Friday 6 July 2012

Back Again!




I haven't been around for a while & I have no single reason or excuse for not blogging. It's a mixture of things which I won't bore you with. Think I'm feeling a bit more positive about life now and getting back to blogging even though it's changed a lot since I've been away.


So what have I been up to? 


Well I decided to volunteer to help out at my granddaughter Lauren's primary school. They needed people to listen to children reading to help improve their reading skills. We got a little bit of training from the Local Education Department's Literacy Co-ordinator, a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check just to make sure we weren't perverts & off we went. Have to say I do enjoy it.


I also volunteered to help DTP our local churches' weekly bulletin. Didn't realise it would take so much time but I suppose collating information from 3 churches isn't exactly a quick job.


I have done quite a lot of reading over the past few months. I have picked up a few new authors I really like. Michael Dibden who wrote the Aurelio Zen books I posted about a while ago & Andrea Camilleri whose Inspector Montalbano books are a real treat. I got hooked on the TV series, BBC 4 showed a few of them earlier this year and I think they are going to show a few more later. They are a few years old and are sub titled but they still make wonderful viewing, absolute gems.


My main obsession has been with knitting. I took up knitting lace shawls & got really hooked onto it. Often I knit when I really should be doing housework & feel a bit guilty about it. However I have a friend who always tells me that nobody on their deathbed ever said they should have done more housework! Well she was a teacher so I tell myself that's good advice.


Our summer has been terrible so far, I can only remember two really warm & sunny days. Earlier this year the forecasters were complaining about the lack of rain for the past two years & were saying that we were going to have a serious drought. I wish they had kept quiet. It's a true saying about being careful about what you wish for because it's never stopped raining for months now. It's the coldest & wettest summer I can remember for years following the mildest and driest winter! Hard to tell what season it is, they all seem to be merging into one. I went for a swim tonight & honestly if it hadn't been so cold it would have saved time not bothering to get changed out of my bathing costume. I was wetter when I got into the car than when I got out of the pool! They spent a fortune putting a roof over the Centre Court at Wimbledon, it's already proved to be money well spent. If the rain doesn't stop the Olympics are in danger of being a total washout. Not that I'm going!


Well to give myself a lift from the dire weather I've been looking back at some photos I took last summer when we had a really hot spell. I persuaded a very reluctant husband to go on a really cheap bus trip last July to The Cotswolds. I've never been there & wasn't ever likely to go as my husband hates going on any trips that involve driving. I'll probably post again about it as we visited some really lovely places. Thankfully we had fantastic weather and the photo above was taken in Boulton, a really pretty picture postcard village. The photo was taken from the road and that little stream runs through the bridge into someone's beautiful garden. Fancy having that to look at every day!



13 comments:

  1. If you share the cool, I will share the scorching hot weather we've been having.

    Nice to see you back, Winifred. Your voice was missed.

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  2. Glad to see you back !
    You've been a busy lady, all the volunteering, I 'spect it keeps you on your toes ;)
    I watched the BBC news this morning, the non-stop rain, and cold. Here we are drought, hot and no relief, and England, flooding and cold.....makes you wonder what gives.
    Take good care, I'll send you some of our sunshine !
    ~Jo

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  3. Hello, hello, hello my friend! So good to see you here. Love the "catch-up" and truly love your posted photograph. Beautiful place. Hopefully we will be able to travel by October and see some interesting sights as well. Stay with us okay?

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  4. Thank you all for your lovely comments.

    Merle I'm going to have a look at the comments & try to change how to comment. You're right it's not east to see how to do it.

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  5. Well I've had a bit of a go at changing how to comment but didn't manage to change it so I changed the whole template. Hope it is a bit easier to comment now.

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  6. Nice to see you blogging again.

    Tell me about the weather! It just won't stop raining will it? Ever since they said we had a hose pipe ban, it's rained. Plus it's cold. We have an outside activity at our house in a few weeks and I'm just praying we get a bit of dry weather. Sun would be a bonus but just being dry would be wonderful.

    It sounds like you've been busy anyway and I'm glad it's not just been doing housework!

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  7. Just so you know you have word verification set on your blog, when blogger went over to the new format it seems to have added it automatically to everyones blogs. Just incase you didn't know.

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    Replies
    1. Ooh flippin heck! It doesn't show on your own blog (I assume you don't have to verify yourself) so you have no idea that it's on. How daft is that!

      Thanks Joe, but I have no idea how to get rid of it. I absolutely hate it, the number is usually OK but the word, good grief all the letters merge! Now I have some homework to do.

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  8. Just glad to see you back.

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  9. I've enjoyed hearing what you are up to. Too bad about the rain. Too much of anything can get me down. Like housework...or rain. lol. I'm fascinated with your lace shawl knitting. Is it hard? I knitted a stole with a lace pattern...just back and forth rows, pattern on index cards. And I spun my own wool and knitted a lace pattern scarf. It was lovely till I made a boo boo....then I just ended it and wore it as is. But...it was scratchy. very. Good for you helping at the school and church. That sounds nice.

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  10. It's good to see you back Winifred. I haven't been blogging much lately either and like you, no real reason or excuse. I am hoping that I can keep going now that I am back with it. Glad you enjoyed the Cotswolds. My daughter lives in Stratford, so not too far from there and it is always a joy to visit. A x

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  11. Hi Winifred ~~ Thank you for your comments and it is good to see you back with us. But what a busy lady with all the volunteering and knitting. Well done, my friend.
    I am so sorry the weather is so bad over there and hope it does not affect the Games
    as that would be an awful shame. I am glad you enjoyed my jokes etc. I get up late too, but go to bed late, but don't get what you do done. Just the usual washing and cooking and taking care of myself. I don't knit, nor drink coffee or tea, just water
    and my supplement Ensure which is wonderful and has helped me feel so mush better.
    Take great care, my friend, Love, Merle.

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  12. Sounds like you are enjoying yourself even if busy. Can't believe it is a year since you went to The Cotswolds.

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