How thick can you get?

Well, no wonder I couldn't find you a picture of  Keith's first wooden masterpiece..  It was actually in my phone. not the computer!  But do I know how to take them off the phone?  Do I heck!  So I needed to take some more - with the camera this time - but the battery had gone flat.  Have I a spare battery?  Have I heck!  So I charged up the battery and took these pictures:

Not bad for a first attempt eh?    Small but perfectly formed..

I LOVE THE TAXMAN (today)

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS???????/

The Inland Revenue - sometimes known as 'the bloody taxman' - has decided Keith paid too much tax up to this April and he is going to send him a cheque for £460.

In fact in today's post came just that very cheque - YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Now, Mr. Taxman - nice, KIND Mr. Taxman - I mean absolutely no offence here - but would it have kind of made more sense to have sent it along with that delightful letter he got from you earlier this very week setting out how you arrived at that figure?  Saved on the postage and such?    Just saying......

Tchsk!

Not a bit like Blackpool

I actually started to write this last Wednesday after we came back from a quick trip to Chester, about 130 miles from here on the western side of England but almost on the North Wales border.

These two were the main attraction!

And THIS is the other thing that Chester is famous for - to say nothing of the CHOCOLATE shop where we even got tasters.  FREE ones.  SUBSTANTIAL ones!



And guess who THIS is??........

It's KEITH with Todd and young Mitzie, bosom buddies of  my lovely friend and bloggy pal, MARIE from A Year from Oak Cottage and The English Kitchen. .  Todd declined to have his tummy tickled, I don't know why.......

We were only there Monday and Tuesday, which was a silly arrangement to make because we really could have done with - well,a few more days might have helped!  On Monday Marie was hosting a Family Home Evening to which we were also invited, even though we are not Mormons.  We enjoyed it so much.   I can''t wait to go back.  Maybe we'll make it to the Horseshoe \Pass next time.

KEITH has taken up a new hobby - wood turning..  Here he is, busy at the lathe

It's not his own lathe of course but one he has the use of at the club he's joined. 

Here's what he was making:


.NO, NO,NOT THAT ONE!! That's the Great Grannie Tooth Fairy on Hallowe'eN (aka Mimuther)  I'll have to show you Keith's masterpiece when I fdindthe photo.

Ah well,that's me for now.  Back soon.

love,

ANGIE

(my little mouse has gone somewhere too!)

Lest We Forget.........

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."

I am so proud to be British - and not just because we've had a humdinger of a patriotic Remembrance weekend.  Or rather, Week.  Last night's Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, for instance.  Where in the world could that have been but Great Britain?  Throughout the years it has been our opportunity to pay homage to our heroes, the men and women without whose sacrifice and courage we couldn't live the life we do, free from fear, free from persecution.


And yet there are STILL some who say we should draw a line under it all, stop all this pomp.  WHAT???

This week has been more meaningful than ever and, for me, one of the most poignant moments - the entry of some of the War Widows to the Albert Hall -  made the more so by the acknowledgment of the War Widowers, the children, friends, colleagues and brothers-at-arms.


As long as there are wars on this Earth WE MUST NOT FORGET.

There are no words strong enough to describe how I feel about the news that a child was sent home from school for wearing  a poppy because it was not a part of the school uniform!  That's disgraceful and disgusting and whoever was responsible is beneath contempt.  I hope their son or daughter, brother or sister  never has need of respectful remembrance and that if they do, God forbid it, this person will have the courage to say "I'm sorry, I was wrong. "

Oh what it is to be retired!

My kitchen window is at the front of the house so I can stand there and wash up (this is a dishwasher-free zone) and see the whole world go by.  

I can lean against the counter to eat my toast and drink my coffee while kids big and little go past on their way to school.  Sometimes they'll be all spruced up in smart school uniforms and not a single creative wearer in sight.  Then the second week in September comes and the new girls are already hitching up their skirts where skirts didn't ought to be hitched.  Or they may have decided to wear trousers like the boys - it's apparently their right to do this nowadays.  In this case you can bet their shoes will not be done up and the laces will trail pathetically on the ground just waiting to be tripped over.


There's one girl...poor kid, you have to feel a little bit sorry for her really...she sort of wears a school uniform except it's all wrong somehow.  The front of the shirt is tucked in the trousers while the back hangs sloppily out.  The shoelaces are undone - of course - but they are not in ordinary shoes.  I don't really know what you'd call them.  They're a kind of cross between HUGE loafers with a thick, thick sole, and Doc Martens.  If I'm to be honest, they do look ever so comfy but UGLY!  Where the majority of other kids go to school in all weathers with no coat, this girl wears, the year round. a thin, nylon kagoul affair.  It looks as if she poked her arms in it but forgot to shrug it up onto her shoulders so that the neckline bit hangs halfway down her back and the front bits sit resolutely under her arms.  She's tall  and rather ....not to put too fine a point on it.... fat and she ALWAYS has a face like thunder.  Always looks really aggressive;  I wouldn't like to be her teacher.  In my head she is an unpleasant character, a bully who other kids are scared of.  

But you know, she's always alone, never seen her with a mobile phone, always ties her long hair  back neatly.One of these days I'll manage to catch her eye and give her a wave to see if she waves back.  I wouldn't be surprised to find she's quite a nice lass really underneath the 'attitude'.


While I munch my toast and concoct lives and personalities for early morning passers by, THIS is what Keith concocts..........

A Satsuma man!  It's the entire peel of the satsuma he had for brekky with a felt-tip face drawn on.  He's that proud of it.  I mean, some people get Turin shroud-like entities, he gets a Satsuma man.



Such is retirement folks, such is retirement.