A Moment to Shine... and to Chat

It was raining. Did I really want to walk to the corner of our street just to see someone carrying a flame? Really? Well as you can see from the photographs, I did. It was an historic moment. It will never pass by my street again in my lifetime and I’m really pleased I went.

It wasn’t necessarily the girl and the flame that provided the satisfaction, although they were fun to watch...

It wasn’t the completely empty main road, save for a few police motorcycles, although that was a novel sight... 

It was the people!
   “We should do this more often!” I overheard someone say and, yes I agree. We should! We met up with lots of neighbours who we hadn’t spoken to for months. Mr A even met an old colleague and has planned to go off sailing with him.

You really do have to go out walking to meet and chat. I know that I could walk without a dog but since our lovely Josh died there’s not been the same incentive. Even if I had a cast iron will [which I don’t] it only takes a few spots of rain and I’m either switching the computer back on and kicking off my shoes or reaching for the car keys.

I’m not saying that I never see friends and neighbours but those are organised events. How lovely to just stroll down the road and know that you will meet up with familiar people. That must be what it’s like living in ITV’s Coronation Street and popping in to the Rovers Return. [We don’t have any local pubs round our way, something to do with a covenant on the land.]  

I often wonder how many lonely people there are living behind closed front doors. [Front doors do hold a certain fascination for me. I posted up a poem about them here.] I’m sure that as social animals we were never meant to live in single-residency units and I have a niggling belief that somewhere, during our many centuries of sociological development, we took a wrong turning.

   Is it too late to find a better route?

You are invited to a Tea Party

Location: The bottom of this blog post

Time: Now

Dress Code: Something flowery

What a lovely idea to have a blog award celebrating friendship. The Liebster Award has been given to me by my blogger friend Rebecca Bradley at Life in Clarity. Do pop along and visit her [but not until you’ve joined me in our tea party, of course.]

I don’t understand loners. I’m best as part of a group [even if I am a bit bossy]. Friends are the most important part of my life. When I say ‘friends’ I mean members of the family too. My best friends are my amazing kids, my long-suffering husband and my lovely sister.

And when I say ‘friends’ I don’t mean all those people on Facebook. I mean the ones who turn up when you’re in trouble, who phone when things are going wrong, who offer to do something... anything and who genuinely want to make you feel better.

Some of the people I’ve met through this blog have become friends and I know that quite a lot of my friends read this blog. I also know that you know how awful this last year has been. Last August Rod was seriously ill in hospital, last September my darling dog Josh died, in December Mum collapsed and this April Mum died. I’ve needed my friends more than I ever have done before. So, to say thank you for being there, I’m throwing a Jvirtual tea partyJ 

Friends who read blogs have no idea how exciting it is to get a new follower. It’s not the same as making a new friend but it shows that there’s someone out there who I’ve connected with and that’s important. So do please follow my blog before partaking of cake and a cuppa and then you might like to go and visit some of my blog friends, because I must now pass on the Liebster Award to six bloggers who, in the spirit of Rebecca’s wishes, have less than 250 followers.

So I award the Liebster Blog Award to:

Kathy McKendry at Imagine Today 

Pauline Barclay at Scribbles

Amy Sonnichsen at The Green Bathtub

Julie Kemp Pick at Empty Nest Insider 

Miriam Drori at An’ de walls came tumblin’ down 

Damyanti at Writing on Writing: Amlokiblogs 

And now...

It's party time!!!

    Do have a cup of tea.   

Sugar or sweeteners? 

 Or are you sweet enough? 

 *giggles at polite joke*

Help yourself to cake.

Anyone fancy jelly and ice cream?

Isn't the weather fabulous. We're lucky the rain's held off for our party. Are you going on holiday this year? Top up of tea? Thank you so much for coming along. I love parties...