Me on Monday - out for a ride

It's been a go out for breakfast and stay out all day kind of a weekend.

We are still sorting the contents of F-i-L's house and after taking five boxes of china and glass to one charity shop on Wednesday last week and then three bags of clothes to another one AND the four bags of trousers and jumpers to the night shelter, well, I thought we deserved a bit of a break so I packed up a large bag of books and we got up eary-ish on Saturday and went up the A449 to Whitchurch, near Ross and stopped at Jo's for breakfast. She has bookshelves and for a donation to charity you can take books home with you. I totally filled up the shelves and decided that we will take another bagful when we take S-i-L on our adventure in two weeks.
We could have come home after breakfast but we felt in need of a little "Us time" so we carried on up past Ross and headed along in the Ledbury direction.
It soon became obvious that Mr M had a destination in mind so I sat back and watched the rain splashing on the windscreen and we talked and laughed and suddenly we were at Clive's Fruit Farm near Upton on Severn. I took the picture last year when it wasn't raining. We sat inside the coffee shop this year.
I bought enough apples to make several crumbles and tried to remember what else it was that I thought I would have a go at when I bought some apples. I probably won't remember until next year now.
We headed back a different way and it looked as though Mr M was heading for Gloucester. Then I connected the dots in my head and realised that when he said "Oh, no pumpkins" he had a reason for wanting one and the next obvious place to get one was Over Farm Market. I was right.
He chose a small pumpkin. I raised my eyebrow. "Pumpkin soup" he said, and all was made clear.
One of the things from his Dad's house is a soup maker. It had never been used and I had to ask the manufacturer for a copy of the instructions. Now, it seems, Mr M is keen to have a play.
Saturday night we sat in the front room and I knitted while he snoozed. He has been having sciatica pain recently and can't sleep for long while lying down so he has to keep changing where he sits and sleeps
I have stopped loudly nagging him about going to the Dr and just do it with looks and eyebrows. As my eyebrows seem to have decided that long enough to obscure my vision is their newest ambition you can imagine how effective they are as semaphore flags.
Sunday we sleazed all day. Moving slowly between computer and chair and lunch table. I cooked the pork chops we bought at Clive's and they were delicious. YS came home from his weekend away and scoffed his dinner then went to bed and we sat again while Mr M snoozed and I completed the sweater for Miss Boo and started a cowl/hood for the craft fair - not the Frost fair as I keep calling it - on Tuesday.
That's me on Monday. Thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for creating this Meme and encouraging me to write something every week.

Me on MOnday - really tired

It was a wrap this ornament in newspaper and put it in a box then repeat kind of a Saturday. It was a register these three boxes of books on Bookcrossing.com and then sort into piles for different destinations kind of a Saturday evening. It was a nip sharply to Costco for a Christmas present for Daughter-in-Law and then rush back to FiL's house to meet with the siblings in law and sort out more stuff.

I managed to keep the grin for the whole afternoon before we filled the car with stuff for sorting at home and went the pretty way through Usk for dinner with the Bluefunnels.

Some of the ornaments are going to family, some are destined for the charity shop. I'm not sure how my B-i-L feels about this because he keeps saying that he would take it all to the tip. He is not a "stuff" person so we have to keep explaining that the shelving unit that he "can't wait for that to be emptied so I can take a hammer to it"could be the exact thing that someone just starting out wants to put their few ornaments and their clock onto.
"Do you know how old that thing is?" he asked me and my mouth was in gear and moving before my brain had really registered "Yes, I muttered and it will be an antique by the end of the year".
He grinned at me and turned away, leaving me wondering if he really meant it or if he was just winding me up.
When we got home on Saturday I started registering the books on Bookcrossing. When I started my overall total of books registered since I joined was 842. I was sure that all these books would take me over 1000 so when I registered the last book I looked at my total

999

Try to imagine how frustrating that was. I even dreamt about it so it was with great pleasure I saw the box of books under the table on Sunday.

Dinner with the Bluefunnels was, as always an evening of conversation and laughter. I do love my cousin dearly. He is the younger brother I never had and when he met LAdy Bluefunnel and brought her to meet us she and I found ourselves immediately on the same wavelength. They celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary last weekend. Isn't that marvellous?

So this is me on Monday. My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of making me write.

Me on Monday - Wicked Uncle Cliff

It was a Friday night on tenterhooks until he arrived, Saturday lunch and a trip around our lovely country and coast and Sunday lunch in Morrison's sort of a weekend.

Wicked Uncle Cliff

" Let me explain........... No, is too much, let me sum up" (Inago Montoya in The Brincess Bride)

Cliff is a friend from waaaay back when I had a games shop in Newport and he worked for a supplier. We lost touch for a while - circumstances that are no longer important - and came back into our lives one Friday afternoon when he knocked on the door and was overcome by the welcome. He is now firmly back in the family and Miss Boo calls him "Wicked Uncle Cliff". Mostly because he encourages her into mischief.
So he was arriving on Friday evening "the train gets in about 9.40" he said. Then he texted from a stationary train outside Bristol to say there was a delay. When he got here there was much talking and lots of laughter and he brought chocolate!
On Saturday he went shopping with Boo and her parents. She needed a halloween party dress and she wanted him to share the experience. He bought a Panda mask and wore it all around the town.
Then we took him to lunch at the Oystercatcher in Penarth Marina. and after lunch we went to the seafront and walked on the pier because you cannot go to the seaside and not walk on the pier if they have one.
The light was fading and the western sky was washed with pink when Tsar Alexander and his Tsarina walked to the end of the pier and started taking selfies. I took a picture

Tsar Alexander taking a selfie on the pier in Pernath

 By the time we had visited the rock shop and he had bought sticks of rock for the girls in his office - that's what you do on your holidays - and sent a postcard, cos that's what you do... it was getting dark and we still had to go to The Knap and show him our fossil beds and that's when he said he had heard of Barry Island but never been there. So we went.

Barry Island! with Uncle Cliff

We stood outside the fairground and let the late season Saturday night at the seaside swell all around us. All too soon it was Sunday morning and he would be leaving in the afternoon so we went to Morrison's for lunch - another first for him - and did a little shopping (just what was on the list) and then dropped him at the rail station after hugs and kisses goodbye then came home and slept for a long while before going to bed early.
That was our weekend. We won't see Cliff until just after Christmas when he will be visiting for new year. We have already decided some of the games we'll play and we'll sit and talk and laugh - something to look forward to.

My thanks as ever to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of keeping me blogging all year