Sunday excursion

Felt really rough on Saturday, so just vegged in bed all day. Sunday it was so gorgeous out that we both felt we had to get out of the house. So wonderful to see so much sunshine.



Liverpool really is a city of cranes at present. I find them interesting - the angles they make against the sky and other buildings. And I love their colour against blue skies! Especially the red ones!



Baltic Fleet and cranes

Went to Gordale Nurseries first, where I was tempted by several plants (especially some of the euphorbias, but I worry about their nasty sap) but decided that I didn't really have the energy to look after any new plants right now. It was good fun to have a look at what is available at this time of year though, and it's so great to even begin to think about gardening again.

John trundled me as far as the kids' playground, when we heard some strange bird calls. We headed off towards them and found these strange birds:



What on earth are they? John made a guess at quail, but I didn't think quail had bald heads!

On to the flat afterwards, brought some more stuff home. Cooking notes Mum made at night school in the 1939-40 session. First recipe is lentil soup, followed by kidney soup. Not had time to read further yet. John went for a walk round the marine lake while I went through more bits and pieces.

It was very still, though very cold despite the sunshine. We watched a couple of kayackers paddling round the lake. Rather them than me!!! And then we watched the sun sink over the hills of Wales. Here's the last glimmer before it disappeared:



Today I went for my regular Monday evening counselling session. Been going for a few weeks now, was lucky enough to be able to contact the Counsellor I saw when I was fairly newly disabled with ME. She helped me a lot back then, and now I am seeing her for bereavement counselling. Today we began work on my Life Line. This is going to be painful I think, but I am convinced it will all help in the long term.



Sunday Traffic jam outside St Luke's Church. We think there must have been something on at the new stadium. Obvously this is something we are going to have to take account of when planning on driving through Liverpool!

Pancakes

Sunday Sunset at West Kirby

We missed pancake day last week, so we had pancakes for breakfast this morning to make up for it. We both enjoyed them so much we are thinking we might make it a regular Tuesday morning breakfast.

Christmas Day 2006

Sarah left about 10.30 to fetch Mum and Dad over from West Kirby. Meanwhile Helen arrived and dysoned the hall and living room, and she and David carried piles of boxes of books up to Sarah's room so that the living room was relatively free of clutter. John slaved over a hot stove, and finally the turkey was ready.



The Girls did a grand job with the table, and rushed around dishing up while John carved. Sarah acted as Wine Waiter, a bottle of Mumm Champagne that she bought when she went champagne-tasting in Paris in the summer. It proved to be a bit on the lively side, but the only casualty was a soggy paper serviette. And the champagne was delicious.



We had all the trimmings with the bird - sprouts, carrots, parsnips, roasties, cranberry jelly, bread sauce (with a clove-studded onion in of course!), chipolatas, sausagemeat stuffing and herb stuffing. This was made according to Mum's recipe, Sarah was curious where it came from. "The Radiation Cookbook" was Mum's reply. Conjures up strange ideas now, but her first cooker was a gas cooker, and I think the book came with the cooker.



There was some talk of Christmas Pudding when we'd cleared our plates, but everyone was too full.



So we headed to the living room to open some parcels. Lots of chocolates! Dad was feeling pretty tired I think, seemed to be falling asleep all the time. Of course they both have a snooze in the afternoon usually, so I guess habit caught up. They left quite early - about half three I think. I had a feeling that there was a parcel missing, so checked under the tree. And there was one last present for Mum and Dad - Jacobs cheese footballs too, so it would have been sad if they'd missed it! But I hammered on the window, and John came in and fetched it. At least it meant they had another parcel to open when they got home.



Tree finally went up on Christmas Eve - it's not enormously tall, but it's sure WIDE! We couldn't find the tinsel, or the crib. Think there must be another box lurking in the loft still. Let's hope we find it next year!