Waking up?

Encouraged by Gerry, seen here enjoying a G&T with me, I've reopened this blog and will see if it's ready for a few breaths of life at the start of 2012.

In the two years that it's been sleeping and off-line except to invited friends, much has happened. Gerry's mum Sylvia, now aged 98 and soon to be 99, has moved out of her own home and now lives with Gerry & husband Paul. Gerry's son Alex has married and they enjoyed a small, intimate and very beautiful wedding ceremony on Tuscany.

Another Saffron Walden group of 10 reunion took place in Portsmouth, arranged by Lin. Unfortunately Gerry and I both had to drop out because of last minute unforeseen family events, and one nameless person forgot the date of the get together, leaving a small but intrepid group who enjoyed a weekend by the sea in autumn sunshine.

The granddaughter who was born while I was up on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is now 2 years old. She returned to the UK for just over a year with her parents and although they tried, they found living back in Edinburgh quite a challenge after the warmth of Houston. They got back just as one of the worst winters in Scotland set in - and decided that they would return to the USA to live. Not easy for any of us to come to terms with at first, but the right thing for them to do. We spent a year seeing a lot of them, supporting them and enjoying being with them, and at the beginning of January they went back to Houston where they're settling in once again.

In the 2 years since I last wrote here, Lynda has also become a grandma and by all accounts is enjoying this role enormously.

We'll be over to visit the family in Houston soon, and in the meantime we're looking after their cats, who have been here with us for 2 months, while their owners made all the arrangements about moving themselves and their worldly goods back to the States. They should be flying over to join them at the end of February. We'll miss them as they've wormed their way into our affections and are part of the household now.

Where this first waking up post will lead I don't know, but some life has been breathed back into this blog (see what you started Gerry) and if nothing else, it may encourage me to write. If I do, it will be my take on what I choose to write about - with a touch of saffron yellow woven into its fabric from time to time when there is news of those who formed the original inspiration to begin this blog.

The Last Post

This will be the last post on this blog.

I started it over two years ago with the idea in mind that it would be a place of contact and sharing for me and the group of friends I had way back in the mid-60's at Saffron Walden Teacher Training College, plus any other ex-Safferites who happened upon it, and of course, family and friends who wanted a quick fix on what was going on! It was started in advance of the reunion we had planned for October 2007 - nearly 2 years ago now and here's one last picture of some of us who were there.
Jackie and Sandra joined me in adding things to the blog but life events kind of take over and there are other pressing demands on their time. It's been mainly down to me to keep it going and I've enjoyed doing this, sharing some of the places I've visited and most recently, my hour on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and the arrival of my first grand child.

But now, for me, other things are more pressing, not least my other, main blog, Joyce Hopewell Astrological Chart Interpretations. You can keep up with me here but in a slightly different way, as I write about people and events in the news, looking at them through the lens of astrological psychology and with 23 years experience as a teacher, workshop facilitator, course tutor, conference speaker and author on this subject behind me.

This blog will self destruct in due course, and will disappear from the blogosphere. Thank you if you've read it and have come back for more. All things have their time and relevance, and this blog has served its purpose and has offered me many opportunities to hone my writing and presentation of photos, which I've enjoyed.

Two weeks in Texas

Now we're home after our two weeks in Houston, helping out with the new baby, getting to know her and giving the new parents a hand, here are a few pictures of our time there. It was HOT in Houston, often reminding me of words from Chris Rea's song "Texas":

Warm winds blowin'. . . Heat'n'blue sky. . .

We had heat, storms, walks in the neghbourhood under the shade of the trees before it got too hot to go out, trips to the supermarket to stock up, trips to the Galleria - the mall with an ice rink and very classy shops (window shopping only!), cooked meals and enough food to freeze and keep them going for a while after we left, did the washing & ironing (well, I did!!), had a dip in the pool, a visit to a quiet cool art gallery (specially chosen as a good quiet place to take a young baby with enough there to interest the adults), and of course we enjoyed lots of quality time with our new granddaughter Madeleine.