Down in the Dumps

I am not having a good November even though nice things have happened. For some reason the hard skin on my feet has been getting worse over the last few months and nothing I have done has made it easier. Now it is like a concrete casing on the soles of my feet that pumice stone and abrasive scrubbers doesn't diminish. This month it has begun to crack and it is too painful to walk some days. Add to this the ezcema on my thumbs and forefingers so it is extremely painful to knit, sew or type and you can have some little idea how frustrated I feel. I have spent my time reading (you can only read for so long before your head falls off) and watching TV. This is great for a while and then it gets so dull that I either sleep or eat - I try not to do the latter.
Oh and there's another thing, try chopping onions when you have open wounds on your fingers. Poor Mr M has had to do that for me and then do the potato peeling. I tried wearing latex gloves but I managed to cut them and onion juice in the wounds when you hands are trapped in gloves is even worse! so there you are. Frustrated and miserable and not looking forward to more of the same.

We have a Wii now. We have had it for a while and I love it. I try to use it every day and I am saving up for the WiiFit. I have a game of tennis every day and I also bowl a bit and do the boxing. It certainly gets those muscles moving and it makes me laugh.
Sometimes I laugh too much to do anything but the little people are so funny that I just can't help myself.
It is good gentle exercise though and even Mr M goes into the front room and turns it on to have a bit of a play.
I like the fact that you have to get off your bottom to play the games even if it keeps giving my golf and baseball when I am doing the daily fitness age test. We play together sometimes but we like different things so I can't do the golf while Mr M gets quite cross with the bowling and tennis and the boxing! well we haven't tried that one together only in the training sessions.
My favourite game is the cow racing. Miss Em loves it too so she sits on my lap and we race together with the same cow. I start to laugh and soon we are both howling with laughter and losing the race. I can think of no better way to spend my time thatn sharing laughter with my granddaughter.

Things to do in Autumn

Go to Cornwall for a week right at the end of the season when all the cafes are winding down and the souvenir shops are eyeing the shutters and longing for the end of the month.
We had several days of really good weather which was good for us AND for cornish farmers who have had such a dreadful summer they still had not managed to get the hay cut. A few more weeks and there would be no point because any last goodness would be gone from the grass. We arrived and four days later they were beginning to cut - we did good!
We stayed in DS1 timeshare apartment which was luxurious and perfectly placed for doing all the touristy things in the lobster claw end of Cornwall - Goonhilly, Land's End, The Lizard, Helston, Penzance, Mousehole. We went to Praa Sands. No big deal I hear you say but I haven't been back there since I was about seven so it was really strange to not find anything familiar on the road down there but to instantly recognise the shape of the cliffs and the rocks on the beach. I so wanted to ring my mum and tell her about it but of course she has passed over so I got a bit teary. DH cwtched my until the tears were dry and that somehow made it a perfect day.
Then we visited some special friends and saw the progress the builders are not making on their alterations to the house.
It was good to be able to make them laugh a little. We didn't stay late because they are working so hard and have to get up early for the animals.
We came home and the surgery sent us notes to say we could have the flu jab. I was a little reluctant, given my propensity for allergy and reaction but after discussion with the nurse I let her jab me. She said I might experience "mild, flu-like symptoms" and I did. I spent three days in bed coughing sniffing sneezing and sweating and then three more lying like a limp lettuce on the settee also coughing, sniffing, sneezing and sweating. I think I'll give it a miss next year.
I managed to photograph some of the autumn colours of the Virginia Creeper in my garden and I hoped to catch it through all its changes. I might venture out tomorrow and take a look.

Sleeps until Santa - my way

I thought I would try to creat something in fabric as this is the way I usually think and here is the result.

The numbers are held by velcro so they are easy to change every day. the pocket suspended at the bottom holds the numbers that are not in use.

I have just realised that I cut off the top of the picture so you can't see the ribbon loops I put there so that it can be hung using drawing pins (pushpins) or a wooden rod could be put through them and then a red ribbon or cord used to hang it.

This has quite restored my joy in sewing.

If anyone wants to try this I can send you the measurements and amounts for fabric.

sleeps.jpg (image)

sleeps.jpg (image)

I just love this idea - this one was done by gingerbreadgirl. I am going to make one for my granddaughter who will be nearly four at Christmas time.

My Freedom

I have started an online class done by Shimelle. It is Called "My Freedom" and is all about scrapbooking. I have lots of enthusiasm but just can't find the space to scrap at the moment. Quite frustrating.

Scrap my day

I am supposed to be taking pictures of Time Team to put in my Scrap the Day Journal/scrapbook as part of the project created by Shimelle. However, I was not able to get into the car and go anywhere this morning. I had a panic attack and finished up sitting at the table feeling very sorry for myself, but at the same time very cross with myself too. Now I am going to curl up and read for a while and hope I feel better soon.

Those Faraday Girls by Monica McInerney

Finished this last night. I bought it in the supermarket while visiting my son and started it on Tuesday when we came home. 634 pages and I found myself rushing through essential things like preparing dinner and putting washing in the machine so that I could continue to read. It was really good

8 out of 10.

How easily we forget things

We went to stay with my eldest son for a couple of days. He is borrowing our tent and camping gear for a holiday so we stacked everything into the Jeep and off we went on Sunday. Somewhere about halfway I remembered that the bag of books that I had carefully packed was still sitting on top of the chest freezer in the kitchen.

Now I don't know about anyone else but when I don't have a book to hand, so that I can pick it up and read anytime I want, I get a bit..... restless. By the time we arrived at my son's house I was almost twitchy and one of the first things I said was "I forgot my books!" "Don't worry mum you can read any of ours" he said, and immediately I could feel the panic ebbing away. It is nice to know that I brought my son up properly and he too has a house full of books.

As it was I didn't read veru much except guide books because we went to a couple of places close to where he lives and when we came back to his home we just had to have a little play on the Wii. I love it and I want one, if only because it kept beating me at tennis and boxing. Oh boy did I sleep well LOL

I haven't decided yet whether to edit the first post and use that as my list of books or to put each month as a separate post. I am not getting much chance to read these days as I am a bit taken up with scrapbooking. I have loads of old pictures, some of them of my great grandparents, and I have been scanning them and then scrapping pages with them.
I did a kind of memorial book when my Dad died in 2003 and I have just started the one for my Mum who died in 2006.
I have a lot of reading to do with their papers and stuff but I can only do that a little at a time.

Read 100 books in a year.

Here are the titles that I can remember so far. I make it 64 so far

1 A Cat Called Birmingham - Chris Pascoe
2 You can take the Cat out of Slough - Chris Pascoe
3 Back on Blossom Street - Debbie Macomber
4 The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud - Ben Sherwood
5 Airs and Graces - Erica James
6 A Sense of Belonging - Erica James
7 A is for Alibi - Sue Grafton
8 B is For Burglar - Sue Grafton
9 C is for Corpse - Sue Grafton
10 D is for Deadbeat - Sue Grafton
11 E is for Evidence - Sue Grafton
12 F is for Fugitive - Sue Grafton
13 G is for Gumshoe - Sue Grafton
14 Postcards from Wits End - Sarah Harvey
15 Play it again - Julie Highmore
16 One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
17 Two for the Dough - Janet Evanovich
18 Three to Get Deadly - Janet Evanovich
19 Four to Score - Janet Evanovich
20 High Five - Janet Evanovich
21 Hot Six - Janet Evanovich
22 Seven Up - Janet Evanovich
23 Searching for the Secret River - Kate Grenville
24 More Innocent Times - Imogen Parker
25 Brown Owl's Guide to Life - Kate Harrison
26 The Lilac Bus - Maeve Binchy
27 The Copper Beech - Maeve Binchy
28 Woman to Woman - Cathy Kelly
29She's the One - Cathy Kelly
30 Your Oasis on Flame Lake - Lorna Landvik
31Visions of Sugar Plums - Janet Evanovich
32 Our Betty - Liz Smith
33 Circle of Friends - Maeve Binchy
34 Too Many Mothers - Roberta Taylor
35 The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - Shauna Reid
36 The uncommon Reader - Alun Bennett
37 Innocent Traitor - Alison Weir
38 Where or When - Anita Shreve
39 Narrow Dog to Carcassonne - Terry Darlington
40 Narrow Dog to Indian River - Terry Darlington
41 Self Abuse: Love Loss and Growing Up - Jonathan Self
42 The Ivy Chronicles - Karen Quinn
43 Whitethorn Woods - Maeve Binchy
44 Juggling - Barbara Trapido
45 Patty Jane's House of Curl - Lorna Landvik
46 Firefly Summer - Maeve Binchy
47 The Woman on the Bus - Pauline McLynn
48 No I don't want to Join a Bookclub - Virginia Ironside
49 Temples of Delight - Barbara Trapido
50 Dublin 4 - Maeve Binchy
51 Me: Moir: Volume one - Vic Reeves
52 The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society - Christine Coleman
53 The Bridges of Madison County - Robert james Waller
54 Are you my mother? - Louise Voss
55 Swallowing Grandma - Kate Long
56 Eden Close - Anita Shreve
57 The Summer of a Dormouse: A year of Growing Old Disgracefully - John Mortimer
58 Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
59 Scarlet Feather - Maeve Binchy
60 Hemingway's Chair - Michael Palin
61 Further under the Duvet - Marion Keyes
62 Frankie and Stankie - Barbara Trapido
63 Angry Housewives eating Bon bons - Lorna Landvik
64 Himoff! - Richard Whiteley

June 13
65 The Mitford Girls - Mary S Lovell
June 18
66 The Last fighting Tommy - Harry Patch with Richard van Emden
June 21
67 Those Faraday Girls - Monica McInerney
June 23
68 The Dewey Decimal System of Love - Josephine Carr
June 28
68 Teacher, Teacher - Jack Sheffield
July 1
70 Love and Devotion - Erica James
July 2
71 Body Surfing - Anita Shreve
July 4
72 Tell it to the Skies - Erica James
July 7
73 Lessons in Heartbreak - Cathy Kelly
July 8
74 Stovolds Mornington Crescent Almanac 2002 - Edited by Graham Garden
July 9
75 Gardens of Delight - Erica James
July 11
76 Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
July 15
77 Hidden Talents - Erica James
July 16
78 The Happy Housewife - Heleen van Royed
July 17
79 The Holiday - Erica James
July 19
80 A Breath of Fresh Air - Erica James
july 21
81 Deafening - Frances Itani
July 22
82 Paradise House - Erica James
July 26
83 Fortune's Rocks - Anita Shreve
July 28
84 The Cat Who Went Up The Creek - Lilian Jackson Braun
Aug 1
85 Read my Heart - Jane Dunn
Aug 3
86 A Forever Family - John Houghton
Aug 5
87 Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult
Aug 7
88 Leaving Home - Garrison Keillor
Aug 9
89 Evening Classes - Maeve Binchey
Aug 10
90 Precious Time - Erica James
Aug 11
91 SeeSaw - Debra Moggach
Aug 12
92 Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Aug 15
93 The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd
Aug 17
94 The Skeleton Man - Tony Hillerman
Aug 19
95 Odd One Out - Monica McInerney
Aug 21
96 The Psychic Adventures of Derek Acorah
Aug 23
97 North Wales Murder Casebook - Steve Fielding
Aug 25
98 hard Eight - Janet Evanovich
Aug 27
99 To the Nines - JAnet Evanovich
Sept 1
100 The Story of My Father - Sue Miller
Sept 03
101 Our Farm - Rosie Boycott
Sept 4
102 The Yorkshire Pudding Club - Millie Johnson
Sept 9
103 Ten Big Ones - Janet Evanovich
Sept 13
104 A Taste for It - Monica McInerney
Sept 15
105 What She Wants - Cathy Kelly
Sept 17
106 The Public Confessions of a Middle aged Woman (age 55 2/3) - Sue Townsend
Sept 21
107 A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve
Sept 28
108 The Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs
Sept 30
109 Toast - Nigel Slater
Oct 03
110 The Alphabet sisters - Monica McInerney
Oct 7
111 Sap Rising - A A Gill
Oct 10
112 I is for Innocent - Sue Grafton
Oct 10
113 Eleven on Top - Janet Evanovich
Oct 15
114 J is for Judgement - Sue Grafton
Oct 17
The New Boy - Doreen Tovey
Oct 19
115 K Is for Killer - Sue Grafton
Oct 22
116 Cats in the Belfrey - Doreen Tovey
Oct 25
117 Cats in May - Doreen Tovey
Oct 27
118 L is for Lawless - Sue Grafton
Nov 1
119 M is for Malice - Sue Grafton
Nov 3
120 A Comfort of Cats - Doreen Tovey