Monday Music - Lovely Day

It's a typical Bank Holiday Monday in England, i.e. raining...

So here's some some sunny music :)

I LOVED Bill Withers in my mid-teens *sigh* and still do, in fact...

Virtual Coffee Tuesday - Hope You Don't Mind...

... following a route taken the other day

http://decide-what-you-want.blogspot.com/2011/05/come-aboard-for-scoot-into-town.html

... and meeting me in my favourite cafe/deli

I'm exhausted after TWO hospital appointments yesterday, but want to catch up with you lovely VT peeps...

So let's order, settle down and let the chat flow...

How are you?
Are your kids on sommer break yet? Or even half term? Ours break up on Friday...
Have you read any good books lately? Seen any good films? Been to any exhibitions?
Made any artwork or crafts? Cooked any scrummy meals?

I'm all ears...

xx :)

Being Brave and Honest...

Many people and things inspire me - not least the wonderful beings in Blogland...

People like dear Christina over at A Mermaid in the Attic. Yesterday was the anniversary of her baby girl's birth and death and she shared her Lullaby for a Lost Mermaid...

Having lost several babies myself, this touches me deeply...
We only have the marker of one child's death to visit - the other three being deemed miscarriages by the doctors - but at Connie's little grave we remember them all, as they all were Never Known, Always Loved...

This year she would have become an adult(!), but to my heart and mind, she and her other brothers and sisters, are timeless...

Christina's rawly honest, beautiful lullaby echoes my own heart's song.

As does this favourite sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, which can be seen in the new Hepworth Wakefield Gallery, which opened today.

Hepworth courted controversy throughout her life - not least when she put her triplets, by fellow artist Ben Nicholson, in care when they were small so she - and presumably he - could pursue her art. As every artist-mother knows, our children inspire so much, yet they can take away the very time and energy needed to bring this inspiration to light and form...

Certainly this is Tracey Emin's view...

In this week's Culture Show she talks about her new exhibition Love Is What You Want, and describes her art as her children.

Now, Emin has never been a favourite artist of mine - her work often 'shouts' too much for me (though i can understand her inner rage, she was raped aged 13 and aborted twins when she was 18) - but she is honest and articulate and I respond to that...

As for me, I'm still not brave enough to explore my experiences of motherhood in my own art - the hurts and joys are soooo intertwined... though I know, deep in my being, that this an incredibly rich vein to mine... 

Maybe, this post is the first scratch at the surface *GULP*

Come Aboard for a Scoot Into Town...

I so enjoyed lunch together yesterday, I thought I'd invite you to scoot into town with me and see the sights of Grantham - such as they are!

I decided to brave the threatening clouds, as I can only get into town when Nick's working from home, just in case my less-than-trusty steed doesn't make it home...

This is the scenic route...

... a little cut-through lane out of the estate... It may not be the safest route after dark, but in the daytime, with all the birds singing, it's a joy!! And it opens onto the bowling green and tennis courts...

And opposite, is a grand Georgian house *sigh* which is now an old folks' home...

... and I had to take a couple of close ups of the wild roses tumbling over the fence...

... the bees love them...

Past the tennis courts, a playing field opens up, backed my majestic trees, which do a grand job of hiding the fast train track down to London! Sadly, they do nothing for the noise... which is always such a shock after the birdsong and the gentle thud of tennis balls!

Turning left we join the main path and road into town.
It used to be the Great North Road and was the only route to London before they built the A1 and the by-pass. It's hard to imagine stage-coaches rattling along here amid the din of modern-day traffic, but it becomes easier as the path becomes North Parade - my favourite street in Grantham - lined with lime trees and flanked by Georgian townhouses and villas *sigh*

Then into town itself...

I admit I couldn't bring myself to show all the boarded-up shops and retail units for let - it's just too depressing and too familiar a sight throughout the Western world at present. So i'll show you a couple of unique features of the grand olde towne of Grantham.

St Wulfram's spire dominates the skyline - built in the 1300s and standing 282 feet tall! Click on this link to see pictures of the inside - it is breathtaking!!

Just down the road from this shot stands The Angel and Royal, the oldest surviving English inn, built in 1203...

... and in the centre of town stands the Guildhall built in 1866 with Isaac Newton's statue standing in front. Sir Isaac was born down the road from Grantham in Woolsthorpe in 1643 and attended The Kings School, which my son now attends(!) in 1655--60.

And that, my friends, is the grand tour of Grantham!

Phew! I'm exhausted, how about you??

Hope you enjoyed it, though :)

Join me for lunch...??

Feeling a tad blah today, don't know why... the never-ending grey sky? Being alone when I'd like some company?

So I put Jamie Woon in the CD player (poor boy!!) and made my favourite lunch - lightly grilled salmon steak on a bed of fresh salad with a dash of Hellman's extra-light mayo with lemon...  

Having polished that off, I thought,'What I would really like right now is a hot chocolate...'.
In the pantry I always have my favourite 70% chocolate grated for such an occasion... don't you just love the Weck jar? It was full of naughty truffles for Christmas from my most favourite ever online shop.

And being a generally health-conscious girl, I used low-fat milk and naughty-but-nice low-fat squirty cream...
Of course it's not as full-on decadent as real clotted cream, but it's a just-fine substitute :)

And boy, did it taste g-o-o-d!!!!

And I have to say, having spent some virtual time with my virtual friends, I feel a lot less blah, so thank you :)

Maybe we should share lunch more often....

Virtual Coffee Tuesday - Come In and Sit a While...

Hello again! I cannot believe how quickly these Tuesdays come around...

But, thankfully, I have time for a proper chat and I've taken pictures!!

And just for Bodhi Chicklet I've taken a few of the roses out the front of the house :)

I adore big, blousy roses and these are so sunny on a grey, chilly day...

And these white roses are right in front of the door...

After incredible temperatures in April, May is proving quite a shock! So I have the gas fire on...

... there are no complaints from Molly curled up to the left of the fireplace :)

We had quite a scare with her this past week - she didn't return home before we went to bed on Wednesday, so Nick left the study window open for her. We have no idea when she came home, but thankfully she was there on her cushion on Thursday morning... but when she walked over to say 'good morning' she was limping badly... Nick took her to the vet to be checked over, and thankfully no bones were broken but her claws were badly 'traumatized'. The vet assumed she'd got trapped or fell somewhere and gave her a painkiller shot... She's still not quite herself, but she's home and safe...

I realized I never showed these wonderful creations Esther made me for Mothers Day way back when... She is quite the crafter! The green crane was made at school, then she found instructions on youtube for the lily and the frog...

The bowl was actually made by my baby brother in woodwork at school and was a wedding present (Yes, there's quite an age gap between us!) I confess I cannot remember what wood it is, but I adore and treasure it :) And I do not know when or where the pinecones came from... they're almost as old as the bowl!!

And this last picture is of a birthday card - I just love it! Click on the image to enlarge and enjoy :) And in the background is a sock monster Esther made a few years ago when she first learnt to sew. It's rather delicate now, but another precious treasure...

Well, when I sat down to write this, my intention wasn't to share such treasures per se - I just grabbed the camera and started snapping - but I'm glad I have! You can learn so much from the things a person keeps in their home and next week, I think I'll share some of my favourite books! One thing you cannot fail to notice when you walk into our house are ALL the books!! The other is ALL the artwork... but those are for future Tuesdays :)

I've just popped over to Amy's and today's Virtual Coffee post is up...

Virtual Coffee Tuesday - Better Late than Never...

It's actually dinner-time here in the UK, but I wanted to catch up a bit - having missed coffee last Tuesday...

I ended up being out most of the day, having received a last-minute invitation to attend a training day being run in Lincoln by Saebo and got to play with one of these!

It's a truly amazing gizmo!

Sadly I'm not able to benefit right now having recently had botox to relax my arm. But the hope is, as the botox wears off (in roughly 2.5 months), and I'm able to clench my fist again, I'll get to work with the Saeboflex properly. My physiotherapist even hopes, using the Saeboflex on a strict exercise regime (45-min session, twice a day), I may not need botox again, and hope against hope, I may even gain some use in my right hand again!!

WOW! Space-age technology or what??!!

And how have you all been? Did you US moms have a lovely Mothers Day on Sunday? We had ours in the UK back in March...

And hopefully, wherever you are in the world, Spring has finally broken through! Here, we seem to have rushed straight to full-blown summer - I cannot believe how full and richly green the trees and hedgerows look!!

If you have time, stop by Amy's and catch-up with the other Virtual Coffee-ers, and I will try again next week to have more time and more photos to share.

Till then x

Monday Music - Lady Luck

I've just discovered Jamie Woon...

What a voice! Real R 'n' B - and he's English!!

Monday Music - Old Soul

I love Thea Gilmore's music. She's incredibly prolific and has just released another album today.

Apparently, she wrote this song while heavily pregnant with her son. You can see an interview with her here.