Tuesday 30th July

For those of you who don't know, it was my birthday yesterday! And I had a very unusual but none -the -less lovely day!

It started with hubby singing (sort of) happy birthday at 6am and was followed at 7:15am by the arrival of a gorgeous four and half month old baby girl-I was allowed full babysitting duties until 2pm, how exciting was that! She was perfectly well behaved which allowed me to open all my cards/gifts and receive a steady stream of visitors wishing me happy birthday!!

Got out for a dog walk at 3ish, in the rain......but luckily it stopped just before our tennis match at 4:30pm. A speedy turn around at home and straight out for a quick supper and then we went to see Despicable Me 2- it was funny but not quite as good as we had hoped, anyway a very different birthday all in all!

I am so lucky to have so many friends/family and as one son put in his card- "I am sure this birthday will be far better than last years" or words to that effect.

A quote copied from last years blog:- “Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.”
Sammy Hagar

Saturday 27th July

Had an excellent 'networking' session with a few girls on Friday night, sorted out most of the world wide problems as well as a few local ones!

 Today we had a lovely little creche going at home with tea and cakes, shame that we were also inundated with loud hungry teenagers spoiling our fun!

A true farmers daughter!

A baby hobbit....

A very nearly grown up school boy...

A true 'artist'....

 

Yesterday I had to visit the doctor....not really something I had planned but 'needs must', nothing to do with anything too nasty I hasten to add, but my own foolishness, Oh do be quiet all of you and I'll tell you what happened.

I was on one of my frequent dog walks, many people take their dogs out walking on a daily basis without mishap but I invariably end up clambering over things and going through vegetation or taking routes etc that  I probably would have been wiser to avoid. Anyhow there was a fallen tree that had come down over the path and I scrambled over it in my usual haphazard way and caught the back of my heel/calf on a bramble. It did hurt a bit and bled a bit but I 'manned up' and continued on my merry way.
However that was two weeks ago and instead of gradually getting better (thought the salty sea water would cure all, but maybe the dead seagull I was swimming around with didn't help after all......). It got to Tuesday this week and I thought I really must do something about it, the scratch had gone to the size of a 50p piece and it not only looked inflamed it hurt too!

I popped into a well known chemist whose face when I showed him my now festering wound said it all! Plaster to 'draw out the pus' ( sorry hope you haven't just eaten) and antibiotic cream...from the doctor, unless I was going to France? He must have noticed my total look of bewilderment, I thought at that point he was bonkers and was pretending to be a pharmacist.  Apparently you can buy the aforementioned cream over the counter in France , no need for prescription. Now this is actually true as no sooner had I left the premises, than I called my dear friend AH who I happened to know was on a day trip to France, and put in a request. Not only did she grant my wish, she delivered it to my door that very night, bless her , even faster than Amazon!

By now the family had got wind of my predicament, (I'm not one to moan....much!) and urged me to seek medical advice, and so, as I always do as I'm told I did.

By now I had a very sore throbbing leg and on top of that a seemingly innocuous 'insect bite' that had a red line creeping out of it- "don't worry about that, the doc joked they used to call that the 'line of death'!!" So after some hysterical laughter on my part  and much joviality on his, he prescribed me 10 days worth of Penicillin four times a day, and some more antibiotic cream...... 

The moral of this story is .............wear wellington boots when climbing over trees......or don't walk a dog........

Thursday 25th July

Two dog stories tonight.....

 One evening a family that lives in the east of the island decided to take their dogs for a walk on the beach at Grouville. It had  been another beautifully warm day and although it was nearly 6pm there were still a fair few people enjoying the late sunshine, indeed some of them had brought along portable barbecues. Anyway as the 'family' approached the sands the dogs, one in particular, Brian (name changed) raced ahead, and in the blink of an eye had snatched a sausage off a barbecue, swallowed it, knocked over a full glass of wine and then taken a considerable bite from a bread roll. The 'family' were mortified and hurriedly dragged themselves and Brian further up the beach apologising profusely. It's fair to say they have not done an evening walk since.....

The second story took place over twenty years ago to a family in St Brelade, picture the scene, a harassed mother, four small children and bath/bedtime. Mother said to eldest son, go downstairs and fetch tablet/pill for your brother, eldest son dutifully does her bidding and brings back tablet/pill. Mother encourages child to take pill, child spits it out, mother gently chiding, repeats process, once again child spits it out. Mother exasperated asks eldest to bring her the packet,where it transpires that the pill she was trying to dose her son with was none other than the dog's worming tablet...... now the question is did the eldest son know that all along?!

Tuesday 23rd July

Such lovely news about the new Royal baby Prince, and seeing the happy couple on TV tonight was so lovely. I hope they are allowed some degree of privacy certainly in the next few days and weeks.

I heard my friend on the radio today being interviewed about her new choir Rising Voices, it's at Trinity Church 6:30-8pm on a Wednesday night. Open to anyone with or recovering from Cancer and their partners helpers etc and the best bit is, you don't need to be a singer!

Sunday 21st July

 Jess had a friend over on Friday night, but she didn't say it was going to be a 'sleepover'!!

 A mildly amusing start to the day. Knowing that Dan had to be up for boat duties with his dad and the fact that he had been out the night before, I approached his bedroom door with a degree of caution.
I knocked quite loudly and simultaneously opened the door, and at about the same time I heard a guttural grunt of acknowledgment, but the head that popped up from the pillows was not my son's....!!

It was in fact his best friend who had 'crashed' out and slept in Dan's bed while Dan had gone up to his brothers bedroom as he was on night's so it was empty. I use the term 'slept' somewhat loosely, as if it hadn't been for Tom going out to collect them at 2:45am they would still be walking up Mont Millais, so the amount of sleep they had actually had and nothing amounts to the same thing!  Needless to say they both managed to survive the day. Sleep deprivation being their only concern whilst their other friend who was busy walking along the road minding his own business (quite late at night admittedly) had a man come up to him and randomly punched him in the mouth! the irony being this lad has just come back from traveling in South America for four months with no mishap and two weeks later in the relative safety of Jersey....

 St Catherine's woods was beautiful this morning, and this evening (pre thunderstorm) the north coast was just as lovely.

Wednesday 17th July

I have had my third swim in the sea, I had one swim yesterday and two today, I can't say it was 'warm', and I really only stayed in five minutes but it was lovely!

I took Jess for an early morning beach walk today, as she races around chasing seagulls and other dogs she needs to be walked in the cooler part of the day. I bumped into a few dog walkers, one chap who having remarked to me how hot it was already- to which I replied "yes, I've got too many clothes on"! This was met with a somewhat stunned silence, so I told him it was best not to answer before swiftly moving on!!

Further along during the dog walk I remembered I had left the beetroot in the oven, this wouldn't have been so bad but it had been in there since 5pm the night before......well cooked was an understatement,the dark red colouring was a very faded pink, fortunately it hadn't boiled dry!!

Tuesday 16th July

Asgarth falls (Robin Hood Prince of thieves )

Great nephew

siblings

So, you would have thought that at least one of the children could have updated the blog while we've been away, but no they have all been far too busy. Some of their many activities included a BBQ at our house, (many guests invited....) a day out on dad's boat ( also many friends invited...).

We left the island last Thursday heading for the Yorkshire dales to meet up with various members of my extended family and celebrate my little bro's 50th birthday. Not only did we have a fabulous time in Askrigg, we also had brilliant weather, bar one short sharp shower (in which we got throughly soaked!)

We walked for miles, up hills and down dales, saw hundreds of sheep and had a minor altercation with some cattle, who became very interested in the dog! We obviously had to break up our long walks with fairly frequent stops at the nearest hostelry, mostly pubs to quench our thirst (it was hot!) or we visited one of the many tea shops.

Anyway all 21 of us managed to enjoy a meal at the Kings Head pub ( The 'Drovers' in Darrowby- James Herriot to the uninitiated!) on the Saturday night. Huge thanks to big brother for organising us all, it was a great evening, plus of course more importantly we won the cricket........!

Breakfast outside, bliss!

The 'happy' pic before the walk!

Betty- in a 'pose'

Nephew and both brothers

My four great nieces!

 

 

Sunday 7th July

You would have thought that I had taken this photo on some welsh hill, but no, just the north coast on Thursday morning.

The weather has been truly glorious over the last few days, it really does lift your spirits. At last the vegetable garden is producing food we can really eat, lettuce, my first tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, chard and kale as well as hubby’s twisted/special carrots (photos later-look funny taste yummy!) Some folk reading this will be suitably impressed others (namely my sister) will give me a somewhat pitying look at my paltry efforts, as she has a far superior allotment , and has great knowledge on various subjects like ‘green manure’ and ‘compost stirrers’…

In my opinion a somewhat disappointing ladies final tennis yesterday, fortunately todays result made up for their shortcoming. A fantastic show of first-rate tennis and with Murray finally able to lift the Wimbledon Trophy the spell has been broken.

The poor dog eventually got her afternoon walk down through the woods and onto the beach, where I had intended to take my first dip in the ‘briny’. However we bumped into a few neighbours and the sea didn’t look that appealing…so I’m sorry to say I chickened out, tomorrow I definitely WILL swim!!

Jess playing with a 'friend'

Dan's catch of the day!

Dan just in from 13 hour day, supposedly at work but transpires that it includes 'fine dinning' on lobsters and crabs on a trip to Carteret!!

Thursday 4th July

Train station- well,  I was excited!!

We had to wait until they opened the courts!!

Right at the top of No 1 court!!

Henman's Hill, Murray's Mount or Robson's Ridge (before it got busy!)

Laura and Colin Fleming in mixed doubles

Serena 'warming up'...

We are heading towards the end of term at school, and so the tension is mounting, lots to do before 'Open Day'. Everyone is very busy finishing off stuff. The concert is in full swing (lots of talented children there) and general mayhem and madness.

We had our third meeting of the Gynae cancer support group this evening- the speaker was a dietitian from the hospital, it was really informative and especially so for those of us who were having chemo.

Caroline has set up her choir called 'Rising Voices', which is aimed at people with cancer or their carers/partners, the first sing song was last night at Trinity Church. She is giving it a two month trial run, so if you fancy a bit of laugh on Wednesday nights come up-6:30-8pm -tea and biscuits provided!

Tuesday 2nd July

We had such a BRILLIANT time at Wimbledon.....despite the planes being delayed (there and back!) we really really soaked up the atmosphere the whole day, watched some brilliant games (including seeing Laura in her singles defeat ;-( and her mixed doubles.

We saw Serena warming up on court 16, and I have to say she didn't look too happy then... We sat on Henman hill/ Murrays Mount/ or Robson Ridge? and saw some of the play via the big screen.

We watched the games on No 1 court, some excellent men's singles, we saw some very talented British junior players ( very controlled and impeccable manners), and generally scurried around catching as many good games and play as we could whilst also enjoying the sunshine and actually the whole experience.

Huge thanks to big brother/sister in law for putting us up for two nights, and also huge thanks to hubby for sharing it with me- a day to remember!


 My photo upload is playing up or I've messed it up so sorry photos tomorrow!!