Poor baby blackbirds

We have now got two monitor screens on our desktop computer which means I can write my blog and scan at the same time with ease. Before in order to do this I was using both the desktop and laptop. Another lovely sunny day. Using opportunity to get lots of washing done and dry. Our neighbour called P over and said his cat had brought in two baby blackbirds which were still alive. P looked for nest but couldn't find it. He's tried putting them in an old nest in a tree and hoping the mother will find them but there isn't much hope really. They're too young for us to try and feed them. Poor little things.





 

How Great Thou Art

These are pictures of the flower arrangements that were on the windowsills for our church anniversary. Each one represented a verse from the hymn 'How Great Thou Art' which has a lot of significance for me as we had it at both our wedding and Mum's funeral. I especially love the last one which was made by a lady in my housegroup.

Pimms on a sunny Saturday

We are having such nice weather at the moment. This afternoon we went to the Summer Fayre at the junior school. It all went very well. For the first time in my life I tried a glass of Pimms and it is really nice. Why haven't I ever tried it before? Don't know really. J and Adam were bashing each other with inflatable hammers. A lot of the other kids were drenching each other with water - the sponge throwing had got a bit out of hand, more like bucket tipping. All good fun.

This evening we went swimming for the first time, as in J, Adam, Tim and their sisters did while Louise and I watched. I keep thinking there must come a time when we can safely take our eyes off them when they're swimming but it hasn't come yet, especially not today when they were practising 'life saving'.

I'm watching the Eurovision Song Contest for a few minutes. It is dire, it really is.

J wins a photo competition

Something exciting happened this week. There is a farm shop we go to sometimes and their farm was celebrating their centenary and had a photo competition. P and J both entered the wildlife category and I had a phone call on Tuesday to say J had won first prize! His photo was of a pheasant sitting on our fence flapping his wings. When we went along to the prize presentation they had laid on a free cream tea in a marquee with the photos on display round the side. J got two £20 vouchers to spend in the shop so he chose some of his favourite foods - strawberries,  chocolate ice cream, asparagus, baguettes and apple juice. He only spent one voucher and will spend the other another day. It was all quite exciting.

Thursday

Can't believe I haven't blogged for 10 days. So what's been happening? J had a cold, I have a cold. Mine's been one of those where you sneeze and sneeze and sneeze.It stopped raining and today has been positively summery. J went on a school trip to the Olympic Stadium. Yesterday J went on a trip to see one of his GCSE plays. Got home 11.45 pm as in I went and picked him up. We're both tired. I'm especially tired as I couldn't get to sleep then when I did I had a terrible, terrible nightmare and woke up screaming.
P grabbed hold of me and said: 'It's alright, it's alright.'
'Something's biting me!'
'No it isn't,' he said and went back to sleep.
But it was. A huge thing had my head in its jaws and was biting me and I could feel its teeth.

Despite feeling dopey this morning I went into town after dropping off J. Normally going to town is a rush which involves some combination of collecting J and meeting P and rushing round crowded shops but this morning it was nice and relaxed. Shopmobility car park was almost empty. Shops almost empty. Had a nice wander round. Bought some school shirts for J (now in maximum children's size), pyjamas for J and swimming trunks for J. Got some christening cards for Becky's grandchildren. Got some tomato plants for P. Then I bought a Union Jack flag and some red, white and blue balloons with which to decorate my scooter for the Jubilee.


There are lots of baby birds around at the moment, especially starlings. P put up a nesting box and there are blue tits nesting in it. There is also a jay that keeps being a bit too interested in it.


J's piano lesson went well this week. He's been given lots of work to do. (The words on the music are in Russian).
'If you want to practise for 2 hours a day that's fine,' said Natasha. J's face was a picture.







 

Model show, church anniversary, sunshine, rain and J not well

Anniversary service at church really good. Lovely to see people from the past. Really nice lunch afterwards. Poor J not all that well with a cold. I felt a bit dizzy but not too bad.

On Saturday we were at a model aeroplane show. For some reason my scooter went on a go-slow so I didn't get around much, just got to the cafe the shop then back to the car. P and J enjoyed it though.

Both Saturday and Sunday were really sunny! Today however it has rained and this evening we've had a torrential downpour.

J came in from scouts this evening and said the vision in his left eye had gone funny, like his peripheral vision was all shimmery. He's started getting a bit of a headache as well, wondering if he's got a migraine. Tried going on NHS Direct but they said I'd need to give them my phone number and there's probably several hours delay before they can phone back. Just hope he's alright.

Sleepy Friday evening

J is out with his Sunday School class eating pizza. We got an Indian from Waitrose just so we wouldn't fell left out. I had Butter Chicken, Carrot and Spinach Pilau Rice, Chennai Potatoes and Peshwari Naan. Yum.

P has spent the evening making a model aeroplane. I've spent it asleep. Still feeling a bit dizzy at times and tried taking half a travel sickness tablet. Don't know if that's what's made me sleepy.

Anticide and fun with a paperclip

"Can you just run past me why you're not ready for school?" I asked J as I came out of the bathroom this morning.
"I was distracted by watching the ants."
I followed his gaze and realised that what would previously have been described as our fruit bowl was now an ant fest. 
Ok. Stay calm.

This called for some drastic action.

Several times over the last few days I have suggested to the other members of my family that they fill in the hole through which the ants are entering but to no avail. I took things into my own hands and bunged it up with white-tack. I then set about killing every ant I could see either by pouring boiling water on them or squashing them with an eraser (sorry if you're a member of the ant protection society). I also, at P's suggestion, put some of the pears they've been eating outside the house in the hope this will lead them away.

My other  fun activity this morning was unblocking our kitchen sink which has been slow to empty recently. Last night I'd poured some foul-smelling enzyme stuff down it and this morning I had a good time fishing bits of brown gunge out of the plug-hole with a bent paperclip. Bliss.

Ill yet again

This is boring beyond words but I'm not well again - feeling dizzy and glands hurting. We've got a special church service on Sunday with lots of people coming who were part of the church in past times and I want to be there. Illness go away.

Ant invasion

This morning I went over to the kitchen sink and got a shock. There is a glass splashback running along the top of the sink and worktop and along it was marching a column of ants! Ants were also happily roaming over the worktop and windowsill. Eeeek!!!

After careful observation I realised they were coming in and out of a small hole in the wall by the windowsill. Hope they haven't tunnelled throught the insulation material.

Over to you P.

Natasha comes into our lives

Today was also the first lesson with J's new piano teacher. I'm going to call her Natasha as she's Russian. She is really nice. Her English isn't very good so it's quite interesting trying to work out what she's saying sometimes. She seems to be very well trained both in piano and singing. She said in Russia they had piano lessons 2 or 3 times a week and worked very hard doing lots of exercises to improve their technique. She paid a lot of attention to how J was moving his hands and fingers which wasn't quite right right she said. She also got him counting aloud as he played. Anyway she feels J has potential and can do well if he's prepared to work. He's going to do some exercises and play a range of different styles of music rather than just doing exam pieces all the time. The aim is to start Grade 3 after Christmas when hopefully he'll be ready.

Anyway it's looking quite hopeful.
 

All birthdayed out

Sorry not been blogging over last few days but I've been busy. On Sunday we met up with my Dad, my brother and his mother in law and we went on the London Eye. This was to celebrate Dad's 80th birthday. Our journey there went very well but there was a bit of an anxious wait for my brother who had got lost and arrived just in time. Out of the six of us three had mobility problems which was a bit of a challenge as there was quite a long slope to go up. It was quite hard for my Dad who walks with two sticks now and is looking very frail. It's quite hard to see him like this now.

Anyway once we were in the Eye we had a great time, just seemed to be over too quickly. If you haven't been I'd totally recommend it.

Afterwards we went to an Italian restaurant nearby and had a nice lunch. Then we said goodbye to the others and wandered along the river bank for a while and headed home.


Yesterday we celebrated J's birthday by taking him and 5 friends to the cinema then to a restaurant (Italian again). I fell asleep during the film but the others enjoyed it. I think quite a lot of sweet-eating went on during the film as they couldn't all manage their puddings.


I'd made J a birthday cake in a hurry and was pleased with how well it turned out really.  Just a victoria sponge with some ready-roll on top but it tasted nice.


Today is P's birthday and quite a significant one. We went out for a simple lunch and P cooked Moroccan chicken in his tagine tonight which was very nice.

 



 

Two of a kind

Soon it is P's birthday. Today J and I went into town to pick him up after work as he said he'd got a lot of shopping. J and I used the opportunity to nip to a shop and buy him a birthday present - a tagine. Picked him up, got home, J smuggled the box in and hid it in his bedroom while P was unloading his bags of fruit and veg.
'Oh no! I left it at work,' said P.
'You left what at work?'
 'It was meant to be a surprise, I saw they'd got a special offer on something we've wanted to get for ages...'
'Something to do with cooking?'
'Yes.'
'Something you cook things in?'
'Er yes.'

'Something with green and orange stripes on it that you cook Moroccan things in?'

Yes. He'd bought exactly the same one. 
I suppose at least it shows it was a good choice of present.

 

Ironbridge

Lots of rain

Last night had a thunderstorm which hasn't helped the flood situation. Roads quite wet this morning but only 2 places where it was a bit deep. Quite nervous going down hill because last year we had floods and the river at the bottom of the hill burst its bank and it was really scary going through it.

Get practising J

To update on piano teacher situation:

Still no reply from Mr Nearschool.
Got hold of Mr Noticeboard mobile number. He said he's never put anyone in for exams before but he's willing to give it a go. Er don't think so.
Mrs Name-sounds-like-she-wears-short-skirts etc phoned back and she sounded so nice I felt really bad for thinking that about her. She's coming round next week. Be interesting to see how J gets on with a woman teacher. English is obviously not her first language, hope that won't cause any problems. I totally failed to get her to understand directions to our house. She said to text her our address and she'd find it on Google.

Looking hopeful anyway.

I'm losing it

Realised that yesterday was the first time I'd been home on my own in ages which was probably why I felt bored and lonely.

Anyway what happened yesterday after I'd finished blogging was:

I was expecting some shoes I'd ordered to arrive but they hadn't sp I thought I'd scoot up and see if they'd been left with our neighbours or somewhere. Only problem was Fiat was parked in front of scooter shed so just needed to move it. Went to key box - keys not there. After a whole hour of searching and praying and retracing my steps from the morning I found them - in my handbag. They were in a side pocket where I never put them.

Just as I got in the car to move it a woman I'd never seen before came walking down the drive carrying a parcel - my shoes. I tried them on - they fitted. I put them in the bottom of my wardrobe and as I did so I had a quick sort through the boxes of shoes in there. At the bottom was a box containing a pair of brand new Clarks sandals and I can't remember buying them. I looked on the internet and they're not this year's style, I think they're from 2010 so I've probably had them for about 2 years. I wonder if I got them in the sales at the end of the summer and put them away for the next year then forgot about them. What a waste, I could have been wearing them. They're really nice as well. This is seriously making me feel like my mind's going.

Then yesterday evening I tried to log on to facebook and couldn't remember my password. Aaaagh!