Wednesday Hodgepodge 13-01-2016

Going to have a go at joining in the Hodge Podge again.

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

Have fun

1. Share one thing that really makes your day.

Blue sky and preferably sun. Not much chance of that happening here any time soon. 

2. Lots of these kinds of lists out there, but one found here says the fifteen most colourful places on earth are: Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy~Burano, Italy~Havana, Cuba~Rio de Janiero, Brazil~Chefchaouen, Morocco~Balat, Istanbul, Turkey~Menton, France~Jodhpur, India~La Baca, Buenos Aires, Argentina~Guanajuato, Mexico~Capetown, South Africa~Valparaiso, Chile~Wroclaw, Poland~San Francisco, California~and Pelourhino, Salvador, Brazil.  
Of those listed which would you most like to see up close and in person? Of all the places you've seen or travelled in your own life, what would you say was one of the most colourful?

That depends on what you mean by colourful? Does that actually refer to colours or colourful as in what goes on there? I have been to France and to San Francisco. France can be very colourful in summer when there are fields and fields full of giant sunflowers. San Francisco is colourful in its eclectic mix of people and cultures.

3."Everything you want is on the other side of fear." Jack Canfield  In general, would you agree or disagree with that statement? Why? 
I think in certain circumstances it can be true. Sometimes you need to conquer your fears and if you can then the end result will be positive. However, I pretty much have everything I need right now so I have to disagree.

4. Imagine you're stranded on a desert island and dessert appears...what do you hope it is? Do you ever struggle to remember which spelling is desert and which is dessert?

I know how to spell both words and do not get confused over them.  I would choose Malteser cheesecake with a dollop of double cream and a dollop of clotted cream! I LOVE my cream!

5. What song almost always makes you cry?
I am really not mush into music But the Vera Lynn song “we'll meet again” was sung at both of my parents funerals and I can't hear it or even think about it with out being totally wretched. Tears running down my face right now!

6. January is National Soup Month.  Everything from soup to nuts, in the soup,thick as pea soup, souped up...which saying most recently applies to your life in some way? Explain. Who on earth comes up with these “months” Why soup month? How totally bizarre. I have never heard of any of those expressions and they don't sound like they would be relevant to my life at all.  
7. Write a two word note to your younger self. What does it say?

Be happy.  

8. Insert your own random thought here. They keep saying that it is going to get colder towards the end of the month. They forecast snow today but we haven't seen any. I HATE winter. Roll on spring.

Friday Five - In the news

I needed inspiration so I am copying Wendy's idea which is to choose 5 news stories that have caught my eye this week.  There are 5 categories.  You'll get the idea.

The only problem with this is that I try very hard to avoid the news!  We do not get a newspaper and I do not watch it on the TV if I can help it.  I see snippets whist I am on the Internet.

International.

Not sure if Scotland counts as International?  They are independent of us and you do cross a border to enter Scotland albeit just a sign on the road side. (No men in kilts playing bagpipes)!
Anyway, this is the story that I first heard this morning and it is all over our news.  Yet another river has burst its banks causing terrible destruction and misery.  This time it is the river Don in Aberdeenshire which broke its banks overnight. Many residents had to be evacuated from their homes.

I can only try to imagine what it must be like to be in this situation.  It must be very scary to watch as the water gets higher and higher and finally enters your home. The damage and mess left behind once the water recedes is devastating.

We seem to be seeing these scenes more and more here in the UK. It seems that it is getting wetter here. We could debate all day on why that maybe.  Global warming?  Who really knows?  It is a solution that everyone is more interested in.  Well we can't stop it raining, if only!  So we have to do something to stop the flooding.  There is much talk about our flood defences and river dredging and the like.  I don't know too much about it.  What I do know is permission is still regularly granted for new homes to be built on flood plain land and that can't help can it?

Fortunately for me,  although we live in the Fens, most of which is at or below sea level; our house is slightly uphill so it would be very unlikely to flood.  That said if there was to be a massive tidal surge on the coast.......  In fact Lincolnshire County Council has recently spent a ton of money erecting escape route signs!

It was quite funny actually as they erected all the signs before telling people what they mean so much guessing was going on! This is the sign.   They are designed to lead people away from the lower coastal towns to the higher ground of the Lincolnshire Wolds.  Spalding which is about 15 miles from us is at particular risk of tidal flooding.  It is inland but the river  runs out to the Sea on the East coast.

Local.

There doesn't seem to be anything happening in my village this week or even in the nearby town of Bourne.  There is an interesting story for Stamford though.  (Stamford is about 15 miles away so at least the Merikans will think it is local)!  They are reviving the ancient tradition of Wassailing.  This originated in the British cider making districts and traditionally took place on the 17th of January (the old 12th night). The purpose of wassailing is to awaken the apple trees and by scaring away the evil spirits, encourage the tress to fruit well in the coming year. Stamford is holding a Wassail this Saturday at the community orchard.  Perhaps I should do the same here to see if I can encourage my one apple tree!

Sport.
I have no interest in sport at all so any news simply won't be on my radar.  I shall scrap this category next week if I do Friday News again.  For today my sport news is...... drum roll please..... Fitbit have a new fitness tracker coming out!  The Fitness Blaze is due for release in March and I want one!  I  currently have a Fitbit Charge which is brilliant and it has got me moving.  The Fitbit Blaze has a colour screen and measures exercise too.  Plus it comes in purple and you can make the screen pink!!! Need I say more?

Entertainment.

The BBC "The Voice" programme starts again this Saturday.  I know this because there are constant trailers for it on the BBC.  I have never watched this as I am not really into these talent show things.  If you don't know "The Voice", it has a slightly different format to begin with as the judges can't see the contestants so they base their decision on the voice alone and not on appearances.  That has to be a good thing?  Remember the Susan Boyle story?  That was Britain's Got Talent. All 4 judges and the audience were discarding her the minute she walked on to the stage.......until she opened her mouth. Simon Cowell's shock was visible.  Trouble is with these sort of programmes is they seem to offer nothing more than a few minutes of fame.  Very few of the contestants or even winners go on to be stars.

Miscellaneous.

Apparently our government have had a review on alcohol consumption and are about to revise the guidelines on safe drinking limits. They are basically saying that there is NO safe limit and that you should always have 2 alcohol free days a week and no more than 1 unit for women and 3 for men.  So, what happened to the claim that red wine is good for you? HMMM.

There 5 bits of news. If I do this next week, I am going to scrap sport.  I shall have International, UK, Local, entertainment and Misc.

Friday news was the idea of my cousin Wendy.  Why not join in. It would be very interesting to read what is going on in your area and maybe we could open discussions on some of the topics.  I would love to know what you think is the cause of the change in our weather.  Now if only I could  get blogger to let me comment.  Stupid thing.

Week One of "The Challenge"

Oh dear, seems I am already behind with the blogging. I need inspiration and motivation. One of my old blogging friends, Melanie, is doing a sort of self improvement challenge.

She was inspired by 2 Facebook posts currently doing the rounds.

I have decided to join her as it may just help me get my blogging mojo back. Can't hurt to try anyway.

See them here if you are interested:

http://brightside.me/article/how-to-change-your-life-for-the-better-in-just-one-month-505/

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/12/52-fun-things-try-a-new-one-each-week-of-the-year/

The first link promises “4 weeks, 12 steps and in just 1 month you won't recognise yourself”! A very bold statement. Sounds good to me and it can't hurt to try. So….

Week 1. Purifying the body and mind

Step 1 - Get up earlier. The author suggests 6am. Now I don't know about you but that is the middle of the night as far as I am concerned! However I can see her logic that if you give yourself more time at the start of the day then you should have more time to get stuff done and that includes “me” time.

She also says that often we are not actually tired so much as lethargic and fed up. I think that is true. I am not a morning person. I like my bed. I think part of my problem is that I do not go to sleep early enough. I am usually in bed before midnight but because I find it so difficult to get to sleep I have my light on until at least 2am. I read and use my computer.

I am going to adapt this step to my own needs. So I am going to try and make sure that my light is off by midnight. I will try to be up by 8.30.

Step 2 – Better nutrition. This is a no brainer. The message is basically to ditch the junk and allow our bodies to recover. The ultimate aim is a fit and healthy body. Well we all want that don't we? I think I eat fairly healthily most of the time. I have lost a lot of weight over the last year so I am pretty good about portion sizes. However we have just had Christmas and New Year and a daughters 30^th birthday celebrations and I have stuffed myself with all kinds of rubbish. No wonder that I feel slow, heavy and lethargic. My energy didn’t just get up and go I chased it away with all the rubbish I have fed it.

I need to try to eat more light, healthy but nutritious meals and they need to be easy to make, quick to cook and relatively cheap. I am going to try and make one new meal this week that fulfils this criteria.

Step 3 – Sport I.E. Exercise

Hmm, me and sport do not compute. Computer says “NO”. Merikans probably won't get that joke. I am already getting my 10,000 steps a day (mostly). So how to try and do this step? I need to increase my flexibility so I am going to try and incorporate some simple stretches into my day.

Now to that 2^nd link. This is a list of 52 new things to try. The idea is obviously one a week for a year.

Week 1. Write a handwritten note and post it to someone you haven’t been in touch with for a while.

I can't really remember the last time I wrote a personal letter. I mean occasionally I have written a letter to my bank, but a letter to a known person? Not in an age. Actually letters to the bank are not handwritten and this specifically says handwritten.

I am going to have to give this some thought as I can't think right now who would most like to receive a letter. This sort of comes under the heading of a random act of kindness. I like that.

So to recap; this week I shall be properly in bed and attempting sleep by midnight and up to greet the day by 8.30am. I shall do some stretching exercises, cook one new meal and write a letter using a pen! Quite how all this will help with my blogiing mojo, I have no clue!

Like my friend Melanie, I will update you next Sunday. Fell free to join in.

Melanie s blog is here: http://chovblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/week-one-of-challenge.html

2nd January 2016

Well Christmas is over and New Year has gone so that is all done and dusted for another year.  Only 357 days until we get to do it all again!

I was looking at some of my blog statistics today. The last 2 years have been rubbish. I managed just 28 last year and about 38 in 2014. I used to love blogging so much and more or less never missed a day. It seemed to all go downhill when we moved 4 years ago.

It isn't that I don't want to blog.  It is simple lack of time.  I never have enough hours in my day and right now I often have other things that I prefer to do.

However, I do miss the people that I used to interact with.  I am now only in regular touch with 2 of my old bloggy friends which is such a shame.

So, I know I have said it before, but I am going to try and give it another go.  I'm not promising daily blogs or even weekly blogs but I am going to  try to be here more often. If I have time and it suits me.  I'll see.

Right now I am snuggled up in bed with Beanie.  I have my cosy PJ's on and I am waiting for Simon to come up with a drink.   It has been a great start to the New Year for us with all our family together in Peterborough to celebrate Saskia's 30th birthday.

We went to Bella Italia which was ok.   I am not a fan of Italian food but everyone else seemed really pleased with their meals.  We had a wonderful time. I'll post a few photos when I get up.

Ok time for bed now as it is really late. Be back soon hopefully!

Welcome 2016

Well here we are.  I hope that by now we have all all arrived safely in 2016.  My daughter commented yesterday that she always feels sad as the year closes.  I think the opposite.  We must be happy that we have made it through and that we have another year stretching ahead.  I find it exciting.  So many possibilities lie ahead.

Those who know me will already know that they will not be finding resolutions here.  I don't do those.  There is nothing magical about the 1st of January.  If you want to start something, well just get on and start it.  Want to make changes?  Well do it.  Start right away.  It doesn't matter what the date is.

I do have hopes and plans for the year ahead.  Here are a few:

Our biggie which I am so excited for is our youngest sons wedding in August.  

We want to get away more in Tallulah this year.  Maybe even venture abroad in her.

I want to progress with my various crafts and maybe learn some new ones.   I must get to grips with my Cricut.

I want to make sure that I stay healthy and maintain last years weight loss.

We want to see as much as possible of family and friends.  That is more important than anything else.

There are loads more things in my head too.  I can't list them all but I expect you get the idea.  My plan is basically to take care of myself and of those around me. To be happy and busy and simply grateful for every new day.

I will remember that today is the only day that I have.

In the words of Mother Theresa "Let us begin".

 

I wish you all Enough

I wish you enough love in your heart, and enough communion with your soul.

I wish you enough light to illuminate your lessons, and enough dark to integrate your wisdom.

I wish you enough giving to open your heart, and enough receiving to bring you home.

I wish you enough activity to sharpen your mind and strengthen your body, and enough rest to bring you peace.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright, no matter how grey the day.
I wish you enough rain to nourish your garden and to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough gentle wind to lift your hair and your dreams

I wish you enough storms to clear away the old and make room for the new.

I wish you enough dirt to grow your herbs and flowers and to keep your feet firmly on the ground.

I wish you enough clouds in the sky to inspire you to reach beyond them.

I wish you enough birds in flight to delight your eyes and enough birdsong to serenade your ears.

I wish you enough kisses and cuddles with children and animals to bring you simple joy.

I wish you enough friendship to remind you that you are not alone.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and ever lasting.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough starlight to inspire your imagination and enough moonlight to stir your soul.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

I wish you ENOUGH.

Out with the old and in with the new.

Well here we all are on the cusp of another new year. It is 23.31 here in the UK so not long now. I can hear some fireworks already although they are distant. Probably at the far end of the village where there are more houses. I am writing this in bed, in the dark, with a little grandson fast asleep next to me. I hope the fireworks do not wake him.

It is little Morra, Saskia's son, who is having his first ever sleepover on his own. He has obviously stayed here lots of times but never without Mummy and Daddy. They are currently having a few days in London to celebrate Saskia's 30^th birthday which was yesterday. I have no idea how she can possibly be 30. That is 4 of my 5 children now in their thirties. I am of course still sticking with 46!

Those of you that know me will know that I don't really celebrate new year. As far as I am concerned it is just another date on the calender and doesn't mean much. It is the simple passage of time, nothing more or less. The 2^nd of January is as much a new day as the 1^st. Every single day is a day to start afresh.

Despite the lack of any celebrations, like most people I do take some time to reflect on the outgoing year. So I thought for this blog tonight I could do a quick rehash of 2015. I have hardly blogged at all so you will have all missed out on what I have been up to.

The year got off to the worst possible start when our Loulou died on the 18^th of January. This was followed within hours by the devastating news of the fire at the kennels where we do volunteer work. Three precious doggies were lost that night along with the reception building.

Much of our spare time this year has been spent working with the other volunteers to rebuild and move on from that dreadful night.

January had one bright point when our Beanie came to live with us. He is a Saffy / English Bullie Cross and he has given us so much joy this year.

February saw us take our first overnight trip In Tallulah our camper van. Since then we have had lots of day trips and weekends and 4 extended holidays including visiting Scotland for the first time. We also had a lovely family weekend with 2 of my cousins, my sister and some of our children.

In May Simon celebrated his 60th birthday with a big gathering of family and friends. The weather was lovely. He also made the decision that it was time to say goodbye to teaching and he did his last day on the 17^th of July. He officially retired on the 31^st of August and he is LOVING it.

September was a busy month with celebrations on the 10^th for Sam and Lisa's 10^th wedding anniversary. It was also the month that we became the owners of a second house. That was a biggie as the income from that has made living on a pension a lot easier.

October saw Coralie finally heading off to Tanzania to do her cycle ride in aid of womens cancer charities. She raised over £4000. We are incredibly proud of her.

In November Three Counties Dog Rescue opened a charity shop in Bourne and we have been heavily involved with that. It has been hard work but very exciting.

December and the lead up to Christmas was all quite calm and stress free and we were lucky to have a wonderful Christmas and to enjoy the company of our children and grandchildren. Since then, things have not been good as our eldest daughter Coralie has once again found herself back in hospital. We are crossing our fingers for better health for her in 2016.

My biggest achievement of the year is my weight loss but it is now officially 2016 so I think that has to be another blog. Suffice to say 2015 was the year that I lost over 4 stones in weight! Go me!

Time to say goodnight I think and time to snuggle up with my little one. I do wish you all a very Happy New Year and many blessings for 2016. Above all I hope that it is a peaceful one and as always I wish you “ENOUGH”.

  

Making Christmas wreaths.

Last Sunday I did a mini course with Coralie (my daughter, for anyone who doesn't know me) We each made a needle felted Christmas wreath.

The course was held in Peterborough, in the basement of a lovely shop which I had never seen before, called Art in the Heart.  If you are ever in Peterborough, stop by as they have some fabulous goodies.  I could have spent a fortune but luckily for me, (or rather Simon), we arrived just as the course was starting and by the time it ended the shop was closing.

Despite the fact that Coralie claims she had told me it was needle felting, I was under the impression that we were making bog standard wreaths with foliage, pine cones and berries.  You know the kind of thing. You can pick them up in the supermarket for about £15.  Once I realised what we were actually doing  the cost made more sense.

To be honest I wasn't sure what to think as I have never tried needle felting.  It turned out to be a brilliant afternoon with my daughter and we both enjoyed it very much.  There were only 4 of us and the tutor, Eve Marshall, was excellent.  It tuns out that she lives a few villages away from me and she does lots of classes so I may have another go in the new year. 

Having never done any needle felting I was a little apprehensive as to how it would turn out and if I could actually get it done in time.  Well, I am actually thrilled with what I produced.  A bright, colourful wreath complete with a Robin (my favourite bird) and I made it all myself!  Here's a few photo's 

Here are the finished wreaths

The blue one above is Coralie's and the red and green one below is mine.  I have it hanging on my living room door.

The actual process of needle felting is fairly easy.  It is the artistic side of things that I would struggle with I think. It is very relaxing and you can do it whilst having a good old chat. Just don't lose concentration because it flipping hurts if you accidentally push the barbed needle into your finger!  Yes, I did do that several times.  I also broke a total of 4 needles!  Not to worry as Eve, says she factors broken needles into the cost of her beginner classes!!

So what do you think?  Have you tried needle felting before?  I purchased the materials to make a second Robin so I shall definitely be giving it another go.

Still shrinking

A quickie blog today before bedtime.  I doubt that I will be able to stick to daily blogging but at the moment I am trying my best to reignite the habit.

We have had a bit of a funny day today.  We were expecting to have our daughter here with her OH, our grandson and her mother in law and sister in law. To cut a long story very short, they didn't make it and are now aiming to come on Sunday.

I was quite disappointed as I was looking forward to seeing them and I had also put in quite a bit of effort to make sure that the house is looking good and everything in place to give a lovely welcome to her in-laws.  They are from Nigeria and we have only met them once.

When we finally knew that they weren't going to get here it was already gone lunch time.  It did mean that we had a free afternoon so we decided to head to Peterborough, a trip that we had been planning for Sunday.  I don't usually go anywhere near the shops at this time of year but I was down to only 2 bra's that fit me and I really didn't want to be waiting until after Christmas.

We didn't have to go into the city centre, which is just as well as I don't think I could have braved that!  There is a retail park as you come into the city and Marks and Spencers are there.  Best place for bra's in my humble opinion.   It was an easy trip in  (about 25 miles)  and we managed to park easily too.  In fact. it wasn't horrendously busy.

The purchasing of the bra's was a little traumatic as the ones that I chose to try on were all the wrong size!  It would seem that I have shrunk by a cup size.  Why can't you just lose weight from your hips and bottom?  Anyway, I managed to get three.  One white, one black and one pink.

While I was messing around getting very hot and bothered in the changing room, Simon had been mooching around the store. He had spotted a very cute, faux suede, skirt and jumper which he thought would appeal to me.  Being a good hubby and being very well aware that  I am now a size 12, he presented them to me to try on.

You are never going to believe this......... The size 12 was way too big!  It isn't that long ago when I was stunned to be wearing a size 12!    The sales lady went off to fetch me a size 10 with me shaking my head in disbelief.  No way will I get into a size 10.

I am still in shock.  The 10 not only fits perfectly but it looks pretty good too.  The jumper was also changed for a size 10.  I could actually get to like this shopping lark, now I can pretty much choose whatever I like and know I have a reasonable chance of looking half way decent in it.    These photos are not the best but I just have to show you.

 

So, a good afternoon in the end, followed by fish and chips for dinner and then a relaxing evening. Hopefully we will see our guests on Sunday.

Day 2 of the restart.

Well since I have decided to try and get back into blogging, I guess I need to do another one today! That will be 2 in 2 days! Pretty good considering prior to yesterday it is 8 months since I have been here.

Mind you I nearly gave up yesterday. Blogger was bugging me big time. First of all, every time I visit a new page it pops up with a message telling me it uses cookies. Yeah, I know that, you and every other website. There are 2 options to get rid of it. “Learn more” and “got it”. Every single time I click on “got it”. Problem is that it does not seem to realise that I have “got it” and still keeps telling me the same thing. I KNOW YOU USE COOKIES! I am fine with that.

Anyone know how to kill it?

The second issue is with commenting and I have had this before. As yesterdays blog was a challenge type thingy, I wanted to visit some other peoples pages to see what they had got to say. I did that and I read some interesting answers and also found a few people who seem interesting that I might want to connect with. So, I wanted to make some comments. Blogger says NO.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to its refusal. I could get my head around it a little better if it refused point blank to let me comment on anything but it doesn't do that. It picks and chooses where I can comment. E.G. I can comment just fine on my cousin Wendy’s blog. I get the normal box come up and it shows my Google ID and everything is fine. I usually have to do one of those pictorial verification things. Then my comment appears. I did find one other person where it worked just like normal.

On everyone else's page the comment box didn't have any reference to my ID. It lets me do my comment and it appears to be publishing it and then poof it is gone. Does anyone have any idea how to sort this out because if I can't comment there is little point in taking part. I also cannot reply to comments as a pop up window opens and closes before I can do anything.

This has all made me pretty fed up. I think if I am going to make a go of restarting my blogging habit then I need some interaction with others. I no longer have the time to sit here and chat to myself.

Well, this has gone well. Two days in and I am whinging and whining! To make this seem a little more worth while I am going to give you a doggie photo.

This is the wonderful Digby who Simon and I were privileged to take to his new home today. He is a year old Labrador / Husky cross. Isn't he handsome? I will do some more doggie posts soon. Good luck Digby.

JILLY

Wednesday Hodgepodge 16/12/15

OK, so this is the first time I have been here at my blog in an absolute age. I have been inspired to restart the blogging habit by my cousin Wendy who has been doing really well after quite a break. I was talking to her recently and she suggested that a good way to get back into it is to take part in some memes or challenges. As I always read her Wednesday HodgePodge, I thought this would be as good a one as any to start with.

So here goes, I'm taking the plunge.

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

 Thank you Joyce.

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

Have fun!

1. What's your biggest 'first world' problem? Hmm, I think we have a fair few problems in the “first world”. Probably my biggest bugbear is the sheer pace of life. It seems that everything is done at break neck speed. Nobody it seems wants to slow down or to take a break. We are all so frantically busy. But are we really? I would like to go back in time to when things were slower, to an age where we all had time for each other. Time to care. Time to stop and smell the roses.

 2.  Each year Time Magazine names a 'Person of the Year', someone who has 'for better or worse...done the most to influence the events of the year.' It was recently announced they've named Angela Merkel Person of the Year for 2015. You can read more about this year's selection here. Your thoughts? If you were in charge, who would you declare Person of the Year? 

Well, I guess I can see the logic of why she was chosen. I don't really know if she is right or wrong regarding the migrants, but there are certainly many who will be thankful to her for the rest of their lives. For me, I would probably choose a person who is not in the public eye. A person who works tirelessly with little recognition. There are a great many of them out there.

3. Do you have a nativity set in your home? If so share its history and how you display the pieces.
We used to have one when our children were little but it wasn't very nice. It was made of horrid, hard plastic and we threw it out when we moved house 4 years ago. We haven't replaced it as we are not religious.

4.  Do you make an extra effort to give back in some way during the holiday season? How do you encourage those who need encouragement this time of year?

To be honest, I don’t think I make any extra effort. Over the last 5 or 6 years I have realised more and more just how lucky and privileged I am. That has led me to be much more conscious of others. I try very hard, every single day, to “give back” in what ever way I can. It is a bit like new years resolutions for me; why do you have to wait until new year to change something? Why not start now. Same principle, I don't need it to be Christmas to “give back”.

 5. Who is your favourite person to shop for? Why?  I am not much of a shopper and I really dislike the shops at this time of year because they are so crowded and noisy. I find Christmas shopping a chore as I never know what to buy for people. That said, I have recently rediscovered the joys of shopping for clothes for myself. I have lost a lot of weight this year and that makes it all so much easier. I look halfway decent in things now and I have even tried new things that I wouldn’t previously have even glanced at.

 6. What's the last delicious thing you ate?   

We are lucky as most of our food is pretty good. We did have a fabulous rib eye steak on Saturday served with a king prawn sauce and all cooked by my husband. Bonus!

 7. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to drink a few glasses of the red stuff and keep smiling!

 8. Insert your own random thought here. Last year was the first Christmas without my Dad. It was still lovely but a little sad. This year I am looking forward to it much more. I do really enjoy seeing all of our family although it does get somewhat loud and chaotic!   

Catching up on A-Z.

Oh dear, I knew it was too good to last! I am 4 days behind with the A-Z challenge. I do however have a very good excuse. We have had no internet access for 3 days. Apparently according to BT's status help line there has been a major problem in our area. This seems to mean our village! No idea what happened but it is now back. I can't tell you how annoying it was. How the world has changed, that being without internet access is so frustrating.

Anyway, I have missed M, N, O and P. I am not going to have the time to do them justice so I think I will just make this a quick catch up for all 4.

M is for Morton. I live in the village of Morton. It is in the county of Lincolnshire and on the edge of the Fens. I love it here. This photo shows the village church. It is at the very far end of the village from me but I can see the clock from my garden.

N is for nothing! After nearly an hour of pondering, I simply have not been able to think of anything, so it is NOTHING!

O is for Osmonds, specifically Donny Osmond! In the mid seventies I was a teeny bopper and Donny Osmond was my hero. I was going to marry him! Somehow that never worked out! This was the only period in my life when I was really into music. I still like Donny Osmond and still think he has a lovely voice but it is years since I have played any of his stuff. I never play or listen to any music really. I never have the radio on. I prefer peace and quiet.

This is a young Donny Osmond.  The one from my teens.

P is for positivity. I touched on this in an earlier blog. I am a realist so I can sometimes find it hard to remain positive but it is an area that I am currently trying to work hard on. I am currently positive that I am going to find it very hard to do tomorrows challenge with the letter Q! Sorry! Couldn't resist that.

As you can see I am now really struggling with this whole challenge thing.

I just checked out the official list and I haven't been struck off yet! I am currently number 1586. I have read some blogs but with over 1600 there is little chance of me getting through all of them! How lovely it would be to have that much time.

I am looking forward to seeing what people come up with tomorrow for the letter Q. In particular my cousin who is working on a theme of friends and family.

Thinking of themes, maybe that is where I have gone wrong in doing random blogs. Perhaps a theme would have been easier. I don't know. I'll try and struggle on.

Jilly