Mothers and Mothering

We had a lovely day yesterday. We went over to see Guy's mum and were invited to stay for lunch and saw both of his sisters. We then took the girls over to see my mum. My mum is my best friend- she really is the nicest person that I know and everyone I know thinks she's lovely too. She has an awful lot on her plate at the moment. My dad has neuropathy, is partially sighted and has recently been diagnosed with Parkinsons - on top of his diabetes. He has very limited use of his hands-some days are better than others- but he's also very unstable on his feet- so he can't actually feel if he's feet are on the floor when he walks. So she has to get him up, MAKE him take a walking stick when he goes off to the loo and do all his medication. He can play up on it a bit sometimes and she's run ragged all day long. Because he can't be left on his own for long she doesn't get to escape the house that often. But she's still there offering to do a Mothers Day tea for us all- even though I wanted to bring it with us.

 She still loves her bucket and spade- she missed it when the girls grew up. So the new holiday tradition is to buy her a new one!

 One of my favourite photos of my mum- we went on a barge trip and were the only ones on the barge.

I had a lovely Mothering Sunday too. The girls remembered for a start. Amy was coerced into making a cooked breakfast. Emma had made a lovely card and little arrangement at college and it really warmed my heart. She can be a bit of a handful and some days I'm glad to get to bed- but her words really made me emotional!

We've recently moved our table into the lounge as it makes better use of the space we have. Amy chose a dish and 'things' to fill it- for the centre.

For the love of books

Fact or Fiction

To be honest I will read anything and everything that comes my way. I love fiction- but love biographies, coffee table books and love flicking through recipe books dreaming of the day that I turn into a fantastic cook! These are a few of the books on the bookshelves at the moment. I must admit that since I transferred over to my kindle I buy far less real books and rehomed most of them- so my house no longer really tells you how much of a bookworm lives there. That's mainly down to dh moaning about the bookshelves groaning under the weight!

My portable library- holds much more than the real bookshelves these days.

World Book day- I still remember getting the girls dressed up on World Book Day when they were at Primary school. In Amy's last year at school- the whole 6th form chose to dress as one of the characters from Alice in Wonderland. I bought Amy a bright blue jacket- as she was given the Mad Hatter! We sewed a few buttons onto a jumper and BOUGHT a chain for the watch!

Favourite read to children

I tended to love books with fantastic illustrations and if they mentioned the girls names all the better- and Emma's Lamb was a particular favourite

Our nephew is expecting a baby (well his girlfriend is to be honest!) in May- which will be the first baby in the family for nearly 18 years- so we are all thrilled and I've started looking round for pressies already. They are having a little girl- so a pretty dress will definately feature! I also wanted to buy a nice book. I saw this one in Poundland and managed to get drenched in the biggest downpour this year and it got ruined. Emma still enjoyed reading it- and it has beautiful pictures!

Childhood memory. One of my memories from secondary school that stays with me is of our Welsh Headmaster reading an excerpt from a Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas every year. Obviously being Welsh it was told in the perfect way and I would look forward to hearing it every year. It wasn't until quite recently that I sought out my own copy!

Favourite character in a book- this is a hard one. As a child I devoured everything by Enid Blyton and an endearing character is Moon Face from the Magic Faraway tree, I also loved George in the famous five and the 'good' girls from Mallory towers. I regularly find new favourite characters in the latest books I read- but I read so many I can't bring one to mind!

                                       Even my garden has it's very own bookworm!

Today I read...

"It was a wedding invitation that changed everything for Floriana...

If she hadn't been so distracted at the thought of having to witness the one true love of her life get married, she would have seen the car coming.

If she'd seen the car coming, there would have been no need for elderly spinster Esme Silcox and local property developer Adam Strong to rush to her aid.

And if Floriana hadn't met Adam and Esme she would never have had the courage to agree to attend Seb's wedding in beautiful Lake Como.

For Esme, Lake Como awakens memories of when she stayed at the lake as a nineteen-year-old girl and fell in love for the first time. So often she's wondered what happened to the man who stole her heart all those years ago, a man who changed the course of her life.

Now it's time for both Esme and Floriana to face the past - and the future - on the shores of this most romantic and enchanting of lakes".(less)

Paperback, 384 pages

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I couldn't resist the lure of a blog post about books! I had a nasty flu bug all of last week and didn't manage to do much apart from wake up , eat an evening meal and drop back to sleep again! I think I've only ever had flu once before- and wouldn't mind if it never visisted again. I went to see my niece in Miss Saigon and it was the first time I'd been out of the house for a week and my aunt made me feel tons better by telling me I looked very poorly!!!!!

Anyway- my favourite pastime is and always has been reading.

Today's book is by one of my favourite authors and it jumped onto my kindle late last week. I am 11% through it- one of the things I miss most about 'real' books is actual page numbers. I know it's possible to get them on some kindles- but mine shows the percentage read.

I was a very reluctant convert to kindle- but wouldn't be without it now. I had a complete disaster about a month ago where someone must have trodden on my old kindle and it didn't like it much. I was in a mad panic- until I forced myself to admit that they were just books. I have managed to get the vast majority of books that I had on it before. Some collections are lost- but I can read quite happily for a few years even if I don't buy anymore.

I am trying so hard to keep up to date with my photography challenges- but missed the last 2 weeks of this one and the Daily Snappers. I am listing them to try and catch up at some stage!