WIMP!

Does anyone else have these awful cravings for chocolate that totally overwhelm all sense of discipline and sense? What is in this stuff that causes such yearnings, which smoulder for several days and then win the battle as soon as a food shop comes into sight? I know, sweetie pickers wear bigger knickers, but oh, I feel such a sense of bliss at this moment of 'apres chocolat'.
I just cannot fight this urge at the moment, I admit I am a wimp!

Snow!

We have snow - lovely snow! It looked beautiful as it fell, covering the fields and filling the sky with that light moving mist of snowflakes. However, I don't think it is going to stay for long, the drive homw was very slushy. But I am a happy bunny now the snow has fallen.

Mixed up seasons

We have just had a freezing week in the UK which sadly has ended the flowering of the spring flowering shrubs. Yes, it is only November - they are so confused about when to flower nowadays! The mahonia flowers- my Christmas fowers for the dining table are brown, the delicious pink flowered shrub whose name I can never remember has flowers that look rather sagging. The winter flowering honeysuckle has a few flowers but this winters' stock of strongly scented flowers looks as if it has taken a dive. No snow drops as yet, but I wonder when they will appear this year?
Does this sound as if I am moaning?
Well too true! One of the joys of winter are the sprigs of strongly scented flwers that I can pick from my own garden. Thwarted again!

I need camels!

What do I need? I need camels - loadsa camels! The annual Christmas presentation is coming up and I need to make camel masks. Can anyone out there help me please? My wonderful firend has helped with the costumes, but the masks are beyond me! This is a pathetic plea for help!!

There's no hiding!

Every year I meet my sister and some of her friends when they come up to Telford to attend a show. We usually go out for a meal in Shifnal. In tthe past I have recognised several ex-pupils, but managed not to be noticed. Last night was so different. We walked down an alley way towards a group of teenagers, when a shrill voice screamed, "OOH, its Mrs Phillips!" Well stopped all the messing about for a few seconds! We laughed and I went on with my sister.
We met up with the others in the group on the way to the pub where we were going to eat. The pub had been totally transformed so i was busy looking at the room and failed to look at the young man behind the bar...
Yes, the second time that night "Hello, Mrs Phillips!" It was lovely to see him, he was one of my cricket enthusiasts, still beaming as he did at the age of 7. But I am sure he can't be old enough to run a pub...?
However, one of the funny things was that the last year I was in the school he attended, I went to a Hen Party in one of the local golf clubs. The instruction was to wear something from the style of the 80's. Most of them wore Dallas style dresses, but I fancied going as a Punk Rocker. Picture it -torn jeans, chains, safety pins, hair in on of those Cherokee cuts and bright green. When you are not one of the rockers, to suddenly style your hair in that way was very difficult - at leasst it was for me. I ended up wearing a light swimming cap with some of my hair pulled through holes in it, are you managing to imagine this? I think weird would be a kind word! Anyway, I arrived and walked into the foyer to much consternation from the woman on the desk; however, she let me in. The others in the group were already there, so we went into the lounge area, and who was sitting there on a sofa? This young man who was serving me at the pub last night! He had no problems laughing at me!!
C'est la vie..

Brrrr....

"Wrap up well," the weather forecaster is saying - too true. The first fire of the year has just been lit, thank goodness for wood-turning neighbours! I have really dried hard word to burn - all the exotic woods you can think of and some of it looking remarkably like reject candle sticks etc. Bu it is blissful. Now all I have to do is read a book and take the relevant notes whilst stoking the flames. Oh, and I have a gin and tonic to keep me company through all of this stresful occupation!

Isn't life wonderful!

I'm running out.

I don't collect many things but I enjoy the Cinnamon Altoids that I bought in the States last year. I love the flavour, I think the first time I became 'addicted' was at College when my friend and I went to the local coffee shop Peters to buy cinnamon toast with our coffee. I remember the enjoyment of the crunchy brown sugar, fatening yes, but eh smell of cinnamon was so intoxicating. ( I also collect small sweet tins and decorate the tops of the doorways with them. ) And now?
Well I love the pastilles, cinnamon chewing gum and any recipe with cinnamon. I brought a bundle of cinnamon sticks back from Ladakh, so the Christmas decorations will be well scented.
What really puzzles me is why Callard & Bowser only export all these sweets, they simply cannot be found in the UK. Can anyone explain this please?

I still miss her.

Two years on from mum's death, it is still difficult to deal with the situation.

I was talking to a woman at the week-end who has spent a lot of her life travelling. She is now at the stage where she has to work for a pension, but what memories she has! I thought how similar she was to my mother, who likened life to a mountain that you climb, then at the end of life look down at the view. As my daughter said at her funeral, it must have been a fantastic view.

Here's to those we love.

Things they are a changin'

The sad part of the week-end was finding out that my favourite shop in Leicester is closing. The lovely Chinese items have been wonderful to see - the wooden Chinese food take away basket, the hat boxes. The monks' tables which I learnt about in Ladakh, each one a different height to show the level of superiority of Monk that used them. Wonderfully carved stools and cupboards. These were the kind of things that I was hoping to see when I travelled to China, but sadly there was not a lot to see by way of old furniture and items. It would have been difficult to search out the right shops in the short time that we were there, but not even the The Forbidden Palace displayed furniture. So, that shop has been a small but friendly little Chinese art gallery. Shucks, I shall have to go to London and visit his stall. At the same time I could visit the exhibition of Chinese furniture and other items which is on at the Academy.

Bonfire Night

Leicester really knows how to celebrate Bonfire Night. We spent the evening in an allotment on the top of a hill (well, a slope actually!) in Leicester watching their bonfire and almost all the fireworks of different groups in the city. There were many many different displays and they were tremendous, some of the fireworks I have never seen before and they went on letting them off for hours! We finished the evening having drink with the gardeining friends in thier home just around the corner.

Denise had a lovely picture on her wall which I assumed to be a photograph, but it was instead a charcoal drawing from the far east. It was spectacular - a drawing of a bedouin woman's head, she was wearing a headdress rather like a turban and a veil covering the lower part of her face. The eyes were incredible, they showed a reflection of a person when I looked at it from a distance, but close to it resembled nothing like a person. Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to create such masterpieces? I haven't given up on my plans to do more of the drawing, just waiting till after the end of February!

Oh yes, and the icing on the cake as far as the week-end went? I thrashed Shirley twice at Scrabble so I have the Scrabble Crown back!