Belated Blog Birthday Bulletin

And speaking of birthdays, this blog was two on 20 August!

We were away on holiday at the time, but I didn't want to let the anniversary pass by completely unmarked.

Water Baby

Today our middle daughter is 21. Happy Birthday Evie!!

Eve's always been a keen swimmer, maybe it's because we used to go to the pool several times a week when she was little. Here she is with Jeanette, who looked after her when we were at work. Jeanette was also a big fan of swimming, probably still is. 

In this photo three-year-old Eve is looking very pleased with herself because she's just passed her 25 metre badge! For some reason, a reporter from the local paper happened to be at the pool, so Jeanette dived in and set up a photo opportunity!

Many Happy Returns Eve!! Let the partying commence!

May The Eighth

I'd forgotten that on my birthday last year we went to the City Art Gallery to look at the Emmeline Pankhurst picture, before going on to Wagamama for a birthday celebration meal. So it was nice to have a memory prompt on last year's blog post.

This year my birthday started as usual with presents in bed :@) Then a swim for Dash at 11am - he's getting very good at it! Coffee and chocolate brownie in the garden with my sister and family - Malachy and Aoife aged 2 and 1 are the darlingest little dotes and turn any visit into a party!

Then yesterday's Doctor Who on catch up, followed by a meal at Croma - Chorlton's finest! A glass of bubbly on our return. What more could a girl want?! Thanks everyone! 

garden clogs

writing prompts kit

solar powered garden lamp

lemon bath stuff

tartan dressing gown

celebration tipple

Beltane 2011

Welcome once again to May - my birthday month!

For all you Taureans out there here's our horoscope - courtesy of Shelley von Strunckel in Good Housekeeping:

May is all about conducting a clear-out of your old views, habits and even dreams. The resulting insights explain situations in which you've little control, enforced changes or what is blocking new ventures. Don't brood over these. Rather, examine with others both unfamiliar ideas and any setbacks, since they're likely to spot what you miss. All of this is clearing the way for a period of thrilling growth - both personal and in terms of your life and dreams - that begins when the expansive Jupiter moves into Taurus in early June for a year's stay.

Welcome to you Jupiter - bringer of Joy!!


The picture is of the Chillingham Cattle.

Welcome To My Birthday Bash

Today I've been celebrating my birthday - 51 today - yikes! How did that happen?!!

I had a very lazy start to the day, then this afternoon we went into Manchester to the City Art Gallery to see the Emmeline Pankhurst picture that I featured here two days ago. This exhibition finishes tomorrow, so we got in fast to see it. Afterwards we strolled through town, finishing up at Wagamama for a perfect end to a perfect day! 

Here are my presents:

To paraphrase Bruce Forsyth - Didn't I do well?!! 

( Shows my age, eh?!)

May Queen

For all my watery frolics, I am a landlubber, a Taurus, an earth sign, and May is my month, all 31 luxurious days of it!
The sun is shining, the leaves are bursting out and the world is unwrapping itself. Oh how I love my birthday month! And what better way to start it than with a lazy, long weekend. I am going across to Chorlton Meadows to commune with Mother Nature on this Beltane Day!

Loude Sing Cuckoo!

Birthday Wishes across the Atlantic

This post is for our eldest daughter who is 22 today. She's studying in the US of A for a year and she's a bit of an Emily Dickinson fan! Wendy Cope is also excellent!


Emily Dickinson

Higgledy-piggledy
Emily Dickinson
Liked to use dashes
Instead of full stops.

Nowadays, faced with such
Idiosyncrasy,
Critics and editors
Send for the cops.

Wendy Cope

from 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis' (Faber)

Happy Birthday Nell!

That's my boy!!!

Arrived at the pool at 7.15 anticipating that joyful mile. The camera screens behind reception showed a virtually empty pool. What? Whoopee! 
'Swimming's in the diving pool this morning.' 
Oh. So that's why the 50m pool's traffic free. 
As we trudged to the diving pool we could see the slow lane was jammed. Like anxious dreams where I arrive at a pool only to find it's two feet deep and frantic with swimmers, seething like tadpoles. Well, the reality today wasn't quite that bad. We decided to do 40 lengths and quit. I swooped straight across into the medium lane which was also busy. A man in front of me was on his back floating a leisurely float. So now, a dilemma - stay here and stoke up my grumpy old woman, or get ideas above my station and duck into one of the two fast lanes, both of which had only three occupants? Dammit, I ducked! A mile was back on the cards! Woohoo!! 
I'd settled by 15. At that point I thought - challenging though this is, it's a breeze compared to what I was up to on this day 15 years ago. Giving birth to our son!! We'd planned a water birth at home. That couldn't happen as he was alternately breech and transverse through the latter half of the pregnancy. Miraculously, by 42 weeks he'd done a tumble turn and got himself into a sensible position for a good push-off into the world! By that stage I was committed to a hospital delivery and when pains started at 7am, I just wanted an epidural in as fast as possible. Which is exactly what happened! I was hooked up to a trace with a printer rattling out black zigzag lines. Intense, hard contractions that I was overjoyed not to feel - Twentieth Century Girl! At 2.03pm our beautiful baby boy (9.4lbs) arrived! He wants to make an appearance on my blog so here he is. Happy Birthday! 
(And today I swam 70x25 - which is 10 lengths short of 2K!!)