Thoughts on 2014

Hello everyone.. hoping you had a Christmas which was just what you hoped for.. busy, noisy, peaceful, restful, lazy... we all want and need different things don't we!

As I mentioned I thought I'd put together another photo challenge for next year, weekly themes with daily prompts available from Mondays...

have a look here and see what you think...HERE!!

oh and Happy New Year to you all..Kathi x

Quote Challenge - December - Hosted by Lynne

I am feeling sad as I plan this final quote challenge. I have started and stopped many times with the planning of this as I tried to find an ideal quote for this special Christmas week.

It seems to be the end of a very different friendship we have made over a year. 

Helen and I already knew each other before this challenge, we have met and are in the same UKS team. 

I have met up with Viv and Roland and I am sure we will continue to remain friends! 

Of course I met Joy and Thadd several years ago and this friendship continues though we live so far apart. 

I have spoken to Anne on the phone and I am sure in 2014 we will meet as she lives within driving distance to me!  Peter and I plan to go west for a holiday in 2014 so that embraces Kathi, Karen and Jenni I hope? 

As for meeting Borqna and Kristina I never say never as I am sure I will meet you both one day

So now my Quote.... It is a song from Gloria Estefan called ‘Christmas Through Your Eyes’

Til I had you, I didn’t know I was missing.

I had to grow up and see the world through different shades of time.

Give me one more chance to dream again

One more chance to feel again, through your young heart

If only for one day, let me try.

I want to see Christmas through your eyes.

I want everything to be the way it use to be,

Back to being a child again, thinking the world was kind.

I want to see Christmas, Christmas through your eyes.

I see rain, you see rainbows hiding in the cloud.

Never afraid to let your love show

Won’t you show me how?

I want to learn how to believe again

Find the inner sense of me again, through your young heart.

Help me find a way, help me try..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To0vDizpeRA

This week as we celebrate Jesus’ birth I will keep this easy and simple. I would like you to blog a photo(s) taken on Christmas day with our without any other blogging as I am sure our computers maybe having a holiday too!!

I will sadly leave you with this quote from Delia Smith a devote Catholic who has written a book called A Feast for Advent which is not a cookery book!

“On Jesus’ birth a new light shone out in the darkness then

and now that light is firmly established in Heaven.
Anyone on earth who sets out on a journey in search of God
will be lead by this light – the light shines for everyman who walks in darkness.”  ~  Delia Smith           

May you all have a joyous and peaceful Christmas and a healthy and peaceful 2014. 

God Bless and much love 

Lynne xx

PS: My apologies, I don't know why there is this white surrounding some parts of the text. I didn't manage to remove it. Anne xxx

Nostalgia~ Christmas festivities.

Well we got here! It's December and the last month of our weekly challenges. Some of us have been busy, others have had holidays and some of us had big decisions and changes in the year. But we are pretty much intact and hopefully all looking forward to a few festive days coming up!

I do hope we stay in touch next year, even if just sharing thoughts now and then. I have a feel to do a daily or weekly challenge, I have found doing a daily pic in December not so hard as writing lots. I wonder how everyone else feels...maybe twelve of us could each take on a month of daily prompts?  Or suggestions for a week of days.. colours, trees, clothes.. what do you think?  I would be happy to administer it here and set it up maybe once a week if you like?

So..Christmas nostalgia!

Let's share this week the traditions and routines you have in your family.

Are they carried on from your parents or have you started them since you were married or had children?  Is there anything you do which you really wish you could change!

A few prompts for the week if you don't know where to begin:

•  Decorations & trees
•  Shopping!!
•  Food and cooking
•  Songs and carols.. best and worst!
•  Children's nativities and school events
•  Present stories.. best and worst?!

I will be posting my daily pic during the week and hoping to add some of my stories too..

Have a lovely Christmas and a healthy and peaceful New Year .. Kathi xxx

Let's reflect Challenge - December

Hello everybody,

here we are, reaching the end of our challenge.

It's a bit of a mixed moment for me, like when I was happy reaching the last day of school and leave for holidays but I also knew I was going to miss my friends.

I remember when I lived in Germany, we were taking part to a technology fair in Hanover, every year. It was a lot of work to prepare and the fair was 10 days long, 11 hours work a day for us exhibitors. It was extremely tiring and we couldn't wait to go back home, but on the last day, each year, I remember everybody having tears in their eyes because of the strong bond with our neighbor exhibitors and we all would soon go our own way again.

I read recently that each ending is also a new beginning and that's the way I want to see our little group.

For this last month, we have once again something special because December is such a special month. December is a month of celebrations, be you religious or not, a month to spoil children a bit (or a lot), a month in which we might reflect and think about other people in the world who aren't as lucky as we are to have a roof on their head and food on their table, a month in which people try to forget their differences, a month in which we try and go that little extra mile to make our loves ones know how much we love them, spend a bit more money than we should, eat of bit more than we should.

December is all about sharing.  For some of us, December might be a bit more difficult, because of the loss of loved ones, but the biggest wish of these loved ones surely would be to be remembered but at the same time see us happy, so we should honor them by enjoying this beautiful time.

Our word for this week starts with a G, but it is in fact a group of words :
                             
Go for it

May be you can take some pictures if you already started decorating your house, or bought a couple of presents, may be you just want to blog about what Christmas means to you, may be Christmas is specially a big deal for you this year, may be you will be celebrating Christmas on a different day in your country, whatever your situation, tell us your plans and share your excitement.

I wish you all to have the most fabulous time for Christmas and all you wish for 2014. I hope we find a way to still keep in touch next year.

Take care everybody, xxx

December View Challenge.

Last one!

Well done to those of you that have managed to take your photos each month, I hope you are glad with the record you have made. I will share my neighbourhood view today as I haven't been out to take my main view yet.

I am going to make the Instagrams into a mini book and I have already picked my neighbourhood view for next year as I have enjoyed this project. 

I wish you all seasons greetings, I hope you all have happy and peaceful celebrations.

November Quote Week.

It is 11pm on Sunday night and I was just going to bed leaving Peter watching Sun Match of the Day “yawn” and................I think Lucky Snapping Challenge I haven’t finished my blog for Kathi and it is a new challenge on Monday when I realise................Oops it is mine and I haven’t done it or sent it to anyone either!!! Anyway here I am writing it instead of finishing my nostalgia blog and then I will send it to both Anne and Jenni in the hope you are reading it now (Monday am). I have 2 quotes for you about LEARNING “ Anyone who keeps learning stays young” Henry Ford “You cannot open a book without learning something” Confucious This week tell us each day one thing you have learnt during the day, hopefully with a photo. Make your blog brief as we are all getting busy with the run up to Christmas. Love to you all Lynne xx

Nostalgia..the autumn season.

Hi everyone.. as I hang my head in shame for not blogging in the last 5 weeks. Whatever came of me? Well I stayed busy at work and home, that darned new kitchen extension turned into a refurb on the old kitchen space which is almost done! It would be done if it were not being used as a workshop for the bathroom refurb which is long long overdue.. imagine a bathroom 17 years old, used lots by up to 8 people a day.. and which had a leak we did not realise.. mmm, grim.. no before pictures for sure!

But December should see me with a computer and Picasa back in place and blog central restored!

Oh and I am also away on a weeks holiday with Colin.. we plumped for Tenerife as the priority was for good weather.. and that we have.. home on Wednesday and as I write on Sunday evening I hope the G& T's are not marring my fluency.. haha.. they may even aid it!

So.. Autumn Nostalgia..what does it hold for you? Let me give you a few suggestions..

• The change in the hour.. love it or hate it ..and why?
• Do you have memories of walking ankle deep through sycamore leaves as you search for Christmas twigs?
• How did you celebrate Guy Fawkes Night?
• Or Hallowe'en, is that the Autumn highlight for you ?

Tell us about how the run from School starting in September to that Christmas rush was marked in your childhood home, or how it is now for your children..


For me the days between starting school again in September til November 5th were filled with plans for Guy Fawkes Night.  We bought fireworks from the travelling grocery shop which came to our fishing cove twice a week. We stored them in tin boxes and when allowed by our Mums we compared who had what and how we might persuade our Mums to get us a bigger and better firework!

Us children all collected papers and wood for a huge bonfire at my cousins house and his Mum would host the bonfire night and we would all bring food.. my resounding memory is of Auntie Val, the host, carrying out sausages on sticks on a tray but being chased by a Jumping Jack someone let off.. by mistake? Not so sure that was the case!

Looking forward to catching up with you all later in the week.. I so owe you all some comments and at the very least my November views!

Here's the linky:

Let's Reflect Challenge : November

I can't believe we only have 2 words to finish our Silver Lining. This year will have passed by so quickly.

By the way, I recently watched the movie Silver Lining. If you can, watch it too. It's very nice and refreshing. It takes a bit of time to really start but then it's really worth it.

This month, we have something special again, something to love ourselves and the others even more.

I traveled a lot in my life and it developed a strong taste for adventure in what I do or let's say used to do (getting older now, lol) and also for what I read or watch.

There is a French TV game series called Pekin Express, may be you heard about it, I am absolutely addicted to, in which competititors cross the globe with challenges of hell.

Last year I watched a US series called Expedition Impossible. You can read it about it here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_Impossible_%28TV_series%29

They were in teams of 3, crossing Morocco with challenges like mountain climbing and crossing rivers ... some very hard stuff. In one of the teams of 3, there was a guy called Erik. He did everything like his colleagues. I had missed the first episode and the presentation of the teams but a couple of minutes inside the one I watched, I realized he was completely blind. He had to rely on his colleagues, when he was to jump from 10 meters into a river or run downhill or be on a galloping horse...

This guy was so amazing to me that I researched him and if you go here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Weihenmayer,
you can read about his life. He is the first blind person to have reached the summit of Mount Everest (29,029 ft), he also climbed Mount Ararat (16,854 ft) and the Seven Summits (the highest Mountains of the 7 continents). This guy has since become an inspiration to me and the living proof that on one is allowed to say
"I can't do it". So to honor him, I decided that our word this week would be the name of his team during Expedition Impossible :

             NO LIMITS

So that's what we are going to talk about this week and you don't need to have climbed the Himalayas to take part.

No Limits is only about you, about what you achieved compared to what you thought you could achieve.
If you are scared to death of cats and you managed to touch one, then it's part of No Limits, the same way somebody else would wrestle with a lion.
If you went back to school at 40 to learn a new profession or get a better degree or even simply for fun, then it's part of No Limits.
If you managed to feed many people on a very low salary, then  it's part of No Limits.
Anything you have done and you didn't think you could do, or anything you do without counting, tell us about it because you are a proud member of the No Limits club.
If  you want to talk about somebody else, family member or personality you admire, please do so.
No Limits also applies to a trait of your character or an ability you have . . ., to the dedication to some people in helping others . . . 

Can I say there is no limits in what it covers, lol ?

I offered my Dad his first PC for his 70th birthday and that's when he started learning what computers were. Of course I got some panicky phone calls at the beginning but he made it and at 90, he still uses it now and then and I am so proud of him.

This week, it's all about us and about the people who inspire us. You are somebody special, just tell us about it.

As of photo challenge, if you have some time, let's play with the word Limits. Take some pictures of open spaces or at the opposite of enclosed places.

I am looking forward to your entries. Anne xxx

The View Challenge: November

I am sure you are bored of me apologising for neglecting blogland and I miss it, I currently have 259 blog posts sat in my reader and I just can't get to it!

Wow, the weather has been blowy, I have been out to take my view photo, but first I had to get up and fix the shed roof as the waterproof membrane split and was flapping about everywhere. As it has stopped raining this morning I took advantage and got up there! It is only a temporary fix until I can get the supplies and then I can look forward to re-roofing it on my next day off. So it doesn't look as though I will be getting to that blog reader anytime soon.

It was stunning along the coast this morning.

The view out to Lundy Island was clear. I might have told you this but I used to live on the southernmost point of the island which is the very left-hand point you can see here.

The view along to my house on the cliffs there (I wish ;-) )

I wonder if I will be lucky enough to get a good day like this for December?

Bonus Week from Viv =)

Hi, All I’m the guest challenger this week as it is a five-week month.

I don’t expect to be up to the challenges of the others but I will do my best.

 I thought I would share one of the poems that I enjoy and makes me laugh.

Warning - When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple

By Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain 

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

 You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

 Jenny Joseph was born in Birmingham and went on to be a journalist. She wrote this poem in 1961 although I didn’t come across it until I bought 

“The Nations Favourite Comic Poems”

I must admit I have never read any other of her poems but now I feel I want to find out more.

In January my craft group made a

Dream board

We cut pictures and words out of magazines that say and show things we’d like to be or do in our future.

Here is mine.

The poem and the Dream Board gave me the idea to challenge you to think about what you would like to do or where you would like to be in the future. 

What do you think?

It doesn’t have to be when you are old, just in your future, maybe even tomorrow or next week.

a dream holiday, a different house, new car, anything really. 

Perhaps also you could take photos this week of works in progress, Family, crafts, something in the home or at work. Whatever you think fits the bill.

Love to you all Vivienne xxx

October Quote Challenge.

October Quotation Week

As I write this today I am getting over with ‘freshers flu’. Sorry Anne I didn’t finish your challenge 

As you know from my blog I have been delivering some cookery lessons to Freshers at Brighton Uni Hastings Campus hall of residence.  Last week at each session there were coughs and sneezes...and yes they did spread diseases to me!! 

I went to bed on Sat night as ‘fit as a fiddle’ and woke during the night with a cough and a temp by Sunday. I have sneezed and coughed felt poorly but no sore throat or runny nose, very strange. Thank goodness I am on the mend and hoping Peter doesn’t catch it before we leave for Italy for 8 days on Tuesday!

My quote for this week in October are 2 quotes on Laughter. I liked them both!

• “A laugh is a smile that bursts” ~ Mary H Waldrip 1907- 1998
• “ Remember you don’t stop laughing because you grow old,

  You grow old because you stop laughing” ~ Anon

An interesting website http://www.laughterlinescoaching.co.uk 

It says “ we are passionate about laughing. It illuminates life. It is refreshes and invigorates us, enhancing our everyday world. Laughter is the icing on the fruitcake of our existence and too good to leave to chance.

Can you remember the last time you had a good belly laugh?”

What makes you really laugh? Do you laugh as much now as you did when you were younger?

Show us some photos of what makes us laugh or you laughing, not just smiling.  I might find this difficult as I rarely laugh out loud...never have!   So I will be showing you what makes me laugh!

Sorry that I won’t be commenting on your blogs next week but will play catch up when I come home and will blog next Monday before I go!

Love Lynne xx

All fine now Ladies , I added a linky and for people who need glasses like me, it's in bigger letters ! Anne xx

Nostalgia~ A Giant Leap!

Well here I am again, apologising for my lack of chat and blog posting. I can't believe that a month has passed so fast. I have excuses : a trip to visit family and friends in Washington, my boy arriving home the same day as us, still more works going on indoors getting the now non-kitchen back to usability and plenty going on in our business world too.

Part of my reason for being a bit off the radar brings me to my Nostalgia prompt for this month (the list still remains 'misplaced' so I am bouncing off the current affairs for this ..

The kitchen PC has been moved whilst we re-organise and Col treated us to a Windows 8 touch-screen laptop to use there instead.  Then at work we got phone upgrades and (with eyesight not what it was) I plumped for a 'Phablet'....phone / tablet, otherwise called the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It is the size of a thin housebrick but is just fab..I am quite an excited bunny.

All this technology got us chatting in the office last week..and here's my Nostalgia question for everyone this week:

Tell us about the biggest lifestyle changes in your lifetime..

Tell us how things changed for you from how your Mum lived.. 

It doesn't have to be technology but this is the kind of thing :

Back in my childhood we did not have a telephone of our own. There was a red phonebox about 50 feet from my house and we used to give that number to anyone who needed to contact us. With no TV and so much less noise in the house (no brrrr of the fridge, no constant rumble of a washing machine) you could hear the phone if it rang, through the quietness of the evening air,.. not unless the Archers was on the Radio.. or the Shipping News, both of which were avid listening for a market gardening / fishing family in West Cornwall.

21st Century browsing in the shops..

Fast forward 30 years and I had my first mobile phone, another five and our first computer (the NEW Windows 95 to replace that MS-DOS thing I never did have to get to grips with), then another 20 years and we find ourselves with mini computers / phones / cameras, all with touch screen that amazingly our 2 year old grandchildren expect to be touch screen, even the TV!   

Music is the same.. Vinyl 45s have given way to cassettes, CDs, mini discs and now downloads.. but who of us can remember the 8-track stereos like the one my Step-dad was so proud of in his car in the mid 70s?

We always seem to think that our parent's generation had seen the biggest changes, the growth of the motor car, planes and the increased mobility and experience this gave our families but the speed of technological advance makes me feel like we too have seen a revolution of our own...makes me feel that I have to stay on the proverbial bus or I will find myself sitting at the bus stop waiting in ten years and find the buses don't run any more!

I hope there is something we can all share; the stories of our parents getting to grips with new things, our own experiences or the questions our children ask us that show just how much things have changed...

Here's the linky thing.. love to all  Kathi xxx

Let's reflect challenge - October

Hello everybody,

another month passed and we are now in October. Eeek !

I think I must have been a Bear in a previous life, because I find the idea of hibernating extremely attractive. You get to eat all what you want in order to put on weight ( and the fatter the better ) and then when the weather gets really annoying ( cold and humid ), you get to sleep and cuddle with your family in a cavern for a good couple of months. 

Well not being a bear, unfortunately, I am trying to prepare for the "naughty " months as I call them and do the best I can with them.

For these last 3 months of the year, we are going to be even kinder to ourselves. This month, our challenge's word starts with I and it's going to be 

                                                     IRRESISTIBLE

This is such a positive word as it only has to do with the nicest things. 

You don't say bad weather is irresistible or catching the flu is irresistible, but a beautiful smile can be irresistible, a cake can be irresistible ( tell me about it ), that little dress or top in your corner shop is definitely irresistible.

So this month, we celebrate the arrival of Autumn and if you don't like it too much like me, we just think about the nicest things so we can go through.

So, what is irresistible for you ?

As of our photo challenge, let it be a bit more " challenging " this week : Let's take a photo of things we can eat, starting with any of the letters of the week days : M, T, W, F, S and if you want to (no pressure), you even can upload the recipe.

I will start with the letter F, a Flan aux oeufs. Of course, it's French. It's something like a creme caramel but much thicker. It's a dessert, it's rich in taste (and in calories too I am afraid) and it is truly irresistible, at least in this house.

This is what it looks like :

Below is the recipe. It's for 6 to 8 people (but we more or less eat it with 4 people, told you, it's fabulous).

So for 4 to 8 people, depending how fond of it you are, you will need :
1 liter milk
220 g sugar
6 to 7 eggs
1 vanilla pod (it's a bit more expensive than liquid vanilla but the taste is sooo much better, it's worth it).
A dish that they can go into the oven ( I used 2, as I didn't have one big enough)
Another big dish in which your other 1 (or 2) will go.

Sorry, explaining very badly, but you surely can understand via the picture.

- Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees, that should be around 8, I guess.

- Pour the milk in a pot, add the vanilla pod and heat it until it boils. It will take a while but keep an eye on it as it goes out of the pot before you know it. You also probably will get a bit of cream on the top of the milk, I normally remove it with a small colander. You can leave the vanilla pod inside, but don't forget to remove it when you will use the milk.

- Whilst you are waiting for the milk to boil, choose a very big bowl that can contain all of the mix as we will add the milk into it later. Mix the whole eggs with 100 g sugar (just in case: whole egg means white + yellow, but you DO remove the eggshell, LOL). Mix it with a hand whip until the color is uniform.
When your milk has boiled, pour it step by step onto the eggs/sugar mix, very slowly and mixing all the time. Let it rest.

- Take a small pot, put the remaining sugar (around 120 g) and pour 2 table spoons of water on it. At medium heat, constantly turn until it becomes very brown. Congratulations, you made some caramel. If you want a bit less, you can half sugar and water.

- Take the the big ceramic dish and put your final dish (or 2) inside. Share your caramel between the 2 of them, starting from the top of the sides, so it makes a nice design. Then slowly add the milk/egg/sugar mix. Add some boiling water inside the ceramic dish (roughly until 3/4 of the height) as we will heat in a bain-marie. 

- When your oven is hot enough, place inside, in the middle. It normally cooks for 40 mns. Check after 35 mns what it looks like. The top should be very brown and when you put a knife inside, the mix should be "solid". Sounds difficult but in fact, just base yourself on the color of the top.

- When taken out of the oven, let it rest a bit. Some people eat it warm, some people eat it out of the fridge. It's delicious both ways. You can add some whipped cream on the side and then starting with the next day, you can eat carrots for a week to compensate the calories, LOL.

I though that because we live or come from 4 different countries, it would be a good idea to exchange some recipes, but as I said, don't feel obliged if you don't have time.

Let's see what you will come up with and how many kilos we can put on all together. After all, we might not be bears, but it's going to be winter and everybody needs some reserves, right?

Anne xxx

The View Challenge: October

Hello Lucky Snappers.

Thank you to Anne and Kathi and Lynne for having my back and posting when I couldn't. Opening the new store has been all consuming and I have been unable to be a real person, I have not looked after my children properly myself, have had my Mum do it for me. My first priority has been to get back to them and then my friends and now getting back to a bit of normal! I think it will still consume me for another 4 weeks and then hopefully back to a normal operation. I sure miss my part-time work and feel very sad that I couldn't afford to stay part-time. Hey-ho, make the best of what you have, are and can be.

On top of the new store drama, we have had a new kitchen installed at home and it has been a disaster with timing, what was promised to be a 6 day job stretching to 8 days has taken a month! So I have been dealing with a new store and myriad refrigeration problems and also chaos at home. It has been a very trying time and I am so relieved that it is all coming together now, but I can see it being another 4 weeks of difficulty.

Anyway, let's see your view please. I am posting this from work as again there was a refrigeration problem and I have had 3 hours sleep! I will post the linky tonight when I get home, if I get home lol xxx

Edited:
Thanks Anne for posting the linky, I didn't get home until late and really only enough energy for bed. I now have to go early again this morning...when will it settle down???!!! Lol, my deputy is back from his holiday now so we have a few days and then my holiday, thank goodness.

Here is a couple of shots from the coast path, I was so tired that day that we just walked to the coast path and enjoyed the views. This is at Morte Point Lighthouse.

Lynne's Challenge : Quote for September

Like everyone else life seems to be very busy and we are off on holiday next week so I have sent this to Anne a week early. I am still doing here letters photos and nicknames, must get that finished before Sunday!

Here is this month’s quote, do watch the youtube. Only a couple of minutes!

“Love is Like a friendship caught on fire”   by Bruce Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipO9iUaS-Ws

What is important to you in a friendship?

Tell us this week about some friendships that have grown over the years.
About friends you have lost touch with and why?

During the week take photos of some things you have been doing or something that you found interesting.

Take care and much love

Lynne xx

September Nostalgia..

It's my birthday in September and I started school just a few days before I was five years old. Straight in, full days and no part-time / nursery places like the children do today.

Well my 5th birthday was on the first Friday so off I went to school, party afterwards, or maybe the next day and a whole day on the Sunday to play with my presents.  'Cushtie' as DelBoy would say!  School cracked and a birthday under my belt.

Ahaha, not so simple for my Mum. 

Come Monday Morning the taxi for our school run arrived to collect us from the little spot just near our house and all hell broke loose: 
I was NOT going to School, 
I had been already (last week), 
I had lots more playing with the birthday toys to do.... 

...who ever said that school business was more than two or even three days until your birthday??

Needless to say I was bundled in the taxi, there was no option, no car at home to take me when I got over it. My cousin Neil looked after me and I suppose I got over it, as little kids do when they throw a screamer.  Dear Neil, he told the teacher about it at lunchtime and I was quite embarrassed when she called me to come chat to her and talk about why I didn't want to go to school.. that was almost as painful as the going in the taxi hours earlier! 

Mind you , that infant teacher was divine.. Miss Morley, she had the blackest hair and looked like she should have dated a pop star, definitely smelt great and had a long lasting effect on my school days.. yes I grew to like it (I didn't find it hard going) and teachers definitely had lasting influences on my choices.

Soooo.. Lucky Snappers..tell us your School day Stories..

Have you had tears and tantrums with your youngsters?

What has changed so much from when you were at school?

I am away in the States all week this week so I am being efficient and scheduling this..hope you are all well and I will peek and comment if I can during the week or when I get back.

Love to you all

Kathi xx

Let's reflect Challenge : September

Hello everybody,

don't we have a gorgeous weather this summer ?  

Sunshine, sunshine and again sunshine.

The only week it rained was the one I was on holidays, LOL. Ah it didn't matter (too much), we still had a lot of fun.

Well, actually preparing my posts in advance as always, the weather has kind of changed now, must cooler and humid. It has been pouring down yesterday.

Let's continue our little trip through the word LINING. Today we reached the letter N and the word I chose will probably surprise you. I selected it because it's a fun word, mostly very affectionate and caring and also it will give us an occasion to learn a bit more about each other again. 

Our word this month is : 

NICKNAME

According to our Friend Google  :

Nickname  : A familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name.

So may be you are going to be brave and tell us your nickname or the one you had when you were young, or may be you will do so for your partner, your kids, your pets, or something that belongs to you, like your car, or a piece of garment, or your first toy . . . the choice is yours.

This week, we are going to surprise each other with these stupid silly names that normally hardly make sense to anybody excepted to the person who gave it or received it but one thing I am convinced of, it's going to be fun.

Let me be the first and reveal some of my deep secrets. I will start with my step kids. When I first met David, he was 5 and a bit and I immediately nicknamed him "Einstein", I really don't know why. He of course immediately asked who Einstein was, LOL and after a long explanation, he was pretty pleased with the comparison. This nickname followed him until he was 18 or so.

As of Sophie, she was around 4 when I met her, cute as a bug and she received the nickname "Little Monkey". She was always moving quickly and smiling at me like she was up to some secret nonsense.  

During the week, I will tell you about the other nicknames which crossed my path. . . 

If you have a bit more spare time and would like a photo challenge, here we are: This week, take photos of things or people whose names only start with one of the letters we already used in this challenge : S, I, L, V, E, R or N. There are 7 letters for 7 days. You can do in any order you want.

My first photo is with R (for Rhea)

Take care everybody, Anne xxx
 

September Views

I think poor Jen has probably not been able to peep out from under the load of supermarket offers and back to school demands this weekend so I will just drop this note in until she can pop in.

If everyone can have their thinking caps on and get snapping those Views, it is getting a little autumnal now and that fabulous sunset last night was something to behold, I think most of the country saw it!

This is the line from Jen's chosen poem so if you have views which fit this theme then all the better..

Warm September brings the fruit

sportsmen then begin to shoot..

Love to all.. and here's my Window view from last night!


I will let Jen check in and we will set the link later..

Kathi xxx

That's what team members are all about, Kathi !!!
I don't manage to put this annoying link text on the left, but at least you can link your photos now. Anne xxx

Ooops.. August Quote week!

Darn it I am so sorry guys! 

Jen sent me the quote to post and I missed it as I pick up mail on my phone and it doesn't always translate properly!!

Still some hectic days here so I haven't peeked at everyone's 'times changing' posts I asked you for last week.. my house PC is still out of action with the wait on the kitchen reshuffle.. so bear with me.. here's Lynne! 

Well here we are at the end of August and it is my week again.

As I write this I still have to blog my nostalgia week for lovely Kathi.

I think having to be indoors and to search for photos rather stops me blogging whilst this lovely weather is here, so sorry that I will be a last minute Charlie this week.

Here is the quote for this week.

“When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and White you photograph their souls” Ted Grant

Edward "Ted" Grant was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the Militant tendency and later Socialist Appeal.

Born: July 9, 1913, Germiston, South Africa

Died: July 20, 2006, London

This week I would like you to concentrate on taking photos of people, first in colour and then changing the photo into B&W with your camera setting or using a photo programme if you can.

Show us your results.

If you don’t have a programme on your computer, try downloading free Picasa  http://picasa.download1b.com/. I prefer this to adobe myself, so easy to use.

Have a lovely week snapping people you know and don’t know, get your camera/phone out daily

Love

Lynne xx