Surprise Middle School Graduation Party for Rob

Tables are set.We are waiting.Rob is surprised and oh! you gotta love those retro aviator shades.The cake.The punch. Good time with friends.

Two dear friends who have been there, right from the beginning.

Rob's Dragonfly Photos

Rob took these photos with my camera, which I thought turned out well, considering I do not have an expensive camera.

I had never even heard of Cath Kidston until I started blogging. It seems she's very popular especially in the UK. I like her style, it's not over worked. My friend Zi gave me these three books. So now I'm in the loop on the Cath Kidston.

I so want to try some recipes in here, especially one for Devonshire Splits. It's a Paragon book, so recipes from the UK.

And I do want to take some time to do some painting.

Do you know what this is? It's to stone a mango. I still have to use it and see if it works. My friend M. found two in a thrift shop and gave me one. Great idea if it works because stoning a mango is quite difficult.

Carrie's War

This film is set in Wales during WWII. The reason I took a photo though is because I love her hat. Isn't it adorable, with the embroidery?

It's about evacuees from London being moved to Wales, a brother and sister and their adventures there. Living with a very chapel brother, Mr. Evans who remains cold and distant, and sister, who likes the joy and life of having young ones in the house and, who meets up with an American GI.

And just the enchantment of Wales, the Celtic history, it's tales and how they come to feel this, by visiting Druid's Bottom and getting to know Hepzibah and Mrs. Gotobed, Mr. Evans estranged sister.

I have very happy memories of Wales. Even though it always rained almost the entire holiday. Our regular issue as children was a plastic rain coat and "Welligogs." We went there for several summer holidays camping. I especially remember Swallow Falls on a rainy day.

A Step Saving Kitchen

This is an archive film clip that I found on Little Jenny Wren. It is well worth watching and takes you back to a more nostalgic time. Here is the Step Saving kitchen

Salvaged Metal Chairs

I was going to put salvaged wrought iron chairs, but I don't think they're wrought iron, just metal and black. My neighbour put them out in the trash along with a table. So I sanded them down. I asked my husband for a wire brush, but he came up with an old electric drill, with a circular wire brush on it, far better. Then I bought the cheapest black spray paint from Wallmart and sprayed them. I second guessed my self, thinking I should have done them in the matte black and not the glossy black, but so be it.

Painted chair and table with tray and candle on it.

I bought cushions on sale, they're the water resistant ones.

I am pleased with the results. I like a lower chair, because I find them more comfortable.

P.S. The only problem is I sanded one chair and painted it, two cans of spray paint also another piece of garden furniture, which I started last year, which took six cans of paint, that was last Saturday and since then, the tip of my right index finger has been numb. It's gradually coming back, but this is Thursday. Tuesday I sanded the other chair and table and painted them both, trying not to use that finger. I even used a snap on trigger for the spray cans. Maybe it was the vibration of the drill.

Resistance, By Owen Sheers

Resistance is set in 1944. When you first pick up the book you think that the cover is depicting France and of course the title makes you think that. The premise of the book is this what if Nazi Germany was successful in invading Britain. How the lives of woman living in an isolated valley in Wales are changed by the war.

Sarah Lewis a twenty-six year old farmers wife wakes up one morning to find that her husband has left during the night. It turns out that all the men in the valley have left during the night to join a resistance movement. The women had no previous knowledge of this, they are left to do the best they can and band together helping each other run the farms.

Later a German patrol comes to the valley on a mysterious mission. Sarah begins a faltering acquaintance with the commanding officer, Albrecht Wolfram.

After this basically all that happens is set in the valley, between the women and the German patrol. The end is up beat, but leaves you wondering, does Sarah meet up with Albrecht for a future life together? Or does she become her own woman and take charge of her destiny? I came to the first conclusion, but you could quite easily come to the second, it's ambiguous.

I did like it the premise was interesting. I think a whole other book could be written on that idea, but moved out of the confines of the valley.

A Gift From Tobago and B & B

My friend Ali has just come back from Tobago after visiting her family there. This is Ali with her daughter and this is what she brought back for us.

Her mum has a Bed and Breakfast Jone's Country Inn there and she's always inviting us to go. The web site is http://www.tobagoparadisevilla.com/, the name Ali's mum had for the B&B before someone from Europe who moved in took it and registered it. It was known all over the island that, that was the name for her B&B, it was time honored. But with everthing today if you don't register it, someone will take it.

So I'm going to save my pennies and see if we can go. The only trouble is the cheapest fares are in April, May time and Rob starts High School this September, and it was bad enough taking him out of school this year. In the end we were able to get it changed to an excused absence. Even though he turned in a very nice daily journal of his trip. Plus truancy letters were piling up on our door mat. Even though all teachers and Principle were informed about our trip. So that's the drawback.


This cake was very good. Could taste the rum. It was more like a very dense bread pudding than a cake.

An Aged Wine

This is Rob as a little boy. He is sitting by the kitchen sink, where we had sorted grapes and destemmed them. You can't see the grapes, as this was originally not a digitized photo and was scanned in, so I only have this one, not the whole series, but I know this was when we made this wine. Rob sat and helped me. So it must make it eleven to twelve years old.
I was cleaning up our basement and decide to syphon the wine off. It has been sitting in these gallon demi-johns on the dregs, all these years. I didn't have regular wine bottles or a corker, so decided to just empty one demi-john into a decanter and clean the bottle, then syphon one into the next. I actually have one more bottle of wine, than shown.

When you syphon you always get a mouthful and I can tell you, it hits the back of the mouth and is warm and goes down the throat warm. I made it as a dry wine. I like it and will also use it as a mixer.

Easy Company Soldier, Don Malarkey

This is a memoir of a "Band of Brothers" soldier, from his early life in Oregon, to his being drafted in 1942. He spent more consecutive days in combat than any other member of Easy Company. Battled his way across France into Germany.

I enjoyed reading about his family, his childhood, growing up in Oregon of Irish descent, and also some of his life after he returned from war.

Something that really makes you think though, is the fact that so many WWII veterans became alcoholics. My husband's father was a flight engineer in WWII and flew many missions over Germany. I'm happy to say he did not become an alcoholic. But Don Malarkey did, a functioning alcoholic. So many of his company became alcoholics, even ending up homeless. I have a friend who's father flew the regular route over the Himalayas, taking supplies to China. A great guy to talk to, a wealth of stories, but an alcoholic. You cannot possibly see all that and not be effected.

Something, a statistic I heard recently, which when explained you understand. A Japanese kamikaze pilot had a better chance of living, than an American or English bombing crew. The reason being because these crews and squadrons, were flying day after day. A kamikaze pilot only flew when the weather was right and they had located the target and that was not as often. An amazing fact.

So I'm very happy that Bo's father made it back to later have a son.
To get back to the book, did I like it? Yes. See My Bookshelf for this book.

Comments

When I originally set up my Blog I didn't put Moderate Comments on, then I thought I should, so I added it. And of course silly me, didn't even think to look that I had any comments to moderate. So to all those who left comments, thank you.

Barcelona, Sunday 4th May 2008

Here we are arriving at our hotel in Barcelona. We chose this hotel to stay at out of Rick Steve's guide on Barcelona. It turned out to be a good choice. It was very central, not too far from Catalunya Square and some of Gaudi's wonderful buildings.

Our hotel room and with a balcony, so we felt very European, in this old hotel, with the tile floor and full length French doors to the balcony. The tile work has such a Moorish influence.

A view of the street that ran past our hotel.

Walking down the Ramblas on Sunday morning. Here we are at the bird market. Just being there and listening to all the birds was something.

Here is Rob and I, we're choosing a nesting box. In the end we chose the one that Rob has his hand on.

Here we are at the flower market, further down the Ramblas.

Here are some of the other market stalls.

Crossing from the end of the Ramblas into the waterfront area.

One of the last remaining towers of Barcelona's medieaval walls is found in the shipyards.

A wooden submarine. Inside the renovated Royal Shipyard. Here is a copy of Juan de Austria's Royal Galley, built to mark the 4th centenary of the Battle of Lepanto. As the galleys would have stood in the slipway, ready to slide down to launch. The coastline has moved out since these galleys were launched.

Some views of the interior archways.

A model of a typical old Spanish fishing boat, going out.