Mums Camellia

That's pretty special!

Pretty :)

My word that is amazing....

That's a beautiful Camellia, Janey! Congratulations to your mum on reaching her 96th birthday! ??

Thanks everyone...it is special...my son bought it for her.
She has a very pale pink Camelia that is at least 12ft tall...and over 40years old. Mum has been a great gardener, has a large garden surrounded by privet hedging, that Dad brought home bit by bit in a wheel barrow after buying from someone and planted when they first moved there, 69 years ago. It has stood the test of time, 4 children and lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren and looks as good today as it did in its youth..
Thank you Balc...I will give her your congrats...:))

Wow to your Mum and the camelia.
Loved reading your story about your Mum, Dads garden Janey.
I remember my Dad working so hard in the garden and growing veg and using his push mower to get the perfect stripes.

Congratulations to both.

That is a lovely story and I am so pleased that both your mum and her camelia are in find health.
Cheers!

Thanks Dawn, it was such a different way of gardening and a gardens uses then was it? My Dad was the same....rows of veggies and fruit bushes...I'm not sure he really enjoyed it though, it did seem to be regimented hard work...but I remember topiary bushes he loved to clip. I can still hear..'and keep off my grass!"....ha ha!

Thank you Siris and Wildrose...:))

Belated congratulations to your mum Janey , I love your story not many families in the future will have these special memories of eating home grown food together and most of all talking to each other at meal times ... Xx

Janey, oh so true, when we were playing ball games, my dad was like Watch the greenhouse, watch the plants, I can see his borders around the lawn now, red pelargoniums, white alyssum and blue aubretia, ordered from Dobies mail order. Dads veg were amazing. I think the growing became 2nd nature because of the War maybe. My grandad had topiary privet lol.

Thank you Amy...that's sadly true...there was a time for everything, routine was your security....not sure about the talking at mealtimes though....not at the table...and actually, we never expected to chat, it was a time for quiet and enjoying food and also planning what scrapes you could get into with your friend in the afternoon...after you'd washed and dried up and dryer up always put away...crikey, the things you remember!

Ooh yes Dawn, my Dad was the same...and we respected usually the work Mum and Dad put in to home and garden. Mum loved her rockery with the aubretia and alpines, and her gooseberry bushes, we would eat the goosegogs like sweets if those pesky caterpillars hadn't stripped the bushes. Dads rows of peas were level with twine and the winter cabbages hard, round and purpley green.
Your right, Dig for Victory days weren't far behind and gardening must have been so therapeutic after the traumas of the war. Of course there was no counselling then, also there wasn't much money either so it was a necessity, people too were healthy and fit with the exercise..

Congratulations "Mum"! It's marvellous to hear of strength and beauty in such measure! Many happy returns of the day!

Thank you very much Lori! Mum will be so amazed that a Canadian lady has congratulated her...:))
I shall tell her all about your snows, how you collect your firewood and the wonderful wildlife you have out there...

Oh Janey lol, we used to rob dad's gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries and peas, he got annoyed but they were always bumper crops and of course, we weren't allowed to eat between meals really lol so we had to get whatever could if we got snacky :-)

Ha ha Dawn....didn't those days seem forever sunny and long? Oh yes...eating peas from the garden, then having stomach ache when dinner was ready :-O

Yes Janey, 8 weeks off school yay, always hot and sunny!

If only you could capture those moments...but then you were always too busy being children..:))

Yes Janey, so busy, off on our bikes, popping back home for dinner and off again until dusk, happy days. My mum never let us play out on a Sunday plus it was Sunday School at the chapel!

Always on your bike, cycling here there and everywhere. I had a friend who moved to a new house and around were still the poppy fields. We would lay in the long grass watching the skylarks singing and then watch them dropping like a stone to their nests.
Yes Dawn, Sunday school, and you couldn't miss getting your gummed picture for your book...crikey we sound like a couple of real oldies!....:))

Happy Days Janey, the poppy fields must have been a beautiful sight. I didn't like Sunday school much and if we missed a day, I was in trouble with my Grandma lol

Oh Gosh what memories I wish I had more time at the moment to chat Lol.. I well remember me and my best friend setting off on our bikes we made it all the way to Kings Lynn it was dark when we came home and couldn't understand why there was such a fuss and a search party out for us ... Don't remind me of Sunday school ,I'm sure it was invented by our parents to get some peace on sunday afternoons :o)

Innocent times Dawn, yes, beautiful fields.. I'm pleased you said that about SS....neither did I! he he...:))

I wish you had too Amy....I hope you've coped with the snows??? I've had a lovely girly morning..shovelling hard packed ice, ahh...it's good for the soul...NOT!
Ooh, you monkeys, all that way? You must have been so tired! You lost time then though didn't you, hours would go by and it was always a drag having to go home..
Lex was telling me a funny tale, when she was at her Dads, she went to the shop then came back, went in the hall, hung her coat up, took her shoes off and put them away went in the room and there was this family playing a board game and she said....Whoops, sorry wrong house..!
Closed the door and found the right one...he he... I said, didn't it look different inside and she said...Yes.....:D

Amy, you little rebel! We were innocent, we never wanted the days to end did we. If it was getting dark my Dad would be in the footpath looking for us.
Our Sunday School was in the morning Amy.
Hahaha Lex, the family must have been amused, lol.
My old aunt came downstairs on morning, walked in the lounge, drew the curtains back and a young bloke was sitting in the chair, spooky, he said he thought he was at his grandparents house, he must have had a heavy night, she must have left the door unlocked, or her grandson had? We'll never know but he had no shoes, so they found some of her grandsons and the uninvited visitor went - that would have frightened me so much.

Oh Dawn your Aunt probably scared him more that he scared her how kind of her to give him shoes ..I suspect that was in the days when we didn't have to lock doors or be afraid ...
These tales remind me of a time when the kids were little we had hired a log cabin for a holiday in Devon we ran back as it was pouring with rain Tony was left behind sorting something out he eventually came in very red faced he had run back head down not looking where he was going straight into the cabin next door where a young couple were otherwise engaged Lol...

Oh that's priceless, Amy. I'm enjoying this nostalgic thread. Glad your spring has sprung, ladies.

Haha Lori.
Oh Amy, poor Tony, I imagine the sight has never left his memory bank.
The lad in my Aunt's lounge was only last year :-0. Scarey!

Gosh , Didn't you ever find out who he was Dawn ? that is scary :o(

Ha ha Amy! Poor Tony...he he...

We thought it had Lori, lovely sun here today, but icy air!

Oh, my word Dawn...that's an unusual way to get a new pair of shoes!!

No Amy, he was there and gone, never to return thank goodness.
Janey haha you do make me laugh, but yeah the lengths some folk go to he hee

Just have to tell you this most silly tale that still leaves me in stitches..then I promise that's it!
Me and my sister Jude went on holiday to Malgrat by coach, taking my nephew and his friend. The boys were supposed to have the adjacent room to ours, but they'd been put further up off the corridor.
The first night, Jude decided to check on them and kept peeping out our door to make sure no one was about, as she was scantily attired... Off she trotted, I stayed sat on our balcony. All of a sudden there was this voice saying "Oh No!" quite loudly. Then I could hear these deep voices and laughter and this scuffling noise. Suddenly our door opened, jude stood there as red as a beetroot shouting "Don't you dare laugh Jane!", she'd come back to the wrong apartment, the one next door to ours, in which our two coach drivers were staying!
She said she couldn't understand why the beds were on the other wall, and who had moved the bathroom???
By this time I was under the bed rolling with glee!!

???

Omg Janey ???. It appears to happen a lot. I think the lesson learnt is, always lock your door x

Ha ha Balc and Dawn....or maybe, take notice of where you're going....makes us smile...:))