearly forgot to say, we finished that dratted jigsaw and there were pieces missing. We were so thrilled with ourselves we did another one to celebrate. Much easier. 

Next weeks blog will be about card making which i have started up again.