Sunshine and sadness

Thanks for all the comments about where to get cheap dies from.  I'm not intending to buy any just yet, think I've got enough stuff to keep me going for quite a while yet!  Unless of course I see some going cheap when I'm out and about....

The cards I've made and sent so far have been received with pleasure, everyone has seemed delighted with them regardless of my mistakes!

Bit of a sad time at the moment....we have elderly neighbours 3 doors down, a really lovely couple, husband helps them out with gardening and odd jobs now and then, as they both have health problems, I've been making them a soda bread loaf every week as the husband can't have yeasted bread.  The husband is in his 80s (his wife is around 12 years younger) and has been very unwell with a variety of problems for over a year, he's had several stays in hospital.  Recently he decided he didn't want to go to hospital anymore, he was adamant he was staying at home regardless.  He's deteriorated over the past few weeks and has been bedridden for about a month.  Sadly, he took a turn for the worse last week, he's not eating and is barely conscious, the doctor says it's just a matter of time now.  He has nurses in twice a day and is comfortable and relatively pain free with meds.  His family are there, in fact one of the sons was supposed to go on holiday to Barbados today but has cancelled it.  We've been in to basically say our goodbyes, he just about knew we were there.  I don't expect we shall see him again.  Very sad.

As it's such a lovely day, we've been out to the beach with Betty.  Somerset, although on the coast, isn't exactly blessed with beautiful beaches, it's no Cornwall or Devon.  However, there are one or two areas that are quite pretty, Dunster beach being one of them.  It has the added bonus of a tea hut and toilets, a large beach which is sandy once you get past the big pebbles from the car park, and a paved footpath at the back of the beach, going to Minehead one way and Blue Anchor Bay the other.  Steam trains run past during holiday times, and you can see Wales in the distance across the Bristol channel on a clear day.  

We took a picnic and treats and water for the dog.  How times have changed - previously we would have taken sandwiches or a pasty and crisps - today we took a Greek salad and a pot of chopped up fruit.  And it was lovely!  We had a mug of tea from the tea hut, along with a sneaky piece of Victoria sandwich cake between us.  They'd made it themselves and it was moist and delicious, I couldn't have made it better myself.  There was a bit of a cold breeze on the beach, but when it dropped it was very warm, warm enough to be without a jacket.

It was nice to have a few hours out in the sunshine, to take our minds off things and get away from it all for a while.