Alternative Royal Wedding

For those who didn't get to see the Great Day, this is probably more fun. I did sit down and watch Kate and Wills become the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and even sniffled a bit at times.
The Abbey looked magnificently Gothic, but a little strange with trees down the aisle. I suppose Charles had to have someone to talk to.
The fascinators were amazingly huge, sitting behind what with the trees must have been very arboreal.
Apparently when Charles comes to the throne, if ever, he won't be a Charlie, it is thought to be an unlucky name for a king, so he will be George VII.

fairly bright

After the daffs we now have the blue bells,down the bank in the garden around the poor pruned apple trees, among the grass and on walks thru the woods.

and the wisteria is beginning to flourish.

I am not, I have a headache. I am extremely grumpy, if I was flower I would be a dark, manky weed tunnelling along under the ground and popping up to spoil the show.

We decided to break out this Easter Monday and toddled along to the next village to go to the Fair. I envisioned lots of ice cream and winning a monkey for the Glorious Grandson who will soon be amongst us [flower and weed! as he is now two and quite a handful].

Apparently monkeys come second only to dinosaurs in his universe, grand-ma will come way down when I start laying down the law...............

However the fairground was teeny, just a roundabout, 4 or 5 stalls , a bouncy castle [already deflated ready for a quick get away next day and some twirly machinery that was already turned off. The local kids seemed quite happy whizzing round - but no ice ceam and no stuffed monkeys!

It has been such a lovely run of sunny days I shouldn't complain, I wouldn't if I didn't have a headache. And Dr Who was crap.

released into the wild

I have been devouring books lately. Fortunately the library van is still chugging round every 2 weeks and the Wetterstones in town hasn't been closed yet.
Just as well as their advent closed all the other Indy bookshops in double quick time a few years back.
Finished The Rapture by Liz Jensen yesterday, she writes very well, richly and somehow in the "now" dunno what I mean by that. It just seemed her characters were living in a world I recognised, that is before it all went eco-catastrophe and religious mania..............but even that built on strains of behaviour and science I had heard of. It is set slightly in the future and goes a bit block buster at the end, but i did enjoy her intelligent approach to the madness.
Before that I read Mystery by JKellerman, absolute sensationalised rubbish.
I was so annoyed with him, that when I joined the Book Crossing website, his was one of the first to give away.
It is very happy contrivance for me. I have so many book cluttering up the house, even tho i do download quite a few, I do still prefer the actual pages.
With the Book Crossing wheeze I can just register them on the site, leave them somewhere and hope that one day I hear back from peeps all over the globe..................[well around here anyway] that someone has picked it up to read.
The other giveaway was The Gate at the Stairs, is that right, a novel by Laurie..........someone. It was a slow burner but in the end I enjoyed it. Of course I didn't want to leave 2 junk thrillers in the same spot, too shaming.
We went out to have a corned beef hash lunch at the Victoria, a country pub near us today, so i left behind my two prepared books - with Book Crossing labels to explain, stuck inside.
As was inevitable, a woman came puffing out after us to return them, just as we were making our Le Mans getaway.
So i had to explain the principle of releasing books into the wild.
Hopefully it will get to be a more slick operation.
In the past I have given books to friends [but do they really want them] and down to the charity shops [too much heavy lifting thru a pedestrianised zone] so this could be the answer.
I know the library is really perfect, as one has to return books but I am too impatient to get the new releases.
Have been to Wetstones already and replenished with The Sentry; The Last Werewolf and best of all the new Fred Vargas.
Yes, alright, they were doing 3 for 2.

blossom dearie

Yesterday was one of those sunny Spring days; no doggie to walk, but we went round the Long Fields anyway. We are learning to walk out without Hattie. Not our tree, it belongs to farmer up the lane, blossoms wonderfully every year and dares me to be depressed - about anything.

The magnolia is out again, too many flowers to count now, but cold windy day has made it easier yesterday

Our poor pear trees were cut back over the winter.

They are fighting back, but look very sad at the mo.

Goodness knows if they will have pears. Guess they will have a few just in desperation.

paper nylon

Yes the petticoats were "paper nylon" as Gillian says.

As I remember it we just used to soak them in hot water into which much sugar had been dissolved and then they drip dried on the washing line.

Dunno why we didn't use starch.

They used to stick out beautifully under the full skirts until the body heat from rocking and rolling melted the sugar again and we and our petticoats returned home somewhat limp but still sweet sixteen.

I have a pic somewhere but will have to add it later I guess. It is not very dashing, just me in black and white standing in my nana's back garden looking embarrassed and maybe in a fullish cotton skirt if I remember rightly. [Found it - only one petticoat i think]

I expect I was about 13, far too tall and with defiantly curly hair that led to me being nicknamed Golly, in those un-PC times.

My mother insisted I brush it back off my face, i hold much against my mother but that was one of the deepest crimes, she told me I would look awful with a fringe. Since leaving home I have never been without one.