Nostalgia

I'm going away on holiday soon. We're going to Brazil and looking forward to exploring - but after we've had a rest!

For some reason I've been thinking of my holidays when I was a child. They were all spent with my maternal grandparents in a small fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland. They owned the village's general store, Post Office, bakery, haberdashers, etc - the shop sold everything! I can still remember the smell of newly-dug potatoes, in sacks leaning against the food counter, and the fabulous scent of newly baked bread. There were huge slabs of butter and cheese, which were cut with a long piece of wire, and biscuits were loose in tins and sugar measured into thick, dark blue bags. I can remember the 'bop, bop, bop' sound of Granda stamping the mail before it was collected by the Royal Mail van.

The house was huge and part of the same building, and the ground floor was rented out to a family. There were three bathrooms, all in a row, and three huge attic rooms which we children used as playrooms when the weather was bad - there were boxes of clothes, games and a huge brass bedstead in each room. From the windows you could see the beach and the sea at the bottom of the square and, twice a day, a herd of cows processed through the square on their way to milking. The garden at the back was massive and filled with every kind of vegetable, including curly kale, which fascinated me. There was a huge strawberry plot and a greenhouse with fragrant tomatoes and a vine twining along the roof.

Magical stuff! Although I loved being there all summer, I certainly didn't realise then just what an idyllic sort of time and place it was.

Quote

If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Mother Teresa.

Family Update

I know that I haven't posted anything for ages, but I have been terribly busy and have also been unwell. I had one of those horrible headache, dizzy, nausea 'bugs'.

One of the reasons that I'm so busy is because Joe and I soon go on holiday to Salvador, Brazil. We are very much looking forward to the rest and relaxation, but will also explore the history of the area, and I wonder if there will be turtles on the beach! But there is much to do beforehand. Next weekend I go to Perth for my Christian Workers' Certificate Spring Study Day - these are good days but I'm a bit nervous about giving a ten minute presentation.

Our youngest grandson, Iain Joseph, had his first trip to A&E last weekend! He suddenly decided to do a somersault off the sofa, hurting his head, so his mum and dad decided to take no chances and drove to the hospital. Thankfully he is none the worse for his acrobatics!

Tasha, our lovely old cat, is not very well at all. She now has a bad heart and spends a lot of time sleeping. Tablets seem to help however, and she seems happy enough and is eating, which is always a good sign.

Reasons To Be Cheerful!

We had such a wonderful Easter weekend at Kilcreggan. I must admit that when I arrived I was feeling pretty frayed at the edges !!!! But, as always, God is good and within 24 hours of having arrived I was feeling rested. By the time we left I felt refreshed physically and spiritually. The house is lovely, the scenery gorgeous - Joe and I took a walk down to the waterfront on the Saturday afternoon (down an amazingly steep hill) - and even the weather was fantastic! The company was brilliant, the food good (and plentiful!) and my bed was right in a bay window overlooking the water - the sunrise on Sunday morning was very beautiful.

We shared times of fun, including a quiz-night and rolling eggs (and people) down a hill on Easter Sunday morning. We experienced a real sense of God's presence during worship and prayer and we soaked in His peace and were 'quietened by his love'. So much more than I can describe here!

As I said, we left on Monday after lunch and even the flurries of snow and the heavy traffic couldn't dampen our spirits! And as we approached home and the 'coming back down to earth with a bump', I looked around and was reminded yet again of what a beautiful part of the world I live in.

HAPPY EASTER!

I'll not be blogging for a few days as Joe and I are going to Kilcreggan House, along with lots of others from our Church, for the Easter weekend. I'm sure it is going to be very special.
I wish you a happy time over the Easter holiday!

Sunday Morning

I couldn’t sleep last night,
Or the two nights before,
Nothing is right,
I can’t take any more.

Friday was awful,
The worst day ever,
Dark and dreadful,
And filled with terror.

I saw no-one yesterday,
I sat and thought and cried,
I feel lost without my friend,
And wish it was me who died.

I wish it was Thursday again,
And we were eating supper in the room,
Instead I hide in this damp morning mist,
Watching women walk towards the tomb.


Sheena Conroy

Washday

Thought I'd share this wee photo - cheered me on this dreich day!

Computers!!!!!

I know I haven't blogged for ages, but there is good reason! Quite apart from being terribly busy, my computer has been totally unreliable.

It starts off fine, then I go away to have a meal or answer the 'phone or whatever and when I return, the screen is blank and nothing will bring it back. Only option is to switch the whole thing off. However, this leads to a process that can take anything up to 2 hours!

When I switch the computer on again it may, or may not, still have a blank screen - only alternative is to switch it off again. This switching on and off can need to be carried out any number of times. When eventually somethings shows on the screen, it is only the wallpaper, with no icons. Again totally useless, so I have to switch the computer off again. This sometimes leads back to the blank screen scenario............

After many attempts, success! A screen displaying icons! However, no connection to the Internet! Or, by way of a change, the keyboard is not working - so, everything is in place but it is not possible to key-in anything. A variation on this is the mouse not working.

Now, when everything is working, I'm reluctant to leave the computer at all because it may revert to the dreaded blank screen - and the whole process begins again! So, if I don't blog again in the near-future, you know why!

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