Man bench

How perfect is this: A man bench outside a shop. Hubby Stan dislikes shopping with us girls intensely, but he doesn't like to be left out, so we shop he stands around outside, getting bored, and even more bored as we walk from shop to shop, looking and occasionally buying. In Sheringham recently we were doing just that when we came to a delightful little shop selling second hand children's clothes and new toys, it was in a little house and in the garden was this Man Bench. So Stan could sit and read his paper whilst we went in browsing and Emma bought a perfect little coat.

Well, was that summer?

The weather man seems to think summer is over on 31 August? What happened to the equinoxes? Do the weather bods think we can't cope with changes in seasons mid month? My birthday is 18 Sept and I've always believed it was in the summer still but apparently not now, apparently now it's in Autumn. Well that is not good, I want to still be a Summer baby. My hubby Stan's birthday is a week later and his is definitely in Autumn. But did we get a summer at all this year, did we go straight from Spring into Autumn? That is what it seems like to be honest. How many evenings have we been able to sit out in the garden? How many days have we've been able to be in the garden? BBQ's what are they ? We had 2 both indoors. Though I did go to my friends BBQ and that was a lovely warm evening.

Here I am cooking the kebabs.

Desert Island Books

On Purple Coo we had to choose what books we would take to our desert island (we did music the week before)

This is my list and I gained a Gold Star for it!

1)The Complete works of Charles Dickens- I'm ashamed to admit I've only ever read A Christmas carol & David Copperfield. So this will give me hours of entertainment.

2) Over the years I 've been a great fan of Joanna Trollops books so I have found the Trollop Omnibus which has 3 of my favourites; Village Affair, Passionate Man & Rector's Wife. For when I want an easy read and something to remind me of comfier times!

3) And I've got to have some Maeve Binchy too, there are several onmibuses of her works so I'll just choose Onmibus 2 Firefly Summer and Echoes.

4) Has to be Stephen Fry's Moab is my washpot- both growing up in Norfolk, sharing the same spaces but about 5yrs between us, I love reading of his early life.

5) Terry Wait Taken on trust- this book had a profound effect on me, I was so deeply moved by his account of being kidnapped.

6) Victoria Hislop The Island- loved the book, I have visited the island off Crete she wrote about where the lepers lived.

7) Annie Hawes Ripe for the picking- wonderful true story of woman settling in Italy, she was living my dream.

8) Mary Wesley Camomile Lawn- just adored this book and gave me love of Cornwall

So that's the 8- but as a luxury could I have a Bird book and binoculars

What would be your list and why?

My beautiful new dresser

Some of you will have noticed the top of a dresser in my header, so thought I would tell you about it.
This a an ebay find, I'd been looking for something a bit special for the blank wall in the Orangery and then I spotted this. I showed it to my hubby who didn't like it at all, saying it was too fancy, but that didn't stop me. I keep looking at it. Then I measured the space between the wall lights and wasn't sure if it would fit as dresser said it was 131cm and my space was 131cm too :-(
But I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I emailed the seller and asked her to measure that exact spot across where lights go and she came back with 130cm! Fantastic! It would fit.
I realised the seller lived in Hove and my HQ is also in Hove, so I asked the seller whereabouts she lived and it turned out to be less than a 2 minute walk from my office, so I just had to go and see it and of course once I'd seen it I was smitten and just had to have it. I gave a deposit and said I would sort out delivery with hubby.
That was the hard part, he wasn't that keen as he didn't really like it anyway. So I couldn't pin him down to a day to borrow the van and go and get it. Over a week went by and he wouldn't give me a time, then he said Thursday evening, so I tell the seller that day, then he couldn't do, I was so disappointed. he eventually agreed on Monday the next week and we did collect it then.
The seller is an amazing person, very artistic and lives in an amazingly creative, decorative home which she opens for Open House Art month in the summer.
I wish I had her skill. She bought this old dresser and completely reburbished it into shabby chic and I Love it! Hope you do too!

A Year has passed since I last wrote a post....

This is the scary thing, a whole year has gone by in a blink of an eye and I haven't had time to write a blog. I used to really enjoy doing my blogs, but somehow, life, Face book and twitter have taken over and longer, more meaningful comments have not happened.
The friend I wrote the letter to last year is with us no more, she passed away in November after struggling a very long time with her alcohol addiction, she was a lovely person but the drink ruined her. It was a bitter sweet death, many of us so relieved that she would suffer no more but that still doesn't prevent us feeling the loss.
But many good things have happened too. I have a new grandson and he is beautiful, it's such a joy having the young family living with us, we get to share all the ups and downs of having young children again, without the full responsibility.
It's also nearly 5 years since I was diagnosed with Breast cancer and had my mastectomy, that day 5 years ago when I received that news seems like it happened to another person. I am one of the fortunate ones, I'm still here and God Willing the Consultant will give the the All Clear in May when I next see him, though how I will cope without my 6 monthly checkups I do not know. The reaasurance is good but also the build up to the check up not knowing what they may find and he will probably say to stop taking the Tamoxifen which has also been part of my life for 5 years, I'm quite nervous about stopping the medication, again it gives me reassurance.