Okay, totally weird.... just had two calls, first one I didn't get to in time, the next one I answered... a girl, said she had lost her phone in the house, so called it, like we all do, and it was answered as she hung up!!!  So she called it again and I answered it... as it was my phone that was ringing.... she read her phone number back to me, and it was my number too!!!???? Same supplier.... this is weird isn't it, anyway the call was lost and I tried to call it, my number back, to see if 'she' answered it, I got a busy signal, of course and a missed all afterwards!!  She said she had had this number for a couple months, I on the other hand must have had it for 7 or 8 years.... Weirder and weirder...



Vets.... there is a 12 hour break between the word 'Vets' and now... a most awful 12 hours!  Took Pippa to the vets for 5pm appointment, she needed her parvo shot and a check on a gum problem I noticed earlier, [yesterday], she had her shot, we discussed the over night stay she will need to fix her teeth, my poor baby had lost a tooth, has another wobbly one, and her gums need a good sorting out, she always had such good clean pink gums, they seem to have deteriorated in a matter of months... anyway... Came home, and Pippa slept, and slept, and slept... Then about 9pm ish, she started running about crazy like, up and down the stairs, digging in her bed, trying to get under the throws, scratching, then back up stairs and making a ruckus up there, this went on for a while, she sometimes has crazy moments, so to start just thought she was having a loony moment... then about 9:30pm she ran back towards me, I looked at her and almost screamed!  Her whole head had almost doubled in size, the fur sticking out all over, her whole face was out of proportion and she looked like a whole different animal, it was awful, her eyes were like slits, and she was so distressed, I got straight onto the vets over-night line, a vet called me back and after a discussion we got ready and took her straight to the vets, it was nearly 10pm now.... he gave her a steroid shot into a vein, and an anti histamine pill, straight to the back of her throat! My poor baby, it was awful, I was so scared for her, when we got back she was still very very distressed, couldn't rest and kept running and digging about, some huge red circles appeared on her belly, the only place she has no hair, so could easily be seen of course, she slept eventually, and I kept checking on her all through the night, I was so scared she could worsen over night...

This morning she is better, her face and neck are still slightly swollen, but her eyes are looking much better,  and I threw another anti histamine down her throat... she has eaten, of course, and done all the usual dog things!  And at this very moment it tapping her foot against the kitchen cupboard where her biscuits are kept.... she is definitely feeling better!

TTFN
Marian

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday to my Mom today.... she may be out of sight, but never out of mind, like a priest once said at another funeral, "when a ship sails away, out of sight, it is only out of sight by us, and on another land, sails into view, and we know the ship still sails...."

Mom and I in Rome, what a great vacation... two weeks of flying around Italy in a coach with a bunch of strangers who became friends, mom won a bread Frascati lady with three breasts, one for white wine, one for red, and one for... milk!

1928 was a leap year....

New York 1928 and the Brooklyn Bridge...

Mom was born in a bad storm, and similarly in March when she passed away the storm came again and took her...

Missing Mom

By Claudia Lee

I awake each morning to start a new day
But the pain of losing you never goes away.
I go about the things I have to do
And as the hours pass I think again of you.
I want to call you and just hear your voice
Then I remember that I have no choice
For you are not there and now my heart cries
Just to see you again to tell you goodbye
To say Mom I love you and I always will
And hope that much of you, in me you’ve instilled.
The day that you left I just didn’t know
That you were going where I couldn’t go.
And now all my memories of you are so dear
But gosh, how I miss you and wish you were here.
Who now can hear me when I need to cry?
It so hard to tell you “Mom goodbye.”
Someday I know all will be well
And I’ll see you again with stories to tell
Of how you were missed and how we have grown
And how good it is to finally be home.
Until then my memories of you I’ll keep near
And I’ll pass them on to those who are dear.
I miss you Mom...

I am still coughing well, should go to doctors tomorrow for my bp check, see how the weather is first me thinks, slept a bit better... Yesterday evening I suddenly felt about 10% better in one hit, not sure if adrenaline can do that!!! I got up off the sofa and got my foot caught in the computer cable, lap top was off, but I always [did] leave the cable out, under but behind my feet, well, I was getting up, and reaching for a pack of printer paper as I went, so you can guess, I fell, big time, I really fell, completely fell!  I hit the coffee table, with my back, hit the floor with the rest, predominately I hit and hurt my left knee, left hip and left elbow as I hit the fireplace with it! somehow I didn't smash my head on the fire, so you could call it a lucky fall! 

Anyway it was a shock, it hurt like hell and I cried, and Pippa came to lick my face clean, I couldn't get up on my own, so had to be pulled up, can't believe it, what a plonker eh!  So I am not allowed to have the cable under my feet any more and it is now, as I write behind me on the sofa!  A little bruising, but taking its time, and I find my bones must be harder than I have been worrying about, so going skiing later, or should that be bob-sleighing!

We heard about Cardiff last night, all snowed in, and most of the area of Wales where we live, but us?  Not a sign of it!  I got up a few times overnight to check out the window, but the street outside remained calm, snow and frost free!  The second time our local friendly fox was passing by trotting [do they trott!] up our street, with a jaunty look on his face!

Our car amazingly had a sprinkling of snow on its roof when we went out about 9am'ish, but that was it!  In Swansea this morning everyone was speaking about the snow in the surrounding villages, people couldn't get into the city centre.... and then we got back, and half an hour later, look at it!

We went from none, to a road that has turned into a bob-sleigh run! And downhill is where most of the vehicles are ending up!!! Blooming heck 2nd gear!!!! Do I have to spell it out!!! SECOND GEAR!!!!

The garden, is so pretty!!! Pippa loves it, she has been out about a dozen times since it started!!

The neighbourly fox was walking up the street as we drove in, and about an hour ago, a walker on the path suddenly froze as 'he' came out of a neighbours driveway, and over the path and made a run for it up the road!!  Shock! I am getting used to see his friendly face!

Okay now don't go crazy on me... there has been a gap of about an hour, Franco took Pippa out, harness, lead, the lot, well all bar wellington boots, on her!  They came back after a few minutes, the snow was okay, so I joined them and went for a wonderful walk, not slippery on the paths, watching cars, which on the otherhand, were all over the place, like a bunch of drunks after a good night out, and then left abandoned!  I seriously can't get over how much Pippa loves the snow, running through it, raising her nose and sniffing and barking into it!  She got out of breath and was panting through sheer joy of it!

Can't believe how much snow fell in such a short time, goes to show when I last saw it, I suppose it was three years ago really, when I was here, and saw snow nearly every day for over two months!!!  It's stopped now, but the sky still shows a promise of gifts yet to come...

Snow
Now
O'ribble
Weather

TTFN
Marian

There are things in life we know nothing of, don't worry I am not getting all deep and meaningful, just for a change, although thinking ahead the last bit will be somewhat melancholy...

I am talking about just normal stuff I suppose, you just don't think about it unless you come across it, "for instance?" I hear you say... Well Blythe has arrived, do you think she looks like me? The photo is maybe not taken in a very good light, her eyes in this pic are red! [although at the moment I think mine are too!]

Anyway, of course now I am thinking, can't leave her laying about, like a lay-about! And Pippa is already showing an interest in her, and I doubt very much she knows the difference between one of her toys and one of... No!!! stop there, Blythe is not a doll[y]!!  Anyway, I thought, well I can get a box, plastic shop front kind of thing, lid etc, used to make 'homes' like these when I was a kid, mom's groceries came delivered on a Friday, and during holidays I couldn't wait to get a hold on the box and make a room or a whole house out of it!  Anyway, as per the norm I digress, I have just googled Room displays, and all the other names I could think to call them, and what I have come up with!!!

Bare with, I will show you! Why not eh?

In fact here is the link to far too many to show... http://miniatures.about.com/od/dollhousecommunity/ig/Roomboxes-Seattle-Fall-2010/The-Hatmaker-by-Kristine-Hill.htm

How incredible is this!! and who would have known!  I know all about dolls houses, having had two already, a beautiful bungalow I designed and we had made by a guy in Covent Garden Market, that poor thing, the dolls house I mean! ended up with real lives being born inside it... field mice as it happens! And I guess is still somewhere in the UK, I hope so, I gave to a charity.

Then a few years later I bought another one, in kit form, and painted it an horrendous flamingo pink, the color of our bathroom, which also, looked horrendous by the way!

So I know about dolls houses, and I know about display stuff, but had never realised the depth and brilliance of some of them, true works of art in themselves, never mind what they're displaying!

And me? Had a sore throat the week before last, then last week a cough started, and since, has just become worse and worse, its a real chest infection type thing, I make the most attractive rasping gurgling noises directly from my lungs, without even opening my mouth!  "How very unladylike" I, once again, hear you say!  Its keeping me awake, its irritating and I just can't breath!  I have to see the doc one day this week, so if it, and I, am still here I might tell him about it!!

Now the melancholy thing... it was on Call the Midwife, from Sunday night? A young woman had a baby, [well of course, that's what the blooming program is all about, you stupid woman!] I said that!!

So, young woman gave birth, and told the midwife a few days later...

"As soon as I knew I had had a daughter, I knew I had a friend for life...."

And that made me cry then, as now... My mom must have felt like that, there she was in LA, my dad going, then gone, and it was just she and me... its my mom's birthday in two days...

And on this note, I'm off, to blow into my hankie, and not just because of my cold...

TTFN
Marian

It's ShNOW time!!!  Apparently our snowfall hasn't been that bad, compared to rest of the UK, well, its still snowing and we're in a rare Red Alert area, the only in the UK!!! A foot of snow is expected, although not holding out much hope of that!!!

The sky above the house, pretty much the color of slush, and I don't mean, raspberry flavour!

The wood [our garden jungle], looks quite pretty I think, maybe if I further in, I will find the lamp post, and see the light through the wardrobe full of fur coats, then further in the spare bedroom of an uncles house, and all the time I have spent in this world will miraculously disappear! 

Oh, well not everything of course, do we have the option for picking and choosing... has the snow got in my head, sounds like it!  Not snow blindness, snow madness.....

 Even the palm tree is covered in snow!  Its falling much much heavier now, the snow I mean, although the state of the palm tree I wouldn't be surprised if it collapsed under weight, I don't think, until I trimmed it properly in the summer, that it had ever been trimmed in its life!

View down over the valley, can't even see the mountain beyond!!

There was no snow last night, but about 4 or 5am it started and was about an inch or so by 6am!  Franco went off to work about that time, not too bad out there, about an hour later, I could hear a van trying to get up the road, I got up and peered out the window, he was right out side, and sliding about all over the place, I thought for a minute he was going to slide into our neighbours cars!  He let it go back a bit, then kept trying to make it up the hill, I went back to bed and could hear his clutch wining, I'm surprised he didn't burn it out!  I wanted to go out there and tell him to just stop, hand brake on, put it into 2nd gear, and slowly pull away up the hill... nice and steady!  I remember on a driving lesson in Hemel Hempstead, we got to the bottom of a really steep hill, and my instructor said he would get us up the hill, I wanted to do it!  So passing by all the people sliding about or just given up, I did the above and got us to the top of the road and on we went!  I had spent a long time driving with Dave! And I remember another day in the snow, again in Hemel, just before Baz was born!!! pushing a white van up a steep incline!

Wednesday we went to the Rheola market again, it was till quite, hopefully more people will come when they know its there, the Clydach market closed so you would think people would drive to this one instead, they had to drive to that anyway, so it's not too different!  It was cold, and the car park was like an ice rink, but soon they're moving to a nearby location and it will be much warmer!!!  More closed in and no windows!

TTFN
Marian
 

Love this quote above, purloined [favourite word] from Rhonda Byrne's The Secret...

I am so pleased with most book I have published, check out my book Blog site... got the book in my hot hands today, and couldn't believe how great it is, the size, the quality, the whole sherbang! If I do say so myself!

Been working away all day, busy with work, and then loads to do with books sites, promotions etc, getting a bit of a headache now, not sure if its from computer work or a forthcoming cold, hopefully not the latter, have taken pain killers, either way!

My cousin sent me a link to a short video from the travel channel in the states, showed a barbers where a gangster got shot, a barbers shop belonging to our family!!  Ooops!  I wonder sometimes how different my life would have been if I had remained in the states, and then, how different again if my mom and dad had stayed in New York rather than moving to LA where I was born... Sorry many different paths in life eh!

I feel a poem should be living here,
Which one? I fail to see...
So there will be none I fear,
Next time my friends, there shall be!
[phah, there better be, because that was c**p!]

TTFN
Marian

 

I am obsessed with finding one of these, Blythe Dolls!  How cute she is!  To put with my 50yr Birthday Barbie doll!  Yes this is me talking, or the small girl inside maybe!!!

I came across these Blythe Dolls completely randomly.... and now, the search is on!

Went to Resolven, to the Rheola market, its a car boot sale now on a Wednesday, and today was the first one, so a bit quite, but still enough to have a good look around, the meat market was there and 4 or 5 eateries!

In the afternoon I went for a walk with a friend to Aberavon beach, we parked at one end, walked along the promenade [posh], then walked all the way back to the other end of the beach on the beach side, was such a beautiful day today after the last couple of grey days...

I am going to try to walk, if not every day, then every other day, wearing my trainers and stepping out!  I saw a cardiologist today, and he says the meds I am on, I will have to take for the rest of my life, hopefully he meant, another 50 years eh! lol... he doubled the strength of one med, and took me off another one that is real strong, and had been given to me in Malaga hospital, but were not meant for long term... So back to the two again now!
Also I should be having another halter heart monitor test sometime soon.  Now I know what to do with it, I'm afraid I was unaware of the instructions last time!

Okay amigos, need a poem, and I know just the one!

I once had a sweet little doll dears,
The prettiest doll in the world,
Her cheeks were so red and so white dears,
And her hair was so charmingly curled.
But I lost my poor little doll dears
As I played on the heath one day.
I searched for over a week dears,
But I never could find where she lay.

Oh, I found my poor little doll dears
As I played in the woods one day.
Folks say she is terribly changed dears
For her paint is all washed away.
With her arms trodden off by the cows dears,
And her hair not the least bit curled,
Yet for old sakes sake she is still dears -
The prettiest doll in the world.
The Lost Doll by Charles Kingsley

TTFN
Marian
 

Rhosilli beach today, weather wasn't especially sunny, but the day was bright, and mild, first we walked down along the beach, quite a walk down, then watched the surfers at play!  Back up was harder, made worse by an incoming phone call, I was already breathing hard as it was!  I had to say 'goodbye' and speak to you later.... it was either walk up the mountain, or talk, couldn't do both, yes yes yes, unusual for me I hear you say!!

As we reached where the causeway should have been, had the tide been out, I looked around the corner and spied these sheep hanging on by their hooves! is it hooves?? Yes it is! And as Pippa saw them she went on tippy toe, to have a better look!

 

 

The rock formation here is amazing, it looks like it has been built by a giant child out of building blocks!

These sheep who look they are Baa Baa'ing our way... were actually coming up behind us, an escort of sheep!  They wouldn't come past, because of Pip, and were there because the sign on the gate saying All dogs to be kept on leads was not being adhered to, by people who think its one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us!  So everywhere they and they're jack russel and oddly, sheep dog, went, the sheep ran away from!  And I must now get off my soap box about it!!! Drives me crazy!

And on this note, I will be bid you adieu!

Old walls, secrets and moss, in moonlight bathe.
Leaves blanket the ground and whisper softly in the night breeze.
Columns of branchless trees, cut on an ancient lathe.
A Sanctuary in my mind, to return to whenever I please. 

Old Walls
by Robert Stagemyer

TTFN
Marian 

Well, here it is the most expected 2013!  Happy New Year everyone.... Glad you can't hear me saying this, still trying to get over my negativity over Christmas!

Still the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and and at last the fireworks are over, "they better be!!", started about 6pm last night, for some people they didn't seem to know it wasn't midnight yet?? Or they were celebrating New Years Eve in a different country!!  So poor ol Pip had to put up with random rockets from then until about 2am!

This isn't a very good way to start the year is it, I'm sorry folks, other things on my mind, which will be revealed in due course, or course!

So, I wish you all, good health primarily, wealth, and much much happiness in this coming year, we will ride it out together, the highs the lows, and the adventures ...


New Year’s Reflections   Looking back on the months gone by,
As a new year starts and an old one ends,
We contemplate what brought us joy,
And we think of our loved ones and our friends. Recalling all the happy times,
Remembering how they enriched our lives,
We reflect upon who really counts,
As the fresh and bright new year arrives. And when I ponder those who do,
I immediately think of you. Thanks for being one of the reasons I'll have a Happy New Year!   By Joanna Fuchs  

TTFN

Marian