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!