First Kiss

I have never forgotten my first kiss. I never dared to dream that the perpetrator would one day walk back into my life and sweep me off my feet. Life is sweet when it deals you these serendipitous surprises.

Kerry was a pretty naughty boy. He was not nasty, not violent, but one of those cheeky little rogues who made school a little more entertaining for his fellow pupils. He smoked behind the sheds, didn't do his homework and lit grass fires in his summer holidays.

I was the swotty teachers' pet. I came top in pretty much every subject. I was the person people asked for homework answers. I was vehemently anti-smoking and in my summer holidays I practiced my handwriting.

We had practically nothing in common. Even though we were in the same year, we weren't even in the same class. You would never had put us together as a likely match. But then there was this school holiday to Holland and we were thrown together in a mixed group of children from our year. We got talking, and we liked each other. I was surprised by his loyal and protective nature. I had presumed naughty kids weren't really very nice and avoided them. He proved me wrong. He says that he felt he was able to be himself with me and didn't have any bravado or machoism he needed to live up to, as he did with the lads. Conversations were easy. Being together was easy. We spent more and more time together as the holiday went on. There was no romance at this stage, we were just kids, but we did become very close.

Back at school we all went back to growing up. After a while we naturally started to become interested in the opposite sex as playmates of a new kind. I fancied him. He fancied me. I told my best friend. He told his best friend. I told my best friend to tell his best friend....... and so the game went on. Eventually, somehow, we were 'going out' with each other. One afternoon my form teacher pulled me to one side and warned me 'I don't think you should be hanging around with that Kerry as much as you do. Girls like you shouldn't spend too much time with boys like him. He'll be a bad influence on you.' After this of course, he only grew even more attractive to me!

We shared our first kiss at Rockerfellas, a nightclub that held a non-alcoholic disco for the under eighteens up until 9 O' Clock on Friday nights. I felt so grown up! Actually, I say 'our' first kiss, but whilst it was my first kiss ever, it wasn't his; good job really, I needed a bit of help from someone who knew what they were doing.

Good old days! I'm back left, Kerry is the rude gesture.

We never really broke up. We just grew up. We went our separate ways and moved on as you do. Of course every now and then over the years I'd think 'I wonder what Kerry Bowman's doing these days,' but I imagine lots of people think such things about their first boyfriends. Nothing ever comes of it; not usually. I joined Friends Reunited for a few years. Nothing ever came of that. Then out of the blue a couple of years ago I got a message on Facebook..... from Kerry!!

We got chatting straight away. And once we started it seemed we couldn't stop. It was just like old times. Conversation was so easy! We chatted into the night.... every night. We arranged to meet after a few days. I was to go round to his for a coffee. I wasn't nervous at all; just excited. In fact I couldn't wait to see him again after all those (twenty-three!) years.

I found his flat and he came to the gate to meet me. We hugged, kissed each other on the cheek and went inside. Well....... as soon as I saw him I was hooked. His eyes were exactly the same - those piercing pale blue eyes that gave me butterflies, but everything else about him had changed. He had gotten all...... well, manly! I fancied him now more than ever.

A more mature Kerry (some things never change):

We talked and talked and I didn't leave until one in the morning. We have been together ever since. For ever this time.

Engagement: June 11th 2009

An engagement is announced between

Kerry Liam Bowman,

younger son of Mr and Mrs Michael Bowman

and

Sally May Moss,

only daughter of Mr and Mrs Jack Moss.



Keeping the home fires burning

This wood burner is one of the best things I have ever bought.

It's hot; REALLY hot! I don't know how they measure these things, but it belts out a whopping 8kw of heat. We never set out to buy a 'real' fire. We trawled the showrooms looking at gas fires. We found a couple that were ok. They were hole-in-the-wall gas fires, which looked slick, but for the hefty £600+ price tag, it was very expensive for what what would have been essentially a decorative item, outputting only about 3kw or less.

I had a woodburner in mind from the start, but Kerry had dismissed them as old-fashioned. But on the way out of a showroom one afternoon, he practically tripped over a little stove similar to this one and said 'Oh, that looks nice!'. So we found this one at a reasonable £300ish and bought it from here:

http://www.stovesareus.co.uk/catalog/evergreen-st0406gs-poplar-multifuel-woodburning-stove-p-6032.html

Of course we then had great fun knocking a giant hole in the chimney breast:

We then tiled the inside with natural slate tiles to give a look that would satisfy both my old-fashioned taste and Kerry's more modern, minimalist taste. Here it is in all it's hot glory:

There's nothing like a real fire. It's cosy, interesting, comforting, fun and very hot. And I think it doesn't half look good too! The rest of the living room is a mess right now. But it will be finished one day. Here is my mood board:

They're not my favourite sort of sofas, but there's nothing wrong with them, so we'll have to live with them for now and have had to design the room to incorporate them.

As I have said, the living room is a mess right now, but the fire is delightful and makes me feel cheerful and homely in spite of the poor surroundings. Fires have that effect on you. Get one if you can. 

Garden: Plannage!

I have been busy on BBC's 'virtual garden' design programme. In theory, it's a great idea; plan out your garden and then view it in glorious 3D. In practice, it's very difficult to use because it's incredibly slow and the choice of plants and other items is very limited.

However, it does give you a rough idea of what your garden might look like at some point in the fantastic future. Here is my bird's eye view plan:

I've added another shed as there's no option in the programme for a woodstore. On the North wall, facing south is an arbour, placed here to face the large circular lawn. A small, naturalistic pond towards the West will encourage wildlife. The patio is just oustide the back door, on the South side of the house.

And now for the 3D views:

In the North:

The East:

The South:

The patio:

The plants are not really all that accurately planned because of the limits of the programme. But it still gives a fairly good vision of what I hope my garden will eventually look like.

All I have to do now is make it happen!!!

Putting my eggs all in one basket

I have decided to amalgamate my several blogs into one to keep things tidy and present a more rounded picture of who I am and what I do. Being a hoarder, I can't bear to give up my old posts to cyber-heaven, so I'll stick all the old posts from my other blogs here. Expect several updates in a short space of time; apologies in advance for the blog-bombardment.

One Hundred Days

With W-Day looming closer and closer, and spring in the air, I decided to start work on transforming my life. I set out a One Hundred Days Plan; a plan for improving my life over a one hundred day period, and decided to start the plan exactly one hundred days before the wedding.

I thought long and hard about what sort of person I'd like to be. Imagining myself as a married lady seems a bit strange, but that new status also makes it easier to imagine a future me being quite different from the 'old me'. There are MANY areas of my life with room for improvement and I started writing lists of all the things I'd like to be and/or achieve by the time I become a wife.

I narrowed the list down and matched each item on the list to a proverb to live by and then completed a Sigil spell to help me stick with my One Hundred Days Plan (see sigil below).

Ten Proverbs:

One written word is worth a thousand pieces of gold.

The greatest wealth is health.

Tidy house, tidy mind.

Think, write, do.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Even a sheet of paper has two sides.

Nam myoho renge kyo.

Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.

The garden is the poor man's apothecary.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

I'll address each of these proverbs separately in future posts to explain what they mean to me, what their effect has been and how I'm getting on with the whole One Hundred Days Plan. I'm already a couple of weeks in and so far it's going very well!

Finally, to that person who yesterday told me to 'get a life' - guess what? I already have a life; and mine exudes inner peace, a kind nature and all round happiness. I have a proverb for you: People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.



Sonnet 2

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,

Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,

Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:

Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,

To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,

Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.

How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,

If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'

Proving his beauty by succession thine!

This were to be new made when thou art old,

And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

William Shakespeare