ALL I WANT IS A NEW IRON AND IRONING BOARD..........

Says the birthday boy! There is a long story behind this. It was Si's birthday on Monday of this week. He is the most difficult man to buy a present for. We all pussyfoot round him for weeks before his birthday to see if he drops hints and eventually ask him what he would like. The response this time was the iron and ironing board!!! I ask you .It was said in this pathetic voice !! Now for the story. Si had a small stroke about 4 years ago. He had extremely high blood pressure which he did not know about until after the event. He is a wimp where going to the doctor is concerned and eventually when it was obvious something was not right we got him there. The doctor wanted to admit him to hospital but he refused. We had a difficult time with him for several weeks because he could not believe it had happened and it took some time for the treatment for his blood pressure to work. He was off sick for about 12 months and had to have a staged return to work. He is very well now with a completely normal blood pressure. However whilst he was off work and begining to recover he began to get very bored. I was working fulltime in quite a stressful job and suggested he started to do things around the house to help. This man can take cars apart and fix them, can do mental arithmetic but the washing machine leaves him scratching his head. So he decided he would start ironing and he has taken this over now. I no longer do any ironing he's the main man!!!! The iron and board are very old and falling apart at the edges A bit like myself. There is no way I'm going to buy anyone those for a birthday, especially when each one should be treated as special when his blood pressure could have killed him at the age of 54.

So we scratched our heads and came up with the idea of a picnic basket as he loves picnics and than the Fortnam and Mason picnic hamper grew from there. We all contributed and ordered it on line. Below is said hamper with goodies.

As some of my family were around we invited them and some friends for a barby on Sunday (had to be Sunday as Mike(son) who is a staff nurse on a childrens intensive care unit) was working on Monday. My sisters kids and their children were able to come and they all bought him a red Ferrari. Now the picnic hamper can't go in the Ferrari Oh no the opposite way round.

We all had a good time and it's lovely to see the children as they are all spread out around the country so don't see enough of them.

The garden is looking a bit sad. The weather has been very strange. This morning started very grey and now the sun is shining. The everlasting sweetpeas are just coming into flower.

Berries are abounding here.

Look what we have been making Damson gin . Should be ready for Christmas

Now the last photo are my runner beans Yes they were runner beans until Mr and Mrs Slug and their family moved in Gone in one day now we have Mr and Mrs Snail attacking anythings else they can find.Oh well thats life.