Welcome to Spring and a trip down Memory Lane for Mother’s Day

Hello everyone. It’s feeling a bit warmer now. Still raining. I’ve still got my vest on, but you know, it’s quite warm today. Hurray! Spring at last. I’ve been limping along through these winter months. This is so welcome.

The fruit and veg challenge is ongoing, and becoming more challenging. Here is this week’s progress:

62 cannellini beans

63 Brussels sprouts

64 chickpeas

65 broad beans

66 dried fig

67 butternut squash (in ravioli)

68 baby kale

69 baby chard

70 kidney beans (yummy home made chilli con carne)

71 mandarins

72 Jack fruit chips (a bit hard and get stuck in your teeth 🤪)

73 pinto beans

74 borlotti beans

75 cauliflower

76 sweet potatoes (I like to make half and half normal and sweet potato mash 😋).

So, 24 left to go by the end of March. Will I do it? Well, yeah, I reckon I will. My Mum said to me once that I have a steely determination and she didn’t know where I got it from. I am determined to reach 100, so she is right, I probably will 😊.

Talking of mothers, it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow in the UK. I’ll be going to see my Mum in the care home; I see her every weekend. Every visit now is a special occasion where I appreciate her and she appreciates me. We are aware that time is precious and she’s now in the final chapter of her story and the end stage of our relationship, where in some ways I am the parent now. I was going to make her a card with a photo of her parents’ beautiful garden, but when I just got out our pack of greeting card photo paper I realised it was faded and yellowed over time and looked awful. So I’ve thrown that away and I’ve bought her a card instead. The card I bought in the Post Office. I looked for flowers in Tesco’s but there were only a few dishevelled looking offerings left, so I left it. I’ll try again in Windsor town centre this afternoon when I’m having my hair cut.

Here is a very old photo of my Mum in a dress that she made herself. I think she’s 21, at home in her parents’ garden. I have a new locket for myself I bought with Christmas money and I’m going to put this photo and also her younger sister, my Auntie Jean in it. This is one of my favourite pictures.

Here is the rest of the garden at the family home in West Sussex. My grandfather was an amazing gardener. Here he is with my Grandma.

How about these for sweet peas? I remember pots of them in the house.

The rockery..

The view from the upstairs bathroom/loo!

My sister and I used to run up and down by the flower beds. There were fir trees and pine cones at the very end. I now think how lucky we were to have such a beautiful garden to visit and run around in. It was kept immaculately by my grandfather, Poppa. Here he is again!

Inside the greenhouse..

I know some of you have seen these photos before, but I thought they were worth showing again. Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow to all Waffle Readers’ mothers, still with us or not XxX