1 January, 2009

A belated Good morning dear friends {smile}

Just splashing through to start the string for the New Year as we have now moved into 2009. I hope that everyone had a good holiday time and that this upcoming New Year brings us all what we wish for {Smile}

Will be back later with a post… til then leaving a {{{warm group hug}}} to {{all}} who enter {smile}

Love always

Mermaid….xxx

HAPPY NEW YEAR....Pat and I had the best time on New Years Eve. The food was great the show was terrific and so much fun. We sat with the brides(actress) father and mother in real life so we were treated like royalty. They even had door prizes and Pat won a gallon of wine. It was the best way to ring in the new year with laughter, dancing and good food.

I took down the tree and all the decorationz today. I still have to pack them all away into the tiny guest room closet tomorrow which is always a chore. I keep aquiring new things each year so tomorrow I will weed out some of the articles I didn't use and donate them to charity. They will have the pleasure of storing them for the whole year not me. LOL

We are going out to dinner with friends this evening and on Sunday going to a concert of oldies music. The holiday atmosphere still is in the air here. I suppose on Monday it will all come crashing down when we start diet number 1087 and a new exercise program. I plan to stick to it this time and finally lose 35 pounds before I return home to NY in the spring. Wish me luck.

Kermit, please check in. You have been on my mind and I hope all is well with you.

Hello dear friends {Smile}

Popping in quickly to say that the last of our visitors have finally left today so that is it for Flemish House Hotel for the next month or so. Mother is safely home and am waiting for a phone call later from clive and Sarah to say that they have arrived home safely as well.

It has been somewhat of a challenging time though mainly from a physical aspect as I have been just too tired to be able to sit and write anything. Life should return to more normal things after tomorrow so then I can finally (at long last) start to write again! The weather forecast is for snow as well though I don;t think we will be getting too much of it and Michael will be here tomorrow to help with getting the Christmas decorations down outside.

Will see if I can sit and write up a proper post tomorrow so til then hoping that all are well and leaving a {{{warm New Year group hug}}} to all who may enter {smile}

much love always

mermaid...xxx

Good morning dear friends {smile}

My what a freezing cold morning it is as well! It is minus 7 degrees C outside at the moment with frozen snow and not expected to get any warmer until the weekend when the wind should change direction as it is coming down to us straight from the Artic at the moment.

Yesterday Michael and I got all the Christmas decorations down as it is 12th Night tonight so now they are all boxed up and in the loft again til next year. I wouldperhaps have got them done over the weekend yet clive and Sarah dind’t leave til Sunday so I was just too tired to do anything so it was a case of snuggling on the sofa in front of the fire for the afternoon and recharging some batteries. {smile}

Paul is off to Dublin later today for a meeting and will be back tomorrow so once I have got my tasks done and gone and got some animal food (later today though as I do not particularly like driving on icy roads and they should hve been gritted by then) then I am going to indulge myself in some catching up writing. We didn’t go shopping over the weekend so it now means that I have to as I need to get animal feed in so that Michael can unload it on Thursday and the weather forecast tomorrow is for more snow so best to get out there and get it done before Paul goes to the airport (in case there is a problem). The girls should be back tomorrow as well so more time for me! {smile}

It was so funny yesterday as was the pups first real encounter with snow! There was a blizzard at 6am yesterday morning so they didn’t know what to make of it as they had to go out for their early morning pees etc {chuckle} The four of them all came back in with loads of huge snowflakes on them which were quickly brushed off. Fortunately we also had a delivery of Calor Gas so the heating can be run in this cold weather. We nearly ran out of heating fuel over Christmas as they didn’t deliver when they were supposed to do and it was a tad worrying with Mother here as well as she had to be kept warm. The Universe was kind and we managed until the Monday when the delivery truck arrived at 7am when it was still dark! {smile}

I will do a write up on our Christmas and New Year later today as well and also go through the outstanding December posts that I need to respond to. It will be lovely to do that with hopefully no more interruptions to my time I must admit! {smile}

I do hope that all are well will look forward to being able to sit and write a nice long post later today… til then

Much love always

Mermaid…xxx

Hello again {Smile}

Going back to the Christmas catch up – looking back it seems to have just flown by… we were both so exhausted though from working too much methinks. We have both decided that we can’t do that again as on Sunday we just collapsed and I must admit that having got all the decorations down yesterday and boxed up and away I did say to Michael “what on earth am I doing having six trees!” {chuckle} Mind you I would still rather have them as each one looks beautiful. Next christmas the children will be with us on Christmas Day so it will be chaos etc with the dogs and the drinks party yet then it wil be done and dusted. Having houseguests for the whole of the holiday was also sometimes challenging as athough clive and Sarah do both muck in and help it meant that you had to cook meals and do things and generally be available all of the time apart when you were asleep. Having said that with Mother being there you had to do it anyways so extra people didn’t really make that much difference! {smile}.

I got a lovely Christmas present of another personalised number plate to go with the one I have on my Volvo. Instead of it being prefixed with an A though it will be the same number (14) and be prefixed with a B. This is in readiness for my birthday pressie which I went to see over the holiday period and I will probably get before my birthday. Paul has bought me a little MGF 2-seater sports car in British Racing Green. It is not new and really is costing the same as to redo the MGB (which has now gone as the engine seized up). The MGF will have power steering which will be an absolute boon after trying to steer theB which was a bit like a tank in some ways especially when parking with no power steering! {chuckle} here is a piccie of one like it though the back is different:



the back is like this one though the interior is black and it has a black soft top.



It was built on the 9th Jan 1999 so is not quite a classic yet I love it! I saw it last year and said to Paul that I would rather have that for my 60th instead of a big party so he took me at my word! I will get it before my birthday though rather than having to wait for it as the garage people need the space for other cars so that is a double bonus.{smile}

Paul also gave me some vouchers to buy things from the MG Owners club as he is a member so I have been on their website making up a shopping list {smile} actually thinking about it I do have a picture of it in front of the previous owner’s house so will get that scanned and then pop that in here (once I have downloaded all my Christmas piccies off the camera).

Paul has just called me as he is on the way home before he has to go to the airport… so will pop this post in for now and then be back later… til then

Love always

Mermaid…xxx

Oh what a grand birthday present you are getting Mermaid. I love the green color that yours will be. I finally got all the Christmas things put away yesterday too. I had them all down and boxed but on the bed in the guest room. I had to make room in the closet for them which was not easy. As I walk though the house now I miss the touches of red and green that were everywhere. I must say it is a lot easier to dust now that they are put away.

Pat has just left to play golf for the morning so I can strip the bed and really give our bedroom a good cleaning and dusting today. When he is home it seems like I can never get a job done from start to finish without interuption. So I better close and get cracking if I want to finish before he gets home.

Enjoy the snow while it lasts I bet it looks pretty.

I called Kermit today and got his recorded message and left a message. I am kind of worried as we haven't heard from him in awhile. I hope he stops by here or calls me back soon.

I am going to my painting club tomorrow. I am looking forward to getting back to painting again. Tomorrow we are painting a little owl picture. I will
put a picture of it in here when it is finished.


My son and Sarah arrived yesterday and left today. They will be camping for a few days and will return here before she goes back north on the 22nd.

Not much other news, the diet is just that, the same old diet that we are always on that works as long as we stick to it. Pat has lost 5 pounds and me 4 already. 5 days into it and wishing it was all over. I started walking a little today, that is what I really need to lose the weight exercise.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, I plan too.***

Just popping in before Neptune land to wish everyone a good weekend.

It has been a busy week getting caught up with everything from the Christmas holiday. Must admit it felt a bit like a Chinese laundry as I have been ironing all the bedlinen that was used – at least the girls were here on Wednesday morning so that got the main part of the house all cleaned properly. I just have a small ironing pile left now and will get that done by the end of the weekend.

The snow has just about gone now though it has been a big freeze up with temps -12C here overnight and -4 during the day. Needless to say it has been hard work with the animals and carting buskets of water down from the main house as the water supply to the stables and water troughs has frozen up. It is supposed to get a bit warmer over the weekend so hopefully that will help to melt the water pipes down there.

Paul is out shooting tomorrow for the day so will be good to just be able to have some time for me I must admit.

It was Basil’s funeral today, after such a long wait for that due to the holidays intervening. It does make it so difficult for families when that is the case as you can’t move through the grieving process. Til that has happened. There were a lot of people there to say their farewells to him which was lovely as he was such a special person bless him.

{{elfina}} thank you for calling {{kermit}} – I too have been getting a little worried about him so hopefully he is ok. It is late and I most probably shouldn’t write when I am so tired so will stop for now and be back tomorrow…. til then

love always

mermaid...xxx

Hello dear friends

I have just popped another post in the healing string which will explain why I have not been able to write up a post for here today which I had fully intended to do.

Will be back tomorrow... til then

love always

mermaid...xxx

Mermaid,
I have been trying to get in touch with Kermit all week. I leave messages in his phone but he doen't return my calls. I sent an e mail to the senior center near his home so they could check on him for me. I checked back in here and noticed that on the 17th of Dec. he left a message that he wasn't feeling well. I must have misread it then or I would have called hiim sooner. He was to see a Doctor the day after Christmas it says. I pray that he is okay. KERMIT, IF YOU READ THIS PLEASE REPLY, I AM WORRIED ABOUT YOU.

{{{elfina}}} I have just been checking back through and see also that {{kermit}} hasn;t posted since the 17th. I have a phone number of one of his neighbours somewhere (just in case anything untoward happened) so will see if I can find it and then will drop you an email with it. I thought he was just being quiet because of my exchange with rick over ~negative~ posts as I know he doesn't like anything like that. Thinking about it he usually gives me a call over the christmas holiday time and he didn;t so now I am getting worried as well.

OK I have just found two numbers.. will post this now and email you and be back later.. til then

love

mermaid...xxx