I am related to Churchill . . . apparently

 This is what Family Search tell me, but I am somewhat suspicious of their research. In fact, downright sceptical!  View the tree HERE.  It is a nice thought, to be his 11th cousin.  The name Clotworthy Skeffington is wonderful . . .

Lulu finally in possession of the Amazon bag

Well, progress has been made on the quilt and in the garden.  Yesterday, I finally sewed the first bit of sashing in and I have to say, the inaccuracies have backed off now and aren't so visible (except to my eagle eye!) Hoping to make more progress today but it's childcare day today and tomorrow, so I'm not holding my breath.  I have promised baking and sowing some seeds.  I  need to make another super-calorie rice pudding and Potato Dauphinoise too.  

Emma and Danny put the staging together yesterday, so I'm ready to go in the greenhouse (though I fear not much progress will take place for a while as it's currently minus 3 C . . .)  They also got cracking with the Summerhouse and Danny put some easing oil onto the screws and managed to get the jammed door off, and then sanded it top and bottom where the winter damp had swelled the wood. We managed to get Emma's heavy massage table up the steps and not fall in the pond with it :)  So things are taking shape and they will start decorating it next weekend, inside and out.  They cleared away leaves from the pond and we had a tidy up that end of the garden.  They bought two packs of wildflower seeds from Tesco to strew in the bottom paddock, so that should look pretty this summer.  It was sunny all day, and warmish despite there being a covering of snow on the hills round about here.  All in all we got plenty of fresh air, and little "I" had great fun outside.

I managed to force myself to make jam on Saturday, but the strawberry had to be boiled up again - did it in the microwave as a small amount, and then of course, it exploded, so ended up an even smaller amount in jars.  I also did Jumbleberry jam (had an order) and that hasn't set as I had a conflict with it being apparently ready for the jars, and Keith's lunchtime. So I will need to boil that up again today.

Keith is looking forward to warmer weather and has asked Danny to wheel him out to his workshop for half an hour or so when the weather is warmer and it's dry.  I have been grateful for Danny's help as sometimes it's a struggle getting Keith out of his chair (hoping that Jon will be able to manhandle into the car the riser chair we are buying from his mum - delivery on Saturday if so). Mealtimes are taking longer and longer and I always end up feeding him at some point.  We have a phone call from the Dietition on Wednesday afternoon. We've also had an NHS letter which says we note you are waiting for an appt., in Geriatrics, please let us know if you still need it . . . What use is that, no details of what the appt. might be for!

Right, onwards and upwards.  Hope everyone has some welcome sunshine.

R.I.P. Ghengis

 

Sadly when I got back from town this morning, Danny told me that Ghengis was on the way out - he had spotted him staggering across the lawn, unable to use his back legs, and it looked like he had had a stroke.  He had laid him on the sofa, and the poor old boy just looked so flat and frail.  I knew his time had come and so we took him straight down to the vet's to be pts.  He went very quickly as I stroked him and told him how loved he was.  He had a lot of love in his long life, spending all but 3or so of his probable 18 years with us.  

He arrived as a feral tom, and was never very big, but was a thug and a bully to all the other cats until we got him tame enough to go and be neutered, and he was a different cat after that.  No more rape and pillage.  He had a good life with us - only this morning he was sat next to Pippi up on the bank in the little bit of sunshine we had today.  I will miss him so - he sat beside me on the sofa every night, and sat beside me as I was on the computer, sitting on my mouse hand!  

As always, Danny stepped into the breach, went to the vet's with me, and came home and went out to dig a deep grave for him.  I will plant a rose by it - in fact I ordered one only last night, which I had in my garden at Ynyswen, and really loved, called Tuscany Superb, a deep crimson Gallica shrub rose with a lovely perfume.

D, E, I  and myself went out for a walk through the woods in the wet snow earlier - too wet for anything to lay but the distant hills have a sprinkling of white.  It was good to clear my head anyway, but a sad day here.

It's hard to hold back the tears, as all the grief I feel in losing Keith inch by inch has been released too.  

Fed up with daily rain

It has rained just about every day all through February, and now that March is here, it's still raining, so perhaps it will continue through March too.  Enough is enough!  Wednesday didn't go to plan as I found that my Dental appt. was 11 a.m. (same time as the Mosaic).  I didn't miss much anyway.  It was just very basic square chips, making a coaster.  

Here is the Indo-Persian warrior horse that D&E bought at the Fair.  Colourful.  Its temporary residence is in our living room fireplace until they tidy up the fireplace in their bedroom.  The bits across the horse's hips are to take sabres, and I think the warrior would have seized the sabres in them and brandished them as he galloped into battle.

Shopping in Brecon didn't take place until yesterday. We're now all stocked up again for the week and the fridge and freezer are bulging with the grub from two households.  Emma doesn't know Brecon and loved the scenery over the Eppynt mountains, and the view of the Brecon Beacons.  

Closeup of a lovely inlaid late Victorian side table Keith fell for at the Fair.  Staying here at the moment.

Whilst this was my only purchase - a lovely vintage heavy brass greyhound-type dog standing 8"or so high (20cm).

I have finally finished some official paperwork which has been hanging over me for far too long, and am ripping apart the final block of the dodgy row. P.H.E.W.  Sashing will be used - I'm not even going to try and line anything up going down the rows!  This afternoon Emma and I are going to get the staging made up.  That will be real progress. 

Keith's had his neck massaged, Emma's got paint on order for the Summerhouse and the buddha, so we just need a drier day or two!  

More veg seeds bought yesterday - Emma is going to grow Peppers, Radishes and Rocket, along with various herbs and probably more veg when the ground is prepared.

A wailing and gnashing of teefs!

Late afternoon sunshine on my walk the other evening.

Oh this little quilt is driving me nutso.  By the time I get to start work on it, having done all the chores (which take hours), I am already tired and I am on the last row, which seems to have all the duff blocks in it, meaning I have to take the stitch ripper to all of them. I just want it finished! 

Yesterday's sunrise was actually a lot more colourful but the only rosy one I took was through a filthy window.  (Result of having roof scraped).

Looks a bit more like with a different setting (the artists' palette one on my camera).  

A busy day today - Emma, little "I" and I are going to a Mosaic making class at Wyeside Arts Centre in town this morning, then off to Brecon for a change to do the Food Shopping this afternoon.  Danny will be here for Keith of course.  They won't have to cook tonight as I made a big Spicy Lentil and Vegetable stew which has a cheese scone cobbler topping.  Enough for two meals for them all, and the stew made enough for another which I have frozen.

A very special family day

 We were celebrating Tam's pregnancy, and Gabby insisted she had a Baby Shower.  She opened the gifts from us here at the house (Gabby had bought on my behalf as that was easiest for me).  The baby clothes brought tears to my eyes and made the coming birth (around a month away) seem real for the first time.  I have been constantly distracted by caring for and worrying about Keith so it's all gone on over my shoulder, so to speak.

Then we met up for lunch in Rhayader.  Various friends and family.  The two respective grannies at the far end.  First grandchild for both of us.  She's sat next to Ellie, one of Tam's best friends from school days.  I'm sat next to one of Tam's friends from Aber (whose name evades me), then Tam, and then Emma.  "I" came too and was very good and made a conquest with the young man playing on the kitchen  toy.

I am the shrunken one on the right!!  I think I just had the lowest chair :)

Gabs and I.

My two gorgeous daughters.

Tam smiling at some gorgeous soft toys.

Shattered now as I have been very hard at work all morning (6 hours) - cat litter - two trips out to empty the tub as it was full from yesterday compost caddy emptied and washed; two lots of washing - one D&E's as they are away today, so eleventy odd socks to hang up again; taking car down to get new wiper blades fixed as the old ones had shredded, and I got the paper and sorted out a prescription at the same time; lots of recycling and taking a heavily laden wheelie bin for a walk to the end of the lane.  Plus helping Keith with his breakfast and lunch and emptying a Georgian drain (which are very basic soakaways and soon get blocked.)

Now, back to sewing that crawler quilt.  Blocks roughly laid out on the bed.  Only definite was the darkest ones each became corner blocks.  First two rows sewn up and looking good.

A family day out

 

Well, it happened - we got Keith to the Botanic Gardens Antiques Fair and went around for 3 hours.  We took both the Mobility Scooter and the wheelchair, as I wasn't sure how sore his neck was. He wanted to use the scooter, but worried me when he said if we got up to the Fair and his neck was too sore, we could bring it back and get the wheelchair instead.  Being the one who has to (laboriously) put the ramps up to load  and unload, I said the wheelchair was the better option - especially as I could see he was struggling to hold his head up after the journey there.  I felt a heel, but it worked out well in the end and we had a lovely family day out.  Tam came along, and of course D/E/I were there too.  The latter ended up buying a smashing painted Indian warrior horse (photo to follow).  I only bought a Vintage heavy brass greyhound (again, photo to follow).   Keith bought a few military related things and saw his friends and had a great time, though I think he probably slept well last night as it was a long tiring day for him.

Sorry - I took the camera, but left it in the car, so you will have to make do with two photos Tam took with her phone for me .  These are the two things I would have liked to have brought home.

Anyway, great excitement here because it's Tamzin's Baby Shower, and she's about to open her presents here (tears when I saw them!! Gabby went shopping for me).  Then we're off to Rhayader for a meal and to meet up with the others.  Back anon.

What a lovely surprise :)

Nearly forgot - we had a brilliant evening yesterday.  Vanya was set on a farm in 20th C Ireland, rather than Russia.  Andrew Scott was a true tour-de-force - how can anyone learn their lines and act half a dozen different characters non-stop for 2 hours?  He was so convincing I kept expecting the characters to step through the door on the set!  If you get the chance to see this by satellite at a cinema near you, do so as you will enjoy it.  One of the reviews (The Standard) called "this one-man Vanya is a revelation and a sensation" and described it as a tragi-comedy.  Emma and I had a glass of wine from the bar, and then waited for Danny in one of the pubs in town and had another.  I slept well last night (indeed, I wasn't in bed till nearly midnight).

I had to go to Crossgates today to pick up a baby changing trolley for Tam.  Of course, she knew I would go on to the Plant Nursery afterwards.  I needed seed compost, general compost, and some more Alpines  (4 Albrieta) to go along the steps and a Rosemary plant.  Emma wants to grow herbs, so this is a starter for her.  We'll put it in a pot in the yard, which is very sunny - no, I'll rephrase that, it's south-facing!  Sun has been at a premium here recently.  I met a lovely lady at the nursery who had moved here 3 months ago from Midhurst in Sussex.  She said forlornly, "It's rained every day since we got here" but the Nursery owner and I both reassured her that it didn't normally rain this much in Powys, and last May and June we'd had a heatwave with not a drop of rain for two months.  

Weather is weather - difficult to predict and not much fun when it's too cold/hot/wet.  Think what it was like in the Little Ice Age and they had Frost Fairs on the Thames - the latest one of those was in 1814.  Then that dreadful storm surge down the East Coast in 1953.  The Somerset Levels regularly have regularly flooded from time immemorial, and HERE is a looooong list of freak weather and flashfloods in Wales down the centuries.

Anyway when I got home, I found that Emma had done all the housework, including washing the kitchen floor and cleaning all the cat bowls, cleaning the very grubby windows on the French windows, vacuuming, dusting - what a delight.  She and Danny make our life much easier.

A not very sharp photo of L.Whale last summer. The kittens always seem to hog the limelight.

We are hoping Keith will be ok to go to the Botanic Gardens Antiques Fair tomorrow.  We have the mobility scooter on charge - but we had to break into Keith's workshop to do so, as the keys to the padlock had gone missing.  I went through all my pockets, but no.  Any tools to cut through the chain or the padlock were - naturally - inside the workshop!  Danny was trying to cut through the padlock handle with a hacksaw (highway to nowhere!) but I had a brainwave and got a big claw hammer from the tools in the house and went for the weakest link - a blacksmith-made staple from over 130 years ago when the stables were built.  The wood gave - just the long spikes of the staple bent a little and we have kept it.  Straighten out the prongs and it's good to go for another 130 years! So, we got in and the mobility scooter is on charge now.  We shall of course, find the keys tomorrow!

Pippi and little "I".  Her mum gave me permission to use the photo.