Sunday Snaps!

Hallo again everyone.  Well, here we are and it's Sunday once again.  This will be a very busy week for hubby and I, as the local elections take place this coming Thursday, the 1st May. Eeeek!  We have delivered 5,500 leaflets, and will deliver to targeted areas during the next few days.

Roger has three other Candidates standing against him, and it's always difficult to predict how things are going to turn out.  Many people are so apathetic about politicians in general these days, so will they bother go turn out to even register their vote?  The Coalition Government in this country is not terribly popular at the moment, even though they are doing their very best with the horrendous mess and debt that they inherited.  So many people will probably register a protest vote against them.  I can just hope that a lot of people will turn out for a local man who really has worked incredibly hard during the last years, supporting people, no matter what their political persuasion may be.  Anyway, watch this space!

I did put the following two photos on my facebook page, when Emma and Alfred arrived from France on Friday, but I am including them especially for Shady, as I know he likes to see photos of his buddy!  I said on facebook "I think Alfred is pleased to see me, but you can never tell with his sad little face!!".  Several of my bloggy friends were generous and said that he looked "regal", "awesome", "stoic" etc.  Emma agreed with 'stoic'.  She said he is a very stoic little dog!

Today, it is the Plymouth Half Marathon, and many roads all around Plymouth Hoe and the historic Barbican will be closed off.  There is always so much bad media press about young people these days, but it really is a joy to see just how many youngsters get involved with this Race, and they raise thousands and thousands of pounds for the charity of their choice.  Many, many people are running on behalf of St Luke's Hospice here in Plymouth.  It really is such a wonderful place, as all Hospices are.

I haven't really said very much about Kelly over the past few weeks, but she really has been very, very poorly and has been at the Hospice for three weeks now, although she is hoping to go home again on Tuesday.  It is actually her birthday today - she is 41 - Emma is over there with her at the moment, but so desperately sad to think that this is the last birthday she will ever have.  On top of everything else, she now has lots of blood clots in her arms, and they are really swollen, so that they can't even lift up her mobile phone anymore or keep in touch with all her friends via facebook.  It would be lovely if you could still hold her in your prayers - thank you.

This was Kelly and Emma at Kelly's 40th birthday last year.

I don't really want to have to end on a sad note, so I will leave you with a couple of photos of Eli and Ruby when they were younger.  Where did that time go?!

This was Eli on his first birthday!

Ruby at 5 months old.

SEE YOU ALL AGAIN SOON MY FRIENDS.  TAKE CARE.

Wordless Wednesday!

Sunday Snaps!

Happy Sunday to all my bloggy friends out there.  Hope all is well in your little corner of the world.   I do know that a couple of my good friends are on the move at the moment, so I wish them well - don't forget to keep calm, because it can be a rather stressful time! - and I hope you will be very happy in your new homes.

Unbelievably, yesterday, we had a touch of Spring - oh, how wonderful it was to walk out the front door and feel the warmth of the sun.  The first time this year that I went out without a coat, boots and scarf on!  Such a sense of freedom when you don't have to be all bundled up.  I realize how silly this is going to sound to all my friends in much warmer climes, who hardly ever have to wrap up warm.  

Our lovely Queen is 87 years young today.  Happy Birthday Your Majesty!  The following photos were taken a couple of days ago.  The Queen has always been mad about horses, and one of her horses had just won a race.  I think the delight on her face is a joy to behold.

I feel that I ought to mention another lady this morning, who sadly passed away recently, and her funeral took place on Wednesday.  I'm talking, of course, about Margaret Thatcher, our very first woman Prime Minister.  Love her or loathe her (and views are very polarised in this country), it was such a terrific achievement to get where she did.  I feel that some people forget just what a state our country was in when she took over as P.M.  At least when she left office, Great Britain meant something again in the eyes of the world.

The following photos were taken in the garden yesterday, when Eli and Ruby were digging for worms!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my little selection today and I'm sure we will see each other again soon.

I'll finish off with a few sunshine quotes in the hope that we will all have lots of sunshine in our lives in the months ahead.

“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”
― Helen Keller

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”
― Joseph Addison

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness -- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks

What's It All About....

Hallo again my friends.  Sometimes I think it is nice to be able to come into our bloggy world, with all our friends around the world, and try to get some peace.  Another tragedy with the terrible events at the Boston Marathon.  Everyone here in the United Kingdom sends our love and prayers to all those involved at this time.  I've found with past events, that there is just no point in trying to make any sense of it all.  Violence of any sort is abhorent  to most of us, and we just cannot visualize the minds of the people that carry out such atrocities.

I can remember only too well the time of the Bali bombings back in 2002, because my youngest daughter, Alison, was on a Gap Year at that time, and she was actually in Bali at the time.  Thank God that she was safe.

So, for this post, I am going to try to find some peace for us all by way of letting you see some of the roses that will be out in my garden from June onwards.  Rose gardens are the perfect spaces to dream, relax and leave the stresses of the outside world at the gate.  Inside you will be dazzled by the scent and the wonderful array of colours.

We all need beauty in our lives, we all need fresh air, hidden depths, new views.  We need places that can lift our spirits and help us to find a different rhythm in our lives.  This kind of refreshment isn't a luxury - it is vital to us all.

Let us give thanks that we are all safe and well today and pray for those less fortunate.

Sunday Snaps!

Well, here we are on a Sunday once again.  A Sunday when we had high hopes of a lovely weekend weatherwise.  We were promised that the temperatures were definitely going to be on the up.  Well, I'm afraid that hasn't happened, and we are still here with cold, heavy rain :(

I managed to survive another birthday yesterday! Can't believe that another year has gone by, but, then, we all say that, don't we?!  Personally, I am just grateful to be here, with the blessings of family and friends, and to have the health and strength to do the things I do.

You will see by a couple of my birthday presents, that people really are wishing the sunshine for me, and an end to the rain!!

Here is a little selection of the birthday cards I received

Eli and Ruby slept on Friday evening, so I took a couple of photos of them (with apologies to my facebook friends who have already seen them!).

The following photo is of Eleanor.  She is always attending United Nations Conferences with the school, where she represents different Countries, and they have to argue their case.  She absolutely loves this, and she was even on the Security Council last year.  This time she was representing Russia on their Human Rights Programme.  We did tell her that she might find that rather difficult!  Here she is with a couple of her friends, who were representing Italy and Brazil.

Eleanor is in the middle!

As I face the start of  another year in my life, I thought I would come up with a few quotes on ageing!  I think I rather like number 3!!

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

--Eleanor Roosevelt

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

-- Mark Twain

"There's always a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look for it. For example, I am sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt."

-- Author Unknown

"Old age is no place for sissies."

-- Bette Davis

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent--that is to triumph over old age."

-- Thomas Bailey Aldrich

See you all again soon.  Take care.

Have You Seen My Old Friend Spring Yet?! .....

Well, here we are at the start of another week, and it's the 8th April.  I'm afraid that Spring is still hiding away from us down here in deepest Devon (although on Saturday, we actually felt some warmth for a few hours!).  It is still bitterly cold out there and, to be honest, I'm going out as little as I have to.  I really don't like the biting Easterly wind that we have had for several weeks now.  In fact, March, apparently, was the coldest on record. Brrrrr!  All we seem to have heard here in England for the past year, is record temperatures - record amounts of snow, record amounts of rain, record amounts of cold temperatures!

Perhaps this means that we will have record amounts of heat and sunshine this Summer.  Do you believe that?  No, me neither!!!

The garden is SO behind compared to last year, when temperatures were in the 20's by now.  We are only just getting above freezing at the moment :(  I really wasn't built for the cold, my little bloggy friends.  Anyway, I thought I would post some photos of how my garden was looking in March 2012.  There really was so much happening out there.  This year, apart from the daffodils, we have nothing out at all.

I'm beginning to wonder, will Spring arrive at all this year, or will we just head right into Summer?  Answers on a postcard please!!

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...

"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...” 

― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden