A Jubilee Toast to Her Maj.

We're having a street party Monday . Bunting and flags and all that. 12 households and YoungNells and some of the other kids playing God Save the Queen after a toast of whatever.

Have just been told I've been designated to provide a sweet. Some have been asked for salads , others for BBQ stuff. OMG what to cook!  This is the issue.

First thoughts are for a summer flan . A flan bake case made with traditional victoria sponge mix and then lightly soaked with rum, sugar and lemon juice. Fresh fruits of strawberries, blueberries, grapes and cubed fresh pineapple covered in a jelly made from a mix of pomegranate and orange juice. Guess I better also provide a pint of pouring cream!

The other choice is to make cornflake Krackolates in little cake cases . Cornflakes stirred into melted dark chocolate with a dollop of treacle or honey and then spooned into cake cases and allowed to cool and set. Haven't made them since I was a kid!

We have a republican living nearby who is regarding us all with a jaudiced eye. We should, he says, be looking to elect our Head of State.  We all thought about it around here and asked him who he would suggest for election, tony blair, prescott, gordon brown perhaps cameron.

Trouble is none of them look good when set beside a diminutive lady who has pledged her whole life to public service.

She looks even better when you compare her service to that of people like mugabe or gaddafi or assad .

Long may she Reign!

When God Is Ready.

Nobody wants to talk about death and yet , like sex, it is an integral part of our lives, that all of us will experience.

The last couple of weeks have been rather hard . Mum is 97 and slipping away from us slowly. One day at a time. We are working with her carers in the home for it to be as natural, pain and stress free as possible. And actually the fact that we can do that for her is rather comforting.

She knows, sometimes, that it's happening and it hasn't been all doom and gloom. Today she got impatient just for one brief, lucid moment and demanded to know why she was waiting. When we gently rubbed her arm and told her to rest she told us we needed to go out and find her a train!

The organs are shutting down and the brain is losing oxygen.  Nobody discusses it, but it is happening and it may take days or weeks.  Lack of oxygen to the brain is helping her regress to childhood and she is enjoying easterly winds driving windmill sails in the fens , tractors ploughing gentle hillsides and telling us about how they're digging for wells.

I don't want to upset anyone so if you find this blogpost upsetting , please don't read.

I want what I write to be comforting . My strongest belief is that we should all live each day to it's max. God will say when it's time to go over to the other side.

I'm planning to amend and add to this particular blogpost over the coming days/weeks.