A Long Blog

Oh God, it’s another long one. Bear with me. I start off with a few notes and go off on a ramble……. it’s my day off you see and procrastination must be part of it as there are jobs I hate to do later. Ouch!

No poems today but, for a change, a spattering of my favourite quotations.



Dear Diary,


Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly




They say animals are our guides to the spiritual world and spiritually they are more advanced than we humans. I am inclined to agree.

But I disagree with those other so-called animal experts who say dogs do not understand words. I was thinking of all the words that I know Finn, our lurcher, undoubtedly recognises.

So far I have listed the following:


S (son’s name)
V (daughter’s name)
K (other dog’s name)
Sit
Stay
Lay Down
Come
Away
Daddy
Where’s Daddy?
Go and Find Daddy
Mummy
Find
Bed
Bed-time
Wee Wee
Get Down
Up
Off
Shake a Paw
Naughty Boy
Where’s………..whatever
Brush
Who’s That?
Dinner
Biscuits
See Them Off!
Kill!

There are others but these are those I can think of so far. It is NOT tone of voice; it is the words that are recognised. Do you agree?

I think Finn knows I am writing about him because he has come and laid down beside me…….

Dogs are telepathic. They read my mind and I only have to think of taking them for a walk for example and they start getting excited. I am sure I can read their minds but I know it works both ways, they know when I am sad or feeling unwell. They know when one of our ’pack’ is on their way home. They know who is at the door without seeing them and never bark if it is a ‘favoured’ person. There are some special people they have accepted unquestionably who they have never barked at. At the same time there are a few they will never take to; the coalman for example, but it could be the lorry they don’t like. But they should surely be used to it by now as it comes once a fortnight.


I am back on the family tree research again as we have free access in the library to ancestry.co.uk - I will add a link to this page. All libraries in the UK have free access till March 2008. But if any of you want me to look anything up let me know. I am doing some searching in my lunch hours.


M has been spurred on by our daughter and myself and has started a blog! I won’t give you a link unless any of you are into airguns? He does write about other things but so far it is mainly ‘blokeish’ stuff and mainly airgun-related. Yawn yawn…………….



Blessings (a long list it seems).

My dear son-in-law who has a birthday today. Pen Blwydd Hapus A! He has been through a hard time recently; hopefully we can draw a line under it all now. He is a very special person, I knew within five minutes of meeting him that my daughter’s life would be ‘safe’ with him. She was quite young when they first met but I had no worries about their relationship. Do you know what I mean? There are some people who you connect with instantly and know they are mature and are ‘good’ people.

Recipe Books. They make great reading even if I am not in the mood for cooking. I haven’t been in the mood lately. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy cooking, it’s the Having To Do It Every Day that gets me. I get phases of enthusiasm. Do others feel like me I wonder? I know my daughter does and she is a great cook. And she has five mouths to feed every day…



The instruction we find in books is like fire.
We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others and it becomes the prophecy of all.
Voltaire c694-778


I have a few favourite cookbooks. The old and trusty St Delia was my first and she is still reliable. I have her Complete Cookery Course and have owned it since it first came out many years ago. Everything works, is exact and tastes damned good. I always like St Nigel (Slater). His book Appetite is one of my much loved. His Kitchen Diaries too is inspiring. The old favourite tattered paperback which is the ‘Pauper’s Cookbook’ by Jocasta Innes, every one of her recipes, a lot of them French, are just wonderful. I also like Jean-Christophe Novelli , but that’s another story, not all food related :>).

Seriously though, these cooks have such enthusiasm it is infectious. Remember en theos, Greek for ‘with God.

I am a spur-of-the-moment kind of person, I don’t like things planned in advance. The biggest problem here is the distance from the shops. We are over-run with eggs at the moment as my daughter has a surfeit. Her new chicken are laying more than one egg each a day (Has anyone else heard of this happening?). And M is looking after a neighbour’s chicken so we are getting all their eggs too. I fancied making Eggs Florentine but have no spinach, not even frozen. It’s miles to the shops that is the problem. I envy those of you with your Tesco home deliveries (ssshhh, hush my mouth, I didn’t really say that did I?). But we are having a Tesco coming to the area soon, a blessing in disguise??

I would rather we had regular decent markets in our little towns like the French do. And daily deliveries of fresh bread. They have life sorted.

I love recipes that are healthy, quick, cheap, can sometimes be made in advance or made in one pan. So things like stir-fries, curries, stews, anything QUICK. I hate slaving over a hot stove and then seeing it all devoured in an instant!

It will soon be salads-in-the-garden kind of no-cooking I hope.

Though overall I still subscribe to the healthy benefits of chocolate and wine don’t you?


Ebay. I am an Ebay virgin but am thinking of having a go at selling something. I hate the site, it is aesthetically such a b***** mess. I long to de-clutter it and make it ‘beautiful’. Still friends have inspired me to give it a try. I will let you know how I get on. I know a lot of you out there are very experienced sellers.


*

The news is so bad at the moment that I especially appreciate the following blessing.
*

Humour.

Children, Chocolate and Wine posts. So many are really, really funny and so well written that they brighten my day. So much talent there, you purplecooers know who they are.

I love impressionists, Rory Bremner and Alastair McGowan for example. TV Programmes such as Catherine Tate, The Simpsons, My Family, Have I Got News For You, many more….. And a few on Radio 4 too.

Friends and relatives too with their special brand of humour.

Honey. My first cup of tea laced with the stuff. Always gets me going.

Summer dresses. Hoping it will be summer again soon…

My lovely borrowers at the very busy library. I come home exhausted but happy, who could ask for more than that from a job? The children at the adjoining school are one of the lights in my life; their enthusiasm for books is such a joy. For them a seed has been planted which should grow into a lifelong passion.

Rain, liquid sunshine. We do need it.

Hairdressers, magicians!

Musical instruments. My favourites are the guitar, the uilean pipes, the wooden flute, the harp and the bodrhan. I love drums, it must be so cathartic to play them.

Some instruments touch the soul, the Uilean pipes for example, they touch me deep inside (my sister-in-law says the same and she has the Irish blood too).

I have asked God for one thing, to be able to have a really wonderful singing voice in my next life. It must be exhilarating to be a great singer.

Listening to some music makes me cry, the Welsh and the Irish national anthems for example. And even the one in my headphones at this very moment by Snow Patrol (on the blog). It shows you how music can change your energies.


I may be in danger of repeating myself when I am writing my blessings. At my age I am always in danger of repeating myself.

But does it matter?
Does anything matter?
Nothing really matters.
Only love.

(The last saying is one of my own mantras, having endured perhaps more than my fair share of ’difficult times’ it has been my lesson in this life).


Well I had better stop now. If you’ve read this far many congratulations and thank yous.

I now have boring paperwork to attend do, which involves money and adding up (for me it is a curse), wish me luck.

And I must fit in a walk with the dogs today.


If I am walking with two men each of them will serve as my teacher.

I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
Confucius
(C551-478 BC)


We must be the change we want to see in the world
Ghandi


Bye for now,
Caitx

I am still lighting a candle for Madeleine, I know some of you are too.