Happy Easter

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

Today I am writing this post before my two children and four grandchildren wake up. There is no indication, at present that there are so many people in my house.

Soon it will be a very different story as they get up one by one.

Granddad is the first up. He has already gone downstairs to feed the rabbits.

In the space of just one week, he is such a different person to the suffering man he was last week.

He is not in so much pain now and he seems to be walking much better. Harry is not on strong medication but the first lot of tablets that were prescribed made him feel quite ill. The ones he is taking now, suit him very well.

I am not so scared of him going out by himself and he will soon pop to the newsagent for his paper.

The weather has been just like summer. The temperatures up in the twenties centigrade. Today, we have the possibility of rain, but there is no sign of it so far and the temperature is quite pleasant.

We have had a riot in Bristol that has made the headlines on The National News and in the newspapers..... all to do with a supermarket that was built in an area where the local people did not want it. Well, I wasn't aware of the commotion, though it went on all the night before last

and there must have been the noise of helicopters, sirens and such like passing through. That seems to have calmed down now but there is still strong feeling about the supermarket.

Millie, the youngest grandchild has just got up....... quickly followed by her sister, Amber.

The boys are not so eager to rouse these days. Teens seem to need more sleep and don't go to bed early enough.

I must rescue Granddad. He cannot understand why the whole world doesn't get up at the crack of dawn, though he seems to be struggling to do so himself, these days.

He will be getting the breakfasts for the girls.

Soon, this post will be old hat. However I will not be writing another one this side of Easter. The boys won't be be going home until Sunday.

Schools are on holiday for at least another week and the Royal Wedding on Friday has caused us to have yet another day off...... so the holiday stretches on.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.

I will try and catch up with reading blogs and commenting when I get a quiet moment. I am sure there will be some ...... or is that wishful thinking?

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

While on our recent holiday in Devon/Dorset, we came across some unusual displays of props amongst the plants.

This was the town of Seaton. In fact it is the main roundabout in Seaton and they have used old bicycles to decorate this flower bed. I found it quite fascinating and strangely effective.

This is the main high street in the town of Beer. There are little streams that run on either side of the road and these little planters straggle the streams like tiny bridges. This is just one of many and I think they are rather pretty.

This cartful of flowers was noticed when passing a private garden and I couldn't resist a quick snap. I bet I'm not the only one who took a picture.

These jungle animals were cleverly made of flowers and were in a small public garden, I think it was in Seaton.

Don't you think these two colours go well? Hot and cool.

This fish and the iguana below, were hanging out in a Sidmouth public garden.

They are part of my favourite holiday photos that I wanted to share.

Hope you enjoyed them.

The Doors

Photos are copyright of Maggie May

I was inspired to take these photos after seeing David Mcmahon's regular posts called The Doors on Authorblog (usually published on a Thursday). As far as I can tell, this is not linked to any meme or to anybody else.

I have found myself looking at unusual doors myself, now that my interest has been aroused and could not resist publishing these photos of the doors to the local Bristol indoor market.

However, I have been thinking lately of the symbolic opening and closing of doors in a person's life.

It seems that when one door closes another opens in life, so we are told. However, I have had lots of problems lately and it has not been a good year for our family concerning our house.

I think our Queen Elizabeth 2nd, announced in her Christmas speech once, that one of her years had been an Annus Horribilis when everything seemed to go wrong with her families' relationships and I can say that this year has been much the same for us. Our annus horribilis has been this year.

It started with the rats chewing through wiring that resulted in having to have so much work done and the kitchen still hasn't been finished to this day.

The wiring had to be renewed by an electrician and was working fine for a few weeks.

Then I have had problems with being blocked from my own blog on a couple of occasions and have no idea why. Maybe someone can come up with an idea or explanation of what might have happened. The problem seemed to right itself after a while, I am still having difficulties visiting some blogs and the system will crash at the drop of a hat because Broadband seems to be very slow. Several days after the blogging problems, all the electrics in the house started playing up and causing chaos.

The Electricity Company were called out urgently because of a terrible noise coming from behind sockets and meter and a new meter was fitted. Apparently, the new wiring in the kitchen caused the rest of the older system to play up and kept blowing fuses on appliances. My Broadband didn't take kindly to any of this upheaval and went on strike, leaving me to be without my precious hobby....... blogging.

We were due to go to our daughter's for a short break as we hadn't had any holiday this year, because of all the repairs to the kitchen, when the electrics started to go wrong. After the emergency electricity board told us we could go away, we left the house under the supervision of a neighbour who popped in here a few times and reported that all the lights had blown.

My daughter encouraged me to ring an electrician from her home, as she could see that I was upset. It was arranged for them to come out to our house the day after I was due back to return from holiday.

So the day after coming home, after much work and several things that were not quite right being rectified, we have paid a tidy sum and been told that we might have further problems. On the other hand we might not.

I am not very good at coping with this *alright one minute but not the next.* Broadband on today but not tomorrow, lights working one day but not the next. I need security and peace of mind and my peace of mind is lacking right now.

I have taken a knock and am reaching the end of my tether and feel on edge. I am still experiencing a very slow Broadband compared to how it was before and I still cannot access some blogs because of the slowness.

So I am waiting for my door to close on this episode and for a new one to open. It better be a good one though, else I don't want to go through it.

Sock Shock

When we were on holiday at my daughters over Easter, I found myself alone. Deb and Harry had gone out for some supplies for the garden project and I was looking after the boys. Well in actual fact, they were looking after themselves, doing their favourite thing, heads pressed against the computer screen, eyes down, playing a game of some sort. They seemed happy to be left alone to get on with what they were doing.

I noticed a huge pile of ironing that needed to be done and after a while I had turned it into a lovely stack of pressed clothes, ready for the airing cupboard.

Deep down at the bottom of the washing basket was a net bag, full of socks.

"Oh," I thought, "Deb must be too busy to sort these out." I proceeded to empty the bag and intended to put them out into pairs. Only there weren't any pairs at all. Each of these socks has lost it's mate. Some of them were toddlers socks so they must have been lost a long time! As you can see, there were dozens of odd socks of assorted colours, shapes and sizes.

She told me later that she kept them just in case the matching ones turned up.

Where DO the missing socks end up, though? Does anyone know? Does the washing machine eat them up? If so, you'd think that the machine would have died of indigestion by now. Or is there a sock snatcher at large, breaking in at night to take what he fancies?

Short of wearing odd ones, what can be done with all these lovely socks?

Any ideas?

The Working Holiday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Harry and I knew that the visit to our daughter's on the east coast would be a working holiday, before we even got there.

You see, the brick wall on the side of the front garden had been hit down for the second time by traffic turning in the service lane nearby.

Harry, who is a *retired* builder, put as many tools as he could carry into a hold all because, as usual, we were travelling by express coach.

It took all of us, including the boys, to knock the fallen wall into moveable chunks so that we could dump the bricks into the skip.

As the wall had been shoulder high the bricks covered a great part of the lawn and because the insurance refused to pay the second claim, we had to think of a cheaper way of fencing the garden off, so it was decided to put in wooden posts and link fencing. This was well over two days non stop work for Harry and it didn't look very nice when it was finished. Deb came up with the idea of putting a reed/bamboo screen in front of the chain link fencing for privacy.

This was a favourite flowering shrub that had been shaped into a little rounded tree. Unfortunately it was felled by the wall so had to be sacrificed.

The screening did look much more pleasing to the eye and I hope by the next time we visit, all will be as we left it.

We visited several local garden centres and were pointed in the direction of Photinia shrubs to make a hedge. We were assured that they would grow as high as we wanted up to eight feet, and would thicken into a hedge fairly quickly. The ends of the branches are a lovely red colour at this time of the year. Obviously named Red Robin for a reason. I had never really paid much attention to this plant before but noticed it in many gardens in that part of the country, so it obviously thrives there.

There is quite a pretty outlook in the front of the house but it is more built up at the back. There are birds nesting nearby and lots of wild life all around. Makes my city garden birds seem more precious though, as we don't get as many visiting, nor a fraction as many of the different species that I spied in this garden. The bird song seemed very loud and lovely.

Harry and I were extremely tired by the end of the holiday and our arthritic limbs were screaming out. However, we had a great sense of achievement after shifting such a large quantity of bricks and mess which was an eyesore and leaving Deb with a more pleasing fence to look out on.

We are now home from holiday for a long earned rest!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek.

Springing into Action

The weather has been lovely for the last few days and after being stuck in the house because of the wrens (see last post), I finally decided to have a little look round my garden armed with a camera and snap what is in flower.

My garden is far from perfect and I should have swept round the pots before I took photos. Never mind, this is what it really looks like. The primulas have got a bit of wind damage or water damage, or sun damage....... not sure which, but never the less, it is heart warming to see them flowering after the long winter days. The violets have appeared from self seeding and I like the way they just take over other pots.

I had these hyacinths for Mother's Day and they were in tight bud when they arrived and now they are opening up with the sun. I do love hyacinths and their lovely perfume.

I also love primulas when they are flowering but find they can look a mess during the summer, with withering leaves. However, I cannot find it in my heart to throw them away after flowering and usually repot them and find after adding a bit of fresh compost, they do look lovely again the following Spring.

These were also Mother's Day presents and they were also in perfect condition when I received them. They have been out on the patio on some rainy days, when I couldn't get out because of the wrens. I was amazed to see wrens going back to the nest yesterday but I decided I couldn't stay in all through the holidays, so I hope I haven't frightened them away again. Maybe there is one sitting on eggs. Time will tell.

Speaking of eggs...... A very strange thing happened the other day and I really have no idea how it came to be. I was amazed to spy an egg in the gravel that has been put down over the damaged ground caused by the underpinning. We are waiting for the ground to settle before we can concrete over it. I thought the children had planted a rubber toy egg and I started to carefully scrape back the gravel which was wet and sort of sucked the egg deeper down and I had to tug it to get it out. The egg was a brown hen's egg and as I pulled it, the shell broke! Now how did an egg get into the gravel in the first place, that's what I want to know?

I took the picture below because I am very fond of bamboo and have mine growing in containers so that it won't take over my garden. Two or three containers together look good, I think. There is an old mirror behind the bamboo. I wonder if I got my reflection in it? I think it is too dense..... phew!

I had my daughter and grandsons over for the weekend as they had arranged to meet up with a friend who happened to be visiting here from Scotland and they do not normally get see each other from one end of the year to the next. Deb's friend has children too, so while they played in a park, daughter and friend caught up with all the news from a bench nearby. The weather kept fine for them. Some how or other, ten year old Dean ended up in a pond...... but that's another story. His clothes had to dry out in the sun! Just as well he is a tough little guy!

I am soaking up that delicious feeling of the beginning of a school holiday that is stretching out before me.........

We have decided that we are going to visit our daughter from Thursday 9th - Tuesday 14th April, so forgive me if I don't get to visit your blogs as I know my daughter's broadband is in the middle of a change over, so will have to manage without the internet till I get back. However am I going to manage!

Silence is Golden, Isn't it?

Silence, so deep that you could almost cut it with a knife!

I can hear the clock ticking, the boiler firing into action as it heats the radiators and Harry turning the pages of his newspaper, but that is all.

Earlier this morning the house was a cacophony, heaving with all the family noises, shrieks of laughter, little squabbles and noisy games, breakfast sounds while eating in a rush. There were last minute checks .... passports, coach tickets and rummaging in the attic, as Sam and family got ready for their holiday. Debbie, our daughter, up early to say goodbye to them and Dean, her youngest son, managing to come down in time to join in with the farewells. Rick, the eleven year old, somehow managing to sleep through it all!

Now, they, too, have gone back to their own town, miles away and Harry & I are in complete silence!

Family reunions are a blessing which we enjoy, but how is it that when we are all together, the bustle of family life can seem too much? We are sometimes longing for peace, time, space and a quiet place to do a crossword puzzle or read a book without interruption.

Now, the silence does not seem perfect at all! It engulfs us in a threatening, lonely, even boring way.

Within a few days, Harry and I shall be quite used to it and by the end of the week, when the Japanese contingency arrives home from their holiday, it will be like a riot going on - a blast, shattering our peace!

Why does life have to be so extreme?