Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 6

Just a little post to highlight the things that have made me smile this week. But first an apology if I didn't get to visit you last week. The days are flying past so fast, and last Friday my utility room was finally finished so my weekend was spent unpacking more items to go in the new cupboards, and also working through a backlog of washing. I must say having my own working washing machine again is really something to smile about. The same , to perhaps a lesser degree, can be said for the dishwasher. So here are a couple photos of the room before I fill it up and make it untidy again!. You can see the dishwasher on the left of the sink, and opposite it is the dishwasher , less obvious because it is built in so it matches the cupboards.

The room does of course, match the kitchen with the same floor and wall tiles and cupboard doors. Both in here and in the kitchen there are still several plain plastered walls awaiting a lick of paint, but we will let the dust settle before we worry about that. I feel so blessed to have these lovely rooms to work in now.

I am trying to put a little fresh food out for the birds each day rather than filling a bird table. This is partly because every morning crows, jackdaws and pigeons, and the occasional seagull, all swoop over our house to settle in the park for a breakfast of worms etc that appear after the rain, and I don't want to encourage them to stop in the garden. So I put a small dish of dried fruit, suet pellets and dried mealworms, one at the back and one in the front garden, every morning. And the birds do appreciate it. Mrs blackbird was the first to come for breakfast yesterday.

I also put fat balls with berries and seeds in a holder on the wall at the back. I can't hang it yet as there is still a lot of builders rubbish in the garden - hopefully to go in a skip at the end of next week. So I sit it on the wall, sheltered by a small fence and the sparrows and blue tits come to this. Amazingly they can eat one of these in a day or two so I only put one out at a time. The sparrows were quick to come to this one,...

...while this little chap sat above them waiting for his turn.

Chris and I both had our second shingles injection this morning. Fortunately neither of us hardly felt it and apparently have no side effects, so that's another good thing out of the way.

We will be up early tomorrow as our son Mike is picking us up on his way to work, to take us to Shrewsbury station. Then we will have a short train ride to Telford, and another bus to the hospital there, for Chris to undergo another test. It is days such as this that we do miss having a car, though most days one is totally unneccesary, but the boys are very good at helping out when their work allows.

And finally I had a surprise this week when my latest bunch of daffodils opened to show bright orange frilly trumpets. They are quite diferent from the ones I have had so far, and I love the variety in the narccisi family.

I saw crocus buds showing mauve in the park today. Spring flowers are so uplifting. And we have really noticed the days getting longer now too. It will be nice to have a break from these grey, misty days.

I will try to do better at visiting this week, but that is all for now.

Friday Smiles 2026# Week 5

Well we have had a chilly and rather damp week but I am still smiling, not least because we now have a warm and cosy house to shut ourselves away in when the weather makes me think it is not worth going out. That said, I do try to pop across the park to the shops most days to get a few steps in. This week, instead of going to the shops I went over to my son's house and spent the morning with this little cutie and her mum.. Niamh is three months old now and still very placid. She smiles at everyone, and has started sleeping through the night which pleases mum, Ella. I had lots of cuddles before it was time to go home.

Our son Ben came down from Cheshire on Friday afternoon. He came to socialise with a friend who has just lost his father, but he did spend Saturday with us which was nice.

The utility is taking longer than I expected but it was partly delayed because the original sink would not fit around the cupboards, (more down to the designer than us), and the new one took a long time to arrive. But the builder has just received the message that it is now at the showroom, so he is off to collect it. He thinks the rest will be done tomorrow, and I am hoping he is right. It is looking good so far, and the lighter colour of the cupboards make the space look a lot bigger.

So by the weekend I will finally have my own washing machine. No more trips to the laundrette I am pleased to say. But with the weather not being very suitable to hang washing outside, I have bought a heated rail clothes airer for big items like sheets and shower towels. But for most things I have bought what I call a washing dolly. Amazon calls it a "lath pulley clothes airer". I had one years ago and it was so good for drying things. My new one is now hanging above the utility sink so I will be trying it out at the weekend.

It looks a bit losided because the rope is pulled back and ties to the window catch. When the side wall is tiled, the cleat to old it will go there, and then it will hang straight.

Every morning I put out two little dishes of food for the birds; one in the front garden under the hedge, and one at the back. The front one is mainly for the little robin who is never far away. I make a mixture of a few raisins chopped up, some dried mealworms and suet pellets, both of which I can buy at the local pet shop. When I took the dish out first thing Monday morning, the robin was sitting waiting for me! As soon as I put it down he hopped on and grabbed a mealworm. I might have him eating from my hand by the end of the winter.

The back one is always empty in the morning too but I wasn't sure who was eating it. Then I saw a blackbird flying up from it and I think he likes the raisins. He has stripped the cotoneaster of all its berries so he needs something else. There is also a robin out at the back but I don't see him so often. But the last couple of days the blackbird has also been waiting for me. He won't come to eat until I go away, but he sits on the wall and doesn't fly away when I go up close and talk to him. I have seen a female in the garden too so maybe the food will encourage them to stay and raise a family nearby. We rarely see a cat in the garden so they are fairly safe.

And finally a picture I took from my daughter-in-law's social media, of my son, the vicar, presenting the haggis at their church's Burns night celebration. He is not the most traditional of vicars, and although he wears the appropriate vestments for leading services, he does love to wear colourful shirts and it has warmed him to the ethnic  diversity in his congregation. His curate is a little more reserved and has chosen to wear black.

Yesterday we had a beautiful day with non-stop sunshine, but it did get off to a rather grey, cloudy start. The day before was cold and wet, but strangely itstarted with a beautiful sunrise. So here is another park picture because it was too good to miss.

And that is it for my ramblings this week.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 4

I am late writing this tonight. I truly hadn't taken on board that another week had passed since my last post! But fortunately I have very little to write about so I can do this before I go to bed.

Firstly I hope you all managed to get a glimpse of the aurora boreales on Monday night. It wasn't a very clear night here, and we have a lot of buildings to the back of us, so I went up to the third floor to get the best view of the sky. It was only just decernable with the naked eye but my son and my granddaughter sent me messages to look again through my camera, and I did get this photo.

The bright red vertical steak was the part I could see by eye, and it was the deepest colour.  Other parts of the country had a better view, judging by the photos sent in to the TV news programmes, but what a treat to be able to see it at all here in UK.

My second smile this week is that I have finally finished the cross stitch picture I started just before leaving Spain. I did quite a bit sitting in the garden in London last summer, but since we came here there has been so much going on, and it got rather forgotten. But having finished the wall hanging I thought I should try finishing off a few more things too before I embark on anything else. Now I have to get the hedgehog, and the picture of poppies and daisies I did before it, mounted and framed. 

They will both look better when they have been rinsed and steam pressed. I have spotted a good framing shop in Oswestry so that will be helpful, but I like to do the thin padding and stretching over a base myself, so I guess that is my next job. Then I will take them there to be framed.

I have had a good chat with my sister this week, and our youngest son Ben, is coming at the weekend, not exactly to visit us, but we will be seeing him while he is here.

Our utility room is taking shape nicely. There have been a couple of hitches so it is not quite finished yet, but hopefully by next week I will be able to show a photo of it.

Thank you for visiting me last week and for the comments asking if Chris is OK. He has got a fairly serious condition which needs urgent attention. It is not my place to discuss this here, but the tests he is having are to determine whether or not he is fit enough to have open surgery in Shrewsbury, or whether he will need to go to Birmingham for a different procedure. We are hoping it will be Shrewsbury as I can easily visit him there.

And with that I will bid you all goodnight, and tomorrow I will try to catch up with you all.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 3

Strange how it took me ages to get used to writing 2025, but somehow 2026 seems quite natural. And as usual we seem to be hurtling in to it, so I have little news this week, but still have a few smiles to share.

On Sunday I went to church again and this time the full choir were there after their New Year break, so we enjoyed some good music. When I got home our son Jonathan came round to collect a shoe rack we did not need and he did, so it will be well used. 

I usually have my alarm set for 8.00 though it is half an hour earlier on days when the builders are coming. But on Tuesday we were up even earlier. Chris had a phone call to be at Shrewsbury Hospital for some tests, first thing, so our son Mike picked him up on his way to work. As I opened the curtains dawn was just breaking and the sky had a straight line drawn across it and with the grass white with frost, it looked lovely.

I saw Chris off (I stayed home to see the plasteres who were coming in to work on the utility area), and then got my breakfast. By the time I sat down to eat it the sky was red and my whole room glowed.

Sadly it soon disappeared and we had a chilly, drizzly day, but at least I was up to enjoy the sunrise first.

They didn't get all of Chris' tests done so they kept him in overnight, and after tea, Mike drove me over there with his pjs, washing kit and medicines. Fortunately they did the main test the next day and eventually he came home. He has to wait for a date for one more test and will see the consultant the first week in February, so they are getting things moving now.

As I was on my own all day I had a long video chat with my sister in the afternoon and we had a good catch-up.

When I went out on Wednesday I saw how much my spring bulbs are growing. I put all sorts of bulbs in very randomly in the front garden and in between the pansies in the planters under the window. I saw a few shoots on the day it snowed, but now that has all melted away, I can see they are growing fast.

Then I walked through the park and spotted my first snowdrop. Such delicate little flowers but so resilient in the winter weather.

The plasterers did an excellent job in the utility, and soon all the discoloured walls and old brickwork was boarded and skimmed, so it is ready to be tiled and/or painted. Today the builder was back and he has spread a levelling compound on the floor so tomorrow it will be dry and he can lay the tiles on the floor and start on the plumbing and a little bit of woodwork and next week the cupboards and machines will go in.

And finally here is a true promise of Spring. I treated myself to a small bunch of tight daffodil buds on Wednesday, and look at them now. Aren't they lovely. I know they won't last long in our centrally heated room but they were only £1, so I can afford to replace them quite often. They make me smile every time I look at them.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 2

Here we go again with another chance to look back at the week and relive those moments that made us smile. I guess this is officially week 2 as week 1 would have been New Year's Day. But I am looking back even further to the week before Christmas when we had a day visit by my sister Dorothy. She will be 91 next month so we don't get to meet up very often, but as she was spending Christmas with her daughter in Wolverhampton, Jo drove her over to see us. We had a lovely day chatting, showing them round our new home, and catching up on family news. In fact we were so busy chatting that we completely forgot to take any photos!

On Christmas Eve we walked round to our son Jonathan's house for a social evening. There was a very excited little girl - their daughter Aisling, so we fed the reindeers, and put out cookies and milk for Santa and then I asked her to pose for a picture with her new baby sister Niamh. She was torn between watching the baby and looking up for the camera, but I did manage to get this one. She is so good with the baby and although she is a 'live-wire' and rarely sits still, she is gentle with Niamh and takes on everything she is told. When I got the chance to have a cuddle Aisling said "Grandma; you need to support her head!" I was, but it is good to see her so caring.

Christmas day we stayed at home, though Mike and Lucy called in for a cuppa and a quick chat. I did cook a proper Christmas dinner in my new kitchen, and it is so good to be able to use it at last.

Our third son Tom came over from Denmark for a long weekend on Boxing Day, and on Sunday we all went over to Mike's house for a second Christmas dinner. All the boys and men in the family are Arsenal supporters and they all wanted Tom's jumper.

Some of Lucy's family were there too, and Ben drove over to join us for the day, so there were thirteen of us round the table. Here he is having a quiet cuddle with Bobby who used to be his cat. As his life moved on it was difficult for him to look after a cat so Bobby came to live at Mike's house where he has a similarly marked sister, and young lads to give him some attention, but he sems to remember Ben whenever he visits.

Mike is a great cook, (a chef  not a baker so he says), and refused any help in the kitchen except for his partner laying the table and his son Fin making the pigs in blankets, but he was happy for me to supply a dessert so I made my chocolate meringue layer cake which is almost a legend in the family.

It was a lovely day and we ended up playing board games together. Tom had to leave by lunch time on Monday, but he had used the new sofa bed and found it fine which is good to know.

The next week was chilly and wet so we mostly stayed at home. We had to clear everything out of my makeshift kitchen ready for the men to come back in on Monday 5th to start work on the utility. 

We had a quiet evening in for New Year's Eve, which is our norm these days, though we did video chat with all the boys. Just before tea time Mike popped in to see whether we would like a drive round to see the lights before they are taken down. We ended our tour at Llansantffraid where we saw this amazing light display. It covered a huge area and must have taken weeks to set up. I was amused to see a giraffe among the reindeer. That was a new idea for me.

We spent a long time walking round to see it all and then we had a drink in the little bar opposite to it, before Mike drove us home.

I really like the fireworks so we watched them on TV. I am always a bit unsure whether they are a good thing as thousands of pounds go up in smoke in just a few minutes, but I am told they are funded by the ticket sales so some folk still have money to burn, and I am sure the atmosphere along the Thames is electric!

On Sunday I decided to go the local Church. I have been following some of their services online, and they are a bit more traditional than I am used to, but the church is just at the end of the road, so it is the most sensible one for me to go to. The people were friendly and several of them came to talk to me. I am sure I will soon get to know some of them. When I came out, it was snowing! proper big soft flakes coming down in a blur of white.

It didn't last for long and soon changed to smaller icy balls, but they did stay on the paths and grass, and as it was a chilly night, it was still there on Monday which dawned sunny but very cold. The park looked lovely.

On Tuesday there was a cloudy sunrise which later turned into a blazing red sky, and eventually more snow fell.

At least it made the back garden look a bit better. All the rubbish from the building work has been dumped down through the garden, and when the utility is cleared too, they will order a skip to take it all away. It is not a great view through the kitchen window, but with a blanket of snow on it all, it doesn't look too bad.

For the first time within memory, I took my decorations down a few days before twelfth night. In Spain Jan 5-6 was the main Christmas festival so I always left everything up until after then, but I did back in England too. But as they now live in two crates in the cellar they had to come down at the weekend as once the builders had started on the utility, the cellar was not accessible.

Now everything is back to normal and I need to put some time in up here in my craft room as I haven't yet sorted out all the boxes and shelves, so I struggle to find what I want. It is on my list to do! And on that note I will close, and go down to make our tea.  There is always something else to distract me.

In case you were wondering about the 'nose' that keeps popping up on my photos of the TV, it is Brown bear who came to me on Christmas day. he is so soft and has long arms weightedin the feet, so he hugs round my neck and stays there until I move him.

You are never to old to have a new teddy bear!!

Friday Smiles 2026 #Week 1

 I am not off to a very good start this year as I have not managed to write a post for today, except that is, to wish anyone who sees this, a Very Happy New Year.

I had a lovely time over the Christmas holiday, including fun with family which was wonderful. I will sort out a few photos and write about it for next week.

I hope you all had an equally enjoyable time, and wish you many Smiles as well as good health and prosperity to come.