~a week~


its been a busy week here at the 'roundhouse'~ a week of up and down emotions after the loss of nan last week. of course there were the usual things to be done, shopping, cooking, my studies and making sure there were plenty of sweet peas from our garden around the house...




the moon waxed slowly to full...




we went to the new forest show on wednesday, there were dreadful weather warnings for the south~but despite two heavy showers the day was dry and we saw plenty of interesting things...

steam power...





tractor driven saw...




the owner of the saw was living on site on an old showman's trailer and we could just spy the most wonderful wood burning stove inside the door~imagine how cosy it must be at night?





police dog demonstrations...




cody gets to choose a new toy...




a tepee in a prairie wildflower meadow...





wood chopping competitions...




english springer spaniel puppies~not for sale~but so very cute...





soft calves chewing the cud near mum...




huge prize winning bulls...




alpaca's...




i bought a new mug~polish pottery...




it rained...hard...






yesterday we had my beloved nan's funeral in portsmouth.
we drove to her flat, where until two weeks ago she was cooking, washing, cleaning and shopping for herself, and where we met up with family and her old friends from the flat, who came down, as they said, 'to see her off'~some who would be coming to the funeral. i was in the limousine with my mum, my two cousins,uncle and aunts following the hearse which the undertaker walked in front of for some way.
we slowly drove through old portsmouth and instead of going straight to portchester for the service the cars slowly crept up to the very top of Portsdown Hill, a high hill that overlooks portsea, hayling island and across the solent to the isle of wight, following the hill all the way west until the road gave up and we drove down into portchester....all the way mum, uncle bill giving a commentary of all the places and events they remembered from their years growing up and i with my memories too...


southsea gallery

... we travelled through the old part of portsea where both my nan and gramps grew up, passed the lido where my sister and i would be taken with my cousins in summers past for swimming, past the road that nan would follow to take my mum, uncle and aunt and other family members hop picking every summer~where in the war a damaged german bomber about to crash, saw my nan and her group and did everything possible to avoid hitting them (that is a story for another time),up to the hill where the old air raid shelters still exist and where nan and her huge extended family would go when the bombing of portsmouth was at its worse...
during the service nan's love of singing was spoken of and i had to smile at this for the songs that nan and gramps taught us were old drinking songs~pubs seem to feature greatly in family stories; my hawkins great grandparents run a pub called the rudmore cellars and johney gauls son, john francis frequented the emperor of india...more stories for another day.

i took a posey of sweet peas, love-in-a-mist and lavender from my garden for nan and when i could not find them with the other flowers after the service, swampy (ex funeral director himself) said they would have left them on the coffin, which he felt was nicer and i agree with him.
as we were about to drive off for a gathering i am sure nan would have enjoyed,the undertaker hurried around with a rose each for my mum, aunts, cousin teresa and myself, taken from nan's flowers~mine was a gorgeous fragrant yellow, which i kept beside my bed last night and today i have it carefully wrapped in a brown bag, drying in my airing cupboard.


annie's rose...