D Day

If you've been hanging around with me for a while, you may remember THIS DAY back in 2010 when the boys beloved Sheffield Wednesday were relegated to a lower league.  We had tears and everything.  The young man remembers it being the worst day of his life.  Well today, Sheffield Wednesday have an opportunity to make amends.  The whole scenario is very complicated if you are not a footy fan, but basically, if they win today, they will automatically be promoted back up again. SO THEY NEED TO WIN! If they lose or draw, they go into a play off and whoever wins that play off gets promoted.

Now I have know Sheffield Wednesday long enough to know that their potential to disappoint is huge, so for me, its not over until the fat lady sings.
Today they are playing Wycombe who are being relegated this year.  They are only bringing about 200 fans, but as fans are segregated, this meant that thousands of seats would be empty and thousands of fans wouldn't be able to get to watch the match.  The solution has been to shove the Wycombe fans into a small corner and put some marshalls and space between the other 5000 seats that have now been sold to the Wednesday fans.  It highlighted the difference between male and female thinking when I offered my solution.  I thought that they should have given over the "Hospitality" suite to the poor relegated fans and let them have a bit of pleasure out if the day, releasing ALL of the   seats in the ground.

On top of all this, the other team in exactly the same position are local rivals Sheffield United.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping to occupy myself in the garden!

A walk in the park

On Sunday the Dancing Queen and I spent a lovely day walking through the parks in Sheffield that eventually lead out to the Peak District.

We started off after a breakfast butty through Endcliffe Park which was chocca block full of families enjoying the day.

Each park that you walk through has a personality of its own. They get more like woodlands as you head out towards the moors.
I loved her company. Hubby was at work and she had the day off as the shops were shut. We chatted and laughed for hours. We both enjoyed the exercise and fresh air.

I love the way she takes the same amount of pleasure as I do from the tiniest of details.

A Mothers Day walk

For Mothers Day, my sis and I took Mum for a walk around Cusworth Hall and gardens in Doncaster.

It was a gorgeous day, but fairly cold. A 2 minute freak hailstone shower had us dashing inside the hall for cover.
The hall is now a museum of Doncaster life. I loved this photograph of ladies working in the railway offices. I complain that I sit on my backside all day at work, but I reckon I would complain more if I was made to stand all day instead!
Mum liked all the old appliances on display. If I had a £1 for every time she said "We had one of theses" I would have been considerably richer when I came out of the hall!

I loved this photo too. I wonder what these two were gossiping about over the fence?




Once the hail cleared, we had a lovely wander around the grounds and lake.

You can't tell how massive the buds are on this tree, but they were HUGE!
Its lovely to see signs of spring.

Netherwood

I recently reconnected with a long lost school friend via a chance meeting with her lovely Mum in my local village hall. I gave her my email address to pass onto my school pal, and within a couple of days, I had received a lovely long email from her detailing what she was up to and generally catching up on the last 30 years (I last saw her early in 1982!!). We exchanged a few emails, arranged to meet up when she ventures north to see her parents, added each other as friends on facebook, and then she mentioned that her sister had written a novel which I might like as she has based it on the area that she grew up in - Hoyland Common and also Wentworth. The book is called Netherwood by Jane Sanderson.

I really loved it and can't wait for the second book in the series (which is out in September). I don't want to give the plot away, but it is the tale of a big house who's owners discover coal in seams beneath their land - like the Fitzwilliams of Wentworth Estate did, and the folk that live in mining villages that spring up around it. Whilst it is a novel, a lot of the names of the people, the roads that they live on etc are very familiar to me, and the story of a mining tragedy is so very familiar too, as I was brought up in a mining village. You can buy the book in Waterstones and from Amazon. I hope they turn it into a Sunday evening TV series - I could even audition to be an extra!! Jane, if you read this, you MUST insist that I get a part - write it into the terms and conditions!

It made me really think about how my female relatives coped loosing the breadwinner of the family back in the days when there were no state benefits, and no jobs for widows to do - other than take in washing. I think that both my great grandmothers lost their husbands young, and both re-married. In a lot of instances, this would have been the only way to stay out of the workhouse, as the rent on a miners tied cottage would still have had to be paid.

The man that my great grandma Ottway married after her husbands death was a hard drinking bachelor called Jerry. She died herself not many years after marrying him, leaving my dear grandma - only about 13 years old - to take care of her brothers and sisters, and her step father - Jerry. "T'owd Jer" as he was known to us all, lived to be a grand 94 years old - I remember him well as he lived with my grandparents for the rest of his life. My grandad did not get on with him at all, but he put up with living with him for almost all his married life. He did once suggest putting him in an old peoples home, but the response he got from grandma is unprintable! T'owd Jer was a cross between Steptoe and Compo (from last of the summer wine). Up to the end, he would dress every day in his suit and tootle off along the road to the pub at lunch time, and then after a pint or two, would amble back to sit in his wooden chair. Like most men back then, he never lifted a finger to help in the house, and so it really was a blessing to him that he had married my widowed great grandmother. I loved him to bits - my mum says that he was on his last legs until I was born, but my birth seemed to revive him! When he was ill in bed near the end of his life (I would have been about 10 years old), I used to read the newspaper to him and play the radio for him. He died whilst we were away on our weeks holiday to Blackpool, and I felt sure he would have got better by the time we got home.

Spotted

With a million and one household chores waiting to be done, I decided that because the weather looked fine, I should make the most of it, and also drag the teenager out as he is in danger of getting Vitamin D deficiency from never leaving his room! (only to attend college and parties!)

He only grunts at me when he is in the house, but when we walk together he talks my ears off! Ive learned all about environmental issues and polar ice melts today.

We spotted plenty of blue sky today,
And very early daffodils sprouting - unheard of in January round these parts. Get ready to jump in the car at a moments notice Rosie!!
We spotted this very unusual car,
with its terrifying passenger!
We spotted clumps of snowdrops,
and old blacksmiths forge
pretty little gatehouse,
parkland
and very pretty cottages.
I'd purposely stayed close to home as he is doing 2 parties today - the 1st one at 5pm - a murder mystery, and the 2nd one a bit later at someones house (some parents are barmy!). I was required for taxi duty, so I basically hung around all day - only to be told as he dashed out of the house at 4.30pm that he had got another lift!

But tomorrow is all mine! and I have a few options up my sleeve.

Another Time

I'm at the stage with my preparations for Christmas where I panic. I do the same every year, I get SUPER organised, and then decide something major - that I know I don't have time for, but I go ahead and try and fit it in anyway! Yesterday, I was laying a new kitchen floor, and today I decided to have a huge sort out of a few drawers. However, I'm so glad I did. I found this.

My Grandad had once been an employee of the Fitzwilliam estate. When he died, we found this amongst some of his belongings. I'm glad I saved it.

As I crank up the heating to keep us cosy, and set about wrapping all the presents and stuff the freezer with food, I am reminded that times would have been very different when Grandiwad (my name for him) received his Christmas letter from his employer back in 1944.

Prom night

Its the young mans school prom night. My friend came round to make the boys buttonholes, and beautiful corsages for their prom dates.

Its weird to see your scruffy little boy scrub up into such a fine young man.

Some feelings never leave you.

On Sunday, we had been instructed by the young man to meet on a local playing field - with a picnic - to meet others for an impromptu mass rounders game. It was something that his circle of friends had decided to do and invite their families. All in all over 70 people turned up.

It was great! We met up with some families that we have known since our children were born, others that we had lost contact with, and others that we had never met - all lovely families.
We parents commented how we felt privileged to be considered cool enough to be seen out with in public!!!
And then it happened.

After our picnic, we were all summoned to the middle of the field where 2 captains picked the teams. INSTANTLY I was transported back to EVERY rounders game I have played since I was 5 years old - and ALWAYS the last to be picked for the teams. And I was - the last to be picked. (Young mans best friends mum told me later that it was always the plan! - gits!!!). Years of therapy wasted as all the feelings of sporting humiliation came flooding back!
I only half shamed myself though. On my first go, I hit the ball - with the stick!! something I had never done before EVER!!! Only to be caught out!

My second go was a bit more embarrassing. I hit it again - miracle! and ran to first post. The next person hit it, and I ran to what I thought was 2nd post - only to be told that the post was actually just a fielder, so they dobbied me out at the actual 2nd post!

As my kids would say "Its never fair!". I get past 50, and suddenly become good at rounders - only to be thwarted by a confused state of mind!

All's good in the 'hood

Many thanks to Little Blue Mouse for asking. I can report that the big news here at Heartshaped Towers is just as the lovely Monty Don said, my Bay Tree is showing new green shoots - HURRAY!!! I was so excited when I discovered them, that I sent hubby, who was working a night shift a very excitable text. He didn't reply to it. It turns out they were in the middle of a high profile bust on a drug dealer cum other nasty crime committer. He said my text made him smile. When he is immersed in some nightmare world dealing with people who are in cahoots with the devil, I remind him that there is a wonderful normal life waiting for him when he gets home.

The baby birds are now very audible from every part of the garden. Its looking a bit of a mess around the box, but we try to leave it alone. I have placed a tray of lettuce that I am growing on top of the potato growing tub though as a soft landing for when they start to explore. Mum and Dad bird are extremely busy and it's lovely to sit and watch them bringing the most enormous worms etc back to the box.
Many Strawberry plants seem to have sprung between the other plants. Free fruit !!!
I'm thrilled that my Delphiniums have not been affected by the cold winter - in fact they look stronger than ever this year - and almost ready to bloom.
Hubby bought this rose a couple of years ago and we planted it at the front of the house, where it never grew a centimetre! After giving it a couple of years, and it looking fairly dead, we thought we would try it in the back garden and low and behold it has the most gorgeous couple of blooms on it.
Mother nature has thrown in a couple of freebies so far. I think that this is an Aqualigia (spelling?).
It's coming up to my favourite time in my garden and I appreciate every minute I spend in it.