I Feel Like A Line In An Old Song

 I've been out of England a long while now, and I know they say time marches on, and yes it does, and "progress" happens, but last night about broke my heart. 

I had been looking through some pictures of old steam trains, and came across one at Liverpool Street station in the 1960s, and it transported me back to my childhood. I could smell the steam, the oil, the soot, that was a part of the station back in that era. I LOVED Liverpool Street station.

We'd catch the tube from Leytonstone, and then walk through to the Broad Street entrance, when we were going to visit Aunt Maud. She lived about a mile away, opposite the Catholic church and school on Mark Street, in what back then) we kids thought was a lovely Victorian block of flats on an old cobbled road, with bollards at the end, that we loved to leapfrog over.

It was maybe 15 years ago that I'd asked my dad if he could go over and take some pictures for me, and he told me they'd been part of slum clearance in the 1970s - and I'd been aghast at the idea they were a slum but then looking with adult eyes I realised I saw my childhood through rose coloured spectacles, as they say.

Well, last night, I found out that more of my memories had been destroyed. The station that I loved so much was now an office block. Gone was the turreted Victorian brickwork and in it's place, an ugly square block.

It seems I am not the only one who finds the newer building has less character than the old.

#broadstreetstation #memories #childhood revisited

The Week Just Gone

What a week! 

Rain, rain and more rain so my auld bones were giving me more gyp than usual, my yard was a mud-pit, UPS left my AVON box outside in the rain and it got soaked through, had another couple of pounds weight loss, went yard-saling and hauled some treasures for ye great-grands, Maybelline started laying, and I ordered some compression stockings as my legs-up-in-the-air-on-the-couch, lemon juice in my water, and lymph "brushing" isn't doing anything to cut the fluid retention on my knees and shins. 

So, the yard-saling. That was yesterday morning. Hubby and I ended up $28 lighter than we went out with, $1 of which was donated to 2 little lasses with a lemonade stand at one place we stopped at. The other $27 went on some lighthouse ornaments for me, 2 Razr scooters for Daniel and Sami, and a wooden kitchen plus a tricycle for Lily. Methinks we did well!

My pothos cuttings are all doing nicely now, in their separate pots on the front porch, as are 3 rosemary cuttings that I may repot next week. My poor spider plant, I have moved as Snuggles seems to like to chew on it and this poor plant is fighting for it's life.

We started finding a single egg, about a week ago, and since then have had one practically every day, and we know it was Maybelline as there was a tiny bit of her fluff stuck to one of them. Going to made toad-in-the-hole tomorrow, and one of Maybelline's eggs will be in the batter.

The scale has suddenly decided to become my friend again, I'd hit a plateau for a while. Now, almost 14lbs gone in the last 45 days so no complaints from me! I knew I'd been doing everything right, careful with what I was eating and definitely exercising regularly, but that scale hadn't budged in awhile. Now just hoping it continues to stay my friend and keep on that downward journey with me.

The AVON delivery was a mess but thankfully no products were damaged. The box and all but 6 of my brochures were totally soaked. They are supposed to "put on front porch" but it must have either been a new driver or one who didn't read the label. Added to which, when we had the dogs and some drivers had to leave the boxes at the gate, they'd put it in a polythene bag as protection. Not this one though. Just left in the mud-pit outside the front door with the rain pelting down. Didn't ring the doorbell to let me know he'd been, or anything. Mark came home from work and carried it in, and it was falling apart and dripping wet. Such a mess.  AVON is sending me replacement brochures so I just have to be patient.

Today is a beautiful day. The chickens decided to escape when Mark fed them this morning, so we allowed them their freedom for a while, and then herded them back in their pen. If they would go back without us chasing them, they could be out with us more often, but with the hawks here bigger than they are, we can't just let them roam free all the while.

I watered my front porch plants, and we cleared all the old pine straw off the one raised bed that I'd had cantaloupes on, so's it can air out before my next plantings on it, and planted some grape seeds in one of the long raised beds Friday once the rain stopped. Pulled one potato plant that had flowered but it wasn't ready so decided that I'll leave the others for a couple of weeks after their flowers die off. The one I pulled flowered the other week, before the rain, but all I got was such a baby potato, barely an inch across, and all by it's lonesome.  So, will delay the harvesting for longer with the remaining ones.

So that's my update for the week. Hoping the upcoming one is more peaceful ... and dryer!