A Painting and Other Things

After having a wonderful Christmas dinner that turned out just as it should, we opened our presents and all three of us were lucky enough to receive some lovely things.




Notice the Disney films? I collect the animated feature films and LM had bought me four! Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Dumbo. Lise bought me The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspain so I’ve plenty to watch this week :)

One present really brought tears to my eyes though.




This is a picture that my best friend Jo painted for me. Now she’ll be the first to admit that she’s no Van Gogh but there’s a story to this.

About a month or so ago she came to stay for a girly weekend. We had a laugh, solved the world’s problems (as you do) and went off on a zillion tangents. At one point we were talking about our dream homes. Mine’s a little white cottage that’s overlooking the sea, with flowers in window boxes and an old fashioned garden out the front. There would be a little wood nearby where I could go for cool picnics and be close to the trees and the animals that live there, and there would be mountains in the distance. Somehow Jo had managed to remember all of those details, got hold of a canvas and painted my vision!

Now this is a woman who has a young family to look after, a responsible job that keeps her busy, her grandmother’s been ill during the run up to Christmas meaning she’s had to travel from Manchester to Blackpool several times a week to make sure she’s ok, and she obviously had all the demands that running a home otherwise brings with it. And yet somehow, amidst this and the Christmas rush, she managed to find the time to paint this for me. Can you wonder that I had tears in my eyes?

Happy Twixmas, everyone.

Sharon J xx

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Wooly Things

I’ve finally finished making the things I was knitting and crocheting. A few bits had already been wrapped before I thought about taking photos but here are those that were left. I’m not saying who they’re for though - you just never know who’s reading here :)

Socks for keeping cold toes toasty

A crocheted brooch - the colours are slightly more muted than they appear in the photo though

A bundle of tiny hats for the preemie department at our local hospital.

I think it’s nice to give something to charity at Christmas and although I’ve nothing against donating to charity shops or putting money in collection boxes at other times, I do feel that ‘giving to charity’ should also mean actually putting yourself out a bit to do something, whether it’s a sponsored walk or other activity, helping out at a shelter or making something for those less fortunate than ourselves. The hats take no time to knit up and the yarn's all left over stuff from other projects so giving a bundle of them to the hospital isn’t much of a big deal really. And because the parents of the preemie babies get to keep the hat their baby wore whilst in hospital, they always need new supplies.

Now I just have to finished the cross-stitch projects.

Sharon J

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I’m Waaaaaay Behind

My daughter smiled one of those “what on earth are you doing?” kind of smiles when I unpacked my knitting and cross-stitch in Malta, but all I can say is “Good job I took them”.




Because I’ve been ill since my return, I haven’t been able to do any knitting or sewing this week and it’s already Thursday. That means I’ve lost almost a week of making my Crimble pressies and even though I managed to do a bit in Malta, I’m way, way behind. I’d planned on using time spent just sitting in the room or on the roof terrace to keep up to schedule but I hadn’t planned on being brought down by this awful cold when I got home. Normally I’d spend at least a couple of hours every day working on my projects but that just hasn’t happened and now I don’t even know whether some people are actually going to even get their presents in time. If I hadn’t taken them to Malta then some would definitely not be getting anything because there wouldn’t be a snowball’s chance of ever catching up.

I was originally planning to get the tree and other decorations up this weekend too but I can’t see that happening either. I have no energy, my eye is sore and gummed up, my nose and sinuses are blocked, and all in all I’m feeling just a wee bit sorry for myself. Unless something radical happens before the weekend (that’s just one day away, isn’t it?), that tree just isn’t going up.

Can Christmas be postponed by a few weeks this year, please?

Sharon J xx

Long Live Freecycle

Our local Freecycle members have been good to me recently.

A few months back my gas cooker decided to bite the dust. The oven wasn’t heating to the correct temperature (or anywhere even close), one of the rings would only work on very high and would go out as soon as I tried to turn it down, one ring wouldn’t light at all and a third ring seemed to adjust itself willy nilly. It was as if gremlins had taken up residence in it. I put out a wanted ad for a new (to me) cooker and, Robert's your mother's brother, a reply came in that same day. The new cooker’s still going great guns and will no doubt be passed on to yet another Freecycler when I eventually give the kitchen its planned make-over and it'll no longer be needed.

Next up came a ceramic hob - exactly what I want for my new kitchen and a saving of around £150. I responded, they said I could have it and LM went off to pick it up for me. That’s now in a storage cupboard awaiting the day when it’ll be put into use.

Last week I received a gorgeous rug for the lounge. Hand made out of 100% pure New Zealand wool, in exactly the right colours for my living room with a pattern that combines traditional with modern. I couldn't have been more happy had I chosen it myself. Even DD2 loved it when she saw it - she thought it made the living room look much more homely. She's right, of course.



Zara the dog - now rehomed - had relieved herself both back and front on the original rug so many times that no amount of cleaning was ever going to make any difference. It stank and was faded. Yuk! The lady who let me have it even delivered it for me, apologising for the frayed corner as her puppy had taken a nibble. The said corner is hardly noticeable and is hidden under the sofa anyway, so not a problem.

The same lady also gave me a beautiful red vase full of cream silk flowers.



Beautiful, isn’t it?

I’ve also received an extractor fan, a breadmaker, several books and an aloe vera plant.

But it’s not all been receiving, I’ve also offered a few things. My perfectly good but unused sun lounger found a new home; lots of kitchen bits and bobs and a framed mirror went to a lady who was starting over from scratch; a very comfortable clean mattress and topper went to a single mum who needed a new one for her son; a huge, unused make-up set went to a teenager who thought it was Christmas again; a dozen or so large terracotta pots went to a man who’d just got his first garden; and a box of books found a new home.

Anything that keeps stuff out of the landfill has to be good and Freecycle is, in my opinion, one of the best things to have come out of the Internet.

Sharon J xx

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Trees as Gifts

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Apparently, it was once popular in the United States to commemorate the birth of a child by planting a tree. It was a tradition derived from the Native Americans who believed that as the child grew the tree would also grow, representing maturity and responsibility. They also believed that as trees live for many years, a tree for a baby would ensure the child a long, healthy life.

That was many moons ago though and these days, as we all know, it’s popular in just about any Western culture to spend as much money as possible on something mass produced.

I’m not saying that baby blankets, little sleep suits, or even silver plated boxes in which to keep babies first tooth aren’t useful gifts but with the lack of trees in this country, planting a tree sounds like a very good idea to me, not only the celebrate babies birth but as birthday and Christmas gifts, too.

I once dedicated a tree in a newly planted forest to a friend’s grandchild for his first birthday. He had everything he needed and there was no point buying more toys or clothes. A tree, however, will help make the air that he breathes much cleaner and become home to a plethora of creatures that are otherwise struggling to find new habitats.

Having spent 18 years in a country where 37% of the surface area is forest, most of that in the lowlands, I miss the forests more than I can say. Here in England we have just 340,000 hectares of forest and 80% of those are less than 20 hectares in size. When you think that Hyde Park’s size is 234 hectares, you can understand just how small most of our forests are. Miniscule! And London comprises 160,000 hectares so we're talking total forest area that's just over twice the size of London.

During the post-war period and right up until the mid 70s it was popular for gardeners to fell large trees that grew in their gardens to make way for manicured lawns and perfectly planted flower beds. I can remember my granddad doing just that and being sad that the squirrels and birds would no longer have somewhere to live out there. Luckily, that trend has turned and more gardeners are planting trees, albeit smaller, more manageable trees, but there’s still no doubt that we need more trees!

DD2 having fun in a tree

If you’d like to give a tree as a gift the following sites can help:

• The Carbon Neutral Company - tree dedication in a choice of forests starts at just £10.
  
  
• Treegifts – a tree and baby rattle sent directly to the recipient’s home for planting. Best make sure they have room for it first!
  
  
• Getting Personal – trees are planted where they’re needed most, such as along hedgerows, in woodlands and nature reserves. £19.95.
  
  
• The Woodland Trust – help save ancient forests or create new areas of broadleaf woodland. £10.00.

I’d love my great-grandchildren to be able to grow up with woodland close by. A few hours spent walking in the woods is the best de-stresser I know about - how wonderful to be close to nature! In fact, from now on, every time I fly I'm going to buy at least one tree to help offset my footprint. I don't fly often and they're usually short haul flights to Norway which apparently produce 0.3 tonnes of carbon which can be offset by half a tree. I guess that means buying a tree is a good thing. If I were flying to Hong Kong I'd need just over two trees to be carbon neutral. I'm not really sure how this carbon neutral lark works though; I must look it up.

Sharon J xx

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. - Chinese proverb

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