And Then Along Came Mabel.............

Ok.......... I never seem to have time to blob much of late, life aye........

On Saturdays, I like to try and get a bit of a lie-in in the mornings, cos I get up at 6.30 all week..... but Im a light sleeper so Im always awake when the Milkman's float rattles down our lane at just gone 5, and I usually toss and turn and just lay there snuggled under me duvet waiting for me 6.30 alarm to go off.....

But last Saturday, now that my Sam has this job, I decided to be a lovely mum and make him a lovely packed lunchbox to take with him so that he wouldnt be hungry in the day......... so I was up at 7am making sundried tomatoe and feta pitas and slicing homemade cake to put in his box...... whilst gulpping down me cuppa tea......

So, I sees him off, and decide to snuggle back into bed for a couple of hours.... I awake about 9.30ish (what a lazy cow right? lol) with the creaking of the attic stairs, it was Jacob jumping down the stairs hungry for breakfast........so I mumble....... Hey Jacob, will you let Janet out for me and then bung the kettle on for a cuppa tea....... all this whilst still snuggled under me duvet.....

Those of you that know me or have read me blob will know that Janet is me beloved chicken that I found back in march....... I loves this chicken like I aint never loved another animal before LOL....... we are a great team, me and Janet lol

You can read about finding Janet HERE

Ya see, of late, Ive been thinking that it would be nice now that winter is upon us for Janet to have a couple of friends....... she goes into her coop (she has the run of the garden during the day) early for bed, I always think she must be well bored on her own, with no telly or radio and no friend to chat to late into the night, so I was thinking of maybe getting a couple of them caged rescue birds...... or a couple of little bantums for her so she had someone to hang around with....ya know, maties of her own....

I bought me matie Wendy a couple of pretty little chickens for her birthday and she was mega chufted with them........ so Ive been toying with the idea of getting a couple for Janet...

Anyways, back to last Saturday........ so Jacob let Janet out into the frosty garden and she headed straight for the house and climbed in the cat flap and snuggled in the wicker basket in the kitchen :) - Jacob made me a mug of hot tea and bought it up for me in bed....... and then he disappeared upstairs to his attic bedroom to sort out whatever teenagers do LOL.....

I then got dressed and hobbled into the bathroom..... where I was sitting reading me Dingleberrys Book of the Month LOL - ok ok but its the only place I get a chance to read it, in peace and quiet.... I hear me lad go back downstairs and then a few minutes later he comes shooting up the stairs shouting......... mum, mum, I think you better get downstairs and see something strange.......'IM READING ME BOOK JACOB' I says......but mum, you will NOT believe this...........Gawds sake........ I hobble down stairs to find Jacob in the kitchen with the back door open letting the freezeing cold air in......... shut the bloody door will ya...... nope mum, come look whats in the garden......... so I hobble over to the backdoor to have a butchers at what he is fussing about and what took me away from me book.......

Oh My Giddy Aunt...... it was only a bloody chicken....... I mean, another chicken that was NOT Janet........ it was noisy and flapping around and strutting its stuff..... Janet was well showing off to this new bird.......... a bloody chicken in me garden.... where had it come from? had it just fallen from the sky? (that is what I have told me minded nippers this week and they so laff) - someone must of put this chicken in me garden.... no one gets up Saturday morning to find a strange chicken in their garden right?



This is what I saw in me garden...... not one chicken but 2 :)

One of me cats walked past the little chicken, well, Janet didnt take a blind bit of notice lol but the little chicken flapped and flapped right up onto the 6 foot fence....... cripes........ after a little gentle help from the mop and me, she fluttered back onto the grass.....

I decided not to clip her wings cos she had come to us at her free will, so if she was gonna stay then it was gonna be cos she wanted to and not cos she had been made to........ ya see, Janet aint never flapped up onto the 6 foot fence nor the 4 foot fence, be it the fact that she is to dam fat to lift off the ground is besides the point LOL



This is Mabel..... how strange it dont have them wobbly red combs.... but instead it has a backcombed mop lol

So a week on and yesterday I sat in the garden for a little while in the freezing cold, just watching both chickens scratch around.... I had not named this little bird as yet..... and then it came to me........ 'Mabel'....... I would call her Mabel..... ya see, she is a tiny little thing with gingery soft feathers that feel like soft downy fur...... she doesnt have a red wobbly comb on the top of her head, but a mop of feathery hair (she looks like she has that backcombed hair from the 60s lol) - but as I stood in the garden she just looked like she would like the name 'Mabel' its a gentle old fashioned name and it suited her.......

Do you know that looking the name Mabel up on google this morning that in 1880 for every million american girls born, 9,357 were called Mabel :) see, what a mine of information I am LOL

For a couple of days I kept both Mabel and Janet in the run to Janet's coop, so that they could bond proper and argue out the pecking order...... Janet is so use to the run of the whole garden that I think she was a little miffed with me...... so Thursday I took that risk and hoped that the new chicken would not decide to flap to pastures new, and I let them out into the garden......... Janet followed me up the garden path and straight into the kitchen for her breakfast..... she then decided she had forgotten someone and ran back out the catflap and ran down the garden..... I watched puzzled looking through the back window, Janet dont leave her breakfast for no one......... and as I watched she came waddling back into view with Mabel closing following at her heels........... Oh My Goodness.....it was a sight to behold..... straight up the garden and straight through the catflap the pair of them LMFAO........

So now, I dont have one chicken that comes in the catflap, I have a pair of daft bloody chickens that think they must live in a house and not a coop........



This is Janet showing Mabel how to sneak into the middle room when no one is looking....

Janet, has a new friend, a dear sweet little chicken friend called Mabel..... they snuggle together in the box in their coop at night, and keep each other warm........ aint they the lucky ones LOL....... theres me freezing me bum off on me own under me duvet, and bloody Janet has a snuggle partner lol

I hope Mabel will stick around, I hope she decides that now I have named her that she likes it here and wants to be part of me mad family........ cos she is well cute...... and Janet loves her so very much......

Oh, and another thing thats strange....Mabel is almost the exact same colour as our fat cat...... see, now I have colour co-ordinating pets LMFAO...... to funny..... to bloody funny......



See FatCat is the same colour at Mabel LMFAO

Whats with this bloody house........ why is it that crazy things always happen here LOL



Janet and Mabel enjoying a piece of sundried tomatoe and feta cheese pita bread :)

Janet LOVES special fried rice, but this week I found out that Mabel adores Spice Moroccan Sensation CousCous :) - I so spoil my girls LOL

My maties this week have so taken the piss out of me when I tell them about Janet and Mabel the colour co-ordinating stray chicken........ Where the hell did it come from...... I suppose that will always be a mystery......Im just glad she choose me and my family :)

And cos Brian me postman comes around the back when he gets no answer from him knocking me front door, Im gonna get a sign on me back gate that reads 'BeWare Of Janet And Mabel' lol.......

Ok..... enuff Twaddle on this freezing cold Saturday afternoon.......

x

Sam - Ive Grown You and Now I Shove You Into Adulthood....

Ok......... This post was suppose to happen on Wednesday 14 November, but it became an impossibility to find the time to post owt until now...... :)



Ya see, my Sam turned 18 on Wednesday...... my 3rd son of 4... technically he would of been my 5th living child.... but shit happens and so I was grateful of delivering the most beautiful healthy child that took my breath away from the minute he was born......

He was a bit of a whopper at 9lb 4lb..... and now he stands just a tad under 6 foot and size 12 shoes and still growing...

He was only 10 days old when he got sick and lost half his birth weight and spent a fortnight in hospital on drips and with tubes trying to fight a lung infection...... but he was a fighter and eventually he came home just in time for christmas, he has a round mark at the base of his throat, thats where he had a tube put in, I tell him its his third nipple LOL.....



This is Sam at about 3 months old...

When his hair grew he had hair like Shirley Temple lol..... big long ringlets lmfao



I love my sons for whom they are as individuals cos they are all so completely different.... my Sam is the joker of the bunch...... he only has to walk in a room and he can make me laff..... he does daft things, stupid things at times and extremely danagerous things at times that makes me wonder how he has got to 18 lol

He is one of the funniest young people I know...... Ive raised this boy since he was 10 completely on me own, well with his brothers of course.... when I look at him my heart swells with pride and such love...... he aint been an easy ride for any of us......

Ya see, when he was just 4 1/2 years old he was crossing the road down in the village with me, he was holding on to me jacket as we crossed the road, cos I was pushing a buggy with his baby brother in and 3 minded nippers in tow..... the car went through a red light and as I turned my head as I heard it approaching at speed I knew it was going to hit us, but I was just that step infront of my Sam and it ploughed into him, knocking him 8 foot into the air and then coming down to land on the bonnet of the car which then knocked him 18 foot along the road (the police measurement)...... that is the day my world changed forever, that is the day that would affect the rest of our lives.... my child was laying in the middle of the road 18 or so foot from me all bent and twisted, I could hear someone screaming, that prime evil scream of dispair....... the man in the bank at the top end of the village heard this scream 100 yrds away...... that scream I realised was coming from me..... I thought my child was dead...... the world stopped and I walked ever so slowly to my child, he was bent and twisted and covered in so much blood that he was almost unreckonizable, someone picked him up, it was the doctor from the doctors surgery, that had heard the noise and had rushed out, ambulances arrived and police and someone took the minded kids off me and someone went to get my then husband...... and Sam was rushed to hospital fighting for his life......

He had smashed his femurs and had lost most of the skin off his little body, and had a crushed chest and the impact had pushed all his internal organs up into his ribcage, but he was alive and in icu...... he was in hopital for over 8 weeks....one of us there with him 24 hours a day, whilst the other was home with our remainding 3 children....

I couldnt post a picture of him cos they are to upsetting still....



This was Sam just a few months before the accident, aint he cute :)

I bought him roller skates and a bike for that first christmas home, there is no way I was gonna pussyfoot around him cos of his injuries, I needed him to be tough and strong and not a whimp and scared to do things in life..... he started his first day at school on crutches, he was only out of hospital 3 days when I packed him off to school...... he had already missed a third of the year, of his start at school and needed to be where he belonged..... learning and growing with his little friends, not wrapped in cotton wool at home with me........ aint I a hard bitch LOL

Anyways....... lots happened to our lives in the months after the accident, and it was the beginning of the end of family life as we knew it....... but thats another story LOL

So this gorgous child grew and grew, he became the most amazing sportsman, seeing as how the hospital said he would never be able to play competitive rough sports...... yeah, well like that was gonna stop my Sam or even stop me letting him try..... he played soccer and field hockey and Tchoukball and joined the climbing club as school and he became the most amazing bloody skateboarder ever...... and they said he would never play sports.... he proved the experts WRONG :)



This is Sam skateboarding off the garages over at the junior school carpark..... told ya he was dangerous lol

Sam has broken so many bones I cant list them all LOL..... and on his 18th birthday last wednesday we even spent the morning down the hospital with what was believed to be a broken wrist lol



This was on wednesday outside the Xray department (being refurbished) waiting for his Xrays LOL



Even with a broken arm last year it didnt stop him sussing out that if you stood on the sofa in this middle room and ya jumped backwards and timed it right so that your back landed on the giant ball, ya could do a backwards flip and land on ya feet LOL......

This boy was NEVER suppose to play sports LOL

He is also into Urban Tricking which is where ya do back flips etc off tall structures etc....... and my Jacob has just got into it, so many many more broken limbs to come......

He has no fear, he is an extreme skater...... but how funny is this..... he is terrified of spiders lmfao little cute tiny spiders......

He is one of the popular most young men I know, and has a huge aray of maties, most of whom come and go in this house like it clapham junction lol.....

As well as his love/passion for skateboarding his other passion is his drums....... he is one son of a gun freaking amazing drummer...... he is in a band called Miles From Anywhere, and they do all the local gigs and circuits....... he passion is music and he is at college doing a National Diploma BTech in Music Technology, he is in his second year 16-18 and then he can choose to go on to uni or do whatever he wishes.... the choice will be his......



His drumkit has cost me a fortune over the years lol..... but how can a parent not encourage a passion..... its more then a passion...... he has a gift...... a gift that will be there in any downtimes in his life....



This is Sam during one of the Battle of the Band gigs during the year......

He is an avid gig goer lol and his most favourite band is NoFX which is a doodle punk band and he is always off to london to go watch gigs and somehow he and his maties always get to be invited onto the tour buses with the bands.... music is his passion in life...

There is so much I could write about my Sam, I could write a book on his exploits and the person he is....... he makes me smile, he aint perfect, and we have had our dingdongs with each other...... but he has compassion and a love of life of the like I aint seen in anyone his age before....



Sam just so makes me laff......



He has had hundreds of hair styles over the years but one of the best was this one that we did last year....... I aint no hairdresser but the fun I have with his hair LOL those are shaved bits in the side :)....

Just so much I could write about my Sam...... he knows that I love him with all I have, he knows that through thick and thin I will stand by his side and hold his hand if need be..... he knows I would lay my life on the line for him....... and I know it is all returned......



This is how he went out on halloween LMFAO...... sometimes I dispair, but he so makes me laff.....

So, what gift besides my wisdom did I give to my Sam on this birthday...... well, he has to wait until Monday for his pressie LOL...... its being delivered then.....

Ya see, my Sam does 3 long hard 8-9 hour days at college mon-wed and he now has a job 3 long long days a week to :) thur-sat.... he only gets sundays off to himself...... I am proud of this young man, I am proud of how far he has come...... I am so very proud to call him my Son...... my funny daft crazy extreme son....

Look, ya see, when me X left me alone with 4 sons to raise completely on me own.... I had to buy him out of our home, it was not easy, and I worked me socks off to keep a roof over my sons heads...... and I opened a savings account for my younger 2 sons...... so that when they turned 18 I could help them with that step into independance......(my older 2 who were 14 and 16 I had already placed something in line for them) every week for 7 or so years I have ferretted a few quid here and a few quid there away for them....... and this week I emptied Sams account to buy him his gift of freedom......it was something very important to me, ya probably wont understand what Im on about, but me matie Wendy (PT) does :) - so this is the gift that will be delivered on Monday for my Sams 18th birthday pressie from me......



His job came at the right time, cos the insurance of $3400 a year is up to him..... I hope he drives with care and safely.... I gave him the gift of driving lessons this past 6 months it cost me $800 to get him through his lessons and through his theory and driving test....... Ive now done me bit, I done all I can.......lets take bets on how long before he ditches the car LOL

His first little car....... so I send my son out into the world of adulthood...... I have done all I possibly can under extreme circumstance in life...... he have come through so many things together.... we have laffed at life when life was kicking us all in the teeth......... I hope he deeply knows how much I love and honour him and that no matter where I end up in the world..... I will always be there for him....



I LOVE this bad arse picture of my Sam LOL it would make a great album cover :)

Sam..... I know you dont even know about me blob, and you will never read this..... but I love you with all I have and I always will..... always...... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON.....

Tom

Jacob


Enuff Precious Twaddle for a dark wet Saturday evening....

x

Just A Quickie ......

Ok....... the post I was gonna put up to day in honour of my Sam will have to wait until tomorrow......

Its been mental here this past week and to cap it all I have just spent 4 hours down the hospital with my Sam with what was thought to be a broken wrist...after falling 15 foot off the back of a halfpipe skate ramp .... and having now fed 2 nippers it is almost time to go an pick up my Jacob before 6 juniors and infants....... so...... no, and, NO BREAK just ligiment and tissue damage...the hospital couldnt believe he hadnt broken any bones...... phew... lol tomorrow you will see why Im relieved LMFAO

Todays proper post will have to wait until tomorrow, unless something else bloody happens.......and I have time inbetween driving into town with hoards of kids and organising the delivery of a speciall pressie....

This is the mob I had this morning before school and will have after school with just 2 inbetween nippers today..... plus of course 4 hours down the hospital LOL TODAY OF ALL BLOODY DAYS, WHY TODAY LORDY.......when I have a party to suss and sort..



No wonder I have a bloody headache..... lol

Twaddle over and out..... x

Its A Boy Thing......

Ok........... Its been a week since I last posted.......... and what a week its been, have a lot going on here that Im trying to sort for the best of everyone, and its not easy, so havent had time to blob, or even flit around anyones blobs.........sorry :( its just how some weeks here go...

Anyways..... with me job I have different kids on different mornings and different days and different after school...... I have had all me nippers for a long time, many (the older ones) for 4-5 years or so, and Sleddie even for 7 years, and the little ones since they was babies, so they are just part and parcel of this house and family..... they know the rules of the house, they know me very well, they know my sense of humour and they confide in me like they would their parents........ its mostly good........

So...... Friday I usually seem to have the older ones afterschool....... well more older ones, as well as a few tots...... I pick them up from infants and juniors and get hugs and excited chatter, which by Friday Im usually all chattered out, so it tends to WHOOOOSHhhhh over me head, ya know, like in one ear and out the other.....

Sleddie and Squeekie both came out of school with non stop chatter, which to be honest I was not really listening to lol...... IT WAS FRIDAY AND IM KNACKERED BY THEN ok :)

It was showers on Friday, so we all walked home from school in the rain, they know the rules for when we get in......wet coats hung up, wet shoes in a line in front of the freezer, wet bags slung on the pew in the kitchen, brollys shoved to drip in the laundry basket lol....

So we all get in and get sorted and they all disappear into the middle room to draw and get toys and stuff out, and some into the lounge to put the telly on..... they ALL feel at home here, which I like..... anyways, so, Im in the kitchen sorting out drinks and hot buttered crumpets while they get settled......

The boys know that if their trousers are excessively wet due to puddle jumping on the way home from school :), that they have to roll their trousers up so that they dont get wet muddy rubbish all over the cream carpet in the lounge...... its now automatic with them lol.........

I carry in a big plate of hot buttered crumpets into the middle room to be confronted with this......... LMFAO...... I just had to take a photo.......



This is Sleddie (slow Eddie) and Mini Squeekie (Aaron with the squeekie voice)(all me nippers have nicnames lol which seem to have stuck and everyone calls them by their nicnames lol)....

As you can see one is sockless and one is onesockless lol........ Ok, I says, so ya socks was wet to, well done in taking them off.... just hang them on the radiator and they will dry before you have to go home.....

Blank stares at me and they both turn to blank stare at each other...... chop chop boys I say, the crumpets are getting cold........

Sleddie is 7 (he is me nut nurse Wendys youngest) and mini squeekie is 9........ they are NOT tots LOL

Sleddie - I didnt wear any socks home.......

Me - oh, why not Sleddie....

Sleddie - I lost them....

Me - you lost them?....

Sleddie...... yeah, at school....

Me..... oh ok Sleddie, go and get a pair of jacobs and make do with them....

Me - squeekie...... and where is your sock......

Squeekie - I lost it at school today....

Me - you just lost 'one'...

Squeekie - yep.... huge smiles ...

Me - ok, Sleddie, go get two pairs of socks......

Notice I didnt even bother asking the normal question of 'how the bloody hell can you loose ya socks at school' ...... we live and learn lol

So...... when the parents came they obviously noticed that both boys didnt have on grey or black school socks but bright blue and red striped socks LOL

First Parent - Sleddie, go get ya wet socks and shove them in ya school bag.....

Me - he lost them at school......

Second Parent - What you both lost your socks?

Me - No Squeekie just lost one... said in that matter of fact voice....

First Parent - How did you come to loose 2 socks in the middle of winter at school...

Sleddie - I dont know, I just did.....

Second Parent - and how did you come to loose one sock at school?

Squeekie - it must of fell off during the day.......

Me - LAFFING SO VERY MUCH......boys aye?

These parents will oneday understand that 'boys will be boys'........ me, Ive been there and done that for 24 years..... its water off an old womans back to me.......

Both parents - its not funny.....

Me - Its a boy thing..... one day you will understand there is no use getting riled over lost socks.....

So, any sock donations will be gratefully received LOL

Enuff Sunday Twaddle.....

x

Gobsmacked For Elderly Birthdays......And Special Maties

Ok....... I know it was a while back, actually it was as far back as the middle of September..... I started the next phase of me life..... I turned 50.....and so now beginneth the slow downward ride to me lonely old age...LOL

Now, I dont want no daft comments or whatevers over this post...... it was what it was....

What ya have to remember is that I dont 'do' my birthday... my birthday has never been 'done' from as far back as I can remember....... when I was a kid, me older brother's birthday was and still is just under a month earlier then mine...... the excitement that use to build a few weeks before me brother's birthday was immense, even though I knew what was to happen year in and year out...... ya see, he use to have the most lovely parties with jelly and icecream and fairy cakes and pass the parcel games and balloons and a birthday cake..... but it was his party and I was never allowed to be involved, I use to have to listen to the noise and laughter from me bedroom, where I was sent until the party had finished and the last of the children packed off home.....

And as crazy as this will sound, it didnt really bother me, cos it was what it was, I did use to plan in me head who would come to my party the following month and what cake I would like and I would imagine balloons everywhere..... but I knew that it would all stay in me head, cos when my birthday came around a month later, there was no party, no balloons and no friends laughing and playing party games....... I would get up on me birthday morning with hopeful dreams only to be told at breakfast year in and year out that I had not been good enough for a party or for presents for that matter LOL...... there would always be some excuse..... like..... school say you didnt get all your spellings right or Auntie Jean says that you hit Bobbie (me cousin) or or or or or lol always an excuse......

It was just another way of control, another way of punishing me for being me, a girl LOL..... ya would think that I would get upset and cry and scream and sob and beg..... but I didnt, cos I had learnt very early that 'that was how it was and there was no point in doing all the above' because that is what 'they' wanted.... and that is the only bit of control that I had...... NOT TO HAVE A REACTION about their actions.......

Anyways...... so you see me birthday has never meant much to me...... even when I was married my birthday was not really celebrated..... there was always some excuse by me X, especially when we had children..... like we cant afford a pressie cos the kids needed this or the house needed that or even the business in later years needed this that or the other.........

I remember HE did promise to book a hot-air balloon ride over the SouthDowns for me 40th...... something I had longed and always wanted to do........for months he kept saying....... you WILL have that balloon ride on your birthday....... it was the first time ever that I had been a little excited about me birthday........ but when me birthday came around, he bought me a CD Sterio LMFAO...... cos HE really wanted one to play HIS music on LOL....... he did not find it amusing when I stood in the box from the sterio and held a balloon in the air and said....... oh my..... this is amazing...... LOL he didnt speak to me for about a week LMFAO......and he called me ungrateful LMFAO

I do have one photo of me birthday when I was 35 with a cake that I had made meself LOL..... I must of had a rebelling moment lmfao

I use to make the most amazing fuss and make a huge deal out of me lads and HIS birthdays though and me maties...... and it truely really never really bothered me that there was no wishes of happieness or whatever on mine..... and Im being totally honest here.....

It was not until HE left that me lads started asking when me birthday was and for the first time I actually received little gifts from them all......

A 'Gloomie' friend had promised to take me on a cruise for me 50th... good job I didnt hold me breath aye? LOL.....

Anyways....... back to me birthday this year......

There is only one matie here that knows when me birthday is...... me matie Wendy.... me nut nurse friend, Sleddies mum whom I have been maties with for 12 or so years and whom all 4 of her kids in time I have minded..... and she always makes or buys me something to do with chickens or cats :)..... she turns up at my house every September, a week after her birthday, with a gift of love and every year she has me in tears.....

So this year was no different to me, even though a 50th birthday is suppose to be special, or so people say LOL..... I aint really sure, cos most of me maties are younger then me...... I knew Wendy would turn up after she finished work.... BUT...... the big mouth cow that she is, had told me other maties that it was me birthday..... so when I turned up at the school to pick up me minded nippers... I was met with flowers and little gifts and balloons...... LOL...... oh my...... oh my..... tears as Im typing this.... never have I had gas balloons or flowers on me birthday.... SO 'THIS' WAS THE FEELING OF LOVE AND CELEBRATION that people had felt for years on their birthdays......

Me matie Wendy had said that they had twisted her arm to get me birthday date from her, she knows how private I am about me birthday, even to me other best maties..... but she said there is no way that this special year was going unaddressed.....

So have a butchers at me flowers......and cards....and balloons..





Aint they pretty....... do you know what a lovely feeling it is to open birthday cards..... except for the cards this past few years from me lads, and 2 cards last year that a couple of doodle maties sent me...... I aint never had a 'pile' of cards to open before LOL..... daft right to be so excited at me bleedin age.... what a saddo and how pathetic to feel like a child on its birthday....... ok tears again typing this LMFAO.....

And me little gifts I will treasure for ever.... they was not huge expensive items from me maties..... they was little gifts picked and choosen with care and love with me especially in mind......

Like this from me matie Sharon...... I will treasure it always.....



Its beautiful, with little hand painted chickens all around....... I LOVE jugs with a passion..... I have many jugs and would fill my house with them if I could..... I have from well old antique ones to brand new ones, I use them in everyday life, with bunches of flowers to using them for gravy or milk or custard...... she also found the most funny lovely chicken dangling thing like a handpainted chicken windchime that I have hanging from the beam in me kitchen...



This little bone china mug was one of the gifts from me matie Wendy here, she has for the last 5 years always found me something to do with chickens...... see, even before Janet came into our lives last spring, chickens have always been a love of mine and me matie Wendy here has always known me so well LOL

I always try and make, any maties that I have, birthdays special, either with flowers delivered or by little special found 'things' for their birthdays...... now I 'know' that feeling of 'being thought of' on ones birthday..... it humbled me and made me realise all those years of childhood birthdays and married birthdays when I was never a thought..... how nasty the so called 'protectors' during my life had been..... just a card just a tiny little 'best wishes' ... thats all it takes to make someones life/birthday just a little special.....

Me lads went crazy and I was very moved...... my Tom bought me a new computer, which as yet is not internet connected...but will be in the next few weeks when we change internet servers.... but the most special gift my Tom gave me were his words.... he said 'mum this is for all the years you have put up with us and our ways and raised us on your own... I wish I could give you the past 10 years back' when I asked him why 10 years, he said...... 'because I saw how he treated you even before he left.... and if I could give you these past 10 years back just for you, then I would'..... holy shit...... tears or what......... my Ben bought me one of those special digital picture frames where ya put ya memory card in and all ya photos change every 30 seconds, oh my its wonderful, he knows how much I love me photos and my Sam and Jacob bought me CDs and made supper and did special things ......

So for the first time in me life at the ripe old age of 50...... I realised how special birthdays can be..... sighhhhhhh......

And do ya know....... that 2 weeks after me birthday...... a parcel arrived from the States........ it arrived a weekend when I was real low, a real reflective weekend, a weekend where I questioned my existance on this earth and what I was here for...... a parcel that made me smile and laff and again have tears LOL.....

It was from Shelly, me doodle matie from The Gumbies....... she had taken time and thought and had sent ME a birthday pressie..... not just a card..... but a bloody parcel filled with the most amazing gifts....... how did this friend know that every item in the parcel I would love LOVE LOVE... everything she sent had 'me' written all over it....... AND I WANT TO THANK HER ((((SHELLEY)))) from the bottom of me heart....... even the card, even the bloody card was sooooooo me lol

This is what arrived...... from Shelley, a friend that I have NEVER met, never even spoken to on the phone........... how amazing a person are you..... ( the country jug was a gift from Sharkie months back which I fill with flowers from the market most fridays)...





Everything was local to Shelley WHICH I LOVE... from a smoked salmon vaucmn packed from Seattle to huckleberry tea from her market to the most amazing cook book (which is another passion of mine - I love cookbooks from places I have been to OR from where maties live...... JBelle sent me the most amazing Spokane Cookbooks back in the spring which I adore too).... to blueberry chocolate covered sweeties, and local breakfast cereal YUMmmm.... and the most precious of gifts for me, found with love and thought...... MOOSE SHAPED PASTA lmfao...... oh how I love these little moose shapes and as yet I have not been able to cook and eat them....... cos I wanna keep them for ever LMFAO.......



I know the packet says Elk but they aint Elk they are MOOSES :)

SO (((((SHELLEY)))) fank you...... for making me smile for making me cry and making me feel special about me birthday, for the first time in me life....... fancy having a 'first in life' at the old age of 50 lol

So if you have read down this far, which I very much doubt...... I will tell ya in the week what I bought meself for me birthday LMFAO..... it arrived on me birthday morning...... diamonds you ask? NOPE..... gold? NOPE...... a day off? NOPE....... you will probably think Im a loon but I aint bovvered......

Enuff boring Twaddle for a bright sunny nippy Sunday Autumn afternoon......

x