I'm back again :)

Time for another quick update. This morning Emily left, with her year group, on a day trip to France. She had to be at school by 7am and they were hoping to leave by 7.15am. They were taking the ferry over to Calais and then spending the day in and around Calais before coming back this evening. Emily was up by 5.10am and by the time I got downstairs, at around 6am, she was dressed and her bag was packed. The photo below was taken as she was making last minute arrangements with her friend.

Emily and Davina walking towards the school gates and you can see a couple of the coaches arriving.

As most of you know, Emily is my baby and it feels really strange knowing that she's overseas without me :o( . The weather was a bit unsettled this morning but has cleared up as the day's gone on so I'm hoping they've had a lovely time and am looking forward to hearing about it when she gets back tonight. I know she was a bit nervous before she left but I'm sure once she was with all her friends the nerves would have calmed down.

Rather than sitting at home wondering how she was getting on, I phoned Mum and asked if she fancied a morning out. We went to The Craft Barn in Lingfield where it was lovely to see Sarah, who used to work for another craft shop we used to go to. Such a surprise and great to catch up. We spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the new papers and products and I can't believe I walked out the door again not having bought a single thing!!!!

We headed round the corner for a coffee before coming back into East Grinstead where I had a couple of things to do. Mum took me out to lunch, which was most enjoyable, and it was around 2pm before we came home again. A lovely morning out, thank you Mum!

Since coming home I have been going through Cathy Zielske's tutorial on Ali Edward's blog. It is showing you how to create multi photo grids that can be printed on a single sheet of paper. I've never worked this one out but now that I've gone through the tutorial, it works!! Yippee!!! This is the grid of photos I created using photos from the last time Michelle and Josh were visiting us. I've already started assembling a scrapbook page and will post a photo once it's finished. Anyone interested in having a go should go over and watch the video tutorial. Thanks Cathy!!

And finally, more garden photos (mum, you can look away now). These photos aren't my normal ones of flowers and plants but rather of the big, fat slugs that Jon has been finding recently. I can only presume that they've been having a feast in our garden because they were REALLY big!! I don't know whether the photos do them justice but I'm glad they are no longer in our garden!

In this photo, taken from a big of a distance, you can see the orange coloured one in the bottom right corner and the brown one in the top left corner.

Brown one

Orange one

Not terribly pretty are they!!

And lastly, some of you know that I have started job hunting and had been on an interview last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get the job so the hunt continues. On the plus side, this will probably mean that I get to spend some of the summer holidays (at least) with Emily, for which I am very grateful.

I will let you know, in due course, how the French trip went and see if Emily has any photos I can share here.

Until then, take care and enjoy the (slightly) warmer weather.

xx

What happened today??

When I say, "what happened today?" I'm actually talking about the weather. After the beautiful sunshine we've been getting used to, today turned out to be a fair bit cooler and, in our neck of the woods, rather blustery. So blustery in fact that it blew our acer in it's big pot right off the patio! We couldn't believe it - Hugh told me as he was walking through the kitchen and when I went to have a look this was the sight ....

When the acer blew over it also took down a fairly large rose which is also in a pot. I know some people may be thinking, what's the big deal? but we've never considered that the acer was in any danger of blowing over - guess we've been proved wrong!

As you can see from this photo, it's a fairly good size.

Seeing Wallace and Cloud sitting in front of the pot will give you an idea of how big the pot is. Anyway, it's back up again and now has a rock behind it which will, hopefully, prevent it from being blown over again.

After the fun and games I took a walk round the garden to see how things are growing. It's looking good! Our hydrangia is starting to flower

The tomatoes have started to appear and I wonder what these ones will taste like.

I'm not sure what this one is going to be like but we'll soon find out.

And finally, the buddleia bush - which is supposed to be one that the butterflies like. The flowers are coming out nicely but we aren't seeing many butterflies yet, hopefully they'll still appear.

Looking closely at the bush it's fascinating to see the hundreds of little flowers that make up one of the flower heads. Each little flower so perfect and all alike.

Now we just need the rain to stop again and the sun to come back out so we can enjoy the garden once more.

Have a lovely week

xx

Scattering the Ashes

This post is mainly for Jon's family who were unable to be with us today when we scattered the ashes of Jon's Mum, Dorothy and his Aunt, Barbara. The post is extremely photo heavy but I hope it will let everyone get an idea of what a beautiful place Barham Crematorium is and where the ashes have been scattered. We left home around 9.30am for the hour and a half journey to Barham. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day - brilliant sunshine and very few clouds in the sky. We arrived at the Crematorium slightly early but were soon joined by the other family members.

Part of the grounds at the Crematorium.

Jon, Jerry, Mike, Morris, Debbie and Emily outside the crematorium building.

Looking out to the gardens from the patio.

Deb and Dave admiring the flowers in the garden while we wait for everything to be sorted out.

Leading the way to the rose garden where the plaque for Dorothy and Barbara was placed under a rose bush.

Moving on to the area where the ashes were to be scattered.

The scattering of the ashes took place under these beautiful trees in the cool of the shade.

Jon scattering his Mum's ashes

Forming the shape of a cross

Morris then scattered Aunt Bar's ashes in the same place as Dorothy's.

This was then followed with a brief reading and prayer by Father Shackelton. The poem he read out was beautiful and I'd like to share it with you here.

Death is Nothing at all

Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped away into the next room.

I am I, and you are you; whatever we were to each other, that, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used, put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we shared together.

Let my name ever be the household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere near, just around the corner.

All is well.

(Thank you Morris for typing out the words for each of us to have)

An orthodox prayer

The cross of the ashes

Chatting after the service

and a quick photo before we move on.

From the Crematorium we went to the Ramada Hotel in Whitfield for a buffet lunch, which had been organised by Morris, Barbara's husband. Father Shackelton joined us and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours chatting together.

Jerry, Father Shackelton and Jon.

Dave and Mike waiting to get drinks for everyone, from the bar.

Deb, Dave and Morris

Frances and Jon

After texting family who were unable to make it for the service, to advise them of the time of the toast, Jon made a short speech followed by the toast for Dorothy and Barbara (drunk with Russian vodka!).

I love the following sequence of photos, by this stage I had moved slightly back from the group and was able to take photos without Emily being aware. Jerry had been making us laugh through lunch and I think at times Emily wasn't 100% sure how to take him or whether he was being serious or not. It was fun to watch her interacting with family.

Thank you for taking the time to scroll through all the photos, I hope they have helped give you an idea of Dorothy and Barbara's resting place.

Love to all

xx

Recap of the last week

Race For Life I thought I'd do a recap of the past week for this post, starting with today. This morning Claire, Emily and I took part in Race for Life 2009 at the South of England Showgrounds in Ardingly. It was very warm and we were glad of some cloud cover as the morning progressed. The girls and I had agreed to walk the course - which at some stages felt longer than I'd expected!!!. It wasn't long before Claire was off ahead of Emily and myself and she walked part of the course with Faith (my niece) before finishing on her own in 48 minutes. Emily and I came in in about 56 minutes with Louise and Faith coming in at 53 and 55 minutes (I think). Claire's boyfriend Craig had come with us to offer support and he took a few photos as we got to the finish post.

Claire striding to the finish line Emily and I coming in a bit later (behind the ladies in tutus)

A photo of the five of us (me, Claire, Emily, Louise and Faith) - I don't care what we look like, it felt like an achievement and needed to be recorded.

I would like to thank everyone who sponsored us once again. I think our total was around £305 which was triple what we had expected to raise. Thank you all so much!!

Brunel Awards

Earlier in the week Jon and I had been up at Sackville School for the Brunel Award Ceremony. Emily had been chosed to get one of the awards for Significant Achievement in Maths. We are very proud of her and, although we were sitting quite far back, I did manage to get a couple of photos of her going up on stage. Here she was shaking hands with guest speaker Ian Watts (who had been part of the Brighton University team on Robot Wars on TV.

Waiting to receive her Certificate from Mr Bush.

One of the robots Ian Watts had worked on was this dalek.

Pool League

And finally, as I had mentioned in my last post, last Sunday I went down to the Broadway Pub to take a few photos of the prize giving for Jon's Pool League. Jon with Chris, the winner of this season of the league.

Handing over the prize money The league players. Back L - R: Jerry, Jayson, Chris, Simon

Front L - R: Mike, Juan and Jon

All for now, have a good week

xx