First times .........................

So its been a while again since I got on here but with a new baby time flies!

Its been a magical time & it set me thinking how wonderful it must be to experience things for the first time as my son does everyday .... I can't imagine what its like to look at something as simple as a tree for example & never have seen one before, not know what it is, what it does but to marvel in the colour, the way the leaves move & the noise they make! As adults we become blase about everyday objects & don't often have time to sit & wonder how, why, where or just admire the beauty of something.

I tried to think when was the last time I saw something completely new to me, something I had never seen before, when had I experienced that rush of awe or thirst for knowledge at something new? Then it dawned on me ..... the arrival of my son, such a new experience to a first time Mum. I now see new things through my sons eyes & through his actions (its almost like being a child again!) his first smile, a thing we take for granted & maybe don't flash enough!? Learning to roll from his back to front!! A skill we take for granted!

This week he had his first taste of food! Imagine that .... to have never tasted food before ..imagine how strange it must feel in your mouth, the texture, the warmth, what do you do with it .....???

So when was the last time you had a totally new experience ...................??

Celebrations .........

Me & my husband have been talking lately of christening our son ..... however the traditional christening doen't lie comfortably with us! Neither of us are religious & we felt hypocritical to use a church to just fulfill a wish to celebrate our sons birth with friends & family! I understand to some a faith is a comfort & a blessing & for us to trivalise that by attending church for 6 weeks prior just so we can have a christening & then never setting foot in the church again seems wrong & boardering on a lie. Morals that I would not want to pass on to my son so early in his life! So what to do .............

Well we had a trawl through the internet & came upon naming days, essentially there are 2 options a civil ceremony (not unlike a wedding) at a registry office, or a humanist ceremony which can be conducted anywhere but normally in your home/garden!

We liked the idea of an informal ceremony in our garden, we haven't the biggest garden going but it should contain the 30+ people we want to invite! Hopefully it won't be covered in snow like the below picture!!!

So now the planning begins ..... easy i think invite lots of people, have ceremony, lots of food & drink ...good times!!! Then the logistics start to pop into my head ...

30+ chairs ..... hmmm bring a chair party???
30+ glasses ..... bring a chair & a glass party???
30+ plates ....bring a chair, glass & plate party???
30+ knives & forks .... bring a chair, glass, plate, knife & fork party???

I think you get the idea!!

So time to set different people to task .... I phoned my father in law .... checked he's free for the date ..yep ...just a few small favours then .... hesitant yeahhh ... can you find 30+ chairs??? silence .... ohh and a marquee or several gazebos .... bigger silence .....  preferably with sides in case of rain ..... he's a resourceful man I'm sure he'll do just fine!!!!

I've yet to assign my other tasks but  the list is growing .........

Anyway it should be fun, looking forward to discussing the details with the celebrant tonight & then full steam ahead ..

Right where to get 30+ glasses from ..................

Nearly a whole year passed & my life has changed beyond recognition!

I can only apologise for not writing sooner, I clicked on here to discover that my last post was Feb 5th, a signifiacant day to me as it was the last day I was a selfish individual person who did what she wanted when she wanted & normally at the drop of a hat! I didn't know it at the time though that Feb 5th was the last day of being just me!! You see I happen to know my son was conceived on Feb 6th, now I know that a conception date isn't generally talked about, a bit too much detail maybe ... but for us it was a day that we had been praying for for a few years! The other wonderful thing about Feb 6th was it was a special date to my husband maybe not for all the right reasons but his Mum passed away on that day in 1996 & it had been a day we make sure we remembered with fondness, love & sharing of his memories (I unfortunately never met her) To us our son was a very special gift from his Mum who we feel watched over us!

So thats my excuse for not blogging I fell pregnant & had a baby boy on October 20th - Oliver Mark ...another special date 20/10/2010

Oliver is now 15 weeks old & a beautiful bouncing baby, I never imagined I could feel this much love for him it really is the most amazing feeling.

Where has the selfish young woman gone that thought nothing of eating out all weekend, buying whatever she pleased, endless foreign holidays to exotic places ... it sounds great doesn't it but I would never want to go back because what I have gained in a small helpless bundle of joy is beyond all those things! Although we do still have a meal out at the weekend, Oliver seems to enjoy the hustle & bustle & soon he will be able to join us eating (or rather throwing food around!)

Now I am aware I have turned into one of those people who gush on about their child, so I will try to limit the ravings of a lovestruck Mummy!

I can't promise my blog will be updated regularly but I will try my best!

Googlewhacking .....?????

I think I'm a little behind the times but have any of you heard of googlewhacking!????

Friday I stumbled across a very odd but strangely compelling program called Dave Gormans Googlewhack adventure ....  now I'm quite a fan of Dave Gorman, I like his style of humour, its not convential stand up but a sort of combination of travel & seeking out with humour! Anyway I digress .... back to Googlewhacking!

For those of you who don't know googlewhacking is putting two seperate words into the google search engine & getting a 1 website hit that contains both words on one page! They must be google recognised dictionary words & the web page must be a proper page not a dictionary page or just a list of words! Sounds so simple ... and on this programme it seemed so ...

I like to play with words so I spent sometime thinking about words that shouldn't appear together on a webpage, I can't believe I let a program get into my head but I was intrigued that something so simple could be so difficult .... can you believe that there are 3940 websites with the words ambidextrous aardvark on ... what on earth are they talking about??? Taramasalata Elephant ....1060 web pages ....why???

As you can imagine by now I'm thinking stop ..there must be much more interesting or important things you could be doing ... but I'm a person who doesn't like to be defeated especially when words are involved ... so I continued .... siphoning alligators ... 10.800 pages ... now I'm a broad minded woman but what are these web sites doing?? How do you siphon an alligator?????

I think I need to walk away before I totally lose my mind to this task .... but if you find yourself just a little bored and fancy a googlewhack & you find one please put me out my misery & tell me!!

Garden visitors...

As I've mentioned I'm a keen photographer. recently i bought a telephoto lens for my digital SLR camera in readiness for our holiday in Costa Rica where I hope to capture some wildlife photos! So I've been practicing on our native wildlife, these are taken through our kitchen window which accounts for the slight haze & lack of sharpness!

It all looks a bit precarious .........

She wasn't impressed with my laughing at her balancing act!!

Being in town we don't attract a wide variety of birds but the sparrows visit a lot we now have a pair of bule tits (who i haven't managed to capture yet) & our opposite neighbours racing pigeons come to have a look too!

Pasty .....

I don’t think I have a strong Somerset accent but my work mates call me “Pasty” , I like to think it’s an affectionate term!!

I of course have pointed out several times that Pasties are from Cornwall & that I am in fact from Somerset but it falls on deaf ears!
I suppose it’s preferably to being called Wurzel … although they do ask if I came to work on my tractor!!!!

Some accents seem to generate a stereotype in peoples mind, I can’t be the only person out there who is nicknamed & teased by their accent!?? It doesn’t bother me in fact I quite like it, it’s who I am & believe me I can give as good as I get, lets be fair the Brummie accent is hardly without comedy value!

To my midland mates all the west country accents sound the same, I can distinguish between Cornish, Devon, Dorset etc but ask me to identify the different Midlands accents … Warwickshire, Coventry, Staffordshire etc and then I struggle!

I suppose our ear attunes to the accents we grew up with or schooled in?

I think with time you can identify other sub regional accents as opposed to just being Welsh, Irish, northern etc …. I know Mr Heron is very good at identifying different Irish accents but he has lived there for a long time now or maybe it’s just a talent!!?

I love the regional accents for such a small Island we have a very diverse range of accents. From the slow Cornish accent to the fast Liverpudlian banter as soon as someone speaks you can generally place them in a vague area of the country!

Am I alone in feeling a little thrill when you hear your own accent coming from someone else when you are both miles from your native county, there’s that instant bond, that feeling that you just want to ask where they are from ….. I often do … I can’t help myself!!? I find that it’s a good opener for a conversation with people you don’t know, most people are proud of their accent & where they come from!

So in a Somerset stereotype I lift a glass of scrumpy cider to the accent – long may it live!

Isn't nature beautiful .....

As mentioned previously I have been in Glastonbury for the weekend, as usual my trusty little compact camera was with me. I love photography and I'm always on the look out for that perfect picture moment! I also have a digital SLR that is my pride & joy but not easy to throw in a weekend bag so it was over to the compact!

I forget how beautiful the Somerset levels are as the winter sunshine lights up the flat green moors with the Tor rising in the background


It really was a photographers day with brilliant blue skies, we were actually on the way to see my best friend who lives in town but the call of the levels were too much as I veered out of Glastonbury ... where are you going my hubby asks ..... I just have to take a couple of photos ..... we head onto the levels & turn onto this lovely straight road which runs parallel to the tor!

I'm wandering about in the middle of the road snapping away while my husband worries I may get run over ..... bless him I don't like to point out that these roads are very quiet & I can see for miles!

With my picture taking urge fufilled we continued with our visiting but as we returned & the sky turned a fantastic colour the draw was there again as the levels silhouetted against a beautiful sky!

Beautiful ... nature finishes the day with a final flourish!!!