Friday's Fave Five - 15/8/25

Susanne reminds us each week to look back on our week and find the blessings and the things we're grateful for.  We join up here to share them.

1)  I'm thankful that whilst I am close enough to my daughter and her family to be able to help out with their children, our two sons also have good in-laws who do the same for them.  This week our eldest son and DIL celebrated their wedding anniversary and his in-laws took their two boys out for what looked like a fun day.

2)  Talking of helping my daughter out my DIL has her hands full during the summer holidays.  Grandchildren Nathan and Ella have a bit of a love/hate relationship at times so it's good to be able to take one of them for an hour or so to give her a break, which we did today - having Nathan here all day.  Particularly needed now because:

he has fractured a bone in his foot.  As you can imagine he is not happy about having to wear the boot!

3)  We had a short break away this week - staying in Marlow which is on the river Thames.

Our room - we were upgraded!

The bath was lovely - but we didn't use it

There was a very adequate shower in the bathroom!

Boats going through Marlow lock.

This is the Compleat Angler - just across the river from where we stayed and where we ate on our second night.

The bridge across the Thames

Marlow Church

The War Memorial - just in front of our hotel.

We stayed at The George & Dragon which is a Heartswood Inn which is the same chain as the Royal Forest near us which we've been to a few times.  The menu was quite similar but I'd say the food was slightly better nearer home.  The service was excellent though and the room was very comfortable with air conditioning.

4)  We were really glad of the air conditioning as it has been very hot this week so we didn't do as much sight seeing as we would have liked, it was just too hot.  Although of course we did browse the charity shops along the high street and I couldn't resist these:

The Crossword jigsaw is brand new - it will be a challenge though - it's double sided and both crosswords can actually be completed! (well hopefully lol)

I managed to load all my TBR books onto Goodreads today so that I won't end up buying books I've already got waiting to be read.  I used the scanning feature which made it quite quick.

5)  On our way home on Wednesday we visited Cliveden House, a National Trust property.  The House is actually leased out to a hotel group so tours are limited but the grounds and woodlands are lovely.  We took a long walk through the woods and down to the river (Thames) and then up to the House and gardens.  We stopped for refreshments in the cafe and then intended taking the easier route back to our car.  Somehow we got lost and ended up back down by the river.  Which necessitated another climb back up - it's a steep incline with lots of steps.  Thankfully my knees held out!

The views were lovely and it was reasonably shady through the woodland areas.

It was a lovely break and thankfully we made it home without being impacted by this:

Picture taken from the BBC website.

This was the scene on the M25 yesterday afternoon - a lorry caught fire and it was full of tyres, hence the black smoke.  Fortunately no one was hurt but the motorway was shut for 17 hours - resurfacing was required.  The M25 is London's orbital motorway and it's always very busy and closures like this cause chaos.  Fortunately we were able to leave it a junction earlier than planned and made an alternative route home without any problems.

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 13/8/25

Joyce hosts the Wednesday Hodgepodge blog hop here.

1. August is National Golf month...do you play? Do you enjoy following golf? Have you ever been to a professional tournament? 

No, no and no.  The only golf I've played is Crazy Golf and I'm not good at that either.

2. Astronaut Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame passed away this past Thursday. Are you interested in outer space and what's happening today in terms of space exploration? If space travel became common in your lifetime would you go? How do you personally relate to the idea of exploring something vast and mysterious...does the idea excite you, intimidate you, or something else? 

I'm interested to see what's happening but I certainly wouldn't want to travel in space.  Hard enough just travelling by plane lol.

3. Describe your communication style in three words. 

Well that depends who I'm communicating with and the subject matter.  Not sure I could narrow it down to 3 words but if I'm actually  talking to someone hands would definitely be involved!

4. Do you have a favourite cookbook? A favourite celebrity chef? Do you watch any cooking shows on TV? 

We have a pasta cookbook that is well worn from use.  I don't have an absolute favourite chef but I do love following Nancy Birtwhistle  on Instagram.  She was a winner of the Great British Bake Off show some years back and although she still does a lot of cooking she's also moved on to trying to be very green and avoids using plastic or cleaning materials that are harmful.  (She makes her own.) She's also very ordinary and down to earth.

5. As a child did you have any back to school traditions? If so, did you carry on those same traditions with your own children? Do you have any back to school traditions you've started on your own? 

I don't think I did really - apart from perhaps getting a new pencil case and its contents.  I did take photos of the children on their first days of nursery, school etc but that was pre mobile phones when you had to get them printed.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We've had another mini heatwave here the last few days.  We've actually been away the last couple of nights so we were glad to be in a hotel room that had air conditioning.  Now we're home and back to opening windows and turning on the fans.

#SoCS - 9/8/25 - Towing the line

Seeing as I'm up and about I thought I'd tow the line and do a SoCS post.  Haven't done one for a while.

Anyway it's 7 am now and I've been awake since just after 5.  Not sure what woke me but Hubby's snoring  ensured I wasn't going to get back to sleep in my bed so I decamped to the sofa.

I thought that with my recently acquired eye mask I might be able to get back to sleep.  My brain thought otherwise.  I might have to have a nap today.

I did try to sleep but I could still hear the snoring above me and then my neighbour (or someone passing by in the street) had a prolonged sneezing fit that was probably as loud as the snoring! So of course I started looking at my phone.

I have the NYT games app there to amuse me.  We have (of course - who doesn't?) a family WhatsApp group for Wordle. Kicked myself today - got it in 5 but it should have been 4.  It probably was too early to be doing it.  I also messed up the Tiles game several times - I like to have a clear run on that but I got there eventually.  Doesn't help when you've left your glasses upstairs by the bed!

And now I'm drinking my first cup of tea of the day and I've had a couple of slices of fruit bread and I'm here blogging, wondering at what point my Hubby will stir.  I'm not holding my breath on that one - I'd expire!  He was out with some former colleagues yesterday which will have been a boozy affair that went on until late so I don't expect him to surface any time soon.  Which is a bit annoying as I'm off to take in a delivery for the Food Bank this morning so I'll probably have to make my own breakfast.  

This is not a good start to the day.

Maybe I'll go and give him a nudge with my toe!

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “toe/tow.” Use one, use both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points for using both. Have fun!

Ooh I think I just earned bonus points lol.  SoCS is brought to us by Linda who blogs here.  If you're awake, like me, pop over and see who's joining in the fun.

Postcript:

See it's too early to be blogging - I wasn't toeing the line at all!

Friday's Fave Five - 8/8/25

And it's Friday again!  Where does the time go?  Anyway time to take a pause and look back on the week and remember the good things.  Thanks to our host Susanne for reminding us each week and allowing us to join up here.

1)  A quiet week getting back into my usual routines.  Of course it was lovely having all the kids here in the past few weeks but I do like my routines and a bit of quiet time.  We've also had lovely summer weather.  It's been sunny and warm but not too hot.  Although we're forecast higher temps over the weekend.

2)  Progress on the library book clubs I've signed up for.  The daytime group has met up and we're currently reading The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley and we're meeting again in early September.  The evening group started with Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and we met up to discuss that.  We're now reading The Guest List by Lucy Foley and we're going to meet up towards the end of September to talk about that one.  It's been tricky agreeing when to meet up as it's holiday time.

3)  Thankful that my knee held up ok at keep fit this week.  The day my son and his family arrived from the US one of the grandkids left a tap running in the downstairs bathroom.  I suddenly heard it and went to turn it off but I didn't realise it had been running for so long the water had overflowed onto the floor.  In my rush, and bare feet, I ended up slipping and going down hard on my right knee.  Anyway it was badly bruised but I don't think any real damage was done - it's certainly been fine walking on it and there were no aches after Tuesday's class.  

4)  Thankful that we seem to have a few new volunteers at the Foodbank.  We have a couple of new drivers who've been doing evening pick ups from the local supermarkets  and several new people helping out on the Thursday session.  Particularly helpful at this time of year when people are off on holiday.  We're also going to get an extra food delivery on Thursday for the next few weeks which is also a great boost as our stocks having been running really low.

5)  Time with grandchildren Ella and Nathan this week.  On Wednesday I looked after Ella in the afternoon while my DIL took Nathan to watch Arsenal play.  (They both support Arsenal - no accounting for taste lol) and then yesterday I had Nathan in the afternoon while Ella was at a playdate.  It's nice having 1:1 time with them.

Have a good weekend all - I'm at the Foodbank tomorrow morning for a delivery and then I'll be preparing for a short trip away.  We're off to Marlow which is on the River Thames on Monday for a couple of nights, staying at a newly opened pub from the chain that runs the one we like near us.  I had an offer for 2 nights for the price of 1 and thought why not?  I love being retired.

Wednesday Hodgepodge 6/8/25

Joyce provides the questions, we fill in our answers and then we share here.

1. The midpoint of summer (believe it or not) is August 7th. Describe a perfect summer day. Have you had one this year? 

A bright blue sky, warm sunshine, slight breeze and a beach to walk on. 

We almost had one in Dunkerque recently but it's a popular beach.  I'd prefer somewhere a little quieter and less touristy.

2. What's one thing you wish you knew before starting high school? 

Probably that things would all work out ok.  I found it quite a nerve wracking time - moving from a smallish primary school to a large grammar school that then amalgamated with another school to become a very large comprehensive school.  So many new things to learn, growing up to navigate etc.

3. What's something that bothers you if it's not done perfectly? 

Hmm this is a tricky one.  I'm sure there are lots of things that I like done in a certain way but as I've got older and certainly since I've been retired I'm probably more relaxed about a lot of things.  I do like my tea made properly though and never ever stir it with a spoon that's just stirred coffee lol.

4. What's the most overrated food you're convinced people are just pretending to enjoy? What's a trendy food you actually do enjoy and would say is definitely not overrated? 

Oysters? I mean you just swallow them right - where's the enjoyment in that?  I'm not really a trendy food kind of person.

5. Wrapping it up this week with five fun this or thats...

personal stylist or personal chef? 
dance like nobody's watching or sing like nobody's listening? 
unlimited tacos or free pizza? 

bookshelf organization-by size or by genre? 
ten minutes late or ten minutes early? 

Ok well Hubby is my personal chef so I'd go personal stylist.

Nobody would want to listen to my singing so it would have to be dancing.

Free pizza

My bookshelf is organized alphabetically by author.

Ten minutes early

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It's been very quiet in our house since all the kids and grandkids went home and I'm gradually getting caught up with changing all the beds and washing all the bedding and towels etc.  I'd never want to run a B & B!

Friday's Fave Five - 1/8/25

Well I have been AWOL again (but I'll explain why below) so it's good to be here and catch up with Susanne and other like minded bloggers to look back on the past week (or three!) and remember the things we're grateful for.  You can find out more here.

This week I'm all about Family!

1)  We had our son and his family here from Vermont here for just over two weeks.  It was so good to see them.  Of course the time flew and saying goodbye to our son last Friday and then our DIL and grandsons on Wednesday this week was hard but we've definitely had some quality time with them.

2)  For the second part of their visit we also had our other son and his family staying with us.  It was a busy and hectic household but it's so lovely to see the cousins interacting like they saw each other yesterday even though it's been a year since they were all together.  And of course we made sure to get all the grandkids together as much as possible.

3)  One of our nephews hosted a get together at his house during their visit so they were able to catch up with lots of cousins, aunts, uncles etc and they all got to meet the latest baby in the family which was lovely.

4)  And then we all (apart from my US son*) went to France last weekend.  Hubby's sister Anne Marie lives with her French husband Jean Marie in Dunkerque and we were celebrating his 70th birthday.  Jean Marie is also one of 8 siblings so it was a huge party.  Thankfully the weather was good and they have a big house with a huge garden.  Their 4 sons did an amazing job and we all had a wonderful time.  There was a good turnout from both sides of Jean Marie's family and although some of us are not great in a second language we all managed to communicate!

*Michael works for the US Government but gets 10 days leave!  Here in the UK he would get at least 20 days leave if not more each year.  This makes it hard for him when he visits.  I know he probably could get more unpaid leave but he's been in this job for less than a year and he's also had to take a few personal days when the kids have been sick so he flew back to the US last Sunday and missed the trip to France.

5)  Thankful that my DIL and the 2 grandsons made it home safely to the US on Wednesday.  They were delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac due to the technical issues the UK had that day and they ended up staying with friends in Boston overnight before driving home to Vermont yesterday but they are home and of course we miss them already but so many happy times over the last couple of weeks.

A few of the siblings from both families in Dunkerque.

 

A trip to the beach is a must when in Dunkerque.

They had a photo booth at the party which was very well used! (And although the photos were printed instantly there was also a link provided to access them all digitally!)

Cousins and Jean Marie (in the white shirt)

Anne Marie - definitely the hostess with the mostess!

Their (2nd?) cousin Maya gatecrashed these pics.
(L-R)Rory, Ella, Maya, Vinny, Noah, Nathan and Miles)
So hard to get all our 6 together for a decent pic.

We all travelled to France on the same ferry.  The children were very excited.

They took in a show.

Made Rocky Road

Getting 4 boys to sleep in the same room worked better than we thought it would lol

Love this one.

And now my house is quiet - well apart from the washing machine which will be going non-stop over the next few days as I work through all the bedding and towels lol.

Have a good weekend all.  Mine will be spent quietly catching up on some sleep and relaxing.