Me

I was just thinking the other night....... bodes bad that , doesn't it?!

D3 and I were delivering leaflets in the dark (while trying to keep upright on the black ice); we were alerting locals to the BIG WALK which is to let the Council know how we feel about the massive & unnecessary development on our green belt.

What is it about me that I do all the daft things I do- collect magazines for local clinics & surgeries, specs for Vision Aid Overseas, stamps to buy guide dogs, gift bags for a ward in RVI where patients have to carry their drains, books which I bookcross, teach the next generation- and if you stand still long enough I will recycle you! Is it about tidying the place? or as H1 scornfully tells me that I am crusading- to save the World? There is a folorn hope! But Mother Teresa said ' every little drop eventually makes an ocean'......

I live and love the NOW but.....

I love tradition so I love history, genealogy and the past generally but..... I believe in the future- thus I try to make it better for future generations- even if I am not going to be there to see it.

I guess I would have been like Admiral Lord Collingwood who, though back in Northumberland so little- when he was here at home he (& his wife) always had acorns in his pocket which he planted to provide oaks in the future (for the shipbuilding of the English fleet).

I can not remember it off the top of my head- but I really like the brass plate set in the pavement at the top of Grainger Street in Newcastle about 'My past is my present to your future' Does anyone know what it actually says?

This week's veggie box contained lots including a butternut squash (and Jerusalem fartichokes) so I am after recipes agin!

Preparing for Christmas

One fine winter's day when Piglet was brushing away the snow in front of his house, he happened to look up and there was Winnie-the-Pooh. Pooh was walking round and round in a circle, thinking of something else, and when Piglet called to him, he just went on walking.
'Hallo!' said Piglet,'what are you doing?'
'Hunting', said Pooh.
'Hunting what?'
'Tracking something,' said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
'Tracking what?' asked Piglet, coming closer.
'That's just what I ask myself. I ask myself, What?'
'What do you think you'll answer?'
'I shall have to wait until I catch up with it,' said Winnie-the-Pooh.'Now, look there.' He pointed to the ground in front of him. 'What do you see there?'
'Tracks,' said Piglet. 'Pawmarks.' He gave a little squeak of excitement.'Oh,Pooh! Do you think it's a-a-a Woozle?'.........

'It's a very funny thing,' said Bear, ' but there seem to be two animals now.' .........

'The tracks!' said Pooh. 'A third animal has joined the other two!'.........



Another snowfall or two or three has brought more chaos and cancellations. D1 is really poorly and in bed. Lots of bad coughs around but D3 and I managed to warm through people at church with mmmmulled wine and mmmmince pies.



Inspiration at the Sage gave the best performance they have ever given..... and the signer was mesmerising again!

Pre snow we made a start on the Christmas preparations so the free- range turkey is ordered. A trip across the shire to North Acomb Farm filled the freezer with both gluten free and pork free sausages ready for the annual onslaught of offspring with appetites!



The cupboard-under-the-stairs is freed up from all the recycling collections-magazines at hospitals, specs at opticians for Vision Aid Overseas, stamps at the friends who collects for the local Hospice- room for Harry Potter now!




Deck the hall with boughs of holly.........
D1 & D3 and I went to Jesmond Dene Centre and made wonderful Christmas wreaths with all the natural materials collected from the woods by the rangers- I loved it- but D1 was so ill we had to bring her home to bed. She tries.....