Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 27

This week I am starting with the best news, we have found a house in Oswestry and our offer has been accepted. Of course there is a long way to go but we have engaged a solicitor for the conveyancing and booked a survey for later this month. So this week has involved a lot of time spent on the telephone, plus quite a bit of time sitting indoors or under the gazeebo feeling just too hot to do anything more energetic. I am sure most of you have shared at least part of the heat-wave. Here in London it has been stifling. But I am glad I am not still in Spain where they have temperatures soaring into the 40's.

But back to the house. Our choice may surprise some of you as it is a mid-terrace Victorian house with three floors plus a cellar!. However the stairs are fairly gentle with a good strong hand rail, and it won't do us any harm to go up and down them a few times each day. The sitting room and main bedroom are lovely and both have views over the back of the beautiful town park. The third room will probably be my craft room and I can see me shutting myself away up there some days. We are going to change the bath for a walk-in shower, and have a new kitchen installed, so plenty to keep us busy. And I will have  a garden. At present it is rockery styled with paving slabs and gravel beds, and the plants are very overgrown, so it need a bit of TLC, but that is something we can take our time over. It is all very exciting, but we will just have to patient while the legal wheels tick over at their own pace.

I shall enjoy watching the colours change with the seasons in all those trees.

Here is a picture I took on our travels last weekend. This is Ozzy the bull and he lives in Birmingham New Street station. Every half hour or so he starts to swish his tail, his head turns from side to side and his eyes light up purple and slowly blink. Almost menacing but I thought he was rather magnificent.

As I haven't got much news or pictures I thought I would give you a quick catch-up on my crafts. I have three projects on the go but the cross-stitch hedgehog is making slow progress as I don't work on it when it is so hot because I don't want to dirty it with sticky hands.

While I was still in Spain, I asked my son to buy a kit for a wall hanging before they ran out of stock. I was happy when I opened the box and saw all these lovely coloured yarns. I quickly labelled them for easy identification. 

The first bit of the project was to make 60 of these little triangles. Each one uses two different colours and there is a chart to tell you which two to use. When made you have to fix a small numbered tag to it to help place it on the final layout. 

I have completed all 60 of the triangles so the next part is to make 24 of these squares.

And my third project is to make a thick winter jacket. This one is done with a mixed yarn that changes colours randomly as you work. I needed to make 66m of these tiny squares which were quite quick to do. You can see the variety of colours that these have worked up as. They are actually darker green than they appear here.

Next I need thirty bigger squares and I have done the first two.

I am not good at sitting waiting patiently, so these are keeping me busy.

And now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and publish this in the morning. I apologise if I missed anyone last week or was very late visiting. It was another very busy weekend!

 

Friday Smiles 2025 #Week 26

Hi all. A very quick one today. We had a very busy weekend. On Saturday our second son, Mike, and his two oldest children, my first grandchildren, came down on the train to visit us. It was a day of happy chatter, food and sunshine.

The next day we were up early on a train to Bognor Regis on the South coast. We had a reunion with some of Chris' family. His brother was over from America with his wife and one of our neices arranged a get together. Again the sun shone for us and it was lovely for Chris to meet up with his brother. We last saw him when we went to Arizona to visit them some twenty plus years ago.

It was also good to catch up with these three, our nieces and nephew who are the children of Chris' sister. My boys grew up with them but again it is many years since we saw them last.

On Wednesday I went to Borough Market with my son Jim. We both love it there. Lots of interesting food stalls and take away meals to choose from. We both had to be careful. It is easy to get carried away there! I took a photo of a girl preparing jack fruit. We saw these when we were in Thailand, but they seem to be gaining popularity here now as meat alternative in vegetarian food.

And that is all I have time for today. We came to Oswestry yesterday and are staying with Mike until Saturday, and we have five house viewings to get to.

So I will leave it there for now and quickly get over to link with Annie's Friday Smiles. I will get to everyone to visit but I am not sure when. 

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week25

Well I didn't expect to sit in the garden in UK and say it's too hot! But these last few days have been enough to really sap our energy and even driven us indoors to find somewhere cooler.

Last Sunday I went to the morning service at my son's church, and we were given the opportunity to take a white rose from a basket and place it in a vase on the alter as a tribute to our fathers who are no longer with us for whatever reason.

After the service the family all, (except one who had to work), went up through Crystal palace park to have a Father's Day lunch together. There is a long row of market stalls selling all sorts of street food, so we mostly all chose something different, but my grandson Marcus and I both stopped at the Afghan food stall, though we chose different items from the menu. We had a nice chat while we waited our turn, and tried a few photos too.

See how lovely and green it is in the park, and there is a wide variety of trees. My son told me he has sometimes seen these trees just covered with a whole flock of green parakeets.

The food was excellent by the way and well worth the wait.

On Monday I had another appointment with the dermatologist department at Guy's hospital. As we came out of London Bridge station I took this photo of a statue that caught my eye.

I also took one of the ever changing city skyline, this time showing the Scalpel and the Walkie-talkie. There is so much building work going on around there, and every block seems to go higher than the last one. When you see some of the weird and wonderful shapes it makes you wonder what the architect was thinking about when they designed them. But it does all make for an interesting skyline.

On Tuesday we went to Bromley for Chris to visit anyone eye specialist. Bromley is a very busy, bustling town with lots of shops, a big pedestrianised plaza and several street sellers where I bought some great value fruit and salad items. I loved the big flower displays all along the street. This one is right outside the train station.

Chris has been doing a bit more work in the garden to help Jo out, first thing in the morning and later when it has cooled down a bit. I am happy to sit in the gazebo with my sewing, crochet or a book. I have made good progress with all my projects but I will wait to show those when I have a week with no photos.

There are two cats living here. They are both laid out by the sun and often spend the afternoons layed out by me in the shade, but by evening they are ready to chase little field mice round the garden, and watch the birds in the trees all around. A couple of times I have seen a fox in the undergrowth. They like to walk on an old trampoline at the back of the garden, and at night they sometimes come out to play in the gazebo, throwing the cushions around, and even curling up for a nap there.  The foxes and cats seem to have a mutual respect for each other.

This is Ghostie. She is nosey and more active.

And this is Severina. She is genetically smaller and has huge, round golden eyes. She keeps to herself more but is always around when it is tea time.

Jo likes her garden ornaments and bought three more little cuties this week. These hang in a row along the edge of the gazebo, and each has a tiny solar panel inside it so they all light up in the evenings. It is very pretty out here after dark.

And that is another week gone. We have a very busy weekend ahead but next week we will be starting a proper hunt for a house. Lots to look forward to. But for now it's I'll link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and see you all over there.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 24

This week got off to a good start with the visit on Friday from our good friends David and Darren. It is a year since we last saw them, when we were saying goodbye as they left Spain to return to UK. Now we are just a few streets away from them and it was as though we saw them all the time. We chatted all morning and the time just flew by. As they left they gave us an invitation to their wedding in the autumn, which we will do our best to attend.

On Saturday we had another visit to the theatre. This time we went to the Old Vic to see The Brightening Air. It was a sometimes funny and sometimes confused or sad, look at a dysfunctional Irish family in the 1980's, and what happened when some estranged family members came to visit them. We all enjoyed it and we had a great view from the front row of the upper circle. This set of photos was taken by my grandson who also came with us.

I had to add a picture of a rather splendid chandelier that hung from the centre of the ceiling.

On Tuesday Chris and I decided to go to Bromley, about half an hour away from here, as there is a good selection of shops there, only we got on the wrong bus, or didn't get off to change when we should have done, so we ended up in East Croydon. It was crowded out with very high rise bocks of offices and probably some flats, so we got on an express 'super loop' bus which took us to Bromley. We found the shop I wanted and both bought some new shoes. Then we grabbed a cup of tea and a pastry from a nice bakery, and caught a train back part way. And one more bus took us back home. We are so lucky to qualify for a freedom pass because we did all that travelling around for free.

The weather has been a bit hit and miss but it is warm today and I had a closer look at the rose bush in the garden. Ever since we arrived, each branch has been covered in tiny buds. Now they are opening and it's so pretty.

Hiding behind the gazebo is a fairly wild patch with white ox-eyed daisies and some lovely blue campanulas, or as I know them, wild Canterbury bells.

And speaking of the gazebo, here is a photo I snapped of my husband Chris and our daughter-in-law, both sitting out in it. Guess who seeks the sun and who craves. the shade!

The rest of the week has been taken up with yet more medical appointments. We certainly can't complain about the National health service so far.

And with that I had better wind up for this week and get ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and ,publish in the morning.

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Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 23

I wonder whether your week has been anything like mine; busy if somewhat boring. We have had a health appointment every day, starting with one at Guy's hospital dermatology department where I was examined, swabbed and photographed, and given a further appointment at the end of June. ( Nothing to worry about, mostly routine). Then there were visits to meet the health assistant and the new doctor. I seem to have been giving details of my medication over and over again. Today we were able to collect our first prescriptions and all have been accepted except one of mine. Next week we both have a shingles vaccine and one for RSV. And then I have to go to see the diabetic nurse and Chris the nurse at the OPCD clinic. It sounds as though we are both falling apart, but actually I am just really impressed by how quickly these appointments have been given, and how thorough they are at checking us out. 

Tomorrow is a brighter prospect as I have two friends coming to visit. I knew them in Spain but they moved back almost a year ago and now live not far from here, so I am looking forward to catching up with them.

We haven't been able, or felt ready, to visit anyone else further afield yet as there is still a fair bit of admin to get sorted, especially with banks.

Yesterday the sun shone all day and I was able to get a load of washing dry outside, but today it is raining. So we got rather wet travelling down to the end of the town but I was able to collect my new heating aids. They are more comfortable than I had expected though they are making my ears itch. I expect I will soon get used to that. It is good that I can adjust them on my phone as the fiddly little dials on the ear pieces would be a pain. I haven't been in many situations to test them out yet, but hopefully conversations will be much easier now. 

Last Sunday the sun was out so after dinner Chris and I went for a walk. We caught a bus right outside the house, up to the entrance to Crystal palace park, and walked right through the gardens back home. It was so peaceful there and hard to believe we are only a stones throw away from city traffic. The last bit of the walk home was down a long straight road with my son's church at he end of it. So here is St.Bartholomew's  church, Sydenham, where my eldest son has been vicar for five years now. 

I realised that I forgot to tell you about our theatre trip last week, so here is a brief account. It is quite an experience to walk through city streets crowded with people at nightfall, but we weaved our way round them and got to the theatre in time to settle into our seats. I enjoyed the play as I love all live theatre but it was very dated, and slow in places. The actors were good but there were no set changes nor lighting effects. and anyone who is used to going to more recent shows, must have found it a bit dull. For us it was a novelty, but we did come out wondering what has kept it running for quite so many years. 

But I loved the atmosphere and enjoyed all the lights as we walked back. We stopped at a novelty shop where I couldn't resist buying this 'fluffy'. It's so cute and quite the softest thing I have ever touched.

Then we stopped at Outernet, London, just near Tottenham court road. It is an open air space completely surrounded by screens that show amazing videos and art in an ever changing show. Mirrors send stars up into infinity while a witch flies round the room on her broomstick, and you see beaches and woodland with such clarity that you don't know which way to look. I would recommend anyone visiting London should go to it. I could have sat watching the changes for hours, but we had a late train to catch.

And now I must stop rambling and get this ready to publish and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.

Friday Smiles 2025 #Week 22

 As we continue to find our feet in this country that has changed so much since we left it sixteen years ago, we both received our Freedom passes ( free travel passes for pensioners), so we decided to explore a little further. We went as far as Canary wharf and walked through the lovely Jubilee gardens where fountains tumbled over layered rocks between a variety of trees and grassy spaces. It was a little oasis in the middle of a busy area. 

Then we continued to Waterloo and walked from there over the bridge where we looked down on the vibrant restaurant area on the South Bank, and on to the Embankment on the other side . We sat and watched the Eye slowly revolving, and the Uber water taxis and other vessels travelling up and down the river.

We found ourselves some lunch and a much needed drink and made our way back home. Neither Chris nor I are used to so much walking so we needed a rest when we got in 

Tuesday was our first really wet day but we still walked to the far end of the High street to the "big Sainsbury's". There is a much smaller S.express just a few meters from the house, which is extremely convenient, but the big one carries a much wider range of goods. We both discovered that we need some better footwear for wet days, but it was a good walk all the same 

The rest of the week has been dry and mostly sunny so we have spent the afternoons sitting outside, knitting, sewing and chatting. Chris has done some more work in the garden, cutting down two overgrown shrubs, so there is a lot of debris to get rid of .

Most of the garden is grass and shrubs, but there are a few flowers fighting their way out. One is a shrub with long branches that were covered in buds. Since we have been here they have all opened together so the branches are smothered in white blossoms. As far as I can tell it is from the pyracantha family. The flowers won't last for long but the bees are loving it.

And today's flower is a peony. Lovely isn't it.

The bird app I am using has identified robin's near by every day and yesterday we spotted a pair of them. We think they may have a nest in a tree in the corner. They were very busy all afternoon so maybe they have babies to feed. They don't sit still for long but I did catch one on the swing-chair frame. Unfortunately the two cats who live here also have their eyes on it!

This afternoon we are meeting our new doctor and will hopefully get our repeat prescriptions sorted out . So I must close now and get ready. I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning 

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 21

My word, another week has flown by. We continue to work through document changes. Some officials need a lot of convincing that we are who we say we are, and we are living at the new address. However we are making progress. In a few days time I will have a British phone number though I shall hold onto the Spanish account for a while too, until I am certain of what it is linked too. I bought a new smart watch this week and it won't accept my registration on the app without a British phone number. Just another little frustration. But onwards and upwards.

We have had some lovely weather again this week so Chris tackled the front garden with my DIL and I doing what we could to help. It was very long grass with lots of ox-eyed daisies and Canterbury bells in it. It looked so pretty so I rescued a little bunch of daisies before they were all strimmed away. They are now sitting on the windowsill.

  The garden does look a lot tidier for its trim, but it is a lot for a busy family to look after .

But the back garden is a lawn of short grass with lots of little daisies, and one corner was kept as a meadow for the bees and other insects. That has daisies, buttercups and speedwell all over it and I am glad that bit was preserved. We have a large gazebo with lots of seating, and I spend much of my time out there. It is not as warm as Spain but I like to sit and enjoy the flowers and use my new app (Thank you Annie) to identify the birds I can hear. The most regular visitors are a pair of noisy magpies, and a parakeet. Just up the road is Crystal palace gardens, and there the trees have flocks of little green parakeets. I think the folk around here consider them to be as much pests as the pigeons.

One advantage to living here is the excellent public transport and the ease with which you can get into London, and travel around the city. We haven't been yet as we are waiting for our Freedom passes that will give us free travel. But tonight we are all going there to throw theatre to see The Mouse Trap. Despite its long run, I have never seen it. I love live theatre so I am looking forward to it. 

Now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

 

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 20

Hi all. Sorry I have been missing for the last couple of weeks. We arrived safely a week ago, and now know that all our belongings are safely stowed in our container until we are ready for them.

We seem to have brought some Spanish sunshine with us and have enjoyed some lovely afternoons in the garden. I have already had a hearing test and today I was fitted for hearing aids, so I am looking forward to hearing better in about three weeks time when they are ready. Unfortunately I have already needed a trip to the urgent drop-in center for some antibiotics where the efficiency and help was excellent.

We have applied to a doctors center but the process is slow. Also we hope to have a travel pass soon. We were hampered at first because we couldn't prove we live here, but the pension office has now sent us a letter which should get everything moving.

It was a huge help having our son Tom to fly with us and help with the cases etc. Before we left our house he took this photo of us by our roses.

There is also one of a very full van. Everything was so heavy, I felt sorry for the men! 

Just for fun Tom took this one on our last day to compare with the next one taken on our first day there in 2008.

Then we were off to the airport with one stop for a last look at the sea 

On our first day here in England, we went for a lovely family meal.

And to end with, I decided to go for a new look to start the next stage of our journey, so yesterday I went with my daughter-in-law to the hairdresser's and had my hair cut. It feels a bit strange but hopefully it will be easy to look after.

Icing on the cake-- our son in Manchester has sold his house and is moving down to Oswestry nearer the family, and there is a new baby on the way in November. How exciting is that.

I have to say I am much more at home writing this on my PC, but for the next few months I will be using my tablet so there may be mistakes and unedited photos. But I will, of course get better at it  in the meantime I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and publish this in the morning