Thank you all so much for your kind comments. I just wanted to let you know I am ok. My sons and their families have been amazing, I am very lucky. So much to do at the moment, but it helps to be busy and cared for.
Walking on Greenham Common with Mr B, Mrs G and Baby P
Picnic with them at The Vynes, a National Trust property and
The runnner beans which just keep on giving.
I am reading your posts, and they help remind me of life beyond grief.
Much love,Cathyx
Mr E passed away at the weekend at home peacefully in his sleep. I was supported during the last week by our local hospice, and especially in his last hours.
My sons and their families have been wonderful, and we are all ok.
Now is the time to grieve and to deal with the bureaucracy that has to be done.
I will be away from blogging for a while, but thank you all so much for your supportive comments and emails which have sustained us this year.
God bless you all.
Cathyx
No two ways about this, proud Nana pictures coming up, and a big dose of cuteness.
And finally making her modelling debut, pictured by her Dad, we have Baby P wearing a purple Nana knit.
I needed to go to the town centre this month on various errands, so I took the opportunity to visit the main library and browse the bookshelves that have been in lockdown, namely the cookery and craft ones. I came away with two craft ones. One was on recyling things to make new things, only you seemed to have to buy more new stuff for each project than do any recycling , so that book has departed. I was inspired by the other for a nice scrappy project for this month.
The felt is not quite the right colour but I used what I had. Here he is by himself.
There are some other lovely felt projects I would like to try, and I do have rather a lot of felt scraps to go at. For more scrappy projects please pop over to Kate’s for the full list of current participants.
First of all, thank you everyone who left such kind comments on my last post. They meant a great deal ,and helped enormously. Mr E is pretty much the same as last month and we have been helped not only by family but also by some super people from the local hospice. The house is filling up with all kinds of aids and adaptations to help us. We are in more of a routine now which helps and pace ourselves better, and are trying to be patient with each other.
My skill set continues to expand, this months joys have been a rat who took a yen to my bulbs and the smoke alarm beeping. A battery change could have been ok but who knew in 1992 all houses in the UK have to have a hard wired smoke alarm with battery backup, which of course beeps when it needs changing. Both issues are on going.
I have tried all sorts of thing to keep me in the present, and find that sewing is possibly the best. Crochet needs concentration which is in short supply. Knitting can send me to sleep, I think it’s the needles hypnotising me! Nevertheless I have managed to finish the back of the tank top for Master J.
I try to do a few rows every night, don’t always manage it, but sometimes I do.
The best thing I have found to relax me is cross stitch. You have to keep your mind on the chart, but if you make a mistake it’s easily remedied.
I am doing a book mark kit which has been in the to do pile for quite a while. It’s the perfect project to do whilst Mr E takes a nap.
I’ve had to take over the garden. I planted some leeks and they apear to be growing, amazing. Mr E had planted some runner beans just before he got really poorly. I was then left in charge and so pleased with myself when I harvested the first of them.
I recalled the advice to go for a walk and realised it had been a very long time since I had. So on Mnday I set off to the nearby lake and wood.
The view from my kitchen and dining room where I am writing this cheers me up.
But finally some really good news. Youngest son Mr B and Mrs G
I am delighted to finish with the news that we have a new grand daughter Baby P. Can’t wait to see her, and that’s who all the baby clothes and toys that I have been making this year are for. Pictures to follow.
Once again thank you for your very kind comments, they really mean a lot.
Four out of five books read this month were wonderful. Let me know if you have read any of these.
JP Delaney- PlayingNice– One of the best psychological books I have ever read. I stayed up to 1am till my eyes were drooping , woke at 7am, wondering how the characters were, then finished it by 10am. So what hooked me? Two narrators, Pete and Maddie parents to Theo. Pete a freelance journalist and main carer, Maddie an advertising bod. One day Miles turns up and explains he is Theo’s father. He claims that Theo and his son David were mis- tagged in the hospital they were born in.That’s all I am saying.
Willa Cather- O Pioneers– beautiful book set in the early 20th Century about life in rural America. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Sarah Armstrong- The Starlings of Bucharest- Set in 1975, Ted Walker, aged 22, makes a big desicion to leave home and life as a fisherman to become a journalist. He gains work at a small and little known film magazine as International Film Reviewer and is sent to Bucharest to interview a film director and to Moscow to an International Film Festival. Here we see an Innocent Abroad encounter the murky world of the Cold War. At times funny, and at times slightly menacing, and always entertaining, a good read for sure.
Hilary Mantel- Fludd- Written in tthe 1980s but set in a Northern Mill village in 1956. Father Angwin, Roman Catholic Priest has lost his faith, but carries on. His Bishop thinks he needs modernising- out with the Latin and the Saints, and determines to send a curate. Enter Fludd- Bishops Curate, spy, practitioner of dark arts? On the plus side, it’s a short book and the scene setting is so so good you feel you are there. But no, not my cup of tea, I got to the end but had it been longer I’d have given up. Love to know if anyone has read it and what they thought.
Fredrik Backman- A Man called Ove. I totally loved this book. Ove is a Swedish man, very similar to the UK’s Victor Meldrew. Rather grumpy with very fixed opinions on how everything should be done, and repaired! It’s a love story, a sad story, it’s funny and weepy. I defy everyone not to have laughed and shed a tear by Page121, paperback edition or Chapter 15. I am rather attached to the Cat Annoyance. Have you read it, what did you think?
I write my reviews as I finish a book , or this post wouldn’t have been possible.
Reading has now really slowed down for me, as has blogging and crafting. Mr E is very poorly indeed, he started to get unwell in September. In the Spring he had some treatment and we were optimistic , however he failed to perk up as anticipated . The trip to the Weald and Downland was probably our last as a family. Since then it’s been hospitals, pharmacies, community nurses, endless phone calls etc. We are so glad we moved nearer the family, our sons, daughters in law ,and grandchildren are being amazing. I am having to get my head round things I never had to think about, from dripping overflow pipes to how to plant leeks to sounding just like Ove , -whoever thought that to charge a mobile phone you needed a lightning cable? For goodness sake!
My sense if humour appears to be lurking around somewhere which helps with feelings of panic, helplessness, frustration- Mr E is the messiest man on the planet, and when he needs some obscure piece of paper, well I could growl, and tears which come at the worst possible moment, often when satnav sends me down a single track road for fun, and it’s all too much. Next week is our wedding anniversary, 47 years. That’s a long time, and the worst is seeing him just vanishing before my eyes, the feelings of sympathy and loss are overwhelming at times.
This blog is my happy place, I have a huge capacity for feelings of positivity , making the most of life, but this, this is defeating even me. So I won’t be sharing much by way of Wiltshire explorations, or even wooly goodness. I hope to keep reading, crafting may come back in time, the forlorn patch needs me, poor thing, I may share my lamentable attempts …
Sorry to end this way. I am reading your blogs, leaving the odd comment, and I will click like to show I have been there. Thanks for reading.
It’s just over six months that I joined in with Anne Brooke’s 52 tag challenge. Every Friday Anne posts a You Tube video with a new tag to embroider- see #52hannemadetags. You create a tag and on the back write something- maybe something that happened that week, or someone you wish to remember, whatever you like. I think since I am sharing my progress this month I may well dedicate this week’s tag to all the bloggers who keep me going with your wonderful posts.
I bought the tags and the ring binder- serious doubts that I will fit 52 onto one ring. Here are some of my favourites.
Slow stitching is the most wonderful way of practising mindfullness I know. The UK has made great strides with vaccines etc but we’re not out of the woods yet, and anyway life always throws a googly when you aren’t expecting one. It has.
I post my tags on my other blog, should you wish to see them all- https://avoicethroughstitch.wordpress.com/
And if you like lots of scrap happy things then do please visit https://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com/
When we moved here last year to be close to family, one of the things we dreamed of was seeing more of them! With Lockdown easing finally we managed a family day out on Father’s Day to the Weald and Downland mseum in Sussex. It didn’t rain. Well maybe a drizzle, but mostly it was ok and the sun shone enough for an icecream and a picnic.
We have all been before and the wisest of us recalled that wellies and a coat would be a good idea. The W&D is a living history museum, full of houses and buildings rescued from demolition, road widenings etc and reconstructed piece by piece. Normally the buildings are full of volunteers putting on demos, but these days normality has not returned to that degree- but many of the buildings were manned by volunteers, outside, making sure it was one family group at at time inside, and many were doing something- there was one lady with her blackwork embroidery , and a chap making arrows. We were happy just being out again as a family.
Great excitement though was provided by the building of a TV set for a comedy to be called The Witchfinder with Steve Coogan. You saw it here first… I’ll stop rabbiting on now.
Clearly there is going to be a market scene
There are ducks to be fed
And a lake not to fall into
Old houses and gardens to explore- the gardens looked a bit sad, missing the volunteers.
And a new building since we were last here- a dairy
Love the blacksmiths which came from a Sussex village we used to live in
Can’t beat a good bit of rust.
And finally these flowers.
If you’d like to see more this is the link to their webpage https://www.wealddown.co.uk/plan-your-visit/things-to-see-do/
A mixed bag this month…
Jenny Blackhurst- How I Lost You– I read one of her books in May, so was keen to try another. This is her first novel and was shaping up to be good psychological thriller, but then it introduced a rather silly idea. The story would have worked without this , and been a much better read. Perfectly readable though.
Marina Lewycka- The Good, The Bad and the Little Bit Stupid. Absolutely loved this book. 79 Year old George is in a pickle. He voted Leave in the Brexit referendum, his wife Rosie Remain. He moves in with Brenda next door aka The Bitch, who calls Rosie the Mad Cow. Then George wins millions in a lottery he can’t recall entering. His son Sensible Sid says it’s a scam, but the money appears in his savings account and George duly changes the password as per Sid’s instructions. All very plausible so far, but them one thing leads to another, it gets ridiculous and silly but totally wonderful.
Kate Ellis- The Mechanical Devil– another murder mystery with archeology thrown in. Good.
Benjamin Markovits A Weekend In New York– so what to say about this book? Clever, well written but ever so slightly dull.Have you ever had a long weekend somewhere with your extended family, in which the older generation seems old, the next- their children revert a bit to sibling roles and rivalries, and their children just want to go home? This family all gather in three apartments for a long weekend to watch what will probably the last professional appearance by Paul at a tennis tournament. He expects to loose, only having attained moderate success in the past. Action such as it is has the family moving around, forming and reforming into small groups, having meals in and out, and catching up on various news, house plans, jobs and relationships, as you do… nothing happens, the conversations are very realistic, but a bit mundane, and nothing happens, I didn’t get the sense of anyone really changing. I made it to the end is all I can say, and I am quite happy to think this is my ignorance not to have enjoyed it much, except the quotes from the papers on the back cover are a bit mealy mouthed ” Elegant, absorbing…What a fine ear Markovits has for the way people talk” The Guardian. Have you read it, what did you think?
Evelyn Waugh- Brideshead Revisited- This was a re-read for me. Think I read it as a teenager then as a Young adult in my twenties. Amazing how your perceptions of a novel change as you get older. It was written by Waugh during the war as he saw the demise of the country manors. Later on what he feared didn’t happen as the National Trust stepped in. However of course many houses became schools, care homes or apartments. The character everyone recalls is Sebastian whom Charles meets as an undergraduate in Oxford in 1923. They lead a typical student life. Whilst the family is absent Sebastian takes Charles to Brideshead, which is said to be in Wiltshire, but is probably based on a house in Gloucestershire , certainly isn’t Castle Howard in North Yorkshire which was used for the TV series and the film. Charles very much loves the house. Over the book he marries, abandons his studies, becomes an artist and has an affair with Julia, which comes to naught as she can’t turn her back on Catholicism. Sebastian meanwhile is sent down for drunkeness etc, goes to Morocco before being taken in by a monastery. In some ways that wish I hadn’t re read it, I prefer the book I thought it was, which was rather romantic. Have you ever reread a book and been disappointed ?
Laura Purcell- Bone China- Read this quickly as its due back at the library on Friday. Maybe that’s why I can’t quite decide what I think about it. It came with great plaudits, likened to a Daphne du Maurier, but it’s no Rebecca. It begins with an unusual narrator- a lady’s maid on her way to a new employer in Cornwall. The story covers two time periods forty years apart sometime in the late 18th-19th century. Hester the maid gradually reveals that she isn’t a very nice person at all, crossing the boundary between employee and employer and behaving very badly when she falls out of favour. The new household in Cornwall is odd, gradually the past life of the house is told. Dubious medical practices, herbal medicines and folklore get into the mix, and to my mind it wasn’t the gothic psycholigical suspense I was hoping for, it was just silly. Quite early on the oddest character’s behaviour is explained so no way is the reader going to be drawn into her nonsense. It’s a real shame, the unpleasant lady’s maid had real potential to be another Mrs Danvers, the book just didn’t deliver. I wonder is anyone else a Rebecca fan, have you found a character to rival Mrs Danvers for devotion and malice ?
And as always I love to know if you have read any good books this month.
I just love finishing a project .
Matching Matinée Jacket and hat with
Few more Broad beans and the First cucumber.
Have you finished something recently, and what are you currently working on? I am doing a tank top for Toddler J, the yarn colour is called Tomato Ketchup!! Also started a cross stitch book mark when we were away last weekend…..
nanacathy2
