And more snow.....

Overnight, so I had to cler the car before church - iced on this time.By the time I had cleared & fed/let the chickens into the run, my hands were blue. Temp was -2, now up to 0. I got up early to go through the Junior Church material & replace the CD with photos as I wasn't up to taking the laptop & TV out in the snow. I was phoned at 9.ooam to say that the services were cancelled at all but Shustoke - lily livered Christians - my time wasted. I phoned Libby & they will practice the drama during the Good Friday childrens' workshop. Brill - they can then take charge of it whilst I can concentrate on the rest of the service. Have had tea & a chat with Jan - a power of strength & sense. Where would we be without friends? I am feeling pretty good with my new hairstyle, a new bright pink, striped T-shirt, size 10!!! I am now below the 11 stone margin & am now looking forward to cruising the Fjords with aj when G has returned from his next adventure. Life is what you make it!

snow

What a lot of snow! I had an appointment at the hairdressers at 10.30am, so had to clear the car of about 4in of snow - made me a bit late as I underestimated how long it would take. Hair looks good, anyway - had to forgo a hat to keep it right - vanity! I went on to Solihull to M&S for J pants - didn't have them, so I bought some vegetables & bananas & came home. I had a lot on yesterday & didn't get round to eating, so had lunch then prepared for Junior church - cutting out card fish to be coloured then netted at the next fam service - "cast your net on the other side" reading. Early night to make up for a silly night last night. Happy Birthday for tomorrow, Ben.

TGIF

Where did this week go to? Greatest moment of the week was this morning when I phoned to get the results of my blood test - my cholesterol level was sown from 6.9 to 6.1 & I do not have to see the doctor. I shall keep up the healthy eating & hope that it falls further as I have no intention of stuffing statins. G has gone to the Norfolk Broads for a reunion - hope the freezing winds & snow don't cause too much of a problem. We went to solihull this morning for G to do last minute shopping for Nepal & had lunch in Pret - brill as ever. This is becoming a habit - lunch at Pret two weeks running - does he have a guilty conscience? We went to Bicester on Tues for a sleepover & were well entertained. On the way home on Wed we stopped at Hatton to walk the locks & have lunch at the canal side cafe - bracing! A day off tomorrow - hairdresser in the morning, Junior Church to prepare then the Barbers' Shop concert in the evening. Have a great weekend.

Feet up again.

Passion Sunday, but enough about that - 12 in church, including the priest - a comedown after 60 last week for the Family Service. No blog on Friday as a busy day shopping in Solihull, which included two new slinky dresses from M&S sale, followed by a soak in the bath & dinner at the Peter & Rita's, with friends. J & the g/children came on saturday lunchtime, for a sleepover, joined by P, A, J & Th after lunch on Sunday, hence no blog! All seemed to have a good time, playing in & out & eating - remote control helicopter & anything that makes a noise seem to be very popular. G stayed at home, not well - I'm sure the break will have done her good. Housework to do today, prepare the Lent course for this evening & collect J & Th from school. No need to make a Lent course cake - we can eat the remainder of the gingerbread from Thursday - improves with some age. I'm trying to plan the week with a visit to Bicester, but commitments are spaced out. Which ones can I avoid?

Done & dusted.

Up at 7.00am to let the chickens out - a very cold morning, -4 degrees until the sun shone & turned it into a beautiful day. I went to Coleshill for milk & a date & walnut loaf from Morrisons - absolutely delicious with tomato & mozzarello salad. Home to fill/finish the cakes & make coffee. Jane arrived with her glitzy bits - some very nice clutch bags, purses & jewellery - not my thing, but I had to buy a purse asa gift, it was so good. Cakes went down well but a very disappointing turnout - 14 in all. I expected at least 30. Never mind - those that came enjoyed themselves & we made £66 profit. I had a phone call asking if I could help in the shop, so cleared up a bit & went round for an hour or so - usual cock-up with the till, actually it was the scanner that fought back today. Never mind, the customers don't seem to mind the imncompetence & younsters liked to use the scanner themselves. One day I'll get it all right! I delivered the raffle prizes on the way home & G was here when I got here. We,ve eaten the afformentioned tom & moz salad & grilled trout - really nice. E-mails to check then I might have an early night. Shopping for the weekend tomorrow, then to R & P for dinner, which will be fun.

Glitzy Bits.

The long-awaited day has arrived - Glitzy Bits are coming to display their wares at my Coffee & Cakes morning. I gather that these wares includes jewellery, purses, handbags, scarves & the like.I am quivering with anticipation, whilst I prepare to finish the cakes - banana, coffee, brownies, gingerbread, fruit & victoria sandwich. The house is ready & the heating on everywhere - it's - 4 degrees this morning! Bright & beautiful, but very cold. Yesterday was a little sad; t he chickens came to see us as we went out mid-morning to do some jobs at church & buy a tray of eggs from Andrews, for an afternoon of baking. When we got home there was a note from Steve that he had put one in as it looked ill. It was dead! I phoned Andrews to see if they could let me have another two - one bird on its own would be very cold overnight, not to mention lonely (I am surmising there, but they do keep together, except when laying) I popped up & collected them at dusk, popped them all in the box together & all seems well - I've let them into the run with a full feed hopper, a handfull of corn & some warm water. They'll have to stay in the run for a few days so they get used to laying (hopefully) in the laying box. G went to see M yesterday to stay over - he knows what he's missing! I see that it was a low of -9 degrees in CPH yesterday. Beat that.

A day off.

Well, I had a day off - shopping in Warwick, out to lunch at The Pointer in Brill - the best sandwiches in the Universe - followed by an afternoon shopping in bicester. G, on the other hand, had a dental appointment in Warwick, lunch out, then a business meeting with J. G was running late so I walked to B & E's, arriving just after the family. We had a little time together, fish & chips for dinner & headed for home. NB.shopping was mainly browsing. I only ate a few chips.

freezing again.

Winter returned with a vengeance yesterday - freezing with a scattering of snow. Today has been -2 degrees with a wind seemingly direct from the Arctic - hat essential. I went to the doctors for a blod test for Cholesterol levels - I do hope that this is a better result than the one in December as I have no intention of taking statins & a good result with save me from 1. visiting the doctor 2.refusing his offer of statins. I have eaten so healthily for the last couple of months, despite eating some bread, I have eaten very little fat have now lost 15 kg (I did the conversion in the bath this morning - 2st 6lb) since last May & feel very good on it. G had a meeting in Solihull so we went separately - our day to collect J & Th from school. I had time to come home, make a coffee & walnut cake for this evenings Lent course mtg at Jan's & vacuum through downstairs & do a load of washing whilst it cooked & cooled. We have had 2 enormous brown eggs today, despite the temp, hence cold pork & a Spanish omelette for dinner tonight, before leaving for Jan's with the cake. Yesterday i took the first of the new Family services at Sh - a full house & hopefully, a fun service for Mothering Sunday - Thank you God! i went on to OW to take Morning Prayer - 5 of us, 2 of them to hear their banns! Half of the family came to lunch, which was great & the g/children had a great time together after consuming large quantities of roast Danish pork, banoffee pie & bread & butter pudding & before the scones, crumpets & cake. Unfortunately KP fell over whilst playing football & was found to have a green stick break in her wrist - B took her to hospital late last night. TV weather says that tonight will be -4, but -10 including wind chill factor - hats again tomorrow then Hollylands is a skating rink. The Co-op has bags of 80 Fairy dishwasher baubles for £7, Morrisons has big jars of Nescafe+ 50% free for £4 - unmissable!

Farewell Bert.

This morning we went to Bert swift's funeral at NW - an excellent service, taken by Di, with an address by terry waters, an old friend. The service started 10 min late as the undertakers were late & had the orders of service! We went to the wake at Lea Marston Hotel & caught up with a lot of people - one of the good things about a funeral. I've spent the rest of the day preparing for toworrow - table laid for lunch (Fs & BMs), family service sorted for Sh, sermon done for OW,church decorated, flowers collected & awaiting children to collect & make bouquets for their Mums during the second (long) hymn, tables laid for coffee after service, simnel cake delivered & fairy cakes made & iced in tradional pink & white. Aj is writing a short poem -"My Mum", for inclusion, as the children will be reading theirs out. Time for bed. Is there ever anything worth watching on TV any more?

Lazy days.

We had such a lazy day yesterday it was barely worthy of a blog. It rained all day. We stayed in, chatted, watched a little TV, caught up on paperwork & generally dossed. I did catch up on G's washing - alldone & dusted & decorated my simnel cake ready for Sunday - marzipan, 12 balls on top, painted with egg & grilled. I went to the PCC meeting in LM in the evening - pretty frustrating (that's an understatement), but life goes on. School have work to collect to display in church - pictures/words/poems of/about their mums - should be fun. Jan & Chris coming for a meal tonight, family here on Sunday - shopping to be done - can't be bad. Fish tonight, pork on Sunday, perhaps.

A new chill.

So I may have been premature in thinking that spring had arrived - today has been decidedly chilly & damp. I was up before 6.00am, swept the yard - good for the biceps - washed the cars, moved the chicken run, mopped through & did the ironing. All finished by 9.00am, so a day of leisure, to get out & about. I've now delivered Easter cards,with Easter service times, along with flyers about the Mothering Sunday service, to most of the village - it remains to be seen if they are at all effective. All of the children at Sh school are receiving similar cards to take home - surely people will be pleased to receive a card?? I've just collected G from B'ham International - choice of fish, fowl or beef stew for dinner.

Ding dong!

It's been a beautiful spring day, warm & sunny. I've had a busy day, delivering Easter cards around the village & recovering the noticeboards in church - daffodil yellow, with rainbow borders. This afternoon Jan & I went to Walsgrave to see Phil - he looks remarkably good cosidering he had major heart surgery last wed - he wanted to catch up on village gossip, so Jan was the ideal visitor. The traffic at the hospital was appalling, it took 15 minutes to park. We've been to the "Spa evening at the village hall - £1.75 entry for wine & nibbles with a few stalls selling jewellery, cosmetics & sweets. I had a pedicure so my feet feel great, so good that I took them to church, bellringing - it's much harder than it looks! Trouble with getting up early is that bedtime comes earlier - about now. G home tomorrow.

Spring - it's official.

I'm told that 1 March is the first day of spring - is that correct? It certainly has felt like spring since yesterday - warmer (not warm) with sunshine. I've spent a couple of hours in the garden since tea-time, tidying up, moving mole hills, picking up leaves & twigs & giving the daffodils a little more space - the small ones are already in flower, the others showing some colour. This morning I got up late & slowly - a rare treat! I popped to Coleshill for milk etc, had tomato, mozzarello & basil salad for lunch, then got on with my sermon - a bit of a tricky one (Luke 13, 1 - 9), which took a long time.... Now sitting by the fire, watching "Edward V111 - The Plot to Topple a King" - really good. Edward really did want to be King, but was ousted by the Church - so they weren't always toothless!

Home sweet home.

Just in from chuirch - Women's World Day of Prayer, preaching on immigration in France. There was a good turnout & I chatted to folk afterwards, some I knew + some I didn't. At last I met "Jane the hairdresser", who I have heard spoken of for many years - a lovely lady. I was up at 7.30am to finish my address before JR was about. In fact he didn't surface until 9.30am, needing help to get dressed. We had a good day, I left after lunch, at 2.30pm to avoid the Fri crush - didn't quite manage that, but not too bad. Yesterday was JR's 89th birthday - we had tea & birthday cake with a fair few people, invited or dropped in, & visited Mary, with the cake. I had to break it to JR, yet again, that his parents were no longer of this mortal coil - his dad dead for 37 years, mum for 23 years. I pointed out that at 89 his parents would be very elderly! T & I had an adventure on Wed, after school - it involved tea at Pret & shopping at Tesco, then checking my e-mails - he loves to have a little time without KP. Too slow shutting the chickens in - outside light came on & they were out, eating. I had to stand still for 5 minutes until the light went off again & then wait until they decided they were satiated & noticed that it was dark. Small brains, chickens!