Malvern Manor

January 2011

2011-02-05T00:25:00.000-08:00

My diary for the month.

New Year's Day at Evie's flat. We had the whole family in the same place, at the same time.

Things I made this month
Joel's pirate suit

Mr Broccoli - the second - to replace a lost one.
I also made a book of photos for my friend Marion, to commemorate a particularly happy time several of us had at her house a few days before Christmas. Sadly no rooom for a photo.

Another memorable event was the Peter Pan Party, but I think that deserves a blog of its own!

Books read this month: An Act of Peace - Ann Widdecombe
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Picture Perfect - Jodie Picoult
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
A Place of Secrets - Rachel Hore
I started Out of the Woods but not Over the Hill - Gervase Phinn, but I got distracted... I will finish it sometime. The one I read quickest was the Rachel Hore one.
Surprises in January included haggis for dinner on the 25th , and also a pineapple upside down pudding. That same week we had prawns - all prepared by Brian, DH is branching out!
Healthwise, in the last few days of the month, I actually stopped coughing and began to feel better!

18th November 2010

2010-11-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is my friend, Leslie. We go to the same scrapbooking crop. Unfortunately she was involved in the 7/7 bombing in London. Since then she has suffered PTSD. Today I went with her to King's Cross to lay flowers at the memorial to those who died.
At first we thought we wouldn't be allowed to leave the flowers. Security is very tight. The staff were very apologetic and we ended up talking to the duty station manager. He explained that people are generally encouraged to come at 6pm ( when the fire happened) but that since we were there he would come with us, with the official wreath, and we would lay our flowers together. Leslie is unable to go out after dark.
Sorry its not the best photo - I was being quick and surreptitious, expecting to be arrested at any moment.
There are 2 memorials - one for the bombing victims and one for the victims of the fire.
It was Leslie who told me about the Mixed Media Art day at the Museum of London - to which we both went in June. She is an inspirational and inovative artist and I appreciate her very much.

On holiday with a very smart phone...

2010-09-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

If you would like to see nice photos of my short visit to Scotland in August, then head over to my daughter Evie's blog. The link is on your right. What follows is a different side of the holiday...

I knew Evie had this nice new phone...

As we left London there was a prolonged call to someone called Fiona. The tunnels didn't seem to cut the connection.

Then we got to Lancaster. 'I wonder what that river is called?' No reply but I could feel the increased level of concentration beside me. She looked up from the phone and announced 'its the River Lune'! Really?

We got to my cousin's house and the conversation was all about her son's forthcoming wedding. The hymns? The first one was All things bright and beautiful' - straightforward enough. The second was something like We vow to one another... would that be to the tune of I Vow to thee my country? We didn't know but the phone told us the answer ( which I can't remember now!)

Visiting my sister in Dunoon by ferry, I've always been confused about which loch is which - three of them branch off where the Clyde turns to flow to the south -no longer thanks to that phone! I know exactly which is Gare Loch, Loch Long and Holy Loch.

The next day was wet - again so we decided to stay in Glasgow. I took Evie to see some of my favourite places. One of them was the replica of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's house. It's attached to the Hunterian Art Gallery. She tried hard to get a guided tour of the house on her phone, but it didn't quite happen...

The next day it was much brighter so off to Loch Lomond we headed. I've had many a picnic on the bonny banks and I always knew there was at least one island... but now I know exactly which piece of land is Inchmurrin.

In bed at night I wanted to finish a chapter of my book. 'Thats OK, Mum, I'll just try my flag recognition app. while you do that.' I think she could recognise about 40 flags at that point. The World Cup had been a help. Shortly afterwards my chapter finished I switched off the light, forgetting she might still need it. Problem? Not at all, the torch on her phone was like a searchlight- brighter than all the lights in our room! And anyway she had moved on to do a maths game. ( I wish she'd had a phone like that when she was at school!)

On the way home it was cloudy and we couldn't see the sun. We wondered which direction we were travelling. Should have been south - to London? It turned out we were going east at that point, but we did get safely to London!

Thanks, Evie, for being such a good travelling companion and enriching the experience with your phone!

Silver Linings.

2010-09-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

You will have to read back to my birthday blog at the beginning of July to find out why I have called this series of blogs 'Silver Linings'
This is the hotel in Eastbourne where I have just been to the Cardinal Colours Scrapbook Retreat.

It is a lovely place...

and I met some lovely people! This group sat together for the first meal and we stayed together for every meal after that. I've never been in a group that gelled together quite so well before. It was a good experience! More of the stuff I made, later when I take the photos of it all.
Thanks, girls, for making the weekend so special.

Lichfield.

2010-09-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend in Lichfield did me a lot of good. I loved the size of the cathedral and all the old historicl buildings.

To get into the town we had to walk across the bridge at the end of this pond - or lake. This

This is my cousin - whose son was being married.

This is the dishy bridegroom...
When the blog template only lets you upload 4 photos at a time, you chose the best... and beautiful as the bride was, her photo wasn't among the four best. So sorry...

Silver linings in Glasgow

2010-09-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife designed the interior of their home in their own special style - and it it stunning! This is a replica, attached to the Hunterian Art Gallery.

We spent a wet day travelling by land and sea to visit my sister and her family in Dunoon. 4 generations here!

This is one of my favourite views in Glasgow. On the left is the Cathedral and beyond it is the graveyard known as the Necropolis. The highest statue up there is of John Knox, the Scottish reformer.

On the day we went to Loch Lomond the sun came out. I don't know how many picnics I have had over on the side behind Evie's head. On this occasion we stayed at Lomond Shores, the visitor centre at the south end of the loch.

Thanks for being such a good travel companion, Evie.

And I still haven't got round to the lovely flowers in the Botanics...

Random Silver Linings...

2010-09-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

Outside the British Museum we chanced on this South African Garden

as we passed on the way to Blades, the stamp shop. They sell some nice arty magazines too...at nice prices!!

Another day saw me at The Princess Diana Memorial Playpark with my two daughters and various friends and family members. There must have been about 20+ in our group. This is the French contingent.It was lovely to see them and practice some French.

On the way home I called to say hello to another good friend and while we had a cup of tea, this butterfly visited us.

I thought it was called a woodland something but I can't find it in the book now.

Random Silver Linings in August.

2010-09-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

I met up with my good friend DMJ and her daughter in law and grandaughter.

Then my daughter in law brought me this lovely bunch of flowers. Made up of lilies and night scented stock, it waws one of the nicest I have received. Thank you Julie!

I had a lovely North London woodland walk with Evie and her Dad.

These gladioli in our church one Sunday gave me great pleasure.

The silver cloud at Valentine's Mansion.

2010-09-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

This is a stately home kind of place very near Gant's Hill and a walk from Ilford Town Centre. As well as the house - with its superbly equipped family room for the children, it has a cafe where there is a kitchen garden. Look at this for a cabbage!

There is a walled garden - trust me to head for the thistle.

There are lots of flowers but this time I focussed on the sea holly (eryngium) and the blue one which turns out to be Perovskia. Thanks to Wikipedia I now know that it is named after a Russian general, VA Perovski (1794 - 1857) and is also known as Russian Sage.

The silver cloud at Ilford.

2010-09-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

While our daughter and her family went on holiday, we were able to spend 10days or so looking after their house and garden. Imagine
my joy on walking into their house and seeing this work of Lissa Lou's on the back of the kitchen door. All week I thought to myself 'aren't I lucky to be the Grandma at the top of the tree!'

They have a French laptop with an AZERTY keyboard which I worked hard at mastering. It also had the 'O' key missing. You have to press very hard to get it to work so I tried various alternatives which cause a certain amount of hilarity on Facebook. I received suggestions about books and teeshirts searching for the missing 'O'.

It was a great pleasure to see Brian taking such an interest in the garden. At this moment he is there helping to weed and tidy up for the winter - something he never felt confident enough to do in our shard garden.

Another pleasure to sit in the garden at 6am topping and tailing gooseberries for the freezer.
Thank you Heather and Alberto - can you book us in for next summer and for 2012...

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-09-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of July I was 70 years old. Heather and Alberto and Evie arranged a superb barbecue for me in their garden.
They made me a lovely card and decorated all the tables with pretty cloths (mine!) and yellow flowers; the theme was yellow because I like mimosa but its out of season in London in July.

I never had balloons at the gate for my birthday before in my whole life! And if you look closely you can just see the darling little jar of dandelions!

Heather baked a superb 3 layer birthday cake straight out of the pages of Good Housekeeping Magazine. Alberto was in charge of the barbecue and Brian made up a quiz for everyone.
Unfortunately after a traumatic Spring with various problems I actually took ill on this day and so there are not so many photographs as I would have liked. I will try hard to keep up the blog because in spite of the ongoing nature of the problems, they can't be allowed to take over and there have been some silver clouds this last couple of months.

The Art of Mixed Media

2010-06-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

I have just had the pleasure of spending two days this weekend in an art studio at the Museum of London. The tutor explained the recipe for different kinds of paint. (I should say at this point, before you eat Skittles again, check out what shellac is made from)(and you probably won't eat Skittles again!)After this we dispersed to try our hand at playing with the different kinds of 'mark makers'. This is my 'play' (as opposed to 'work'). I used india ink, wax crayon, gouache and oil stick. The scene was out of the window. There are some jokes in there if you can see them. The torches were a silvery metal, and didn't have fire burning in them. It just needed brightening up.

The technique we were introduced to on the second day involved using turpentine to scrape the paint of a magazine picture and turning the picture into something completely different. I could not see the point of this until I came across an article about Margaret Thatcher. Then I thought Yes! I could enjoy scraping the smile of your face! so I did and it turned out to be Blackpoool Tower, because that is made of tempered steel - or some such metal.
There's lots of layers here, india ink, gouache, pigment, tissue paper, and wax crayons.This is not the finished article, but the colours came out better in this photo. The finished one has a bit more white gouache highlighting.
It was a fun weekend with lots of inspiration from the others on the course.

Kenwood

2010-05-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

I saw a programme on TV this week - maybe Countryfile- when we were asked to let them know our favourite secret places. Whats the point of that I thought - they wouldn't be secret any more...This is definitely one of my favourite places. Its very public, but the magic is there no matter how many people there are around.
The rhododendrons and azaleas are on the way - and we'll be able to enjoy them for another few weeks.

This is the Japanese hankerchief tree I googled that and top of the list was www.hampsteadheath.net with photos featuring this very tree.

This year we dicovered a small bluebell wood - across the path and down the banking towards the lake. Real dark blue English bluebells - no paler blue Spanish ones in sight.

And on the edge of the lake a water rat 0r vole who posed quite happily for several photos.

MayDay on Hampstead Heath

2010-05-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

My swing photos have definitely improved over the last 4 years! Iused to take endless pictures of Lissa Lou on the swing and she'd hardly appear in any of them!! This one is of Casscass learning to get herself going.

Picnic time

With a BF

and on top of Parliament Hill, a real live(?) May Pole!

The Family Fun Day

2010-04-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

Regular readers will recognise the person who won the jar of sweeties for guessing the right number of sweets. (I think it was 93).
We'll give her a level 1 (National Curriculum) for estimation skills!!

A generous son!

2010-04-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

At present we are in the middle of decorating the kitchen. Some days there has been too much mess for cooking. That £20 note ended up buying a Chinese takeaway for us! Thanks, Ali - it was the best chinese I have ever tasted!

Apple Blossom - first phour photos!

2010-04-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

end of February

beginning of March

third week of March

middle of April

The Olympic Stadium

2010-04-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

This appears to be the main venue - as far as I can see from the train on my weekly visit to my grandchildren.

This is the swimming pool - amazingly they have put up the roof before the walls or anything else!

Faces from the Family Fun Day

2010-04-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

CassCass the pirate

Family Demosthenous

Butterfly Best Friends

Joe

Alexandra Palace

2010-04-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Up bright and early today to go to theBig Scrapbook and Stamp Show. Been looking forward to it for ages. Wait a moment, where is everyone?

It was lovely, no queue for the ladies, and no one in the Palm Court.

Just a shame there were no stalls either!
I don't know what made me think it started today!

The new kitchen window.

2010-04-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

First of all,cover everything with dust sheets, the remove the old window.

The nicest workman ever! He is Lithuanian

Job done

and finished off with new curtains - the design is called Alyssa. What else could I choose!

Leigh on Sea.

2010-03-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

A day out with the girls is not something I do often. It was supposed to be a baby shower - but really we just had a lovely meal and a good laugh! Not forgetting the lovely cake for afternoon tea before we got the train home.

This is the part of the view from the restaurant. The water in the distance is the River Thames.

We had a (very) short stroll after lunch. Sorry you're not in this photo, Heather . You must have taken it. Thats why its such a nice one.

As we left, the weather was picking up.I once heard an art gallery guide say that Constable often had a little touch of red in his paintings. It works for photos as well.

Apple blossom and geraniums

2010-03-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

Out of the whole of Heather's garden I think this might be my favourite branch! I love that lichen - and now the branch has these buds on it.
Heather, you asked me recently if a certain flower was a geranium . At last I found a photo of one from your balcony at Archway. Do you remember those tiles!

Joel is 2 yrs old

2010-03-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

The first cake was at Grandma and Grandpa's house with a blue cake. NO pink I was told!

The second one was at his toddler club. Just after this they took his cake away to cut up for all the children and he looked so surprised and puzzled. However I can only put 4 photos up at a time - anyone know a way round this?

Here he is being a real 2 year old, making a muddy cup of tea. That red duvet cover is perfect for photographs. It was so nice to see the washing out - and do you see the deckchairs out as well. I was beginning to feel I'd never sit in the garden again!

Apple Laptops.

2010-03-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

This week, a contestant in The Weakest Link was asked by Ms Robinson, 'What have you achieved in life?'
'Well,' she replied, ' I have bought myself an Apple laptop.'
What do you think, is that a major life achievement?

The Apple Shop

2010-03-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

Last week I found myself at a bus stop on Regent Street in London, opposite the Apple shop. Two of my children have bought their laptops here. One of them arrived to find a pipe band performing in this area. He kindly phoned me - mobile to mobile - to let me enjoy the sound of the pipes. The last two photos are where I was at that moment!

I wonder what this building was in its former life - and why all these paintings are there?

I think it was Loch Long to the north of Dunoon.

Beautiful Silk

2010-03-19T01:45:00.000-07:00

This is a piece of fabric my friend Marion J brought me as a present from her trip to Hong Kong en route for Australia.So far I am only taking it out to admire - and stroke it. What would you do with it?

Ballet Recital

2010-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I went across London to see my granddaughters perform. Due to the Olympic site preparations it took me rather a long time nearly 3 hours. First the hair had to be moussed and plaited and pinned up and sprayed...

This was during the interval to get her used to the view from the stage.

Cass Cass excelled at the free style dancing - she's in the middle at the back, in white.

I was thrilled to see how Lissa Lou held herself so straight and listened to the music. She is 3rd from the left and Cass Cass and her BF are behind. Lissa's BF is 2nd from the left. There were girls from 3 - 15 years on stage and I suddenly remembered how lovely it is to watch the disciplined movements of ballet.
At one point Lissa Lou whispered to me that it was a bit like sign language and I thought 'wow! at 6yrs old she's worked out for herself what ballet is about.'

Things I have made so far in 2010.

2010-02-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

This is a knitting pattern I found by putting 'dinosaurs' into google.
This is Mr Broccoli made for Jo Jo to celebrate his being able to say 'dinosaur'!

Then his sisters got in on the act - this is Miss Marigold who now belongs to LissaLou

and Miss Snowdrop who belongs to CassCass

and these are made from material bought in Guadeloupe.
When the slave trade ended, workers were needed for the sugar plantations and refineries. Replacement staff were brought in from India. They brought this fabric pattern with them. It is very similar to the patterned fabric from India and known as Madras.
I am sure there must be a Scottish connection too - its so like tartan!

6 years old !

2010-02-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

Can it really be a whole year since we celebrated 5 years in Guadeloupe? Or indeed 6 years since we made marmalade waiting for this lovely grandddaughter to put in an appearance? The photos here are of games played. This one was organised by Tatie Evie and is called 'Master of the House'.

Grandpa had to check that no one was laughing!

Mummy had organised a treasure hunt. The younger guests had picture clues while 6 year olds had to read theirs! Another part of the hunt was in the garden. In the end there were a number of pieces of a picture which had to be sorted like a jigsaw puzzle.

While we were outside we had an egg and spoon race with deeper spoons for the younger ones, and a game of hide and seek. No wonder we needed frequent intervals to consume the three different cakes! All of them chocolate and all with 6 lit candles! Thanks for having us Heather - it was a great party! ( Even if one of the guests put on the fridge that you love Arsenal!!)

Half Term

2010-02-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

Had a lovely time with our regular half term visitor - our grandson.First of all he got his strength up doing his exercises...

Then it was out on the road (and fields and paths) for the final stage of his grand walk around London. This is a long distance path - 150miles+ which runs right round the capital mostly inside the M25, which you hardly ever see or hear. It runs through some lovely countryside. I have done the whole thing - twice - but on this occasion only went to see them finish and see the boy receive his reward. Can you guess what it was?

The fresh air and countryside made me want to do it again - bu t I couldn't keep up with this speed!

CassCass Is 4 years old!

2010-01-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

She chose the candles and holders and put them in the cake herself. Then she very quietly sang 'Happy Birthday to me'!

She followed this with a curtsey -in two stages.

Later she blew out the candles. This is the second time - the cameras weren't ready the first time! Oops this photo didn't quite make it! Wonder where it got to?!

The Pirate Ship

2010-01-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

These pictures are for a certain someone to show him what great fun his cousins had with the pirate ship which he has grown out of and kindly passed on to his cousins.

This last picture is them saying thank you!

Redwings

2010-01-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

The same photo treated by Picasa's contrast feature - as advised by Evie. I think she's right - it does show the birds up better.

Sunday morning surprise

2010-01-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

There were several of these little beauties in the garden this morning.
I'd never seen them before so out came the bird book. It turns out they are redwings, driven to the city centre by bad weather up country. They feed and move around in flocks - which is why there were quite a few of them.

Goodbye, Berry!

2009-11-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

This is my last picture of Berry who died yesterday. It was taken very recently. We had a lot of fun and joy with him, and some lovely photos!

Sunday Lunch

2009-11-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

Every so often my church has an event called 'Guess Who's Coming to Lunch.' You can sign up to be either a host or a guest. If you are a host you say how many people you can cater for and whether you can accommodate children. Today I was a guest and these are the lovely people I shared my lunch with.

and this is the delicious meal...

The Christmas Cake.

2009-10-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

This year CassCass was old enough to help.

It looks tasty already!

You've got to test the mixture haven't you!

There was enough left to put in the oven and we rounded off the afternoon with a tune on Grandpa's piano.

The Christmas Cake.

2009-10-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

First of all a picnic lunch in the garden.

Lissa Lou at 5 1/2 yrs is able to do so much more this year.

Cream the butter and sugar. All going well until...

Uncle Alistair tries to add in some left over peas!

Mini Beasts in East London.

2009-09-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

We put a variety of soil, leaves and sticks in the blue tray, then looked under every stone and pile of sticks in the garden. We only found 1 woodlouse, 1 slug, 3 small worms and 1 longer one, 1 empty snail shell and 1 live one. Later we found the spider who ate the green thing (shield insect?) and a butterfly.
There was one reddish centipede but it disappeared from the tray - could the slug be eating it? Oh and there was a ladybird but it flew away before CassCass could get it in the tray!

La maison des peupliers

2009-09-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Some views of Heather's new home.

A visit to the dentist.

2009-09-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Look what happened to LissaLou last week! She had to go to the dentist to get a filling. (The teacher in Guadeloupe gave the good children a sweetie every afternoon as they left school). The dentist notice a loose tooth and sought permission to remove it. With reminders of the tooth fairy, this was given.
The tooth fairy had no change to hand and left a 2 euro coin. Later it was changed and spent on.....nail varnish. And she's only 5!

Flowers for Grandma.

2009-08-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

Last year - July 2008 - when we went to St Pancras to start the family off on their journey to Guadeloupe, we passed the flowers in the bottom photos at M&S in the station. Lissa Lou said 'Grandma , I want to buy a bunch of these flowers for you'. I choked back the tears and explained that since I was going on the train with them (as far as Paris), it wasn't really a very practical idea - although a very nice one.
Last night Lissa Lou rang my door bell and brought me this lovely bunch of flowers for which I thank her vey much!

Lissa Lou sings in French

2009-08-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Lissa learned this song at school, to sing to her mum on the French style Mother's Day in June.
My dear friend Marion filmed it for me.

The Return

2009-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

These photos were chosen by LissaLou.

CassCass and Grandpa playing with the trains

JoJo and Grandpa doing the drum

Lissa Lou on the sofa

The Emirates Cup 2009

2009-08-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

My first visit t0 the Emirates Stadium! Its just up the road from our house.

Look who else was there!

This was a belated birthday treat thanks to the men in my family.

The second match of the afternoon was between Arsenal and (Glasgow)Rangers. Arsenal won 3-0.

A Birthday Surprise!

2009-07-31T04:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I was telling Malc and Evie that when my mother was expecting me she became very unwell with toxaemia. Because of this I was delivered three weeks earlier than the due date. So, really, my birthday should have been on the 26th July. What did they think of my celebrating another birthday on that day? Not a lot was the very quick answer - no more birthdays this year for me.
But wait what is this envelope which has been sticking to the front of the fridge for weeks, months even? A birthday surprise from my dear first born son!

Is there a little clue in the window of the envelope?
You'll have to watch this space!

Islington in Bloom

2009-07-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

All these photos were taken from the same spot - at the bus stop oppositeSelbys,
Which is looking very sophisiticated with its new black marble frontage.

maybe the answer does lie in the soil!
http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php?title=The_Answer_Lies_in_the_Soil
in case you didn't catch the radio programme!

The New Wall

2009-07-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

7.45am

7.46am

8.10am

4.40pm

A good day's work. Notice the creeper nearly at the top of the scaffolding.

A birthday present!

2009-07-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

It came so early she'd forgotten it was here until I reminded her!

First the enclosed card Then the present

Put them in straight away!

Flowers in Public Places in Islington.

2009-07-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, these flowers are within a stone's throw of Holloway Road! They are growing on a narrow strip opposite the entrance of Central Library in that side street.

Hampstead Heath

2009-07-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dahlias at Kenwood

One of the screechy parakeets

Caught him emptying a stone out of his sandal!

The Underground Railroad.

2009-07-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

These are photos of the quilt my cousin has made in the past year or so. They are mainly for my friend Lynz who does a nice line in quilting herself.

Each block has a specific meaning and sent a message to the slaves to help them escape to freedom

Below is a link to one of the websites which gives details.

http://educ.queensu.ca/~fmc/may2004/Underground.html

Some flowers in Larkhall

2009-07-24T04:47:00.000-07:00

Roses

Lupin

Delphinium

North of the Border.

2009-07-24T04:43:00.000-07:00

This is why I hate paying for raspberries in the shops. I know where better ones grow wild. Its the same with salmon - my grandpa used to catch so much that he'd send my mum round the village to give it away. That was when she was a little girl.

Looking north over Glasgow to Ben Lomond.

This is Chatlerhault ( pronounced with a massive glottal stop after the letter t). It used to be the country home of the Duke of Hamilton and now is open to the public. Not a lot to see indoors but a nice cafe and a lovely wooded estate to walk round.

Three generations

2009-07-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Three shifty looking characters at Finsbury Park this afternoon! ( Ha Ha - I took the photo seconds before the hand came up to make a sign over the green boy's head!)

A plastic bag.

2009-07-14T23:52:00.000-07:00

It does what it says - degrades in your hand!
So it wont appear in my scrapbook!

Building is suspended.

2009-07-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

Should the wall be taken to the level of the street on one side of it, or down another 5 feet to garden level? The builders say one thing, those paying the bill disagree.
Watch this space to see who wins!
When will the cost of the scaffolding pass the cost of building 12 feet of wall?

Down it comes!

2009-07-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

The first blow

showed the wall to be tougher than expected . So they brought in a large electric drill to tackle it. I wonder where the photo of it has disappeared to?
The creeper had started growing up the scaffolding

which went up in the third week of April. It really does what its name says 'mile a minute'.

For the first time ever we can see the pavement. Its still surprisingly private in the garden. In case you had forgotten, the wall had developed massive cracks.

From the outside in

2009-07-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

The wall demolition gives a nice view of my pink buddleia from the pavement.

Scrapbook Pages

2009-07-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

These 2 I did for Lissa lou's birthday in February.
Heather always puts up a 'Happy Birthday' notice on the fridge/wall and the first one was meant to reflect that. However I thought it was messy so next day I decided to do another.
Her party was at the piece of land her grandfather farms but doesn't live on. Its called Pika - due to all the plants and insects which irritate you there.
Her Papa made a heart shaped chocolate cake, but not even he could get the candles to stay alight. It was a very windy day. Alyssa kindly pursed up her lips to blow and posed for the camera.
I love the baguette and the cabbage on the table - and three mangoes from the trees above.

Recent Scrapbook pages.

2009-07-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

This is lissa lou's school photo from the school in Guadeloupe! Looks like something out of South Pacific.The green is a paper napkin - top layer only, glued onto the cardstock. I crocheted the white flower and tatted the yellow butterflies. The buttons and lace are from my grandmother's stash which I inherited.

This photo is 18 months old.

The balcony fence was a handy support for Jo Jo when he was learning to stand and walk.

Recent scrapbook pages.

2009-06-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

This is a double layout with the London page on the right because thats the way you fly to Guadeloupe across the Atlantic.
I painted the paper first cos I had no blue cardstock that day.
The material is called 'Madras' (as in India). After the abolition of the slave trade they brought people from India to run the sugar plantations.
I found these flowers at the Ally Pally Scrapbook show - the label said they are frangipani. I found some growing in Guadeloupe.
Look at the shape of Guadeloupe - no wonder they call it 'le Papillon' - the butterfly.
The title is hand cut from my writing and various bits of paint and glitter added.

Pika is the name of the family land in Guadeloupe.
Cass cass liked going there with her dad while Lissa was at school.
I am very proud of my anthurium flowers which grow there. I made them by painting pipe cleaners white at one end, green at the other. The petal is a heart shaped piece of paper (2 layers stuck together)
The title is chipboard painted and glittered and the journalling patch made out of 2 different sized circles.
The larger one is cut out the size of a tin of custard lid.

It didn't happen!!

2009-06-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

We sat out in the garden for the whole afternoon. eventually it was 'cup of tea' time and getting a little dull, so in we went.
Eventually the wind got up, the sky got darker and down came the rain. Rain? no, it was hail stones! At the end of June! Hitting the kitchen window hard enough to break it! Thunder and lightening too.
Then we put on the TV to watch Murray playing 'the young Serb' at Wimbledon.
To be honest we put it on to see the new roof close - and it didn't happen! Where did the bad weather go between here and Wimbledon?
So we didn't see the roof close, but at least Murray won.
They say you can't have everything!
The other funny thing today was Borders playing 'Santa Claus is coming to town' . You probably guessed - it was Michael Jackson singing.
RIP Michael - thanks for all the music.

In the garden this week...

2009-06-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Thursday 25th June

2009-06-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today we met old friends Terry and Judy Bedlow. We had a picnic outside City Hall ( You didn't come
down, Boris!)
Later we walked along to Tower Bridge where we crossed over to meet some old mates of Terry's from his days in the London City Mission. They have a preaching slot at Tower Hill each week.

Tery and Judy's boys were at primary school with ours.

Goodbye, Allan.

2009-06-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Our dear friend is returning to live and work in Australia. Years ago he and his wife arranged this outing on a canal boat on the River Lee Navigation.

We went to see a field of early marsh orchids.The leaflet says there are 10,000 of these flowers on an area the size of a football pitch.
'These delicate flowers are one of only a few plants able to thrive in a nutrient poor soil, created with waste ash from a coal-fired power station.'

I've had these photos for ages waiting to be scrapped. Sadly Joan is no longer with us and we miss her.

Logos Hope

2009-06-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

The Logos Hope is a ship, which is financed by Christian sources, and sails to various ports around the world 'bringing knowledge, help and hope'.
This week the ship has been in London - as you can see from the yellow spikes in the background, the 02 venue, the Dome.
The knowledge is in the form of an absolutely massive bookroom.The help depends on where the ship is - sometimes its medical, other times it is practical like building a house/school or digging a well. The hope is brought by preaching. Each person on board goes out to do evangelistic work one day a week.
Once on board we were shown around various parts and treated to slideshows and videos. Our group was lucky to get on the bridge, and even meet the captain who like every other crew member is a volunteer. There is a school on board for the children of crew members.

The ship is moored in the West India dock very close to Canary Wharf. It was a very interesting afternoon and we are looking forward to Monday morning when it sails to Cork. We will try and find a vantage point down the Thames somewhere.
After Cork it is going to head off to the Caribbean - Kingstown, St Vincent.

The Bridge

2009-06-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

Outside

Inside

The hole in the floor.This is the part of the bridge which sticks out over the edge of the ship and the hole acts as a kind of wing mirror for when there are tugs down there- or the harbour edge.

Aloe Vera

2009-06-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

You won't often see anything on here about cosmetics in any shape or form.A dab of oil of olay and that is me ready.But recently Menna and I ventured to Crouch End for the launch party of the business set up by our friend Annie. (We know her through Hippo Club)
It proved to be a very interesting afternoon. In case you are interested in aloe vera products here is a link to her website: www.yourinnerglow.co.uk

And just as a closing bit of useless information, it was held in the lovly flat of the lady who led the baby
music group I used to take LissaLou to 3 years ago.

Strawberry!

2009-06-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is the one and only fruit on Alberto's plants which I have been babysitting.

and it tasted delicious!

An overnight visit.

2009-06-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

On the occasion of my friend's birthday we went to visit her son and his wife.
They live not far west of London

in this beautiful flat.

We paid a visit to Hobbycraft at Reading where we were inspired by this lovely bag on display -
and spent lots of money!

We stayed in a hotel for the night. Among the things we liked -after the size of the full English breakfast - were the net curtains in our room. More like a bride's veil really.
Many thanks to all who made it an enjoyable time.

Happy Birthday!

2009-06-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

40 years !! Where have the years gone?

E r r.... why is Dad's hand above his head, I wonder!!!

We are very proud of our first born and grateful for his skills and knowledge of computers.We wish him all the best for the years ahead.

A few nights in Bexhill on Sea.

2009-05-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Our lovely room with its four poster bed.

2 wash hand basins

and a huge shower.

We stayed at the Buenos Aires Guest House, where we were made very welcome and well looked after. Its perhaps 5 mins walking from the station and possibly as much as 2 mins from the beach. In other words - perfect!

Pebbles and Shelley

2009-05-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

Pebbles and Shelley belong to our B&B hosts. Pebbles is less than a year old and his mother,Shelley,is 11 years old

Shelley is a Persian cat. She sat on my knee through out breakfast on our last morning.By the time I had finished my croissant, she was covered in crumbs - her long coat would need serious grooming. This is the first time in all 40 years of our married life that a cat has chosen to sit on my knee, rather than Brian's!

Some random flowers

2009-05-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

Its amazing that anything grows in such sandy, windy, foreshore conditions.

Around the town

2009-05-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

A blackbird taking a stroll.

Snapdragons

Houses near the sea front with a Dutch feel to them. (Our lovely landlady was Dutch)

Asleep in the window of a hairdresser's shop. Usually its cats you see in this position.

More on the promenade...

2009-05-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

This is a minimalist model of the racing car which won the first ever formula one race. The stone at the bottom marks the finishing line. The race was in 1902, and was the first international car race in Britain.

Seen through a glass darkly...

Two ladies enjoying a cup of coffee outside a cafe on the beach walk towards Hastings.
This stone marks the finishing line of the race, but I took the photo because I like the lichen which grows in various places here.

On the prom...

2009-05-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

Amazing what you do when you're away from home and think no one you know is watching!

A new roof for this beach hut ready for the summer we hope we have.

The same shelter going - coming back. (It was us that moved, not the shelter)

More of the beach...

2009-05-31T08:22:00.000-07:00

We saw lots of lovely dogs out walking, including a beautiful greyhound called

Prince who was a champion runner in his day.
I took photos of anyone wearing red or pink, or with a ping buggy...

Sights on the beach last week...

2009-05-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

Random birds, random humans - apart from the intrepid photographer!

Lemon Sponge Pudding

2009-05-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Last week my good friend, Moggie, gave me two lemons to use up, as she was going away for the week. I completely forgot that I was going away too!
Needing to use the lemons quickly, I remembered a recipe given to me by my mother in law, Katherine Irene Mann. I can hardly read the recipe in my splattered notebook, but here it is.
Ingredients
5ozs caster sugar
2ozs SR flour
2ozs butter
2 separated eggs
2 lemons
1cup of milk
Method
Cream butter and sugar
Beat juice and rind of the 2 lemons along with the egg YOLKS only. Add milk to this mixture
At this stage, beat the egg whites 'to peaks' and add to the mixture after the flour
Fold in the flour
Add egg whites
Put mixture in an oven proof dish
Put this dish in a second one with some water in it.
Bake for about 45mins in a hot oven.
During baking the lemon sauce sinks to the bottom while the sponge bakes at the top.
You can see the separated layers in this photo.
You can see here how delicious it is!
The first 2 photos were taken by Evie on my camera - a Panasonic TZ6
I took the last one. Sorry to make you one eyed Evie!

HMS Illustrious

2009-05-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Greenwich to see this huge aircraft carrier. I say huge, but one man told me they make them twice as large these days! I think this was my best photo with the Swiss Re (Gherkin) in the background,

The fly past consisted of Merlin, Sea King and Lynx helicopters, then some fixed wing planes - can't remember what they were. They were celebrating 100 years of the Fleet Air Arm.

Our departing view as we walked along the Thames Path. You can see the hillside behind the Royal Naval College in the background. The Royal Observatory is just off to the right.

We were nearly opposite Canary Wharf when we stopped to take this photo - the camera was zoomed in at 12x. 4 helicopters had just passed us and landed on the deck - you can see them lined up in front of the funnels.

This last one was taken from the same place, then cropped in Picassa. Not a bad camera, my new one!

National Scrapbooking Day - May 2nd

2009-05-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to celebrate by doing some painting in the garden - I am running low on cardstock. The green is an experiment with the top layer of a napkin. I saw it in a blog mentioned on UKS, the blog is called Waltzing through Life.
Notice that I am well away from the scaffolding and the piles of sticks which you can see on Evie's blog.

And here is Evie celebrating National Scrapbooking Day by reading the latest Scrapbook Inspirations.

Wisteria

2009-05-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

There are lots of wisterias in full bloom at the moment. This one is in a street behind St Mary's Church (Upper St).Its not got the most flowers, but it is the tallest and widest one I've seen in Islington.

Hampstead Heath 1

2009-04-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

These photos are the reason for going to Kenwood House today.

Still quite a few buds

A beautiful new copper roof on the side of the house.

Nice to see the azaleas again - and the Japanese hankerchief tree.

Hampstead Heath 2

2009-04-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

Today I took the train to Gospel Oak (when I'd finished the minutes). After a quick bite to eat at the cafe there, I set off to walk to Kenwood.

These photos are a few taken crossing the Heath.

A Saturday outing

2009-04-25T11:42:00.001-07:00

When we crossed London Bridge on the way to the station, we noticed a large boat moored next to
HMS Belfast. Aha, we said, we'll go and take
photos of the bluebells in the woods of South London, then we'll come back and investigate this.
Alas, when we arrived back several hours later, the large boat had sailed. It turns out it was a cruise liner picking up passengers in London. I'd like to have seen it going through Tower Bridge.
So we took these photos instead. Above is opposite Hay's Galleria and below is Tower Bridge.

This is Pett's Woods, very near Pett's Wood station, on the line from London Bridge Station to Orpington or indeed Ashford International Station.Not such a pretty wood as Stanmore Country Park but far more bluebells.

This is a random picture that got left out of a recent blog showing the new position of my washing line. Previously it was along side the wall.

Views from the kitchen window,

2009-04-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

Ceanothus across the road.

Cherry blossom

Today in the garden

2009-04-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some exciting views of the scaffolding supporting the garden wall and the various piles of branches and pruned clippings which had to be removed.

Must be the time of year for blue flowers. Above is a kind of Indian lavatera which I think may be abutilon. Below are a few bluebells.

Mid morning we had a visit from the project manager (!) to say they'd be coming through the wall on Monday!

Sunbury on Thames.

2009-04-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Romeo has been working on a project which involved photographing the London bridges over the Thames. Yesterday he took me to see one place he had visited. It seemed a long way - a bus to Waterloo (we had discussed taking the tube but when we passed the station it was closed due to an 'incident' - so we'd made the best decision) then a train to Shepperton. Right across London for nothing! We love our freedom passes. Thank you to Islington council.
We had this lovely view of the river while we ate our sandwiches.

Lots of lovely old houses - many covered by wisteria in full bloom.

The ladies of Sunbury celebrated the millenium by sewing an embroidery depicting all these houses and such things as the wildlife of the area. They have even built a little house to keep it in. This is a town far removed from the streets of London where such a building could give shelter to the homeless. It is situated in rather a nice walled garden and adjoins a cafe with wonderful home baking ...

I would like to know the name of the tree on the top right with tubular yellow flowers.

La Porte d'enfer.

2009-04-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

La porte d'enfer is a little cove on the north eastern, Atlantic coast of Guadeloupe. France being a Catholic country, Ash Wednesday is a bank holiday and one of the church groups organised a walk in the woods and then bathing at this beach. I haven't taken many photos of the calm bit where people were paddling and swimming - it was far too exciting looking out to the ocean!

Can you believe the man swimming so near that rough water!

It was possible to walk - well climb, or clamber, up onto the limestone cliffs which surround this place. To get a photo of me I put my camera on the ledge of a big rock and thought how happy I was to be there!

For this photo we drove up on the cliffs opposite where there is a parking space and a wall on the edge, just behind us.

Happy Birthday, Jo Jo!

2009-04-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

My youngest grandchild celebrated his first birthday in March - while I was there to take the photos! This was his first taste of cake and it was covered in chocolate!
We made a special outing to look for butter to bake this cake. The strike was just ending and the shops hadn't had time to stock up their shelves. The first one we went to had no butter or anything similar.The second one - up the road and round the corner- did. And it cost nearly 3euros! roughly £3!The white on Jojo's face was because he'd helped to coat the chicken strips in flour and then cheese to make bangbangchicken.

The balcony is a great place to learn to stand and walk!

When we arrived JoJo was in his cot having a siesta. Very soon he woke up and cried. Evie jumped up and said could she fetch him. Go for it said Heather (looking forward to 3 weeks of having a nanny in the house?) Evie brought JoJo through and paused at the door to let him see everyone. Heather spoke to him and his little head swung round to look at her and then back to Evie! He'd obviously thought it was his mum who'd picked him up! Here's a photo of them both (looking at old photos of Heather's in laws) to show you what an easy mistake it was to make!

I got tagged!

2009-04-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

My friend Lynz, with stripey hair ,up in the homeland, has tagged me!She wants the 4th picture in the 4th folder in my PC...
Well here it is.
Its my oldest son and his son and looks like they've been playing around with someone's camera or maybe the webcam - can you get stills from them?

The date on it is 31May2006 - so they would have been staying with us at half term.

Now! I pass this tag on to the other members of my family who are able/willing to play along - and also to Yorkshire Karen cos its about time she updated her blog!

Happy Birthday to my dear son in law!

2009-04-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

First of all we have some photos of a game of petanque played on a beach near a place called
Porte d'Enfer in north east Guadeloupe during a church outing on the Ash Wednesday Bank Holiday this year.

Here we see him trying to light the candles on Lissa Lou's birthday cake - which he baked. In the month I was there he baked three birthday cakes. I hope someone bakes you a lovely cake DSIL!
On this occasion it was far too windy for candles.
At the same party he organised the barbequeue and later posed with his wife.
Finally we see him helping his sister in law to get the best possible photo of the sunset.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

A little bit of local history.

2009-04-15T00:43:00.000-07:00

Recently a new book appeared in our home. It is called 'London's Oldest Rugby Clubs' and is written by one Dick Tyson. Immediatly we turned to the H page to see if our favourite team were there. Yes there they are - Harlequins! But our attention was attracted by this photo - well not THIS photo - this is one of the same view last week when taking a walk in Clissold Park.
It turns out that in its early days Harlequins used to play in what is now Clissold Park in North London.
This was soon after the club started in 1866 - then known as Hamsptead Football Club. The name was changed in 1869 to reflect the less local nature of the members.
Not sure why it is thought to do that. All I can find in the dictionary is that apart from being a mute figure in a pantomime, it may come from 16th century French - the name of the leader of a group of demon horsemen!
In the days when Harlequins played in our neck of the woods, this piece of land was known as Newington Common and was adjacent to the the big house, where the cafe is today.

Nowadays Harlequins home ground is miles away on the other side of London, very near the international rugby ground at Twickenham. Harlequins' ground is called The Stoop, in memory of Adrian Stoop who played for the club in the first half of the 20th century and also served as president for many years. His father was Dutch, his mother Scottish/Irish - a good mixture. No wonder he was able to revolutionise English rugby as wikipedia says.

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

2009-04-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

While we were in Guadeloupe we enjoyed watching these processions. On Shrove Tuesday everyone was dressed up in amazing costumes. On Ash Wednesday, they all wore black and white.
This was a friend of my son in law. He called on his way home so I persuaded him to pose. The hat is for you, Karen!
Being a Catholic country, both days were bank holidays (jours fériés).
Lots of drums on both evenings - and for many evenings before as they practised.

From Clissold Park

2009-04-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

More signs of Spring!

Clissold Park

2009-04-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday LissaLou!

2009-04-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

This event took place on Friday 20th February 2009 and I was so happy to be in Guadeloupe to take thesse photos!
Above are the morning events. Notice the photos on the wall behind Lissa. This is a new tradition that her mum has started - showing her life so far in pictures. Behind Papa mixing the birthday cake you can just catch a glimpse of 'Bon Anniversaire!'

Later we went to la campagne to have a barbecue and birthday party. The only problem was that it was a very windy day and the candles would NOT stay lit long enough to be blown out! So here you see Lissa pretending (pour faux?) for the sake of the camera.At our evening meal that day I lit a large table candle which she was able to blow out.
Lissa's is the only birthday in her class which is in February. Unfortunately the school was closed (the strike...) at that point. However when they reopened la maitresse was kind enough to do another bit of pretending and celebrate Lissa's birthday a bit late. Merci, madame!