Saturday 11 February 2017

Nearly a Year Later........,






The heavy-duty extra-insulated vacuum flask I gave to my elder son the Christmas before last is still working well high in the mountains of Kazakhstan. My younger son, his wife and my two grandchildren are leading a busy life in South West England, and I am still here, appreciating my wood-stove and many other things in Middle England.

I'm not sure what happened a year ago, the point at which a very new grandchild was confirmed to be on his way, but it seemed appropriate to stop blogging and wait to see what happened next. It felt as if things would change for all of us, as indeed they have done.

Grandson was obliging from the start. He was on his way just at the point when I had finished baking for a planned visit to his home the next morning. I was to be there for his birth and luckily I was able to load hot cakes, pies and casserole into the car and set off down the motorway in a warm and fragrant cloud.
"It would be really good if you can come now," said my son. "I don't think we can leave it until morning."
He was so right.

Granddaughter and I had a mostly happy time while we were waiting for her brother, but it took another night and morning before he came home. Not-so-Little E dressed herself with care that morning. She said, "I want to look beautiful, so that Little Brother will like me." She chose football shorts, a tutu as a petticoat, a dress to top it all, and a flowery headband. I thought he would love her from the start.
Things changed, of course .The camper-van has been exchanged for a five-seater family car with a great big luggage space. The music studio has become a nursery. There's a baby gym on the floor again, a pram in the hall, a mountain of washing to be dried, and two cats who realise that just when they thought it was all over.......well, it isn't yet.

Good things, very good things happen, and sometimes it feels as if I'm on a calm(ish) plateau, looking back over my 77 years, and forward into the lives of my sons and grandchildren. Then I find that someone, somehow has hacked into my gas and electrical supplies and tried to change my suppliers.. Oh, how perilous the serenity.

So it's been nearly a year of much significance, of small events, irritations and happiness, and to anyone who revisits here I say thank you, and I've missed you (but I've been reading all the time).

13 comments:

  1. Miss you, too. Glad to hear from you again!

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  2. Lovely to see you back and to hear that you are well and happy! Congratulations on your new little grandson. I'm sure he was enchanted with his big sister!

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  3. Welcome back!
    Doing things with grandkids is good..wish we lived a bit closer to mine sometimes..but they do come and see us.
    I hope we may see Pohangina Pete, he is due back in just over a week and we're here til the beginning of May.

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  4. Zhoen, Molly and gz, thank you for still being there, and being interested enough to read and comment again. Yes, Big Sister is an electrifying presence in Grandson's life. He sits and watches, round-eyed in amazement.....but he has learned to shout at the cats as they also scuttle past.

    gz: I hope you manage a meeting with P.Pete. Perhaps he'll show you some photographs!

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  5. Congratulations on your new grandson - lots of fun to come! I am sure E. will be a wonderful big sister.

    I must also say I'm very pleased to see you back. I have looked at your blog now and then, and could really swear that the last post I saw was the one about the forest school... and indeed I thought I had seen that when I checked your blog a few months ago, after you commented on mine. I even think I emailed you last November to say I was glad you were still reading my blog. I don't want to be boring about it anyway, though :). I would guess it is something to do with a cache. I am very glad to see that there are more posts and will now look forward to reading them, even if they are a year late.

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  6. Starting over......thank you so much for commenting again. Grandson is now five months old, not so very new now, and a very endearing little addition to the family.

    Jenny: thank you. More of a trollish-type problem than a cache, but once I had started to take a break from blogging it became challenging to get going again. I have been reading throughout this time and greatly enjoy your posts, as ever. Always so much food for thought as well as lovely photographs.

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  7. Glad to hear things are good with you and yours. And congratulations on your new-ish grandson! I've pretty much given up trying to blog as I just have no energy left for it, but continue to follow others who are still blogging when I can. (I reverted my typepad blog to free rather than paid status and while it remains up for now it has the one free template allowed, which is neither very appealing nor easily functional. Oh well.) Anyway, glad to hear you are well and enjoying your family!

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  8. Leslee: good to hear from you, and thank you so much for commenting. I'm sorry to hear about the lack of energy and hope the coming spring will revive you. I've found it hard to return after nearly a year's break. I lack the confidence to feel I have anything worth writing about, and that, too, is probably an energy problem.
    All good wishes.

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  9. Oh, that sweet and innocent comment from Big Sister. Made me wish I could go back to the 'old days' when mine were young.

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  10. Joy: many thanks for your comment. Yes, a rather tear-jerking moment, and her choice of 'most beautiful' clothing added to it!

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  11. I'm so pleased to see you back. I gave up checking almost daily some time ago, so for ten days missed discovering that you were here again.

    How considerate of your little grandson to wait until you had just finished the baking. I love N-S-L E's choice of clothing for welcoming Little Brother home. He's a lucky little fellow to have such a caring sister. It doesn't seem very long since she was a baby herself, does it?

    Best wishes to all the family, and I hope your life stays calm.

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  12. Peregrina: thank you. I was unsure about blogging again, so it's been a long break.
    I hope your little ones are well and thriving. I can hardly believe that E. will start school in September. Where has the time gone?

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