Clever girl!

Finally caught up with myself!!!

Another beautiful, sunny day.  When I think back to lockdown one of the things I will remember most will be the lovely weather.  Sod's Law when you can't go anywhere.  (No I am not going to rant about DC and his little trip north.  I have vented my spleen elsewhere, but I am sure you can guess my thoughts.)  

After lunch I finished sketching my plans for some of the birthday cards and made a start on painting them.  Managed to get one completed.  Phew.  That particular birthday is next week, so will get it posted asap as it's got a wee distance to go and the post (well ours anyway) is still taking slightly longer than normal.

This afternoon I was talking to an old (old as in length of friendship rather than age, although I do accept we are getting on :-)) friend who told me his mum has just found out that a very special tree (it was known as The Big Tree :-) in her childhood village (which happens to be my childhood too) had been cut down during the re-generation of the village, and she is very upset about it.

The tree was very special to her and generations of villagers, certainly my gran, my mum and I, all had special memories of it from each of our childhoods. 

For me it was a place to meet friends (get you at 10 o'clock at The Big Tree!), a place to shelter when we were out playing and the rain came on (going home wouldn't have entered our heads; a bit of rain never hurt anyone) and one particularly cold winter in 1980, a place to lean whilst cuddling into my first love as we plotted the stars in the sky though it's bare branches.   A very special tree indeed.

When the village regeneration began, concerns were raised by the villagers about losing the tree.  They made clear to the planners and builders how important the tree was to the village, and promises were made by both to do their best to make sure the tree remained.  

Alas, it was not to be, and despite protests, the tree was sacrificed to the re-generation.  

Fortunately, being the sentimental fool I am, I photographed the demolition of that part of the village and was sure I had photos of the big tree.  Sure enough, after a check, I was able to find four photographs of The Big Tree (including this one.  It's the larger, darker tree to the left of Agnes) so have emailed them to him this evening to send on to his mum.

Unfortunately three of the photos are from an album on my Facebook, so the file size is tiny.  I can't find the original photo files and think they must still be on my old lap top, which I'm not sure still works.  I will investigate though.  

I hope they give her a nice surprise :-)

Oh almost forgot!  Today's blip is Lola with her I've-been-a-very-good-girl-so-please-can-I-have-my-coconut-oil-now-please face :-))  She waits patiently every morning by the cupboard just incase I forget.  Clever girl!  :D 

Oh, backblips!  

Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday

Oh wow!  I can't believe eight years ago today was the eve of me becoming a lady who lunches hardworking home maker!  Working on this report with the family this week to help their son, has taken me right back into work mode, and reminded me of one of the reasons I was glad to stop.  No matter how many successes I was part of, I could never get over the disappointment of not being able to solve everyone's problems in the blink of an eye.  It was good to leave that stress behind.