ABSTRACT THURSDAY - EXTREME EDIT

When Mr. HCB suggested we went to Jack’s for coffee this morning, I thought it would be a good idea after a very busy day yesterday.  We knew we would have to get up there quite early to find a seat, as it gets very busy, and true enough it was quite crowded, even just after 9.30 in the morning.

We met lots of friends at Jack’s - some we haven’t seen for quite a while so it was good to catch up with them.  One lady sitting the next table asked if we were Harry’s grandparents, and then said that her son, Michael, had been good friends with Harry when they were at school together.  We then had a long chat about Harry and Michael when they were younger and told each other what they were doing now, when the person she was meeting came into Jack’s and we just happened to know him, so had a good chat with him too.  It was definitely a morning for chatting rather than being out in the pouring rain.  

Mr. HCB then dropped me into town so that I could look for a top to wear at Christmas, but true to form, I couldn’t find anything, so came home not having spent a penny - well not real money anyway, although I did give some money and one of my little hearts to the Romanian lady who sells "The Big Issue"  outside one of the Town Centre cafés and stopped to have quite a long chat with her.  She told me she already had three of my hearts, but was pleased to have another, so said she had been blessed, and she certainly blessed me.

Under Door 19 on our Advent of Change Calendar for the Farms for City Children charity it says, “Today you have helped to provide a week of farming and countryside experiences for inner-city school children.”  We often watch a countryside programme on television, and sometimes they show inner-city children enjoying farm life - hard to believe that some of them have never even seen a cow!

I was looking around for something abstract and saw this beautiful bauble so have done a double exposure with the cityscape in the background and Mary on a donkey being led by Joseph so hope this will count as an “extreme edit”.  I have put the two single photographs in as extras, because I still have some to use.  The bauble was given to me by Di, the Reception Teacher, when I helped at a local school some years ago.  It has its own little cushioned box and when she gave it to me she said she knew I would appreciate it - which I do.  It comes out every year - another memory on our tree.  When I knitted the Nativity Set it was for her Reception class, but when Di changed schools, she asked if she could take it with her, and of course, I was happy for her to do so - which means another school is enjoying the fruits of my labours.   

In other news, my sister, Karen, rang while I was in town to say that Mum had spilled a whole mugful of coffee over herself.  Jolene, Karen’s daughter had called in to see Mum just after the accident happened, and as the carer had already been and left, she just got on and cleaned Mum up then changed her and all her bedding.  Mum is obviously getting very weak, so we will have to remind the carers not to leave her with a full mug of hot coffee - it could have been much worse but thankfully Mum didn’t appear to have burned herself.  I’ve told Jolene she is an angel - and this quote describes her.

“To me, there are saints every day. 
     They stand up and help others 
          and live for others 
               and do things for others.”  
Theodore Melfi