It's nearly over...

Tony had cold for Christmas and shared it with me, he is so generous!
I am just about getting over it now, I have a few snuffles and my throat is still a bit sore, but on the up side I have lost 4lbs in weight so it is not all bad.
We are both still coughing specially on a night I have to sleep sitting up, I think I may have a dose of "the man cold"...

Elvira came and stayed 2 nights at christmas and as far as I know she has not caught cold from us. She seemed to enjoy herself and we enjoyed her company.

The garden is still a bit bog like, the squirrels are still not bothered.  We bought them hazelnuts and pecan nuts for christmas, they even got some chocolate and extra peanut butter so they were happy.
The birds were not left out either they were treated to left over pastry from the sausage rolls and mince pies.
I am pleased to say there has been no sign of the rat

He/she might be cute but was not welcome in the garden.

The Goldfinches and Greenfinches have been feeding in the big fir tree outside my bedroom window so I managed to take a couple of shots of them which I was quite pleased with...

Apart from that the garden is still very quiet.

So it's nearly all over, just new years to survive and things can get back to normal, whatever that is?

Well it didn't happen...

The end of the world never happened then, we are all safe until the next time its threatened...

The rain is still causing problems, the garden is slowly becoming a swamp.  The squirrels don't seem too bothered by it, they still visit every day, the birds however do not seem as keen.

Christmas is almost upon us, we have done all the shopping we are going to do, so if we have forgotten anything we will do without. The few presents that have been bought will be wrapped tomorrow and taken out on Monday.

Tony has just about finished the office apart from a couple of arty little touches, he was cleaning up the hoovering being the last job of the day and somehow managed to smack himself under the chin with the pipe (I did try not to laugh) he has a bruise appearing so it must have given him a hefty whack! I just don't know how he does it.

I have had a go at baking some cakes,( under Tonys supervision for safety reasons, ) I made some date and walnut cakes and I am very pleased with how they turned out. So I decided to try a Pear & Mincemeat Crumble Cake. I am pleased with that too, and the sausage rolls.
Who knows what I may try next, of course the first sign of a twitch, burn or anything else and it will stop again.

Oh well time to go until the next time...

I am going to say the F word...

I am, here it comes, are you ready for it ? I am going to say it now...
Fifty... Yes there I said it, Fifty, I am Fifty!
I have been alive for half a century!
What am I supposed to feel like? I don't feel any different! I feel just the same as yesterday, last week , last month even last year. It's all a bit of a let down really.
I did get a few more cards then expected, one from my big sister was the biggest surprise!
I got a lovely gift from Elvira, a Johnny Cash first sun recording set of  LPs and CDs and a card that had me in stitches.
Tony took me out, bought me breakfast, then cooked me dinner this evening, we don't do presents as such, we both agreed a long time ago that we had just about everything we needed so presents didn't matter as long as we have each other.
Today also has a sad anniversary it is four years ago today since John passed away.  The Johnny Cash  albums that Elvira gave me today belonged to John which makes them all the more special.

I haven't been in the garden much it has been very quiet, even the unwelcome guest we had seems to have disappeared .

A quiet few days...

Things have been quiet in the garden lately, there is nothing much to photograph or to write about. We do appear to have a new young squirrel visiting, he is much smaller than the rest but is not as shy as some of them. He posed very nicely for me on the wall this afternoon...

The only other visitors I had were my friendly Robin...

and a Dunnock trying out the bird-table at the back of the shed...

Tony is getting along well with his office, so tomorrow we will be having a trip to IKEA to purchase some furniture for the room.
 I can't wait!!!

Attack of the OAP...

Today Tony and I had to go into town, I needed to collect my tablets, Tony needed some decorating essentials for his office.
We decided to go on the bus it is easier and cheaper than parking the car. The weather was pretty grim, cold, windy and raining. We stood at the bus stop talking to a lady who lives up the road from us, there was also another woman waiting. We were waiting maybe ten minutes, then another lady came just before the bus.
As the bus pulled up the lady we had been talking to climbed on the bus, before I had chance the last lady to appear pushed her way on. So I said to Tony " it's alright standing here getting wet when others can just jump straight on" . Well she turned round put her fist in my face and shouted " you better shut your mouth you or I will shut it for you" . I was quite taken aback and just laughed at which point she grabbed my glasses off my face, and continued to threaten me. There was not a lot a lot I could do as I use 2 sticks now so I had no free hand. Tony took my glasses back from her and told her to go sit down at which point she started to threaten him, telling him " I will hit you I hit a man a work I don't care" . She carried on for a while so I just ignored her.
When we got to town Tony spoke to the bus driver who told him that the whole thing was on the bus CCTV if we wanted to report an assault. Tony spoke to the lady and told her what the driver had said,
Earlier this evening she came and knocked on our door and apologised, she said she hadn't seen us because she has a cataract in her left eye so she only saw the other lady and the girl in red! The fact we were stood in between these two people on her right side didn't quite match up with her story, but what can I say, she said sorry and the way she acted I think she might be a little bit mentally unbalanced
So that was the most exciting part of my day being attacked by a 67 year old lady who didn't even reach my shoulder...

Another sad day in our lives...

This morning at about 9:20am Tonys Aunty Joan died! She has been ill for a while, however when I went with Elvira to visit her on Friday she seemed to be better than I had expected. I came away from the hospital feeling happier to have seen Joan with some colour in her cheeks and looking quie well. So the call this morning came as quite a shock. I will miss Joan even though I didn't spend a lot of time with her I enjoyed her company when I did. It is sad to see a family member or friend go down the road of  " Dementia" but I like to believe that last couple of hours I spent with Joan holding her hand while she looked me straight in the eye, she knew who I was and more to the point she knew that I cared!

Joan taken at her 60th birthday party.


I have not been into the garden much in the last few days, it has been a bit too cold and my fibromyalgia has been very hard to control pain wise so I have had a few lazy days.
Tony is working in his office putting in new furniture and decorating, so there are strange bangs and words coming out of there, best to stay out of the way.

Chris has been over to see me he is still enjoying his new job, Emma is ok and I even saw Oliva and Aron they both gave me a big hug its nice to be a grandma sometimes. I hear from Lynsey most days she is doing well at college passing exams with flying colours well one of them had to get the brains of the family.

Hopefully next time I will have something happier to write about, I hope to be back out with my cameras soon and to take some photos to share with you, until then I wish you all good health.

New gizmos and gadgets...

Tony bought himself a brand new Bushnell Trophy Camera yesterday, so not being one to be left out I took delivery of a new iPad mini today.

This of course will come in very handy down in the shed, I can write down things I need to remember, I can keep up with my blog as things happen! I can post them straight to the net as it happens, how good is that? 

Tony is planning where the best place for his. Bushnell is, he put it out last night and guess what he got?..  Yes next doors cat...

The Bushnell is a lot better camera than the one he had before so it will be trial and error for a few days until he gets it right, but he will have fun trying.

As you will have guessed I am writing my blog on my iPad mini, it is only the smallest the 16gb but it is big enough for me and what I want

Well I have to go set the table now

Oh one thing before I go, I was pleasantly surprised to find I passed my medical I was found unfit for work so I am pleased about that, until I have to repeat it all a again in 12 months.