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Yes...this is ALL about me, and mine. Marvellously self indulgent, feel free to tell me how splendid I am, leave comments, nice ones please, I have little kids and teenagers who can do the rude stuff. I am a grandma, to the glorious Joshua, I'm allowed to look frazzled and weary, I earned it. The older I get, the more I see that hanging on and being patient is worth it! They ( whoever 'they' are) are so right when they say you never know what is around the corner, it isn't always an articulated truck! It is vital to make the time for making memories, friends are the greatest treasure, I love mine. I am rich!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Sunshine in my soul today....

Last evening, there was a knock at my door and my sister was there, having been to a plant heaven, bought a ton of plants and she gave me 2. SO kind, except you know what that means don't you? Yes, it's that time of year again, the time of year when I start off with 2 plants, well that's not enough, so we ( read I) go out and buy some more, and some compost and pots ( had plenty of pots this year, phew, no need to buy more) then I come home and pot them and we have a few left so we have to buy a bit more compost and then we have some left so we buy new plants and usually a new tub or 12......yes, that time of year. I love it!
This house is very tired outside, it needs cheering up and so I did my best, I am a little worried about hoodlums and ne'er do wells, walking past and getting up to no good with my tubs and baskets but you can't live your life with the what if's winning, so caution to the wind, here they are. I suspect ( and hope) that in a couple of weeks time they will be blooming and overflowing, beyond beautiful and giving such happiness and pleasure as only pretty tubs in the summer can do.

I blame my sister Julie for this....


























And thank her for spurring me on to do this....
























And is there anything else in this world that can evoke such pleasure as this sight? Open windows and fresh white curtains billowing in a summer's breeze?
I just love the smell of summer's evening air.
I am a nervous wreck with that bedroom window open that far, I have to make sure Elijah fall over / out/ under/ through boy is with me at all times, usually I close that big one if he is home but it is SO hot and the through breeze is so blissful that I am living with having to say his name every 15 seconds and making sure he is RIGHT HERE because that would hurt a big lot were he to fall head first out of that window, also the window underneath is where I am sitting so I would hear the thud and that would be pretty hard to live with, wouldn't it? Also, he may land on my newly planted pots and we certainly can't have that can we? Those things aren't cheap!
He had a nap yesterday and so wasn't tired when we put him to bed, we could hear him thumping around upstairs ( and yes the bedroom window was shut) when I went up at 10...he was asleep, surrounded ( and filled with) smarties he had found in my Boston stash, sugared and highed and crashed and asleep, in a puddle of chocolate and no bedding ( why does he always strip his bed??) Bless his face, he has hit the able to lie whilst staring at me with enormous eyes phase. Touching when they are 4, less so when they are 14 and still think we don't know they are lying.























I just love the sun. Love the feelings it evokes in me, I love the smells that come with it ( apart from the sweat related ones, ack, never those ones!) but the laundry dried outside smells, the Bar-b-que ones, the cut grass, perfume, warm air smells, I love those.
I can't dry my washing outside though, my glorious rotary dryer is to huge, it fills the whole yard and then won't rotate in the breeze, little boys can't get to the beloved basketball hoop and that would be a disaster beyond endurance.
I miss the garden, I really miss the barn, I drive past when I go to Trago and the wilderness has been chopped down, all clear and spacious, my little boys so loved the wilderness and all it's treasures. They would still love that extra 1/2 acre of space though, I see the windows in the loft living room open and remember how fabulous that felt when the breeze was blowing on those balmy July evenings.
I miss everything about the barn and will always be so grateful that we were able to spend last summer there.
There is much I would like to do here, in this house and I think that when I return from Boston that will be my focus, I don't like feeling so restless when I planned to be so happy here. The trouble with coming out of such a deep depression is you see things that were unnoticeable before, what mattered not is now glaringly annoying.
Nothing too huge that we can't bear it, just lots and lots of niggling little things that need changing and doing up. All in good time!
For now we revel in the open windows, flower tubs, fresh air and sunshine, which is more than enough to make happy and lift our spirits.

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On the other hand, what DOES the summer bring out with it's warmth and late setting of the sun?
I am a closet snob, not averse to a bit of yelling ( oh alright then a lot) I do like to keep it within our walls, when the windows are open, I hiss, not yell ( unless Sophie is involved and then all bets are off) We have neighbours that have come out of the woodwork once the windows got opened. First thing in the morning til last thing at night, out in the street with their fog horn gobs running away with them, at least 4 teenagers ( and very good at it) the girl stands in the middle of the road, right outside my open window and has painful and protracted conversations on her pay as you go cell phone, she says ( as is a teenage girls wont) absolutely nothing at all, just endless loud, monotonous whining and Ay?ing and Yeah but-ing. One of the boys is called Matthew or MATTIE or MATH....YOU! And he is always in trouble, but unfortunately never in trouble for making a noise, for standing outside in the street yelling to an invisible friend ( who miraculously answers back...I have never seen the friend but I hear him, all too often.) They are late for school most mornings " Math-YOU...get a MOVE on, why are you LATE? MOVE IT!"
They have been doing some kind of work on the house, not sure what but it has involved much crashing and throwing of old furniture outside. The kids climb on top of their mini van, and they don't do it quietly.
3 doors down on the other side of the street ( we on THIS side are so much more refined of course) there is a house that has been converted to bedsits and in the front, top bedsit we have musicians, with DRUMS! Yes, drums, loud ones. Those youngsters know how to party don't they? I lie in my room and seethe and plan how I will ring on their doorbell at 6am and feign sympathy when I see that I have woken them up. As I type ( having closed my big window, tutting and muttering loudly " For heaven's sake will you shut the hell UP?) I can hear Mr Bedsit singing ( though not drumming, hoorah) it is a doleful tune ( and I use the word 'tune' loosely you understand) if H were here I would bribe him to stand underneath the bedsit window and tape that caterwauling....HA HA I just heard one of the teenagers yell " SHUT UP!" at the soulful crooner.
Life is grand isn't it?

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5 Comments:

Blogger rachel said...

Yay for the plants! My heart still aches for the vegetable garden we left in Michigan (that's NOT being taken care of, incidentally). The kids bought me a lovely blooming pink azalea plant in a cute pot. There's just nothing like living things to brighten up a dingy spot, is there?

LOL about the neighbors. I wonder what our neighbors hear when the windows are open! Eek!

8:25 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have new plants and a veg garden. No windows open here though. Until this morning it has been too hot. 94 degress this weekend. Can you believe it? Yesterday it was windy. Hot windy air blowing, but better than the humid stillness of Saturnurday. unbearable to me.

9:54 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saturnurday and new day of the week I guess. Better then Uranusday I should thiunk.

9:55 am  
Blogger Julie Q said...

I need to get some flowers myself. Now finding the time to get them and put them in is another story. :( But soon for me! Very pretty Helen!

I love to open the windows too. But then I'm always reminding the big kids not to yell because they are open! Yes, and I have to remind myself not to yell as well. :)

1:16 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The flowers look wonderful!
Do you not have screens on your windows in England? Don't you have all kind of critters crawling in?

Hugs
Cathy

5:06 pm  

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