Thank you

bb

Words

I don't listen to music these days.
There is no room for the sound.

My head is full of words.

Words which press against my forehead
and spill over the edges.

It is as though a valve has been released
and I find it a strange experience.

I don't always feel in control of the flow.

Does anyone know what I am talking about?
Do you have any advice?

The Rail Clip

I am describing the rail clip to MasterM

MasterM
What! You took a lump of metal?
MrsM
It is a limited edition.
MasterM
I bet they just ordered too many for the construction

and wanted to get rid of them.
MrsM
They have a plaque on them.
MasterM
Did you get one for me?
MrsM
You only got one if you were there.
MasterM
That's a shame

because then we would have been

a three-rail-clip family.

Sadly, he is not as impressed as I had hoped.

No Cameras Allowed

What am I to do?

There is so much to tell
and pictures, as we all know,
are worth a thousand words.

The first thing to say is that I found my black leather gloves
just as I was leaving the house.
It meant that I did not have to use the hand warmers
that were given to you with the programme.

We arrive to be greeted by delightful young people
pressing champagne into our hands.

Then we are shown to our seats in the centre of St. Pancras.
I am sitting next to an elderly French man.
He is bored. He is wriggling in his seat.
Perhaps the orchestra and video display will distract him.
He starts texting.
The speeches are good - they are about
the historic opportunity of the Channel Tunnel
and the High Speed rail line,
the redevelopment of the Thames Gateway
and the Olympics.
The French man does not need to listen to all this
he starts calling his friends "Je suis dans St. Pancras"
I ask him to stop.
He has five more calls to make.
Now we have a choir of children singing
with Katherine Jenkins AND Lemar - all at the same time.
He taps his feet and rocks the row of seats.
I have had enough.
I kick him with the sharp pointy toes of my kitten heel shoes
in the shin.
Please don't hold it against me - it was either that or toss him in front of the train cavalcade that is coming into the station.
He stops wriggling.
Perhaps he is the Station manager at Gare du Nord
realising that his station is going to look
so very nineteeth century.

And here is the Queen in raspberry pink with velvet trim.
She is tiny in that vast space
as she sits under the gleaming new clock.
She says that she is privileged to open this wonderful new station.
We all agree because we have indeed
been witness to the beginning of a new era of travel.

In which I meet the Queen

Grosgrain buttons

it is an outdoor event

Crinkle scarf

to lift the black

Kitten heel shoes

so I don't get stuck in a pavement

My favourite necklace

any excuse

******

Is the Queen wondering what to wear to meet me?

Shopping with MissM

We are shopping for a watch.

It is not one of these

because these are in the second shop that we go to

and there are still eight more to visit.

And the problem is that we keep getting distracted.

There are bags.

MissM says that if she ever asks for a bag like this

I am to kill her immediately.

There are edible gifts for dogs

and we have to decide

whether to get an Advent Calendar or Christmas Tree decorations.

We decide on the tree decorations.

And then there are more bags.

And there are dresses in Coast

and cardigans in TopShop.

It is beyond hopeless and we need bb to keep us on track.

We really need bb.

So we retire to a *teashop for sustenance.

*I would link to the teashop but their website has been spammed

We have to decide whether to have a huffkin, puffkin or muffkin.

It is too difficult so we go for a hot chocolate.

And in the end we do find a watch

Or is it just a posed photograph

to show off some fingerless mittens?

Fireworks Fudge

Once a year I make fudge.

It is full of colours and flavours

and an avalanche of happy memories.

The recipe comes from a farmhouse kitchen of my childhood

with slate floor, cream aga and endless wooden table.

My children will not know Sue

who gave me the recipe

because she died, too young, of breast cancer.

But the memory of her dark hair and laughter is bright for me.

Swimming in quarries, rides in Landrovers,

scrambling on haystacks, searching for hens' nests,

walking through wooded valleys.

I can remember phoning her for the recipe

and I am so very glad that I did.

Happy memories are a powerful gift

from one generation to another.

I am confident that once a year

my children will make fudge

and the story of the bet on the winter beach will live on.

What makes a great party?

(1) Good food and wine

Now I know that I like smoked chicken

(2) The money raised for charity

Shooting Star Children's Hospice

Starfish Greathearts Foundation

(3) Music and dancing

Shall I tell the children that their father danced with Doris?

(4) The friends that you go with.

I think that it is (4).

Maybe (3) and (4)

Definitely (4)

I wish that I knew the name of the lovely lady

whose scarf I accidentally set on fire.

Sunset

Sometimes you turn around

and see familiar places

in a new light

and for that brief moment

it feels so good to be alive.

The Joy of Scarves

Inspired by the industry of MissM

and Jane Brocket

I have been knitting a scarf.

I can report that scarves are good things to knit

1. They look like the finished product so family is less sceptical
2. You can wear them while you knit if you are cold
3. There is no problem with sizing

4. There is no sewing at the end.
5. You can debate the advantages of fringes vs. bobbles
6. It keeps you awake during films so I could, if I wanted to, report on Memoirs of a Geisha
.

It is the first time I have ever knit? knitted? knat? made anything for myself

and I feel a sense of achievement.
Oh….and I even made up the pattern BY MYSELF.

And it stopped me from worrying about shopping for Christmas

wool - Debbie Bliss SoHo colour 37519
needles - size 8
pattern - knit 3 purl 3 rib