The Knock On The Door

Saturday Centus time again! Nice short prompt this week which is nicely tucked up in the body of the story (bold & italic). Once again the rule is 100 words or less excluding the prompt, it’s amazing what you can convey in 100 words – have a look at some of the other entries!
I needed to do this. After coming so far I had to see him, I needed explanations. Just a hint as to why he dips in and out of my life the way he does. That day in the park was typical, he suddenly appears from nowhere and just as quickly disappears. Well this time I’m on his territory, there’ll be no disappearing act – he has nowhere to go. He’s already home.That's why it meant so much to make this journey. I take a big breath in and knock on the door. And wait, my heart pounding out of my chest in expectation.

Rainbow Red

No rest for the wicked! As we have finished the whole of the alphabet, Jenny has decided that we need to keep our wits sharp and has set a challenge for the next seven weeks linked to the colours of the rainbow – in order.

So obviously the first colour is red. I was going to write a convoluted  post that related to Stewart tartan so that I could enthral you all with the wonderful concert I went to last night but instead I am going to share with you my hot of the press tourist activities from today!

We stayed in London overnight and, as the car park at the hotel was paid for until 5pm, we thought we’d be tourists in our own country and we joined thousands of people at The Tower of London marvelling at the sights. Although I spent my formative years just to the north of our capital I have only ever been to the Tower once before so today John and I treated ourselves (thankfully we managed to get the seniors rate for him!) to an expensive walk around the Tower.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you a history lesson, if you’re interested have a click on the link above and you’ll see all you ever needed to know – and more!

So first off I spotted this soldier with his lovely bright red tunic.

Then a couple of flowers – I know one is a geranium but my mind has gone a complete blank with the other one – I’m sure somebody will tell me though!

 

Now this picture isn’t red at all but I’d like to share with my dear friends across the Atlantic, this picture of Tower Bridge. This is what somebody in Arizona (no not Jenny!!) thought they were buying a few years back when they imported London Bridge – brick by brick! They wanted the bridge that went up in the middle and got the wrong one – oops, expensive mistake there, especially as this one was not being replaced!

We had a lovely morning walking around, sadly my back has been bad this week and after climbing lord knows how many thousands of steps to go around the White Tower I was barely able to put one foot in front of the other so I hobbled back to the train to go pick up the car.

Before I go I just know that so many of you out there have been tantalised by the mere mention of the concert I went to last night that I promise to tell you more very soon, in the meantime, this is Stewart tartan, which as you will see is predominantly RED :)

The Journey Home

Saturday Centus time again, and a cheeky little link this week – can you spot it?

The prompt is in bold, here we go:

Driving six hours is a long time on the road. Six hours spent singing car-aoke and taking in the picturesque scenery, but mostly reminiscing about the good times. But those days were long gone and my mind was in a different place now. Or was it? My pulse quickened as I passed the road sign which read "Medford 27 miles."

That’s Medford NJ. The place I once referred to as home but not now. Joe was prompting me for more memories from the driver’s seat as I stared through the window. He knew why I was here, the reasons that I had to come. I trusted him to keep me safe. As we turned into the street that was our destination I told him to pull up a way from the house. I had to do this by myself. He understood. It’s true, the smell of freshly mowed grass can stay with you for years, for decades.

Why I’m me

Oh heck – I’ve almost missed last weeks Saturday Centus, how did that happen??

As usual, the prompt is in italics and the rest is all my own work!

“Mama, how do we get the names we get?” I asked one hot day way back then, “ I mean what was it that made you call me Dotty?”

Mama turned and looked at me and a huge smile burst across her face. She didn’t answer straight away. Instead she found an old LP and placed it on the gramophone. From the black vinyl came the clear voice of Judy Garland “Somewhere over the rainbow”.

“That was the song they played when I first danced with your father”, she told me. With a strange, faraway look in her eyes.

Alphabet Soup

This week Jenny has mixed things up and made some suggestions for a final round up of Alphabe-Thursday. I’ve opted to re-post the one that I think caused more hilarity from you, dear reader, than any of the other posts. And that would be L is for Lycra which originally appeared back in April here.

Picture the scene. We’re just home from our wonderful holiday. Son 2 is at home to greet us. All appears normal. Until he says ‘Stay in your bedroom with the door closed until I call you’. Mmmm – he’s always been a bit unpredictable but what on earth was he up to now?

So he called from downstairs. Off I went opened the front room door to be greeted by a vision in …PURPLE LYCRA – head to toe, including covering his face. He posed like one of those living statues and didn’t say a word. Now this is where I should show you a photo but I have to be honest I laughed so much I didn’t have the sense to grab the camera! Apparently this is a ‘Morph Suit’ they seem to be quite the thing by this website here. I tell you, you had to be there to appreciate it, I’m still smiling now!

Apparently he’s off for a weekend at a Frisbee competition  - I’m not sure if this is the kit he’ll be wearing! Ahh boys will be boys, however old they are!

This is the closest I can get – just imagine it in purple!!

I did ask him if he would pose for me tonight when he came in from work, his response ‘That’ll be a no’ at least I tried!

Pop across to Jenny's blog to see the rest of this weeks contributions.

So the next seven weeks are the colours of the rainbow, will I participate? Oh, I don’t know. I’ve struggled lately to keep up – I might just have a break. But then again I might not, you’ll just have to wait and see!

Hop across and see what the others have done this week!

(By the way the blog template is probably only temporary until I can get back on to The Cutest Blog On The Block to sort it out!)

My American Experience 2010 (part 2)

Now where was I? Oh that’s right – listening to that awful football match on our way from Lincoln, Nebraska down to Neosho, Missouri!

After more miles than I care to remember and several hours later we arrived in Neosho at our ‘home from home’. Black clouds have threatened for several hours as we worked our way south and we were not disappointed to hear rumbles of thunder in the distance. Summer in Neosho is lovely except for the really high humidity – a good downpour really helps to clear the air. And that is just what we got – a good downpour for several hours! It’s amazing to sit on the front porch and watch the weather roll in.

Our time in Neosho is generally spent relaxing and shopping, Walmart is a real favourite as is the nearest mall which is in Joplin, about 30 miles away. I love Bath and Body Works. I probably spend more there than I would ever spend on soaps and stuff at home but they are just so nice! As the summer sale was on I managed to get some bargains plus a saving of $10 on $30 spend – John said we’d never get the $10 off, he was wrong. I ended up with about $70 worth for $25!!! And then there’s Hobby Lobby – I wish we had them over here in the UK! I could have so many hobbies!! I bought more yarn but I really need to get going and actually use some of it – I’m running out of storage space!

To give our hosts a break, John and I took ourselves off to a lovely place called Eureka Springs in Arkansas for an overnight stay which we spent at the Red Bud Manor Inn where we were very well looked after by the owner, Deb. She recommended good places to eat and we opted for Italian at Ermilio’s. It was absolutely delicious and the waitress was so fascinated by our accents we got very special service that evening!

                                      

We had a very comfortable night and a delicious breakfast on the side porch before paying for our stay. Panic. John’s wallet had an empty slot where his Visa card should be! We backtracked and remembered that the last time he had used it was the previous night – slight problem in that they only opened between 5-9pm. Deb kindly phoned and somebody was there and they confirmed that they did have the card.

A few days later we all went off for a day out of a scenic railway. The alarm went off at 5.15am as we had to be at the station for 7.30 and had an hour and a half drive! We were headed of to Van Buren, Arkansas which I’m sure is a lovely place. If it’s not raining cats and dogs. All day long. We had left home unsure of the weather as it was still quite dark but by the time we were half way there the heavens opened – we spent the day hopping (in my flip-flops) from shop to shop avoiding the puddles and trying to keep dry. I did have a lovely time in a fabric store though – and ended up feeling that I was more than able to make a quilt, after all there was a lady in the store who only started quilting four months previously and had made about six quilts now – and they were amazing. I bought some fabric. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to using it – I am not a sewing type. Crochet – yes, cross stitch – yes (well, not lately ‘cos I can’t see so well!), knitting – yes. Sewing – well, no not really. But I do want to. Really. Anyway, I’m rambling – again!

And then of course we had July 4th! As it was a Sunday this year most celebrations were held on the Monday but we did go to fireworks in a small town called Granby – they do quite a good show for such a small place and the people watching is second to none!

I just kept clicking until one came out better than the others! 

Thanks for sticking with me – almost done now! We always go to a show in Branson when we visit and this year we saw Jim Stafford (remember ‘Spiders and Snakes’ from the 70s?) which was a really good show.

Sadly all good things must come to an end and so we end up back at Kansas City airport for our return flight. You’ll never guess why take-off was delayed! Bloomin’ Air Force 1 had priority over us! Can you imagine, did they not know how important we were?

So we’re back in blighty, on the bus from the airport to the car park when John says ‘Where’s the small black bag?’ he’d only gone and left it on the luggage trolley! So we weighed up whether it was worth the hassle of trying to track it down. It was only books and hairbrushes. And the camera – too right we had to get it back! Almost three weeks of memories were in  that bag. And do you know? It was the easiest thing to get it back, the staff were so helpful and within an hour of discovering the loss it was back in our hands. Thank you Terminal 3 at Heathrow!

All those miles of interstate and freeway and then the M25 near Heathrow!!

So that’s it for a while, back to normal now work, work and more work. Never mind that’s what makes the holidays worth waiting for!!

Z is for …

…Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!!! Oh come on, allow me this little ,um, indulgence! Well, 26 weeks have just flown past haven’t they? It seems like only last month that we started this Alphabe-Thursday over at Jenny’s and here we are at the end.

So Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah. This was in my mind anyway for Z but while I was on holiday we went to see Jim Stafford in Branson, Missouri and he sang this! My first thought that this was from the Disney version of Pinocchio (don’t ask why!) but when I explored I found it was in fact from the Disney film ‘Song of the South’.

I think this is a really happy sing-a-long song and that’s OK by me – I can remember singing this in a Gang Show many years ago when I was about 15, so to end this great series, here it is – sing along now!!

Thanks for bearing with me through this Alphabet journey – it’s been fun! Wait and see what’s coming next!