Just Life

This is a photo of me, taken in Aberavon Beach Bier Keller, back when no one had cameras, other than our parents who only used it on holidays, if you were lucky enough to go on one.  This was taken the night before I left to join the RAF, I was 17, a hippy type, but needed to see more of the world and was unlikely to do that staying in Aberavon. I loved and love where I come from. It is industrial, a steel town, but has the most wonderful beach, miles and miles of sand and sea, mountains and forests all peopled by the funniest, kindest, masdest people I have ever met. It was full of eccentrics and characters as we called the drunks and don't give a toss people. The area has produced many, many famous people, actors and singers and politicians and artists. Why this small town has produced so many I have no idea, but maybe it is because there was a can do attitude. Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen are just a few. I was and still am a bit of an oddball, I don't need...

Daddy Woodpecker fetching baby for his dinner on my feeders. It's April, already, where did the past few months go? I had forgotten this blog and started another, I have so many blogs I have forgotten the password to, I reckon they all sit in a holding area, bit like a Lost Blog Office, all waiting for their owners to pick them up and add to again.  Poor forlorn blogs, I hope to not lose this one. We have been busy, I haven't been crafting as much as i like, mainly my illness, a lot of sloth and I have been distracted by my Harp. Mr. T, wonderful man that he is, bought me a harp for my 60th birthday. I have a violin and a saxophone, but as my illness weakens my neck muscles and lungs, my wrists and fingers get stiff, making music on these becomes more and more painful and difficult.  I love making music, it isn't perfect, I am no maestro, but there is something so very relaxing about making tunes. So, he went out and got me a Celtic Lap Harp, to be honest you would n...

This was my experience of 1970's Britain, well the early 70's. We tuned in, turned on, dropped out and partied until our heads spun. We believed we had the World in the palm of our hands and Friday Night was the night to Party. In my town of Port Talbot, Friday Night was usually pay day, we didn't earn much, but   a  loaf of bread cost 9p and the average weekly wage was around £32. Today, a loaf costs 53p and weekly wages are about £475. Property prices have also risen. In 1970, homebuyers could expect to pay £4,975 for a house. Today, their children would not get much change from £140,000. A glance at Britain's social life in 1970 is equally intriguing. A trip for two to the cinema cost less than 90p, compared with at least £9 today, while a bottle of plonk was about £1. Today it is £4.55. A  bottle of whisky cost £2.69 back then, compared with £12 now. Pub prices, too, seem foreign. A pint of lager in your local was 20p, a far cry from today's average of ...

It's New Year's Eve, so a goodbye to 2016 and a huge Hello to 2017, I love New Year's Eve. The chance to have a brand, spankingly New Year to dream to plan and to be happy.  I am hoping for new medication to make living with my awful disease easier. I have Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), which is Lupus, Scleroderma, Raynaud's, Sjorgen's and Polymiositis all wrapped up in one huge hurty package.  Some people with MCTD don't have all these and some have it at different levels, trust me to get the lot and at times it is pretty bad.  To top that, I have Fibromyalgia, degenerative Arthritis in my spine after a car accident and Bechet's Disease. Phew, no wonder I get knackered so much. All these diseases have inflammation, fatigue and pain as a symptom.  For me, the inflammation causes swelling around my joints, my connective tissue is hard, bit like it should be a chamois leather mine is like a dried up chamois leather, so stiffness and yet more god d...

It is 3 days before Christmas, the house is decorated, the tree is all sparkly with lights, baubles and my old Venetian chandelier, which I have used as drops to catch the light. Atop the tree sits Pamela, she has sat on every tree since as long as I can remember and I am 59. Pamela has new wings, but has lost an arm over the years. Yet she still sits there in charge of the tree and all that is on it. I love that she has seen all the Christmases of my youth, the excitement of me and my brother Trevor getting up at 4 in the morning, excited to see the few gifts my parents could afford and very happy to get a pillowcase full. I used to love the felt tip pens, the pencils, the colouring in books, the plastic dolls that one year had one that could walk and talk. The three wheelers then bicycles and the stocking with tangerine, selection box, chocolate coins in their little net bags and sweet tobacco sweets. One year a doll's house, that I loved, complete with little lights and fu...

I love this picture of Maggie and Jones on the beach at Hopeman, it is my favourite place to blow away the cobwebs, eat fish and chips and watch dolphins. Yes, we have dolphins on the Moray Coast, they can be found at tide turn in the summertime as they make their way to Spey Bay to munch on fish. The sea around here is so alive with whales, killer whales. dolphins, seals and of course people. I am never shocked to see people with their blue bodies take to the water at the first sign of sunshine, even at just 14 degrees the sea was full of people splashing about, shivering, but happy.  Hardy people these Northern Scots as the sea is usually freezing, though I am told Moray is warmed by the Gulf stream, it also has its own micro climate, due to its location. The map on the weather programme will show ice, snow, rain, yet there is usually a little gap where we live that manages to escape the worse of it. It makes for a beautiful place, mountains and forests, woods and beaches, l...

The Cappieshill, the ancient barrow mound across the road from my gate. Welcome to a blog about my life, my home, my pets, my hobbies, my learning to live a new life with an autoimmune disease and about Just Life. I am Brenda, I live with my husband Paul, our two chocolate Labrador dogs, maggie or Madam Madpants, Mister Jones Esquire, The Mister our F4 Savannah cat, Ralph the rooster and his women. We live rurally in a beautiful part of NE Scotland, we are both Welsh, but love and call this place home. I aim to post often, hope you find it interesting enough to follow, feedback, comment and come back again and again.