Worrying Times

I'm writing this blog sat in Southampton General Hospital where Sophie is currently an inpatient after a severe asthma attack. Soph has had asthma since she was 18 months old, but this was definitely the worst. Soph went blue and unconscious and it was just so frightening. Luckily though, Sophie doesn't remember anything about it, not until she came round and her bedroom was full of paramedics. She thought they were lovely! Good news - Sooh is on the mend and will go home as soon as her oxygen levels are good enough. Worrying Times indeed!

Tomb of my great great great great (can't remember how many greats) .... grandfather

I was taking a look at Flickr a little while ago and was fascinated to see a couple of photos by an American photographer of the tomb of one of my distant ancestors Sir William Gee.... my great great great great great great  (forget how many greats, but you get the picture) grandfather.   He was Bishop of York and died in 1611 and the tomb lies in York Minster .  It shows Sir William Gee with his two wives (bigamist lol!), and  his six children kneeling.  My Dad took me to see the tomb years ago so I could remember it when I saw it on Flickr.  I corresponded with the photographer on Flickr and she said that I made her day!

On reading up about him I discovered that Camilla Duchess of Cornwall also comes from the same line, so I guess we are related .. dunno if that is a good or bad thing!

York Minster Tomb Effigy of my ancestor from the 17th century Sir William Gee

Disneyland Paris 2007

Disneyland Paris - August 2007
A surprise holiday for Jon and Sophie - they really had no idea they were going until we got to Waterloo and went downstairs to the Eurostar terminal and Sophie saw various destination options! A magical moment and lovely to take charge and take them abroad for the first time, albeit just for the weekend.  I think we will remember it always.

We voted for our favourite rides and they would have to be the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Pirates of the Carribean boat ride.  Although I quite liked It's A Small World which is for titchy tinies haha! Sophie also enjoyed the Escape To Witch Mountain ride, but Jon and I were too scared to go on it so she went alone (twice) but didn't seem to mind.  Sophie, always the daredevil even at 9. 

Someday, hopefully, we will return and enjoy some more .... it was very busy when we visited (August bank holiday) and very warm.  Perhaps a winter break one year ...

Lake Disney

Soph and Jon waiting to go up to London for their surprise Holiday

Stunt show at Disney Film Studios

Jon and Soph waiting to watch the Parade

                                                                              Sophie

Holidays

Well I've just come back from a lovely week on Dartmoor, to a place that has become very special to me over the years -  it is a place of relaxation, beauty and time for recharging and being at peace.  This year was no exception.  I took my camera and tried to capture the feeling I had for the landscape - but it is so hard to achieve.  Anyway, here are a few of my favourite photos from this year's holiday

Off on holiday

I should be packing, to go on holiday but this blog thing is so addictive!  I thought I would post a few photos of where I am going in Devon.  The place is amazing; I've been going there for about 10 or more years now.  The flat where we are staying is set over the owner's house, which itself is in 17 acres of land with fantastic views over Dartmoor.  Just beautiful.  It is great to see the changing weather over the hills, the darkened skies, the amazing sunsets and watch the stars as there is little light pollution.

The picture of the dog - that's Bruno.  He had to be put to sleep in January this year; I can't believe he won't be there to greet us.  RIP Bruno

Hats off to Merv

Merv and I had a lovely weekend recently, trying out our cameras and using different settings.  We got together an assortment of hats and began  taking some close ups with them.  I was a bit embarrassed to start with, but it was such good fun I soon settled down and we were pleased with some of the photographs. Merv takes great photos and is very artistic.  Here are a few of my favourite ones:-

Dad goes flying!

A few years ago now, my family and I gave my Dad a flying lesson for his 70th birthday.  My dear old Dad was in the Paras when he did his National Service  and is used to jumping out of aeroplanes but never flown one.  Over the past few years since he retired, Dad has enjoyed "playing" on his flight simulator, although I am sure he would be horrified to hear the term "playing", since it is much more than that to him, he is The Pilot!  He has really sophisticated software, sounds and equipment and has hours of fun taking off, flying and landing aeroplanes from loads of different airports around the world.  He has even been to Bournemouth airport and played in the flight simulator there and flown a 747 or something like that!  So in short, my Dad loves flying, but has never flown a plane.  For his 70th birthday eight years ago we took him to our local airport in Eastleigh (Southampton Airport) and he had a flying lesson.  I was supposed to go up with him as a passenger but chickened out at the last minute, thinking I would get travel sick!! Dad had a brilliant time and Mum and I watched from the viewing gallery.  It was very nerve wracking!  The Pilot took off and then after hearing about Dad's flying experiences gave Dad the controls and let him fly the plane and land it!  Good old Dad took this all in his stride and couldn't wait to do it all again! 

John Martyn with Kathy Mattea - May You Never

Great song, lovely memories of a great weekend with T-bone and Mr and Mrs Dancin - thanks for the music and happy times xxx

Morecombe and Wise Breakfast

Just brilliant!! I was telling Dancin and T-bone at the weekend that I was lucky enough to see Morecambe and Wise in their heyday 1977 I think it was, with my Mum and Dad at Southampton Gaumont. I probably didn't realise at the time what legends they really were. It was a great night and I feel very privileged to have seen them.

The Two Ronnies - Bold Sir John

This has to be one of the funniest Two Ronnies sketches ever - just love this one.  This is the one I was trying to explain  to you Dancin !

Lesson learned!

Last week my external hard drive failed, which had all my digital photographs on, and were not even stored on the computer, as that is full of music.

I was rather upset to say the least, but after talking to T-bone, felt more confident that not all was lost and the data could be retrieved, albeit extortionately.  So I dropped my little poorly external hard drive off at my friendly little computer shop last week and today picked up a sparkling new one, complete with all my extracted data, hurrah!  Cost £208!!!!!!

Which leads to my point - I must back up my data in the future on another external hard drive or DVDs or whatever method!! I can't believe I nearly lost nearly 6 years of photographs.  I still have all the memories, but if I haven't got the actual photographs to look at, the memories can get a bit rusty!

Anyway, thank you Mr Computer Man for saving the day!!

Jon

Jonathan from a few year's back - aged about 8 or 9 - on the left in London and on the right on holiday in Cornwall

Scenes from Bishopstoke

Sophie, aged 4, when we lived in Bishopstoke.   I remember she was 4 as she was in Reception Year at School and the children were given a bear to take home and write adventures about.  Sophie's bear went dancing with her, went to a party at McDonalds and also played in the garden with Soph.  The big church  (around 1890) was at the end of our garden, it looked very beautiful all lit up at night .

Rock star!

Rock Star Soph!

Say what's on your mind!

I have always felt that I am never able to express things as I would like to; I think it is a deep rooted fear of getting it wrong, not having the confidence to express things freely, or just the ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time! I've always wanted to be able to express myself better, or say how I feel about something.  I always felt as a child I was talked over and not encouraged to express myself, and that children were "seen and not heard". Having said that, I did have a very happy childhood, but there are certain things that I now know were not good for one's self confidence. Therefore, my siblings and I now all suffer from a degree of lack of self confidence. I guess you could read every self awareness book under the sun and take on board everything that is suggested, but do you ever truly get out of that cycle? I am about to read a book I was given through my wonderfully supportive DRW group called "Emotional Confidence". I am hoping it will help get me out of that cycle. The thing I have about confidence is that, I worry if I become more confident, I won't have that empathy and understanding for humankind, I will become too stong and not be me any more. I like who I am, I know that I am kind and loving and understanding and quite a gentle person, and I would hate to lose that. Sometimes confidence can mean to me aggressiveness, which I loathe. Also to me, I would like to be able to express myself in words, poems, lyrics, writings, but I just struggle with that too. Sophie, my daughter, just said to me that I should write a book, which got me thinking, I really need to write more about what's on my mind and maybe that would help too. I need to adjust the balance a bit I think; I have grown such a lot in the last year, and now don't have to worry about a life walking on eggshells. However, it is a difficult thing to climb out of, and I would like to be able to express myself, to say what's bothering me or how I am feeling about something. I just need the confidence.

Sophie's Home!

I was just sitting here having a cup of tea with Sophie this morning and she said to me "Mum, are you still doing your blog?". Well I replied to her that I hadn't for a few days and she said I should, and that it was a great way to express my creative side! Quite insightful for a 12 year old! Well Sophie, I thought I would just say that I really missed you while you were away camping, and that it's great to have you back home, mess and dirty washing and all! I'm glad you had such a happy time in Yorkshire, seeing your friend from primary school, and having lots of fun camping by the seaside, but from your lovely hug offered last night, I know that you were pleased to be home!

Hedgehogs

When I moved to my present house, I was really excited to see a whole family of hedgehogs sharing my garden. I really love these little creatures, they are really fascinating to watch scurrying around the garden. A couple of years ago I found one of the tiny babies in my garden during the daytime, so instinctively I knew something was wrong. I had to take the children to school, so the little hedgehog was wrapped in a warm towel, placed in a washing up bowel, and after I dropped the children off I took it to the vets. The poor little thing was covered in ticks which made it very anaemic and unfortunately the little hedgehog didn't make it. That was a very sad day for me. Thankfully though, the rest of the hedgehog family seem to be thriving. They live between my garden fence and a long brick wall boundary wall next door, so they have a very safe area away from predators. Some of the older hedgehogs are huge! I do feed them to supplement their normal diet of earthworths, slugs, beetles etc. They have a dish of hedgehog food under a covered cat litter tray hood top, which keeps the rain off it. 'Hog Hotel' is visited every night by all the hedgehogs before they make their way down my side path and then under the gate. They regularly scrape the gravel out of the way of the gate when they get too big to get under it! You can actually tell the age of a hedgehog by looking at their feet; if their nails are long they are likely to be young, if they are scuffed and worn they are old apparently!

Birds

I took these photos a few years back in my garden - love the goldfinches, always a pleasure to see, such beautiful, colourful birds. One day when I get a decent camera and a long lens I will try and get some better ones

Sam and Bella

Couple more photos of Sam and Bella, my two adopted cats, always loving each other, sweet!

Flora in Wiltshire