A slight clash of dates...

... and no, it is not what you think, so before you get the wrong idea, the first people to arrive were my two cleaning ladies followed shortly by TBSITW. Somehow the cleaners managed to work round us while we had a small sherry and once they had left we had a bowl of spinach soup and a roll each which she brought from Marks and Spencer (the roll I mean, the soup was home made). She also brought a tub of potted meat from the local butcher and some carrots and sprouts from the near by farm shop.

After lunch she took away the two picture frames to be filled, She must be getting sick of the sight of them as none fit the frame exactly, so she is having to scan them in and adjust the size before printing them out and fitting them into their frames.

Now you see why I call her The Best Sister In The World.

Photo North Bridge

In response to the many requests (all right, from the three of you) here is the photograph referred to in my previous post taken shortly after the birth of the first son of Princess Margaret and Earl Snowden. I see I was wrong about my age at the time, as Viscount Linley was born in November 1961, so I was 20 at the time, and still wearing well.

Soup of the Evening.....

....beautiful, beautiful soup.

Yesterday I was up early so I decided to make a start on the three loads of washing that were glaring at me from the corner of the hall. So, one load washed, dried and put away.

After that I went to the garage in the near by small town for the car to have its MOT. Luckily I took Private Eye with me as I waited for an hour and a half. I almost, but not quite, finished Private Eye.

After that it was off to visit TBSITW for a delicious lunch of fresh home made bread with home made chicken liver pate, followed by "green" soup. It was probably made with Swiss chard, but she could not remember so we decided that green soup summed it up beautifully. We both tend to make this soup with any of a variety of green leaves and they are all good.

After lunch TBSITW went to work and produced the last picture to go in a multiple frame given by elder son and his wife for my birthday. I then produced a different multiple frame along with some pictures that I had found of me at different stages and both sons. As the number of spaces was strictly limited we decided that the frame would be limited to me alone.

Vanity, vanity all is vanity...

I had found and fitted a photo of my grandfather, my father, me and elder son (as a baby). This showed, of course, four generations of the same family.

TBSITW then scanned and re-sized and printed and guillotined to fit two further photos, one of me when I qualified as a midwife and one when I graduated from the Open University.

She has also scanned one of me taken, when I was 17, on North Bridge, Edinburgh on my way back to the office after lunch. The reason I was stopped was for a series of small articles and some photographs for Edinburgh Evening News. The press man and the photographer were carrying out a "vox pop" asking people what name they thought Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden would call their first child. I said 'David' as I thought that it was the given name of her father.

It was a particularly good photograph (ie it made me look good) so we bought some prints. One ended up with elder son and he had put it on his notice board in his halls of residence at University. His then girl friend (now his wife) was a little jealous of this pretty girl he had pinned up.!!!

Now there's a compliment.

I came home and in the late afternoon and into the evening I made a pot of chicken soup, using the stock from boiling the chicken thighs. Added to the stock were 2 onions, two carrots some rice and and the meat off one of the thighs.

Phew.

Photographs

Yesterday, after a hasty start to the day, I came home and read the paper, then made some lunch, followed by tea. I find this really rather difficult as, having to leave at 6.30pm for Bridge, I am having to eat some sort of evening meal rather earlier than I would like.

My partner picked me up at 6.30 on the dot and off we drove. We ended up with 38 playing, making it 10 ½ tables, so it was rather a late finish.

I have no idea how we got on, but probably not well as there are so many strong players there.

Today I was invited by TBSITW to a lunch of home made lentil soup and home made bread. We had a grand blether over that and some home made goodies – an energy bar and an apple and ginger cake. Scrummy.

I have been trying to gather together photographs of my family for my ‘rogues gallery’ on my sideboards., so I took over 3 frames and she printed off one of herself and partner, one of elder son and one of his wife. I had been hoping to get one of the two of them together, but so far no luck.

It was good to get a boisterous greeting from both dogs. I am planning to get a picture of the new dog for my frame which holds five small photographs.

A Visit to Elder Son and Family

I mentioned in my last post that I was off to visit elder son , his wife, granddaughter and grandson for a few days.

It is difficult for all of us to get together too often as all four of them live such busy lives, but I always try to go at the time when there are three birthdays: first granddaughter (10 yesterday), then elder son, (46 on the 31st) and finally grandson (14 on 13th November). There had been a lot going on in their lives, but the Sunday included the four of them, daughter in law’s sister, husband, 3 year old daughter (+ bump) as well as the grandparents.

I so much enjoy seeing them all again. Time passes all too quickly during the childhood years, then again at the other end of the scale.

So, we sat down, 10 of us for a slap up dinner on Sunday. The 3 year old was enchanting, turning somersaults and with a large vocabulary.

After dinner, the birthday presents were distributed, a day early. Granddaughter is getting to be a bit like the Queen, with official birthdays as well as the real one.

On Monday I took son to lunch at a near by café. This is a shop which specialises in interesting cheeses. Last time I ended up not knowing which cheese was which, but this time I had them labelled. The proprietor is such a nice guy and very interesting to talk to.

Son had lent me Romanitas (This is the Roman Empire Now), which was based on the assumption that the Roman empire had continued to the present day and I had bought the second of the trilogy. I had expected to have finished it while up there, but had not taken my reading glasses.

I had trouble reading the hymn numbers in Church with my last pair of varifocals, and this time the varifocals had a larger distance area and a smaller reading area. In general this is excellent because, if you are out for a meal or shopping, you can read with the varifocals, but now I need my reading glasses to read books comfortably.

I really enjoyed seeing the photographs of the four of them on holiday in Turkey, with son sailing with a spinnaker hoisted and the others getting tuition at different levels. These photographs were partly on son’s pc but also on grandson’s blog. (This is an invitation only blog)

With all sorts of bad weather forecast at different times I have been very lucky with the driving both ways. Yesterday I went to Sainsbury’s and bought one or two things including a new bath mat for the shower room.

I came home via Dobbies and picked up a loaf of bread. I had hoped to find biscuits for cheese but made do at lunch time by slicing up a smashing newly baked roll as though it were a loaf of bread.

Exercise Class and couple of Purchases

Today I went to the exercise class again - and my body is telling me that I did a good job.

Stopped off on my way home for the usual cheese scone.

In the food hall I bought some mushrooms and also an egg slicer. I always used to be dubious about the value of these things, but I quite often now use a hard boiled egg or two in a salad; I also found quite a nice simple photo frame for the photo of younger son and wife.

Still waiting for a photo of elder son and wife -they have a super one taken for her parent's 70th birthday and I would love to have a print of that. (Is this a subtle hint, I ask myself?)

When I got home I found a parcel containing a ceramic garlic pot into which I placed a very smelly garlic from TBSITW's garden. I have been looking for one ever since I read that garlic should not be stored in the fridge.

Special Saturday

Yesterday I went to the best sister in the world for dinner and a sleepover. This time she did all the cooking rather than Le Chef.

We started (after a glass or so of Noilly Prat for me and a G&T for her) with sliced wood pigeon on toast. For the main course we had roe venison with mashed potatoes and sprouting broccoli. Both courses were served with red wine.

I really envy them their wine glasses, which are small, so that you drink less than you think you are.

Pudding was sticky toffee pudding (home made) with local ice cream, served with a little sweet wine.

A good chat was held, in spite of the fact that Dozy Dinah (me) had forgotten her hearing aids.

The two dogs were very affectionate, especially the younger one, who has covered my trousers with hair and drool!

After all that I slept like a log till 8.30 and sat down to a glass of orange juice followed by a wonderful breakfast of crisp bacon, poached egg and tomatoes served with home made (by le chef) french bread.

I now know how to make proper poached egg. The secret is in some vinegar in the water, so the egg white puffs up and stays in one place, unlike mine which spread out all over the pan and fall apart when served up, leaving some of the white in the pan.

So back home on a really sunny day with a cold wind.

We have a "rule" of no presents to the adults now, but I said that if they did happen to be thinking of getting anything for me I would really like a photograph of the two of them and of the two dogs (separately or together) to add to my "rogues gallery".

I am going to make this same request to daughter and M and to elder son and wife. (I already have a lovely photo of younger son and wife in the gallery).

The gallery currently contains the aforementioned photo of younger son and wife, one of the best sister in the world and me, 1 each of the four grandchildren, and a group photograph.

The group one was taken in July 2001. I can date it almost precisely as I am sporting a sticking plaster on my neck.

If you look very closely you can see that it has a picture of a frog on it.

I liked it, because if any of the children asked me what it was for I would tell them it was because I had a frog in my throat.

In fact, it was covering my not-quite healed tracheostomy "hole"!

You can see why that photograph means so much to me.