This Is My Day – Page 2 – the life of a 60-something woman who lives in Wales

The Birthday Party

On July 16, 2023

(A short, no-image-needed post.)

I’m a nervous person. Specifically I am nervous when I have to go to an event which includes a group of people. More than 10 and less than 100, shall we say. So when one of the women I walk with every week, invited us all to her 70th birthday party, I said yes, but my heart say OMG no way! It went on; are you mad? there will people you don’t know! My heart likes to really pile it on. But as husbands were also invited I thought, what the hey, it might even be fun. And you know, it was.

G’s husband had planned it all; lunch followed by afternoon tea, wine and champagne, in their local village hall. He invited everyone G knew, WI, walking groups, friends. They’d lived in that area for a very long time, so they knew a lot of people. Around 60 people turned up for a fantastic buffet lunch of salad, quiches, pasta and rice salads, all sorts. Followed by several kinds of cheesecake, roulade and fruit platters. All of it was baked by G’s friends. Afternoon tea was three kinds of sandwiches and three-tier cake stands, of butterfly cacks, chocolate cakes, and Welsh cakes with jam and cream. We ate until we couldn’t eat any more! Yes, there were a lot of people there I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter quite as much as I had dreaded.

Which just goes to show you, it’s silly to get so worked up and afraid before an event. It’s rarely as dreadful as one thinks it will be.

The Sea, The Sea

By admin

On July 12, 2023

In health, insomnia, worries

Well, not much of the sea really. It was the weekly wednesday walk along the Prom with “the girls”. Wednesday morning walk I should say, but I didn’t want to smudge the alliteration. But as you can see from the ominous dark clouds, and the equally dark waves, it was not really a good day for walking. The wind was prodigious! So as there were only three of us, we decided to knock it on the head, turned our backs on the sea, and went into town for coffee at the Athro. As I was early, as usual, I nipped across the road and took this picture. And breathed in some of the lovely sea air. Hopefully that will end this streak of nights of insomnia. I’m getting a tad tired (hah!) of still being awake at 2am and then waking up at 5 or 6.

Holiday Nightmares

By admin

On July 6, 2023

In family, waffle

‘Tis the season to be going away from home, preferably abroad, staying in the country you’re already in, if you must. You’ll have seen those ads with beautiful people in bathing cossies, playing by the sea, eating ice cream and generally having a fab old time. I can count on one hand the times when I’ve had a time, fab, wonderful and just plain fun. Most of those; actually, all of those, are the times when the chap and I went somewhere. When we were first together and couldn’t afford much, we went camping in Wales. We actually went to Aberystwyth one year and found we’d pitched our tent between two larger tents that belonged to one family. Bless them, they didn’t mind and no one asked us to move along. Of course now we live in Aber. When we’re walking along the Prom one of us will say, “wouldn’t this be a nice place to go on holiday”, and the other says “we’re not on holiday, we live here”! Oh yes, we’re smug about it.

2 Eyes? Check!

By admin

On July 4, 2023

In anger, health, worries

I have something new to worry about. sigh Just what I needed. I had to have an eye test as a follow-up to having had the cataract in my right eye removed six weeks ago. Everything seemed to be fine. I can see very well again. It’s amazing how you can get used to squinting through a cataract. And then when it’s removed, well, it’s just wonderful how one’s vision is suddenly perfectly clear.

Another Lazy Sunday

By admin

On June 18, 2023

In crossness, sunday

Yes, this is my day and it’s another lazy sunday. We’re all a bit tired still from our day out yesterday. I feel just as tired as when I went to bed last night. Age perhaps? It’s annoying, but whenever I’ve been out: to the gym, walking with “the girls”, or just an outing with the family; I feel exhausted and my poor legs ache like fun. I think it’s because I have a slow circulation and really there isn’t a lot I can do about it. Age and diabetes. I have read that I can help it with ibuprofen, but I don’t want to rattle any more than I already do from all the medication I have to take. So I just put up with it. Today’s practically compulsory pic is of the children in the catio. We’ve been letting them stay out all night as it’s been so hot. But last night we had to get them back into the living room for the duration. Large, splashy rain, thunder and lightening did not make Luna feel comfortable. Ollie was all right with it, but Luna wasn’t able to take refuge in the living room in case he laughed at her. So L and I hustled them inside, with extra Dreamies as compensation.

Llyn Clywedog

By admin

On June 17, 2023

In outings

Llyn Clywedog

Heh, just thought of a good title for that photo: reservoir dogs! This is me and the old chap, P, by Llyn Clywedog, a reservoir near Llanidloes. (Don’t try to pronounce it, you’ll only lose your dentures.) The chapess, L, took us here today for a rather nice picnic. We’d picked a good day; cloudy sky, a hint of rain in the air, and only 19 degrees C. Later, we drove around the reservoir. Which was a bit hairy in places. We had just crossed a sheep grid when some silly person, driving in a much larger and tougher car than ours, drove towards us. L tried to back up to give the other person some room, but she (it was a woman driving) kept coming towards us with the determination of the first Arnie Terminator after young John Conner. I swear I could hear “der der du du dum”.

However, we managed to get out of that. Or I should say, chapess L did. She’s a cracking driver. We met several more cars on the road, but those drivers had better manners. There are some amazing views around there with plenty of stopping places to admire and take photos. At times I am reminded that I live in the most beautiful country in the world.

A is for Absent-Minded

By admin

On April 1, 2022

In books, silly me, worries

No, I hadn’t forgotten that I had my first post for the A-Z Blog Challenge to do. My absent-mindedness has to do with those two books on the left. It must have been a month ago when I pre-ordered “The Attic Term” by Antonia Forest from Girls Gone By. Time went by, several of my brain cells floated out of my ears and yes, I completely forgot that I had ordered it. Yesterday, I happened to be looking at my favourite bookseller’s site, Encore Books, in the morning and I saw that they were selling that book. So I ordered it. As you do.

That lunchtime came round and the post was early for once. Which included my GGBP copy. Doh! As fast I could I emailed Encore and explained my mistake. I then ordered a different book instead, “The Glenvarroch Gathering” by Susan Pleydell. So now I have two new books to read, which is lovely! Especially as a I have a nice box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates given to me by my daughter, for Mother’s Day. Bliss. What more could a book lover want?

My absent-mindedness is giving me cause for concern though. It’s gone past the stage of going into a room and forgetting what I was there for. Words slip out of my mind, and if I try to think of them, I can actually feel a kind of black hole where the word should be. Everyone I mention it too scoffs, oh yes, I forgot things all the time. But I’m finding that thoughts, words etc. just vanish if I don’t immediately say them out aloud. My spelling is going downhill too, and I was always known for my good spelling.

More than other physical things, I’m more than ever reminded that I am aging, now that I turned 61 on my last birthday, last month. I’m, busy with a BA in creative writing and I admit, part of the reason for doing that is to stem the loss of words, like shoring up a stream with a dam. Everything I do has to do with words: writing letters, studying, blogging etc. I can’t do without my words.

Lazy Sunday

By admin

On March 27, 2022

In sunday

Ollie
To be honest, the weather we are having lately is not normal. Last year, on Mother’s Day, it was cold and wet and the sky was grey. This will prove to be a false spring and I am so annoyed with Mother Nature for fooling the birds and animals like this. A pair of collared doves have nested in the ivy over the gate trellis and are hoping to bring off a pair of little chicks, as they did last year. I’m being run ragged, running out every time I see a crow, rook, or magpie sitting on the gate, under the nest. Those eggs are going to hatch into cute little doves, just as they did last year. They are not going to lose them, not on my watch. The picture above, by the way, was taken by my daughter and is of Ollie having himself a lazy sunday in the sun.

So, it was Mother’s Day. I’ve always been glad that I have the kind of husband who has never insisted we spend Mother’s Day with his mother, nor me with mine. Why do we have Mother’s Day in march? The Christian reason is that is 9 months to Christmas day. So, you do the maths. I read, or heard, somewhere that it is because it is Ostara, the Pagan festival of fecundity, spring, and all things bursting to be born. It is in honour of the Mother Goddess, who will give birth to her son-consort at Yule (december 21). That’s the version I go with, being a Pagan myself. It’s an odd sort of festival for someone well past the menopause, I always think. Yule is more my speed, with the image of the Crone. In the meantime, it’s a nice day to put one’s feet up and be spoiled rotten by the family.

Good Evening

By admin

On March 26, 2022

In waffle

and welcome to my blog. Such an original title. There’s a tiny story behind this blog. I was perusing facebook today, as you do, and Namecheap announced that they had a new domain TLD, .day. I barely hesitated for a second! Before I could say “take my money” I had registered thisismy.day, in a hurry in case someone else decided to have it. But hah! Who snoozes loses! What to do with it though, that was the question. And it was a moment later when it occurred to me that a blog would be the thing. So here it is. A lot of waffle and nonsense about my day. The day of a 60-something woman, wife and mother, with one husband, one grown up daughter, two cats, and four hens. There may even be photos, if I can get off my backside and photograph more than just my two, very cute cats.

Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic!

By admin

On September 14, 2019

In chaos, hens, Uncategorized, Willow

We had a nasty moment yesterday with that sweet, innocent looking hen on the right of this picture. That’s Willow, usually found wandering around the garden on her own, looking confused and, well, a tad gormless. She never knows quite where she’s hidden her gorm. We love her anyway. She’s Willow.