A Fresh Start

It's rainy and foggy and damp and drippy outside my window today, but the good news is that the snow is melting fast and giving us a fresh start to the New Year! I can actually see some green grass out there.

And more good news... my rotten Christmas head cold/flu is mostly gone, my 2010 bills are all paid (which is what you're supposed to do every First of January), and I only have a few more unpacked boxes languishing in the basement waiting for my attentions.

So now it's time to think about those pesky New Year Resolutions.

Well, I don't smoke, spit, drink to excess, swear like a trooper, commit violent acts towards helpless furry animals or otherwise misbehave myself (obviously, I'm really boring), so there's not much there to promise to reform.

However, I have a feeling that 2011 will be a good year. So many changes in my life have taken place in the past few months. Some happy, some sad. Some of the good things..... I'm living in a nice new house, I'll be meeting new neighbours, making new friends. My family are all well and remain employed (thank goodness), my two little grandboys are thriving. YoungerSon and his family live within walking distance. I have good health (apart from that nasty Christmas cold) and I am so thankful. Some of the sad things.... a good friend moved away, but not so far that I can't visit, and there were funerals for people who passed away much too young. I wonder what this year holds in store?

Wherever you are in Blogland..... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

All Moved In!

It's said that moving house is one of the most stressful experiences in life, right up there with birth, marriage and death, and it's true.
The actual move went very smoothly, with the moving truck and a posse of beefy men arriving on time, the loading and unloading was a breeze with only two trips from the old house to the new.
But from the next day on, I was incommunicado!
The phone company installed the phone, but no internet.
So I had a phone for a couple of days.
But then I was accidently disconnected while they tried to connect the internet.
Which affected the security system, so every time I opened the front door, the alarm went off.
WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH for 5 minutes.
I don't think my new neighbours appreciated this very much. Especially at 6:00am when I went off to my babysitting duties.
And to top it off, the doorknob between the house and the garage broke, so I was forced to use the front door if I wanted to go outside.

I was in seclusion.

But all is repaired now.... new doorknob mechanism, phone and internet are working, but now my monitor screen has died, so I am working with a borrowed screen, which will have to be returned very soon, so I'll be a non-blogger again for a while! So if you don't see me commenting on your blogs, you know why. sigh....

Meanwhile, I'm 90% unpacked, and I'll have to start preparing for Christmas. It snowed last week so we are going to have a White Christmas for sure.

Time Out.....

I'm on the move, will be blogging from my new house in a few days, see you then!
Meanwhile, back to the packing...... now, where the heck did I leave that sticky tape.....

Remembering

In Memory of

Private JOHN TURNBULL CHANDLER

175142, 5th Coy., Canadian Machine Gun Corps who died age 20 on 03 July 1917.

Only son of John William and Agnes Chandler, of Gedney Dyke, Holbeach, Lincs.

Native of Southea, nr. Wisbech.

Remembered with honour

BULLY-GRENAY COMMUNAL CEMETERY, BRITISH EXTENSION,

BULLY-GRENAY, FRANCE

John Turnbull CHANDLER was my mother's cousin. He was born 31 August 1896 in Lincolnshire, England, and was known as Jack.

Jack left England to learn farming techniques in Canada and settled in Grimsby, Ontario. He joined the 86^th Machine Gun Battalion of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 13 August 1915 at Welland, Ontario, stating that his date of birth was 1894, not 1896. At that time he was already a member of the 44^th Regiment of the Canadian Militia. His enlistment papers show him to be “apparent age 21 years 8 months”, 5’4”, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, a member of the Church of England, and fit to serve with the Forces.
His life ended in France on 3 July 1917, serving with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps.

His obituary:

GEDNEY DYKE SOLDIER FALLS We regret to report the death in action of Pte. John Turnbull Chandler, son of the late Mr. John W. Chandler, schoolmaster, Parson Drove, and of Mrs. Chandler, schoolmistress, Gedney Dyke. The deceased was educated at Barbourne College, Worcester (1908) and Framlingham College (1909-1912). He learned farming and went to Canada in April 1912. He enlisted in January 1916 in Grimsby, Ontario, came over to Shorncliffe June 1916, went to France October 1916, and was killed in action July 3rd. He was only 20 years of age. He leaves a mother and six sisters to mourn his loss.

I visited his grave in France with my two sons in 2005.

Shadow

My living room window used to look out on an empty lot overgrown with wild cherry trees... so pretty in the spring.... but the land was sold for a new house to be built about six years ago, and since then, this has been my view.

Another reason to be glad I am moving.

What I've Been Up To

I haven't been a very good blogger over the past couple of months.
And I have a really good excuse.
I've been house hunting. I've looked at big, small, old, new, detached, semi-detached, town houses, condos.
But I've finally got myself a new home and I move in a couple of weeks.
So now I'm doing this.

And this.

And since I last posted, this happened. Yes, I had a birthday. A significant one too. I can't imagine how I got to be this old (not telling just HOW old) but it's better than the alternative!

So the whole family got together and we went for a birthday dinner at the Mandarin Chinese Buffet. Mmmm... buffet style Chinese food, and if that doesn't suit you, there's pizza, or roast beef, or spare ribs or sushi.... I love the baked salmon and the spicy shrimp, and the hot and sour soup, and the mango salad... it's all so good!
And then home for a cuppa and fancy birthday cupcakes.
And finally both my grandboys. It's hard to get a picture of them both at the same time, they move so fast.

We've had a couple of new family additions in UK recently. William (baby brother to Oliver) arrived 4 weeks ago and baby Charlie arrived last week, cousins to each other and new second cousins for Callum and Isaac. That makes 5 little boys born in the last 3 years in our family.
And in The Bride's family there are 4 more little boys all under 4 years old.

We're aiming for our very own football team!

Jungle Creatures on the Loose!

That's it, folks! Hallowe'en is over and done for another year.
I spent the evening shelling out at YoungerSon's house, and there were only about 10 doorbell rings. Probably because it was a cold night, and it's in an older neighbourhood with not many young families.
Oh well, that means more chocolate for us!

Here's Mr Pumpkinhead before he got wrestled yelling and screaming dressed into his costume.

But once inside the cosy tiger outfit, Isaac was a happy boy. Although he didn't really get what was going on. Next year will be different!

Meanwhile, Callum went out trick-or-treating with his cousins, he was "the elephant in the room".

Watch out for wild animals!
It can be downright dangerous out there!