Happy Mothering Sunday......

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A quick hello today to wish all mothers a Happy Mothering Sunday. I hope you enjoyed your day and were pampered as you should be but then again it should be Mother’s Day every day......
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In a way I had two Mothering Sundays because last week I received my card and present from my son. Bless him, he dropped in from work and said ‘Happy Mother’s Day for tomorrow’ and promptly gave me a card and present accompanied with a kiss. He thought it was that day or should I say Andy did for he phoned Christopher to remind him...lol...

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Bridget Doyle nee Paisley

My paternal grandmother

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A Mother's Love Is A Blessing

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An Irish boy was leaving

Leaving his native home

Crossing the broad Atlantic

Once more he wished to roam

And as he was leaving his mother

Who was standing on the quay

She threw her arms around his waist

And this to him did say

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A mother's love's a blessing

No matter where you roam

Keep her while she's living

You'll miss her when she's gone

Love her as in childhood

Though feeble, old and grey

For you'll never miss a mother's love

Till she's buried beneath the clay.

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From the song of the same name

by Thomas P Keenan
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This is an appropriate poem for my father because my grandmother did indeed stand on the quayside to see her son leave his native land for England. Sadly I never knew my paternal grandmother but felt I ‘knew’ her from the many times my father spoke of her......Take care until next time...lol...

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When you Educate a Man you Educate an Individual
When you Educate a Woman you Educate a whole Family
When you Educate a Woman
You Create a Nation.....

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Happy St. Patricks Day To You All......

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St. Patrick's Day

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Leprechauns peeking,

Around a willow tree,

Pussy willows waking,

Longing to be free.

Colleens and shamrocks

And castles old and gray,

Put them all together

To make St. Patrick's Day.

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Greetings from the Hovel on St. Patrick's Day. I know. I don't post for over a week and then I do twice in as many days. But being of Irish stock and proud of it it was only fitting that I say hello today.......

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I thought I would show you another picture from my Film Review book. A well-known Irish Colleen, actress Maureen O'Hara. I always enjoy watching her films, especially the original 'The Parent Trap'......



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Maureen O'Hara. Born Maureen FitzSimons on August 17, 1920
in Churchtown, County Dublin, Ireland.
With Paul Henreid in 'Spanish Main'


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As a child and young adult I always wore shamrock. It doesn't appear to be available now, which is good thing as like so many wild flowers it may well become scarce. It does seem strange though not to wear any .........

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My younger sister is called Colleen. She was delivered by an Irish doctor and she was born with a head of very dark hair. On seeing her the doctor exclaimed 'A true Irish Colleen' and so she was duly named.......

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Happy a great day and I hope you celebrate in style....Until Next time...lol....

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The Dawning of the Year

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All ye who love the springtime

and who but loves it well,

When the little birds do sing,

andthe buds begin to swell

Think not ye ken its beauty,

or knowits face so dear,

Till ye look upon old Ireland

in thedawning o' the year!

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~ Mary Elizabeth Blake ~

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Nurse, Laundry Maid, Bottle Washer & Woodcutter....That's Me.....

Hello from the Hovel...Well another Friday the 13th and weekend has passed without mishap. But then again with what’s been going on here this year I wouldn’t know...hehe......

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Since I last posted the chaos has not lessened much in my life!!!. Andy was discharged the day after his op and should not have been. On Thursday morning he expressed that he was not at all well (obviously) and was in great pain. When he showed the nurse his very swollen and inflamed keyhole site she was concerned and said he would not be discharged that morning as planned and promptly gave him some morphine. However, with modern medicine being what it is he magically ‘improved’ enough to be sent home in the afternoon. Marvellous what a dose of morphine can do. Do I sound sarcastic, oops!!... I found out he was being discharged when I telephoned at lunchtime and the nurse thought I was picking him up. When I informed her I didn’t drive she wondered how he was getting home? I knew and this telephone call was immediately followed by one from Andy who informed me that he was already at the main entrance waiting for a taxi from his workplace. I cannot believe how our once excellent nursing care has been reduced to this but then again I saw it coming back in 1991 when I last worked for the NHS. Now I could get on my soapbox here but I won’t......just to say I am not impressed. Fortunately Andy had me to look after him (or not, you will have to ask Andy that...hehe...)........

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Not only was Andy coming home that day but my washing machine decided to break down. Yes, with a drum full of water! After washing for England for Jane & Christopher my washing remained in the washing basket. Fortunately I was able to get an engineer out on Friday, thank goodness for Homecare with British Gas (is it still called that?)....But as you can imagine when the engineer came the door had to be opened....ha well the utility room floor wanted washing!.... And do you know what the problem was, a lollypop stick was stuck somewhere. Now where did that come from....CHRISTOPHER......lol.....

So on Thursday I put my nurse’s head on and did what any good wife and nurse would do. I got him into bed, checked him, fed him and made sure he had everything he needed. The nurse’s bedside manner lasted until Saturday. After running upstairs with trays of food, etc and doing everything else as well. Plus chopping wood for the fire due to the radiator being removed from the lounge while awaiting a new one....so come Saturday the ‘Morning darling, how are you and what do you want for breakfast’ was replaced by ‘You’re not dead then, what to want to eat’... Andy asked where the nurse was, I replied ‘The Wife’s Back’...hehe....But saying that I have looked after him really well and you know what my reward was for all that exercise.... a 1lb gain when I weighed in at Slimming World this Thursday, which is not bad considering I haven’t been for 2 weeks. But to make matters worse Andy has lost 11lbs since he last weighed at the docs...not fair.......

But the good news is that the building work is starting to pull together. I was finally able to unpack my books and for most of the week, when I could, put them out. I had boxed the majority of my books ages ago and it was like meeting old friends again. Yes it did take longer than it should because I kept stopping to look through them. I do have a passion for books, have done since a child, and will confess that I have way too many. But which ones to let go?........

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Among my treasured books I came across many children’s books that I have collected over the years. Some I’m proud to say were my very own. The years swept away as I held each book and for a moment in time was that young child again reading these very stories. I can still hear my mother saying ‘Will you get your head out that book’...sound familiar?......Below are examples of two of the books that influenced my childhood.....

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As you can see by the ragged edges this book was read a lot.

It was given to me by my parents for Christmas in 1961......

The First Page

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Another book connected to this subject was my ever faithful ‘Children’s Sunday Missal’ which I carried with me to church each Sunday .......Yes I was a good Catholic girl...once......

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‘Children’s Sunday Missal’

So that everyone knew it belonged to me

I promptly wrote my name and address inside.....

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Not many things from my childhood survived however due to my mother’s regular ‘clean sweep’. I remember well the day my doll’s pram found a new home, without my knowing. I jokingly say to my mother that the trauma of that day effected me for the rest of my life...hehe....It was a beautiful navy and white Silver Cross pram with a tray, bag and sun canopy. It’s not obvious that I miss that pram, is it?...lol.......

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One of the books I did re-discovered was a 1946 book of ‘Film Review’ by F. Maurice Speed. No I was not given this in 1946, I’m not that ‘vintage’ yet....It has some great photos of the film stars of the day. Angela of miss vintage love will like these. You must pop over and visit her blog if you like vintage.....

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Jane Wyman in 'Night and Day'
Don't you just love those gloves...

Ginger Rogers in 'Heartbeat'

Ava Gardner

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There are more but I will post about them later. If I ever get organized I may even start a ‘Vintage Day’ each week. Stranger things have happened....lol....

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Well a busy week ahead is planned for me. You know how we have a cupboard under the stairs that is great for ‘storage’. Don’t tell me I’m the only one who has one filled to the brim? Well, to add to everything else going on in this house the gas supplier has decided that on the 23rd they would like to visit and upgrade my gas meter. Why now? I’ve been living here for ten years and now they have to do it....The only problem is where do I put everything that’s in there, I’ve run out of space. The good news however is that that I will finally be able to go and visit my grandson this week. Due to my having a cold and chesty cough I have not been able to visit him, naturally. He’s doing well and I can’t wait to see him and his sister. Hopefully I will have more photos to show you......until next time...lol........

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God may have created man before woman,

but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece

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Busy, Busy Time Here at the Hovel.....Help!..........

Hello Guys, I've finally got some time to post on my blog. Thought I better do it now because if the rest of the week continues to be as manic then I won’t be able to....I’m not saying it’s been hectic here but I’ve met myself coming backwards that many times I’m confused as to who the real Chrissy is...lol...

Yes, poor hubby had his gall bladder removed today. Being the good wife that I am I was there to wave him off at 7 o’clock this morning. His friend was taking him to the hospital in Penzance and he didn’t want me to go with him....said it wasn’t fair me hanging around at such an early hour. He’s a sweetie and I appreciated the gesture. Only problem was I had been up all night. So you can imagine what a scary sight I made stood on my doorstep wearing a 'killer nightie' and bags under my eyes big enough to go shopping with.....You may ask why I had not been to bed. Yes I was worried but not because of Andy’s op (I knew he’d be alright and anyway he’d made a will...hehe...). No, one of my puss cats was poorly. Poor Millie was being sick and looked very frail and not at all well.......

Manic Millie Snotbag....

This isn’t the best photo of Millie but she wasn’t that well either when this was taken. Poor mite has chronic rhinitis, hence the name Manic Millie Snotbag. Have you seen the film Turner & Hooch? Well I have the feline version....We are not sure how old Millie is because we rescued her from being a stray on the streets of Nottingham six weeks before we moved to Cornwall ten years ago. She is at least 12 to 13 years old and a feisty little madam for she is not a cat (or so she likes to think!) and dislikes any non-human life of the fur and feathered variety. She may be small but she can hold her own and has a demonic hiss. Yet when she goes to the vets she’s a sweetie and actually likes being there because the vet has ‘rescued’ her from the nasty cat carrier!!!!! So needless to say that’s where we were at 9.45 this morning. By this time I had been awake since midday Tuesday (so I had a late night Monday, trust me I wasn’t partying). Fortunately I was used to working nights and my body must have kicked in to stay awake. And it was icy cold so only an animal lover could stay the distance!...Millie had the usually jabs, etc, and you do not want to know how much the bill was! She seems perky now unlike her owner.........

One Musical Cat...

I finally got to bed at 11.30am and slept like the dead until the alarm went off at 5 and promptly made haste to get ready to go off to see Andy. Poor man, he looked fed up and was dying for a cup of tea, pardon the pun as he was very much alive thankfully...hehe... He’d had keyhole surgery in five places, looked like he’d had a shave and cut himself..hehe...I was not impressed with the ward however. Usually the health care in Cornwall is excellent, it certainly was when I had my op but the ward looked like a waiting room, very impersonal and ‘cold’. His op had been at 10.30am and I was there 7 till 8pm. All he’d had was sips of water and he had actually overheard the nurses say that they had wanted to give him some jelly but it had been sent back to the kitchen!!!!Not good really so goodness knows if the poor man got anything to eat or drink. And they want to send him home tomorrow. Can’t believe that, I was in for 5 days.....So I tended to his needs, a quick wash and tidied the bed plus I now know that he can pee in a bottle (or cardboard as they are today)... It’s a long time since I had to help a man with that...hehe....Mind you he did look well and rested...Got home about 9 and before entering the 'building site' I visited my Sanity Retreat armed with a Victoria sponge and had a piece with a much needed coffee. Charlotte’s parents live directly opposite me and that is where I escape to when I want some civil conversation and surroundings...lol...Since then I’ve fed the furry family, continued washing for England and generally cleaning up. Oh yes, I also finally managed to get something else to eat as well. The washing is mostly my son’s, etc. Just say that their washing machine has not been used much the last few weeks!!!! Been busy there, naturally, as poor Jane not only gave birth last Thursday she has also got sciatica so I’ve been helping in that quarter as mums should do. Hope to see Dylan again tomorrow as I have not been able to for a few days due to my having a cold, typical. He is doing really well and I hope to post some more pics soon.....Well I’ve rambled on long enough so I will leave you in peace. Trouble is I’m wide awake now but know I need to get some sleep coz I don’t know what tomorrow is going to be like....will I visit Andy again in hospital or will he be home? Seems weird without him, even if it’s only for one night. At least I have my furry family......Until next time....LOL........

ANDY
xxx