Closing Doors; Drawing Lines

My dad, bless ‘im, was masterful at coming up with a plethora of old-fashioned, wise sayings.  What most of them meant I sort-of learned in time!  This last week, two old sayings have kept cropping up ……..

• when one door closes, another opens ………………

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• draw a line under it  ……………..

Sorry, but it’s all a bit maudlin.  Maudlin?  Where does that come from and what does it mean exactly?  I looked it up.  I just love the definition :-  “soupily sentimental”!!  Brilliant!  So, here comes a bit of sentimental minestrone!!

1.  Yet again we have been back ‘home’ to Staines sorting things out.  It is now fairly certain that I have quite literally closed a door – the front door of the house that has been central to me all my life.  My parents moved in there in 1939 and my brother …………… well, he didn’t leave for long!  It’s a house full of a life-time of memories – mostly happy memories – and it’s hard to make sense of just how sad those happy memories are making me feel!!  I suppose it’s all about what the house represents.  Some wise old guru somewhere said, 

“Don’t be sad because it’s over, just smile because it happened.”

Something to work towards ……………………….

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2.  Maisie has gone back to her mum.  Today is the first day we have been on our boat without a dog…. us, …. dogless!!  We fostered Maisie for much longer than originally intended but we always knew that one day we would have to give her back.  She is such a little character, was great mates with Maggie and became a really good crew member.  Now her life will be full of other things.  If you saw how she is with Megan you, like us, would have no doubts …….

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3.  My brother’s ashes now lie alongside those of my parents.  Just me.  Only me – but, in truth, that’s how I wanted it to be.  A sombre event – sitting there alone next to the resting place of the other three members of my original family.  Fortunately, the lovely groundsman left me in peace “to do what you need to do,love” he said.  He must have guessed that some dreadful singing and lots of blubbering would feature somewhere along the line!  He’s seen it all before!  As I sat there gazing at the headstone which I have had engraved three times, the words of Annie Lennox came to mind -

“These are the years that we have spent and this is what they represent.  Do you know how I feel?”

All over the world and every day people are losing those they love and sometimes in the most dreadful circumstances.  Time to move on …

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Tomorrow we are going away for the weekend.  We are going to see our good friends Glyn and Don who live near Spalding.  So, twitching, walking, beach-coming, card playing, bacon butties +++++++++  Fab-u-lous! 

 

And then ………………… on the way home …………….. another door will open wide as a certain little lady is collected ………

G-u-l-p!!

xxoo

His ‘n Hers ……..

Come on chaps ……………….

      This Valentine’s Day …………….    

            Don’t be shy         Don’t be coy  

                  Treat that special lady in your life to something new ……..

                  Go public about just how special she is to you; how committed you are to the relationship …….

                  Buy her something trendy …….

                  Something that highlights just how beautiful she is ……

                  Something that shows just how much you value her ……

                  Something that tells everyone just what an established couple you are …….

                                     

 

       

Love it!

Love them all!

         xxoo       

A February Weekend……

I’ve seen snowdrops ……. lots of snowdrops as I’ve walked around the village so I’ve been feeling confident that Spring really is on it’s way.

Today, however, we awoke to snowdrops of another kind………………..

I’d hoped we’d finished with all of this for this year!

 

Over the weekend Joan and I visited Market Harborough – still a thriving little town and full of shoppers.  We staggered back laden as darkness fell …………………..

Old Age is……… comparing the ingredients of one’s vitamin tablets!

             (I know it’s sad but there you have it!!) 

                                    

Bailey was grateful for the ‘time off’ from Joan’s puppy – Poppy – and was a really good boy.  Handsome or what?

All the painting has been done – just needs to be varnished now.

xxoo

Making shopping less painful ……

Generally speaking, I hate shopping!  A big shop in the supermarket is so tedious!  I tried doing shopping on line but seemed to end up with so many ‘alternatives’ and decided too that I wanted to choose my own meat and veg.  I can see that it is really good for getting tins and packets etc but ……….. I gave up! 

Now, however, we’ve discovered ‘Scan as you Shop’.   No more putting 241 items into a trolley, un-loading said 241 items onto the check-out conveyor belt and then scrambling to ensure nothing falls onto the floor and splits or smashes before stuffing sorting and packing 241 items into bags before being demanded payment.  No wonder we’re all exhausted after this!  Now, thanks to amazing technology (it’s all just magic to me!) you can scan items and pack them in an orderly fashion into bags as you go!  Shopping is painful enough!  At least this way some of the pain can be alleviated but ……. it’s not available everywhere as yet.

Yesterday, we went to a large pet store to stock up with some puppy provisions.  THAT shopping experience was exciting though!  We were like two kids in a sweet shop!  It wasn’t entirely painless, however, …….. the bill!  Ouch!!  Do not feel sorry for Maisie – she’s still over-indulged in all sorts of ways!  We promise that we won’t allow puppy to put her nose right out of joint.  However, we can barely contain our excitement especially after receiving the latest photos:-

Feeding time …..

A difficult operation …..  only one little lady seems to think everyone else has got something better than her.

Spot the yellow collar …….

                           Full up!

My friend, Joan, is on her way up for the weekend as I write.  She is keen for us to have a shopping expedition to Market Harborough – a girl’s shopping expedition.  She is an experienced and enthusiastic shopper so ……… pain threshold?  We’ll see.

We are sad that our boating friends on n/b ‘Piston Broke’ have made the decision to sell up and go back on land.  They became liveaboards about the same time as us but, as we know only too well, life has a habit of throwing things at you that you haven’t planned for.  We wish them well.

xxoo

Mark II

Done!

           

xxoo

Something Kinky’s going on ………………

 

It was always going to happen ……………………..

It was only ever a matter of time …………

YES!

We have ourselves a ……………………………. puppy!        Introducing Lola ………………..

                                                                                                 

We met her at her house down in old Su-ffolk                                                                  

Where all ten pu-ppies were well tucked up

In their play pen

pl-pl-pl-pl play pen.

pl-pl-pl-pl play p-en ………..

She wobbled up to John and then she bit his thumb,

He asked her her name and in a cute little voice she said -

Lo-la.  I want to be Lo-la

Your Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-la.

Now, when it comes to dogs we’re both a soft touch

So when she cuddled up to John and then licked his face

It was a done deal

d-d-d-d done deal

d-d-d-d-done de-al ………………..

(Only those of us in the tea-time of our lives will be able to apply a sort-of tune to this!!)

How cute are these!!

            

            

She is a spaniel but a Cocker not a Cavalier.  After losing Maggie prematurely we just can’t face tempting fate in that respect again.  Everything about this litter seemed to be right for us but choosing one from six available puppies ended up being a crazy, haphazard lottery!  They were all lovely and all of them were all over us!!   Anyway, one of them is now wearing our chosen yellow collar and she is to be called Lola.  We can collect her in a month’s time.  Mum, Poppy, is gorgeous and dad, Boss, from his photograph and reading about him, is fabulous.

This is mum, Poppy,

                        

                                                                              and dad, Boss.

 

Of course, they both have extremely posh Kennel Club names!!

 

We had two names in mind – one of them obviously being Lola and, when we stopped off in Ely on the way home, we saw an advertisement promoting a concert to be performed by a young lady called Lola James.  Fate struck again!  So, Lola it is!                                                

After two years of sad events we feel we deserve something happy and positive to happen in our lives.

One concern though:-  I don’t think she’ll fit into the bike basket for very long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And Maisie?  She says she didn’t sign up for a puppy!  She adored Maggie and I just know that this little one will grow up to adore her as we do.

xxoo