Angel Cards

After a hectic day doing CatCalls including plant watering , a new visit including Kittens as mentioned earlier , an afternoon at the beach , search for ice cream and fish and chips , we finally collapsed and whilst Harvey ( whom I note is now being called Harv'ster . We always seem to add ..ster to the end of names thus Hedgehog the guinea pig , Pigster ) in line skates in front of the window with Liam , Nat hangs out somewhere with Georgie , D tidies up the kitchen before joining us , Laura and I settle down for a spot of Angel Carding which Laura has been building up to all day . I multi task and upload arty photo shots to Redbubble at the same time , ( www.redbubble.com) , so that Michelle who left me a message about buying a greetings card of one of my pictures , can still do so if she wants to ( Thanks Michelle I've had a great time on the site and received some positive feedback already ) .

Angel Cards in case you haven't seen them are something we use occasionally . A set of Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue , given me by my great friend Margaret Anne , invite you to focus on a question or issue , choose a card from the pack and will receive a message or guidance from a beautiful angel . Laura selects the card Friendship and declares the written information accurate and pertinent as she feels the time is right in her life to make New Friends , though I am sceptical about her declaration that she has none . Harvey points out the names of a few people he regards as her friends but she declares they are acquaintances only . I am shocked that she doesn't regard me as a friend but D and she are clear that I am Family and this is different . I regard myself as having several very close friends without whom my life would be considerably less fun , in fact less manageable altogether and would certainly regard her as a friend as well as sister but ....
D refuses a card , unusual for him , so I chose and come up with Retreat . This turns out to be an exhortation to rest and suggests I may be altogether pushing myself too hard . I am advised to spend some time alone in quiet thought and to take time to reflect on my heart's true feelings and desires . D gives an involuntary groan at my side , and L snorts derisively thinking possibly that of all the people she knows I am the best at Resting .

We talk D into taking a card , noting that so far each has been pleased with their card , and I suggest that he may in fact find one called " Scuttle about and Keep Busy " thus giving him divine guidance to follow his heart's desire . It is hard to establish whether or not he is truly amused . He choses Freedom which indicates that he may be feeling Trapped right now by life conditions , but points out that he is in fact the only Jail Keeper surfacing in his own life . Harvey choses the Emerging card which tells him he is awesome which of course is true in every way . N is still out so misses out but would probably have turned down the offer of a card , finding them "spooky" .

Meanwhile my uploading is going well and within minutes of posting one or two of my favourite pictures I have favourable comments posted which makes it all worthwhile .

We are all suntanned from the beach , the bathroom , hall , porch are all full of sand so we will crunch underfoot till further notice .

CatCalls... the beach

Time for a quick post whilst preparations are in motion for the beach . For the entire summer holidays so far our porch , hall and bathroom have been permanently crunching with sand , but this is the first time I've joined in . There has also been an issue with Missing Towels . And children who take them to the beach but seem oblivious of the niceties of picking them up and carrying them back , now that they are old enough to take themselves to the sea. A day off for the adults but there are consequences . We have discovered however ( or rather Laura has ) that Primark sells excellent bath towels for £3 each. Today the adults are going to the beach too and there are male children wanting to come and asking whether we will be joining in the making of the fortress games . The female children have considered the options and taken themselves off to town shopping for school clothes . Although admittedly I find it hard to think back to a time when I was thirteen I find it hard to believe I would have gone to town to buy school uniform items without parental supervision . But maybe its just that N has weighed up the options ( Mother moaning if we have to attend more than three shops when its hot and busy in town and preferring to pop into Cafe Royal for coffee and ricotta muffins every ten minutes rather than Pret a Manger or McDonalds ) and finds it much simpler just to take the cash and organise her own life. Or maybe thats just the difference between being thirteen in the seventies and now thirty years on .
As I ruminate quietly here , the beach preparations are stepping up . I had better make a move . Blogging can make you very unpopular .

Malcolm Pointin

Despite being away we managed to watch the documentary about Barbara and Malcolm Pointin.( Malcolm and Barbara :Love's Farewell ) Shocked by all she had to do , how she managed to keep on doing everything for him for all those years whilst he became more and more difficult to manage . Particularly shocked by his aggression , and by how she seemed to manage not to retaliate when he made definite attacks on her pulling her hair hitting her squeezing her hands very hard and generally appearing to shove her and manhandle her . However much she knew this was not the "real Malcolm " whom she said had always been a very loving and gentle man , I still find myself wondering whether in her shoes and under extreme duress I might have snapped and attacked back with verbal violence or even actual physical hurting . You hope not , but ......
Incredible to think that he survived for so long and that she went in caring for him day after day , and by the looks of things with very little support . Knowing all the furore about whether Paul Wilson had actually filmed the moment of death , I found it hard to grasp what this was all about . There was enough there to exercise people about the tragedy of Alzheimers and what little help is there for those whose lives are affected . It seemed to me that Malcolm started dying well over ten years ago and that it was this ( process of )"dying" and "death" which interested Paul Wilson , rather than an attempt to film any one particular moment .

Keswick

I have dozens of Lake District type photos but this is the one that appeals at the minute , Coffee shop newly opened with amazing grass in pot outside.

Guinea Pigs watching Big Brother

The Guinea Pigs are not amused ....though they seem to enjoy family life . In the kitchen they squeal loudly whenever the fridge door opens , especially if its D as he can't resist them . In the sitting room they seem to make constant little twittering noises .

Keswick , Cumbria

Keswick this morning . We packed up and left Lamplugh early and drove to Keswick and found a coffee place which just opened yesterday . Consequently they didnt know how to operate the tills and had not worked out the difference between a carrot cake and a cheeesecake and kept trying to deliver us the wrong order . But when it arrived it was delicious and the ambience was just what we needed for leaving the Lakes and the return home , which was traumatic for various reasons .

The one I' m struggling with most is the broken laptop. There seems to be a loose connection between the top and the bottom ( base ? keyboard , not sure what its called ) and every few minutes the screen loses all definition and cant be used . When it is working , and I'm assuming this is connected , its almost impossible to get upper case . Im worried because I want to get back to blogging but also once the Day Job is operational again , I shall need it urgently as I have four days report writing mostly for court deadlines .

Three CatCalls tomorrow to look foreward to, and one of them involves Kittens . Bliss.

Auntie Laura is still here , and is watching Big Brother with two Guineas on her lap . They chunter quite happily , though they are less than impressed with Carol's moaning ( apparently ) .

windermere...and broken laptop

one of the places we spent the last few days . .... great weather , only one splash of rain just as we set off to walk round Buttermere . So wierd to be back in a full sized house , (with full sized cats and guinea pigs ). But , and tragic this for blogging , my laptop is unwell .
If i disappear temporarily , thats why . Argh ......