Thursday 15th May 2014 14:28

I have just come up to my desk to get my phone in case Paul rings but I see he has sent a text to say he will be home at 3:15. He is driving half way across the country and yet at 3:15 he will be here.

Sat Nav’s! Amazing! I don’t like using it but feel so happy that Paul does.

I love how my brain hops to another time…

We were on our way to North Wales for the funeral of my beautiful friend.
1st December 2005, we were late, we were lost and I was in a state of extreme stress.
I also realised that Paul who was doing many hundreds of miles in a month at that time was spending more and more time looking for the place he was supposed to be and I was continually worrying about him.

The next day we went to Halfords or some such place and bought a Satellite Navigation System.

And back to the present…

The bright yellow Welsh poppy is flowering all over the garden: I let it self-set because it reminds me of my friend.

Back and forth my mind drifts effortlessly…

Before I came up for my phone I was about to go into the garden and plant up some little pansies before Paul got in.
My friend didn’t like pansies, “they have such silly looking faces” she used to say.

I am smiling at lovely memories of her.
And I have much less worry about Paul travelling and getting stressed.

Thank you Alexa at Trimming the Sails who, for the past 2 years has given us the opportunity to stop and be still in the moment, to record our thoughts and to link up with other Simple Moments from around the world. This is the last month of linking up.
I am sure I will continue with the practice.

What a huge crowd of people there are already here in the hall!
Brothers daughters husbands mothers aunty and her husband all in one room…..

I’m not sure what I expected for ‘a family party’ but not this! All from one family!

We are here to celebrate Helen’s 100th birthday.
I have been in awe of this lady and this celebration since last May when the fact that it was to be her 100th birthday in ten months time and would we like to come? Just dropped into conversation.
My goodness, of course we would come!
And so we have travelled across the country to help celebrate this wonderful lady’s special day.
Helen is very sprightly, a little bent until you remind her to stand up, she laughs “Thank you dear I do forget. It is Miriam isn’t it? I sometimes want to call you Marion but that’s Gerard’s brother’s wife isn’t it?”
I am touched to the core that she remembers me. The last time I saw her was ten months ago.
After working with memory loss for so many years it is life affirming to be with someone who is 100 years old and whose memory is intact.

She is on her feet visiting all the tables of little groups of cousins, aunts, sisters, nannies and great grandchildren. (She hardly sat down all afternoon and the beaming smile never left her face).

My brother came by our table. (We were a straightforward mix of my husband and my brother, his sister, brother and brother in law… sorry all names were followed by a family connection this afternoon.) Helen is his partner’s mother.

“And that’s Helen’s cousin’s husband. No, the child belongs to one of her children’s children. I can’t remember which one” Gerard said, shaking his head and giving me a hug.
“Thanks for coming, Helen is delighted and I am thrilled to have some of my family here”

Thank you Alexa at Trimming the Sails for the place to record my Simple Moment in March.

Simply A Moment. February 2014

It is the 17th February at 17:23
It is my birthday. Unfortunately I am no longer 17 or even 23 but Hey Ho.
I am taking a moment, thanks to Alexa at Trimming the Sails who gives us a platform to record a moment in time that might otherwise go un noticed.

I have not long returned from having lunch with my friend Mary.
We went to a beautiful restaurant about 15 minutes from home.
I have lived here 14 years and have not been there before. Actually I didn’t know it was there. I love that, you know, when you discover something new, something lovely and right along the road.
Mary had asked me to bring something of my art work, something I have made or some of my photographs so that she could see what it is I do. I brought along some of the post cards that I have painted and some that I have had printed from my photographs.
We had a lovely time looking through the photographs, she was impressed that I knew where I had taken them all and she liked the textures I use and the ones where I have blended two pictures together. She saw images in my abstract painted cards and gave them all names! She held some of them up against the dark wall and said how beautiful they would look, larger, on a wall. Oh! I love this woman! Mary is great company, we laugh a lot, we love good food, love going out to lunch and now she knows something of ‘what I do’, that feels so good.
I have had birthday cards from lots of friends and family but to get cards from 3 brothers, an e-mail from one and a text from the other…and all on the right day…I am overjoyed, someone is looking down on me today.
A smile crosses my lips as I remember a lovely Valentines and birthday weekend, organised by Paul. A real treat for me as it is usually up to me to organise anything and everything in this house! I feel so blessed but a little bit sad that he is away now until Friday.
Ben is in from work tonight, not too late I hope, we will have dinner together. I have a beautiful beef in red wine with porcini mushroom casserole slowly cooking in the oven for us, the aroma is wafting up the stairs as I type.
We might even have a glass of wine.
Cheers!

Thank you to my blog friend Alexa for Simply a Moment
And Thank you Mary for lunch and being my friend x

Around the fifteenth of the month Alexa at Trimming the Sails hosts Simply a Moment. A lovely opportunity to sit still and be in the moment recording some thoughts or feelings which might otherwise go unnoticed.

Here’s my moment for January 15th 2014

15th January 2014
16:32

Taking a few moments before I go to the kitchen to get our meal ready.
Listening to my new Christy Moore CD that Paul bought for me. I think I might be his number one fan. I have all but two of his CD’s apparently. (according to husband!)
Anyway Christy’s lilting voice is drifting through my head.

Hey Ho I’ll take a deep breath in a day or two and start again.

Thank you Alexa for hosting this very lovely meme again this year…Simply a moment captures what would otherwise be lost along life’s busyness.

My kitchen paper art. Posed, very beautifully I think, by my new 12 inch man ekin!

Around the fifteenth of the month Alexa at Trimming the Sails hosts Simply a Moment. A lovely opportunity to sit still and be in the moment recording some thoughts or feelings which might otherwise go unnoticed.

Here’s mine for December 15th 2013
22:57

I just called by Alexa’a blog and realised the date…Time for Simply a Moment.

I am already sitting quietly at my computer, husband’s snores drifting along the quiet almost in time with my typing.
I can hear Pepsi walking about downstairs; I think she must have heard Ben coming home.
Yes, he is here, with his smiling face “How’s you mum? Still talking to the world? How’s your day been?”
We have a natter and I tell him that I have finally finished all my Christmas crafting. The last four cards are here on my desk. They get a nod of approval and he notices that I have stitched them; I’m impressed!
So I am taking a moment now to reflect on my day.
I was unwell this morning and had to return to bed for a while but as I was fretting about getting my parcels ready for the post tomorrow I got up again and slowly, slowly, and with plenty of tea I finished my tasks. Although they were happy and festive tasks when I don’t feel 100% everything feels like a task to me.
While I listened to Christmas carols on my iTunes I fought with my sewing machine. I played with jewellery wire, tools and beads. I ran out of cellotape and got in a big muddle with ‘peel offs’ but it’s done.
My pretty cloth bag that Ben bought me ages ago is stuffed full of parcels and a few cards ready for the post office in the morning.
Just some more cards to write and send then I can think about cleaning the house, scrambling in the loft for the decorations and going to buy the Christmas tree. I saw a lovely one the other day while I was stuck in a traffic jam….
Time to turn in: happy with my days achievements, feeling festive and feeling blessed.

And this evening, 16th December I am feeling better, all cards are written and in the post. I am about to go to my last craft evening before Christmas.

Thank you Alexa.

This made everyone smile in Porlock, Somerset last weekend.