Blog Along with Effy - Post Seven

If you saw my Post 6 you would have seen that I was starting Week 14 of Wanderlust - the above 'galaxy' picture shows how far I have got now - with layers of watercolour, splashes of isopropyl alcohol and splatters of gold and white. The next step is to add my spirit trees...

When I saw Effy's Blog Along I thought I would share some 'diary' posts, along with some of the journal pages I have been pleased with.  Post 6 was a little different - I am back to trying to record some of my happy memories! Thanks so much to those of you who have taken the time to read my ramblings, and make comments. I am pleased that it has brought back happy memories of your own.  I am really enjoying thinking back...I didn't really expect many, if any, readers!

Donna mentioned how typing everything meant that her handwriting has deteriorated - and I think that mine is totally the same! I have started trying to use a fountain pen more often to see if it helps! I also think that a year of lockdowns and isolation has meant I have chatted less - and words don't spring to mind so easily!

April mentioned the pages and pages of email conversations that we all did in the 2000s - yes, I miss that! It's now a text...

Still on pets! When I first met Kevin's parents, Peggy and Graham, they had a dog - a Beagle called Skipper. When we called Kevin would often take Skipper for a walk while I sat chatting with Peggy at the kitchen table. We spent many happy hours like this!

When Kevin came back, regularly Skipper would not be with him - Kevin would have let him off the lead and he would have run off. Skipper always eventually came back!

When our children were small, they also had a budgie. The kids loved Toby - especially when he was let out of his cage so that he could play football with a small plastic ball. When Tom was three, he drew this picture of Toby:

I have been trying to find photos of the kids' 'pet rock' - this was when they were older. They would take photos of Rock with sunglasses, Rock with cycle helmet... I often suggested 'projects' to the kids - like photography!

One time I thought it would be a good idea to hatch some chickens (and photograph the stages). We are a family who has always kept hens - my Grandad at the yard, my Dad on his allotment, me, my sister. Two of my sons have had chooks here in Australia.

Anyway, a friend lent me a broody hen and gave me a clutch of eggs - 6 hen's eggs and 2 duck's. We had a henhouse to start them off in - and eventually we had ducklings and chicks. Sadly the ducklings didn't survive. I think they were turfed out of the nest by the hens! But the chicks gradually grew into egg-laying hens. Well mainly - one was a cockerel!

This cockerel turned out to be the most ferocious I have ever seen! Our daughter Sophie, who was two at the time, was terrified of him! And did he crow at break of day? No, he crowed all day long! The people in the village told me they could hear him at the farthest reaches! So I asked my friend (to whom I had already returned the broody) if he would swap him for a more timid creature.

It took Kevin and I a whole day to get this bird in a cardboard box, but eventually we managed.

We took it over to my friend's who was obviously a little bit scathing about this ferocious cockerel. We took the box out of the car boot, he opened the top...and the bird just flew at him. He said yes, well, I see what you mean...

We went home with a right wimp. He was frightened of our hens! 

A couple of years later we moved house - from North Wales to Macclesfield - and couldn't take our hens with us. So the ones we had then (including the cockerel) went down to my sister's in Devon. Our wimp terrified the hens she already had!!

Any way that's all for now.. more soon!

 

Thanks to Angela's post I came across  Never More Designs Monthly Gothic Challenge! There was such a super image to play with I had to join in!  You will find more details if you scroll down a post.

Happy Crafting!