WEDNESDAY 28TH JANUARY - a breath of fresh air literally

It was a cold damp windy day with no sign of the sun so we decided to go to the cliffs not so very far from here. This is St. Anthony Head well known around here for its fabulous vistas.
As we approached the sun began to break through the heavy layer of cloud so we sheltered in the bird hide and as there was no one else wanting to watch the birds we had a flask of hot chocolate in our snug little corner!

This hide really is just that cleverly positioned between cliff and space therefore giving a fantastic view of the cliffs and their inhabitants. There are many seabirds on these rocks but it was too windy and maybe a little early in the year to spot many. There were of course gulls being battered by the very strong gusts.

The gorse is in full flower with that heady scent of coconut filling the air.

All these nooks and crannys for the birds to rest and nest.

We leant out of the hide to see the beautiful surging sea with sounds so powerful that the caressing and soothing feeling they evoke erases all troubles for the moment.

Oh and the new me has been to an Amnesty meeting with P. We sent 3 cards in support of men where injustice is happening.

Oh and I sent an email to the BBC protesting about the not screening of an appeal on behalf of the people of Gaza by the DEC.

No phone calls but I am still smiling and saying hello to new people!!

It doesn't seem to take much effort I just hope I will still be doing these little things at the end of the year.

MONDAY 19TH JANUARY

I am trying to continue the self improvement regime I have set myself so here is the latest report.


On Tuesday I thought about another mutual colleague that the lady I 'phoned last week had mentioned. Daphne was the deputy head of my second school and to hear that she is nearly 80 and riddled with arthritis made me think about then happy times when I was a new girl at the school. bt.com enabled me to locate her number so I gave her a call and she was so pleased to have a chat. She remembered me and we laughed about some shared memories.



I went to the AMNESTY meeting. There were some very interesting topics covered and I signed a letter asking for release of an anthropologist being held without charge in Guatamala. I also took two info pages about two men who have disappeared one in Nepal and one in Gambia. I have sent postcards of support to people closely associated with these men.

When I went for a walk through the village I said 'hello' to a lady walking her dog and also to an old boy leaning on a wall! Two people I have never seen before and this isn't a very big village I wonder where they came from?!

Not one of these things took very long and they have got to be worthwhile. I feel good for having actually done these things rather than just thinking about them.

Then yesterday after a terrific storm over night on Saturday we went to Watergate Bay and watched two proficient Kite Surfers at Watergate Bay, Awesome!!

NOT MY PIC!

MONDAY 12TH JANUARY - self improvement!

Those of you have read my last posting will know to what I am referring now

I have telephoned someone I used to work with and left that place 24 years ago. We have exchanged Christmas cards every year so I decided to find her tel no and rang her she was so delighted she says she will try to get to Cornwall later this year! It was a good thing to do. Oh she lives in Ipswich which is quite a long way from here!

I am going to a meeting of the local AMNESTY group on Wednesday evening my first time..

I am learning Russian well I started this last September but this is one of my new things and it is stretching me.

This post is just about the 'things not resolutions' or self improvement?! package. Eek!

TUESDAY 6TH JANUARY 2009

Resolutions are made to be broken so I haven't made any however there are things which I will try to acheive which can only make me better person.

So here are few things but not resolutions just things ?! will try to do

Everyday I will exchange at least a few words with a new person. This can be anywhere and anyhow even a new person on the phone is ok as a last resort.

Send an email or support a cause that I have meant to do and just haven't got around to. Do this every month even if this just means signing a petition.

Pick up the phone to a friend I haven't spoken to for years and restablish contact with someone different every month!

Read books which will stretch me intellectually and broaden my range.

Of course do some new things - I am about to go and do some abstract painting which I have never tried and want to try. Enthusiasm always out does reality and who knows what will be the result?!

WATCH here for news of how I get on oh and by the way

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2009!

MONDAY 15TH DECEMBER - Scotland again

We live in the south west of the U.K. so as we drove north a couple of weeks ago and it got snowier and snowier by the side of the Motorway we knew we were going to have a good few days. So here are some snowy photos!

Loch Morlich - Cairngorm. at -5 degrees

I love trees when the snow has frozen to the branches.

This is so beautiful.

Scheihallion and Loch Rannoch.

I have Norwegian blood in me. My grandmother was from Gjovik so maybe this accounts for my love of northern climes and cold places.

TUESDAY 25TH NOVEMBER - music

I have been behind with my blogging due to a rather busy schedule of late.
This has not all been routine but punctuated with some top quality live music and as you know you have to make the most of the opportunitieswhen they arise so we have been doing just that.

The first concert was at the beginning of November when we saw Sigur Ros in Bristol it was a fabulous experience there was even snow showered on us the audience!

A week later we say Jools Holland with his Rhythm and Blues orchestra in Plymouth and that was a really good concert too.

Last night we went to Bristol again with friends this time to see Runrig, yes again, another brilliantl live event with lots of audience involvement which makes for a great evening.

So you can see there has been a lot of important stuff happening and after all quality if life is so important!

SUNDAY 9TH NOVEMBER - FRANK BARRINGTON CHEDZOY

Yesterday we went to a small rural village named Stoke St. Gregory which is on the Somerset Levels. I used to come here from the age of 0 until I was in my early 20's. I came to visit my paternal grandparents who lived on a small holding where I remember helping my grandad feeding the hens and collecting the eggs which were still warm, collecting tomatoes in the greenhouse when I was given a paper bag and allowed to gather the tiny little tomatoes which I recall as being treasure all of my own. There was a fruit cage where I used to help my grandfather pick big juicy raspberries as in 2 for the basket and 1 for me! The memories I have of this idyllic phase of my life are warm and full of love. I loved my grandparents but yesterday was about my grandad.

There is a local historian who has done an extraordinary amount of research into young men from Stoke St. Gregory who were touched by World War I. From the names on the war memorial he has discovered where they fought and were killed and also about those who were injured.

My personal story was about Frank Barrington Chedzoy (my grandad). He joined the army in January 1918 and was sent to northern France in April that year. He then fought in the battle of St. Armand and was injured so very badly near a farm at Quenoy. He was gassed and received 3rd degree burns to 60% of his body in fact the left part all the way down. Unable to talk, in shock and with pain controlled by morphine he must have been terriby ill.This meant he was shipped back to UK and spent time in hospital in Bradford and then was taken to Dublin for a long slow recuperation and return to health. He never returned to full health and was unable to ever work however he did use the skills learnt on the first part of his building apprenticeship which had to be interrupted when he went to war. He built the house he shared all his life with my grandmother and where I spent so many happy days of my life. Until yesterday all I had known of his experience of The Great War was that he had been gassed. Yesterday I found out so much of what this young man -my grandad -had experienced when he was only 18.

It was never spoken about and all my father was told as he was growing up ,when he had asked about the war, was the mud.

Thank to this historian I know so much more about how WWI affected my family directly. It has affected me deeply as the wonderful old man, my grandad, kept this secret from all of us except perhaps my grandmother, for the duration of his life.

It has given me so much to think about.