Does respect still exist in families?

I've been deliberating for a few days about where I was going to put this post but actually I think it belongs here rather than my more "littles" blog.

As most of you are aware I lost my mother a while back leaving Dad and Myself as surviving household members, other immediate siblings being in relationships apart from us.

Dad has some mobility problems coming through the impact of cancer on his kidneys making its way into breathing apart from sciatica and likes to visit Mom's grave where whilst cremated there lies a headstone a couple of miles away.

Unexpectedly my younger brothers wife rung following her much delayed operation for Carpal Tunnel and he spoke with her and in the course of which he asked if they, the next time they were going could take him to the grave.

They would have to past the turning to us to get to it from where they live and she agreed with dad saying should they want a quiet moment then he'd step away.

Come Sunday, they turn up and indeed they do take him but he only finds they elect to stay in the car while he goes down a pathway rather than all walking with them pausing near the adjacent church.

They also reject any and all attempts to open a conversation about where he'd been, how they find it, or even ask him how he was feeling afterwards.

It was as if they just wouldn't speak to him as his sons father and a fellow family member even on the face of it another fellow human being where many of us just would even to those we don't know well.

We have empathy and yet there was none showing, leaving him feeling he was being deliberately ignored.

He was very emotional upon his return to which I got the full blast of -and although I could use not being the sole dumping ground of his emotions you couldn't help wondering just what my brother and wife were really playing at treating him more like ghost.

Thoughts on Christmas and the last year

 So it is a few days after Christmas when in the grown up world the papers held under the Thirty Year Rule and a few others come out to embarrass senior politicians and their friends and talk around the Kings's New Years Honours starts leaking although you're not supposed to say a word to soul one you've had the initial letter and your reply until the official announcement is given.

We also had severe storms with rain here which worked into flooding and half the road losing power for a good number of hours.

Following events last year I started to see some people I'd know for a number of years here, renewing connections that lead to a few invites for coffee and the odd community based day trip just get a break from things apart from going out exploring which really helped with getting past some of the depression I was going through.

I did get to the first Ikklespace picnic in ages Sammy had laid on which did see things improve with me, being able to contribute more with the group and act more from the fun loving side rather than feeling a sad, lost child.

On the upside, I did redo much of my littles outfits to match more where in my head I am, however others may see it, were more of an emphasize on quality sometimes more tradition, other stuff more what modern school girls wear such as in sports wear.

I'm less interested in exact replication of a period so much as just being the little side of me taking the  benefits of the modern era, more in tune with the spirit of modern co-ed prep schools with the mix of ancient and modernity.

Not everything of the past was great although much is worth keeping if not defending.

Some of that was visible when much against the odds and with a bit of work from Jennifer and Katie I did actually get to Summer Camp where I felt the most relaxed for a long time just getting along with play, having fun and helping out a bit.

Eventually some of the clothes I'd bought for Winter 2022 camp actually got worn as some of the changes I had been going through over the last few years finally came together even if they may not be what some might as above all I just need to be me and not someone elses idea of what  littles is.

I continued to enjoy the women's soccer and their young following seeing girls going to the park for a kickabout tearing up the old gender divides.

I don't feel inclined to play by the rules of the past anymore than today's girls and that runs beyond groan up talk to littles life.

I hold with inclusiveness for all, girls and boys of all shades and tastes not being told what a girl should be or do either in the Big or Little worlds.

That's my take on this thing as show not just at Camp but the Halloween party from start to finish which I quite enjoyed not just with littles activities but socially too.

Christmas comes soon

 It's that time of the year when I take a break with everything that is on as while things have changed over the years and we do less taking presents to people nonetheless we still have people come and drop in at odd hours as suits them.

Then I have my cards and presents for people to do which all takes time and with my hands A LOT out of me as I struggle to write my name some days.

There are many fantasies people have over christmas and indeed many a tale about just how christmas turns out for naughty girls and boys from them that always want but don't give to those who are really rotten but perhaps a trip to lapland is what we're looking for.

*** WISHING ALL A WARM HAPPY CHRISTMAS ***

Getting ready for Christmas Week

This will be last full post on here until after Christmas  where I've been a bit busy writing cards and having my hair trimmed and restyled. 

Preparations for Christmas week here usually involve the traditional 14 day Radio Times that I still find easier to navigate than on screen electronic program guides apart from forgetting what I saw on screen seconds later.

Some of us read comics rather than the Economist and this year's 68 page special is one we'll be opening up to dip in and out of in what has for decades been a christmas ritual for some of us with seasonally themed cartoon strips with characters we grew up with like Dennis, Minnie and Gnasher and newer ones.

That's what the edition just after christmas as it usually pauses a week before looked like in the early 1980's before we went to full colour, glossy paper and bigger sized edition and no doubt there will be after Boxing Day edition this year to tuck into which after all the news on tv I'll be glad of.

Christmas is coming

After last weeks music post we'll start the countdown toward Christmas as I work the blogging schedule as I'm usually pretty busy but i think it should be two full posts and something on or around Christmas Day.

 At the start of last week, our Christmas tree came which in this age of elf and safety had to planted and wired by people with certificates not sophisticats lest somebody either climb up it or try stealing the bulbs whilst turned on.

The people here have a collection to  pay for the tree which is as well as we do want something like this at Christmas and keeps the lights that have to put on it.
I think every town and estate should have one.

Obviously it isn't going to be the same as Mom's not around anymore as messed up as last Christmas was with both of us very unwell although I have got The Grump tm to bring out the Christmas tree and the Nativity scene Mom and I so looked forward to setting up plus things like the milk and a Turkey have been sorted out.

It's just the memories of going around the shops looking for gifts, trying out clothes, seeing Santa Claus on the district shopping centre and walking to visit family and friends with presents and cards that I'll miss.

Teenbeat: the Mamas and the Papa's

It's almost a cliché to say the nineteen-sixties produced some of the most memorable popular music of the modern era and growing in the era afterward I was very much in that shadow cast by it cos if your folks and relations didn't have it, then often it was played on the radio.
One trend  amongst many was the fusion between folk music and the emergent rock in the middle of that decade which you see with the Byrds, Bob Dylan and naturally Simon and Garfunkel.

 

A popular sound often leads to others getting on on the genre and the other essential act you really need to listen to was the Mama's and Papa's who through a career that only spanned from nineteen sixty-five through nineteen sixty-eight, releasing seventeen 45's and five albums.

They comprised of John and Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty  and Cass Elliot and were signed to Dunhill records in 1965 .

The combination of close harmony singing and relatively sparse instrumentation coupled with the dreamy quality of the songs lyrics is a core reason these productions stand out among many others.

Imagine not hearing such songs as Monday Monday, California Dreamin' that summarized that era, Dedicated To The One I Love, Creeque Alley and Dream A Little Dream Of Me before they made their separate ways? To anyone around it would be unthinkable and even when I was growing up, their records were always played on oldies but goldies shows on the radio which trust me I heard a lot of being ill during my childhood and reliant on the radio to cheer me up, it was was left for me to listen to.

Their have been a number of compilation albums of their music issued over the years as while there's a bit of me that loves the original studio lp jackets, in truth their always was a bit of filler on those albums and like many sixties albums seldom run much beyond a half hour or so making a well compiled compilation a sensible option.

The strength of two thousand and five's Mama's and Papa's Gold  is it offers many of the songs from the individual albums in addition to the hit 45's on two well filled compact discs avoiding the mistake of including solo recordings that featured on the nineteen ninety-one Creeque Alley package so there's a clear focus and it can act as good alternative to a full set of albums.

Best of all, this is an inexpensive double in Universal Musics Chronicles series negating any need to consider single cd sets completely.

Recommended

Winter is almost in the air

After last week's more observational ow-ish post we're back into the wild this week although you'll need your thick tights on as it's bloomin' cold at the minute as I can feel it in me bones.

 These creatures have been keeping my company  on the smallholdings I pass while out walking, trying to keep myself fit as the go "Baa" making me feel my stomach and leaving me feeling hungry

 The leaves are beginning to grow and if you look carefully there are Dandelions stillout by the base of the tree trunk.

The signs are for the Farmers Market and Unprocessed milk you can buy from the farmers gate as some people prefer it to treated milk. Personally I prefer sterilized!

The leaves be a turning colour here all crisp which makes walks in the wood so enjoyable if you don't get a dozy wasp flying out of a hedge at you which is what happened to me the other week.

You should of seen me run the other way!!!

I haven't know too many village centres were between the shops, you can see and hear that much wildlife which makes even a trip to get a bottle of milk and Allied Bakeries finest can be most pleasant.