Gratutude Day 1 : Everyone has their own story

Please excuse the fuzziness of this image, taken on my phone in poor light.

Yesterday I travelled to Bristol to meet with these two inspirational ladies, both of whom have incredible stories to tell, which I won't say anything about here as they are not my stories to tell, but both had a profound impact on me and made me realize how extremely fortunate I am.

You would walk past these ladies in the street, there is nothing visibly remarkable about either to make them stand apart from the rest of us, which also makes me think that probably everyone else that we meet or even just see in the distance most likely also has their own story.

I've reached the grand old age of 70 without ever having been in a position of being half a planet away from loved ones, and I've never had to cope with a serious illness. For both of those things I am extremely grateful.

Our annual Festive Family get-together . . .

. . . was held this year on Sunday 10th December at http://thegeorgeinnstmarybourne.co.uk/ as this is a conveniently situated mid-way location for the Surrey kids and the Wiltshire kids. An enjoyable time was had by all - well, I certainly enjoyed it and I think everyone else did too.

FO managed to get into almost every picture and DO managed to keep out of most of them!!

Twelve days of Christmas, the alternative version (by me)

This is an old post from 2011, please take a look

https://joyknitt.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-twelfth-day-of-christmas.html

Bucket list countdown.

One of the items on my bucket list of things to do before my 70th birthday was to go to a Premier League football match to see my second favourite football team, Southampton. (Fulham Football Club is my first love, and will, hopefully, be back in the Premier League one day).

I achieved this last weekend, when GT and I went to St. Marys to see Saints v. Everton.

We got down there pretty early in order to get the car parked up fairly close to the stadium, so with time to kill we took a walk around before we went in. We came across a fair few interesting characters.

This last is an Everton supporter who apparently travels to all the away matches very scantily clad. What you can't see is a backpack stuffed full of money that he raises for charity. Added later - you can read all about him here http://www.prideofsportawards.co.uk/history/2017/mick-cullen

Naturally I was too busy watching the match to take any photos during play, but when the players came on to the pitch for a warm-up session I was delighted that the Everton players warmed up just in front of us. You can say what you like about Wayne Rooney, but you can't argue with his footballing record.

. . . and there is my very cold friend.

It was a cold day, but we enjoyed the game, and the result was good - Saints 4, Everton 1. I lost my voice from shouting and screaming so loudly after our 4th goal. Thanks to GT for coming with your mum to fulfil a dream.

November five on the fifth, the wedding shoe edition

. . .  a few days early because I'm going away again this weekend.

Sandie hosts this meme, you can visit her blog itchifingers here.

GO and EG are getting married next year, I'm so looking forward to their wedding - I bought my dress a while ago and have been looking for some shoes to go with it. I found these online and ordered them. They came the other day, I love them so much I simply had to share.

Week twenty eight

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Annual (almost) cousins meet-up at the house that our granddad had built and where our grandparents lived many years ago.

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Spent a very pleasant couple of hours and had lunch here with a friend.

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Hula-hooping for kids in Andover Market Square

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It doesn't look as huge and scary in this photo as it did in real life - the body is about an inch long!

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 A tranquil spot along the River Anton

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A bit late this year, my first full picking of runner beans from the garden.

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Tomato glut.

Bucket List, return to Budleigh Salterton

Only a very brief return, but it was more or less as I remembered it. We made a trip to Devon. GM's sister and brother-in-law live in Plymouth, and in the past when we've been down to see them we've made a daytrip of it, however, having recently moved further east by 35 miles, a daytrip to Devon was just that little bit too much to attempt, so we booked a couple of nights accomodation in Sidmouth, and visited Budleigh Salterton on the afternoon of the first day. Had a wander round the town,

and then down to the beach.  This was the first thing I noticed,

 - not sure I would want to be naked under an unstable cliff!

Then turned round to see the first thing that GM had noticed.

Someone had written our granddaughter's name in dark pebbles.

Walking along the beach was quite difficult, because of the large pebbles, but we did it anyway.

Just a flavour of our walk, and a second item crossed off my bucket list.