Birthday Celebrations

I celebrated my birthday on Friday evening.

A few of my oldest friends came round and we had a little 'carpet picnic'..

On Saturday I continued to celebrate with a lovely walk round some National Trust land,

just to the south of Bridgnorth...

The sky was a fabulous colour...

There were shadows and reflections everywhere..

At the top of the valley we tried a new route, which extended the walk by a few miles..

We picked up an old lane, which was in surprisingly good condition..

Eventually we reached higher ground and the views started to open up..

These two cottages have a stunning view towards Clee Hill and the Welsh borders..

We picked up another old lane and dropped back down to the River Severn..

By this stage we'd walked about 9 miles and had a huge appetite

for the 'eat ups' from the night before..

I even had a small glass of 'drink up' red wine (birthdays and all that!!)

The end of November is a funny time to have a birthday....

My cards always have to fight for space with the early Christmas ones

and work commitments can be a nightmare.

However, I loved my 'low key' celebrations this time.

Winter picnics are really fun!

~X~

On other subjects...

At the moment I don't seem to be able to access any of the blogs that I follow through my dashboard.

I haven't a clue what's going on - but I just can't get to your latest posts.

Is anyone else having the same problems...

I wondered if I'd missed an update or something.

Jx

Happy Birthday Mum and Dad!

My parents share the same birthday - the 7th September.

This year Dad was 74 and Mum was 70.

My sister offered to host a party for family and friends.

Some of my parents oldest friends came down from Manchester

and over from London.

It was great to catch up with people that we see very rarely..

 

My sister set up the food indoors...

 

 

but the weather stayed mild and dry enough for everyone to move into the garden..

 

Mum had loads of cards and flowers....

 

....while Dad enjoyed catching up with his oldest friend

(they started Primary school together)

 

September is a month of celebrations.

Today Mark's father is 79.

In two week's time my parents will celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

On the 30th my youngest niece will be 14...

and her father also celebrates his birthday in early October.

Lots more parties to come!

 

~ X ~

 

Thank you for all your supportive comments on my last post

 - I really appreciated everything that you wrote.

I've stuck to my plans and I'm 'cautiously optimistic' that things are falling into place.

I've read somewhere that it takes about 3 weeks to embed or change a habit

but I've already noticed the difference in my energy levels and moods

(especially this weekend, when I've had very little time to myself.)

I'm definitely sticking with things this time!

 

Jx

Catching Up......

A flavour of my half-term...

Early morning sunshine in the conservatory -

(please don't look at my smudgy windows!!!)

A day's walking on the Mortimer trail near Ludlow...

Lovely views on local walks...

Finally getting round to taking a photo of this local milestone...

There are plenty of plain concrete ones in the area - this is the only one that's painted

Meeting up with some friends at Broadway Tower

(on the edge of The Cotswolds)

The fabulous view from the tower down towards Evesham and

Breedon Hill...

Coffee and lunch at the tea-rooms near the tower..

Catching sight of this little copper racing car at Shelsey Walsh Hill Climb..

...and watching the real cars on the track.

Enjoying all the motor sport atmosphere in the 'pits'...

..then sneaking away to take pictures of the beautiful old buildings by the track.

It's SO lovely to have my laptop back!!!!

Jx

Into the 'Silly Season'...

Things have been 'challenging' recently.  In the last 24 hours alone my sister has declared a full 'Post Viral Chronic Fatigue' relapse AND my classroom has been broken into at work.  Nothing that can't be handled really.. but the relaxing Bank Holiday weekend seems a bit of a distant memory!

 

We spent the weekend at Donnington Park race circuit.  I found this lovely Bed and Breakfast in Kegworth - maybe 10 minutes drive from the circuit.

 

 

The lovely owners put us in the ground floor room.  Mark was in heaven... he could lie in bed with teddy bear and car (AND wife!!!) at reasonable reach!

 

 

It was a great chance to catch up with some of our Marcos owning friends...

 



 

..AND we got the chance to play on the circuit during the lunch break.  This is my view from the passenger seat at about 100 mph.  Apparently Race Control were 'amused' by the exploits of the silver Marcos on the club laps...

This is a race-prepared Marcos doing qualifying laps on the Sunday morning.  It was lovely to see a 50 year old race car being driven so well.

 

Another of our Marcos acquaintances was helping his nephew in the Classic GP2 races.  His nephew is driving the yellow car and went on to win this race convincingly.

Each afternoon there was a fly past by a Lancaster bomber, accompanied by a Spitfire and a Hurricane.  There something really special about seeing the old vehicles on the track and these beautiful vintage planes in the air at the same time.

 

On Monday we managed to be a bit more chilled - and even had lunch out in the garden.  I love eating a salad and cold meat lunch under the umbrella on the decking.  Sadly the weather doesn't look so great for next weekend...

 

2013 Resolutions - An update

 

Here's me (far left) and my friends at a charity ball last night.  I'm sorry that it's a little blurry - I had to take a photo of a photo and that never works particularly well.  We went to a very nice hotel in Stratford on Avon and had a great meal, followed by dancing until the early hours.  I have to say that I've felt a little 'jaded' (maybe hung-over.....) today!

 

I'm making mixed progress on my 2013 resolutions.  I AM making the effort to be more sociable during the week - rather than focusing entirely on work.  I've made the effort to catch up with people where contact had 'slipped' a little.  Yesterday I had coffee with some-one who I haven't seen for 6 months.  I've gone to car club meetings with Mark and enjoyed the occasional meal out with friends or family.  Tomorrow night most of the ladies in this photo are meeting up for supper at a local gastro-pub.  My Mum, one of her friends and my sister will also be there.  I'm really looking forward to it.

 

I have made substantial progress on the imaginary conversations with toxic colleagues front.  Rather like a bad habit, I am training myself out of the mindset.  It's still difficult at times - but I have found that I my brain actually responds to words like "Woah - stop this.  It's not going to help....!"

 

I'm not into a groove with my walking yet this year.  The cold and snow, and the flu have all conspired against this resolution.  I've found that I'm still very 'chesty' when I try to power walk so I've been forced to amble for the moment.

 

As for my plans to learn German..... Oh dear!  I've got a basic textbook from school, and I've looked out an old phrasebook and dictionary, but I just haven't had the right kind of mindset during January.  I think I'm going to have to pin my hopes on the half-term holiday (which will be coming along fairly soon).  The problem is that I'm actually quite fluent in French due to my weekly conversation lessons.  I also have Italian to AS standard - so my cranky old brain isn't keen on the idea of going right back to basics again!  I'm determined to do this though - Mark and I have booked an epic holiday of touring through Germany in the summer.  He's no linguist, so I will have to be the one who talks to the garages if anything goes wrong with the car (we're taking the one that he built!).

 

Isn't it nice to see the back of January....

 

Hope that you all have a great week.  Welcome to my new followers.  Jx

The Olympic Flame at the top of my road..

It's been an usual evening in my village. 

The main road was full of people waiting.. There was a real party mood...

Some of them had flags and were dressed in red, white and blue..

Police on motorbikes closed some of the roads and stopped the traffic..

Then a small bus arrived with the words London 2012 Torch Relay on the front.  It stopped right at the top of our close...

A young man got off the bus with an un-lit torch....

Around 6.20 more motorcycles, runners and vehicles appeared...

Then we saw another young man, dressed in white, running with a lit torch..

The runners passed on the Olympic flame and shook hands right in front of us..

The flame is staying over night in Worcester - in the beautiful Guildhall.

Tomorrow morning it's starting the next stage of its journey from the Cathedral Green.

It's been lovely to have been drawn into this national event...

Here I am!

This is me... wearing my new dress that I bought in Malvern a few weeks ago.  I don't like having my picture taken - I'd rather be the person behind the camera - and it usually shows in my face.  This is a very rare picture where I actually look OK.

Here's a full-length view of all my ruffles!  Once I'd got used to having so much material around my legs it was actually very comfortable to wear. 

Here I am with my Mum (the lady on the right of the picture) and our friends.  I had to wear my highest heels so that the ruffles moved freely.  As a result, I think I was about 6 feet tall last night.  I certainly look very tall here!

The event was a formal meal at a local hotel.  After the meal and all the speeches the ladies each received a present.  These boxes contained a glass pendant made by a local craftsman.  I discovered later that my immediate neighbour on the Close had made all the boxes and tied every ribbon.  I'm glad that I took a picture before I opened it. 

After all the formalities there was dancing until midnight.  We didn't get home until almost 1.00 o'clock.  My cat always waits up until we come home.  He sits on a bedroom windowsill and looks increasingly anxious.  He was very unimpressed with last night and got his revenge with "Wake up - I want breakfast" miaows this morning!

The New Season

It's that time of year when car club activities start to show some signs of life.  Nobody wants to drive their 'pride and joy' during the bad weather so it's a real sign of spring when the cars start moving again.  Last weekend was very Marcos-orientated for us.

On Friday night we were invited to a club supper at a house near Hereford.  We've known this couple through club events for quite a while - meeting at pubs and race tracks - but this was the first time we'd driven over to their house.  We had a lovely time and I fell completely in love with their two Persian cats, Scruffy and Nellie.  At the moment I'm wondering if Tom would be prepared to let me have a kitten in the house. Unfortunately I think he's been too used to being an only cat for too long.....

On Sunday we spent the day at Race Retro at the Stoneleigh, nr Warwick.  We drove over in 'the Kitten' (see tab) and spent a very pleasant few hours wandering round all the stands.  We are really keen to follow as much of the Historic Racing Series as possible this year so it was good to go to the club stand and suss out the programme.  We also 'oggled' lots of beautiful cars and enjoyed seening the classic rally cars in action.

It was so warm that we even managed to have a picnic by the car.  I really enjoy picnics and have collected lots of gear over the years.  I made a chicken rice salad and a green salad on Sunday, followed by fresh fruit and little Swiss Chocolates that had come from my friend in Geneva at Christmas.  This was all washed down with a strong pot of Columbian Coffee.  So much better than munching on over-priced burgers from the vans.. and cheaper too!  I can't wait for the season to start properly now.

Our Weekend Away..

Welcome to my new followers... who find me in the process of getting to grips with my new camera!  It's a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V, which comes with a very nice Carl Zeiss lense.  It has a couple of 'Intelligent Auto' settings and a very useful 'SCN' setting.  This allows me to select the kind of photo I'd like to achieve - soft skin tone, hazy background, food, pet portrait etc - and then it does it's best to make sense of what I'm taking!  There's also heaps of semi-manual settings.

We've been at a 'formal weekend' with family and friends in Bournemouth for the last couple of days.  This has been a great chance to put the camera through it's paces.  From the start, we've had a fabulous time.  We were up-graded (without asking) to a recently refurbished room with an epic sea view.  It even had a little balcony where I could try out shots of the bay in the different light conditions.

The teddy bears loved the view (taken on 'pet portrait' setting for maximum plush definition!)

This was the view they were enjoying...

Here I was playing with the 'hazy background' setting...

And this was my starter on Friday evening (taken with the 'food' setting ofcourse!)

These are some of my friends, taken before the formal dinner started last night.  The light was very poor for portrait pictures so the camera triumphed again!

And artistic shot of our champagne (taken on 'intelligent auto')

On top of all this camera fun I've also learnt how to crochet a square this weekend.  My dear friend A. has overcome my mental block.... she showed me what to do while we were enjoying a slow breakfast this morning.  I have also discovered that I can crochet while Mark is driving - which has made me extremely happy.  I've always felt quite resentful of the 80 minutes I waste commuting each day.  Now I can crochet my way round the M42!!!