Awards and hormones

And many thanks indeed to The Thinker for this award which is much appreciated. It comes at a good time, too, as I am Hideously Hormonal. Can't concentrate, weepy, snapping Himself's head off, exhausted - know the feeling? And of course my dear youngest brother and his family are down for a few days - it's his birthday today. Couldn't be better timing, could it?

My mood is not helped by our dear friend James who had to move into a residential home yesterday, a month early and in glorious weather which he was hoping to enjoy at home, with the family. The choice was not his but his daughter's and it makes me MAD. (This is a very long story.) How dare she treat him like that?

But enough of that. Pause while I take a deep breath, think Soothing Thoughts and Calm Down.

I have to nominate five other people who are:-
Akelamalu
Cornish Dreamer
Miss Understood
Mother at Large
Sally Lomax

And now I'm off to pick my mother up from the station for a family picnic. Family barbecue this evening. So you just know it will rain... But even so, it will be lovely to see them all.

Polly Joke

This is Polly Joke, a magical place made all the more special by the fact that Himself spent time living here as a teenager. Of course the weather wasn't anything like this yesterday, but it was good enough to have a long walk with one of my brothers and his family yesterday.

The children are quite gorgeous - well, the girls are almost grown up now, at 14 and 16, and it was wonderful to catch up. I am now bereft and broody and wishing they didn't live so far away. Sniff. Gulp.

Oh yes, if you go here, start at the Bowgie pub at Crantock. It's a rip off but there are plenty of places to sit outside with children and dogs. Good for people watching, too, of the Upper Crust variety.
SIL, we must go here next year!

Awards and Families

Another Rocking Blogger award, from Mother at Large. My! Many thanks indeed, and you have cheered my weekend no end. I received notice of this award yesterday afternoon when I was almost stuck to my chair having been in a meeting all morning then been editing current novel for another two hours. I had to have a much deserved break to unstick myself, stretch my too long back and go and walk that scruffy canine of ours.

Any work I was trying to do yesterday was, of course, punctuated by various cries of, ‘POP!’ from next door.
Then, ‘Pop. Help!’
A few minutes later, in quavery voice. ‘Pop? Are you busy?’

Yes, he’s still working on his blog. And no, there are still no words to read. But I’ve put a link in so you can at least look at his Personal Profile which, though I say it myself, is quite impressive. A man of many abilities, as well as talents. He’s now drawing a cartoon of an ostrich which he is adopting as his - mascot? Emblem? Very suitable considering what it does with its head.

We are off to meet up with one of my errant brothers in a minute. Errant because they live in Surrey and don’t come down this way often. In fact, I haven’t seen my nephews and nieces for nearly 2 ½ years, as the last two times they’ve been down they’ve been too busy. They're staying in North Cornwall so we're meeting in Crantock where there's a pub with plenty of room to sit outside with the dogs (hah - if it ever stops raining) and a beautiful beach called Polly Joke that we will walk the dogs on later. They have a Staffy called Whizz and a pug called Pug, I think, but not having met him I'm not sure.

We will be confronted with teenage strangers and shan’t know what they look like, let alone what to talk to them about. I am compiling a list of what my mother assures me are joint interests – Musicals, Sailing, Books for the girls. Blogs? Doubt it. Sailing for the nephew. God knows what else. But it will be lovely to see them again, and the dogs will have a good time. It'll be a day of discovery.

And while I’m contemplating Family Matters, yesterday we received a book token in the post from my mother. Remember that nursing we did when she came out of hospital? Inside the token she wrote, ‘with many thanks for such wonderful care’.

Isn’t it nice to be appreciated?

Consideration

Regular readers may remember that a couple of weeks ago we went up to look after my mother who’s recovering from a hernia operation. All went well, or so we thought, and she was very appreciative of our nursing, shopping and cooking efforts. We returned home worn out but with the feeling of a job well done. Mum and I hadn’t wound each other up like the last time we’d been up there to nurse her.

A few days later, one of my brothers rang. He’d just been on the phone to Mum who had said how touched she was by our efforts. My brother laughed. ‘She said that you were much more considerate than last time,’ he said.

You can probably guess how I felt at that remark. Fuming is putting it mildly. Deeply hurt that our efforts were so swiftly dismissed. I was so angry that I couldn’t talk to her for days. Luckily when she rang I was out, as I knew I’d explode if I did talk to her. What a thing to say! If I’d known she was feeling like that, I wouldn’t have gone. Thankless – pah! On they went, round and round my head, these contorted thoughts, bruised feelings and tattered emotions.

It didn’t occur to me till later that it would have been better if my brother had kept his mouth shut. After all, there are certain things that are better left unsaid. This being one of them. But he’d listened to my rantings last time we’d been up there and I was so wound up afterwards. Was he merely passing on information? I’m sure he didn’t intend to hurt me.

As the days passed, my feelings simmered, then quietened to glowing embers.

‘Did you say anything?’ asked a friend.
‘No,’ I said. ‘It was a chance comment, perhaps unfortunate, but I didn’t think anything was to be gained from muck raking. Mum would be upset and kick herself, my brother would be upset and kick himself, and really, what’s the point?’

As Himself said, ‘It’s Family, Pop. Leave it.’

Families, eh? Who’d have them?