On the road.......

A long gap.  Dear old friend P. at Limpley Stoke died a couple of weeks ago, and just lately I have been driving up and down the A272, and A303 , the last being for the funeral on Monday.   I first met him in 1955 when we both moved into College Street in Winchester, a few doors from each other, so our friendship had lasted a long time.
It was a heartwarming funeral and as usual at such occasions you learn things about the person you never knew before. There were many familiar faces, and hosts of memories,  poems, and music from family and friends at the service in the village church.  I am sad that he has gone, but he was ninety, and he died in his own bedroom with his beloved J holding his hand and family around him, after a good life in which he was much loved and what more could one ask?

On the drive back in the dark, I stopped to answer my phone and managed to drop my wallet in a car park near Petersfield, fifty miles away.  All those cards: bank, library Waitrose, driving licence and my precious bus pass, gone!   But a kind person handed it in at the nearby pub, and another kind friend went and collected it and is posting  it back. I am overwhelmed.    
I had a lovely afternoon at the Infants today. We are doing puppets again, good old Guy Fawkes and co comes up year after year in January which is a bit strange.  So we are messing about with glue, glitter, and swords made of lolly sticks.  

BW had a parcel last week. It was addressed to Master Bradley Wiggins and it contained his special Yellow Jersey, knitted for him by dear friend C in Winchester.. I wonder what the postman thought.    BW looks very fine in it.

And the rain ir raineth every day.......

Marmalade time again .The Seville oranges are in Waitrose but all done up in little boxes with instructions, which rather spoils it somehow as there was always the pleasure of finding the small knobby looking oranges amongst the others in January..   Grand daughter T and I spent a pleasant afternoon slicing, squeezing and stirring and it set very well     It is worth doing just for the heavenly marmaladey smell all through the house.

I am still hobbling about on my dodgy ankle and looking like the road sign which says Warning, Elderly People. What with all the horrific tales of A and E Departments and doctors surgeries unable to cope, I have decided not to seek medical advice, but just hope it gets better on its own, and refrain from doing any dancing or other dangerous activities.    The rain and mud don`t help either on the twice daily dog walks,Snow and frost would be an easier option.  But it is cosy indoors with my nice new pile of books to read..

I decided not to make any New Year Resolutions this year but to slide downhill without any efforts at self improvement     Just try be as kind as possible to myself and other people. 

Christmas Day went well at Brighton,  twelve of us, age range 3 to 84 sat down to dinner, and then we all sang songs accompanied by F on guitar, J on violin and various ukeleles drums and banjos Then we did a bit of daft dancing and. today I can hardly walk, My foot has gone funny probably as the result of my attempting to join in with W`s salsa lesson, but it is gradually improving.
Last week I went Up North and enjoyed being in Allendale where grand daughter F now lives and seeing the two little boy great grands and also I was in Newcastle and saw the rest of the tribe.  .F and I went to meeting last Sunday and there were only four others there, all muffled up to the eyebrows, and understandably so as the  ancient Meeting House was  freezing. I wondered how I would survive an hour but in the end it seemed right to be there. I thought of all the Quakers arriving on foot or on horseback over the moors in the past couple of hundred years.   I also went to a jolly carol party in a warm barn with the Bahai community just outside Allendale that was held on the winter solstice.
Here is my list of good things about my Christmas:
1.Cards. I have just collected them all up from shelves and window sills etc and I am going to re read the lovely messages and think about the senders. Also re read the round robin letters that I positively like.
2.Having a good sing song  as you don`t often get the chance.
3.Seeing the youngest members of the family,in fact all of them.  
4. Going to the Quakers bring and share breakfast on Christmas morning and then Meeting afterwards. Bradley Wiggins came this year and went all the way round the circle as we sat in silence and put a paw up to everyone.No one minded.
5. Reading Carol Ann Duffy`s  poem about Dorothy Wordsworth`s Biirthday (given to me as a present) we all read a verse or two. It s lovely, as her poems always are.
6. Having a supply of books to read and bath bubbles to last me for a few months.