A poem

An old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet. 


Cranky Old Man


What do you see nurses? . . .. . .What do you see?
What are you thinking .. . when you're looking at me?
A cranky old man, . . . . . .not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .. . . . . . . .. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food .. . ... . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . .'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice . . .the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . .. . . A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not . . . ... lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . .The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking?. .Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse .you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am . . . . .. As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .. . . . as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .. . . .. . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen . . . .. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . .. . . a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . ..my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . . .I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . .. . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . .. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .. ...Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me . . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future ... . . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing .. . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . And the love that I've known.
I'm now an old man . . . . . . .. and nature is cruel.
It's jest to make old age . . . . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . . .. . I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . . . . . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few . . .. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .. . . . .. . . open and see.
Not a cranky old man .
Look closer . . . . see .. .. . .. .... . ME!!

Little fish

 Firstly, we stayed up to watch the opening of the 2012 Olympics, which was fantastic, you can see more at the BBC News well worth a visit for the 6 minute video, I think the lighting of the torch by 7 up and coming athletes, and the torch itself was the best. But with James Bond and Mr Bean, our music,       it was all very British. 

We are a proud nation this morning.

 I am knitting little fish, I have done three so far and will make loads more, it's not what I brought the wool for, but it is fun and simple to knit. I have added an eye to one fish, the photo does not show it very well.

 I was asked to take part in Seaside Yarnscape, which sounds loads of fun.

 If you click on these photo's they should become large enough for you to read, on the above part of the form, they ask for fishes to be sent from all over the world, so grab some yarn and needles if you want to be part of some summer fun, I hope to visit the display once it's up, the closing date is 1st October.

Annette has finished Tribal Penguin, if you want to see her finished penguin or want a chance to stitch him, pop here and leave a comment, it will be great for  him to travel all over.

We are having a weekend at home, I have loads of house work to do, but with all the sport and the sun shine, I really am not in the mood to clean, not done much stitching this week, it's been a busy time.

I hope you have fun this weekend, it's full of laughter, family and sun shine.

What a difference

 Sweet flowers is done for this month, I am pleased again with the pattern, and the changes I have made.

 I have done very little to Tree of Life, but don't you love the shades in this work, I was hoping to have done more, but with the heat wave we are having it's too hot to do anything.

 This is the view across the water, just 10 minutes from our house, last night we went for a walk, it was great just as the evening was cooler, it's still hot, but after all the rain we have had it has been great to have a week of sun shine, today was the hottest day this year, and we have more planned.

The Olympics start on Friday, we are staying home to watch the opening show, having a BBQ in the garden, just hubby and I, both our daughters are working that evening. Josh and Sammy are both unwell, so they are staying inside, I hope to see them over the weekend, I have missed my cuddles.

Work is good, I think I was missed whilst I was away, the office was very busy. every one is happy with the sun shine, we have lawns at the side and back of our building, so we can sit outside at lunch break.

Kev and I are walking much more, which will help move the couple of extra pounds we gained whilst in Cornwall.

I have been looking at all 200+ photo's from the Eden Project, I hope to be able to choose a few for my next blog.

Enjoy the sun shine, we have waited long enough for it.

Cornwall

 Clotted cream teas

Cornish ice creams

Cornish Pasties

Fudge

Fresh Fish

Looe

 Local wildlife, who come with warnings

 Looe

 Mevagissey

  Mevagissey

 Coastline

 Harbours

 Padstow

 Beach life

 Fowey, with a Craft display in the harbour

We had a great time away, avoiding all the big towns and ports, walking, trying all the local foods, no time for reading or sewing, Eden project was great, I will post about it next time, so hard to choose which photo's to share. The weather was so kind, almost no rain, just a few drops here and there, we did not use our coats at all.

Double stitching - TUSAL

 I've done some more on Tree of Life, the first branch is coming along, it has so many shades it is stunning. The next stage of Sweet flowers has been released, so I have swapped back to stitching that, the long panel should be all in grey, but I stitched the centre in pink, it looks very pretty, you can see a green smudge around the leaf, I did loads of unpicking last night, I should not start an new bit whilst watching a film!

 This is at the back of my sitting room, in front of the patio doors, my cats love it here, Purdy should be in the basket with Grace, they lie here and watch the rain.

So far we have had loads of fun, Saturday in the Space room with Josh for his party, loads of kids running around in a very large padded play room, perfect! and even a under 4's room for Sammy.
Sunday in town watching the torch, we had a man arrested for just wearing a mankini! each evening our local news follows the progress of the torch, great fun in the whole area. Yesterday Fliss and Sammy here for the day, it was great to catch up with Fliss, Sammy played with all the toys and gave us loads of chatter time.

Today I'm off for check ups in the hospital, I have to shop, need just one colour for Sweet Flowers, and Tomorrow we head for Cornwall..................

PS it's not raining !

TUSAL - I'm away on Thursday

We were there

 The torch came to Fareham this afternoon.

We all popped into town to see the flame

 Su and I with our flags

 Town was very busy, the most people we have ever seen.

 Look close and you can just see the torch and flame

It was fun, and very busy, we could not meet up with Fliss, Steve and the boys, they were at the other side of the street, but just to many people to get through, and it was dry.

mix it up

 Now I have my new camera I am playing more with my photo's

This is an early play, me in 1973, look at the cars, the silver Ford Cortina was ours. the photo of my daughters was taken at my 50th birthday 70's disco night a full fancy dress party.

 I have not done much on Tree of Life, just not had enough time to sit and stitch, don't look that close, I have a couple of stitches in the wrong place, this little section has loads of shades of the same colour, my photo does not do it justice, the colours are stunning.

My last purchase has just arrived, I have not done a printed pattern since I was a child, when I purchased this I thought I would do it free hand, but the linen is good so I will stitch it  as the kit says.

But for now it's in my to do pile.

We are on holiday this week, and it's going to be a busy one, today is Josh's birthday party, we will spend the afternoon with them at Mobys, they have themed rooms, but as yet we don't know what to expect.

Tuesday I am at the hospital for final check ups. 

Wednesday we head for Cornwall, 

Thursday we are visiting The Eden Project I have wanted to go for ages, it's all under cover which is helpful with our weather. 

Friday we are in Taunton with our grandson Logan, 

Saturday in the village with my Brother, back home on Sunday

A new start

Tree of life, its a start, I do love these colours, this is the ground at the bottom of the tree, because I am using a linen with a higher DPI, I'm not sure what size this will finish as, so I started at the bottom in an effort to not waste too much linen.

It's still raining here, so I plan to stitch tonight, oh for sun shine two days in a row, this is our 4th day of rain, and I mean rain all day, not as bad as else where in the country, but loads of rain.

 Sunday afternoon we managed a small walk, the tide was in so above is looking towards Portsmouth, I love all the little boats. Below another view of Portchester Castle, we did get home before the rain came back.

Hope your week is going well, I'm off to stitch.

All together now

 This is how Patchwork Sampler should look as done by Jan Houghman, its perfect, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. Below is my finished photo's, I did not want the letters  through the design or the centre panel.

 Bottom rows

 Top rows

 Here in the centre was the biggest changes, 

I left out the large panel, and stitched the designs so they crashed into each other, reusing a couple of panels to fill in gaps. All was worked using DMC silks I stitched on Zweigart, Lugana, 25 ct, the fabric has perfect squares, 

 Arty shot, every one has one.

 Purdy loves my new camera, I love this shot, she is so contented with us we can get really close, I tried to get the same shot with Grace, but she is camera shy. Laura my camera is Samsung, PL122, 16.1 mega pixels, with a bright red case! I'm loving it

 My next project, Tree of Life,by Klint, using Madeira threads, I've not used them before, my only change is to use a finer linen, using just one Strand instead of two. Normally I use my DMC silks and then pass on the kit, but as this was a give away I won, I want to stitch it true, no changes I promise.

 Below sums up our summer, the flowers are there, but always raining, we have had 3 days of rain, many places in the south west had 5" of rain yesterday, loads of flooding, I am happy to say we and all our families are OK, but my heart goes out to every one who is suffering because of this weather. And to everyone suffer from the heat in USA, loads of us are having an off summer for so many different reasons.

The wedding dress is done, I have not made it just a few stitches to tidy it up, we changed the straps and also added fastening on the back, so the lace does not have to been done up tight and look scruffy, pics will be here in September. I have a book to read, Peace is every Step, by Thich Nhat Hanh, it's talks of the Buddhist values, helping you to accept what you can't change, and showing how wonderful each day could be.
I'm off to get every thing done, we are watching the Murray final, I hope it will be as good as the ladies yesterday.