Words aren't always so easy!

Would you like the good news or the bad news first? as I'm the author you don't really have any option but it seemed a good way to start this post. On Friday, when I was completely lost for words, I merely posted a picture without a title of the most beautiful flowers that I have growing here at the moment.

I'd like to say we've all been there and got that phone call, maybe I should put it in inverted commas, "that phone call" the one where you know what the person is going to say before they've said it. The tone of voice tends to give it away but also a seventh sense as to what is about to be delivered to you. Sometimes you even know before you've answered the phone what's about to happen and that little voice inside your head is trying to convince you that if you don't answer the phone, the pending news hasn't actually happened. When I talk to people about my family they tend to be surprised that so many of us are so close and we still regularly get together and party through into the night talking about the good old times and the path that life is taking us on now. My granny, the subject of "that phone call" was an amazing woman. Was, being the key word in that sentence which probably gives away the detail of "that phone call". As kids we were regularly threatened with granulating, the description my parent gave to spending every weekend and holiday on the farm with my grand parents for granny training. This could easily be miss-interpreted as child abuse but in reality we had the time of our lives. Yes we had to work, and work hard, but we learnt so much about life and the fact that if you want something you have to go out and get it. As I write about this I'm thinking of my cousins, all of whom went through the same experience and all of whom have grown up to be driven, motivated individuals aiming to get the best possible foundation to life that they can and, to coin a phrase from the Do-jo when I was learning Karate, "Striving for the perfection of character."

Life on the farm as kids was brilliant. Once you get over the fact that the goats had been deep littered for 4 months and in the morning you'd be mucking them out, it was the spawn for a "work hard play hard attitude" that had stayed with me throughout life. When the work was done it was off to the pool for a dip or down to the chalk pit to build another aerial runway or rope bridge or swing in a tree. Some things that we learnt are already being past on to the my kids now. One of the key ones being that firstly, dinner is served at the table and you don't start until everyone has their food and a toast has been made.

The good news bit, which I'd hope granny would be proud of, is that today we got our hay baled and into the hay loft. This year was a bumper crop, as we'd expected, and I'm very grateful to my friends here who helped me load/unload the trailer and get the job done in super quick time. My shoulder, which was on the mend, may have been put back a bit on the road to recovery but what's got to be done has to be done.

I loved my granny very much and am so glad we got to see you earlier this month.