Elegant Older Ladies.

Hi everyone.  I thought I would just let you know that I follow a Blog called Advanced Style, which features photos of very elegant older ladies.  One of them, called Ruth, is 100 years old and really is an inspiration!

I am including  a link to the latest post from Advanced Style so that you can pop over and see just what I mean!  I love the list of Ruth's Life and Style Tips, especially the one where she says that she makes herself go out every day, even if only for a walk round the block.  At 100 years old!  Obviously she is blessed with good health, and of course that makes such a difference, but even so, I still think that she is an inspiration.

"Age has extremely little to do with anything that matters. The difference between one age and other is, as a rule, enormously exaggerated".--Rose McCaulay (Dangerous Ages).


"Age is no barrier. It's a limitation you put on your mind".--Jackie Joyner-Kersee.


 "Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age".--Florida Scott-Maxwell.


"The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball".--Doug Larson.


"Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise."--Margaret Atwood. 

"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."--Franz Kafka.

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether this happens at twenty or eight. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young, but becomes constantly more valuable regardless of physical capacity".--Harvey Ullman.

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us.
At 40, we don't care what they think of us.
At 60, we discover they haven't been thinking about us at all".--Jock Falkson.

Not Wordless Wednesday after all!

I was going to make this a Wordless Wednesday post, then realized that by putting a caption on the photo, it wasn't Wordless Wednesday after all!

So now I'm stuck, because I haven't really got anything else to say on this wet, dreary day.  I suppose I could talk about the famine in the African countries, or the horrendous state of the money markets all round the world, but my blog isn't about that.  From my little corner of the world I try to spread some happiness to you all. 

One little story that might make you smile happened to me on Sunday, whilst hubby and I were out for our walk.  I should start off by saying that my number one daughter had a special birthday this year, and her husband bought her a very lovely, very expensive watch, which she had always wanted.  I admired it and when I was visiting Paris in August, I also bought one.  BUT, as I am the poor relation here (hee hee!!) I bought one from a stall outside the very famous department store, Galeries Lafayette, which cost me the princely sum of ten Euros!! But it did look good.

Anyway, whilst hubby and I were walking along, I looked to see what the time was, and suddenly thought, "oh, I didn't realize that this watch had a date on it as well."  Then I looked again, and realized that I was actually wearing my daughter's very expensive watch.   Eeeek!! She had forgotten to tell me that she had left it behind, and as it was in the lounge, I just picked it up thinking that it was mine.  Needless to say, it has now been wrapped up and put in a safe place until she returns in December!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sunday Snaps!

I was delighted to find that yesterday dawned with a lovely bright, sunny day.  Quite a change again from the dismal weather we've had over the past week.  I actually managed to drag hubby out for a walk round Plymouth Hoe, and we had some lunch down at the historic Barbican. 

Here are a few photos that I took whilst out on the walk.  Yesterday, the 5th November, was Fireworks Day (or Bonfire Night) here in England, when people either have a little bonfire in their garden with fireworks, or more often than not now, they go to a large organized display.

You will see in one of the photos that the large bonfire (with the obligatory guy on the top) was being erected, all ready to be lit later on in the evening when it got dark.  The guy that is always placed at the top of the bonfire represents Guy Fawkes, who attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder placed in the basement.  This took place in 1605 and was known as The Gunpower Plot (hence the fireworks!).  The plotters wanted to kill King James and the king's leaders.  The plot failed, and the plotters were subsequently hung, drawn and quartered!

Sorry about that, this wasn't meant to be a history lesson, but I thought my friends in other parts of the world might be wondering why we have Fireworks Day every year on the 5th November.  Anyway, here are the photos.  There was also a large Fair on the Hoe with funfair rides, as they would have been expecting thousands of people in the evening to enjoy the display.

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."-- Oprah Winfrey.

Sending warmest wishes your way my little bloggy friends.



Kindness - One Of My Favourite Words

Hallo peeps!  Hope you're all feeling nice and sparkly today. 

Kindness is one of my very favourite words.  I always think that if more people were kind to each other, then the world would be a much better place.

I have been on to Pinterest to find some lovely quotes for you, and I hope you will enjoy them.

 

 Hope you all have a good weekend my lovely bloggy friends.  Sending lots of kindness your way!

Singer of melodies, oldies love song: Unchained melody

Singer of melodies, oldies love song: Unchained melody

I have gained a new Follower this past week, and I would very much like to introduce you to him. His name is Melvin and he is very new to blogging.

We all know that it is important to get a lot of support when you first start out on this blogging experience, and I know that my lovely Followers will go along and say hallo to him.

The following I have taken from his blog.  "Musical show from the 50's, 60's and 70's by Melvin.  Melvin, a delightfully warm, spell-binding voice, with a cute french accent, at the service of a lovingly nostalgic repertoire .For your greater pleasure, Melvin breathes new life into the marvellous melodies of the 50's, 60's and 70's.You can revive songs that are famous throughout the world, with the singer Melvin, who reinterprets for your delight the repertoire from Elvis Presley to The Platters."

As I type this, I am listening to his version of Unchained Melody, and I love it! I see that my friend Belle is already a Follower of his, and I am really looking forward to hearing more of his lovely voice.

New Hospice Opens

Hi everyone.  Here I am again, scribbling a few notes from here in deepest Devon.  As I look out the window, the trees are really starting to change colour in the garden, and they will soon be falling onto the lawn.  I did a post around this time last year about leaves, and I will put it up again fairly soon for my newer Followers.

The house is very quiet again at the moment, because Emma, Eleanor & Alfred set off at 8 a.m. this morning for the long drive back to France.  It's always sad saying goodbye, but they will be here again on the 16th December until just after the new year.  My son-in-law will be arriving on the 22nd December, so they will be here again before I know it.  As they live so far away, I am really very fortunate in just how often we do get to seem them.

Many of my older Followers will know that I set up a Friends' Group here in Ivybridge where I live, on behalf of Children's Hospice South West as they had set out to raise five million pounds to build a new (and third) Childrens' Hospice in the South West of England.  There are only 6 of us and, in the three years since we set up, we have organized lots of fund-raising events and sent off £13,000 towards the fund.  We had a meeting here earlier this morning to plan a list of events for next year, which will include a very popular quiz evening, a fashion show linked up with our local Boutique, coffee mornings, afternoon cream teas and a musical evening in September.

The good news is that the new Hospice has now been completed, ahead of schedule, and the first families will be able to use it as from early December.  It is fantastic how much the local community came together, businesses, radio stations and so on, to raise that five million pounds in just three years.  When you look at the poor little children who have to attend the Hospice, it just makes you so sad, and it certainly makes you realize how very blessed you are to have healthy children and grandchildren.

The New Hospice (Little Harbour). It looks a bit bare at the moment, but it will look lovely once all the plants grow up in a couple of years.

I have been privileged to visit the other hospices on several occasions, and it really is wonderful the work that they do there.  They are for life-limited children, i.e.  children who are not expected to reach adulthood, and they really do care for the whole family, including the parents, siblings and grandparents.  One of the things I was impressed with was how each child that visits  the Hospice for any length of time, really does think that they have their very own bedroom there.  They have their own books, pictures, soft toys, duvet covers etc.  When they leave, and the next child arrives, it is all carefully packed away,  and the next lot of things are put around for the incoming child.  A detailed photo is taken each time, so that everything is just as they left it when the children return to that room.  I think it is tiny details like that, that are so important.

"While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about."
~Angela Schwindt



Another Month, Another Post!

Good morning bloggy friends everywhere!  After all the rain we've had here in Devon since the family have been here, I woke up this morning, on the 1st November, to find that it really did seem like that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, as the sun was starting to rise and the mists were rolling over the fields.  I really do love it when we have mornings like that.

I must admit that I was feeling decidedly grumpy yesterday, as I am not allowed to eat all the lovely things that I have enjoyed eating alll my life, such as roast potatoes, biscuits, gorgeous choc au pains, any sort of cake, and the list goes on :(  Anyway, my daughter from France was obviously fed up with me grumping (!) and found a cake recipe for O blood groups, which doesn't use flour.  It is a lemon and almond cake, and she actually made them like little buns yesterday.  They were delicious, and after eating four of them, I was feeling decidedly happier.  I couldn't eat any more because she confiscated the rest to the freezer, so that I can take out one at a time. Yea, right!!  Anyway, thank you Emma.  What am I going to do without you when you return to France tomorrow.

We had our little halloween party here last evening, and it went very well.  Everyone looked great in their costumes and the little ones looked good enough to eat of course!!  We started off with some party food (well, everyone else but me, that is!!).  Then hubby put on a lovely firework display for us and we finished off by lighting the chimnea and making our Smores, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.  (Thanks again SkippyMom!).

Obviously I love it when the family are all together.  To me, apart from wonderful friendships, that is what life is all about really, and I am so grateful for the love of my family and the care that they always show to me.  Here are a few photoes to give you a little taster of the evening.

Right, time to get on with my Christmas shopping list I think!! (Hee Hee!).