Saturday 31 March 2012

Saturday March 31st 2012












So, here we are...my very first blog. 



I have read so many blogs from others, who seem to take such lovely photos of things they have seen and made and write so poetically about their lives.  I wonder whether what I have to say will touch a chord with any who may stop to read as they pass through?  I do hope so!


I have spent so much time, these last 4 years, waiting for the next op and now feel that I am missing so many beautiful things! I have decided that I am going to step out, try new things (hence the blog) and enjoy where I am. 


This last week has been glorious. My mother has been visiting .......oh yes she has (...and she's nearly 92 and drives to Pembrokeshire from the Midlands...on her own...can you beat that? ) I have been out and about with her (and she still runs circles around me even at her age.) 

She was born and brought up in Pembrokeshire and loves to revisit old haunts and talk about times gone by ...'this is the building where I was a communications officer in the wrens' etc. The wonderful weather has really been a bonus!


On Wednesday I took this picture  of Lydstep with it's dramatic rocks.  As I look at it I am reminded that my father in law, when he farmed near Tenby at the start of the last century, used to swim cattle, at low tide, to the Caldy Island monks who had bought them. There was really no other way of transporting them over the water as trying to take them by small boat was even more distressing and hazardous for the cattle!  It seems hard to believe today with all our modern conveniences.








The air was so still that other pictures I took of my mother and daughter standing on the shoreline look as if they are in a studio with a picture backdrop....except of course for the dustbin!  Of course I meant to put that in the picture to show that it is real ......actually I've only just noticed it...typical!



I really enjoy knitting and tapestry and tend to knit in the winter when the light isn't so good and I can knit and watch TV. In the summer, when the light is better, I try my hand at tapestry in the garden room (I'm only calling it that 'cos it sounds posh) where it's brighter and I can look out on the back garden. 







I love my garden and have created it from scratch in the field where we built our house when we retired.  Unfortunately I have been unable to do very much since I had my accident and have had to rely on others to help....a mixed blessing! 

My husband, who has been mowing the grass (you can't call them lawns) has cut back or off anything that he feels gets in his way so we have lost a hedge, that divided the garden, and he has also cut the lower branches off some of the trees that were supposed to, gracefully caress the lawn with their lower branches.....or something (sounds good though doesn't it?)

I took these photos as proof for the time when he may say..."What hedge"?






I find it so hard that I can no longer do the garden and, when I ask/pay others to do it for me, they always have their own ideas and rarely just do as I ask...... just another change that I have had to get used to over these last years......

22 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of blogging! When you put up the follower gadget please let me know so that I may follow you.

    I understand your frustrations about your garden. What helps me is to transform my love of gardening into another art form: sewing, knitting, writing. Do you enjoy the work of garden writers?

    Thank you so much for the lovely comment you left on my last post. I assure you though I am a newbie too. I started last June!

    A bientôt,

    Stephanie

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    1. I really appreciate your comments and suggestions. I do a lot of tapestry and knitting and just enjoy being out in the countryside. I can't say that I have read many garden writers. To tell you the truth I have felt so hard done by over everything that I have rather cut off my nose to spite my face! It is only recently that I have started to pick myself up by the heels and make the most of what I can do!
      Thanks again.
      Joan

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  2. Thank you for commenting on my blog, it's lovely to meet you! Welcome to blogland, I hope you'll enjoy yourself here. I love blogging, and have met so many kindred spirits. Your Mum sounds amazing! We've been building up our garden slowly too, over a number of years, although hubby does most of it. I just help out with seedling trays, etc. I love your positive outlook in the face of difficulties. I wish you lots of nice comments and new friends in blogland. Love, Tina xx

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  3. Blogger just ate my comment! I'll try again....I just wanted to thank you for your lovely comment on my blog, and to welcome you to blogland. You have a wonderful positive outlook, and I'm sure you're going to have a lovely time blogging. Love, Tina xx

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    1. Thanks, Tina, for your feedback. Yes my mum is amazing. She drove herself back to the Midlands today and, thankfully, has arrived safely. We had a wonderful few days so I look forward to sharing a few more 'magic moments' from this last week.
      I've never been much of a correspondent but somehow this is different and I am sure I am going to meet so many wonderful people
      Love
      Joan x

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  4. Hi there, I just came by from Kris @ Simplify and so glad to visit and say welcome to blogging. I love seeing your life in Wales and seeing new sites. It would be so hard to have to recover from your surgeries and not be able to garden. I am going to follow you...come visit me!
    Noreen

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    1. Hi Noreen, this is just so exciting!!! I am already getting to meet some lovely people! Of course I will call in and visit with you. I also look forward to sharing more of our life in Wales and pictures of our wonderful countryside.
      Thanks for your welcome to blogging
      Joan

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  5. Wow, your header is beautiful! Welcome to blogging, I know you'll enjoy it, so much to be inspired by and so many like minded people, I'm sure it will be the start of something brilliant for you. I'm looking forward to reading more! Faith

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    1. Hi Faith, thanks for your welcome to blogging. i'm glad that you like the header. I've tried to make it a little smaller but don't know how. Never mind...it is so beautiful! It's a part of the coast path that I walked a few years ago and, in fact is my favourite! It is near St Davids and is taken in May which, to my mind, is the best time of the year to see the wonderful wild flowers we have here.
      Good to know you
      Joan

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  6. Welcome to blogland. So sorry to hear about your accident. I sprained my left ankle last November and it took months to heal and still isn't 100%. I can't imagine breaking both ankles. You certainly live in a green and beautiful part of the world. I live in a desert country where everything basically looks the same all year long, no matter the season. Wishing you a great new week. Tammy

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    1. Hi Tammy, great to hear from you! Yes, it does take a long time for ankles to repair. I suppose because they take our whole weight! We are very fortunate here to be so green. That's because we have quite a lot of rain and misty weather but it's worth it as you can see. I hope to visit your blog tomorrow and see the photos of your part of the world. Isn't this so exciting getting to chat to people all over the world!? Joan

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  7. Hello there to you!!! Thanks so much for visiting me at Simplify! I am always so thrilled to make a new friend. And you....all the way from the UK! I am so pleased to meet you! I am so hoping to visit your country one day. I have a real thing for anything English!! How lovely to have had your Mom for a nice visit. And wonderful that she is still so active and driving even! Wow! Sorry to read that you have had an accident and can no longer do all that you wish to do. I am sure that is so difficult. I too knit and crochet, and garden. We shall have much in common. Do keep the blogging up now. I will be back!!!!
    Hugs,
    Kris

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  8. Hello Pembrokeshire Lass! Your blog is off to a very nice start, and I must say the picture above is so realistic that I felt a twinge of vertigo as it opened up on the screen! It's a beautiful part of the world where you are, and I look forward to seeing more of it, and hearing of your adventures. I love gardening also, and it gets harder as we get older, and especially you with surgeries to recover from, but we will keep on and do what we can and call it good!

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    1. Hi, good to hear from you....sorry about the vertigo though! I love living here and feel so grateful that I have such a priviledge. I look forward to sharing a little of our life on line and, also learning about others.
      Yes we will keep on keeping on.... I like your saying 'and call it good'1
      Have a good week
      Joan

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  9. Hallo Kris, thanks for replying to my blog. I am so enjoying meeting all you lovely people! My Mum arrived back at her home safely today I'm glad to say. It's always a worry until I hear that she's back OK as it's 200 miles of busy motorway. She's an excellent driver but I worry about the others on the road!
    I haven't really tried crocheting. My younger daughter crochets all sorts of wonderful things. It's something I would like to do but I find that there just aren't enough hours in the day!
    I look forward to sharing more of your lovely pictures
    Love
    joan

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  10. Hello and welcome to Blogland, I found you on Tina's blog. You live in a beautiful part of the world and my DH and I and our family have spent many happy hours on holiday in Wales. I live in the West Midlands. Unil recently my Mum was driving up to us from Somerset on the M5 to visit. She has recently had to have her appendix removed and I am hoping she will fully recover, she is 82 - so a 'youngster compared to your mum. I enjoy knitting, a little crochet, sewing,sugarcraft and cardmaking all those and four grandchildren do not leave a lot of spare time. I find it difficult to garden now due to health issues but direct DH as he would pull up plants and leave weds if left to his own devices bless him. I am off to 'follow you' after this and hope you will pop to my blog and say hello. Anne x

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  12. Your header photo is so amazing. I can't imagine actually seeing a cliff like that.
    Thanks for your comment on my blog. You haven't enabled your email (edit profile) so I couldn't respond via email to you.

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  13. Having just done a Tenby to Midlands run today - and that was on the trains - and found that a trial, I bow to the superior stamina of your 92 year old mother, driving it.

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  14. I am going to enjoy reading your blog and look whats going on in Pembrokeshire where a lot of my family live my parents live across the border in Carmarthenshire.

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  15. Thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my blog, and please excuse my tardy return visit! Welcome to Blogland - I'm a bit of a newbie myself, having just celebrated my first blogiversary. What a breathtakingly beautiful header picture you have - I would love to visit that spot.

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  16. Hello, so nice to have discovered your blog! What a lovely photo of the cliffs. I'll be checking out your other posts.

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Thanks so much for commenting on my blog. I look forward to reading your thoughts and ideas!