Party Memories

There is nothing like a bit of nostalgia and KathiJo's prompt on Lucky Snapping in 2013 is all about Party Memories.  I'm not a big 'party' person, I really prefer smaller groups, so when it came to organising something for my 50th I wanted it to be something I would really enjoy.  In the end  I had two parties, here is a little bit about what we did:

Party #1 was held at the Dalton Pottery where we painted various pots and had them fired at the pottery.  I was joined by my husband, sons and their partners, sister-in-law and mother-in-law.

Party #2 was celebrated at the Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews with my Mum, Great Aunt and my sister, the food was fabulous and the setting is stunning as you are in a glass box sitting out over the sea.

Enjoy!

Anne is in positive mood for our 'Reflect' challenge in May.  We are on our fifth letter of 'Silver Lining' and that is E.  Our word to reflect on is 'Enjoy'.

I have a very special 'Enjoy' to share with you but without any photographs.  Our grandson was born yesterday a healthy 8lb 8oz and Mum and baby were back home less than five hours after his birth!  Our son came round about 10pm last night to ask us to come and meet 'someone' next door.  We couldn't believe that he had arrived so quickly and was home so soon!  It was lovely to meet Mason, in his own home and to have a little cuddle.

Mason's Mum and Dad prefer not to have his picture online, so I'm afraid I can't show you this precious bundle.  But, without doubt, he will bring us many things to ENJOY!

Kit - Baby of Mine by Jen Yurko

The View - May 2013

So here we are at the beginning of May and time to show off our 'views'.  I know that some parts of the country are enjoying a warm and sunny Bank Holiday Monday, but here it is cold, grey with a cold wind that cuts right through you.  I think things have got rather mixed up this year, either that or there is something seriously wrong with this poem!

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

fills the children's hand with posies.

 In March I brought you 'flocks of pretty lambs, skipping by their fleecy dams', I did manage to find a 'primrose sweet' for April but they are even better now.

It's taken until May before I had enough dancing daffodils open and they are sparser than usual too.

And I see that we are expected to have tulips in June, when they are already open!

Let's hope we can manage some lilies and roses for June and get back on track.

I'm going to have a busy week as I am away for work, so I'll post the view from my kitchen window while I'm here, same view different angle!  By next month there should be more plants growing.

A birthday treat!

Last weekend my Mum and I travelled to London.  We went First Class on the train from Edinburgh to Kings Cross and stayed in a hotel close to Leicester Square.  Over the weekend we saw 'The Lion King' and 'Singing in the Rain', visited the Tate Modern, The Globe Theatre and the National Gallery, but the highlight was afternoon tea at The Dorchester.

We had almost finished our tea when the pianist started to play 'Happy Birthday to you', Mum turned to me and said "It must be someone's birthday", she was so surprised when the waiter brought the cake with lit candles to our table. 

It's not every day you reach your 80th birthday and not many 80 year olds would have the stamina to do all the things we packed into our weekend. It was a trip that we both will remember, and if you ever get the chance to have tea at the Dorchester, I can highly recommend it.

Musical Nostalgia!

When I saw the theme that Kathi Jo had chosen for Lucky Snapping this week, I immediately thought about these digiscrapping layouts which I made in 2008 for a challenge at, a now defunct, digi-scrapping forum.  Matthew and Son by Cat Stevens was the first record I ever bought in 1966, I still love it and at least it isn't something embarassing! Speaking of embarassing...that's me with our cat 'Jasper' round about the time I bought the record.

The second layout features Joni Mitchell's Miles of Aisles.  I think I bought this in 1976, just before I left home to go to university.  When I played it at home as my Dad always called her 'that wailing woman'!  It was a double album and I played it again and again.  I still listen to it to this day, it's a live album and contains a lot of her best work.  I highlighted the lyrics to Carey as that is probably my favourite track, it's one of the more upbeat tracks and always makes me smile.  I continued to buy Joni Mitchell's work, she hasn't done any new work recently, just re-worked old stuff, and I managed to see her in concert just the once.

It took some digging about in my folders to find these layouts, as my digital filing system leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm glad I did.

The Cloak of Invulnerability

I have found it difficult to decide what I can publish for Anne's "vulnerable" prompt and may write in more detail in my art journal, probably in a hidden panel. The reason for this is mostly about the vulnerability of others. The job I have. involves me in supporting people with different levels of vulnerability. I've been doing that for over 30 years, now I manage others to support those who are vulnerable. This, in turn, has revealed both the vulnerability of some of those staff and my own vulnerability. As my boss said to me "no one ever considers that we have feelings too".

In my home life, I also have a role to support family at both ends of the age spectrum, it seems that there is often no space for me to be vulnerable, I must always be the problem-solver, the strong one who copes.

I don't want it to seem like I am complaining, most of the time I am indeed that strong capable person, however underneath the Cloak of Invulnerability, I too can feel vulnerable.

Yesterday, there were some things going on which really got me down. My son came home from work and he came in for an update, I must have let the cloak slip as he asked me if I wanted a hug. It was the perfect response and as we hugged I felt so much better.

So next time you are feeling vulnerable, don't wait till someone offers, ask for a hug and let some one wrap you in their Cloak of Invulnerability. With apologies to JK Rowling.

Posted with Blogsy

Through my kitchen window in April

The view from my kitchen window is a little bit brighter than it has been in the last three months.  Still not much growth, but at least the sun is shining and it was a balmy 8C today!

I even managed to find some daffodils in flower, not on our road but about 1/2 a mile away.  I was on a mission to find some wild garlic which grows in the woods by a stream.

Some of it had been damaged by the snow, but I managed to gather enough new undamaged leaves to make some garlic butter.

No daisies to complete the poem yet though, maybe next week :-)