New Clothes

Sure enough, I let JoJo have a free hand (up to a point) and she has me decked out in layers, scarves, chunky necklaces, cami tops, dangly earrings and a belt. She showed me how to wear a belt slung low under my waist so it doesn't accentuate the thickness therein. Colour abounds in this collection although I did get her to agree to a pair of black trousers. After all, it's a wardrobe basic and these ones are linen so not my usual drawstring waist effort made of velour. As Alison asked in her comment, the large array of velour in my wardrobe has been culled. I still don't understand what's wrong with velour. It's cozy, that's all. Anyway, I'm bowing to the superior taste of my daughters and JoJo. The picture above shows a few of my new things.

Easter Sunday

I went down to the farm at about eleven in my good clothes and took Rosie for a walk so Rachel could do the lunch. We went to the railway station for a coffee(for me) and a biscotti(for Rosie). It was cold and windy on Port Meadow but we survived and brought home good appetites. Sunday lunch is Rachel’s tour de force and this was no exception. The leg of lamb was very tender and cooked to perfection along with roast potatoes, mucho vegetables and Yorkshire Pudding. I know it’s not traditional with lamb but we all love it so she makes it anyway. Then she had a typical British bread and butter pudding with cream and custard which was yummy. It being Easter, there was a profusion of chocolate to finish off with. We heaved ourselves up from the table and got ready for the Easter egg hunt. Charlie had hidden eggs for each child and wrote a clue for the hiding place for each egg. I helped Adam because he can’t read yet. After the eggs were found, we went inside and collapsed in the sitting room to watch TV and snooze. It was a wonderful Easter. I have a great family.

Another day with JoJo

As you can see, I really meant it that my wardrobe is almost empty. I was looking for something under the bed yesterday and I found a container with clothes, my clothes, that I had put away for the winter. I fell upon them like a woman reprieved. I’m not going to tell JoJo when I see her today. I’m going to keep them for special. She and I are going shopping this afternoon and I think it probably is a good thing. I wore my one outfit that she helped me with for Sunday (Easter) lunch at the farm and even Charlie(big) said it looked good.

Wardrobe Saga

JoJo, the wardrobe advisor, came to my house at 9:30 this morning to look at my clothes. She left at 11:30 with three black bin bags full of almost everything I own(ed). She was ruthless to the extent that I now have three pairs of trousers, one top and a few odds and ends. So, when I say "I have nothing to wear" I mean, "I have nothing to wear." She and I are going shopping on Tuesday to get me started on a new look. She favours clothes of the sort that I never wear but I'm going to have a go. I'm also having a facial and new hair colour. All of this after just having my passport renewed and my plan is to look nothing like the picture in the pp. Easter is almost upon us. We will be at the farm for lunch and Easter egg hunting.

Time flies

Time does fly when you are depressed and I have been for several weeks. Fortunately, I began to come out of it a couple of days ago and I am crossing my fingers that it lasts. I've gained weight atrociously over the past year but have just found a new diet which I shall try. It's called the "No Diet, Diet" and the beauty of it is that it makes no mention of food, calories, carbs. Nor does it talk about exercise. This is my kind of diet book. It's all about doing things differently which is supposed to lead to weight loss. I have my doubts but why not give it a try. It's a 28 day program and I am going to start tomorrow so I will post re my progress. Rachel just rang to suggest that we meet in town tomorrow so she can help me to buy some new clothes. My girls are always at me to get rid of my cheap wardrobe but it's depressing to buy clothes when you are fat. Still, we will have a nice lunch. I finished my writing course today. It was very good but I'm glad it's over. I was tired of the homework and it interfered with my blogging. So now I have no excuse for not keeping this up to date.

Leap Year

The last day of February. This is Rosie's 6 month birthday. She was born on 31 August which is awkward because several months do not have 31 days. It's raining today so my plans for working on the allotment had to be postponed (what a pity). I ended up having lunch at John's house which is very near the allotment. It was more fun than pulling weeds and humping bits of metal trash up and down the path. We are having an allotment work day tomorrow. This means that we all show up and do general tidying up around the entire site. Zoe and I are just about ready to lay black plastic which will kill the weeds and make the plot ready for our vegetable growing efforts. Come the summer, we will have marrows and turnips and other delightful crops. If you are very kind to me, we might share.

My computer is back and working well thanks to Peter, the greatest Geek in the world. I would love to stop and blog now but I have homework to do for Wed morning and tonight is the Book Club. We are reading "Oliver VII".

Computer malfunction

My computer has been giving trouble so yesterday I rang a Geek and he came to my house to have a look at it. It seems to be somewhat infected with virus and he also fears the really bad one that tracks passwords. He is coming back tomorrow to take it away for a major deep cleaning. This means no blog or e-mail until I get it back.
I'm off to London today for a talk by Shirley Williams (Labour politician) and a look at the Camden Town painters exhibition at the Tate.

My back garden

Today I spent a wonderful afternoon in my garden. This is the first time in many many months that I have enjoyed messing about back there. Whenever I tried to do things before, it would make me very sad and I would quickly scurry back indoors. I'm not sure why this is. It is not as though Malcolm ever had anything much to do with the garden or anything else for that matter. I think perhaps I still have strong memories of his 70th birthday party. Lots of friends were there. The weather was beautiful. There were two cakes and lots to drink. A grand day. It has been suggested to me that I should have a garden party this year. I don't know if I have the courage to do that. Anyway, back to the present and my double shedded garden. When I bought this house, it came complete with an outdoor room at the back of the garden. It is a good size and it is electrified. When Nancy lived here, it was her study. I used it as a shed and a place to store my personal possessions when I was back in California and the house was rented out. Since I have been living here permanently, it has become crammed with everything that I want but don't want in the house. I would like to use it as an art studio (how pretentious is that?) but I could hardly get in the door. Last week I had a bloke around to put up a second shed; this one much smaller but perfect for the non artistic items like lawnmowers, etc. I spent the afternoon filling it up. How very satisfying. I also inherited lots of bulbs which have started to appear. The trees are bare of leaves but there is colour on the ground from the crocuses, snow drops and early daffodils. In the pictures below, the green shed is shed #1 and the brown is shed #2.

A few pictures

These pictures represent 1. my lactating daughters plus Adam who is completely pissed off at not being the center of attention. 2. Harry and Rosie in Rosie's pram. Harry says, "Get me out of this frill ridden pink nightmare." Rosie says, "Who is this gross, redheaded boy person contaminating my beautiful pram." 3. Harry at his sweetest.