The Circle of Life

Our readers will notice that this blog hasn’t been updated since February, for that I can only apologise… and blame Dad and Tom for their poor administrative skills. 

Where shall I start, so much to cover and so little time (It’s sunny and I should be doing outside jobs). Most importantly, we have a new addition to the family, Callie Grace Luce, who was born on Sunday the 2nd of June, weighing in at 6lb 2. Steph and Jack are doing great and are natural parents (enough practice with the Vibert urchins I think). Gorgeous little Callie with her big feet is a breath of fresh air at Seaford, I’m looking forward to fulfilling my uncle duties and watching my niece grow up, as I’m sure are the rest of the family. 

With this news, I’m sure we will all agree that Mum is watching and smiling somewhere, it goes without saying that she would have made an incredible Nanny. I think that the whole family have been thinking about Mum recently, I can see that it’s especially hard for Dad. I guess while he’s making memories, he’s picturing Mum alongside him, and I think that in a way she still is.

I went to watch Rocket Man with ZJ on Saturday night, and I would strongly recommend our readers take a visit to the cinema to watch it. As I was tapping my feet along to the music I found myself reminiscing of when Mum used to blare Sir Elton’s songs in the kitchen while cooking. This led me to think about how you can change the tone of shouting ‘Mum’ to summon her for different things. I’d say the most used was two tone and drawn out ‘Mum’ when you needed to find out where something was and were being too lazy to look for it.

The reader will be happy to know that Lady J (Dad’s boat), is finally back in the water for the summer. She’s been sat up at Seaford on the trailer all winter and the weather is finally good enough for her to go back onto the mooring in St Catherine’s bay. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t caught a fish yet this year, and it’s not for the want of trying. Hopefully we will be able to get some fresh mackerel on the bbq in the not too distant future.

Those passing Seaford recently will see that the front garden is full of colour, chewed slippers, and a 17ft echium plant. The vegetable patch is also taking shape thanks to the slightly older C.G.Luce. You may have also noticed a couple of new additions keeping the grass down in the meadow. Let’s hope these dry cows from VH are better behaved than the last occupants (sheep who managed to wreak havoc all over Rozel).

The reader will be surprised to know that I have eventually moved out of the house… and into the old potato loft, now recently redeveloped into a one bed flat. I think it’s got the best views in the house, from where I’m sitting I can look South onto the grounds of Rosel Manor and North towards the Ecrehous and the Normandy coastline. All I need now is a telescope so I can spy on the Seafaris boats zipping backwards and forwards. 

♪ and I can see see Daniel waving goodbye , oh it looks like Daniel it must be the clouds in my eyes ♪

February Excursions

February has been full of surprises, some more welcome than others. Warm weather sure is nice, but (in my eyes) it's accompanied by this fear of impending doom due to global warming.  

For Christmas Jack was kind enough to buy us 'lads' a Jersey War Tours half day tour voucher, and ten days ago we cashed it in.  We had a great day out. Phil, our tour guide, really is an encyclopaedia when it comes to Jersey history, especially world war two history, and has access to a lot of historical sites that normally you're not allowed to go in.

We were able to visit the Radio Tower at Les Landes, a bunker at La Pulente, Victoria Tower, and, most importantly, the round tower at Greve De Lecq.  In the round tower there's this sort of quasi museum with lots of world war two artefacts, and, most importantly weapons!  The best part is that you're allowed to handle all the items, which led to an obligatory photo (see below). 

If you're interested in maybe booking one of these tours for yourself, then head on over to https://www.jerseybunkertours.com/.

As a family we also recently entertained LV and the urchins from St Ouens.  The urchins were treated to a trip in the truck and a walk in the woods. 

I was asked by WV if she could sit on my shoulders, which was fine right up until she decided to give a rousing 5 minute long chorus of "I'm the king of the castle, and you're all the dirty rascal" directly in my ear.  The chorus only stopped when BV went on Jacks shoulders, which meant that WV was no longer the king of the castle!

The warm weather and nice walks was offset by the incredibly sad passing of Harry Zambon last weekend.  Harry was an inspirational young man who helped so many in such a short amount of time.  It's with some degree of certainty that I can say that he will be greatly missed, not just by his family and friends, but by all those in the wider society that had the pleasure of interacting with him and his sense of humour.

Doggy dreadlocks

I realise it has been a little while since the last post and I imagine our reader wondering to themselves whether or not there would be another.  Dad and I were attempting to alternate writing duties but we seemed to have collectively failed. 

Tonights post was prompted by dads appearance on BBC radio Jersey this morning at approximately 7:07am.  It's a short interview about mum that was recorded before Christmas and you can listen to it by clicking here and going to the 1:07 mark. 

January seems to have come and gone very quickly.  I managed to get off island once to go to the O2 arena in London to watch an NBA (basketball) game, which was excellent.  The NBA have started playing the occasional game in a different country to try and promote the league abroad and so London was lucky enough to host the Washington Wizards vs the New York Knicks. 

Dad has been taking care of the dogs as per usual.  Jessie has recently had another instance of getting 'bunged up' which is no doubt in part to eating dodgy things such as cow poo, dead crows, and goodness knows what else.  This has lead to vet visits and much rejoicing when she finally 'laid a steamer'. 

Beanie and Jessie joined Jack and Dan the other day in 'helping' to dig a trench for a pipe.  The weather was terrible and Beanie got so muddy she found herself with dreadlocks.

Daniel has managed to get away to go over to Salcombe for a couple of days to check out the new Seafari boat which is currently being built in preparation for the 2019 season. 

My life at the moment currently revolves around working, and attempting to fix the truck.  In the last few weeks I've had the truck down with DLC in Gorey who's basically completely replaced the entire brake system, which is good for my safety if you consider that my knees are the crumple zone.  Other great news is that ATF fuels have just opened at Maufant garages and their petrol is under £1 a litre (my fuel consumption is under 10 miles per gallon).  I might have been better off to buy a boat instead!

As far as woodworking goes, I managed to complete a set of live edge shelves that I'd been building for the best part of a year. 

There are some more photos here on my Instagram.  I'm really proud of it, although I realised I could never actually make any money from my woodwork given the time that i've put into it.

Outside jobs

The first few months are always the best time to get out into the woods when the brush is low; not only can you see what you're doing, but the low temperature makes it quite nice to work.

There are always quite a few jobs to be done - I think I inherit that from my mother.  Her jobs would centre around the house where as mine seem to focus on the shed and everything else outside.  Now that we've got a truck there's so much to send to the dump!

The hedge needed cutting, but as it hadn't been cut for 10 years we required a chainsaw and a forklift.  Everyone helped out, except the dogs who got in the way and had to be pulled away from areas where they would be hit by falling branches.

It was a good excuse to get out the tractor powered wood chipper.  Jack had built an enclosed top for our little 1.25 tonne tipper trailer so we could chip straight into it.

Dad and I also spent a large amount of time removing an amount of fencing from around the field.

Not only was there a mesh fence put in by Dad about 10 years ago to help keep sheep in the meadow (it didn't work), but there was also a large amount of barbed wire left by the previous owner of the field.

The best part about the barbed wire was that it was attached to a number of galvanised poles, whose origin are quite possibly German... as in World War 2 German.  The barbed wire was mostly very rusty and after handling a lot of it I am glad to have been vaccinated against tetanus.

The good news is that it's no longer there for the dogs to injure themselves on.

After taking out the fence we managed to remove some branches and some smaller sycamore trees.  I dislike sycamore because much like weeds they just seem to sprout up everywhere. 

A couple of years ago some conservation work was done further down into Le Saie woods where the Sycamore trees were all removed leaving the oaks, and i'm attempting to continue that.

In times gone past we'd have to start a fire to burn everything, but with the new wood chipper and my policy of 'if it fits, it chips', we made some good progress.  

There's something really very satisfying about wood chipping, don't you think?

It is also worth noting that over the Christmas period we enjoyed a couple of lovely cakes made by SW and AH.  Dad also received an email from JM where he recounted his fond memories of the Land Rover 101 (the truck that I bought) from his Army days.  His fond memories also include it breaking down a lot, so no doubt we have some fun times to come. 

Christmas

So we're at the end of the first Christmas without mum and it's been a little different.

For a start, it was Dad, Dan and I that took the dogs out for their morning walk at 8:30am.  I remember back to a time where we all used to be dragged out for a walk as a family.  Contrast that to now where I'm quite happy to go out and get some fresh air, knowing full well that the rest of the day will just be spent fitting in as much food as possible.

Whilst on our way down through St Catherines woods we discussed many interesting things, such as why we feed both dogs the same amount when one runs up and down like a steroid injected mountain goat and the other plods along at walking pace.  It might explain why one is fat, and one is not fat...

We noticed that there's been a lot of clearance done in the woods lately, and they've cut the branch that used to hold the swing, which made us all vey unhappy.  We can only assume that it's been done for health and safety reasons, which if true would be quite tragic and is not doubt going to spoil a lot of children's (and adults) walks when they rush to the swing only to find out it no longer exists.

When we got to St Catherines lifeboat station we began to discuss 'the harbour that failed' and that it was probably best that it did fail, as otherwise St Martin would probably be a lot more densely populated and not so much of the quiet, quaint parish that it is today!

By the time we had gotten onto the topic of sea wall construction, we'd got tired of walking and Bex came and picked us up.

Lunch and dinner were delicious and by the end of it I was almost sick of a sight of smoked salmon (emphasis on almost).  3pm rolled around and it was time to put on the Queens' speech.  There was a moment in it that almost had me going, but no one noticed.

This post feels a bit lost without a photo.  We traditionally go for a drink at the Dolphin on Christmas eve and Facebook trawled up a picture from 2011 when I think Jack must have drunk quite a few pints.

at the end of the year....well, nearly!

We've been a little lax recently with this blog...well, a lot actually. I've been meaning to make a start, but there's been things going on, and it's only now (as we slow down from work) that I've found time. I know that everyone will be saying "but the days are soooo short, surely there's time during the long dark evenings?"...and our reader would be quite right....but it just hasn't happened. Anyway....

That first paragraph was written yesterday, and now it's Christmas Eve afternoon....24 hours later. In an attempt to remind myself where we all were blogwise, I found myself (yesterday) rereading previous posts...that was a mistake (of sorts) as I went further and further back...I think I must have gone from June right up to September 17th. It was good (and not so good) to remind myself of "stuff". However, I got in a bit of a state really....and consequently wasn't up to much posting afterwards.

However, I'm back on track now....two dog walks today....visits from the St Ouen clan.... and finally getting to meet our turkey....it's a long story....I'll try to be brief. I said (some time ago) that we would do a turkey crown again this year. Dan said "no, I've got a "deal" going with work...I'll get the turkey". He wasn't taking no for an answer...so he ordered said turkey. How heavy was it? He didn't know. When was it arriving? He didn't know. Did he have any details? None at all.

So the turkey finally turned up this afternoon...18 pounds...fresh...with gibblettythings. I think it will fit in the Aga....just. I reckon 4 hours? I'll chuck it in at 8 and see what happens.... I mean how much of a disaster can it be? We've got spuds, carrots, and parsnips prepeeled, rechopped and vacuum packed from our special shop....we've got frozen peas...fresh leeks....Stephe's made some stuffing....surely it's all under control? I mean, we've gt all the food....we just need to warm it up?!

Bex has made a Christmas cake....she's been icing it and making some marzipan decorations this afternoon. They take 24 hours to "set".....I had no idea marzipan had to "set"...I've been eating big chunks of it as she's been cutting out christmas tree shapes. We also have oodles of other super-fattening presents to eat....I can't see us going hungry.

Thomas has also been "cooking" this afternoon...baking actually. He's got lots of "new bits" for his Land Rover. Some of them have been painted....but because it's high temperature paint it needs to spend some time in the oven to cure after painting. The bits will be done in half an hour....

Pops has finally moved. He's been with us up here over a week already. It's all good....there's still some bits and pieces left at Holmchase, but to all intents and purposes we are all done down there. 

I've had my birthday since the last post....apparently it was quite an important one....but I wasn't up for doing anything. Well, it turned out that I got taken out for lunch...then taken out for an afternoon coffee....and then got "dragged" out to the pub for a quiet half (well okay, it wasn't just a half) in the evening. It was all good, and I saw some friends I hadn't spoken to for quite some time.

The real reason that I wanted to send out a post today was just to wish everyone a very peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year (if we don't get to post again before 2019). It's been a real roller coaster....absolute extremes....light and dark....black and white. One thing has been clear to us all though is that we are so very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends. We wouldn't have coped with things as we did without you all. Without all the support we've received we would be in a real muddle....and the last few months (indeed years) would have been very different. I just want to say, very very inadequately, a most enormous "Thank You" to everyone.

I've made a conscious decision to turn over the proverbial new leaf after next week. 2019 will be a difficult year....reminders of things that we did with Jill will appear everywhere....but we will be thankful for those good times, and move on to make some more new good times.

Once again, from all us Luces to all you readers......our sincere thanks. 

Birthdays, birthdays and birth days

No prizes for guessing what the reason for this evening's post....and my apologies for bloging again so soon after Thomas...I hadn't realised he was writing something...and it had occurred to me the other day that neither of us had uploaded anything for some time.

As Tom has already mentioned, it's Jack's 30th. birthday today....another milestone for a member of the family. It was Pops' birthday last Thursday the 29th...it was his 83rd. birthday...I guess when you get to that age then any new birthday is a milestone! Pops came here for supper....and received various cards and presents. Jack and Stephe gave him a card...they wrote this inside...."Pops, we didn't have time to buy you a present, so we decided to get you a great-grandchild instead". I suppose that's as good a way of telling people you're expecting a baby as any....

Jilly would have been absolutely over the moon with excitement to discover that grandchildren were on the way. Knowing how much she was looking forward to the patter of the tiny feet of another generation of Luces has tempered my own enthusiasm, but I'm sure that by the time we get to next June I'll be fully engaged.

I've discovered that grief for the loss of loved ones has been a little like worry about children. The amount that you worry doesn't change much...the things that you worry about change.... but the level of worry is about the same. I've found things a little like that with Jilly's passing....the levels of grief haven't changed much, but the reasons have. In the first few days it was all those things that happened on a daily basis that were challenging. Getting used to those "very regular" things being different has taken time, but the upset has reduced....to be replaced by the upset of doing things that only used to happen occasionally. Being with friends on an infrequent basis has its own challenges....where we used to be 4 (2 couples) it's now very obvious that we're only 3....it's VERY obvious. That's proved a surprise for me....I hadn't seen that coming. Strangely, I'm not sure if things have been more difficult lately...that might be because I've tried to get back into normal mode....who knows. Certainly writing Jack's birthday card was a little thought provoking...the first time I've had to write a card with only one name at the end. Strange isn't it....I didn't see that coming either. I wouldn't make much of a palm reader!

Reading back over those last couple of paragraphs has made me have a word with myself....as the missus would say, "man up". Enough already...

We keep having to cope with bloomin' Alexa. Yesterday we were asking her to play seasonal music....Pogues and Kirsty McColl....Bing Crosby...Chris Rea...and then we got bored and starting asking for "other things". the most obscure request was "Alexa, play Land Rover exhaust noises"...unsurprisingly she didn't have a clue. She did however know have many miles it is to Mars and how tall she is....and...did you know where we would end up if we started digging hole in the garden and just kept going? Here's the answer.....

For tonight's final photo(s) I've decided to show our reader some of the "stuff" we still have around the kitchen here at Seaford. Photos that Jill put up on and in cupboards that we haven't taken down....no need really....they're quite amusing and make us smile.

 
Yes...we've still got Poldark stuck on the fridge...and here's the selection from the inside of the cereal cupboard....

Three of me (two with dark hair!!).....three of Jill.....Jack abseiling down Mount Bingham...and some friends added for colour! No Christmas decorations yet......but soon.....keep watching for more updates.