Good news on the Nanna front. She managed to convince them to let her home today. She wasn’t going to get any better than she was already in hospital - she wasn’t getting any sleep and the food there didn’t suit her so she was becoming more and more depressed and thin. Someone went out to the house on Monday to assess it and gave it the thumbs up. A bed was brought downstairs to the living room and she is now at home a lot happier and looking a lot better already.

Long may it continue. She isn’t all quite right yet - her concentration, eyesight and memory are all a bit meh but she looks a lot better so that is the main thing.

Iain and I finally finished the chicken run and last night I went to the local Chook Man and picked out 6 chickens. There are 5 different types and they settled in to their wee shed very nicely last night and early this morning Jessica (who is now my shadow and chook assistant) let them out in to their run for the first time at 7.45am and watched them for ages. We are trying to pick names for them as we go along but I am not liking some of them. There is NO way Iain is getting his favourite “Henrietta” and yet Jessica seems to have gone off “Cauliflower” which I DID quite like. I’ll let you know what names they end up with once they are sorted.

We saw some different personalities coming through and one going in and out of the shed and on to the nesting box about 4 times but not performing for her audience. About 9am we left to go and get ready for work.

Just as we were about to leave the house Iain told me they had started making a lot of noise and hopeful one of them was laying Jessica and I went back out to see. Sure enough, one of them was in the nest box again. She looked at us terribly indignantly mid push but when she realised we were going to watch AND photograph our first egg being laid, she got on with the job and squeezed it out.

We went to work, leaving them out in the run hoping there would be another one or two by the time we got back. It is now a race between Jessica and me to see who gets to the shed first. Actually, I get quite cross that she makes it there before me. Doesn’t she KNOW THE CHICKENS ARE MINE???? When we looked this evening there was another egg waiting for us - this time in the poo tray! Don’t worry - there wasn’t any poo in it - but we need to encourage them to use the nest box - we may not be se lucky the next time!

Excitement all round then here at the chicken run. More updates to follow, both for Nanna and the chooks.

Tags: Nanna

While I continued with the garden this evening, Iain went to the hospital on his own. I managed to throw loads of seeds in to both seed trays in the greenhouse and into The Allotment after sectioning off a narrow path to where the shed is going to be if it ever gets built. This means that I am able to use a small triangular piece of dirt (technical term) which would otherwise be unused and have put in lettuce, radish, another row of carrots, rocket, and a couple of other things. The packets are still in my cardigan pocket which is less than 8 feet from where I am now but I am so bloody tired after all that AND some weeding and general tidying up that I can’t be arsed to get up to find out what else was put in.

OH! And I raked in grass seed to the 10’ by 8’ area which the chicken run is going to cover in the hope that somehow this will help with the soaking wet quagmire which is there at the moment. . . Can but hope! Been a busy girl huh?

The news from the hospital is less than comforting though. Not only is Nanna more and more confused rather than less and less as would be expected as the days wear on but after another x-ray this afternoon it has been discovered that she has a fractured JAW as well as her fractured skull and two broken wrists.

She had two x-rays taken at the first hospital as well as cat-scans and at least one MRI that I know of. Not only was this small detail missed but the way the family was informed was by accident - while Lesley was busy feeding her an orange a nurse came over and pointed out that it would be hard for her to eat with her fractured jaw ‘n’ all. WTF?

I DID notice a slight drooping of one side of her mouth last night while I was there. Just when she was speaking, with hindsight, perhaps that was a sign that her jaw wasn’t aligned correctly.

This is not looking good at all. It is hard to know what is going on when Iain and I only manage an hour a day at the hospital and daily 8am phone calls from Papa. We don’t really get a good chance to catch up with the gen on what is happening and I think the family need to sit down, away from the hospital and think things through. We will have to organise this soon.

The *confusion-going-backwards* thing is most disconcerting and has upset Iain this evening.

Some weeks ago, Iain started mentioning the possibility of taking some time off and heading away. Nothing spectacular - staying in Northern Ireland so *if anything happens we don’t have as far to travel to get home* like the 7 hour drive we had last year. I was not keen on the idea. I held up the decision making because I was not keen and finally, after Iain pushed several print-offs from the internet of self-catering premises we could have for various amounts of money I caved in because I felt I was keeping him from his down time.

He sent a cheque off for a deposit on one place and received a cheery reply from the owner. It is booked.

Last week it looked like it was going to have to be cancelled but after consulting with Papa and Lesley last night it was all back on again. I was kinda hoping for it to not be. I would rather have my time off in my house with my things round me and being able to relax and catch up with the tings I can’t do because I run out of energy. Going on holiday is not relaxing as far as I can see. I’m feeling very hard done by. Can you tell?

Tonight. Who knows now? Will I get my wish at the expense of someone else’s unhappiness?

Tags: Family, Nanna

Today. Not so good.

I received a phone call about 10.40am from Iain’s parents’ neighbour. He was very calm and matter of fact. Nanna had “had a fall”. The ambulance was at the house and Papa was in shock.

Immediately I phoned Iain at work and told him to head towards their house. Within 15 minutes the children and I were at there too but the ambulance was already away. Papa and Aunty Lesley’s partner Bob were still in the house waiting for the rest of the family to gather and head to the hospital. . .

We have basically spent the rest of the day at A&E and rather than bore you with the minute by minute details, the story seems to have been something along the lines of:

She fell down the stairs either as she was going up to bed or having forgotten something and coming back downstairs to get something on her way to bed. She fell to the foot of the stairs. She lay there and bled from the nose and mouth (possibly having bitten her tongue) long enough to have left a massive stain on the rug there. She then pulled herself up and made her way to the bannister where she bled over it and then moved on in to the hall where she has fallen and lain there until Papa found her.

He came downstairs after having slept in. He saw the blood at the bottom of the stairs and started calling for her. He found her lying on the floor and was able to get “yes” and “no” out of her when asking questions. She was in such a bad state with blood all over her face and swollen eyes that he thought she had been mugged but she was able to tell him “no” to that. He found her water bottle etc that she would have been carrying up to bed but bizarrely she was wearing shoes, not slippers. We can’t understand that.

He called 999 and was dealt with so efficiently that he started to shout at the person to hurry up! They assured him the ambulance had already been sent and would be there within minutes. They were there within 3 minutes he reckons.

The poor wee pet has managed to fracture her skull and break both wrists. She must have launched herself from the top step and gathered speed as she hurtled to the bottom. She probably smashed against the bottom wall with her forehead and putting her hands out to break her fall.

We didn’t allow David and Jessica in to see her and I let Lesley, Iain and Papa stay with her for most of the day, only going in to the ward just before bringing the kids home. She knows where she is and is able to answer questions properly but drifts in and out of sleep. One of the nurses wanted to give her tablets to swallow but her mouth is still full of dried blood and she fell asleep again in the middle of trying to suck from the straw.

The theory is they are going to transfer her as soon as possible to a bigger hospital in Belfast but there isn’t a bed available there at the moment.

Papa is beside himself with shock and guilt. She lay there all night. Probably calling for him. He slept through it all. No one blames him at all but he feels so guilty about this - it will take him a long time to get over the idea that she technically could have bled to death while he slept through it. Not a nice thing to have to live with.

There will have to be a *care package* put in to place over the next couple of weeks, especially with her wrists being broken so expect loads of exasperated updates!

Will let you know more later.

Tags: Family, Nanna

We are incredibly excited to have found that not only have we got a nest in our BBQ (looong since last used!) but this year there are actually chicks in it. We found the nest by accident last week while POWER WASHING the BBQ and were so worried that the mummy would have abandoned the nest with all the activity around it but but I sat in the green house for about 30 minutes and watched both the mum and dad bringing loads of food for the chicks.

Yesterday we had another wee check when the parents were away from home and there are FOUR wee chicks - all looking up and bright and alert and plump!

Wanna see?

Aren't they gorrrrrrrgeous? I never thought there would be as many as four in a nest and can't wait to see them all up and about.

Tags: BBQ, Birds, Robins, Garden

Last week, in all that nasty snow, our niece Louise had a bump in her car - front and rear ended. Not nice. She was fine though.

The other day my Uncle rang with news that he had had a head-on collision - shaken but not stirred - thankfully.

Yesterday my husband decided to park his pride and joy on its roof in some farmer's field, cradled nicely in the loving bars of a gate.

And yes, apart from a bruised ego (he IS the best driver I know) and having to crawl through the back door to get out, he is perfectly fine.

The weird thing is all the coincidences and thoughts I have been having over the past while and the process of choices that left him in the field and not on a totally different road.

Right from the time we heard about Louise I have been waiting for something to happen to us. Iain mentioned that if he scraped a bit of money together he might have the car *souped* up to make it a tad faster - it wasn't the fastest diesel by any stretch of the imagination but my initial thought was "I don't think so . . . that'll be wasted money . ."

Then yesterday he made it in to work and realised he had my (one and only) car key in his pocket so put a sign on the door and came home again. He handed me the key and I had a series of thoughts along the lines of "Wait a few minutes and I will come with you, I am nearly ready to leave. .. " then "You take MY car and the dog with you and I will go do a couple of things on the way to work. . " The one thing I didn't say was "Be careful of the black ice."

We didn't discuss any of that because I knew he would be worried about getting back to the shop as soon as possible.

At one point in our journey to work we have to make a decision to either to take a shorter, slower route through a village or the faster longer route around it. Normally we make the decision depending on where the car in front goes. Yesterday he took the shorter, slower route. It is very seldom either of us go that way.

Twenty minutes after leaving the key with me he rang to ask me to come and get him. He would be the one in the field! On top of the farmer's gate.

The car is a write-off. There is a lot of panel damage - very little real structural damage but it is quite old and not worth repairing. It is probably worth more as parts - especially with the alloys on it and the amount of new parts we got to put it through the MOT a couple of weeks ago. I wonder how much of it will end up on eBay over the next while.

I can't quite get my head around whether the next statement is comforting or annoying: His was the third of three accidents in the same spot in less than 3 hours. In one way it is good because it takes some of the *blame* away from him and in another if there were that many going on - shouldn't someone have put up some kind of sign?

The poor farmer has just replaced the gate at his own expense after someone did a hit and run on it within the last couple of months. There was broken indicator glass all over the pavement which didn't belong to us. . . it is obviously a black spot.

I took some photos, when I picked him up, for the insurance claim but after speaking to the company this morning Iain doesn't even have to fill in a claim form never mind provide visual proof of road conditions or the icy puddles in the fields.

Anyway - the main thing is that he was ok. And that the car was totally legal - fully MOTd (JUST done a couple of weeks ago), Taxed (JUST renewed at the end of the year) and Insured (JUST about to lapse in 10 days!). I am not saying we make a habit of not being fully legal - but there have been times in the past where things didn't over lap as they should have. It is nice not to have to worry about anything along those lines.

One accident every 22 years isn't bad now, is it?

Tags: Iain, Car, Ice

We are thinking (repeat THINKING) about changing Iain's car. I don't like to drive it - have not sat in the driver's seat since pulling a muscle in my back the last time and he is spending a fortune on petrol every week. He has the chance of a diesel car and may go for it. We would then get rid of his one. We aren't selling mine cos I still love it. Even though it has 156,000 miles on it.

Cast your mind back to when I was 19 and got my first car - it was a Talbot Horizon. Blue. It had a particular smell inside it and I bought it before I passed my test so would sit in it just to pretend I was driving - I couldn't wait to pass my test!

The woman who sold it to me frowned at me when I said I would buy a radio to put in it - she didn't believe in such things. Radios only distracted you from concentrating on the road. I wonder what she would think about iPods and mobile phones all tuned in to the speaker system the way they are these days! She was bonkers though - she used to wash the car in fairy liquid which would have been terribly bad for the paint work. The paint that was still on the car, over the rust. . .

I passed my test the second time round - the first time the guy didn't seem to like the idea that I sailed through red lights for some reason - and was soon zooming up and down the road to college singing away to tapes of Chris De Burgh and T'Pau and Fleetwood Mac and Dirty Dancing and such like.

The battle with the rust was finally lost when I needed to jack the car up one day to see what was behind the wheel. I put the jack in the jack point and cranked it up. This left a large gap between the top of the wheel and the wheel arch and I was just about to stick my head in there to look behind it when the jack went clean through the rust around the jack point and the car came crashing down with a bounce.

I always laugh at the thought of me sitting there, caught by the throat, shouting "Helllp. Heeeelllppp" in to the belly of the engine for three days before someone came to release me. Thankfully, I hesitated long enough not to have that happen!

I advertised the car in the paper but no one wanted it once they saw it. Finally I got £20 for it at the local scrap yard - I think there was about £20 of petrol in it when I drove it round but the body was well rotted and it would have cost a clean fortune to get it through the next mot.

So. The car was scrapped. It had 56,000 miles on it. It was just a baby! Especially when you think that our Renault now has a hundred thousand miles MORE than that on it and - ooooh no - I am not going to say anything out loud about it still going strong - but you get the message!

T'uh - things aren't built like they were in the old days.

Thankfully.

Tags: Car, Talbot, Nostalgia

My husband very kindly bought the children a swimming pool without consulting me. He ordered it on eBay, it arrived, he blew it up, he filled it and this evening I arrived home to find that it was jam packed full of children as he drove off to visit family.

The kids have been playing in it since the weekend on their own but this evening most of their friends were either in it or standing around it in our back garden.

What he has failed to remember is that *I* am the one here most of the time and I am now tied to having to sit and listen to screaming kids in case the inevitable happens - they get splashed and don't like it, they fall and hurt themselves or they drown.

This evening, in the space of 10 minutes I had to order one shivering, rather ghostly white child out of the pool and march him home - he was far too cold to be there any longer. I then had to take a towel to another child who fell off a blow up dolphin and got scared when his face went under water. I had to rescue three towels from the dirt only to find that two of them are our main bath towels and are now soaking wet. I had to mop up the water in the living room because the patio doors are open to allow the pump be connected to a power supply and this means the children think it is perfectly ok to run from one end of the garden to the other via the kitchen, hall and living room.

I am not a happy mummy at the moment. It isn't the sort of thing you can go off and leave them to get on with. One of the boys in there this evening had to stand on tippy toes to keep his nose above water.

I feel like saying "Bah! Humbug!" several times. I know I am being unreasonable but no one asked me if I thought it was a good idea. I certainly would never have said yes to such a large pool - it took a whole day to fill it!

Hmmph.

Tags: Swimming Pool, Children, Neighbours

We had the funeral today. Iain was so nervous about it all we arrived at the crematorium 45 minutes early!

There was a mighty fine turn out with loads of tears from loads of people. The crematorium is so busy that we weren't always sure that we were looking at *our* crowd! Denis had such a wide range of friends that I don't think anyone there knew everyone there. We identified the family and friends that we knew and huddled together with them.

We were very touched by how many people took the time to go to the funeral - no one likes to go to funerals! There were some surprises - not least the clatter of friends from the town where Denis and his friend David had their boat - they have been fishing from there for years and obviously built up a good base of friends there.

When it was time to enter the building everyone went over the doorstep with a deep breath. I went straight down to the relative's front couple of rows of seats and waited behind Nanna, Papa, Lesley and Bob with Louise beside me for Iain to be one of the four carrying the coffin down the aisle. There were so many people there that the seats were filled and three walls had people lined, standing against them. As soon as I caught sight of Iain I lost the plot and started to bawl my eyes out for him. Everyone was very emotional at this point.

The minister conducted the service, there was a tune played at the beginning which Laura had chosen for her Dad, then Iain read a poem and Amy sang a verse of Tears In Heaven. It was all very touching.

Obviously the service at the crematorium is so fast there wasn't much else to take place, other than about 35 prayers!

When we left the room there was a long room to stand in and shake everyone's hands as they left. I stood there for a while, went outside and spoke to a few people for a while, dandered about for another wee while then went back in to the room and was horrified when I saw the line of people coming out and joining our line - there must be another funeral immediately after ours and they had caught up with us . . . . or perhaps this was the same line STILL coming out! That's how many people there were.

Afterwards, we headed over to a local hotel for sandwiches and tea and coffee. This all went very well too - people were a lot more relaxed and a little happier to sit and chat.

We sat there for a long time mixing with family, catching up with some folk we haven't seen for years. I remarked that there were so many friends and family there that this would have been a party that Denis would have absolutely loved - he loved get-togethers like this and would have totally been in his element.

We went home, Iain walked the dog and then we headed back to Nanna's for a chinese meal with the immediate family. Lesley. Andrew, Louise and our lot too. We had a great time - reminiscing with loads of Denis stories - everyone pitching it with their wee piece but also having a de-brief of the day which was very helpful for everyone.

All in all it was a stressful, tiring day but also we all agreed that it had been handled nicely and it ended on a positive note. How we will all feel in the coming weeks, we will have to wait and see.

Here is the poem that Iain read. It very much sums up the day and I think we will remember the sentiment behind it for some time.

He Is Gone


You can shed tears that he is gone

Or you can smile because he has lived



You can close your eyes and pray that he will come back

Or you can open your eyes and see all that he has left



Your heart can be empty because you can't see him

Or you can be full of the love that you shared



You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday

Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday



You can remember him and only that he is gone

Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on



You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back

Or you can do what he would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Tags: Denis

After Denis was rushed to hospital on Tuesday the family kept a constant watch on him by his bedside. It was decided after a brain scan on Thursday that the amount of time he wasn't breathing had damaged too much of his brain and that really the best thing to do was to turn off the machines. They arranged for his two children to be brought to him on Friday morning just after they took off the more frightening of the medical tubes and machines. The children said their goodbyes very maturely and went away from the hospital.

I had managed to avoid being at the hospital until then. Part of me was being a coward. Part of me felt, somehow, that I would be intruding on the immediate family's grief. Of course that wouldn't have been true. Part of me felt that my brand of humour in terrible situations would not be appropriate and I just didn't know how to deal with other peoples' emotion.

Iain rang me in the afternoon to say that if I wanted to say goodbye then now was the time to be there. Again, I said I was happy to stay away and let Lesley, Iain and their Mum and Dad be there on their own. Iain then asked me to go down for moral support for him. It was about then that I realised that he wasn't dealing with it all very well at all.

Some of Denis' friends were in the room when I arrived, Julie came and went, Nanna was in and out, Lesley's children were waiting too. It was all very sad and distressing.

By about 7pm we all decided that we didn't need to stay any more. He was breathing on his own and could continue like that for minutes or days or weeks. We all left except for Julie and Iain who didn't leave until 9pm.

Iain was home by 10pm but by 12.10am he had a phone call from Julie to go back down to the hospital. Julie, Iain and Papa made their way down to the hospital but by the time they got there Denis was already gone.

Because he died in hospital no one is requesting a post-mortem but there are certain things that have to happen before he can be buried, or in his case, cremated. These things will probably not happen until Monday so the funeral wont be arranged before Wednesday. There is a slight possibility that it might not happen until Monday or Tuesday of next week! Such a long time to be waiting for all concerned.

We were talking at lunch time today about how Nanna and Julie don't tolerate each other well. I think they are both handling the situation very well so far but there is a possibility there could be conflict between their two sets of wishes. Julie is Denis' wife and of course her wishes should be taken in to consideration but Nanna is his mother and has been for 51 years. We were thinking about that when I said that it isn't normal to have to take your mother-in-law's opinion into the matter when you are burying your husband.

All in all we are very subdued. Iain is terribly upset to an extent that I wouldn't have imagined or have witnessed before. Our kids are doing well with the two of us being upset and although Jessica cried this morning when we told her Denis was dead I don't think that she had too much depth to her grief.

We are all keeping a good eye on Nanna and Papa. Imagine having to bury your first-born. It just beggars belief and isn't something I ever wish to experience.

That's where we are at the minute then. Not knowing when the funeral will be. Not too sure about whether to go back to work or take another day off. . .

I just want to say a very big thank you to all my friends who have kept in constant touch by email, text or phone, to ask how Denis was doing, to offer emotional support or practical help. I can assure you it has all been very much appreciated.

Tags: Family, Denis

Did anyone else work out that the 25th June was the "Half Way to Christmas" point in the year? Is anyone else out there mad enough to even worry about when the half way point is? No. Me neither. Thankfully I have friends for every eventuality!

Lorna invited a few choice friends round on Monday night to the "Half Christmas Party in The Garage" with instructions to bring "token gifts". I had great fun telling everyone all day that I was going to a Christmas Party later on - the only sour-puss was Iain's Mum, who denounced it all as "the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard of." Obviously she had much better plans pencilled in for the evening!

The children and I arrived with high expectations of being entertained and good craic. As per usual The Garage was decorated far beyond what was expected and the craic was indeed mighty!

I can't really say much more about it all than that - I think I am still a little in shock at the idea of Christmas in June but am starting to love the impromptu Garage Parties that are being Dunn these days. It is so clever to have them in a self contained unit like that - and Dude - you don't have to tidy the house!

Surely the "We are on summer holidays from school" party is going to be a corker. Likewise the "Halloween Is Almost Here", "Halloween Is Only a Few Weeks Away", "YAY IT IS HALLOWEEN" and then of course the five or six "Run Up to Real Christmas" parties will all be wonderful too.

I am thinking (pretty damn seriously) about hiring The Garage for my birthday party this year. Or should I say; Iain needs to be reminded that when he is organising my secret party that premises will have to be booked well in advance for the sheer numbers expected.

Hmmm.

On that note. For those of you who are subtly scouring this blog for subtle ideas for subtle birthday presents for me I have to say that HOLIDAYS are top of the list. WEEKEND BREAKS. Dare I suggest; ANYWHERE THAT EASYJET STOPS OFF WOULD BE FINE WITH ME.

Or.

ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING FROM THE APPLE STORE OF YOUR CHOICE.

And here are some brands I particularly enjoy.

NIKON. NIKON. NIKON. TAMRON. AND NIKON.

Does that help any?

Don't say I didn't give you any help - or plenty of advance warning. You remember the date don't you?

Don't forget - Iain doesn't know how to get in contact with you all - if you want to be invited you are going to have to tell him you exist! Don't be shy.

Perhaps we ought to have a "Over Half Way To My Birthday" Party. I'll see if The Garage is available!

Tags: Lorna, Half Christmas, The Garage, Party, Birthday, EasyJet, Holidays, Nikon

My brother has a blog. He usually keeps it Friends Only and I am lucky enough to be in that category. Sometimes he can be funny. He gets that from me.

The other day he stuck in one of those email thingies that you get and I just replied to it. I am kinda annoyed I can't just send you the link to it so I am going to copy and paste (I would be lost if they ever bombed C&V again . . . oh never mind - it is an old Northern Ireland joke - I'll tell you it some day but I don't expect you will get it) it in here with my replies injected in to the appropriate places.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

Your mother tripped over a hose that someone left lying out in the back yard *whistles innocently* and broke her leg while she was carrying you (probably smoking AND drinking at the same time). I remember watching her try to take a bath with the leg in a cast hanging out over the edge of it.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

I think we threw the blue cheese in the bin as soon as it started to smell. . .

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

You were lucky to have a crib/cot - I was to be found wearing your baby-gro and lying in your cot. God knows where YOU were.

Also - we had bunk beds and you had to lie on the top one so that mother could change the bottom one EVERY night after I wet it out of badness. I remember quite distinctly having a case of the runs too when I thought it was just bad wind. . . .

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .

It's a shame we didn't have childproof lids on the medicine bottles back then - cos then we wouldn't have had to take you to the hospital to have your stomach pumped that time.

I had a go-cart which we took to the top of the hill and ran it down to the seeeeeeeeeea splash. . .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Ummmmmmmmmm. . . try "As a child I was pushed from a moving vehicle by my sister".

And. . "As a child I sat on the arm between the front seats facing backwards and that was "my" seat."

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

We weren't?

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

No we fecking weren't. *I* was outside playing while *you* were up at the police station with your nappy hanging off you waiting for someone to come and claim you AGAIN.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

Or the Blues and Twos. . . .

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K ..

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

Or to swim.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

No - but the chewing gum we scraped off the road is probably still inside us. (I still remember spitting out the stones.)

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

Not until some of us made friends with people who had guns, that is. . .

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Football teams had trials and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

Hmm - I don't think I ever got over that actually.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

Some of you. Some of you *only just* and some of you *not so much* !

CONGRATULATIONS!

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Tags: Brother David, Childhood

Anne and David have named the baby Poppy! YAY!

I have uploaded the photos David sent to my Flickr account - but under Friends and Family only, which should cover most interested parties.

She's cute huh?

Tags: baby

Yesterday was the final hand in day in college. We have been there for three years now. It is kinda sad but also a massive relief.

It is hard to think about not being with these people again but there are a couple I will more than likely stay in touch with. Love them or hate them - they have become "family" in that time. I will miss the support and craic of the tutors terribly too.

I can safely say that doing that course changed my life. I am a completely different person to the one who sat in the Lecture Theatre on the first day back in September 2004, nervous and hating every second and wondering if there was any way I could quietly slip out without causing a fuss.

It's a massive relief because I have put my life on hold over the past two months in order to get this last project done. It has eclipsed my family life and my work life - I have done no proper work for ages which, obviously isn't helping to pay the bills and the children are also voicing relief that tonight will be the last night of it all. Of course we have gained the Bailey Dog in that time so I have been a lot more physically active with the children, going for loads of walks with them but they are fed up hearing that I am busy and need to work at the laptop every time they look at me. I have promised that there will be a break from that for a while.

Tonight sees the culmination of all that work. We are having an opening night at a local gallery of ALL the students' work from both the 2nd Year Full Time and our 3rd Year Part Time courses. It will be exciting to see everyone's work finally up on the walls. Judging by what I saw when I called over to the gallery yesterday some of the photography is top notch and I'm in good company.

Lots of people I know are coming to the exhibition and I am really looking forward to seeing them all. Jessica is being allowed to stay up past her bed time in order to visit - the children are mighty excited about going!

So, all in all, yesterday was a great hand in day - full of highs and then a few high-ers!

I was finally sitting down to some tea last night just about nine when I got a text photo from my brother - I AM AN AUNTY!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY

Anne had a HOME BIRTH and produced a whopping 8lb 9oz baby girl - as yet un-named - will update when that changes - but I understand about not having names ready. It took us three weeks to name our David. Jessica I THINK was longer! You have to live with a baby to see what they are - you can't just slap any old name on them!

I had a quick phone call with the proud father this morning getting all the details out of him. I have to say that MIDWIVES RULE. I think that midwives are the most important people in the world and also the most undervalued! It sounds like both David and Anne gained so much from the home birth and that the midwives they had all to themselves were an integral part of that experience.

The 29th May seems to have been a good day for everyone then!

Tags: baby, HND, Final Hand In

I am just back from Nanna's where we go, as you know, every Saturday. While the kids took the dog out the back I sat chatting to Papa. He was telling me about a radio program he had been listening to earlier. It had some guest speaker on it talking about his MISTRESSES (plural!). He commented that before he had come on air he had looked up a dictionary to find the definition of the word "mistress". Either someone phoned in, or someone in the studio then told him that they knew the definition.

"First there is a Master. Then there is a Mattress. And the Mistress comes in between."

I raised an eyebrow at that and giggled, wondering if Papa had retold THAT story in front of Nanna.

THEN he delivered the punch line.

"I think that is an instance of when the word is spelled c. u. m. not c. o. m. e. You know?"

The last he heard was my "Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala," as I ran screaming from the room with my fingers in my ears.

Tags: Roy

Here's a wee quick entry for you about Jessica. This would be about the girl who is so clever she manages to work out she needs a stepping stone in the garden so as not to get her socks dirty on the soil when fetching a doggy-toy out of the way so I can photograph my new "garden art" but not clever enough not to be running around in her socks soles in the first place. This photo has been on my phone for a wee while now and I couldn't resist uploading it tonight.

We went for yet another walk around The Quarry this evening. I took the kids and the lad from next door before Iain came home. It is a fantastic place - loads for me to photograph, lots of secret places for the kids to explore, acres of ground for Bailey to run around and of course, by default, a Health and Safety nightmare with long forgotten items lurking beneath the undergrowth and two treacherously deep areas of water which, as they have swans on them are now referred to as *lakes* in our house.

It is only about a mile away from our house and I pity anyone walking their dog up and down the lanes around the village when this place is so close to us. On the other hand - if EVERYONE went there, very soon the land owners would clamp down and our own fun would be spoiled.

Let me remind you a little about Jessica. This is the child who LOVES extreme sports. I mean - she couldn't get enough of swings and play grounds and see saws when she was tiny. Such a difference between her and David who hated anything quite so exciting. Only last week Iain and I were commenting on how fearless she was and how cool she is trying thing out at the age of 7 which David still isn't keen on doing.

Now let me tell you about the massive heap of black rubble at the quarry, which Iain told the kids was a lava flow and they believed him ( I think he believed it himself!) and they now have to climb every time they go there. David and Jack, with their longer legs, made it up in no time this evening, Bailey was up and down several times but Jessica chose a less than obvious route and ended up getting stuck three quarters of the way up. And stuck she remained. And "Stuck" she cried. I watched from below because I am not all that unlikely not to get stuck myself.

I once got stuck three quarters of the way up (or in reality: one quarter of the way DOWN) abseiling down a very tall cliff in a village in the South West of Scotland. (You know I just searched the internet there to find out if it was Kippford or Portpatrick but I still can't remember and sure, it doesn't matter much because no one reading this was there with me and no one can contradict me - so let's go with Portpatrick huh?)

When I say stuck, I mean stuck. I took a panic attack and could not move. There were people above me waiting for their go, there were people below me coaxing me down. It wasn't helping much. I was stuck. what part of stuck didn't they understand? They rope was slipping ever so slowly through my fingers - they have never told me that I needed to keep a grip on the rope! The longer I stayed still the less secure I was and the less secure I was the more I clung to the cliff edge with my toes through the soles of my boots!

I was there so long that seagulls started to nest in my coat hood.

Eventually one of the guys underneath decided that he would have to climb up, which he did. By the time he got to me I was in floods of tears and couldn't see where I was going any more so that helped enormously. I always felt so guilty that I made him climb all the way up there to rescue me both from a "risking his personal safety" aspect and a "please don't think of me as a girly girl now" way.

Anyway, that little story is to illustrate that I knew exactly how Jessica felt. She was standing still, clinging to the face of the lava flow with her toes and finger nails and the more she stood still the more she started to slide. Someone was going to have to help her out and although Bailey was able to lick her tears away he couldn't coax her down. Finally I had to climb up, without ropes, may I add, to her aid.

We have finally finally found something that shook Jessica. I assure you there isn't much that will!

After her wee scare we continued around the quarry to look for fossils. Jessica quizzed me as to what "fossils" actually are and I was gratified that she was impressed that my answers matched those of Daddy from a previous Q&A session. Obviously we have both been watching the same Sky programs! She found a stone that had markings on it (from then on anything that had a mark at all on it was a fossil by the way!) . She traced over it with her finger and pointed out that this was a fossil of the "cartoon character in The Pink Panther". I thought "Yea Yea" but in fact - when I looked at it closely it was the spitting image of Inspector Jacques Clouseau! She was right!

Right now the quarry is the number one place for entertainment - it has been a big hit and Iain and I are dreading when it is no longer available to us - dude - we may have to drive TWO miles to the local park then!

The more astute among you may recognise my new Garden Art and may even call it something along the lines of "a load of old off-cuts from a couple of railway sleepers" but it is ART and I am going to charge THOUSANDS for this!

Tags: Jessica, The Quarry, Garden, Family

I have just been informed that a trip to see my niece/nephew when he/she arrives would cost the equivalent of two family trips to Burger King or a couple of visits to Starbucks.

It may be time to lock down this journal so incriminating information can not be stored and cast up to me when deemed necessary by brothers who want to guilt-trip!

Mind you - a nice relaxing trip away for a weekend away from screaming kids might be a nice break . . . with a new-born. Huh uh. We'll see.

The Bailey Dog goes from strength to strength. Already we are wondering how we coped without him. While in the park this evening, I said to Iain that he had made us go out as a family for walks ten times more than we had EVER gone out before. I will allow you to think that is a little bit of an exaggeration because I know you think I exaggerate a lot - but - I don't really think it is far off the mark this time.

This evening we chose the Jessica Path over the Normal Path. I am not too sure how many other people have ever walked on that path as Jessica tends to march to the beat of her own drum, but apart from getting our feet soaking wet in the long grass, it was much nicer than the Normal Path. If you jump over to my Flickr you will see the most gorgeous surprise we found in the brambles and thorns and bushes on the special Jessica Path - about five brilliant yellow Tulips growing wild. They were beautiful, with long long stems. Such a nice thing to find by accident.

The photos here (forgive the lack of focus - something is up with my phone camera) are the result of me trying to snap a photo while Bailey is around. These are BEFORE Bailey notices me crouching, DURING an incoming attack and the AFTERMATH of a bombing of kisses.

Bailey ventures much farther away from us than he used to - before gaining all this new confidence he used to keep within a few feet of us but now he is happy to run off in to the undergrowth and then come hurtling back to us when he thinks we need herded up again.

We bought him a foam football the other day (in fact it seems impossible to go shopping without buying SOMETHING for him!) and he absolutely LOVES it. He runs around with it in his mouth and drops it somewhere in the general area of where he thinks our feet ought to be and demands another kick for it. He is such a happy, loving dog. He is happy to be in the same room as ANYONE who will pay him some attention but happiest when lying on top of Iain on the sofa. Of course, no dog of ours will ever be allowed on the sofa.

Seriously, I mean this, if you are at all having a hard time, needing a pick-me-up or just a reason to giggle now and then - you really ought to put yourself in the company of a dog (or pet at least). Bailey has done more for our family in the short amount of time that we have had him and I really don't like to think about a time when he wont be around!

We have had a fraught few months with Nanna.

Before Christmas she experienced symptoms and very quickly (relatively quickly - these things drag so much more in your mind than they do in real life) was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. She was assured that this was the "best kind of cancer to have" as if that was going to be some comfort to her. She had to go for a very scary MRI and endure months of knowing there was something inside of her that she didn't want to be there - however, the idea of having it removed scared her as much as keeping it.

She was finally scheduled for an operation this week and has been in and out again having had keyhole surgery at hospital. We can't really believe that she rang our work today to say that she was home already. Obviously she has to take things very easy over the next while and wont be allowed to do anything heavy like housework or driving but we were gearing ourselves up to having a few more evenings of visits ahead of ourselves.

She has been very brave about it all and coped so much better than I would have. I think this has been a bit of a shock to us all - you kinda take people for granted until something like this happens don't you?

The moral of this story is not to sit with symptoms for too long. The doctors have said that she acted very quickly and that wont have done any harm.

The next wee while will see her receiving biopsy news but going on what they have already led her to believe that should go ok. Everyone has their fingers crossed.

You think that if she is home today that there will soup at her house tomorrow huh?

Bad news on the Ronnie front. My mother took him back to the vet because he took a turn for the worse and he didn't come home with her this time. He is being cremated and here's hoping we don't have to attend any memorial for him when the ashes are scattered.

Speaking to my brother tonight on the phone about the cremation he wondered if they would consider a Buy One Get One Free deal . . . . See? It isn't just me who feels this way! At least I got her a Mother's Day present. And a card. He didn't even bother to ring her. What kind of son is he? :P

In a bizarre twist of weirdness, my mother's *other* dog, the one who went with the disappearing husband when he ran off with her best friend (oh yes - what a blog that would make!), the other dog called Katie, who she hasn't seen for ten years - wow how time flies - Katie - that dog - she had to be put down on the same day. How bizarre is THAT?

There has to be a common denominator here some where.

Huh uh.

I rest my case.

This week I had Jessica asking me if I could pick them up from school some day soon. I chose Friday, worked from home in the morning and then picked them up from school and headed out to a local park to meet up with Lorna, Ethan and Caitlin. We took Bailey and walked round to the enclosed fort. We stayed in there until someone came to throw us out. We then headed on round the lake, claiming logs as we went.

It was a lovely day with great light and I am happy with some of the photos I got. I think this one was my favourite. On this photo on Flickr I have inserted:

Jessica fell in love with this tree and demanded that I take her photo at it. When I wandered off she ran up to me and took me by the hand to pull me back to take more photos. I think this is great. I am really chuffed at this. As a child of a photographer I HATE getting my photo taken and would never ask for it to be taken so am pleased that I have done something right by not having scared her off YET.

I love this one of Bailey too. This was the first time he had been with us near water. He did very well paddling in it but hasn't quite grasped the idea of "fetch" yet and didn't go swimming despite Ethan's best efforts.

Ethan now has his own Flickr account and every single photo that he or Lorna took was accompanied with what could be written beside the photo when it was uploaded. I like a guy who can forward plan!

We finished the day by getting chips from the chip VAN in the village that is too posh to allow a chip SHOP to open. Judging from the queue, a chip shop would make a killing, financially speaking, of course.

We got a pup. This is a photo of him lying at my feet in work. He is between 4 and 8 months old depending on who you speak to. He is quite a big pup. He is the most gorgeous boy in the world and I love him. And so does David. And so does Jessica. And Iain is totally besotted by him too.

It is a very long story which I wont bore you with (I have promised not to become a doggy bore - but expect loads of photos of him nonetheless!) but he is the second dog to be living in our garage in less than a week. We were *gifted* a Border Collie pup on Friday night and it took us until Saturday morning to realise she was just NOT for us. David didn't like her - he has a bit of a thing about dogs and although I don't want to pamper to him - it is important that he bonds with our dog. They are going to be around each other a lot over the next few years hopefully. She also was a bit of a pyscho dog who paced up and down constantly and none of us managed to see her sleep the whole four days she was here.

This fella was picked up from the animal rescue centre, run by the bonkiest woman ever, on Sunday and has been an absolute dote since he got here. He is very quiet and very loving and just soaks up any attention we give him. He only got his second injection today so can't be taken out for a walk until the weekend and none of us can wait to see him running round the park.

It took until today for him to be named and it was someone in college who kinda pushed me towards one of Iain's choices. He came to us as Shep, then became Jake for a day, then all day yesterday he was "YouMyBoy?" every time I looked at him, then Iain got as far as the Bs in the online dog name list, then he was microchipped as Jake . . . until we went with one of the B names.

Meet Bailey. Isn't he a sweety?

One day, when I was about Jessica's age, my Uncle David ran a bath for me - just for me. I remember the bathroom and the house and that it was in the bathroom that he tried to tell me why it takes a split second for my brain to register that water is too hot. I have always adored really hot baths but couldn't understand then why some were "nice and hot" and some were "blister-causing-far-too-hot".

This particular time he called me in and there was an absolute mass of bubbles. Like OverKill of Bubbles. Death By Bubbles. For someone who always had to share baths with a horrible brother (who always got the non-tap end and therefore ALL the bubbles) this was heaven to me. I think, if I had known then what squeeing was, I would have been Squeeing Mightily that day.

I am not sure if he accidentally left the bath running and forgot about it, or if he did it as a special treat. Either would be possible, but the fact that he was sheepish and didn't tell me that it was a treat makes me always remember it as an accident - perhaps the top came off the bottle as he was pouring it.

Whatever.

It was a bath that has stuck with me forever.

I love bubble baths now and love to soak in one for Me Time / Down Time over anything else.