A View From My Summerhouse

Bright Eyed, Bushy Tailed and Beautiful Awards – Part One

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Good morning dear friends and here I am, as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I intended (despite some doubters in the crowd!) on this cold December, Monday morning. I hope that you all had a lovely weekend?

I can report that in between ~~guzzling several~~ sipping genteelly one or two glasses of bubbly during the course of the weekend, we did manage to:

Buy a Christmas tree (great deal at B&Q, £25 for a Nordmann Fir with minimal needle drop (more on that subject in another post)
Attempted to buy a few pressies for people (in real shops) but couldn’t find the inspiration
Made too many visits to ASDA for boring things like eggs and bread (that’s all I’m owning up to)
No online shopping to be had.

Other than that, and not getting any decorating done (except for the lights on the tree) what was most important was that I got to spend time with my boy. With all that he has been through since September it is so good to see him a bit happier, offered a new job which means that he can move back to Brighton in the new year and also looking forward to a fresh start and a brighter future.

More important this, I’m sure you would agree, than running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get Christmas off the ground? After all, there are two weeks or so to do that, starting NOW.

Yet it seems that the celebrations must continue despite my ever-rising Christmas panic because it would appear that Father Christmas has visited me a little earlier than usual this year in the form of several of you lovely people who have been so kind enough to nominate me for a plethora of awards (hope that doesn’t sound too much like bragging but I didn’t know how else to say it!!).

So many in fact (and I’m actually quite embarrassed about this) that I will be doing three separate blog posts, one after the other, to make things easier. Hope you can stand it!

So even though it’s Monday morning, I hope you are in somewhat of a party mood as I’m about to kick this one off with first round!

Firstly, lovely Ilka of her delightful blog, Simplyilka, nominated me so kindly for The Versatile Blogger Award. Ilka is a scientist, environmentalist and medical writer who just happens to have a passion for writing too! Her delightful opening on her ‘About’ page says, ‘this blog was my kids’ idea!’ and her desire to share ‘science with a smile’ certainly shines through in megawatts!

The Versatile Blogger Award

Around the same time, another lovely new friend, Glynis Jolly of Speculations Impressed, also nominated me for this award. Glynis writes about her thoughts, ideas and emotions as she shares her memoirs with her readers and her tagline ‘My Perils with writing’ captures the way in which she explores her writing and the journey that she is on.

Thank you so much Ilka and Glynis for thinking of me for these awards!

In the time that I was preparing this post, and while away from my blog this weekend, I was amazed to see that my lovely friend Sandra over at quirkybooks has been extremely busy and so very kind to nominate me for several awards, the first three I will mention here (yes, there’s more!):

The Versatile Blogger Award, the Sunshine Award, The Dragon Loyalty Award and also the WordPress Family Award, all of which I’m greatly honoured to receive and especially honoured to be considered part of Sandra’s WordPress cyber family which warms my heart greatly.

The Sunshine Award

The WordPress Family Award

The Dragon’s Loyalty Award

Sandra adores her four guinea pigs and just happens to be a writer who, in addition to her quirkybooks blog site has a website called beatredundancyblues and teaches blogging as an aid to recovery for those who have lost their jobs through redundancy.

I recently commented on one of Sandra’s blog posts about my redundancy story, albeit briefly, and Sandra very kindly posted my comment as one of several ‘redundancy success’ stories on her site. I was thrilled that she wanted to share my experience with her readers as I had never really thought of it as a success story as such, merely as a way to show that it is possible to get a life after 50 even when you think you are finished! If you are interested, you can read it here.

Thank you so very much Sandra for bestowing all these awards upon me 🙂

Since I have previously received all the above awards and having nominated others for them all fairly recently, I will not be participating in the rules this time but I wanted to make sure that I gave my thanks to all three of these lovely ladies and also give a shout-out to their must-see blogs.

Now onto Part Two – Watch this space!

Posted in Awards, Current Affairs | Tagged Awards, Blog, Blogger, Christmas, Dragon's Loyalty Award, Reduncancy, thank you, The Sunshine Award, The Versatile Blogger Award, The WordPress Family Award, WordPress | 37 Comments

Any Excuse for a Bit of Bubbly!

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

What a week it’s been! I’ve really enjoyed my visit over at T.B.’s blog, thanks again so much T.B. and also not only to all of you who took the time to go over and read my guest post but also to all the lovely new friends that she and I have both made as a result! It’s been amazing!

I think that a little celebration is in order, don’t you? It is the season to be jolly after all (you can take that any way you want) and I think it fits rather nicely with the way some people refer to me as being ‘bubbly’. Apparently.

My Aspie daughter would, however, disagree, preferring to call me ‘annoying’, as in, ‘Mom, you’re talking too loud!’ or, when taking her out and about in the car to run errands and enjoying singing along enthusiastically to a favourite song on the radio and ‘dancing’ to the beat with my head and hands (you know what I mean), I am rudely interrupted with a ‘Stop it Mom, everyone can see!’ So of course I keep doing it. Aspie daughter laughs in spite of her disgust at her thoroughly embarrassing mother.

Bubbly, annoying, loud, whatever. I’m not like that all the time, in fact, often I’m very quiet really. Still, I like to call it blowing off steam and since I’m panicking about Christmas big time and all that I have left to do I think there is only one solution.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best:

‘Too much of anything is bad but too much champagne is just right’.

Celebrate!
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

Scotty, I have to agree totally. Actually, I’m a cheap date really as a lovely, chilled bottle of cava will do just as nicely. Lidle do a particularly nice one. Of course, poor Hubby has another take on this rather effervescent subject.

He took me out to dinner once, in the early days, to a lovely country house hotel called Ston Easton just outside the glorious city of Bath. This is not a place that you would go for any old meal , and certainly not cheap. I hadn’t been to such a place for a very long time and felt thoroughly spoiled. Treated like a queen in fact. The problem is that I think that the entire experience went to my head and I began to have ideas above my station. (Downton Abbey anyone?)

Whilst perusing the menu, Hubby (not my hubby then I might add) asked me what I would like to drink. “Shall we order a bottle of champagne?” I blithely suggested. The poor man looked at me, turned a whiter shade of pale and looked momentarily as if he was about to fall off his overstuffed chair. It hadn’t even occurred to me that the cheapest bottle of champers would have set him back a cool several hundred pounds.

Of course I didn’t find this out until later (several years later in fact). Somehow he managed to persuade me to have ‘just one glass to start with’ and then we moved on to wine. I’m amazed that he still wanted to marry me.

Belated birthday celebrations this weekend, Christmas decs going up and manic online ordering. Time to crack open that bubbly.

Cheers!

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you bright and bushy-tailed on Monday 🙂

Posted in Asperger's Syndrome, Blogging, Current Affairs, Guest Blogs, Humour, Writing | Tagged Asperger syndrome, Bath, Blogging, Cava, celebration, Champagne, Christmas, Current Affairs, Downton Abbey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Guest Blogs, Humour, Ston Easton, thank you, writing | 63 Comments

Empathy.

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

This short and powerful reminder that mental illness is no laughing matter posted today by my friend Steven which he called, succinctly, ‘Empathy’ takes short minutes to read and watch. Please do. I wish that my daughter could have done this when she suffered so badly during her school years.

Posted in Reblogs, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Guest Post over at Making My Mark!

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Today, I am delighted to announce that I was recently invited by T. B. Markinson to write a guest post about my writing journey. Some of you may already know T. B. from her blogs Making My Mark and 50 Year Project, both wonderful blogs crammed full of book reviews, cover reveals and exciting updates on her writing projects and her mission to complete her ‘bucket list’ which consists of reading 1001 books, watching 100 top movies and visiting 192 countries before she dies!

She also achieved her ambition of becoming a published author with her debut novel ‘A Woman Lost’ before she reached the age of 35! Not only that, but her second novel, ‘Marionette’, has recently been published. Exciting times for T. B.!

T.B. and I have been following each other’s blogs for some time now and I am so very pleased that we ‘found’ each other here on WordPress. We also have another connection in that she is an American living in London so you can just imagine the frequent comparisons that we both like to make!

Not only as a writer but also as a friend, T. B. has been nothing but incredibly supportive and encouraging of my writing, and now and then gives me a swift kick up the a*** when it comes to ~~bugging~~ encouraging me to get on with writing my memoir! To say that she has inspired me to keep going is an understatement (but in all seriousness T. B., you are certainly not bugging me 🙂 )

When T.B. asked me to guest post I was thrilled and very honoured and so with no further ado, I would like to invite you over to ‘Making My Mark’ where, if you would like to, you can read my post, ‘My Writing Journey – The Heat is On!‘

Thank you so much T. B. it’s been a pleasure!

Posted in Blogging, Guest Blogs, Writing | Tagged Author, Blogging, Debut novel, Encouragement, Guest Post, Publishing, WordPress, Writers Resources, writing, Writing Journey | 20 Comments

Cornwall, ‘Rebecca’ and a Homecoming

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Well, Thanksgiving has been and gone (I hope you all had a good one!), my son Nicky celebrated his birthday in style and we spent a wonderful weekend with some very special people at their lovely home in Cornwall.

To my American friends reading this, Cornwall is part of what we Brits call ‘The West Country’, lying as the name suggests in the furthest south-western part of the British Isles. A very popular place for families to spend their summer hols but also for just about anyone to visit at any time of year.

I’m in the process of catching up with you all since I’ve been away from my laptop for a few days but meanwhile I thought you might like to see a few photos as Hubby and I were able to squeeze in a visit to the delightful fishing town of Looe and then the beautiful harbour of Fowey:

Looe, Cornwall
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

A view of the harbour at Fowey, Cornwall. A very long walk down and an even longer walk
back up the hill to the car park! But we did it!
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews

A view of the waterside at Fowey, Cornwall
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Palm trees growing in Fowey, Cornwall
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Church at Fowey with Poppy Wreaths still very much in evidence from Rememberance Sunday
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

You can see from these photos that despite it being the very end of November, and yes, it was quite chilly, the sun shone brightly giving rise to one of those beautifully crisp winter days so that you can walk about in a jacket and feel warm and cosy but not so overdressed that as soon as you start exerting any energy, as in walking, you want to rip your jacket off again!

These are my favourite kind of days.

The day we visited Fowey there was a Christmas market and it was very busy but it was lovely to stroll around the unique boutique-style shops and sample the food and wines on offer at various marquees. That, and also trying to avoid being hounded by the local ‘pirates’ who were rather exhuberant in their well-intentioned efforts to take up a collection for the Royal National Lifeboat Association (RNLI). A very good cause though it be!

For me, however, Cornwall (and particularly Fowey), has long-held a deep fascination as it was the home of the incomparable Daphne du Maurier, she the wonderful author of one of my all-time favourite books, ‘Rebecca’. Although I have visited Cornwall several times before over the years, I had never been to Fowey which of course is where she lived.

Visits to Cornwall always remind me of my last few years spent living in California. My marriage was in a very bad way and my ex-husband and I, by that point, were nothing more than passing ships and all that. My life was primarily spent with my children and my friends. I didn’t want it to be that way but there it was, there it is, the reality of the way my life was back then.

It was during that time that reading Rebecca gave me the escape that I longed for, lost as I was as I walked the long road to Manderley, took tea in the drawing-room, the cups and silverware laid out on crisp, white linens and all the while trying to avoid the icy stares of Mrs Danvers.

Or perhaps it would be while strolling along the wild, coastal path leading me down to the troubled sea and eventually to the fisherman’s hut on the beach where dark and mysterious secrets lay hidden, awaiting eventual discovery and the desperately sought-for answers to Maxim’s brooding turmoil.

This story of unrequited love, betrayal, murderous accusations, and then the unconditional love of a young innocent girl for her older, complicated and haunted husband took me far away from my own dark sea of hopelessness and empty longing for a happier life. I could live out another’s story of helpless misunderstanding while all the while trying to do the right thing yet never quite able to, or so it seemed.

Perhaps then, it is no coincidence that so many years later, and certainly not imagined in my mixed-up thoughts for a single moment, that during one of our very first conversations having met only once or twice, I happened to ask my now-husband what his favourite film and/or book was. Just out of curiosity.

Knowing him a little by then and so thinking he would come back with something like The Italian Job (the original), The Battle of Britain or Withnail & I (all of which he did, by-the-way), the defining moment came when he answered, without any pre-knowledge or the slightest understanding of the gravity of his words,

“It has to be Rebecca”.

I knew then that I was home.

Posted in Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Family Life, Musings, My California, Photos, Travel | Tagged Author, Books and Reading, British Isles, Cornwall, Current Affairs, Daphne Du Maurier, Family Life, Fowey, Italian Job, Looe, Marriage, Movies, Musings, My California, travel, West Country, Withnail & I, writing | 80 Comments

A Thanksgiving ‘Happy Birthday’ Baby

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Thanksgiving was a non-event for me when we first moved to America. As a Brit, this holiday isn’t on the calendar and not one that we celebrate since, after all, it was from our country that the pilgrims fled, so nothing for us to give thanks for on that count, at least.

But our move to California in the August of 1986 changed all that. EH (ex-husband) ~~signed his life away~~ joined the Department of Corrections; starting out on the bottom rung of the seniority ladder, it would be years before he was able to grab those family-friendly shifts.

So, while he worked overtime we spent our first couple of Thanksgivings with the grandparents. Driving the four-hour drive from where they lived in Los Angeles to the central coast where we lived, they treated us to a feast at a nearby restaurant, since Crazy Grandma didn’t cook turkey dinners anymore.

Thanksgiving didn’t hold any emotional or sentimental attachment for me, so it was nice to start this new tradition in this way and not have any of the holiday-season stress.

But when my eldest son started Kindergarten a couple of years after we moved, I learned all about the meaning of this special American holiday, through his eyes.

He proudly taught me how the Pilgrim Fathers sailed across the sea from England to America in The Mayflower from Plymouth, Devon in 1620 to escape religious persecution from King James 1 and his cronies.

He told me that they suffered terribly in very harsh conditions, but that they eventually settled in New Plymouth, Massachusetts against all odds and formed a colony of their own.

Their brave New World.

I learned how they made friends with the Native Americans who showed them how to farm the land and grow the local crops such as pumpkins and corn and how to catch and cook the local wild turkey.

It was out of this relationship that the first Thanksgiving feast grew, as a way for the pilgrims to show their gratitude for their new friends: a celebration handed down for all the generations to come, held every year on the fourth Thursday of every November.

It was great fun to join in with the festivities at my son’s school – I watched with pride as he and his friends made paper hats, painted their ‘clothes’ (Indian? Pilgrim?) and ate their own feast (thanks to their parent’s contributions) as they all sat together around trestle tables.

My son (left) with a friend at his first Thanksgiving feast 1988 (c) Sherri Matthews

My son (left) with a friend at his first Thanksgiving feast
Kindergarten 1988
(Notice the ‘pilgrims’ in the background!)
(c) Sherri Matthews

With a couple of Thanksgiving’s under my belt, the year came when I decided to try my hand at making my very own family feast. EH was working the swing shift starting at 3 pm, so I figured I could make the meal in good time before he had to leave.

Never mind that I was nine-month’s pregnant. No problem. I thought.

Thanks to Crazy Grandma’s hand-written recipe for home-made stuffing, a few tips and ideas from new friends I had made at the school gates, and my mum’s advice for cooking a turkey (my first time), I began my preparations early in the morning.

It was tiring enough standing for so long in the kitchen, but the real fun began once everything was cooking happily away in the oven. The constant bending up and down to check on everything set off seismic waves of Braxton Hicks contractions.

They pulled me up so short that I had to keep stopping to breathe, just like they teach you in those ante-natal classes – hee hee hoooo hoooo…

By no small miracle, I managed to pull it off (the meal, not the oven door). My first home-cooked Thanksgiving feast consisted of: turkey, corn-on-the-cob, cornbread, mashed potatoes, Crazy Grandma’s stuffing, yams (sweet potatoes) oozing brown sugar and marshmallows baked and browned on top, French Bean Casserole, and lashings of gravy. Not forgetting homemade pumpkin pie (an acquired taste for this Brit) and ice cream to follow.

We ate, enjoyed and EH left for work. I did the dishes and after a short rest, it being sunny and quite warm outside (which was so strange to me, it being the end of November), I decided that maybe a short walk while my son rode his bicycle would do us some good.

The ‘contractions’ had eased off by now, thankfully.

Me with Big-Brother-To-Be
Morro Bay, California 1988
(c) Sherri Matthews

We stepped outside, the big, blue Californian skies beckoning, and off we went. I will never forget how quiet and still our neighbourhood seemed that day, everybody inside eating their meals with their family and friends.

It certainly heightened my sense of being very alone in a vast land, just me and my little boy.

It was then that I realised I had overdone things. I took a few steps, then stopped. I couldn’t walk. Something felt odd. A strong contraction, oh no, surely not. I called after my son who was peddling his little bike up ahead to come back.

“Sorry my love, no walk today, Mummy’s not feeling too good…”

Once back inside I thought I had better have a lie down, and so instead of a walk in the sunshine we spent the afternoon cuddled up on the sofa with a few good books and watching cartoons. The contractions, to great relief, subsided.

But Nicky didn’t wait long and arrived two days later on the 29th November, close enough to qualify as my very own Thanksgiving baby!

Me and my Nicky – 1989
(c) Sherri Matthews

I had a lot more to learn about Thanksgiving. For Nicky’s fourth birthday I planned a party at home, inviting a few of his pre-school friends. I made a chocolate train cake, planned games, set the table with paper hats and streamers.

Nobody replied to my RSVP and only one little girl turned up. Everyone else, I later found out, had gone away to spend Thanksgiving with their families. I didn’t make that mistake again.

The other thing I learned about Thanksgiving in America is that every year that I spent there, we were never alone. I made friends through the children’s friends, our church, and work; we were never short of someone to spend the holiday with.

I am profoundly thankful to those friends who, over the years, welcomed me and my family into their homes year after year and who made sure that we were never lonely or forgotten.

Many of them I am no longer in touch with: those of us who have moved away, taken different paths, embarked on distant journeys. Yet, their generous and loving hospitality and kindness will live in my heart forever.

With every slice of pumpkin pie, I partook in a slice of Americana, spending time with family and friends in a country that was my adopted home for many years, embracing this uniquely American holiday.

As the years went by, I cooked many more Thanksgiving feasts, including one for some of my eldest son’s college friends.

But never again with a baby bump.

My heart overflows with gratitude for you all, my dear family, friends, and loved ones near and far as I wish those of you who celebrate –

…a very Happy Thanksgiving!…

…and to Nicky, a very Happy Birthday to you, my Thanksgiving Baby…!!

Nicky’s First Birthday
November 29, 1989
(c) Sherri Matthews

With lots of love from Mum xxxxxxx

Posted in Family Traditions, Friendship, Mothers & Sons, My California | Tagged baby, Celebrations, Childhood memories, Department of Corrections, Family Traditions, Friendship, Happy Birthday, Mothers & Sons, My California, Pregnancy, Thanksgiving | 58 Comments

Ever Thankful and One Crazy Grandma

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Here we are and it’s Friday again, and time is a-flying! I had to go into town today to get a few things, ha! It was crazily busy, you would think that Christmas is just around the corner. Oh wait, it is.

Still, lots to get done before Christmas arrives, starting with this follow-up to Nicky’s guest post. It’s a bit difficult for him to get on my blog and reply to you all individually at the moment due to certain logistics so he has asked me to thank you all so very much on his behalf and to let you all know that he has read every single comment and continues to be utterly blown away by all the love, support and encouragement.

Thank you all again, so very much from me too, you really are so very lovely and I too have been so blessed by the very great kindness shown by so many of you. Nicky and I will certainly keep you all updated with his progress as and when – watch this space!

…………………………………………………………….

It’s coincidental and perhaps that much more appropriate that the last couple of posts have been about my son since November is his birthday month. Also that this really is a time to be so thankful. Next week, I will be posting my ‘Thanksgiving’ blog so more on that later.

…………………………………………………………..

What does comes to mind at this time of year for me, however, are strong memories of Grandma and Grandpa. That is, my one-time in-laws, both passed on now. My associations with America and my life there revolved around the time when I was a young mum with young children and visits with their grandparents either in Los Angeles, where they lived, or when they would come and visit us. So many warm, happy times.

There is one memory in particular. It isn’t actually about Thanksgiving but very much about one turkey, a huge amount of home-made stuffing and one ‘crazy’ Grandma.

My eldest son didn’t meet his American grandparents until we moved back there when he was three-years sold. His father had gone ahead of us to start his new job with the Department of Corrections and we, son and I, joined him several weeks later. It was a blisteringly hot August day when he picked us up at LAX in his parent’s old Buick LeSabre with the shocks that were so shot to pieces that it felt as if we were travelling not in a car but in a boat on very choppy water.

We were tired and jet lagged but before he took us to the apartment in Glendale where we would be staying for the foreseeable future, he took us to his boyhood home where Grandma and Grandpa still lived as they couldn’t wait to meet us.

So there we were, a couple of bedraggled travellers, my little boy and I, stepping out of the old Buick and walking up the steps at the side of the tiny clapboard house somewhere in sprawling Los Angeles to meet our new family. My son was their first grandchild so you can just imagine their delight!

Grandpa and ‘crazy’ Grandma with the boys –
Los Angeles, 1989
(c) Sherri Matthews

Such joy and love and laughter and there was my little ‘English’ boy regaling them with stories of ‘Thomas The Tank Engine‘, his then obsession, and an unknown to his grandparents at that time. I remember my son calling his new uncle, who was also there, a ‘galloping sausage’ after he was teased about something and everyone thought this was hilarious, saying it as he did in his very English accent!

(Thomas, the Tank Engine, had insulted Gordon, a larger engine, by calling him a ‘galloping sausage’ and so of course my son thought this would be very funny to repeat. In case you were wondering.)

Soon it was time to eat, even though our bodies were telling us that it was the small hours of the morning and not afternoon at all and we weren’t very hungry. Bearing in mind that it was also unbearably hot in the little house, well up into the 90s outside and no air conditioning inside.

Also, and we laughed about this for years to come, Grandma had got into her mind that to welcome us to America she would make us a turkey dinner, with all the trimmings. Which meant that the oven had been on for hours. Even though it was the middle of August. It was a lovely thought.

Bless her. We didn’t call her crazy Grandma for nothing!

Grandma was so excited and we chatted and laughed until at last she went to the oven to get the turkey out. We carried on talking and, from the living room, we all heard it. First, a dull thud, a loud clatter and then an ever louder scream. Grandpa rushed into the kitchen and we all craned our necks, only for my eyes to meet the biggest turkey I had ever seen in my life, lying upside down on the kitchen floor with massive dollops of stuffing all around it, as if providing a bizarre garnish.

She told me later that she had dropped it when taking it out of the oven because she was so excited that her hands were shaking!

Then came the laughter, soft at first, then great peels of it, then positively raucous so that we could hardly hold our sides in and stop them from splitting wide open.

Grandma managed to retrieve something of the turkey but not the stuffing. The thing is, the stuffing that she made was from an old recipe that her mother always used and she had made it from scratch that very morning. After that, she gave me the recipe which I still have, handwritten on a scrap of paper.

I have used it nearly every Christmas ever since.

Grandma never made turkey again after that. She did used to make tacos now and then, and let me tell you, they were the best. The kids would always ask her to make them. ‘Grandma, can we have your tacos for dinner, oh please, pretty please?’ She would start them early in the morning, fine-chopping every single ingredient for hours and she also made the best salsa and guacamole too. She didn’t do it very often but when she did, oh boy, watch out!

I really miss you crazy Grandma (and you would be so proud of your grandchildren now). This one’s for you 🙂

Posted in Childhood Memories, Family Life, Guest Blogs, Mothers & Sons, My California | Tagged America, Celebrations, Childhood memories, Christmas, Cooking, Family Life, Grandma, Grandpa, Guest Blog, joy, laughter, Los Angeles, Mothers & Sons, thank you, Thanksgiving, Thomas The Tank Engine, Turkey Dinner | 47 Comments

In Which My Son Says ‘Thank You’…

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Today I’m very proud and delighted to be hosting my first ever guest blog – meaning, I’m handing you over to my son, Nick (Nicky to family and old friends!) He was so greatly encouraged and inspired by your responses to his music as shared in Monday’s post Smoke & Mirrors – My Son’s Way Back that he wanted to express his gratitude to you all.

I would like to thank you too, my dear readers, from the bottom of my heart for all your amazingly kind and supportive comments, offers of help for Nick and also for taking the time to share your personal stories and experiences.

So that’s enough from me, over to you Nicky:

Nick & Eddie
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

“I would just like to express how appreciative I am of everyone’s kind and inspiring words. Never has my music received such overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Even though I may be going through a bit of a rough patch, it’s shed light on two very positive things. The first being it’s clearly displayed how loving and supportive my friends and family are.

The second being that it’s started to light a bit of fire left in me to make music. For years my passion has always balanced on a knife’s edge, but if this whole situation I’m in didn’t come about, I probably never would have seriously made an effort to try and motivate myself to play guitar again. What you have all said has helped light that fire a bit more, so thanks again.

Despite what has happened recently, I still consider myself a very lucky person. Some of the best music ever written has come from people that have faced circumstances far more difficult than anything I’ve ever dealt with.

For instance, blues music is one of the most important cornerstones of modern music, and originally it was written by people who weren’t exactly living the best quality of life. It’s because they discovered what I’m beginning to see: When faced with obstacles, you can always turn to whatever creative outlet inspires you, and you can always depend on it to lift you up unlike so many other things in life.”

Posted in Family Life, Guest Blogs, Mothers & Sons, Music | Tagged Arts, Blues, Creativity, Electric Guitar, Encouragment, Family Life, Guest Blog, Inspiration, Lessons and Instruction, Mothers & Sons, music, Positive feedback, thank you | 27 Comments

‘Smoke and Mirrors’ – My Son’s Way Back

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

A few month’s ago, I read this in UCB*

‘Tenacity is the hallmark of all successful people. They keep trying, keep learning and keep moving forward. They win the battle in their minds and then it
overflows into what they do’.

It wasn’t too long ago when I wrote my post ‘Write Your Dream but Don’t Kill the Creativity‘ in which I expressed my thoughts on the writer’s paradox of wanting to keep the dream alive by writing a book for publication (which is my dream) but at the same time not letting our creativity fall by the way-side.

As an another example of this, I wrote about my son’s experience of pursuing his dream of writing, recording and performing his own music but how studying a professional musicianship degree killed his creativity and his dream.

Almost. For a time.

Over the next few years he continued to ‘dabble’ in his music and recorded a couple of songs but gradually the pursuit of his musical dream came to a resounding halt.

More recently, he was floored by what was, at the time, a devastating break-up with his girlfriend; a storm raged and crashed through his world which, while bringing him down, dear reader, did not completely break him, although it threatened to do so.

This is because my son is not a quitter.

He is a self-taught musician who was accepted to Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) on audition purely because he would not give up on his dream. He knew exactly what he wanted to achieve.

His setbacks over recent years have only strengthened him and now his creativity has returned with a vengence. His dream, as it turned out, was not dead but merely asleep, awaiting its time to awake, renewed, refreshed and on fire. He has set his eyes on his future, not held back by his past.

George Bernard Shaw said:

‘People are always blaming their circumstances. The people who get ahead are those who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and
if they can’t find them, they make them’.

My son has inspired me with his tenacity, his strength of character and his integrity. He has clawed his way back and he has recently recorded his latest song, Smoke & Mirrors, shared here via Soundcloud. In this way he is telling those who would listen that he is back and he will not be pushed into that dark place again.

http://

You can also listen to his previous songs, Angel Eyes and Plains of Abaddon on Soundcloud. These songs have all been recorded on his home PC with whatever equipment he has been able to muster and afford over the years. That, just him, his guitar and a few riffs. It may not be your kind of music but it’s his kind of music and it’s his creation. This is my son’s way back.

I hope that by being my metal-guitarist son’s number-one fan his ‘street cred’ isn’t totally destroyed but I can’t make any apologies for being just that… and for being so very proud of him 🙂

*United Christian Broadcasters, The Word for Today, http://www.UCB.co.uk

Posted in Family Life, Mothers & Sons, Music, Writing | Tagged Brighton Institute of Modern Music, Creativity, Dream, Electric Guitar, Family Life, George Bernard Shaw, Guitar Riffs, Inspiration, Metal, Mothers & Sons, music, Soundcloud, Tenacity, United Christian Broadcasting, Word for Today, writing | 80 Comments

First Frost Melts in the Heat of Dragon’s Loyalty Award!

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Yes, dear friends, this morning we awoke to our first frost of the season here in our little corner of Somerset! I knew that it was cold when our cat Eddie shot in from outside and immediately jumped up on top of the kitchen radiator, having been outside since having breakfast at the ~~ungodly~~ early hour of 5 am when he and Maisy are fed by Hubby.

Acer Tree in Back Garden (c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Acer Tree in Back Garden 13th November
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Yet it wasn’t long before the sun was shining, giving rise to one of those lovely, crisp November mornings as the sunlight bathed the golden leaves still shining on our Acer Tree.

Even the windows of my summerhouse were iced up but I can hardly believe it, my geraniums are still out! This is the middle of November after all. Just shows how mild it has been for this time of year, up until today.

Surely after this first frost this will be the end of them now. I have given up trying to keep geraniums over the winter – I’ve housed them in a greenhouse, the shed and garage, even inside my summerhouse, wrapping them up in bubble paper, special garden wool brought from the garden centre, plastic bags, you name it, but they never survive. They might keep better inside over winter but I don’t have the room.

Geraniums still in bloom in mid November & icey Summerhouse windows
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

In California I would leave my geraniums alone and they would die off, looking like dead pieces of wood sticking out of the pot by mid-winter.

Then miraculously, by spring, little shoots would appear, fresh and green and lo and behold, I would have bigger and better geraniums, just like that! Not here though, far too cold.

My mum has taken some cuttings for me this year and will keep them for me so I will let you know next year how they do!

Well, I digress. This post is supposed to be about me letting you all know that I have been very blessed to have been given not one, not two but three awards recently!

I am always so humbled to receive an award, to know that someone is thinking of me and recognising my blog in this way is always truly uplifting and inspiring and always makes my day.

The only problem is that I am so blessed with such a wonderful, loving community, that is all of you, and so thankful for each and every one of you that it’s been really hard to know who to give these awards to! I also know that some of you don’t ‘do’ awards but I don’t want to leave anybody out!

So, with all that said I’ll do the best I can and I’ll kick off the celebrations by spreading the happy news that I have very kindly been nominated for One Lovely Blog Award by my lovely friend Pat from Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom.

Pat’s blog is best summed up in her own words which welcome you to her blog – ‘Warming ‘kitchen table’ stories to inspire and warm your heart’. By the time I have finished reading her stories I really do feel as if I have been sitting with her around her kitchen table in her lovely home in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Many thanks Pat for this lovely award!

One Lovely Blog Award

My nominees for this award are lovely blogging friends that I’ve met fairly recently whose blogs have greatly inspired and blessed me very much. Please do visit them. I’m so happy that we met and for the wonderful conversations which I hope will continue for a long time to come:

(PS Please know that there are no rules for this award, so please accept it and display it proudly on your blogs (if you wish to of course!). You deserve it 🙂 )

As if this wasn’t enough, my wonderful friend Steven over at Moods A Plenty then nominated me for The Versatile Blogger Award. Steven displays his amazing art work on his blog as well as his very cleverly written posts. He is funny, clever, intelligent and I love the banter that we share. He writes with a dry, witty sense of humour which belies the reality of his struggle with bipolar disorder. Thank you so much Steven for thinking of me!

The Versatile Blogger Award

With this award, I have nominated bloggers new to me who write about ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and their personal stories and family experiences, this being something very precious to my heart as you all know. I admire them all greatly:

Last, but certainly not least, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the Dragon’s Loyalty Award from Robin over at Playful Kittyher new and ever-growing blog all about, well, cats! It is good to know that she reads my blog even though I don’t write about cats all the time! Thank you very much Robin for thinking of me, I really appreciate it, and it is such a lovely, colourful award too!

Dragon’s Loyalty Award

The criteria I picked for this award was simple – it speaks for itself. Yes, I know I’m gushy but you all know me well enough by now to know that I mean it and besides, I just wanted to say thank you all so much for being part of my little blogworld here in my cyber summerhouse.

As before, I do invite all of you, my dear friends to please accept this award with love from me, including all I previously nominated in September (see One Lovely Blog Award ) and I would like to make special mention to these bloggers, friends, who are every bit as inspirational and lovely to me:

So that’s it for all the nominations. Many congratulations everyone!

One last bit. (You didn’t think there wasn’t a catch did you?) For both the Dragon’s Loyalty Award and The Versatile Award there are few rules:

1. Firstly, display the Award on your site (see sidebar!) You earned it and you deserve it!

2. Link back to the person who gave you the Award (once again, many thanks Robin and Steven!) in your acceptance post;

3. Nominate 15 well deserving bloggers for the Award (done that) and then let them know the wonderful news by sending them a message on their site (about to do that!);

4. List 7 interesting facts about yourself – see below.

So all that remains for me to do is to complete rule number 4. I find this the hardest, it’s the same when someone asks me what I would like for my birthday or Christmas. For some reason I can think of ideas all year long but when I’m put on the spot I’m completely useless at coming up with anything.

My plan was to get this post out this morning (ha, so what’s new pussy cat?) but I had to abandon all ideas as time marched on as I had to take Aspie daughter food shopping and then to an appointment and myriad other things cropped up, as they do, (you and me both right?) so my earlier comments about a bright, sunny and crisp morning are slightly redundant (it is now evening) but hey, that’s the way the cookie crumbles around here.

Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Here are my 7 ‘interesting’ facts:

1. I once met Clint Eastwood while horse riding in the Hollywood Hills. He tipped his hat at me and said ‘Howdy Miss’ (I was 19). I just about fell off my horse. I should also mention that nobody in my family believes me.

2. I hate shopping for clothes. I never try anything on. When I do try them on at home I end up returning them all. Then I say I haven’t got a thing to wear…drives my Hubby mad.

3. I will eat just about anything except rhubarb and desicated coconut. Can’t stand them. I blame this on school dinners, even though I actually liked everything else.

4. The first time I experienced an earthquake I was 7 floors up in an office building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and from my window I could see the surrounding buildings swaying as they rolled with the shocks. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.

5. When I was 14 my then best friend and I played a flute duet as part of a musical presentation at our school. Sir Bobby Robson, then captain of Ipswich Football Team, was sitting in the front row and shook our hands afterwards. My friend, who was a huge fan, almost fainted.

6. My favourite drink, given half a chance, is a glass of chilled bubbly 🙂

7. Why does someone work in a pet shop yet refuse to handle frozen mice when you go in to buy one for your pet snake? Isn’t that their job? (Sorry, that’s not very interesting or about me, but just had to rant…watch this space)

That’s it folks! Now I’m going to bring you all the happy news! Congratulations and many thanks to you all.

I wouldn’t be here without you 🙂