Winter Wonderland 4

Even the depths of murky south east London are transformed by just an inch or two of snow.

I know those of you who live with, struggle, shovel and shiver through it every day in winter had probably seen enough snow by November, but for us - its a fairly rare occurrence and we love it. Even LG was awake instantly and cheerfully this morning.

No doubt all the transport systems in South East England will be gasping and failing again today, already battered by last weeks gales. And some people will be miserable and moany.

But snow in London can also miraculously effect that war-time bonhomie of adversity, together with the scarcely concealed glee, for some of us, of inner children itching to throw snowballs.

It only lasted half a day and there really wasn't very much of it (though we are promised more) (a threat to some, a promise to me) but I did pop and manage to get just a few pictures.

Weirdness

I've been tagged by Donna to do this meme.

Here are the instructions - The Rules: Each player of this game starts with "6 weird things about you". Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means.


So here goes:

1. I have an extensive collection of photos of brick walls. It all started with a textile design project... and the fabulous sixteenth century walls in Charlton Village. I've been known to get strange looks, comments and to embarrass my family by pausing in the street to add to my collection. Its kind of addictive. I'd like to turn them into wallpaper. (if I liked wallpaper)

2. If I'm going to throw away old socks or knickers, I will wash them first.

3. I remember numbers. All sorts of numbers. I probably know your phone number even if you haven't told it to me. Post codes too. But I have trouble remembering all my internet passwords.

4. I put things down (or sometimes drop them) and they slip into alternative dimensions or parallel universes. Then they will pop out again a few days later, when I've stopped looking for them. Once I lost my electric toothbrush for almost a week. I found it half way down the stairs between the banisters.

5. I talk in my sleep a lot, and have been known to sleepwalk. I once had a lengthy discussion with M., while asleep, about the seeds which I was searching for, which I insisted had to be "seedless seeds". But if anyone engages me in sleep-conversation, I get quite cross.

6. I collect armadillos. Some of them have names.



Oooh, this was so hard to get going on. And frighteningly easy once I got started....

I tag Joyce, Jay, Dizzy, Bird, Joanna, PG

Thames

Another Thames path cycling picture.

So sorry I couldn't think of an interesting/inspired/meaningful/whimsical..... title for it.
(can you?)
Too ground down by the marking of essays. Mud-like. And So

Many

of

Them.



(no plagiarism [discovered] so far though)

Click to enlarge.
Must find out (talk to Pod?) about putting bigger pictures on my blog.

Nature & culture

More nature & culture images?

















































And the winner is......

The Thames

After she's had so many many many (really) pajama days lately - first over Christmas, then being off school sick most of last week - I didn't think LG would be too keen to go for a bike ride on Sunday.

She surprised me!

It was a bit chilly and blowy, but also bright and sunny and lovely and smelly and clear and busy and full of birds and cyclists and walkers and quite Spring-like - down there on the Thames cycle path.

I could have taken so many more photographs than I did but I wasn't sure how long LG's keenness would last. I still managed to take quite a few.....


Starting with these startlingly unseasonal catkins


and then going on to lots of pictures of the good old Thames.




































I was so happy to see that my ladder is still there.

Not mine personally, I just rather like it.

So no apologies to those of you who have seen a picture much like this before on my blog.

But note, the ladder has now been joined by a branch.

Nature and Culture? - both stuck in the same mud.

Marmalade music

Music for making marmalade to.

Kate Bush, Aerial.
Aretha Franklin. (Best of...)
Jack Johnson. On and On.
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black.

and this:

/>



And here is the marmalade.




Yum yum yum.

We may need to get the oranges in from Seville but theres nothing else like home-made British marmalade.


Sweet and fruity but also sharp with a sour edge.


And this is for those of you who think home-made marmalade is always runny:



Nyah nyah nyah.

NEWS

I wasn't expecting to post anything for the next few days. Especially as I am in the midst of marking stinky piles of undergraduate essays. Generally a fairly tedious process. The danger is that once I'm sitting at the computer, or in the garden - or even doing housework, yes its a more attractive prospect - I will never return to them.

But

I have



We discovered on Monday that my mother's cancer is in remission.

Long pause for another bit of a weep there.....

None of us expected this, but her oncologist doesn't want to see her again for a couple of months. She will still need her pain medication - the cancers are still there, this may only be a short-term remission, but she shouldn't need more chemo for some time and is expected to have pretty good quality of life and maybe a bit more energy for a while.

This is a wonderful, amazing, unexpected free gift of more precious time.

I have no other words at the moment, but did want to thank those of you who've expressed sympathy and good wishes, who've prayed for her, and whose words have helped to comfort and support me and make me smile - I know this news will make some of you smile, so didn't want to keep it to myself.


Back to the stinky essays now.....

.... just after I've checked one or two other blogs .... as I'm sitting here ....

Spring greens

No, I realise that its not yet Spring.

In fact, we could be quite a long way off from those signs of new lice life.

BUT - I spent some time in the garden today. Unexpectedly. My garden is quite neglected most winters, its my busiest time at work - and anyway, its cold, wet and dark. Winter is for resting, right? I figure hibernation is the natural way of things.

But, having gone outside to help LG clean out her guinea pigs, I then did some clearing up and reorganised our wood pile.

It is only a little log pile. But then this is London, so its only the occasional illicit log which we put on top of the smokeless fuel.


It felt so good being out in the green and the fresh air ("fresh" in that peculiarly London way) that I stayed out for a while clearing and weeding.


The garden looks more than a little dishevelled and neglected.
















But its certainly green. I don't have any weeds in my garden - I have "ground cover".

And there were some delights and surprises for me.


Winter jasmine. Not at all surprising. In fact, very common and garden. But I love it, it blooms from November to March and its sunshine-brightness always cheers me up.

I also have a winter-flowering clematis (Clematis balearica) which I think probably had at least a couple of seasons secretly flowering before I even noticed it. Its going wild now, draping itself gracefully through the apple trees and roses.





























This is surprising - a salvia still flowering in the middle of winter.

And its a particularly loud and lovely salvia which Lucy (Rambling Woman) gave me for my birthday a few years ago.












This was completely surprising, as I have no idea what it is or how it got there!
Presumbly it flowered at some point, but
I didn't witness it. Those berries look so good, they must surely be poisonous.













And these berries, don't look so good cos this is a crap photo, but I couldn't go back and take more because I had eaten them.

They are autumn-fruiting, but always surprise me even in October/November because I forget I have them. But in January? I think this raspberry is seasonally challenged.

Books

Borrowing (yes, ok, copying) Donna's good idea, I thought I would also share with you the books I was given for Christmas.


I read the Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine by Marine Lewycka within the first few days of receiving it, and its wonderful. Very funny, absorbing and it left me with a lovely warm fuzzy feeling.

I have of course already mastered (mistress-ed?) ALL these yoga poses since Christmas Day and therefore feel justified in taking time off now to read the Pratchett book.

As If.

("as if" mastering Yoga, not "as if" reading Pratchett. I love Terry Pratchett's writing).

Tove Janssen wrote the Moomintroll (click here) stories which are obviously indispensable for any fully rounded life - her Summer Book is a beautiful book about her childhood visits with her grandmother and this Winter Book is a collection of short stories.
I'm also immensely looking forward to the Susanna Clarke book - I thought her Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was fabulous, I could hardly put it down.


I'm not too disappointed at being given a mere 5 books this year - not only because they are such very good books, but also because I do have a few books already in the waiting-to-be-read pile at the end of my bed.


I think I need to stop looking at the book shelves in the charity shops......

Christmas snaps

Some good memories from this Christmas.

LG and my mum putting the final decorations on the tree.

















Cousins playing silly games.









Multiple (sneaky) photographings going on.














Bonfire on Boxing Day.








































































Feet.


















Party poppers.



















More feet.

Winter Wonderland 3

The Christmas Lites Lights of Sarf East London.
Regent Street can't hold up a candle to them.
And who would notice if it did?

Natural light just can't compete.
I figure this kind of festivity really HAS to be completely over the top to work. One plastic illuminated Santa just looks sad, lets be honest. Half-a-dozen - even 10, why not be metric - is way better.

I long ago got over my middle-class, snooty, tasteful disdain for such tackiness - I think its GREAT.

We have some fairly good examples "round our way". One has a sort of light/slide show projected (how?) on the walls of the house. I couldn't get a very good picture. Maybe I should go back and video it for you.

Here are two of the best in our immediate vicinity.



This one (below) is very restrained in comparison.
But is redeemed, for me, by the fact that its such a brilliant Father Christmas. It looks home-made, I'm not sure if its paper or fabric - I didn't get too close to inspect it for fear of getting beaten up as weird or intrusive. Maybe if I go back in daylight.....

Anyway, I love it, and just hope he survives the winter weather.

All these pictures will enlarge if you click on them.
Go on - they look SO MUCH BETTER at twice the size.

Christmas Past

I've been reflecting a lot in recent days on Christmases Past and Present.

I've always loved Christmas, its important family time both for my family and for my in-laws (though the in-law-Christmases have been rather disrupted over the years by changes in marital status). Over there its all feasting and excess, tearing open presents, dozing in front of the telly, parties and late nights. With my lot its more sedate - church, lunch, intermittent present-opening, game-playing and walks on Boxing Day. All good in their very different ways. Strictly NOT just for the children.

Its important for most in my family as celebration of faith too. And though I'm not quite sure, at the moment, if and what I believe I do still treasure this time of year as a celebration of life and sharing, giving, light, hope, the presence of divinity at the very least in us and our relationships. Which, I think, is a good deal of what the original story/message are about.

Last year I limped carefully through Christmas, nursing and trying to hide a close-to-broken heart. I can't yet think about it too much, but it was a nightmare - a waking nightmare, as I was sleeping very little.

That was before the mid-night lettuce and banana -eating. Before sleeping pills and prozac.

Before blogging.

The warmth and laughter and caring and encouragement I have derived from and shared with many of you has transformed moments of the past year for me in a way I could never have predicted, thankyou.

It was also before the discovery of the beast lurking in my mother's stomach and liver.

I am at a loss for words to describe how this Christmas feels. They would need to be words encompassing the wonderful and awful, joy and grief. Thats the best I can do.

Whatever else this time is, it will be precious, though precious is too cheap a word.

After a prognosis - in May - of 2/3 months, my mother is still with us and, for much of the time, comfortable and able to enjoy life and the wrapping of Christmas gifts. But what do you buy for the woman who has everything but not the future she should still have had?
My most recent e-Bay purchases reflect something of our life: DVDs (Yes Minister, the Darling Buds of May, Jeeves and Wooster - good viewing helps transport her from the present when she needs that); maternity clothes (everything about her has shrunk, except her stomach); vintage Christmas baubles (I'm hankering, I think, for my childhood Christmases). And hankering is such a perfect word for that almost-physical longing. Maybe because it is close to "hungering".

With no growth in the tumours between May and October, its hard to know what to expect now. We wait for another scan in early January. And life seems to be on hold.

My heart is also holding itself carefully. I think there has been real healing as well as real hurt and anger over the past year, and I am mostly hopeful for all the hearts in our home.

More hopeful than not.
What is life without hope?

I can't think at all about Christmas Future, but it will be here in its own time.

I left the sleeping pills behind long ago.
Also the lettuce and bananas.
But I have come to really think of myself, sometimes, as "Lettuce" (even Lettie) and though I don't blog very regularly at the moment, your friendship and comments mean a great deal to me.

The less I blog, the less I feel I have to say. The more I blog, the more the words come sputtering out. I never knew I had such a propensity for rambling. I will stop now!

I hope that you and the people who you love and who love you will know peace and joy this Christmas Present and - whatever else is going on (or not) in your life - that you will have much to celebrate.

Winter Wonderland 2

Ice rinks are appearing almost magically (well, no, I know - just indulge me) all over London.

And lucky us - one of the best is just down the road in Greenwich, between the historic colonnades of Wren's Naval College with Inigo Jones' "Queens House" on one side, and the good old Thames on the other.
Not my picture - the others are.

So a family party went last week, for my neice's 22nd birthday (1st picture below, in the brown) and managed to avoid falling over for an hour.



After a brief 5 mins. or so of hotly whispered "this is supposed to be FUN, if you can't stop being CROSS I wont go round with you. Oh thats GREAT. Go off and leave me by myself then" LG regained her sense of balance and stopped blaming me for the risk of slippage. Much quicker recovery time than in previous years!!! She was skating pretty well by the end of the hour.


And thanks to my great family who spent a lot of time skating round with her, so that I could enjoy some solo skating too - as opposed to balancing and steering with angry appendage.
In fact, by the end she was even willing to skate with me holding my hand (how embarrassing when you are 12) rather than hanging weightily onto my elbow.

We used to have skating lessons for PE at one stage, when I was at school.
Yes I know! in London!
and 3 years ago, when I first tried it again after more than 25 years (blimey, its always a shock, remembering just how old I really am) I was pleasantly surprised to find it coming back fairly quickly and easily. And apparently its very good for bone density (assuming, presumably, that you manage NOT to fall and break something) - so maybe it should be prescribed for women of my age? ice skating on the NHS?

Winter wonderland

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I don't think so!!!!!

HO HO HO

Thanks to wonderful Wendy for my twinkly Christmas header.

And lets try to get festive -

Click

HERE

Advent

Yes I know its already virtually a week into December.

Blimey O'Reilly.

And I think I have finally faced up to the fact that it is nearly Christmas and I need to get a little bit organised, do shopping and stuff.

I've been doing a lot of shopping on behalf of my parents, so thats always fun - spending someone else's money.

Mostly in TK Maxx.

I was just about organised enough in time for LG's advent calendar to be ready on the first.

Lovingly made for her by her aunt, my lovely sister, this is it:


Definately a labour of love, my sister isn't a naturally crafty woman. She can sew very well if she needs to but wouldn't particularly choose to do it.

But this was a special gift for a long-awaited niece.

She asked my permission first (!) - knowing from her own experience that November 29/30th "Oh crap" feeling - and how difficult it is to find things to fit in all those little pockets.






Here are some of LG's gifts so far:


Her Wade animal collection began when I found some in a charity shop a few years ago and realised they would fit perfectly in the pockets.

There are a few more to come this year, and a few more of the little mini stone eggs. (dragon eggs to those of us in the know)

Many of the other pockets contain chocolate/sweets (hmmm, maybe it shouldn't be hanging above the radiator?) coins - a few have bits of paper starting treasure hunts. Not because we're such brilliantly creative interesting parents, but because we're simply not dedicated enough to find sufficient little teensy weensy things - some of them simply wont fit and are stached around the house somewhere.

Some of the pockets are still empty.

Sssssshhhhhhhhh!

Don't tell.

More of those "Oh crap" moments to come, unless I think of something else soon.

Facts

Lacking in energy or inspiration for entertaining blogging, sorry.
But my comments have been invaded by spammers, so something new is needed.


Here's a fact:

Between 10pm last Friday evening and 10pm on Tuesday evening - a period of 96 hours - LG slept for at least 44 hours.

It could be that she is turning into a cat.


Or a teenager.



Here's another fact.

It is possible to BUY pictures of ringworm on eBay.


??????????????????????????




I have no further comment to make.

oh - except :


a pinch and a punch, first of the month.






and no returns.