Wishing All Joy at Christmas - From My Home To Yours 🎄✨

Happy, Peaceful and Joyful Christmas...

Hi everyone. I just wanted to pop in to wish you and your families a very happy, peaceful and joyful Christmas. 

It can be quite a hectic time of the year, but I hope that we can all take a moment to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and to honour it in our hearts.  Also, to be grateful for the family and friends that bring love and joy into our lives, and to remember loved ones that are no longer with us. 

For many, this can be a hard time of year to cope with. Many will be suffering with ill health, some may be alone at Christmas, whilst others may have lost loved ones this year, and many will be having financial worries, or even just struggling to cope with life in general. I'm sure we  all pray that these people may be given the strength they need. 

I shall be spending Christmas Day with my youngest daughter and her family. The two not so little ones are 11 and very nearly 10, so a lovely age to bring excitement to the day. I shall be thinking of my eldest daughter and her family who will be at their home in Ibiza. My eldest granddaughter was 22 a couple of weeks ago, so we will be missing them around our Christmas table, but with sunny skies and temperatures still in the high sixties, who can blame them for staying over there. Also, Christmas isn’t really a good time to be travelling, with the inevitable delays and perhaps the possibility of bad weather. 

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year” ~ Charles Dickens.

I thought I would post a couple of my favourite vintage Christmas images!

All images today courtesy of Pinterest.

So then, I will close again for now, sending you all my very best wishes for a very happy and peaceful Christmas. If you are travelling at this time of the year, or if loved ones are travelling to you, I hope for safe journeys and that the weather will be kind to you.  

Friendship .... Such a special word ❤️

Good morning everyone.  I’ll start off by wishing you a very happy Sunday.  Yesterday, we were being deluged with the wet stuff here in deepest Devon, but I’m delighted to say that the sun is shining today, so I will be heading off to take the pup for a walk once I’ve finished writing this Post.  I’m afraid that too many wet days doesn’t do much for the mood of this writer!  I keep thinking to myself...”come on now.  Winter is approaching, and you live in ye merry olde England.  IT RAINS, and you should be used to it by now.  SO GET OVER IT!” 🙈🙈. 

Last night, over here,  the clocks went back an hour, so it will be dark just after 5pm, I would think.  I’ve often thought that some animals have it right, when they go into Hibernation for a few months.  What would you take into your cosy little Cave if you could do that?!  Assuming that we all hibernated on our own, in order to refresh ourselves and be  ready to face the world once again in April.  My cave would certainly be decorated with pretty twinkling lights, photos of my family, lots of music and lots of books.  It might be rather nice to just hang out in pyjamas for those few months.  

Anyway, enough of all that - today I thought I would write a few words about friendship.  What is the definition of friendship?  This is what I came up with, courtesy of Mr Google, or, as a feminist, I suppose I really should say MRS Google.

Friendship for most people is a combination of affection, loyalty, love, respect, and trust. ... True friendship is when someone knows you better than yourself and takes a position in your best interests in a crisis. Friendship goes beyond just sharing time together, and it is long lasting.

Interesting that is refers to long lasting.  That isn’t always the case, of course.  Sometimes people enter our lives and we can share a strong friendship, but then they move on.  I firmly believe that everyone comes into our lives for a reason, at any given time.  There is no doubt in my mind that good friends help us to deal with stress, and, generally, give us a sense of well being.  Able to be our cheerleaders when we need them, to celebrate with us during the good times, and simply be there for us in the bad times.  Quite honestly, I simply can’t imagine a life without my girlfriends in it.  

With true friends, you can simply be yourself, warts and all, and they will still love you- how wonderful is that?!  Each friendship is unique and should be treasured.  I also believe that friendship means a deep connection and commitment to the other person.  Some connections, of course, are deeper than others, but each important in their own special way.   I always think it’s amazing when we meet a certain person and it just feels as if we’ve known them for ever.  The  connection is instant.  They know us better than, say, someone who has known us for forty years or more.  Isn’t that incredible?!  Perhaps we had met each other in a previous life ... who knows?  

So if you have a good friend, and perhaps you’ve had a little falling out, give them a call, or send them an e-mail.  Life is too short to bear grudges.  So then, I’ll leave you again for now, as the pup is looking at me with sad eyes, and I must take advantage of this sunshine whilst it lasts!  Hope you’re all keeping well, wherever you are.  Take care ❤️

Here is the pup! Benji,  my eleven month old little Cavapoo. How could you resist those eyes?!

My apologies!  I don’t know why the typing has gone a bit funny today! 🙈

Happy, Peaceful and Joyful Christmas...

Hi everyone. I just wanted to pop in to wish you and your families a very happy, peaceful and joyful Christmas. 

It can be quite a hectic time of the year, but I hope that we can all take a moment to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and to honour it in our hearts.  Also, to be grateful for the family and friends that bring love and joy into our lives, and to remember loved ones that are no longer with us. 

I shall be spending Christmas Day with my youngest daughter and her family. The two little ones are 9 and very nearly 8, so a lovely age to bring excitement to the day. I shall be thinking of my eldest daughter and her family who will be at their home in Ibiza. My eldest granddaughter was 20 a couple of weeks ago, so we will be missing them around our Christmas table, but with sunny skies and temperatures still in the high sixties, who can blame them for staying over there. Also, Christmas isn’t really a good time to be travelling, with the inevitable delays and perhaps the possibility of bad weather. 

I’d like to thank you for all your support of my Blog over this past year, and look forward to seeing you all again in 2018!  

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year” ~ Charles Dickens.

Wild And Windy Here In Deepest Devon, And Travels With An American Friend...

So then peeps, I hope you’re all going to have a lovely weekend.  It’s wild and stormy here in the South Hams of heavenly Devon as I write this, with the coastline being pounded by gales of up to 80 mph.  Thankfully the sun is shining at the moment, but I believe we will be having heavy rain showers later on in the day.  Can you believe that this one has been named Storm Brian.,  I mean, with apologies to all the Brians out there, it’s not a very good name for a storm is it?!   I think something a little more dramatic was called for. Storm Horatio, perhaps.  Well, you get my drift.  

To give you some idea of the changing weather, I took this photo in the very pretty resort of Salcombe last Monday, on a beautiful Autumn day ...

Here is a photo (borrowed from a friend) taken of the same location earlier today ...

We have a lot of holiday makers here in Devon throughout the year, and so many people have to be rescued from the sea, as they just don’t understand how dangerous it can be. Many get trapped on rocks by the incoming tide, and then have to be rescued by the Coastguards, putting other people’s lives at risk.  

Anyway, I mentioned in my last Blog Post, how my American friend had been staying here with me for a couple of weeks. This was her second visit to England, and she wanted to visit the sights of London this time around. I hadn’t been to London as a tourist for a very long time, so it was just as much fun for me. Diane (yes, another Diane 😊) just couldn’t get over the hustle and bustle of it all, although we did manage to find some tranquil spots in the lovely parks London has. Amazing really, to think that you’re only a couple of minutes away from the rush of the City....yet, all of a sudden, you’re in a completely different world.  Once again, my apologies to my Facebook friends, but here are a few snapshots of our time spent visiting the tourist spots.

 

As you can imagine, we took a whole bunch of photos, and it was difficult to choose a few to give you just a flavour of our Capital City. Also, I didn’t want to be one of those boring people showing off their holiday snaps!!  I think it was Mark Twain who said “travel makes one modest. It makes you see what a tiny place you occupy in this world.”  

As I finish off, the rain has arrived and is now lashing against the window panes. I hope you’re all having a good weekend and managing to find some relaxation in amongst the busy lives that we all seem to live these days. I’ll say Au Revoir for now, but I’ll pop back in again soon. 

There’s a new Featured Post up today - memories of childhood. Just click on the Featured Post link at the top of the right hand sidebar. 

Many Miles Travelled....

It’s been a while since my last post, but the past couple of weeks have been a bit frantic, with my friend from Green Bay, Wisconsin 🇺🇸 staying here with me in England. 

I rather like this quote about female friendship. It certainly rings true to me...

When you actually sit down and think about it, friendship is a wonderful thing, which adds so much joy to our lives. Sometimes we have known friends for as long as we can remember, and sometimes friends come into our lives suddenly and unexpectedly, just when we were least expecting it. 

It’s funny how you really connect with some people, and feel that you have known them for ever. I read a quote a while ago, by S E Hall, which said “Maybe it’s not about the length of time you’ve known someone; maybe it’s about instant recognition on an unconscious level.  Our souls know each other.”

I do believe that - how else can we explain that instant connection, or spark, with someone when we meet them for the first time. All part of life’s deep mystery, I suppose. 

I certainly believe that there is much more to

life than we could ever imagine. It’s like when there are tragedies, and you hear people telling the story of how they had decided to have a lie in that morning, or take a different route, thereby saving their lives.  Simply by changing their daily routine for some unexplained reason. 

Well, I’ve gone off on a complete tangent here, as I’ve just seen the title of this Post. I was going to tell you about the miles we covered during my friend’s visit, but that will have to wait for the next time.

Suffice it to say that these two ladies ‘of a certain age’ (or have we now passed that certain age?!) had a wonderful time, with much fun and laughter. 

Hope all is going well with you.