Friday 20th February 2009

After a few damp, dull, dismal days it was wonderful to wake up to bright sunshine this morning. I was even more enthusiastic about leaving my warm, cosy, comfy bed.

Outside the daffodils are spiking among the fallen autumn leaves and the snowdrops are beginning to show their white flowers. We're lucky enough to have wild rabbits in the garden, although there is always the danger of wringing your ankle if you don't avoid the places where they've been digging. They seem to have their set routes and you can see worn paths on the grass where they move from one part of the garden to another. Among the wild rabbits is a lovely black one, presumably the result of a pet bunny escaping or being set free and mating with it's wild cousin. There used to be 2 blck bunnies, but Poy Poy caught one when they were babies and proudly brought it in to show me it's still warm, but not moving, body before he ate most of it. Nature can be so cruel!

There have been more birds about this week too: our resident blackbird with a white circle above his eye, the territorial robin who tries to scare the other birds off 'his' suet cake on the bird feeder, the little flock of goldfinches who visit every day for the niger seeds I put out especially for them, the chaffinch, great tits, blue tits, starlings and pigeons. We've seen not only one, but a pair of green woodpeckers digging for worms in the grass this week and last week noticed the less often seen greater spotted woodpecker banging his beak on the bark of a tree at the bottom of the garden.

The squirrels are still scampering around the garden, running up and down the trees and digging in my plant pots, presumably for the chestnuts they hid there in the autumn. Every spring when I remove the dead leaves from my plants I find lots of nuts in the tubs, some with shoots, some mouldy and I have to remove them and replant the things I actually want in them.

We're so lucky to live here! I've been renting this place for 10 years now and I'm so attached to it that I'll hate to leave whenever the time comes. Even the fact that the bungalow is very delapidated and needs a lot of tlc doesn't lessen the affection I feel for my lovely rural home. I can look out of the window at any time and there are so many wonderful things to see, I could take photos constantly.

Now, for example, from where I sit at the computer I can see the sun in a beautiful blue sky, with fluffy clouds moving slowly with the wind and white lines from aeroplanes flying to somewhere warmer. I can see flowers beginning to appear, birds looking for food, rabbits digging or eating grass and leaves moving gently in the light breeze. I can hear only the sounds of nature and they are so peaceful and calming.

It's a wonderful life!

St Valentine's Day - Our Wedding Anniversary

So, yesterday was our 6th Wedding Anniversary and what a lovely day it was! The sun was shining and it was warmer than it had been - no cold nose or icy toes for me.

Some time ago, when we were in Norwich, we saw some lovely glasses and decided to get them for each other and not buy anything else this year. They were champagne flutes with gold patterns on and were reduced in the January sales. Then I found two crystal wine glasses, also in the sales, which I knew Paul would like and I bought them too. I also decided to get him a little wooden heart as an extra present.


Paul was really naughty and he'd 'forgotten' that we'd decided not to buy presents this year and had bought me some more lovely things. As well as the flowers he brought home the other day, there was a cloth bag with 'I Love You' embroidered on it, a heart shaped chocolate lolly, a tiny musical box in a bag with red roses on, a red hanging heart, some perfume and lots of little heart shaped buttons. He's also found a heart shaped stone, painted it red and put our names on it - which I thought was very romantic.



In our living room we have a glass topped coffee table which has compartments so you can display things in it. This is where we keep our collection of hearts which we've bought for each other over the past eight and a half years that we've known each other, and that's where I've put the buttons and the painted stone.






As well as presents there was the food! And drink! For breakfast Paul made us bacon and tomato sarnies. For lunch I served grilled goat's cheese with cranberry sauce on heart shaped toast with salad. But the star of the day was definitely the evening meal. We started with seared scallops on salad leaves, accompanied by 'real' champagne. The bottle was one which came from Dad's after he died, so we raised a glass to him and I tearily remembered him as we celebrated our first anniversary without him.

Our main course was rump steak with chips, baby veg and my first attempt at Bearnaise sauce - a little runny, but very tasty! I was still drinking champagne at this point, but Paul had moved on to red wine. We were watching Harry Hill's TV Burp while we ate and the alcohol made it seem even funnier than usual and we were laughing so much that we both had tears in our eyes again.

For dessert I'd made white chocolate pannacotta and served it with dark chocolate sauce. I made this once before and it turned out really well, but I couldn't find the recipe so I tried another one and it wasn't quite as good. It tasted wonderful (as does all chocolate) but didn't look very good. This was accompanied by the most amazing pudding wine, which tasted almost like a very good sweet sherry. I'm so glad I looked round the January sales as this was another bargain - from Boots, surprisingly!

The continuing story

Now, where was I? Oh yes, sitting in The White Hart with Paul during our first (blind) date!

Paul confessed to me that he had to go into Boots and look at the hair colour counter to find out what auburn looked like.

As soon as we met and started talking we felt at ease in each other's company. I felt as though I never wanted to go home again, which sounds like something out of a film, but which was certainly true for me that day. I suppose we had some sort of connection, maybe we really were soulmates, I don't know. When my friend phoned, as arranged, I said that everything was fine and I was safe. By that time Paul and I were deciding to have a meal together and carry on talking.

So, that's how we met!

Now it's eight and a half years later and it seems as though we've always been together. I look back on that first day and feel so glad that we met. One strange thing is that Paul's advert was supposed to be in a different newspaper, but they put it in my local one by mistake. The other is that I never used to buy papers and had picked one up in someone else's house after they suggested I had a look after I moaned that I had no one to go out with. It looks as though someone was making sure we got together!

For some time we spent a fortune on petrol so we could drive backwards and forwards between my home and Paul's, which were about 40 miles apart. Paul had three jobs at the time, one of which was working nights, and he also looked after his two sons before and after school. How he managed to fit me in too I'll never know. I lived on my own, but I went back to my former marital home to look after my daughters when their Dad left for work, got them up, made them breakfast and took them to school. I then collected them after school, took them home and made tea, which was ready for them to eat with their Dad, while I came back home - alone and miserable - for my solitary tea. Paul and I managed to see each other in between all these things and spent a great deal of time on our phones talking to each other and leaving messages on each other's answering machines.

I still have some of Paul's messages which I recorded from my answering machine onto a dictaphone - not very good quality, but good enough for me to feel how I felt back then when I heard them for the first time. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him and, fortunately, he eventually realised he felt the same way too.

A New Blog - Day One

Today four things arrived: three anniversary cards and snow! The snow's all gone now, but the cards are displayed in the living room, along with a bunch of mixed flowers for our aniversary and a bunch of red roses for St Valentine's Day - both from Paul.

It's hard to believe that we've been married for almost six years now and known each other for eight and a half.

So, how did we meet? I decided to look in the 'lonely heart' adverts in the local newspaper and I ringed three that looked promising. I had to phone a number, listen to a message and then I had the chance to leave my own. I listened to the messages. Number one sounded as though he wanted to get married so he could stay in the country, number two sounded as though he was just trying to meet as many different women as possible and number three had a pleasant voice and sounded fairly normal! I decided to leave a message, but what should I say? He was five years younger than me, divorced and had two sons. I was divorced and had two daughters, so that was no problem, but should I be honest about my age?

I can't remember exactly what I said, but I gave my name, a rough idea of where I lived, mentioned my daughters and gave my interests: reading, music and computer games. I also left my phone number. I don't think I expected to hear anything back, but sometime later the phone rang and it was Paul. Surprisingly it was easy to talk to him and before we realised it, quite a long time had passed. We arranged to meet at The White Hart, roughly half way between us, for a drink and, maybe, something to eat. I described myself as having auburn hair. It was tempting to say I'd be holding a newspaper or wearing a red rose on my lapel, but that would have been too corny! Paul told me he had dark hair and would be driving a silver VW Jetta.

When the day arrived, I told a friend where I was going and arranged for them to phone me after half an hour, in case I needed an excuse to get out of an awkward situation and also in case Paul turned out to be an axe murderer. I was wearing a long black skirt with tiny embroidered flowers around the hem, a silvery grey shirt and black sandals. My hair was long and loose and I'd tried to do my make-up so it looked as though I wasn't wearing any - if you know what I mean! The attractive look was completed by two bandaged big toes - you don't want to know!

I arrived early at The White Hart and sat where I could look out of the window and see the entrance to the car park, but not be looking directly towards the door where Paul would walk in. I tried to look relaxed and natural, while trying to arrange and pose myself in the most flattering way possible. Difficult when you have two heavily banadaged toes; oh how much fun it would have been to turn them into bumble bees or something for a laugh, but no - not a good idea and not the right impression to give.

Almost exactly at the agreed time, I saw a silver car drive into the car park. I didn't know if it was a Jetta - well, I'm a woman aren't I? I could see that the driver had dark hair, so I thought it might well be 'him'. After he'd parked his car, he walked in through the door and, after a quick look around, walked over to me. I had time to see what he looked like - not tall, slim, short dark hair, blue eyes, dark trousers, navy jacket with brown collar. For some inexplicable reason, as he walked towards me I thought "This is the one I want, but he won't be interested in me!"

To be continued.....