JUSTIFICATION

'If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars '

Rabindranath Tagore

It always amazes me that my mood should be so different with the changing of the weather.Today the sun is hiding and I also do not feel as bright as yesterday.

Here I have written a poem to try and explain what it feels like to feel sad for no reason.

I AM SAD

The sun shines
And the sky is oh so blue
The air is warm
And birds sing
No worries
No cares
Those who love me
Close by
Yet still
For no reason
That I
Can fathom
Or understand
I am sad.

Before my children start phoning home to see if I am OK the answer is I AM FINE, in fact as Myra in the film Truly,Madly,Deeply said I AM VERY FINE,I just don't feel as bright as yesterday.

An example of my strange sense of humour!
Today I was looking for the tablecloth that I had used on the lunch table yesterday but I couldn't find it.
And for a moment.......a brief nano second......I thought perhaps one of the girls has picked it up and put it away!
Then I realised what I had thought and couldn't stop laughing!
My children would step over Jimmy Hoffa's body and show no interest as long as it didn't get in their way of food and bed!

Further proof that whilst I may not be feeling 100%, my sense of humour is still intact!This morning I went to the front door to get the post and whilst there I noticed the baseball bat which is allegedly there for protection from home invasion!
It is the bat that Fiona had as a birthday present and within 5 minutes of having it she took it to Ariel's head......NICE CHILD!
Anyway to get back to the point.
We live on a pedestrianised estate so the roads are at the back of the houses and only people you do not know come to the front door so the front door is barely used.

Here is the base ball bat.

And the front door!

It made me laugh when I realised that it would need to be a very clever HOME INVADER to get past all this stuff and you couldn't swing a cat in this area let alone a baseball bat!

Why I should not leave the house with money in my purse and sales on in the shops!

I bought all of these in BHS in the sale.

A pie dish......I can never have too many pie dishes!
There is almost always one of my pie dishes at one of my friends houses.

A cruet set.....believe it or not I do not have one as I only add salt to chips but we do have guests who use salt so I saw this pretty set and it was ALMOST shouting BUY ME,BUY ME! Almost, I am not totally mad!

And finally a sugar holder.
I also rarely use sugar on cereals or in drinks but again,we have visitors who do and this one was so pretty and I didn't have one,so.....I HAD TO(HAD TO!)BUY IT!

And how do I justify buying my new pretty things!
Well,I don't drink alcohol,I don't smoke,I don't go out partying,I don't buy expensive clothes(apart from underwear I haven't bought any clothes for about a month.
I like to party by having lunches or tea parties so I will be able to use my pretty new things then!
WOW I am good at this justifying lark!

RED SKY AT NIGHT

Brrrrr.......am I cold!
It feels more like winter this morning!
I am sat on the sette with my mother's old fleecy polar bear dressing gown and a Welsh waffle blanket wrapped around my legs.I will definitely be wearing PJs to bed tonight not a nightie, when you wear a nightie and you get out of bed your legs sure get cold quickly!
But it should a nice day today as we had a beautiful red sky last night.

RED SKY AT NIGHT,SHEPHERD'S DELIGHT
RED SKY IN MORNING,SHEPHERD'S WARNING

Or as Jesus said
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
My mother was brought up in a tiny village near the North Sea and she used to quote this as

SAILOR'S DELIGHT.

Yesterday evening we went to the Bay so Fiona could take some photos for her photography class and the weather was so beautiful that it made for some stunning photographs so when I can get some from Fiona I shall share them with you.

This painting is absolutely stunning.
If i only could paint so well but no I am afraid it is painted by another.
The artist is called Ed Kitchen

Yesterday was my Creative Writing class and it was about Script Writing and Dialogue and whilst this is not exactly the type of writing that gets me all fired up,I still enjoyed the class.I have not started my homework yet so I have no script to share.

But I did write this poem for a friend

Breathe in
And out
One breath
At a time
And know this
That life
Will go on
And tomorrow
Will come
And you will
Again know joy
And be happy.

One step
Forwards
Two steps
Backwards
It may seem
The path
Will appear
Too hard
But soon
You will
Go forwards
And no longer back.

Know that
Family
Know that
Friends
Will always
Be here
And care for
And support
And carry
You safely
'Til the pain goes
And you are whole once more.

CHILD BRIDES

Do you remember this recent story?

British law forces Canadian bride to leave Welsh husband


By Damian Inwood , Vancouver Province September 11, 2009


VANCOUVER — Heartbroken Rochelle Wallis is recovering at her home in Revelstoke, B.C., after being “ripped away” from her husband in the United kingdom.
“It’s a horrible feeling being without my husband,” she said Thursday. “I spent nearly the last two years waking up every morning and going to sleep with him next to me, and it really set in when I woke up this morning and he wasn’t there.”
Wallis, 19, was forced to say goodbye to her husband Adam, 28, at Heathrow Airport Tuesday, all because of a law intended to protect vulnerable young women from forced marriages.

At the time of reading this I remember thinking how silly the law was not to make exceptions and I still feel the same way.
I also understand the reasoning behind the law which was put into place to protect young girls from forced marriages.

Forced marriage plea to schools
By Dominic Casciani BBC News

Forced marriage: Helpline calls up on last year
New guidance is being published urging schools to identify signs of forced marriages ahead of the holidays.
The guidance comes as an official report raises questions about how some schools and councils have failed to act on suspicions or evidence of abuse.
The report calls on schools to play a greater preventative role, saying some are clearly reluctant to get involved.
The government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) says it has received 770 calls for help this year - up 16% on 2008.
Experts say the coming month will be critical because there is growing evidence that abusive families use the school summer holidays to coerce daughters and sons to marry abroad.
The new guidance published by the FMU urges teachers to be aware of signs of a possible forced marriage because school or college is often the only place where the potential victim can speak freely.


And my point in mentioning this is?
Whilst reading about a number of cases regarding child marriages, I was surprised(no shocked) to find that whilst the minimum age in the UK is 16........no ifs, no buts......16 is the lowest age at which you can marry (check it out here but there are plenty of other sites to verify this), that is not the case in the USA.
And when I Googled a bit more I found many reports of children as young as 13 being allowed to marry.
And I am sorry,when I read this I just laughed and laughed because I thought it was a JOKE but the more I read the more I realised it wasn't.
Well it is a joke but it isn't meant to be.
For example (yes I do realise this is not a new case)


FALLS CITY, Neb., Aug. 29 - On Sunday evening, Matthew Koso tipped three ounces of formula into his 5-day-old daughter's mouth, then hoisted her atop his shoulder in hope of a burp. On Tuesday morning, he is scheduled to be arraigned on charges for which the newborn is the state's prime piece of evidence.

Chris Cummins for the New York Times
Matthew Koso, 22; his wife Crystal, 14; and their daughter, Samara. Mr. Koso faces an arraignment Tuesday on a charge of statutory rape.
Mr. Koso is 22. The baby's mother, Crystal, is 14. He is charged with statutory rape, even though they were wed with their parents' blessing in May, crossing into Kansas because their own state prohibits marriages of people under 17.
The Nebraska attorney general accuses Mr. Koso of being a pedophile; they say it is true love.
"We don't want grown men having sex with young girls," said Jon Bruning, the attorney general. "We make a lot of choices for our children: we don't allow them to vote; we don't allow them to drink; we don't allow them to drive cars; we don't allow them to serve in wars at age 13, whether they want to or not; and we don't allow them to have sex with grown men."
But Mr. Koso's mother, Peggy, said she and her husband of 25 years were proud that their son did not disappear like so many deadbeat dads.

Whilst I agree with Mr Koso's mother that her son is doing the right thing and his dedication to his child and the child's mother cannot be faulted, it is the Law that I have the issue with that ALLOWS a child under the age of 16 to be married whatever the circumstances.

I have 6 girls and they know exactly how I feel about getting married young, what's the point of having experience and not being able to tell your children about it?
I was married at 19(which doesn't seem too young) and I feel that I was too young.
My girls were too young at 16 and they were definitely too young at 13.

Here is something to think about................think of the boys you went out with when you were 13 and 16........imagine if you had married them.
What did they turn out like?
Were you ready?
Where they ready?
Are you scared at what your life could have been like?

However, I have met 2 families where the mothers were 14 and 16 when they married and they both seem to have had a very happy family life, so it can work but that wasn't today,it was in the 1950's.

Thankfully not everybody feels the same ways about child brides in the USA and work has been done to stop these marriages.

Although the practice is most common in the developing world, child marriage still exists in industrialized countries, where it is intimately linked with poverty.

In the United States, teens can get married as young as 14 with parental consent in some states. After a highly publicized case in Kansas last year in which a pregnant 14-year-old married her 22-year-old boyfriend, the state raised the minimum marrying age to 15 with a judge's approval. The man, Matthew Koso, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault and was sentenced in February to 18 to 30 months in prison.

According to a 2002 study by the Washington-based Center for Law and Social Policy, around 1 percent of U.S. teens between 15 and 17 have been married. However, the 2000 U.S. census found that teen marriage rates increased by nearly 50 percent during the 90s.

Researchers have speculated on a number of reasons for this escalation, including the impact of abstinence-until-marriage programs, welfare policies that promote marriage and the influx of immigrants from societies where early marriage is common.

A 2004 report by Save the Children found that over one-fifth of 20-year-old women in the United States gave birth while still teens, the highest adolescent birth rate among industrialized countries. U.S. teens living in rural communities with high poverty rates and below-average education levels are most likely to become young mothers.


By writing this I am not trying to claim the UK is perfect and other countries are not. We have our own fair share of problems to deal with what I am saying is that no matter what under 16 year olds look like or behave like, they are still physically,emotionally and developmentally children and should be treated and respected as such.

SUNDAY MORNING

REMEMBER YESTERDAY'S PHOTOS OF MY LOUNGE?
THIS IS HOW IT LOOKS NOW!

SEE.......I CAN DO CLEAN!

But most of all, can Mr California Man see that the sun is shining in both pictures?

The sun may not shine here all of the time but it does shine as you can see from both the photographs!

We are awake at STUPID O'CLOCK again!

Well anything is STUPID O'CLOCK if it is before 6am if you are not prepared to be awake.When I worked nights,I loved working nights but that was because I had slept during the day and was ready for being awake all night but this is a form of torture.Thankfully today is the day the childminders take Beauty so I will be able to have a nap whilst they go and play somewhere like JUMP.

CARDIFF JUMP PLAY CENTRE

Can you see why Beauty loves this place?It is an amazing place for children(and their mothers!)

They took Beauty to Techniquest a few weeks ago which she loves equally as much and I intend to buy a family season ticket so they can take her more often.

You can see why Beauty loves Techniquest.The adults look like they are having lots of fun too!

I have just been in to check what Beauty is doing and I am happy to tell you that she seems to be thoroughly enjoying watching a repeat of Antiques Roadshow.I think Beauty may grow up to have similar interests to mine!

One activity I really must get sorted out for Beauty is cycling which was recomended by her physiotherapist to help with her joints. PEDAL POWER is situated in Sophia Gardens in town.they are able to cycle around Sophia Gardens,Pontcanna fields,Cooper's Field and Bute Park.But hopefully not all on the same day!

BUTE PARK

A poem I remember reading in school.

SUNDAY MORNING

Down the road someone is practising scales,
The notes like little fishes vanish with a wink of tails,
Man's heart expands to tinker with his car
For this is Sunday morning, Fate's great bazaar;
Regard these means as ends, concentrate on this Now,

And you may grow to music or drive beyond Hindhead anyhow,
Take corners on two wheels until you go so fast
That you can clutch a fringe or two of the windy past,
That you can abstract this day and make it to the week of time
A small eternity, a sonnet self-contained in rhyme.

But listen, up the road, something gulps, the church spire
Open its eight bells out, skulls' mouths which will not tire
To tell how there is no music or movement which secures
Escape from the weekday time. Which deadens and endures.

Louis Macneice

PEEK A BOO

Hey Girls recognise yourselves in this picture?

A quick question.
Can anyone reading this blog tell me why my viewing stats have gone up by approximately 1,000 overnight?
Did I upset somebody?
It would be nice to know!

Beauty went to bed at her usual time last night and I am happy to say that she slept peacefully all night and awoke with a smile.
However,when she came into the kitchen we have a brief moment where she looked out of the window and said,'Where's he gone?'.
But then she went to the fridge and got herself a drink and then went to watch Cinderella on the video......AGAIN!
So I think we maybe OK.

(I can hear her clapping and shouting BRAVO so she sounds happy enough)

A sure sign that Beauty is OK........she has trashed the living room!

My girls have told me that I would be OCD and my house immaculate if I didn't have children in the house.That is so true.

The problem though with having 6 girls is that they will go on to have 6 lots of children so the children in the house seems to be a never ending prospect!

All I have to do is deal with the mess now!

At present, I am scouring the internet to find Autumn craft ideas for Beauty and I to do together.Which really means that unles the activity includes copious amounts of paint and getting dirty then Beauty is happy to hold onto and guide my hands whilst I do the activity!Or just stand next to me totally enthralled and hand flapping!

Niamh happily hand flapping at the ducks by the lake in Santee, San Diego.

Now this is definitely number one on my list of something we can do.
Found at DomestikGoggess.com
I think they are stunning and look quite easy to make.I also managed to find lots of activities at
http://www.marthastewart.com/ now some of the activities here are stunning and also easy-ish!

One of Martha Stewarts HOW-TOs is Pumpkin Candy Faces

we will definely be trying this one.

I will definitely be posting the pictures of the things we make this autumn.

I LOVE RED!

Beauty having a splashing good time in San Diego

It has been a worrying day as far as Beauty is concerned.
Beauty has had separation anxiety attacks since she was quite small but not in the traditional sense.
She has always been very happy to go to school and to go out with the childminders but she dislikes it when people who visit her leave. She also doesn't like it when I am not around and says 'where's she gone?'
When we went to the US for the summer and had to say goodbye to friends and she was absolutely distraught and still asks where they are.She cried for hours with that episode.
Today after school we went to the shops to buy her some new waterproof trousers for wearing in the school garden and Forest School and our friend the IT man came with us.Well the 2 of them played in the shop like a pair of naughty 3 year olds and she really enjoyed the time they spent together.Well the moment we arrived home and she knew he wasn't coming into the house she became distraught and started to cry 'Where's he gone' over and over and she started to cry and wouldn't stop.
And anyone who knows Beauty well knows that her crying is not a pretty sight as her skin is so pale that when she cries she becomes all blotchy and it looks as if she has an incurable disease!
So we lay down on the sofa and cuddled for an hour until the crying subsided.

Don't worry, she is fine now.
I am worried about this as this is the second time in a couple of months and before that it was maybe a year since her last anxiety attack.
I have googled separation anxiety and treatments but everything I have read seems to be geared for normally developing children and so I am at a loss as what to do apart from lay down with her and cuddle her.

COLOUR THERAPY

Colour Therapy is a complementary therapy for which there is evidence dating back thousands of years to the ancient cultures of Egypt, China and India. Colour is simply light of varying wavelengths, thus each colour has its own particular wavelength and energy.

The energy relating to each of the seven spectrum colours of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, resonates with the energy of each of the seven main chakras/energy centres of the body. If you can imagine the chakras as a set of cogs/wheels, they are rather like the workings of a clock or an engine; each cog/wheel needs to move smoothly for the clock/engine to work properly. Thus good health and wellbeing is achieved by a balance of all these energies. Balance of the energy in each of the body’s chakras is very important for health and wellbeing. Colour therapy can help to re-balance and/or stimulate these energies by applying the appropriate colour to the body and therefore re-balance our chakras.

Well ,until I study this a bit more then I am afraid this is all a little bit deep for me but the point that I want to make is that I love colour and I think I need to add a bit of colour into my life to cheer me up because of the changeable weather we are having at the moment.

And at the moment my favourite colour is RED.

Last night I bought a lovely Egyptian cotton sheet in a sale and it is now on my bed cheering me up.

I think the sheet goes very well with my vintage pillowcases(by vintage I mean 1980's, I find it scary when I see things for sale on EBAY described as vintage when they are circa 1980!).

At the moment I am taking Beauty to bed an hour early and I either go to bed myself or sit in bed and read or write or knit until she goes to sleep so it is nice to have the bedroom looking so cheery.

I BLAME THE BLOODY RAIN!

Yesterday we went to IKEA and of course Beauty had her favourite meal of fish, chips and peas and TOMATO SAUCE!
Whilst SnoWhite had her favourite meal of peas and chips(don't ask)!
After our meal we went to Hobby Craft(may I add, nowhere near as good as Michael's) to buy some knitting needles which I managed with moments to spare as the shop was about to close.
And then we drove home ........in the dark and in the rain!
I have no problem driving in the dark but it was the combination of the rain and the dark that made mee realise that YES AUTUMN has truly arrived!
And I especially know this because.......?
The arthritis in my back kicked in with a vengenance yesterday morning and yes I do blame the weather!
AND NOW FOR THE SCIENTIFIC BIT!


Ask the Experts - October 31, 2005

Does damp or wet weather really make arthritis pain worse? If so, how?

Donald A. Redelmeier, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, explains.
People with arthritis often believe that changes in the weather cause flare-ups of their disease. Decades of medical research, however, have failed to establish an objective relationship between arthritis severity and weather patterns. Moreover, detailed interviews with specific patients have yielded mostly anecdotes, and those who move to drier climates do not report major relief.

The specific idea of dampness affecting arthritis symptoms seems an unlikely mechanism for a number of reasons. The skin surrounding joints is rather impervious to water and most people stay dry indoors during rain anyway. In addition, arthritis patients do not experience dramatic changes in their symptoms when immersed in water (such as during baths or swimming). Wet weather may also be associated with other climatic conditions, such as decreases in barometric pressures. But even this connection seems implausible, given that much greater pressure swings are tolerated easily during plane travel or mountain driving in a car.

Another weather component is humidity, which might enter the body through the respiratory tract. But this seems an unlikely contributor because hospitalized patients are often given humidified air to breathe and this has little apparent effect on arthritis conditions. Furthermore, a long shower does not usually induce arthritis pain.

None of the past studies investigating this link is flawless; hence, the possibility remains that a small association does exist between changes in the weather and flares in arthritis pain. Small associations would not explain the strength and popularity of the belief, however, considering that people do not reliably detect small correlations. In fact, studies from psychology suggest that people often see patterns even where none exist. A prime example is the capacity to visualize outlines of animals in overhead clouds. An even more compelling example is people's belief in streak basketball shooting even when scoring patterns follow a random sequence.

The episodic nature of both arthritis pain and the weather can further encourage spurious beliefs because multiple components and time lags are possible with each element. By random chance, some days of dramatic weather will be followed by pain. Moreover, a single big coincidence is unforgettable. Over the years people may pay more attention to confirming evidence, neglect contrary evidence, and misinterpret ambiguous evidence thereby entrenching the belief. In contrast, a scientific approach would require a more rigorous search and recording of contrary information.

Another axiom of science is dispassionate observation. Achieving this standard in clinical medicine often requires blinding, so that neither clinicians nor patients know what exposure is active. Failures of blinding allow conscious or subconscious factors to distort reporting. With the weather, of course, it's hard to be blind.

Extinguishing the belief in a link between weather patterns and arthritis flare-ups requires a randomized trial, yet such a study is unlikely to be feasible anytime soon. Moreover, the failure to find a difference in such a trial might not be fully convincing because those who still believe in the correlation might claim that the participants were insufficient in number or unrepresentative of their experience.

Ultimately, peoples' belief about wet weather and arthritis may reveal more about the workings of the mind than the body. Indeed, the innate tendency to identify patterns and discount randomness has evolutionary benefits because predictability can often be turned to advantage, whereas randomness is hard to exploit.



So this researcher seems to think NO , it can not be proven but what about the following



Instead of
"damp" weather, there seems to be a correlation with arthritis flares and barometric pressure.
In a Harvard Health Publication from 2007, it sited tests done on human and rats in controlled enviroments...the findings: arthritic rats appeared to suffer more pain with lowering of the barometric pressure; middle-aged and older people with osteoarthritis noted little or no effect of weather on their joint symptoms; and, among people with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis who believed strongly that there was a connection between weather and arthritis analysis of symptoms and weather changes demonstrated little or no effect.

There are more than 100 types of arthritis -- it is possible that different types of arthritis will respond differently to changes in barometric pressure.

Even though the results were inconclusive, in my personal case, there is a correlation between low barometric pressure and arthritis pain.
I'm polyarthritic and the pain increases significantly just before a drop in pressure, and recedes once the pressure stabilizes.

Since the studies focused on only two different types of arthritis,(rheumatoid and osteo) perhaps different types of arthritis are more sensitive to changes in
pressure.



So......the boring bit out of the way!
The arthritis in the damage in my back is agony and NO(to the 1st researcher), your evidence may not prove my pain but

PAIN IS DEFINITELY WHAT THE PATIENT SAYS IT IS!

I definitely feel a strong desire to holiday in Spain for the winter!

I love Fuerteventura .

When I am old I shall wear purple!

Yes ,Saturday 'till now is a long time but I have been feeling pretty grotty so sorry about not writing and keeping you updated.
This morning I visited the Doctor about the pains in my arm and my finger and he thinks it is related to my FMS and there is not a lot can be done about it.Well as long as my arm does not wither and drop off I can go with that!
It is the sleeplesss nights that are the biggest problems.
If only the nights that the pains in my arm kept me awake corresponded with the nights that Beauty decides to stay awake and party!

And Saturday Beauty and I did party, though not in the night.
We went to The New Theatre in town to watch the Josesph musical and Beauty loved it.We had brilliant seats that were on the end about three rows from the front which gave us a perfect view. I know that Beauty knows all the words to all the songs so I was surprised that she did not sing along BUT she has been singing the songs since......constantly!

Yesterday I started my creative writing class and it was quite interesting.
The class was held at The Howardian education centre and I was really surprised to see so many classes available for one morning, I have never been to such a large education centre before.
In the first class we separated into 3 groups and each group discussed a poem about ageing and then presented their findings.I was in the group that discussed and presented the poem Warning ,better known as When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple.
Afterwards we had to write a response to what we had discussed and studied.
In 10 minutes I wrote the following,remember ......10 minutes is a very short time!

Now I am older
And my children older too,
I no longer have to worry
Or do the things I had to do.

I eat Sugar Puffs for my supper
And cold pizza at breakfast time,
Even though I know I shouldn't,
Guilt is no longer a trait of mine.



Not much I know but it is a start.
And I have to finish the poem as homework.

DANCE WITH THE TELETUBBIES!

Well I feel totally energy sapped whilst the 8 year old is dancing around the lounge with the Teletubbies!

I have emptied and refilled the dishwasher,emptied and refilled the washing machine and pegged clothes out to dry and I feel like I have run a marathon with Eddie Izzard!

I don't think I have the energy to chase the Black Dog away even if I wanted to!
At least the pigs don't need cleaning out today which is definitely a bonus.

At last I totally agree with Obama on something, Kanye West is a Jackass for what he did to Taylor Swift.
But then I don't think the term Jackass should be confined to Kanye.

Anger at Iranian Holocaust denial
The Iranian president's latest denial of the Nazi Holocaust has drawn strong condemnation from Western powers.
Speaking in the capital, Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a "a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim".
Germany said the comments were a "disgrace to his country" while the US said they would "isolate Iran further".
Mr Ahmadinejad made the remarks at an annual rally where opposition supporters clashed with police.
Reformists, who have been banned from holding demonstrations since disputed presidential elections in June, defied warnings not to use the pro-Palestinian Quds (Jerusalem) Day marches to stage protests.
'Unacceptable and shocking'
As part of the Quds Day events, President Ahmadinejad delivered a speech in which he repeated previous assertions that the Holocaust was a lie.

See......some people just don't know me at all!
Assumption is the mother of all ...............what was that phrase again?

And on a different note.
Feeling so lacking in energy I was thinking today about this poem and how I am NOW OLD(and grey under the hair colour)!

William Butler Yeats. b. 1865

When You are Old

WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;


How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.


And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Moving swiftly on.......................!

Beauty just came up to me and looked me straight in the eye(remember the 'aversion' thing)
and said to me

'are we not going to have ice cream?

I am sorry but I just burst out laughing, no conversation for ages BUT when she wants something it is totally different!
Beauty is a sweetheart.

NOW IS THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT

I went to a funeral on Tuesday and I haven't really felt like blogging since then.
It was a friend that died too young.
What is to say apart from yet again it makes me think of my personal spiritual journey.
My friends daughter spoke at the funeral and she talked about her father and it made me wish I had known him better......HE WAS A STAR BAR.......and in our family that is the highest accolade!


"May you live all the days of your life" Jonathan Swift.

On the day of my friends funeral I put this on my Facebook for him.
And yes he did 'live all the days of HIS life'


I am awake early AGAIN with another cold and I am fed up already and this is only my 2nd cold!
Two years ago I had a bug of some sort all the way through from September to March and then I promised if it happened again I was going to spend the winter in Fuerteventura!
And Cardiff University has a Common Cold Centre!!!
All I can say is GET ON WITH THE RESEARCH AND FIND A BL**DY CURE!
And no the vitamin C in not working. Whenever I am poorly,and no I am not wallowing, the words from the following song come into my head.
I realise The Verve weren't talking about my rant against Cold Cure or my lack of pain control for Fibromyalgia,but not everything in this life has to be literal.
The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve)
All this talk of getting old
It's getting me down my lord
Like a cat in a bag waiting to drown
This time I'm coming 'round
And I hope you're thinking of me
As you lay down on your side
Now the drugs don't work they just make you worse
But i know i'll see your face again
Now the drugs don't work they just make you worse
But i know i'll see your face again
But i know i'm on a losing streak
As i pass down by your street
And if you want a show
Then just let me know
And i'll sing in your ear again
Now the drugs don't work they just make you worse
But i know i'll see your face again
Cause maybeIf heaven falls
I'm coming to
Just like you said
If you leave my life
I'm better off dead
All this talk of getting old
It's getting me down my love
Like a cat in a bag waiting to drown
This time i'm coming 'round
Now the drugs don't work they just make you worse
But i know i'll see your face again
Cause maybeIf heaven falls
I'm coming toJust like you said
If you leave my lifeI'm better off dead
But if you want a show
Then just let me know
And i'll sing in your ear again
Now the drugs don't work they just make you worse
But i know i'll see your face again
I know i'll see your face againNever coming down
No more (repeat to fade end)


BOOKS........You know me,I am addicted.
And yes I do read them all!
Well apart from Mansefield Park and I am still trying on that one!
Perhaps I should have a Sponsored Read and if I complete the book in a certain time them the monies raised go to Beauty's school.
Now that would definitely work!
Anyway,back to my books.

These are my brand new purchases for my new CAMILLA course.

I cannot wait.

These books I bought 2nd hand online and one of the companies I will never buy from again.The 2 books cost pretty much the same but the one on the right was an unwanted gift in pristine condition but the one on the left was labeled in good condition but wasn't! Don't get me wrong, the book is perfectly readable but has been stored in a damp area and the pages are yellowed and stained.And I love my books!

And lastly my Charity Shop purchases for the day.A Dalai Lama book to help with The Journey and the Agatha Christie encyclopedia because I love Agatha Christie,especially Miss Marple but as well I do think the current Poirot is brilliant.

Can anything be done for my addiction to buying and reading books?

I hope not!

HOME AND CONTENT.

It seems I am blogging back for good,well it seems that way anyway!


As always I am multi-tasking as I write and I am also cleaning at the same time(well not literally but you know what I mean).


Somebody who has a very small baby and a toddler asked me yesterday how I could have had children so many times meaning when the whole thing is so exhausting.Well looking back on my life it was probably being 'The busiest bee in the beehive ' thing and the whole desire for the 'Whole Celestial Deal' but now I am definitely way too cynical and it was probably a good thing that I had them when I did or Anastasia would have been an only child(not forgetting her older brother of course). Motherhood definitely takes youthful exuberance to pull the whole thing off.


I was 'proper poorly' when I had Beauty at 39, it would probably kill me now!





When I go on holiday there are 2 things I tell my children


1.If the animals die do not try and replace them with similar to make me think nothing has happened,I WILL BE ABLE TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE! The animals we have are psychotic and the the pigs we have are brothers and way,way too friendly with each other, so YES I WILL KNOW!


2. If you break something like a fridge,mirror etc tell me because I WILL FIND OUT.


This summer whilst we were away I am happy to say the animals are all fine but one of my saucepans went on holiday on it's own to Lourdes and was miraculously healed!


I came home to find that my IKEA(no not Le Creuset, blood would have been spilt!)saucepan had been magically fixed and nobody knew how.Because the saucepan is so small it has to be placed very carefully on my cooker or the underside of the handle will get burnt and it has been burned a number of times.Yet I came home to find it was miraculously healed........surely this is a sign?


My opinion?


Somebody burnt the butt out of the other saucepan and replaced it!





I am now eating my lunch whilst writing and my one piece of advice for today is......ASDA's own Tomato Soup is nowhere near as good as Heinz Tomato Soup.

Why PROCRASTINATION can be so off putting!

This is my post for the 6 weeks of summer,sorted and ready for recycling.It took ages to sort and as you all know,the ECO PRINCESS hates recycling!!!!

MORE HOLIDAY POTOS

A DINER WE ATE AT IN SAN DIEGO

BEAUTY ON THE OVERHEAD RIDE AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO

BEAUTY WAS FASCINATED BY THE ELEPHANTS


THIS ANIMAL WAS OBSESSED WITH BEAUTY'S BUGGY

AT THE ZOO


There are lions and roaring tigers,

and enormous camels and things,

There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons,

and a great big bear with wings.

There's a sort of a tiny potamus,

and a tiny nosserus too -

But I gave buns to the elephant

when I went down to the Zoo!

There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers,

and a Super-in-tendent's House,

There are masses of goats, and a Polar,

and different kinds of mouse,

And I think there's a sort of a something

which is called a wallaboo -

But I gave buns to the elephant

when I went down to the Zoo!

If you try to talk to the bison,

he never quite understands;

You can't shake hands with a mingo -

he doesn't like shaking hands.

And lions and roaring tigershate saying,

"How do you do?" -

But I give buns to the elephant

when I go down to the Zoo!

Alan Alexander Milne

Whilst we were on holdiday we went to 2 zoos.

We visited San Diego zoo and Panama City Beach Zoo and Beauty loved them both.

San Diego Zoo was amazing and it had so many animals to see that Beauty absolutely loved her visit.The other brilliant thing about the zoo was the fact that there were so many animals but they were all cared for so well.The animals all seemed very happy and healthy looking and whilst I understand the need for zoos I have never been to keen on them but this zoo was a wonderful example of how a zoo should be run.
Now Panama City Beach Zoo was the tiniest zoo I have ever been in but it was lovely and the animals did seem well cared for and happy.However, the best part of this zoo was the fact it was so small and so I felt it's size helped in making it a wonderful educational facility.We were able to wander around and because of the size easily see everything......twice! Beauty loved the giraffe best.

CHEYENNE AT PANAMA CITY BEACH

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL

I JUICED!

I have a juicer I do not often use but all my juice recipe books say to keep the juicer out on your counter or on your kitchen table and then you will use it more.

So my juicer now has pride of place on my kitchen table and I have started to juice again.

And my first recipe was to help my skin repair itself after the sunburn.

The recipe called for 3 carrots, 3 pieces of brocoli and some water cress.

Sounds disgusting?

I totally agree but it tasted a lot better than it looked.

And if it does my skin good!

SUMMER IN SAN DIEGO

AT THE ZOO

Squaring up for a fight!

Beauty is so cute.

Not the way to make friends!

Beauty LOVES sand!

Yes I am awake really early AGAIN!
I awoke suddenly this morning feeling as if my right arm had just been kicked by a donkey.
It took me a few minutes to realise that the pain was so bad because I had taken the last of my new singing, all dancing super duper pain killers at 6pm and the effects had worn off. I hadn't taken any meds at 10pm because I was worried that because they were so strong they would keep me awake.

However, I am always worried aout taking pain killers due to the possibility of causing further problems.
Once you able to make your pain go away, you may think that your problem is also gone. This, in turn, can cause you to lose valuable time that could have been used working toward a cure. Today, many people with advanced stages of cancer, diabetes, and other problems used pain killers to mask pain, instead of solve the underlying problem.
If you decide to take pain meds, you may also wind up with more injuries to areas that are in pain. For example, if you have joint pain, you may decide to lift something, or stretch too far. Since the pain killers mask the pain, you will not be aware that you are causing more damage to your body. Regardless of how much you hate being in pain, sometimes you need that signal in order to prevent further damage to your body.

Sometimes however the pain is so bad you just think JUST GIVE ME DRUGS!

Again,even though I am blogging, I am managing to multi-task!

As well as blogging I am doing laundry and I did worry initially that the noise might wake SnoWhite up whose bedroom is off the kitchen but then I remembered THIS IS SNOWHITE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, she could sleep through Fire Alarms!

However,I know from experience that Fiona cannot sleep through earth quakes!

Beauty started back at school yesterday and she had a wonderful time.

Back with all her mates, computer time, books and toys and play time.........what's not to like?

Plus Beauty now has 2 sessions a week with the child minder, a pick up from school on a Monday and the child minders bring her back to the house by 6pm.

I love it.

And the 2nd child minder is Beauty's original childminder(remember the part-time flight attendant?) so Beauty is really happy.And they took her to JUMP so a good time was had by all.

The following picture is of a knitting pattern for Ice Skate warmers.

Question.....can ice skates feel the cold?

I was looking for a knitting pattern for socks when I came across this!

I'M HOME

Yes I am home and very glad to be here.
BUT I know that I shall want to be travelling again very soon(Benidorm(save me)The Canaries,Oberammagau,The Nile),I am always the same.
I once read about Brits who emigrated to Austrailia but after a few years decided they missed the UK too much and then came back here BUT then after a few more years they started to miss Austrailia again and went back to Austrailia and the cycle began all over again!
Hey that is me......I need to travel.
BUT I need to come home too.
I love my home and my own bed.
I have so much news and so much to say that I keep jotting things down in my notebook so I don't forget.
So here I am now.
It is just past 6 am and it is the first day back of school for Beauty of the Autumn term and she is still asleep and will hopefully stay in her bed until at least 7am so I can write this entry and get on with things around the house. I may be writing but whilst I collect my ideas I am also cleaning and tidying and doing the dishes and washing and getting Beauty's uniform ready.
Nothing too exciting or hard really,a little bit of multi-tasking never hurt anyone!
I know it has been said that men cannot multi-task as well as women but then perhaps that is not always such a bad thing.........look at Hitler with his Operation Barbarossa,if he had settled for one attack at a time into Russia during WWII instead of a three pronged attack, then we might be speaking German now. Of course, not that there is any problem with speaking German Dimitri but they were not nice Germans,you have to admit that.
Actually that is very high on my to do list......LEARN GERMAN.
I want to be able to understand my grand-children!!!!!!

First thing on my TO-DO list for today is phone for a Doctors Appointment.
I know it is an FMS thing but my right elbow feels as if it is dropping off with pain and I am unable to sleep it is so bad. As I have said previously,if only elbows could be optional!
It used to be my right hip I would have happily given back but that is no longer constantly painful, only when lying on it.

As you all know and I Beauty spent the summer in the USA and whilst we are thrilled to be home we are missing it very much, our family and friends but believe it or not, as yet we are not missing the weather.You can definitely have too much of a good thing.
But I know come November I will be missing the sun and even Benidorm and the marathon will look appealing.
At the moment though , my neck and back are still recovering from the burning they recieved in Florida.Thankfully the pain has stopped but the itching and flaking drive me crazy(well crazier)at times!

So before I finish as it is getting close to 7am and time for the little darling to wake up for her bath and breakfast, something about my trip to the USA.......what can I say?
The lack of poncy people impressed me most.
A few days ago I took Beauty to Hay on Wye and on the way we stopped at Llanthony Abbey for lunch and whilst we were there another couple were taking their approximately 9 and 11 year old around the Abbey.Well the 2 boys were arrogant,obnoxious,pompous little gits and the parents weren't far behind, they were constantly talking so eveybody could hear and they were showing off.
I am sure there are badly behaved children and adults everywhere but the one thing I noticed about the places that we visited in the US were the lack of poncy, snobby people and I liked that.

I
San Diego