Where I live-Inthemud

Halfway down the road
Is a road where I live:
There isn't any other road quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top:
So this is the place where I always stop.

Halfway up the road
Isn't up, and isn't down.
It isn't in the village, it isn't in the town:
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
"It isn't really anywhere! It's somewhere else instead"

Apologies to AA Milne.....

That is rather how I feel about where we live.
We are a collection of houses scattered in a small hamlet on the surrey/Sussex border. Once many years ago this was a thriving village, with a petrol station garage, a Post office with shop, a Bakers ,a Blacksmith and a small school but none of these exist anymore , just a few clues the the past hertiage in the names of houses "The Old Post Office", "The Old Smithy". There is just one place left where the locals can meet The Pub, which is very old and very quaint, goes back to 1500's, and has kept many of it's original features, there is no proper bar, just a stable door , over which one orderes drinks! The pub is very popular with walkers as it is in the midst of a network of Footpaths.


The road we live on, is a country lane, it is set between two major roads, our cottage is about half way from either direction. It can be a busy road especially during the rush hour as people use it to cut through from one main road to the next instaed of going the long way round! Though just recently we did get our 40 mile an hour limit, after almost 10 years of fighting for it. Such a relief and it is slowing traffic down a bit, though not totally. There are no paths, no street lighting, so it can bit rather dangerous taking the dogs out that way.


But go out behind the cottage and immediately I am in fields and woodlands. I've mentioned before the Game keeper who loves to hunt and his strange habits with his trophy heads so I won't say anymore about that, just to say he still does it!
I can walk for ages and not see the road. This is why I love where I live, I love seeing the wildlife, the deer, foxes, rabbits, pheasants,the heron,ducks and moorhens in the pond in the corner of the field, my friendly barn owl, whom I often see first thing in the morning scanning the meadow for prey. I love the plant life too, this time of year there are clusters of primroses, soon there will be carpets of bluebells and wood anenomes.




The road gets very muddy, the paths through the wood and meadows get very muddy, which is why I gave myself the name "Inthemud", because on the first occasion that I joined "that" place and had to think of a user name, we'd just come back froma very muddy walk and Beth was covered in mud, so I thought of "Stuck in the mud" but the system wouldn't allow it all, so Inthemud is what I ended up with, though I answer to "Muddie"!


Our nearest shop is just over a mile away at the petrol station and our nearest village is about 2 miles away in the opposite direction, this is where the real community is, the Co Op with the Post office,the lovely farm shop selling local fresh fruit and vegetables as well as a range of delectable foods and chocolates, the Health centre and pharmacy, the primary school where Lucy attends and the Church which plays a big part in my life. There is also a big Village Hall and Social Club and Playing fields with Football pitches and Tennis Courts. Within this village are all manner of groups and societies , there's the "Wives", "The Friendly Club", The horticultural Society,WI, to name but a few, I'm not a member of any of these as I work full time and mostly meetings are in the day time.


If I need a big supermarket I only have to travel about 6-8 miles in any direction and I can find most of the major retailers.
Our nearest town is Horsham, which is one of the reasons we moved out this way, we would drive out to Horsham on a Sunday and so liked the area that we wanted to live close by. So we spent years searching for the right house , visiting Horsham nearly every month till at last we found our ideal home. We choose this particular cottage because it had a huge drive way for Stan's cars and no immediate neighbours.I won't mention Stan's car habit again as it is rather a sore point!

In the other direction is a village which fames itself on being England's Largest Village: Cranleigh, a very pretty place with all the advantages of a town but it is classed as a village!

I believe we have the best of both worlds where we live, we are surrounded by beautiful countryside, yet we're are only a short drive from all the amenities that we need, though the children would beg to differ, saying they wished we didn't live in the back and beyonds because they cannot get to see there friends without asking to be taken! So "Mum's Taxi" gets plenty of use!


Our home was a pair of old Woodcutters cottages, nestling in beside a 26 acre wood, parts of it date back to the mid 17th C, but due to numerous additions over the years it is not original enough to be listed, which is good really. The early inhabitants must have been very short in stature, as the beamed ceilings are very low. In room room I call my study which doubles as a Dining room and guest room the ceiling has been raised, but the door is still very short, so many visitors go home with bumped and bruised heads, even though I remind them continually "Mind your head!" The cottage is full of character and we have a woodburning stove, which creates layers of dust throughout, I'm afraid I cannot keep up with the dusting and only do it periodically, when I can no only see the TV screen! We too have an abundance of spiders and cobwebs, they cling to the beams and are so hard to get rid of, so we just agree to live in harmony together, they do keep the fly population down to a minimum. I much prefer spiders to flies!


Along side our family and animals residing in the cottage we also have visitations from spirits from previous times. An old lady is occasionally seen wandering the garden or standing in the Dining room, she scared Beth,the dog, one christmas , her hackles rose and she wouldn't go into the room for ages. Also my middle daughter has regular visits from a small girl, who comes and just sits in the chair in her bedroom and watches her, she can be mischievious and often hides things I need, I'll go to the place I know I last saw the item, it won't be there, I'll search high and low and not find it, then the next day I'll look again and there it will be exactely where it should have been before!! We all jog along together sharing the house past, present and future, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Easter Garden

One of my lasting memories of Easter as a child was the making of the Easter Garden in our church in Norfolk on Easter Saturday. Whilst the adults were busy cleaning and decorating the church with beautiful flower displays, a few of my friends and I would be left to create the Easter Garden, we were able to use the floor at the back of the church around the font.The first part of the morning we would be out on our bikes collecting moss from the roots of trees in the nearby wood, picking up small twigs and picking primroses and daisies and other pretty little flowers. We'd also bring shells and stones that we'd collected on the beach the year before.
We'd have a big board on the floor that we would cover with sand and shingle and a little soil, we'd use old foil cake holders for water for the flowers. We'd make the tomb from large rocks, leaving a boulder just rolled away from the entrance, a white cloth representing the shoud would be lain in the tomb. We'd also build a mound and cover that in moss and place 3 crosses on it, this woulod be our Calvary.Moss would be strewn all over the rocks and floor, we'd make a little twisting stream using tin foil. All very Blue Peter!! Then we'd decorate with the flowers, shells, pebbles and twigs, until we could fit no more on it.


Once we'd finished we'd run round the grave yard looking at the different graves stones and playing till the adults had finished there decorating, then we'd go home to wait for Easter Sunday.

As an adult in my church in Surrey I used to take my children to help make the garden there too, this was a far superior garden with plants bought from the garden centre as well as contributions from the children!

Another delightful tradition is painting and decorating eggs, though the ones I used to do with the children never looked like these!

Good Friday

Hot Cross Buns!
Hot Cross Buns!
If you have no daughters , give them to your sons!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

Good Friday should start with toasted Hot Cross Buns for breakfast. They are delicious from the grill or toaster with plenty of butter and with cups of tea or coffeee. From the beginning, today feels and tastes different from any other day in the year.

But alas in 21stC Britain, Good Friday is simply another Bank Holiday, a chance to lie in and relax about the house or go shopping. every year seems a bit more secularised.

But it is worth while finding out about some good Friday Traditions. Perhaps you have some in your area.
The old Anglo Saxon name for Good Friday was " Langfredag" or the Long Friday. In parts of Sussex it used to be known as " Long Rope Day" and in Brighton there was a tradition of taking skipping ropes down to the beach and skipping along the shoreline. This was also a tradition in Scarborough too, the fishermen would turn the ropes for the children to skip over.
Also an old custom of Blacksmiths would not hammer any nails into a horse's hoof on Good Friday, because of the actions of those who nailed Jesus to the Cross.Similarly people did not do house hold tasks that involved nails. Not the case today, Bank Holidays and DIY go hand in hand!!







There is a green hill far away,
Outside a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.


O dearly, dearly, has He loved,
And we must love Him, too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.


He died that we might be forgiv’n,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to Heav’n,
Saved by His precious blood.

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven and let us in.


O dearly, dearly has He loved,
And we must love Him, too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.

I have just returned from Church, where I experienced a very moving service. It was a Family All Age Worship, and around the church local artists had drawn pictures depicting the journey Jesus took which culminated in his crucifixation on the Cross, also known as "The Stations of the Cross". The service started with the wonderful hymn above, which I have loved since childhood, "There is a green hill far away". Then we were allowed 30minutes just to wander around the church stopping at the different stations, where we were able to read scripture, meditate and interact, there was a big board on the floor near each station and we could draw pictures, write prayers, cut out from magazines anything that seemed relevant, the children found this bit the most interesting. There was also opportunity for the children to dress up in clothes of that era and have their photographs taken and then they could stick them to the boards.

As we walked round there was a slide show of images and bibical verses, and music playing. It was a most moving experience, there was a sense of peace and calmness in amidst the hubbub of children's voices and a real sense of awe and wonder at what our dear Christ Jesus went through to just to save us, you and me, he suffered so that we might be forgiven, that is such a strong message.

At the crucifixation Jesus is fulfiling the prophesy as written in Psalm 22 :

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel. [a]

4 In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me [b] in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced [c] my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.

19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

20 Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save [d] me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the congregation I will praise you.





I've just had my Hot Cross Bun and a cup of tea and now I'm ready to hit the shops!!

Happy Easter!

I've been tagged!!

I have been tagged by Wooly Works to write and share with you 7 facts about myself.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag up to 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I think we have played this game before and I have divulged so much about myself that it is hard to know what is left to share that is new!!

1) My hubby's Pet Name for me is "Fatty" which I'm not these days, though was quite plump when I first met him, but it's become a term of endearment! And for some reason I answer to it!!

2) I had a kitten for my first birthday, beautiful Black cat, my mum named him Licquorice because he had a brown sheen to his coat, but all i could say was "Diddy" and " daddy", being only one year old, I'd point at the cat and go Diddy, Diddy, so his name was changed to Diddy. He lived to be 18, suffered 2 road traffic accidents and survived, though the last one left him paralysed and inconrtinent which wasn't fun!

3)When I was 18 I spent the summer working in Switzerland, staying with my cousin and her family. They lent me a bike and I'd ride out for miles in the beautiful scenery around Interlaken. I went to a Bier Fest one night on my bike, I left very drunk at 4am and biked home, hit the wall and fell off, grazed my hands and knees!

4)My favourite cuddly toy as a child was my gollywog, he went every where with me. I had several over the years as they fell apart, I'd just be left carrying the head around, sniffing it under my nose, I'd love the smell!

5)I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton books, I'd read every book she wrote that i could get my hands on. Loved famous Five, Secret Seven, Adventure Books and so on.
Bit like my daughter now loves Jacqueline Wilson.

6)Favourite Sweets: Licquorice Allsorts.

7)Favourite Food: Anything with Mushrooms and garlic!

That's done then so who should I tag?

I know some people find this sort of thing annoying and I know that Elizabethd has tagged some of my good friends already.

So here goes:
Cait O'Connor
ChrisH
Pipany
Toady
Zoe
Faith
Crystal Jigsaw

You are duly tagged.
Please following the above instructions.
Look forward to reading your 7 Facts!
But fully understand if you do not wish to or do not have time to do this!

So who's home was it then?

Well, as far as I can fathom the hole in the tree was home to a family of Great Spotted woodpeckers in the spring.
As I used to walk past the tree I'd hear the twiterings coming from the hole and see little heads poking out, as I approached they would hide inside, once I'd passed they
would pop out again. Occasionally I would see the parent Great Spotted Woodpecker fly out as I was near by.

The young birds fledged and left the nest empty.

A few months later there was no activity, new residents had arrived to live in the tree, this time it was bees!!
They would usually ignore me as i walked past but sometimes they would fly out and look at me menaceingly, so I'd walk faster and hurry Beth along.
As summer turned to Autumn the bees disappeared and the hole in the tree became vacant again.


So far I've not seen any activity, but i expect the Woodpeckers will be back soon.



Nobody guessed the bees but 2 of you guessed the Woodpeckers, Pipany and Zoe, So you both win the box of Roses Chocolates.

And the 2 inventive answers that amused me most were Elizabethd's "Hobbit House" and WesterWitch's "A very large and impatient bookworm", so you 2 can also take a box of Roses. Enjoy!!

Who lives in a house like this??

I thought I'd give you a little Monday Morning Teaser.
I've been walking past this tree for over a year and I happen to know that there have been at least two sets of tenants living in this tree.

Have a guess and tell me who lives in a house like this? You can have 2 answers as
there will be a prize for the nearest accurate answers and a prize for the most inventive, if it makes me laugh you may well win!!

Pretty barrel

Spot the noddy dog!

And the answer is..................

Peterwf is the winner, he was the first to reply and the only one to specify 40, others said 30. So the bottle of bubbly goes to Peterfw. Well done!

But for sheer inventiveness I must give 2 more prizes, One to Westerwitch for her image of a "Witch with chain saws welcome" sign, who can argue with that!
And another to Chrish for her suggestion of " The Clangers have landed and built a chimney" I liked that! So all 3 come and collect your bottle button.

Yes, after nearly 10 long years of fighting, the Council have at last agreed to put up 40 mph speed limit. It was touch and go whether it would be agreed, we were all set for council approval last summer, then someone.......Grrrrrrrrr........made an objection. We don't know who, but they obviously don't live on the road or they wouldn't have objected. Probably one of the annoying fast commuters that use the road a as Rat run and don't want to be slowed down.

We've lived on this very fast unrestricted country lane for 6 years now and you take your life in your hands when you step out into the road to walk dogs or go to the post box. It is a country Lane, it has no pavements, but it is a short cut between 2 very busy "A" roads and the cars come thundering along. Rush hours in mornings and afternoons are terrible, then it goes quiet during the middle of the day.

Coming out of our drive is a dangerous feat, you have to edge out very slowly and wind windows down to hear for traffic.

In contrast I can step out of my back door and be in the woods and meadows with no cars and no noise except the birds.

When I saw the posts appearing along the road this week, I was delighted as I knew at last the battle for restrictions had been won. It won't slow everyone down I know that, but it'll help.

Guess What?

The above post appeared on our road yesterday and I am thrilled.
Can anyone guess what the significance of this seemingly insignificant post is?

There's a virtual bottle of plonk for the nearest right answer.


I will give out the answer tomorrow morning.

Happy guessing!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day began with Breakfast in Bed. I knew something was up when Stan started quizzing me about what time I was going out with the dogs and when I said just after 7am, that seemed to confuse him, but I go out earlier now the mornings are lighter.

So I went out and when I got back Lucy was up, unheard of on a Sunday Morning! I did my usual after feeding animals, made more cups of tea and went back to join Stan in bed. Around 8am Lucy marches in with a tray full of breakfast things, a bowl of cereal, piece of toast and orange juice, how lovely is that!

So I sat in bed enjoying my breakfast, whilst Stan looked on longingly! I did give him a piece of toast!
Then I had to get up and make his breakfast,, rather defeats the object, but that is the Sunday routine, I cook scambled eggs and fried tomatoes for Stan and do a pot of fresh coffee. The I rush off to Church with Lucy.

Mother's Day at Church is always an enjoyable affair. All Women are given a Primula in a pot, I managed to get 2 which was nice.

Back home all my daughters are now up and they sit me down and then produce thier gifts and cards for me. I was so touched. They had put such a lot of thought into finding things they knew I 'd like.
If you look above you'll see the photo with all the pressies on it.
Lucy gave me the lovely cream jug, which matches the cream kitchen tins I have for Cakes, bread, tea, coffee , sugar etc.
Bex gave me 2 mugs, one which is for breast cancer charity and the other because she liked it and it says "from your little girl" she's not so little now at almost 18! There was a matching fridge magent too.
Em's present 2 beautiful planters from Past Times where she was working up until New year. That shop has since closed and she is now working elsewhere, but I gained a few delightful things from her time working there.


I feel very fortunate to have 3 beautiful daughters whom I love enornmously.
Yesterday was Mother's Day and it was such a joy to have all three here at the same time.
Unfortunately, poor Em is unwell, the GP thinks she has Mumps, which is not good, particularly worrying for her boyfriend. So Em came home on Friday and is still here now. Her poor face very swollen on one side. It was a lump on the side of her face that gave the clue to the GP that it was Mumps , as she said it was an inflammed saliva gland, but it takes a week for the saliva test to come back. One side has gone down but the other side is now swollen. She's had all her MMR jabs so hopefully this is just a mild dose, if that is what it is.



Lucy took this photo when we came back from our afternoon dog walk.

I hope other Mum's had an enjoyable day too.