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