Friday's Fave Five - 24/3/17

 

It's Friday Saturday so once again it's past time to join Suzanne for Friday's Fave Five. Click here for full details.

I think I'm stuck in a revolving door!  Last time I posted a FFF I started off saying I was a day late and a week behind and here we go again....

Plus yesterday's post had a few blessings mentioned in it so now I'm having to think of some more but here we go:

 

1)  My back is better.  And my knee is coping with more walking.  I'm being good at doing my exercises.  I combine them with cleaning my teeth!  Leg lifts and sit to stand all done from the edge of the bath.  I have an electric toothbrush that recommends and times 2 minutes worth of brushing and I can get the exercises done in that time!

2)  Sunshine!  Not much but some.  Better than none especially when I want to keep up the walking.

 

3)  More progress with the decorating project.  Just need to paint the door frame and window now then we can sort out new carpet and getting things back to normal.

 

4)  Lunch with friends.  We're trying to get back into our routine for this to encourage our widowed friend to get out and we met up last Friday.  I'll be hosting the next one after we all get back from various trips.

 

5)  A simple knitting trick picked up from a blogging friend - putting a lifeline in a complicated piece of work.  I'd never heard of it and wish I'd heard of it sooner when I had to unravel quite a lot of rows on my current project.  But now I'm prepared!

 

And of course a supportive blogging network.  Thanks to those who commented on yesterday's post following the recent events in London.  We weren't directly affected and living in London you know there's always a risk of terror attacks but we just get on with life.  We have to.

Hope you're having a good weekend whatever you're up to.  It's Mother's Day here tomorrow and I'm out for lunch with 2 of the kids and their wives.  Looking forward to it.

 

Thursday 23/3/17 - the day after

I feel like I've been MIA again!  

Pulling my back and being out of action didn't do much for my mood which hasn't been great recently.  The weather and dark nights do not help and looking around seeing all the things I want to get done not being done just compounds the whole thing.

And then stuff happens that makes you realise how lucky you are and that you really shouldn't be whining.

Like a nice sunny day that means getting out and about with hubby.

These pictures were taken at Three Mills and the nearby park in Stratford.  The mills were originally working mills and one of the oldest examples of tidal mills.  More info on them can be found here.


Having all the family together and meeting the newest members Joe and Ness.

Surprise packages in the post:

And the knowledge that although some might want and try to damage our basic beliefs, our democracy and our freedom by committing acts of terror, we will not be terrorised.  We will stand together against such acts, and will not be defeated.

The events in London yesterday were awful and I've just watched on TV a minute's silence being held in Westminster and outside the police headquarters, Scotland Yard.  Fortunately none of our family were caught up in it, although hubby's building, which is a Government building was locked down for a while initially.  Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones or have loved ones injured by the events.  Their lives will be changed forever.

It was shocking, but I wasn't shocked.  For months now, having seen similar events happening elsewhere, it really did feel like it was not if, but when would it happen here?  Living in a major city you are aware that the city is a target.  I think it is a testament to our police and security services that we have not seen more attacks.  

I'm sure that additional security measures will be implemented and some will no doubt say these should have been in place before.  That the attack could have been prevented.  But how do you stop an individual who decides to hire a car, drive to London, plough into innocent people and then go on a rampage with knives?  

I know it's not as simple as that.  The threat of terror attacks is scary but more scary is the state of the world today.  Even beginning to think about the big questions facing us in the future is too scary to contemplate.  As individuals though we can aim to do our best to not make problems worse.  To be kind to one another.  To be tolerant of our differences.   To respect our planet and its resources.  To raise our children with love and provide them with an understanding of right and wrong.  To make the right choices.  To understand that sometimes we get it wrong.  We make mistakes.  The important thing is to learn from those mistakes and ensure that we don't repeat them and to show those who try to terrorise us that we will not be cowed. 

A - Z Challenge 2017 - Theme Reveal

And the word for today is…. 

My theme for the 2017 challenge is waffling on about random words!

That might not seem like a theme but if you read on you’ll discover it’s not quite as random as it sounds.

This will be my 3^rd A-Z challenge and I’m trying to learn from my mistakes each year and hopefully improve.  The first year (2015) I flew by the seat of my pants and that was a nightmare.  Nothing was prepared in advance.  (Not sure I even knew how to schedule posts let alone prepare them beforehand.)  Keeping up with getting my posts done on time and visiting other blogs was very challenging.

Last year (2016) I was much more prepared but I set myself quite a task with my theme (London Underground stations) because I needed to get out and about to compile my posts and I didn’t always have enough time to do them as well as I would have liked.  But overall I felt it went better than the previous year.

I started thinking about the 2017 challenge back in October.  I found working with a theme quite useful but it could also be limiting.  I’m also not a great photographer so I didn’t want to get bogged down in something that involved trying to get lots of photos to go with it.  I felt I needed to be a bit more random but with some sort of theme.  After all my blog can be a load of waffle sometimes!

I compromised.  I decided to write something random each day but incorporating words that had been randomly generated for me.  I googled random word generator sites and eventually found one where I could stipulate the starting letter.  I opted for four words and worked my way through the alphabet.  I have used the first four words generated each time (even if I didn’t like them) with the exception of X and Z.  (The generator which I used (https://randomwordgenerator.com/) didn’t produce any X words and only 2 for Z so I’ve had to pick words for those.)

Choosing the words this way has given me a challenge and a common thread to my posts but it has also allowed me to be myself and just waffle!  It’s what I’m good at.  I hope you'll join me on my journey.

Wednesday Hodgepodge 22/3/17

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at

From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

1. Setting aside the real March Madness (NCAA Basketball) describe something happening at your house this month that might earn the title 'March Madness'?
Well it was slightly mad this past weekend.  My son and his wife were down from Nottingham with their new fur babies – 2 retired greyhounds, Joe and Ness.  They are big dogs!  On Sunday the girls came over too so we were all here for dinner and games and just good family time.  Plus there were several drop ins from friends who wanted to catch up with Matt (and meet the dogs!)  It was hectic but lovely.
2. What's a favourite made up word from your childhood or a favourite from your children's childhood? Does your family still use the word today? If there's a story behind the origin please share.
Well more going back to my hubby’s childhood than mine.  He would transpose words or swap the first letters of names so that I’d be Jendy Wakob or Ydnew Bokaj or just sing things backwards – his favourite was window the in doggy that is much how?  He could sing the whole thing through and in time!  When he was recovering from his accident and head injury and a doctor asked his name he responded with Salohcin Bokaj – the doctor looked worried but we all knew he was going to be fine!
3. Will you be doing any spring cleaning now that the season is upon us? I read here a list of 15 quick (under one hour) spring cleaning tasks. They were-
clean out a drawer, vacuum furniture, whiten tile grout, dust the nooks and crannies you don't get to year round, degrease kitchen cabinets, wipe down walls, go behind furniture, wipe down ceiling fans, vacuum the mattress, clean the range hood, wash baseboards, shine the stainless steel, clean out vents, tackle the windows, and wipe down gadgets
Of the fifteen 'quick' tasks listed which two most need doing at your house? Will you do them?

Kitchen cabinets and windows.  Yes I will get them done – we have visitors coming next month.  There are a lot of things on my to do list right now! lol
4. A favourite movie set in Paris or New York?

Well google is great for info so I googled films set in New York to refresh my memory for this and according to Time Out New York’s list of the top 100  I hadn’t actually seen that many.  One that I did enjoy near the top (#12) was Saturday Night Fever and a couple of others I would rate as good films were Kramer vs. Kramer and Serpico. 
5. What's put a spring in your step this month?

Some sunny days where I’ve just had to get out for a walk.
6. Did you ever want to be a teacher? Why or why not?

I toyed with the idea but I didn’t feel I had the presence for keeping 30 kids under control.

7.  What's your favourite floral scent? Do you have this somewhere in your home or maybe in a perfume? How do you feel about florals in food? How about wines with floral notes-yay or nay?

I love roses and freesia and I like to have freesia in the house when I can.  Not mad about florals in food or in wine.  I mostly drink red but hubby likes a few white that could definitely be described as having floral notes!
8. Insert your own random thought here.

I was the recipient of a lovely random act of kindness today.  My cousin likes to promote kindness so I was delighted to receive a surprise package from her.  Made my day 😊