It's not the same ...

I love hallowe'en, but when your children are all grown it's no fun any more. 

I bought the tiniest pumpkin for old times sake, and got out the old lantern ...

but it doesn't really work without your children dressing up, ducking for apples and visiting selected neighbours with their friends.

We don't have any littlies near us now, so it will be a very quiet evening watching the wonderful

Downton Abbey on TV.

When I was a child Hallowe'en was so exciting, even though we didn't have any of the wild and wonderful things you can buy in the shops these days. I didn't see a real pumpkin till I was grown up .... we always carved a huge turnip and put a candle in it. There was none of this trick or treating either! We dressed up in my mum's old clothes and made hats from cardboard ... and we did duck apple in a baby bath and tried to bite apples on strings. It didn't cost us much at all and it was so much fun!

I finally managed to see my poor dad today. He's been suffering from shingles for a few weeks and I've been banned from visiting because my immune system has been compromised with the treatment I had over the summer. Hopefully he's over the worst now, so I think the danger has passed.
At 77, he's really had a miserable time! He's really suffered, and is still in pain, although not as bad as it was.
He's lost so much weight as he hasn't felt like eating. My mum can't cope with that ... it's her self appointed role in life to make sure everybody has plenty to eat!!!
It's not like my dad to go 'down' with anything ... he's usually so cheerful and funny, but he's not himself at all. He looks like a shadow of his former self. My mum is not herself either, worrying about him .... and I'm worrying about the pair of them!!!

Such is life!

She got tickets!!!!

My lovely girl and her best friend spent the best part of today on-line trying to get tickets for the Take That reunion tour next summer ... they were aiming for tickets for Sunderland (nearest my daughter), Manchester (nearest home) or London (nearest the best friend). The situation was desperate apparently, but at the 11th hour my daughter managed to get two tickets for Wembley .... hooray ... but before she had a chance to tell her friend she got an e-mail saying her friend's mum had got two tickets for Wembley too! But for a different night!!!!

So it looks like both mums will be going with them ....

We'd been planning a trip to London in the New Year anyway, so we're going to delay it until July and combine the two.

Now I can't honestly say that I ever liked Take That the first time around ... but now they are all grown up I quite like their recent music. In fact I have been known to play their CD's in the car.  A friend of mine saw them last year and said it was the best gig she'd ever been too ... so it should be good! 

I hope we've got a seat ... I'm a bit past standing for the whole thing! I may be the oldest there!

Wordless Wednesday

Sadness

Today we heard the news that one of our dearest friends has died and we are all overcome with sadness.

Eric had never really recovered after a major heart attack eighteen months ago, but recently he had been doing so well and even had managed to travel out to his beloved France this summer.

He and his wife had been lovingly restoring a little stone village house for the past ten years and we would meet up with them every year to see what they had been up to.

He was one of the nicest, gentlest, kindest men you could ever wish to meet.

He will be greatly missed by all his friends

.... and my heart goes out to Sue.

A Bientot Eric ... no more pain xxx

Meeting the locals

Do other dog owners find themselves taking photographs of the local animals, or is it just us?
Whenever we come back from holiday we always have more than a few snaps of dogs and cats!

This lady bustled along the promenade, and settled herself down without even looking at her dogs. The pack just sorted themselves out, and lay in her shade!

This little cutie was fast asleep on the stock in a local shop ... we found out later he didn't belong to the shop at all, but roamed around the beach with his doggy pals. He had life sussed!

Not a dog, but a goat, trotting along without a lead with his 'dude'. We can't get Inca to walk at heel like this, never mind a goat!!!

Meet the least likely candidate for security dog ... but that's exactly what he was.... 'guarding' the gate to the beach from our hotel. We never saw him awake!

This little chap was given scraps from everybody's tables ... not just ours. Who could resist those pleading eyes!

Aaahhhh! A big fat pelican waiting outside a fish restaurant ...as still as a statue! Quite unnerving ... this photo doesn't give any sense of scale!

Out of my comfort zone!

Well, you know how it is ... you go along to the Welcome Meeting with your holiday rep, and the next thing you know ....

you've signed up for SCUBA DIVING!!!!

Now you have to understand that I swim without getting my hair wet .... I don't ever put my face in the water and I don't like being splashed!

In fact I even hate getting my face wet in the shower, so this was way out of my comfort zone.

We were assured that we would have one to one tuition at all times and anyone could do this from 8 to 80!

Two days later, we're in wetsuits and fins (flippers) waiting for our session feeling more than a little apprehensive.

But do you know, after about five minutes practising with the air supply we were off, into a whole new world. The water was crystal clear and we couldn't believe the number of fish that were swimming round us, ready to take food from our hands!

Holding the food threw me off guard, and I found I had lost my breathing rhythm ... so I had to surface with my instructor till I calmed down again. It seems I can't multitask under water!

These photos are very cleverly taken so you can't see the instructors, but believe me, my poor man would have gone home that night with a bruised hand ... I was holding on so tight!

What an amazing experience ... and something I'd never, ever considered doing in a million years.

The lovely Mr. B. was amazed too, when he watched the DVD we bought, as he knows my swimming history only too well. Without the film evidence he never would have believed it possible!

I don't know whether I would do it again, but my lovely girl is ready to take on The Great Barrier Reef, she loved it so much!

All too soon we were back on dry land. We had learned that scuba diving is very tiring, so luckily we had the rest of the day in the hotel complex where the diving school was, to get our breath back.

Making footprints on the golden sands

 The infinity pool

 The cove where we did our diving

 The restaurant where we ate lunch.

We were blown away by the sheer beauty of this place. Blue skies, turquoise sea, white waves crashing onto golden sands .... and a passing boat. Just stunning!

My Week in Pictures

Thursday .... Facing a nine hour delay in Manchester airport ... not happy!

Friday ... fascinated by the paragliders at the beach

Saturday ... trapped in the hotel all day by rain. We resorted to playing cards!

Sunday ... a day at the glamorous Lykia World Hotel

Monday ... another stormy day back at our hotel

Tuesday .... browsing at Fethiye Market (in yet more rain)

Wednesday ... enjoying some welcome sunshine at the Blue Lagoon, Olu Deniz.

Last Day ... a boat trip down the Dalyan River

So, our week in Turkey?

When it was sunny it was just perfect ...

but we had three awful days of storms and rain too ....

that wasn't part of the package!

Am I rested and recovered?

I think I will be after catching up with some sleep after a 4a.m. flight home.

I'll show you something amazing tomorrow!

A Postcard from Turkey ....

I'm off to Turkey for a week in the winter sun with my lovely girl.
We're both in need of some rest and recuperation ... and hopefully some pampering.
See you all when I get back!
Kathy xxx

Autumn Sunshine

Yesterday was one of those perfect Autumn days ... blue skies, warm sunshine, with a golden glow too good
to waste indoors. So we headed off to hunt for treasure ... conkers. Yes, my two grown-up children wanted to recreate their childhood looking for conkers in the prettiest little village near by.

Thornton Hough has everything you would want in a village ... a village green and pavillion, black and white framed houses, two churches, a primary school and playground, a local pub and amazingly, it still has its own post office! 

And, a long tree lined road full of horse chestnut trees ...  just for conker hunters.

My son said 'This place is just like the Shire' ... (home of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings)

 and he's right, it's just perfect!

 For those of you who are familiar with Port Sunlight, you will know of the amazing Lord Lever.
Well, he lived in Thornton Hall, and had a hand in the renovation of Thornton Hough in the 19th Century!

 Later, we sat on the sea wall at Parkgate where it is traditional to partake in the local delicacy ....

It was delicious!

We used to do this when the children were little ...

it's nice to know they still appreciate the simple things in life!

October is Breast Awareness Month

There have been lots of posts in blogland about being 'breast aware', but to my knowledge nobody has mentioned mammograms.

If you are over 50 and live in the UK you should have regular mammogram appointments sent to you. If you haven't had one find out why!!! Make a fuss!

Never, ever, ever
miss an appointment!

I'm speaking from experience ...

The mammogram I had in May detected a lump so small, I couldn't feel it.
It was caught before it could do any further damage.
After 4 months of treatment I'm now well on the road  to recovery.
It hasn't been easy, but I'm here to tell the tale!
The earlier a cancer is caught, the easier it is to treat!

Little Moreton Hall

On a day more like summer, than summer actually was, we visited Little Moreton Hall in Congleton,

Expecting to see this lovely crooked Tudor House ...

 we were so disappointed to see that the house was covered in scaffolding ...

... major restoration being undertaken. (It's funny how they don't tell you about things like this before you pay your money!)

 However, beyond the gatehouse the lovely old building was there in all it's glory.

The Moreton family started building the house in 1504, adding extensions as their family and wealth grew.
It remained in the one family for five hundred years, but passed into the hands of tenants for about two hundred years before the National Trust stepped in the 1930's. The tenants had not modernised the hall in any shape or form, so it's like a time capsule from the 16th century.

The Tudor patterns and carvings are wonderful ... the amount of wood in the frame of the house shows the wealth of the family. Many houses of this age show more wattle and daub infill than wood.

Their status was also defined by the amount of glass they could afford. The house has wonderful windows, and is quite light inside. I loved this original table standing in the bay ... it was found in the tenant's side of the house and had been used as an ironing board!

Upstairs, the long gallery measures over 20 metres, and was used as a space for leisure, where they would play indoor tennis and the like!

The house was built on marshy ground, and has been moving since it was first built. There isn't a single wall that is straight, and the floors and staircases bow and buckle quite alarmingly in some places. It's like walking inside one of those crazy fun houses at the fair... quite unnerving at times.

 Apparently the fireplace in this room is level, but the room clearly is not ... it's like an optical illusion!

 I loved the little details around the building ..

There's a lovely little chapel

 fabulous carved scrolls

Intricate patterns on the ceiling of the long gallery ...

Surrounding the house is a moat which circles the house, and is full to the brim .... lovely ....

And outside is an  Elizabethan style knot garden, all neatly clipped

This door is so low a tassel reminds visitors to duck as they cross the threshold

... and this is a dog kennel, dating from Victorian times. How sweet!

Did you know?

In Tudor times these houses were not black and white. They would have been natural wood, and an apricot sort of colour from the wattle and daub walls.

The black and white dates from much later when beams were treated with tar to preserve the timbers.

I didn't know that!