PRETTY LITTLE ENGLAND ..........

Our daughter lives in Stamford, Lincolnshire. One of the most beautiful, fully preserved Georgian towns. They used to live in Crouch End, London but, to buy anything bigger than a flat was in the triple millions so they chose Stamford. Crouch End is an amazing place to live when single, then a couple but, when children come along, the countryside sometimes beckons { especially the price of property ! }. I remember when I worked in London ..... there was such a buzz, amazing shops, restaurants, clubs, so much to do and see and, of course , the history, which was taken for granted when you were there every day. My sister lived in Cambridge when she was first married as her husband was doing his PhD there and they lived in an old cottage which belonged to the college. She worked in London and she walked past the Bridge of Sighs and all of the stunning colleges every day on her way to the station. She always said how people from all over the world would save to visit or only be able to look at photographs but she lived amongst it all. I lived in London for a while and I learned a lot in my twenties but, when I married and had children, we moved to Hertfordshire.  When we had children, we would travel all over the UK ..... Cornwall, Devon, Wales, the South Coast, Scotland to name but a few places. Then, when our children were choosing Universities, we visited quite a few cities, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, some of which we hadn't been to before. But, when our daughter moved to Stamford, I realised the Midlands had gone completely under the radar. It is so pretty. So many beautiful villages, very much like The Cotswolds and, I think the houses are built of Lincolnshire Limestone..... that pretty honey coloured stone.  We see a great deal of our children and grandchildren and we all went to visit her yesterday and had lunch in the pub in the above photograph. I had to take a photo of the rose and the thatched roof. It looked stunning, the weather making everything look even prettier, although, photographs never seem to capture how lovely these things look somehow. Do you find that ? 

Enjoy the beautiful weather ..... we have a week or more of it.

My New Years Resolution of posting more often doesn't seem to be working !!! I will try harder. 

XXXX

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME ..........

It's February 1st and I nearly forgot to post my birthday here  ...... 

probably forgot because I'm 74 😱 !!!

Thought a Waterlogue , arty photograph would be best this year 🤣

Am going for a family get together, which will be lovely.

XXXX

HAPPY, HAPPY 2025 ..........

HAPPY, HAPPY 2025

Wishing you all the best for 2025 ..... may it be happy and healthy and full of exciting times. Thank you all so much for your continued blogging friendship, even though I'm a bit sporadic with my posts { to put it mildly !!! } 

Sending much love.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

XXXX

THE MOST BORING POST EVER !!! ..........

WARNING ... MOST BORING POST EVER !!!

When Lady Edith was jilted at the altar in Downton Abbey, she ran up the ornate staircase, threw herself onto the bed and weeped. Her Mother tried to reassure her, telling her that God was testing her ..... I am feeling a little like Lady Edith..... I am being tested.  All of these things happened one after the other. First, my wedding ring finger was so swollen that it took a pot of Vaseline and half a bottle of washing up liquid to get it off..... it's been a week now and it's still swollen ! Never, in nearly fifty years has that ever happened ! 

Next, the Christmas tree was to be delivered. I have used the same place for years as they always have beautiful trees and they l guarantee a lovely shape. You can follow the progress of the tree and it will show a map & how long before it will be with you. I tracked it and it said it would be with me in 15 minutes ..... following it's progress I could see that it was going to the wrong address and, because the way things are now, you can't telephone the company or the driver . It was showing it would be with me in one minute for about 30 minutes but finally arrived after the driver realised his mistake. Brought the tree in and placed it in it's stand and cut the netting to reveal the most ugly tree I have ever seen. The central spire that you put the fairy/star on was missing and all of the branches had been cut to try and make it a better shape. It really wasn't nice .... I am not Mrs. Bouquet and know that a Christmas tree is a natural product and won't be Instagram perfect. I am also the sort of person who gives Uber drivers 5 stars even when they have nearly killed me so I hate to complain but , complain I did. After sending them photographs they offeed me a new tree to be delivered the next day ! The inevitable happened and the driver went to the wrong address again and then disappeared from the radar. I then got an email to say it would be delivered later that day ..... again he went to the wrong address but finally it got here and was better than the first tree !!!

STILL WITH ME ? Theres loads more I'm afraid .....

As most of you know, we had a new kitchen nearly 2 years ago. I opened the top oven and, to my suprise, the rubber seal around the oven had broken and was hanging down. Many phone calls, listening to Musak whilst being 890 in the queue and pretty much losing the will to live, they agreed it was still in warranty and they would replace it. A phone call from the guy who would fit it said he had ordered the part and would let me know when he gets it. Three weeks later I had heard nothing so more phone calls ensued, more listening to Musak and being 967 in the queue only to be told the part wasn't in yet. How long does it take to get a part ? I Googled it and found the part straight away and could be with me the next day !!! Christmas is upon us and I have to cook dinner for 10 and, what with turkey,parsnips, stuffing, pigs in blankets etc etc, the oven is quite important. Then, yesterday, without warning, there was a knock at the door and there he was ..... oven fixed in a mater of under one minute ! 

Wednesday is our bin day and Tuesday night I put out the wheelie bin and recycling boxes to be collected. Overnight was so windy and in the morning all of the boxes and bins had blown all over the place ..... bins and boxes were crashing into cars causing cars to stop and collect bins and rubbish and Tsunami loads of cardboard ..... most of the neighbours were chasing boxes down the road and lids were flying off to Kansas à la Wizard of Oz. Later I could see that the big wheelie bin had been emptied but not my recycling boxes. Looking down the road, every other persons recycling bins had been emptied apart from mine ! So, the procedure is to phone the council who inform you that it will all be collected within 48 hours. Had a look early afternoon and they still hadn't been emptied ! Rang the council who said they attempted to empty them but they were 3 inches from the boundary { which I did to protect them from flying away } so they wouldn't empty them !!!  😱 They won't collect them until after Christmas !

Our new kitchen is lovely but we did have a lot of issues, mainly the project manager and their attitude when things went wrong. My recycling bin in the kitchen was just one of many things that went wrong. They had to come back four times with different bins and even the last time it wasn't right but I couldn't be bothered anymore. Having to have to ring them to get the paperwork for the oven problem that I told you about, I asked if someone could come and have a look. They did and fixed it perfectly so thats another problem sorted. 

AND FINALLY and probably worst of all .....

For a couple of weeks, our lights had been flickering and I thought, after Christmas I will get in touch with the electrician and get him to have a look. Then yesterday, the lights were flickering in all of the rooms ..... our fuse box etc is under the stairs. I checked nothing had tripped and heard something crackle. Rang the electrician who said he would try and come but he was really busy. About 5 minutes later I smelt burning ..... quite worrying. Rang the electrician again who finally came and, on inspection saw that the smart meter was the culprit. He isn't allowed to touch it so I had to ring E.On. I have to say that they were so efficent, an engineer arrived around seven o clock and did his bit. He then told me { even more boring than all of the above ! } that we only had a 30 amp fuse which should be  60/100 BUT he isn't allowed to touch that bit as it belongs to UK Power Network !!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT, again, credit where credit is due, they came this morning and now, fingers crossed, it's all been done. 

More things have happened but I've bored you enough ..... I just hope nothing else is looming.  

XXXX

THE BELLS ..... THE BELLS ..........

I guess we all have good things and bad things about where we live. One of the lovely things about where our house is, is that it's a stones throw away from the 600 year old C of E church, built between 1418-1448,  with evidence of an older church on the same site, dedicated to St John the Baptist. 

The bells ring out every Sunday and for every wedding { if the happy couple have paid for bells !!! } We also hear them a few evenings a week when they practice and they are rung whenever there is a significant celebration. 

I took the above little video at 9.45 a.m this morning, the bells calling people to the Holy Eucharist service { you have to have the volumne up high to hear the bells ! }. I know a bit about the church, not because we go but because our son was a choir boy there. I think I might have told you this but, when he was seven, he came out of school saying the choirmaster had visited asking boys if they would like to join the choir { it was all boys then but they have girls now } and he said he did !!! He went on to get his grades in singing, then a degree in music and now works in the music industry..... he was born with the music gene !

Our garden is going over now but it did look nice in the Spring and Summer !!! 

XXXX

THE ART TEACHER ..........

Following on from my last post, I was reminded of a memory of my school days. 

My favourite subject was Art at school. I think that I was reasonably good at it { I did get A Level Art a year early } so, as an eleven year old starting Senior School, I was looking forward to my Art classes. 

I went to a very academic school where Art was thought to be the Devil Incarnate. It was a large Grammar School with over a thousand pupils and there were only two Art teachers. Mr. C. was our art teacher for the first five years .{ I'm not sure of the protocol of naming people { even though I'm sure he is dead by now } so I will refer to him as Mr. C.} He was a short, portly man who, to an eleven year old, seemed pretty old but he was probably in his late forties. He had a moustache, wore a threadbare tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, stained trousers { relevant !!! } half concealed by his chalk soiled black gown. His crowning glory was a comb-over of a few greasy hairs. 

Embarking on the art assignment he had given us, we would all be at our desks, busily attempting to produce something equal to Rembrandt. After ten minutes into the class, Mr. C. would rise from his desk at the front of the class and begin to walk around the desks to scrutinise our work. All of the girls knew what was coming ...... he would come up to us in turn, look at our work and offer advice, putting his arm around and over our shoulders and then, he would touch us up ! He did it to all of the girls. He never went any further { well, not to me or my friends } . It was just part of our school life and we all used to tell him to 'get off ' and would laugh about him after class. It didn't affect me in anyway apart from us schoolgirls laughing about him and calling him a dirty old man, but can you imagine what would happen to him nowadays ? .... and rightly so. None of us ever reported him, we just brushed it off. 

It was that thought of, if we reported him, it was his word against ours and no-one ever believed a schoolgirl over a teacher so it just wasn't worth it. I still see a friend who was with me at school and we often reminisce about pervy Mr.C. 

I wonder what happened to him and if he ever paid for his misdemeanours ? 

We did have the other Art teacher in the sixth form but he was useless ! My school didn't pull the stops out when it came to Art ! My friend, who failed her 11 plus, went to a brand new Secondary Modern school which had the best art department and art teachers and she went onto Art School and became a wonderful potter and Art teacher.

I think I might have done better to have failed my 11 plus ! { although, I did have a very good education apart from the art }

XXXX

SEX EDUCATION IN THE 60's ..........

When I started Senior School, the girls in the first year were given a book to take home and read. The other day I was trying to remember what it was called. I thought it was something like ' The Facts of Life ' but thought I'd google it. I couldn't find the one we were given but the following popped up ! 

Scroll past the first picture as it's hard to read. 

It's clearer in the next two photographs.

😱

XXXX