The last flight

We took a moment to stand in the field and watch as the Royal Airforce Plane flew over, on it’s journey south, from Edinburgh bearing the coffin of HRH Queen Elizabeth II to London

It’s a truism that no death stands in isolation, we each bring to it our other losses and grief.

Certainly, those I’ve loved and lost have been felt very keenly in the last few days.

Making Connections

VJ Day 2022

Today is the 77th Anniversary of VJ Day, time to remember the forgotten British and Commonwealth forces, who served and died in the Far East; ultimately bringing an end to the Second World War

I’ve posted here before about my fathers time serving in Burma, with the Royal Engineers, at the siege of Kohima, and thanks to that post I was contacted by someone whose grandfather had been in the same regiment as my father, he was able to give me so much more information than dad had even hinted at, and sign post us to the war diaries of his section, held in the National Archives.

I’m so grateful, like many, Dad wouldn’t say very much about his experience, it was something he found to harrowing to tell. So to know more and ensure that the knowledge is handed on is important to me.

Dad, pictured centre

Lest we forget.

A familiar feeling

Since my last post, which had been a long, long emotional time in the making. I’ve found myself back in a way of thinking that I’d lost touch with. And I have to say it is a nice familiar feeling.

It’s taken me back to composing little blog posts as I meander along. Maybe it is time to start posting again. I’ve had a few false starts before, but I’m up for trying again.

Lets open the gate, and see where we can go, and what we might find.

Art Deco gate. East Portlemouth Devon

I always stop and admire this gate. I imagine that by now the fiery orange montbretia will have bloomed along the steps, making the colours sing just a little brighter and louder.

We’ve been holidaying in our often featured, favourite Devon spot a little earlier than usual. And whilst we enjoy being able to visit outside the school holidays (it’s more peaceful, and a lot cheaper) we miss the fun and games we used to have with the ‘Mill Bay Gang’. The children are all grown up now, and scattered around the country and the globe. We the remaining grown ups have had to find new ways to entertain ourselves, it has involved a number of long leisurely lunches, but we are getting the hang of it.

So, maybe if I can push through the gate, I can also delve a little deeper, and explore some unfamiliar places and stories and report back to the blog. I like the idea of opening a few drawers, for a good old rummage around, ‘though few drawers will be as glamorous as these.

Chest of drawers, Agatha Christie’s bedroom. Greenway Devon

I’ll see what I can find.

(PS, how in my absence, did writing a blog post, get quiet so complicated? Please, am I missing something?)

Comfort and Joy

I’m told my blog is fifteen years old. And whilst not a lot has been posted on it recently, I do refer to it often. Every time there is a question about when was it ‘such and such’ happened, this blog usually has the answer. It is stuffed full of memories.

Never more so than since Boxing day, the 26th of December 2021, when we had to say goodbye to our beloved dog Spud

Spud and his antics were a very important part of this blogs narrative.

His death, was both peaceful and timely, we miss him so very much, his absence ambushes us painfully time and time again.

We buried his ashes in the copse at the bottom of the field, I can see the spot, from my desk as I type. Near the Buckthorn tree

Spud the pup

I made a little wreath of winter greens and trimmed it some of his favourite things, a feather, he loved a feather.

Spud with feather

An apple, which the black birds then ate, through the short winter days. Spud couldn’t resist an apple,

Wrong kind of tree Spud… No apples here.

even climbing trees to reach them and leaving them as trip hazards through the house

Spud with and apple

A tennis ball, he was obsessed by them; we figured that if another dog passing along the footpath might take his ball, it wouldn’t be unreasonable, for Spud had more than his fair share of tennis ball acquisitions in his life time, on one occasion bringing home from his Devon holiday, nine more balls than he started with!

He adored a beach so a seashell was included too

We’re indebted to our local veterinary surgery, who whilst working under sever staffing pressures and Covid restrictions, made it possible for us to have the time and privacy to discuss an end of life plan for Spud. He had become slower and achy, and when in November he started showing symptoms of Horner’s Syndrome, the suspicion was that something serious was developing. We knew that that putting him through any invasive tests and procedures would not be in his best interests and it was agreed just before Christmas that he should be kept comfortable at home, being spoilt and eating lots of turkey.

Nearly five years ago, Spud had a very nasty and complicated break to his leg, something called Springer Elbow, whoever knew… The very skilled vets at Pride Veterinary referral center, meticulously fixed him up with metal plates and screws, this along with kind, skilled canine physiotherapy (which Spud and I enjoyed in equal measure) gave him a good quality of life, far more active than we could have imagined.

Here is his last visit to a beach, September 2021 Calgary Bay, the Isle of Mull.

He would have had a good zoom around given half a chance, but we’d learned, even if Spud hadn’t, that charging around too much made him rather sore and stiff, so we just allowed him a modest zoom. You can see he enjoyed it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/9623286@N08/52094153263/

On the home front

 

I hope you guys are all OK, I’ve not managed to find my blogging mojo through the last three weeks.  I’ve not really been able to concentrate on much to be honest, I’ve not read a single book.  I’ve made a lot of soup, which comforts twice I always find, its soothing to prepare and to eat, and fills the kitchen with homely cooking aromas.

Outside spring it carrying on a pace, and as far as the garden is concerned I’m not keeping pace!

We’ve Joe is home with us, from what was to have been his final months of study in Swansea, we did a round trip in a day, to gather  up both him and his worldly goods before lock-down. Poor Spud the dog, he was bewildered, he spent over 12 hours in the camper van, and ended up back where he started, without so much as a grain of sand between his toes.  Tom is locked down in Wanaka in New Zealand,  I try not to think about the fact we couldn’t get on a plane and go to him, or he to us if the need arose. But I know he’s in a good place with good mates, and a country that didn’t falter to put it’s citizens health first.

Here are some sunny New Zealand Lupins

We’re keeping our heads down, and feeling very lucky indeed to have the space both indoors and out for it not to be too claustrophobic.  We’ve been alarmed by the numbers of people that came to Derbyshire and the Peak District, we’d like to keep the numbers down.

Suspension bridge New Zealand

Stay safe xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i thought I’d share a sunny

Picture perfect

More of our New Zealand travels,  November 2019

Wanaka

Having flown for 28 hours, it was good to arrive ( flying  Manchester, Dubai, Sydney, Sydney to Queenstown) With two hour stops at Dubai and Sydney, there wasn’t much hanging about and all went as smoothly as it could. I concluded that a kind of ‘shut down’ of the brain was required, I couldn’t concentrate to read, so I watched a lot of film, TV and listened to podcasts,  the £25 noise cancelling headphone were a godsend, than you Mrs B for the tip.

I’ll have to grab the photos of our planes decent into Queenstown  off Mr Uphilldowndale’s phone. What a way to arrive.

It’s not hard to see why our boy has fallen in love with this place.

The following day we had breakfast at the Waters Edge Hotel, the first of many memorable meals of the trip. NZ does food, coffee and wine with aplomb.

Tom drove us out to Mount Aspiring National Park, it wasn’t long before we were forging through fords and on unsealed road, that were altogether less potholed than than the A roads we’d left behind in Derbyshire .

It was positively Alpine

But with attitude, this looks like a high octane way to spend your weekends,  jet boating.

And relax, the adventure, months in the planning has arrived.

 

 

Tasty blue sky

It’s a much welcome bright day here in Derbyshire,  one in which I shall try and  in gather all the lumens I can.  You never know how long it might be before the next sunny day.

Here are some some sunny blue sky photos from our New Zealand trip (November 2019), with complementary flash of orange for added zing.

A walk by the Clutha river, at Albert Town, nr Wanaka.  Look, lupins, Tom had promised me there would be lupins ( a photogenic but invasive bloom, but more of that later).

Aren’t these poppies delicious

There was a cloud in the blue sky,  but what a handsome  cloud. I think it is a Lenticularis cloud,  but you’d probably have to ask The Cloud Appreciation Society for a definitive answer.

And if this wasn’t tasty enough we followed up with lunch at Pembroke Patisserie,  I don’t know which  herb or spice they season their spinach and feta rolls with, but it make them sing.  So much so we had to go back again another day.

Tom tells me  how grim the weather has been over Wanaka, with the smoke clouds from Australia. It’s hard to imagine the scale of the  Australian bush fires, but to put a little perspective on it,  Sydney to New Zealand is a three hour flight (NZ is not quite ‘next door’ to Australia as we Poms  are sometimes guilty of thinking).  You are in our thoughts Australia.

 

The Christmas post

If Christmas is a little bit messy, that’s OK.

I’ve enjoyed  making some of my Christmas cards from stack of vintage postcards I found in a second hand book shop inKeswick, they are reproductions of stamps issued by the post office in the 1970s and 80s. Some had a Christmas theme, like the one above, published in 1981 I wonder what Samantha Brown is up to now, I hope she is still having as much fun with paint as she did back in 1981?

There were some very pretty ones.

This was a favourite

Some were not seasonal at all. I just chose them because they had a link to interests and hobbies of the intended recipient.

We’ve a friend. MR, who is a postal historian, I was delighted to find a postcard for him that celebrated postal history.  Spot on, couldn’t be better.

Every year we always await eagerly  the arrival of MR’s Christmas card to us, as we are curios to see what combination of  stamps he has used,  they are never recent issues, and often include 1/2p  denominations, I guess they must raise an eyebrow or too in the sorting office, they make us smile, we try to reciprocate, I’ve even added a Greenshield stamps   to his card before now, along with the correct postage, of course.

I wasn’t very quick off the mark, making or sending these cards this year, I didn’t start making them until after my brothers funeral.  

One card I was delighted to find was of an old English Sheepdog, it was the perfect one for a friend who is mourning the loss of his own dog of the same breed.

Meanwhile our card from MR landed on the door mat, bearing the very same postage  stamp as the postcard I’d just written and was about send.

Shall we calculate the odds on that happening? Or shall we stick to stamp collecting?

Happy Christmas one and all.

The other side of the world.

It’s been a while since I posted, not since mid October in fact.  We’ve been away, a long way away. We’ve been to New Zealand to visit Tom, he’s been living and working there for the last couple of years.

My goodness New Zealand is a beautiful country. Lake Wanaka

Sadly, whilst we were away, my brother passed away; when I heard the news, I felt every one of those many, many miles away from my family.

I was comforted to be able to be home for his funeral, which took place yesterday.

Since we’ve been home, the the  Whakaari (White Mountain)  volcano has erupted, with devastating consequences   I’m thinking of the families of those who died and those that face life changing injuries.

I’ve much I’d like to tell you about our time in New Zealand,  but for the moment, I’ll just leave this quiet, reflective post here.

Where did you get that cone?

In a nod back to my recent post about the thriftiness (and sheds) of our fathers, I thought I’d share this ingenious use of a road cone.  My father would have approved of its reincarnation as a downspout from a barn roof.

When you need a road cone,  for use in the road, they are as rare as hens teeth. I’ve sat in on countless discussions of where we might source some cones for use at community events, the County Council nor the police will let theirs out of their sight (hummm, maybe that’s because they end up as downspouts?) That’s if they have any budget to buy them with in the first place.

It takes divine intervention to find cones for loan. 

Maybe there needs to be a redistribution of  cone wealth?