Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 16

Now I will have to be quick writing this as I have spent most of the afternoon chatting with my sister Jean, which was nice.

When I commented on your posts last week I said I was preparing for a busy weekend, and it was just that. It really started on Friday. Late the night before, our eldest son Jim arrived with his family for a short break back on their home turf. They had an airbnb just around the corner from us, which was aptly named "Duck cottage" because they had to duck to get through the doors! They all came to see us on Friday, and then much later, early Saturday morning in fact, son number three arrived. Tom had flown in from Denmark to London and then driven down to us. He slept until mid morning when our youngest, Ben, arrived driving down from Cheshire. The other two boys, Mike, son number two, and number four, Jonathan, both live locally. It is a rare occasion when we have all five boys together so it was a very special day.

All the lads went over to Mike's house to share lunch and watch the Arsenal match, and then they drove back to Jonathan's house. Ben stopped off to collect Chris and I on the way. We had intended to all meet in the park but the weather didn't cooperate so Jonathan offered his house as there was room for everyone there. We spent a few happy hours chatting together, playing with our grand-daughter Aisling, and playing "pass the parcel" with baby Niamh around her uncles. She is such a contented little soul and didn't so much as cry at any of the new faces.

Jonathan also has a very laid back 'staffie' who wasn't disturbed by all the extra people in her house, and she just squeezed in beside anyone sitting on her favourite sofa, and watched all that was going on. She doesn't look too impressed but she liked the extra fuss she got.

Just before the sky darkened for another shower, we managed to get outside to take some photos. One of the boys with their dad, and then one of the 'girls'. we are usually outnumbered at family dos, and rarely get our photo taken, so it was nice to get this one, even though, sadly our other grand-daughter and her family were unable to be there.

And of course, we had to take one of all of us together.

Chris needed to go home after this. He is making slow progress but still gets very tired, and he was glad to go home and rest, while I stayed to continue chatting until well into the evening.

Ben drove home that night and Tom flew back to Denmark on Sunday ready for work the next day. Jim's family went home on Monday so now we are back to our usual , but we made some lovely memories to hold on to.

Since then another week has drifted by with plenty of April showers and some nice sunshine too. The park is really coming back to life with leaves sprouting on the trees, and many covered in blossom too.

I have made a start on the garden, cutting back, and then digging out two shrubs so that I have a border to plany some perennials in. Then I will be able to see the flowers from my kitchen window.

And that, I think, is quite enough for this week.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 15

Hi all. Having been absent for a couple of weeks I have some catching up to do. I am very happy to tell you that Chris's operation went well. It took four hours instead of the predicted three, but the surgeon was pleased with the result. He has a 12 inch (30cm) scar so it will be a while before he is jogging round the park, but he can walk around and is managing the stairs quite well. He came home last Thursday which seemed a bit too soon but he has a comfy recliner chair and has spent most of his time in that.

Meanwhile life goes on. I did go into the hospital to see him each day but it is two buses and up to an hour and a half travelling time each way, so even a short visit was almost a day out. Fortunately our son Mike works in a school so the second week he was on the Easter break and he collected me some days, or took me both ways, and he did a big monthly shop with me the day Chris came home, so he has been a great help.

On the Sunday Mike took me to the hospital -- no buses on a Sunday -- and then I went back to have dinner at his place. When our son Ben's situation changed, he could no longer care for his cat Bobby so Mike adopted him as a companion for his other cat Splodge. They are the same sort of colouring and apart from Splodges large size, they could be from the same litter. Bobby is very affectionate and came to me for some fuss.

It was Palm Sunday so I went to church before Mike collected me, and we had a lovely service. The church was decorated with palms and we were each given a palm cross.

The bunch of hyacinths I was given back on Mothering Sunday, lasted for well over a week. One stem split and had two heads of flowers on it. They really surprised me at how well they did.

April the first was my granddaughter's 5th birthday. I was told she was into pink and unicorns and anything fairy. I am not used to making 'girly' cards so I went online for some inspiration and chose a pretty little pink image of a little girl hugging a unicorn. I then used the link that Angela sent me after her picture of steampunk doggies, and with AI I put Aislings face onto the little girl. When she opened her card she look at it and said "That's me", so mission accomplished. I am not a huge fan of AI as I want to belive what I see and it is getting increasingly hard to do, but I can see it does have its uses.

I was asked to buy her a bubble machine which I did and she immediately went outside and had some fun with it. I enjoyed watching her, as I must admit I am a sucker for bubbles too.

My arthritis is getting rather worse since we came back to UK, which was to be expected with a damper climate. But I was really struggling to cut things out, and although I have machines which do it very nicely, I do enjoy 'fussy cutting' sometimes. So last week I bought myself a pair of sharp scissors with much larger finger holes, and they are so much easier to use.

On Good Friday, Mike and his partner Lucy took me to a plant sale at Whittington Castle. The stalls were lined up all around the grass area and I did buy a few perennials as well as a blueberry bush and a tayberry bush. 

The castle is a ruin and I used to take my boys there when they were small to run off some energy and have fun climbing the walls. You can just see the start of the ruins on the edge of my photo. In front of it there is a lake where a pair of swans return faithfully each year to raise a family. It is a lovely setting, and even though the day was grey and damp, we enjoyed it.

My garden is coming to life a bit more each day. We have an area of lovely little violets now, as well as bright tulips and several pieris shrubs -- the sort that have white flowers and at the same time the new leaves come red at first. They are very attractive.

We also have life of a different sort too. This great tit came to sit on the fence while I was hanging washing out, and every day a pair of blackbirds take it in turns to come to my dish of food I put out each day. They come so often that I am wondering whether they have a young family to feed already.

Our other visited is this little fellow. It is not a good photo, but he moves so fast,I was lucky to catch him on camera at all.

At first I was worried we had rats but he doesn't have a pointed nose and his coat is smooth. Searching online I think he is a vole. Unfortunately they can do a lot of damage in a garden, eating roots which kills plants, and burrowing under grass so that it collapses, so I will have to get a humane trap and relocate him out in the coutryside.

It is many, many months since I posted a sunset. We see the sun rise from the house but there are a lot of buildings at the back which mostly hide the sunset, but from my craft room, up on the third floor, I did manage to get this one last week.

I am sorry this is such a rambling post, but I am caught up now so it won't be so long next time. Thank you if you have stayed with me to the end.