Meadow Flowers 2 – The Reality

Some of you may remember that a few days ago (during The World Watercolour Challenge Month of July) I did a little ATC watercolour painting of some Meadow Flowers(<—click) and told you how I’d been inspired to paint that particular little painting.  (click the link and it will open in a new window to actually read that post if you missed it).

The original ‘Meadow Flowers’ ATC (sized 2.5″x 3.5″inches)

I said in that post that if I got the opportunity I’d take a snap of the flowers next time I passed them.  Well I drove past them yesterday (1st August) and before I turned the bend I had a very heavy heart, telling myself that they’d have all been drowned by the awful rains (and the winds) we’ve experienced here in the last few days, ….  however, as I drove around the bend my heart began to flutter like a butterflies wings.  Yes, the rain had given them a bit of a knock and nudge but there they stood, nodding and swaying in the wind.  I pulled over and very quickly snapped a couple of pictures on my cell phone.  One through the open passenger side car window – so it was nice and crisp and clean … and another through the windscreen – which gave the photo a bit of a white haze … but you can kind of see them.

taken through the open car window.

This photo was taken through the windscreen of my car.  Hence the white haze

What you’re looking at in the last photo (above) isn’t the full length of the Meadow Flowers planted – there’s roughly about half as much again which I couldn’t fit into a photo.  So you can imagine what a total blast of colour and joy it is to see each day.

I saved these photo’s as quite large ones,  (so that everyone would be able to see the meadow flowers properly)  and I know I used to be able to open up photo’s by simply clicking on them here in WordPress, and they would open up in the larger size.  But … I don’t seem to be able to do that now … so if someone knows how to get them to open up in their larger (saved) size then please could you let me know so that I can let everyone else know.  Many thanks!

I’ve blurred out the background properties which face onto the green, as … well, they aren’t my properties and I don’t have permission to put them on the web.  So just being polite.

I missed the final days of the Watercolour Challenge as we had Little Cobs come to stay, and quite frankly, he’s enough to keep a whole host of Angels busy!  By the time I’d managed to get him into bed of a night-time and read him a story (or two), I was so plumb tuckered out that I felt like I needed putting to bed myself!

But today I had to take him home again.  My loan of the Grandchild time had come to an end.  So we made the best of the last few hours we had together by starting with a thoroughly unhealthy breakfast … of Toast (not me, just Little Cobs) followed an hour later by … McDonald’s breakfasts!   Then we played Lego (which I am totally useless at but I try my best);   then we made a packed lunch and took it to the sea to watch the boats, the waves and look for Pirates.  However …. on the way there, we just HAD to take a slight detour and visit Toys R Us,  with pocket-money supplied by Grandad, to buy as much as we could possibly buy and pile into the car.

Then it was off to see the sea. 😊

We couldn’t go and sit out as the rains had made everything so wet we would have got soggy bottoms – and it was still a bit windy, which Little Cobs hates  …. so we ate a picnic in the car with the windows down a little so that we could get that fabulous air and actually smell the sea (which I love)  …. and gazed out onto the water, as we played with some new toys.

This was the sea and the sky of blue with its cotton wool clouds….

picture taken 1st August 2017

…  that isn’t an x inside a circle, printed on one of the clouds … it’s the reflection of the corner of my parking permit.  lol.

Normal service will now resume, once I’ve got my body back,  because some bu**er has stolen my youthful, joy filled, light as a feather feeling body, and replaced it with some old duffers body,  – and they have to be at least 120 years old, by the feel of the body which mine has been swapped with.  This one is creaky, old, positively broken in rather a lot of places and totally damaged through over-use (see definition for ‘knackered’ – which OBVIOUSLY isn’t a word I use,  being as it’s such an unladylike word and all that).

All I’ve done is taken responsibility for a 6-year-old boy …  so it’s obviously while I was distracted that someone broke into my home and swapped my own body for this load of carp which they’ve left me with.  I don’t know who I complain to.  I mean …. would the Police take this seriously?  I doubt it.  In fact … I feel like I can hear them laughing from here!

Suggestions for getting my  “OOooooNLY 27 YEARS OLD”   body back would be much appreciated.  For I have a birthday … as you know … and I shall be  “OOOooonly 27”  again, so I need my  “OOoonly 27”  year old body back… because that really was some body, and this one I’ve got now is ….  broken in 50 Shades of Busted!

Till next time …  …  I send you squidges,  mentally.   … I just can’t seem to get up from my seat at the moment to squidge you properly  …  actually, I think my arm has just dropped off   … ut ohhhh . . . .   I think a leg might be about to follow it!   Oh gawd,   …  what next?!!   I DEMAND THE RETURN OF MY BODY!   (or at the very least … a new one).

 

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Things I’ve Learned This Week

Welcome, dear readers, to the Friday Postcard from the land of Cobwebs, where you learn about the lessons life has taught me in the past week.

Without further ado, I’m going to plunge you straight into the shallow pool in which I paddle…..

I’ve learnt that it’s bloomin’ annoying when they suddenly take my hair shampoo off sale and instead bring out a NEW, IMPROVED variety, without any warning.  Had they put out a notification that they were going to do this, I would have gone and bought up as many bottles as possible and kept them in storage, for use whenever I needed it.  I’m now left with yet another seek and find operation to find a shampoo which doesn’t make my hair hang like it’s suffering with a bad bout of depression, or my head itch or burn. Or any number of combinations.  Why do companies do this?  It’s most impolite!

I learnt this week (and this one surprised the heck out of me)  that (last year) the Hershey Company of the USA had British Chocolate made by Cadbury BANNED in the USA, and because of that two of the biggest importers of Cadbury Chocolate were no longer allowed import and sell the British Chocolate within the USA.

The Hershey Company banned (yes banned) Cadbury Chocolate from the USA!  No I couldn’t believe this either so went in search of the truth.  Turned out … it was true….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcVpp0fGETM

Now I have a handful of friends who were born and bred in the USA and they all love British Chocolate.    So I hope that they will continue to be able to find what they desire.  However … a certain blogger – Chicken Grandma – will (next week) get her first taste of Walnut Whips which I’ve posted to her.  If she loves them … I want her to be able to seek and find them so that she can keep up her supply.  😉

I’ve learned that  when I’m not feeling too well,  I really, really should stop what I’m doing and just let my body heal itself in its own time, and not push my luck.  Because pushing my luck ends up costing me more days of not being too well.  So give in, give up and go to bed.  That’s the rule I’m going to go by from now on.

I learned the hard way that when I see some crafty item or another, and I fall in lurve with it, I should think carefully about whether I should buy two or three packs at the time …  because that store where you bought your item from, might just put the price up to double the price you paid just two days earlier, once it finds out that crafters really, really like this item and want it on their Christmas cards!  DOUBLE THE PRICE IN JUST A COUPLE OF DAYS!  What a liberty!  Grrrr!  😦

I realised (so I guess I learned this about myself this week) that I no longer take myself as seriously as I did when I was younger.  I’ve found that I’m far more relaxed and more chilled now.  Things don’t bother me like they used to.  Appointments being cancelled … [shrugs] that’s ok.  Just make another one.  The store being out of stock of the item I travelled there just to buy ….  ah nevermind.  Find something else, or wait till they get it back in.  Nothing really gets me angry or mad any more.  I’m just the chilled out person I always knew I could be if I tried.  Thing is … I’m not trying.  It just seemed to happen!

I’ve learned that no matter how serious your own life is,  everyone needs a friend to be silly with.  Someone you can just be silly with.  Harmlessly so.  Innocent fun.  Just regular silly stuff.  Someone to have a laugh or a giggle with.

I’ve learned that my 5-year-old Grandson, Little Cobs, is apparently  the Worlds Chief Fingernail  Superintendent, and if he feels that my nails are too long for any Grammy of his, then he’s going to tell me about it over and over until I get my nail scissors out and cut that nail to a length he finds acceptable.  (yes … this really did happen.  I josh you not!).

I’ve learnt that Mr. Cobs and I are going to have to resort to trickery to get Little Cobs out of the house when he comes every Saturday for the day.  His daddy drops him off with us, and the moment that front door closes, we cannot get him to come out with us in the car at all.  He just doesn’t want to leave the house, not for weeks on end now – he’ll take his bike out into the garden and race around that, but that’s as far as it goes.

And … we think we may have figured out why.  He knows that if he goes out in Grammys car, it could be that we’re taking him home.  Soooo he might think that we’ll take him home if we go out, soooo …  we’re going to swap things around.  We’re going to pack a winter picnic in the car, then instead of Daddy dropping him off, we’ll instead go there and collect him from daughter and son-in-law’s home….  then we’ll go take him somewhere for this picnic (if it’s too cold to eat outdoors, then we’ll sit in the car and eat it).  Then afterwards we can do something outside.  Something fun.  Even just kicking a ball around the park with Grandad or even something like a hunt for treasure on the beach (if the sun is out).  Anything, just to get him outside having a bit of fun.

And finally ….

I’ve learned that the obnoxious smell which my dog can emit – particularly and only when her bottom is facing my way – be it in our bedroom, the living room or any other room – including my Craft Room (how very dare she)  …. might turn me green;  make me fall off my chair;  go into debt to buy sprays and expensive scented candles which will disguise the smell enough to stop me vomiting ….  but I’ve learned that I can actually live through them …. even when holding my breath and trying to make a hasty retreat to some other room where she can’t follow me!

Mr. Cobs let her eat what was left in one of our cats food dishes today which has caused her a windy pops problem  … and if he EVER does that again I’m going to either:-

A)  D.I.V.O.R.C.E him.  

B)  Cut his ‘pom poms’ off (yes we really do call them that ever since our youngest daughter asked us, when she was knee-high to an ant,  “Why does Daddy have pom poms and I don’t?”.   They’ve been ‘pom poms ever since.      … or 

C)  Shave all his hair off while he’s blissfully snoring the night away.

Be Warned, Cobs The Bogey Man!  Be Warned!.

Well … that’s a list of all the lessons life has taught me in the last seven days.  Or rather … it’s the ones I can remember.   So what about you?  Have you learned anything this week?  Has life taught you the secrets of how to stay forever young?  Win the lottery?  Be forever as beautiful as you are right now?  What?  C’mon, share what lessons you’ve learned this week.

If they’re tough lessons which require us all to gather around you and hug you … then we will.

If they’re lessons which require us to laugh  … then we’ll do that easily.

But if they’re lessons that we can learn from, then we’ll willingly all sit in silence as you tell us what we need to know so that we don’t make that same mistake.

If you’ve learnt nothing at all this week … then for goodness sake tell us your favourite joke!  We all need to laugh far more than we do.  So come on…  share your best joke with us!

Sending oodles of squidges from my corner to yours. ~

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Things I’ve learned this week

Aaand  it’s Friday again.  Can you believe how quickly Fridays seem to arrive?  Or is that just me being old and weird? 

Well we’re here to find out what I’ve learned this week  and I’ve learned a lot…

I’ve learned that although I’m scared stupid of spiders, I’m not scared of Dragonflies.  In fact, I’m SO not scared of them that I tried to collect up and save the life of a Dragonfly who’d popping into my craft room, through the open window.  I was trying to be so very careful with him and not hurt his little wings or anything – but I was being too careful and so couldn’t catch him.  In the end I called on Mr.Cobs to come and help, as I was concerned that he could end up not being able to get out and then I’d find his little body,  lifeless, on the windowsill …  and then I’d feel a huge sense of guilt,  for ever and ever, that I hadn’t tried harder.

Mr.Cobs thankfully managed to guide him to the open window where he neatly popped out and flew away.  (The dragonfly flew away, not Mr.Cobs.  I think Mr. Cobs would have great difficulty getting off the ground).

I learned that the ampersand (in the picture above and here: &) has a most fascinating history.  It first came to light over 2,000 years ago!  Now that alone was enough to turn my eyes into the size of saucers.  I mean to say … look at that funky shape (above) …  that isn’t something which you perhaps would have expected to be around over 2,000 years ago.  But there’s more: …  It started out as the Latin word: et – which meant  ‘and’.  But because of the way Latin was written (all curls and flicks) the ‘e‘ and the ‘t‘  sometimes looked as if they were as one letter, which was the beginning of the ampersand  ‘&’.

BUT … the actual name ‘ampersand‘ didn’t exist until around the 1830’s, when ‘&’ was (would you believe it ..) … the 27th letter of the alphabet!  WHO KNEW?!    The ‘&’ mark ended the alphabet like this:  ‘X  ..  Y  ..  Z  ..   and per se and‘  (and=&)  –  and since ‘and per se’ meant: ‘and by itself’  …  this final phrase ‘and per se’ was lazily mumbled and stumbled over by English school children when they were reciting the alphabet,  it was, through use of the mumbled English,  eventually re-born as  ‘ampersand’. 

(If you say the original  ‘and per se and’  out loud a few times until your mouth gets used to saying it, you can eventually ‘hear’ how you could slur it, as a bored child would do when being made to recite the alphabet for the fourth time, and make it sound like ‘ampersand’)

I’ve also learned this week that a picture very much like this little picture (below) hit just the right spot in me and spoke to me like it was the Lord talking gently over my shoulder, into my ear:

My incredible, amazing,  the funshine of my life,  Grandson,  Little Cobs, has developed an all-encompassing love of his teddy bear over the summer (school) holidays, and that teddy bear travels everywhere with him.  From morning till night, that little bear is carted around like it’s tied to him.  His mummy (our daughter) sent a text message to her father (Mr. Cobs)  asking if he could make a bed for ‘Round‘ (the name of Little Cobs teddy bear.  I know!  Round!  I have no idea why either, but that’s the name Little C. gave the bear and we know better than to question it).   I said I’d design it, and Mr. Cobs could make it.  But until it’s made we sorted out a lightweight (so easy to pick up and carry for a small boy), plastic (but that flexible plastic which you can bend – so that it won’t break) box,  which I donated from my craft room, as a bed for ‘Round’,  and when Little Cobs came to visit for the day on Wednesday this week, I told Little C that I would make a pillow and bed throw (duvet) for Round so that she (oh yes, ‘Round’ is a girl, I think I forgot to say that) .. so that Round would have a comfy pillow to rest her head and a lovely bed throw to cover herself up with so that she was snuggly in her bed.

Mr. Cobs lifted my sewing machine from its sewing bag and set it down on the table for me, . . .  and as I sat cutting some material to make the throw …  I became aware of a performance over to my right, coming from the living room.  I stopped what I was doing to see Little Cobs fighting his way through the living room with one of the chairs from his drawing table.  …. huff, puff, huff  ….  He was rather firmly informing Grandad that  NO, he didn’t need any help, he could do it himself!  So Mr. Cobs opened the door wider so that Little C could manly bring in his own chair to sit and keep me company as I sat sewing bed ‘stuff’ for Round. (Keep in mind that this little boy has cerebral palsy which affects his walking and co-ordination, and his articulation of words to some degree, and you’ll understand why seeing him struggling purposefully with this chair made my heart sing).   It was right then, as I looked at the little man now sat to my right, that I realised I couldn’t have a more perfect moment than those few seconds.  Here was this tiny scrap, sat on a chair a quarter of the size of mine, keeping me company and watching me sew and make things for his beloved bear,   as he sat hugging said bear and waited for the magic to happen.  In that moment I knew that I LOVED what I am able to do.  I love that I can craft.  That I can paint, stamp and colour things with him. I love that I have a pile of stuff in my craft room which is just for him.  I love that there is a huge jar filled with all manner of wonderful craft goodies, which he’s seen and knows is sat waiting until this Saturday when he and I are going to have a crafting day, just Grammy and Little Cobs.

And I loved and gave thanks, in that very moment, that I knew enough about sewing dolly and teddy things from when our girls were young,  to quickly make a quilted bed throw and soft, squishy pillow for  Round the Bear, who has a fluffy  heart on her bottom, and holds my grandsons heart in her paw.

Hello God, it’s me again.  Please don’t let him lose Round,  for he will be inconsolable if he ever does. Thank you.

When I had finally finished sewing, and cut off all the loose threads, I gave the new bedding to Little Cobs and helped him put them in Rounds temporary bed, with Round tucked up snuggly, like a bear should be.  He gazed at the bed throw and touched it gently.  Feeling how soft and squishy it was and then he looked at me in a way which I hadn’t seen him look at me before.  I saw that his little brain was trying to work out something that he hadn’t noticed before – that being that his Grammy obviously had a magic wand and was a witch who could magic up wondrous things he’d never dreamed of.  I’m dreading him coming on Saturday and asking me to make him a full size Racing Car.  There’s only so far that my magic can stretch to.  I’m great with ‘swish and flick’  for small things   … but anything big requires Harry Potter himself!  lol

And finally …

I’ve learned that I care more deeply about the blogging friends I’ve made here than I realised.

I received a message from a blogging friend who I ‘met’ when I first began blogging (2 years ago).  I clicked to follow her, she clicked to follow me, and so it went on.  We would read each others blog posts and comment, like you do.  Then … she posted a blog post on June the 30th this year in celebration of being married to her husband for 50 years!  I can tell you that this surprised the heck out of me – and told myself that I’d obviously read it incorrectly because I ‘knew’ she couldn’t be anywhere near 50 years old!  She was too vibrant, too ‘with it’, too …. aw – just TOO.   No way could she have been married for 50 years!  However, when I checked with her, she told me that yes indeed, she and her wonderful husband had been married for 50 years!  (You could have knocked me down with a feather!  I was SO surprised).

Then, last week, I heard from Beverly after a  period of ‘quiet’  (I’d noticed a lack of posts on her blog for about a month, but guessed that they may be away on a summer holiday or off seeing relatives).

Last week Beverly commented on a post on the blog here and told me that she had something to tell me and she would tell me later.  True to her word, she came back and told me that she has lost her husband a few short weeks after their 5oth Wedding Anniversary.  He’d had a fatal heart attack.  When I read the message I felt like someone had placed a hand around my throat and was holding it in a tight grip.  I couldn’t swallow, couldn’t breathe properly and neither could I make this news register with my brain. This surely couldn’t be correct.  It COULDN’T be.  They’d only just celebrated their anniversary.

I read that message three times,  and on the third reading I had to read it out loud so that I could be sure that I was understanding what I was reading.  And then … I didn’t understand why.  Why was this man taken?  What exactly was the ‘plan’ here?  How could it be that there were really bad people left alive and roaming the planet, killing people, blowing them up, and causing so much heartache, anguish and pain, and yet, here was this man,  a wonderful husband to Beverly and father to their children, taken – without warning.  Why?   I don’t understand the plan.

Hello God, it’s me again.  I don’t understand.  Forgive me.  I know you have a plan and that it’s probably a great plan, but sometimes I have to admit that I wonder why some things happen, when there are, to me, more obvious things that could have happened which surely would make the world a better place.  Aw, I know I probably don’t know what I’m talking about … but you know how I like to run these things past you when I can’t figure them out for myself.  Thank you for listening.  ~ me. x

I’ve always known that I develop a feeling of ‘caring’ for people I get to know via my blog here.  The ‘comments’ facility is such a wonderful thing.  I get to know people because of it, and more often than not, we get to have a bit of a giggle together.

And … if one of you doesn’t post for a while then you’ll no doubt find me putting a comment on your blog saying hello and trying to make sure that everything in your world is groovy.

This heartbreaking loss which Beverly is coping with,  has shown me exactly how much I care for all of my blogging friends.   Don’t get me wrong – I knew I cared …  I care enough to go up and down my list of blogs that I follow, every month,  in order to look for names of people who I haven’t heard from for a few weeks and will pop to their blog and leave a message saying hello.  But I didn’t realise how much I cared.  I do now.

I’ve learned a lot this week.

And now … it’s your turn my friend(s).  Tell me, in the ‘comments’ facility,  what you’ve learned this week.  Let’s turn this into a mutual learning experience.

Don’t think you have to use the comments to ‘comment on a post’ – any post.  You can use the comments simply because you have something you wanted to say.  You can chat away to your hearts desire.  If you have a problem and need to off-load it, then you’re very welcome to do so.  It can be a craft thing, a worldly thing, a ‘which dress to wear’ thing …. a heart thing …  any  thing.  If you want to talk about ‘it’  then go for it.  I think the ‘Comments’ should be re-named.  Not sure what to …  maybe you have a suggestion?

Sending you my love and good wishes for a wonderful weekend my friends.  Be safe out there.  Oh … and make memories.  Days are made for you to make memories.

Thanks for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  I love seeing you here.  Have a truly blessed rest of your day,