A View From My Summerhouse

Got A Great Idea? Write It Down, Lest You Forget!

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

How many times have you had a random thought or heard or observed something during the course of a normal day which gives you a great idea for your next writing project, but unless you write it down there and then you may as well as forget about your great idea, because it will gone, like the proverbial wind.

Well, if you are anything like me, this will be too many times.

As writers, we all know that we need to keep a notepad and pen close to hand at all times so that we are at the ready to jot down even the smallest prompt which could inspire us at the most unexpected moments. Now I’m not talking about a life-changing epiphany here, but merely enough to cause us to think, “Ah-Ha, that’s just what I am looking for!”

It could be just one word that comes to mind when your are peeling potatoes, or listening to a few lines from a song on the radio, or when you are sitting in the car waiting for the lights to turn green. The next thing you know, you have your idea for your next blog post, an article for a magazine or even for your next paragraph in your book.

A gentle prod or reminder could come during a conversation with somebody, anybody, the postman even (my ‘Aspie’ daughter has an obsessive ‘e-bay’ shopping habit so I am regularly being interrupted by the knock at the door only to see our postman loaded down with yet more packages for her. We are on first-name basis now and one morning I joked, “We must stop meeting like this!” I hope he didn’t take it the wrong way, but I’m thinking an idea for a short story perhaps?) and there it is, that ‘lightbulb’ moment.

My problem is that if I am not able to write these ideas down right away (say, if I’m driving for instance) thinking that I will remember them later, then the moment is lost because inevitably, I will forget what my really great idea ever was.

Then, there is what we call in our house, the ‘3-a-m-er’ meaning I wake up, ‘Bing!’, like clockwork, at 3 am and can’t get back to sleep. Tossing and turning (the worst thing to do, I know) and what happens? The ebb and flow of the noise of life and living, words swirling around in my mind as they cavort with memories of conversations and images and emotions, all linking up together which give rise to some of my best writing ideas during this time.

It makes sense to me that it would be good to write these ideas down as they come to me in the small hours but I worry that if I get up, put the light on and then start to write, I will become so wide awake that I won’t be able to get back to sleep at all. Although, since I struggle to do this anyway perhaps this is a redundant point.

Sunset at Ranworth Broad, Norfolk Broads UK (c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Sunset at Ranworth Broad, Norfolk Broads, England
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

What inspires you to write as the day winds down and breaks into an evening sunset?

What, then, of dreams? We all know that if we should happen to have a particularly interesting dream, unless we write it down as soon as we wake up it will be lost. Thankfully, this was not the case for William Rose, the writer of the screenplay for the wonderful British black comedy, ‘The Ladykillers’. He came up with the entire idea for the film in a dream, getting his wife to write the details down as soon as he woke up !

Writing down thoughts as they come to mind, I find, takes discipline, as does so much when it comes to writing in general. Being able to rely upon my powers of instant recall is no longer a luxury I possess. However, one little trick I have tried that does seem to work, most of the time anyway, is that if I repeat whatever it is I want to remember by speaking it out loud to myself at least three times, my recall is not too bad. So what if I look like I’m talking to myself?

Recently, I watched an episode of Mad Men. Great show, by the way. ‘Stan’ works at the Ad Agency and is desperately looking for a tagline for an account he is working on. No matter how hard he tries he just can’t get any inspiration. Working long hours into the night, he wanders down to the kitchen where he bumps into the janitor and they have a little chat. Stan asks about the janitor’s background and discovers that his name is ‘Achilles’.

It is only a very brief conversation but as Stan walks back to his office he has a ‘lightbulb’ moment, triggered by the janitor’s name and realises that he has found his tagline!

To celebrate, Stan pours himself a drink, then another, gets drunk and falls asleep. The next morning it all comes back to him and he can’t wait to share his great idea with his colleagues but he can’t remember what it is! He frantically starts looking for the piece of paper on which he wrote his idea before realising, with horror, that he had forgotten to write it down before he had started drinking and the moment is well and truly lost.

A brilliant scene in which you really feel his pain and incidentally, we never do learn what his tagline was but there was a rather poignant moment when later, Stan is talking to ‘Peggy’ about his ‘unfortunate’ memory lapse and he quotes a Chinese saying:

‘The faintest ink is better than the best memory’.

Thanks ‘Mad Men’! I think that I have already learnt a valuable lesson; as soon as I heard this wonderful line, I grabbed a pen and the nearest piece of paper I could find and immediately wrote it down!

“Why is it I always get my best ideas while shaving?” – Albert Einstein

Posted in Blogging, Current Affairs, Writing | Tagged Asperger's Syndrome, Blogging, Dreams, Epiphany, Ideas, Insomnia, Inspiration, Lightbulb Moment, Mad Men, Memory, Writers, Writers Resources, writing, writing project | 10 Comments

Happiness is A Full Water-Butt and A Garden Full of Butterflies and Bees!

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Today, I have been ~~getting on really well with all my various writing projects~~ faffing and not getting much of anything done, although I did go into town today and, after living here for 5 years, I have, at long last, joined the local Library, so that’s something!

Of course, my timing, as usual, was well off it being the summer holidays and the library full of young mums with their children busily finding books with which to keep them all occupied for the summer.

Actually, this gladdened my heart to see this, and of course, it brought back so many memories of when I would take my own children to the library and sign them up for the summer reading programmes. They really enjoyed it (I think!)

I noticed at the library today that there is a ‘creepy spider’ story reading coming up and I immediately thought how much my daughter would love that! However, since she is almost 21 I don’t think she would agree with the idea of me signing her up for it. Those days are well and truly over, big, long sigh…………………….

Anyway, I am digressing as usual. Summer has returned to the UK, hot, hot, hot again. What I love about living here, though, is the fact that we know that there will be a break so we can enjoy it when we have it just long enough before we all start complaining that we desperately need rain.

Well, we got our rain for several days and as a result, I can happily report that my water-butt is positively overflowing with rain water! This means that I can now water my garden without dragging the hose out again (and constantly being reminded of the mounting water bill with it).

As you who read my blog will already know, I like to grow lavender and Buddleia (butterfly bush) to attract the bees and butterflies. If I could, I would go even further and have nothing but wildflowers growing, like a meadow, so that I could skip through it merrily every day, happy and free (it’s not going to happen, but I can dream can’t I?)

This year, although the poor ladybirds have all but disappeared, now that the Buddleia has come into it’s full, deep lavender bloom, it has been taken over by a wealth of butterflies which I thought were Red Admirals but having looked them up on the internet, I think are in fact Peacock butterflies?*

Whatever they are, they are very pretty and they share the flowers with the numerous bees who are also buzzing around like they own the place. I am absolutely petrified of wasps but the bees can come as close as they like. They don’t divebomb into your face, try to crawl into your sandwiches and try to attack you angrily with their horrible stinging tails. (We have this pleasure still to come, let’s hope their numbers have been decimated by the colder-than-normal spring…)

I leave you now with these photographs taken today in my garden when I took a short break from all my ~~hard work~~ procrastinating. May they bring you some sunshine and colour into your corner of the world, wherever that may be.

Butterfly resting on the Buddleia (you can just make out the outline of its ‘eyes’ at the lower corner of its wing)

Two ‘Peacock’ (?) butterflies together, again with their wings closed. I am no expert but I do know that they like to ‘bask’ with their wings open when they need warmth from the sun. Since it is so hot today I’m guessing that this is why they were only opening their wings to fly, having no need to ‘bask’.

You can see three butterflies in this photograph giving slightly more detail of their beautiful colouring.

At last, in all its glory! I won’t tell you how long I stood there waiting for just one of them to open their wings long enough for me to get this shot!

Finally, a photograph of the bees.

‘Butterflies have long mouths’ – quote by me, made when I was 5 years old.I wrote this in a book which I made out of wallpaper in which I drew pictures of butterflies. I misunderstood when the teacher spoke about butterflies having ‘long tongues’.

* If anyone could help me identify these butterflies properly, I would be very grateful 🙂

Posted in Childhood Memories, Current Affairs, Garden Snippets, Musings, Nature & Wildlife, Photos | Tagged Bees, Books, Buddleia, Butterflies, Butterfly Bush, Children, garden, Library, Photos of Butterflies, Rainwater, Reading, Summer, Water Butt, wildlife | 14 Comments

The Great British Staycation and A Brew Up California Style

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

A news report stated that due to the Great British Summer we recently enjoyed (all three weeks of it, now, sadly, just a distant memory…), travel agents were reporting a twenty percent drop in booking for last-minute getaways to the sun.

To me, this just shows that an awful lot of families, particularly those with young children, would prefer a British ‘staycation’ over all the hassle and stress that a holiday abroad brings, if only there could be a guarantee of plenty of sunshine.

The type of holiday that we of a certain generation took without so much as a backward glance, sunshine or not.

Who can forget those lazy, hazy days of summer spent at the seaside (in our case, Brighton Beach)? All we needed were buckets and spades, a blanket to sit on in a nice, sheltered spot, and the wicker picnic basket packed with sandwiches and cakes in Mum’s Tupperware. Not forgetting the great summer treat: a bottle of Cream Soda.

Now, I realise that by using the word ‘hazy’, I am perhaps giving the impression of it being balmy and warm, but in reality it was usually pretty damn cold with us shivering after going in the sea for a ~~swim~~ paddle. But that was half the fun of it (looking back…).

Me at the Seaside enjoying a true Great British Staycation 1960s style

After being dried off and our limbs no longer blue, we would be given money to rush off and buy an ice cream. This was the highlight of the day, sitting on our blanket with ice cream leaking from the bottom of the wafer as it dripped down our arms into a right sticky mess as the sharp wind whipped up sand across our faces. The best part was proudly admiring our sandcastles before the tide closed in to wash them away.

Then it would be home for tea, and that always meant fish and chips out of newspaper.

My children were raised in California, and as much as I loved, and indeed embraced, what many long summers spent in America gave us, I was intent on sharing as much of my very British childhood with them as possible. Of course, living in California, the beach was never far away and many a happy day was spent loading the kids up in the car with the cool box, beach umbrella, chairs and yes, the buckets and spades (now pales and shovels) to hand.

But there was something missing.

The wicker picnic basket. I had to have one of my own. No picnic or trip to the beach was complete without one. I was on a mission and when I’m on a mission I am very, very determined. Unfortunately, the only wicker picnic baskets I could find at the time in 90s California were outrageously expensive and rather exclusive. Way out of my league, in other words.

However, the merest mention of this to my mother during one of our regular transatlantic telephone calls, and she knew what to do. If you want to know where I get my tenacity from, you only have to know my mother.

The next thing I know, Mum calls me to tell me that she has not only found the perfect picnic basket (in a charity shop), but she has kitted it out with a brand new blue and white gingham lining and matching napkins as well as a set of melamine plates and bowls for six. And matching cutlery. She would bring the hamper with her when she next came to visit.

The Wicker Picner Hamper (c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

The Wicker Picnic Basket
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

This is the original picnic basket from all those years ago.
The inside isn’t so pretty now after years of use.

For her, this was no problem. My Mum, I think, is the real-life Mary Poppins. What she hasn’t packed in her suitcases in her time you don’t want to know about.

Remember those days when you were allowed two large suitcases on a long haul flight without the fear of excess charges? What a mercy for that. Mum packed the basket inside one of her suitcases, alongside all the usual goodies that we craved including but not limited to: Tea, Marmite, Crunchies and McVities Ginger Cakes. You know…all the good stuff.

After that, for years to come, no picnic was complete without the basket, along with its new American companion, the cool bag. However, I had one more thing that I insisted upon to make our British style picnics in California complete: I wanted to be able to have a ‘brew up’.

I’m not talking about making homemade beer, but what we British drink no matter what the weather, no matter where we are and especially when in crisis: yes, of course, it’s tea. Call me tea-mad, call me sentimental or anything you like, but once again, I was on a mission.

Dear Mum acquired for me a camping tea kettle complete with whistle, and a camping teapot to match. I found a single-burner calor gas stove at a camping shop and we were in business. Packing the tea bags, a container (Tupperware, of course) of milk and sugar our picnic was complete.

So there we would be, sitting on the beach overlooking the wild Pacific vista, eating our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, ice-cold watermelon and Jello, and all the while my heart was filled with joy at the sound of the hissing gas stove and my little camping kettle whistling happily away.

Mission accomplished.

In case you are wondering, yes, we did get some strange looks. I never did see anybody else with a British ‘brew up’ set-up on the beach in all the years I lived in California. Maybe we started a new trend, who knows? Drink tea and keep calm and all that.

After all, what could be more evocative of the Great British Staycation than drinking a cup of lovely tea by the Pacific Ocean on a summer’s day, lazing on the sands of a beach in sunny California?

View of the Pacific Ocean, California Central Coast
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

The enduring image of the Californian Coastline where I spent so many happy years with my young family. A Perfect spot for a lovely brew-up.

The best of both worlds.

Posted in My California | Tagged Brew Up, Brighton Beach, British Staycation, California, Childhood memories, Family Life, Holiday, Pacific Ocean, Picnics, Seaside, Tea, Tupperware, Wicker Picnic Hamper | 17 Comments

A Newborn Prince and “If Only”

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Hurrah! We have a newborn Prince in the land, Prince George of Cambridge!

What a beautiful bundle of joy he looks, at least from what we have seen of him so far! A healthy, sturdy, darling baby boy, safely delivered and lovingly welcomed into the hearts of his mother and father, the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, his entire family, the world! A momentous occasion indeed! Congratulations and God Bless you!

Although, watching the live news as William and Kate presented their son for the first time for all the world to see, beaming with that glowing pride that only brand new parents can understand, I had to steel myself slightly.

Kate’s polka dot dress. The sapphire ring. The loving couple, exuding nothing but pride and love in and for each other and their son. Indescribable joy in the now, hope for the future. Has it really been thirty-one years since that day in June, 1982, when Princess Diana, also wearing a polka dot dress, stood on that very same spot outside the same hospital doors with her then husband, Prince Charles, holding her newborn son William in her arms, giving the waiting world our first ever glimpse of the future King of England?

Charles, he of, “Whatever love means” (whatever that meant?) and she, Diana, so young, so tender, so in-love, William’s beloved mother. It was an age of innocence, or so we thought. How wrong we all were.

Now, here is William, a grown man with his own beautiful wife and precious baby boy. Thirty one years have passed like a flash. Nobody watching Charles and Diana on that happy day in 1982 could possibly have foreseen what was to come, and what a mercy for that.

In June, 1982, as I sat in front of the television eagerly anticipating the announcement of Prince William’s birth, I pondered my own pregancy, only four months away from delivering my first child. When he was born, I was overwhelmed by the instant rush of love I felt for my little boy, my own little ‘Prince’, from the minute he was born. I was totally, completely, utterly, in absolute and pure love and it was no less for his brother and sister to follow.

A mother’s love for her children never diminishes. Nothing can break it.

Me With My Newborn Daughter and 2 Sons
August 1992
(c) Copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

This is the same love which William and Kate now have for their own son. They may be Royal but they are still human and are not immune to the very powerful emotions which arrive with the baby. I want to tell them, as I do every parent of a newborn, don’t let these moments, these years, go by without drawing out of them every single bit of goodness that you can, for these days will pass like a dream.

Yet, I wonder, what quiet thoughts and empty place of longing must there be sitting in a corner of William’s heart? What very private sadness must he silently nurture in that hidden place, a sadness that his own mother, Diana, is not there with him now, to share in this most precious and momentous time in his life, in the birth of his firstborn son and her firstborn grandson?

Above the happy noise of this jubilation he must surely hear the barely imperceptible whispers that ask the question borne out of deep regret, “If only she could be here”. This exquisite portrait, so magnificently painted with the most perfect of strokes, is tinged very slightly at the edges with the colours of a grief that fades over time, even as it bleeds into the surrounding hues, unnoticed.

Except to the trained eye. An eye honed in the master-class of grief. A grief that fades in time but never quite disappears. A grief that still shares a small part of the journey.

Diana is long gone. But she will never be forgotten and she lives on in her sons and grandson. Yesterday belonged to her. Today belongs to her son William and his young family.

Now it is his turn.

I live for my sons. I would be lost without them – Princess Diana

Posted in Childhood Memories, Current Affairs, Family Life, Musings | Tagged baby, celebration, Current Affairs, Family Life, Grief, happiness, joy, loss, Prince Charles, Prince George, Princess Diana, Regret, Royal Birth, Royal Family, sorrow, William & Kate | 18 Comments

Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home…

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Well, it had to come to an end sometime. After more than two weeks of uninterrupted sunshine and soaring temperatures here in the UK, with yesterday being the hottest, and stickiest day yet, the heat wave has broken. We are now into official thunderstorm weather. Here in the West Country, the small hours of the morning brought with it a sky full of lightning flashes and deep, throaty rumbles of thunder along with sudden, heavy rainfall. The type of summer weather we are more used to in other words!

We are ready for this break I’ll admit, a reprieve (albeit a slight one) from the oppressive, close humidity, but of course, according to the Met Office, there is now the danger of sudden, heavy rainfall causing flash floods in some parts. Let’s hope not…let’s also hope that this isn’t the end of our Great British Summer.

Back in June (remember that, when we had forgotten what summer was?) we couldn’t have imagined what we were in for, it being still so cold and wet. A newspaper article I read at the time warned of the perils of such an extended, cold winter and its detrimental effect on a national (and gardener’s) favourite, the indomitable ladybird, she of childhood nursery rhymes, she a bringer of good luck. Not just any ladybird, however, for there are many species, but the seven-spotted ladybird.

The article warned that due to the very heavy rain we experienced last summer, garden aphids such as greenfly, were decimated. Their larvae provides food for the seven-spotted ladybird and so, unable to find enough food, a reduced number of these ladybirds went into dormant mode over the winter months and because it was so cold this winter and spring, only a very small proportion survived. Not so indomitable, sadly.

This is very bad news indeed for this lovely ladybird. Summer isn’t a proper summer without regular sightings of these delightful insects, keeping watch in our gardens and bringing spots of cheery colour among the fresh, green leaves as they provide population control of those pesky aphids. I have still seen plenty of greenfly on my roses this year, menace that they are, but sadly barely any ladybirds.

When my daughter was little, she used to love to try to catch ladybirds (or ladybugs as my American friends call them) in her hands and stroke their shiny wings before letting them fly away home…

My Little Girl Catching Ladybirds Amongst the Roses (c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

My Little Girl Catching Ladybirds Among the Roses in our Californian Garden
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

When I lived in California, I loved to grow my roses as you who read this blog well know. I used to be able to buy a systemic aphid killer which avoided having to use a spray. This was not always easy to find and I was always on the look out for a more natural ‘cure’.

One year, it was a great year for the roses, ladybirds as far as the eye could see, happily devouring all those horrible aphids, and I didn’t have to use any spray. A healthy amount of ladybirds in one’s garden makes for healthy roses I always say! My roses were the healthiest they had ever been.

One year though, my little ladybird friends were thin on the ground. What to do?

I have mentioned my little gardening man, Sal, in an earlier post (see A Fridge Magnet’s Wisdom & My Little Gardening Man) and so it was to him that I turned with my dilemma. Sal, as always, had the answer to my question.

The garden centre where he worked actually sold ‘tubes’ of ladybirds Yes, you read that right. Tubes. Sal explained: Put the tubes in the fridge to keep the ladybirds cool and calm by day and then release them in the evening when the air is warm and still. Gently shake the ladybirds out on to the roses and Bob’s your uncle, greenfly problem sorted. (That last bit is me talking, not Sal as he is American, so he wouldn’t use that expression, obviously.)

Well, thank you very much Sal! The perfect solution! Now I could have my beautiful roses back and do ‘my bit’ for the environment all at the same time. No stopping me now.

Evening came, that kind of wonderful Californian summer evening when the warm air gently brushes against your skin and the golden light softens even the darkest corner, and I took the ladybird tubes from my fridge. My mother, who was visiting us from England, and my young daughter, stood with me in the garden, each with our own tube.

Together, we carefully took off the lids, allowing the ladybirds to warm up and wake up from their chilly slumber. Moving from rose to rose (I had a few!) we gently ‘sprinkled’ the ladybirds out of the tubes, dusting the roses like little sugar stars.

Satisfied with our day’s work, we stepped back to watch proudly as our new little ‘family’ settled in.

That would teach those pesky greenfly. They stood no chance. So I thought.

We remained there in the garden for a good ten minutes, glued to this fascinating ‘ladybird TV’. Then a very curious thing happened. It was as if my ladybirds had been summoned by some call heard only by them, some cry out from beyond…’ladybird, ladybird, fly away home…..’

We watched, speechless, as one by one, every single ladybird opened up her red, spotted wings and flew up into the air, far, far away, the summer breeze carrying them to the great beyond, as they disappeared from view, never to be seen again.

Little ladybug on my arm
you wear a heart as part of your charm
You joined me on this sunny day
just for a moment then you flew away.
~Author Unknown

Posted in Childhood Memories, Current Affairs, Family Life, Garden Snippets, My California, Nature & Wildlife | Tagged British Summer, California, England, Garden Centres, Gardening, Gardens, Greenfly, Heatwave, Ladybird, Ladybug, Met Office, nature, Roses, Thunderstorms, West Country | 11 Comments

Summer, Spamgate & What Not To Do For A Tick Bite

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

What on earth does summer, ‘Spamgate’ and a very nasty tick bite have to do with each other? It’s just the way my mind works, either that or the sun is getting to me, but with all this talk about ‘bugs’ in the system and it being so hot, hot, hot, it just seemed perfectly natural to write this post. Read on, if you will…

Part One.

The end of ‘Spamgate’.

So, it’s Friday again, the end of another hot week here in the UK, summer is still very much with us, and the other good news is that the Akismet ‘Spamgate’ crisis seems to have been resolved. It is official, I am not a spammer!

Hip Hip Hooray!! Thank you ‘Akismet Mark’!

Still, it is with bated breath that I comment on other blogs, clapping with joy and relief when I see my comments actually showing up and not disappearing from view into somebody’s spam folder. Please excuse me if I have been a little ‘hot under the collar’, (and I’m not blaming the heat for this one).

Before moving on, however, I would like to take the time to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to all you fellow bloggers who have provided me with moral support, practical help and advice during this time. I really appreciate it. I have made some lovely, new ‘blogging’ friends during this process and discovered their wonderful blogs which until now I didn’t know existed. As I always say, life is full of little surprises and when you least expect them.

Here is another little surprise:

Part Two

What NOT To Do If You Are Bitten By A Tick

About four weeks ago, I was sitting down on the edge of my bunk (on a boat) changing my shoes and socks after a long walk through a beautiful nature reserve on the Norfolk Broads.

I noticed what looked like a tiny piece of dirt on the front of my ankle. Nonchalantly, and hardly thinking twice about it, I brushed away at it with my hand. It didn’t move. I brushed again, a little harder. Again, it didn’t move. Strange, I thought. So I peered down, took a closer look, flicked at it and then, to my horror, I saw tiny, brownish legs writhing about and in that horrifying moment I realised that the piece of dirt was, in fact a tick, with its digusting head buried in my skin.

Here, then, in 4 easy steps, is what you don’t do if you are ever bitten by a tick:

1. Upon discovering that you have a tick’s head buried in your skin, do not scream and yell: “Get it out! Get it out!” repeatedly, so causing your husband and mother to come rushing desperately to your aid whilst in the middle of trying to moor up a boat;

2. Do not flail your arms about and wail like a child, crying out that you think you are going to be sick, continuing to yell: “Get it out, I don’t care how you do it!” while your husband is all the while calmly trying to take a proper look at it and struggling to get you to keep your leg still;

3. Never shout at your husband and mother to get a match, light it, and then place the hot match on the tick’s protruding body in an attempt to cause it to retract. Only do this if you want the tick to bury it’s vile head even deeper into your skin, as it did to me;

4. DO get some sharp tweezers (had some in my make up bag) and get your husband to try to pull the tick out as close to its head as possible without squeezing the body but then DO NOT try to grab said tweezers from husband’s hand while yelling at him that he is doing it wrong and, as if he needed reminding, continuing to scream: “Get it out”!

I’m sorry if this post about the horrors of tick bites isn’t particularly helpful or medically correct. I can hardly bear to think about it even now. I am sorry for my behaviour.

So why mention it now? Here’s the rub. I know enough about tick bites that sometimes they can cause Lyme Disease, and that’s no joke, so I thought that I had better get it checked out by the doctor, which I did so this week.

He told me that Lyme Disease is hard to diagnose and treat, but, just to be on the safe side, he prescribed me a two-week course of antibiotics. I don’t like taking anything at the best of times but what harm could they do I thought, especially if they will prevent possible health problems down the line?

What harm indeed? It’s a good job I read the important piece of paper inside the packet. I couldn’t believe my eyes. ‘Must not be taken with alcohol’ was bad enough. Worse, they cause extra sensitivity to sunlight and so I would have to wear high factor sunscreen and/or keep out of the sun. They must be joking! The doctor wants me to take these pills for two weeks during the first summer we’ve had for seven long years and not drink any alcohol?

No sunbathing, no Pimms, no sitting outside in our garden, the garden which my husband and I toiled in for years just to get it to where it is today? I don’t think so!

Therefore, you will be pleased to know that I have researched this matter on the internet and I have made a very informed, important decision.

Soon enough, this summer will be a very distant memory and we’ll be complaining about the cold, and there is time enough for me to start taking those darn antibiotics, but I’m not going to let some hideous, blood sucking creature ruin my summer. Spamgate was bad enough.

So, for right now, I am going to enjoy my summer, put ‘Spamgate’ and ‘Tickgate’ behind me and take my chances.

Wishing you a very happy weekend and cheers to you all 🙂

Posted in Blogging, Current Affairs, Family Life, Musings, Nature & Wildlife | Tagged Akismet, Blogging, Boats, Comment Spam, Fellow Bloggers, garden, Humour, Lyme disease, Nature Reserves, Summer, thank you, The Norfolk Broads, Tick Bite | 13 Comments

Of Mad Dogs & Englishmen & A Very British Heatwave

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

So the heat continues to rise here in the UK, and it is hot! On Saturday the thermometer in our garden read just over 38 degrees centigrade (100 degrees farenheit) in the sun! Now that is hot!

Of course, being Brits, we were out in it all weekend long. We’ve used the barbecue more than once, a few times actually, and nothing beats winding down at the end of the day with a lovely, tall glass of Pimms, or a cold beer, or even some Prosecco. All very civilized. Who needs to go away for a summer holiday? We’ve got it right here on our very own doorstep!

Well, except for the beach that is, but close enough…

Crete (c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

This heat wave has got me thinking about all things hot and sunny and how very different it was for me when I first moved to California. I really couldn’t understand why, in the summer, everyone’s houses seemed to be plunged into darkness, curtains pulled tight, blinds and shutters firmly closed, neighbourhoods seemingly deserted. It just seemed so alien to me.

But then I hadn’t yet experienced the kind of heat which makes this a necessity at the height of summer. I didn’t understand that it would be so hot that it was unbearable to go outside in it, unless in the shade, and even then, too darn hot for long! The best and only place to be was shut up inside with the lovely, cool air conditioning blasting away!

Still, the thought of having to stay indoors locked up like that on a lovely summer’s day never really sat quite right with me. As a Brit, this is what I’m used to: The minute the sun is out we fling open all the windows, open all the doors and can’t wait to get out in it, sun-starved creatures that we are. Going to see a movie on a summer’s day just seemed so strange to me, even though I relished the cool respite as much as the next person!

My children had a very different upbringing to my own. In Britain, this is what we do in a heat wave:

We go out for picnics and swelter. We go for long, countryside walks and visit garden centres. We sit in our gardens and bake in the sun, we go to the beach where we can hardly move for all the crowds and eat 99 ice creams. We drink cold beer, yes, but we still drink cups of tea. Hot tea.

What does make it harder here for me, I admit, is the humidity, as opposed to the ‘dry’ heat of California which I found easier to cope with, although I have never experienced heat like the type in Las Vegas one August. I opened the hotel door and it was as if somebody was standing there blasting heat from a giant-sized hair dryer straight onto my face, like a wall of heat that I could almost touch and say “ouch!” to.

Nobody can go out in that kind of heat.

The hardest heat I ever had to contend with, however, was when I was pregnant with my daughter. We lived in a tiny, rural town at the time, out in the middle of nowhere, population 500. The summers there were hot, let me tell you. We had one electric air conditioner in the master bedroom which shorted every time I tried to use it, so I gave up.

My daughter was born in mid-August so I carried her through the hottest months. I would be so tired that in the afternoons all I could do was to go into our bedroom and lie down on the bed, with my little boy cuddled up to me and we would go to sleep while his older brother would play a video game ( ‘Zelda’ ) while sitting on the edge of the bed. It is no coincidence that my daughter became obsessed with that game and I think that the music from it brainwashed me as I have never forgotten it…

The day my daughter was born it was 47 C (that’s 116 F). I reckon if I can survive that I can survive anything.

But I do love the heat really. My husband and I have visited the beautiful Greek Island of Crete a couple of times and it gets just as hot there. One particular day, we decided to take a walk. We were the only ones out but then it was over 40 C (104 F)

Lunch on the Beach in Crete (c) Copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

The cicadas serenaded us with their summer cacophony, out of sight, hidden deep within the surrounding olive trees, the hot, dry dust skimming our feet as we looked for a place to sit down. We came across a taverna on the side of the road, opposite the sea.

On the other side of the road, underneath the welcome shade of a tree and right on the beach, sat a brightly hand-painted wooden table and two chairs.

I think we sat there for about 3 hours having lunch.

It was magical.

Somehow, it just isn’t the same here, sitting outside in the high street in front of Costa having a coffee…

To finish, I think that our very British way of handling the heat can best be told in this amusing little story:

My uncle and auntie tell of their trip to North Carolina one summer to visit some friends. The sun beat down outside and they couldn’t understand why their friends never wanted to go out unless it was in their air conditioned car to the air-conditioned malls. One afternoon, having some free time while their friends had some errands to run, my Uncle and Auntie, fed up being, quite literally, kept in the dark, decided to escape.

My uncle, stripping off his shirt, and my auntie (who definitely didn’t strip off her shirt but had a lovely summer frock on) headed outside. Finding a lovely spot in their friend’s garden, they lay down, basking in the sun.

When their friends later returned, they were shocked rigid to see two people lying, sprawled out on their front lawn, never having seen such a sight in all their lives, and looking for all the world like a couple of dead bodies, upon which they called the paramedics.

You can just imagine the scene which followed, the unnecessary panic and then my lovely uncle saying,

“But we were only sunbathing, we’re English!”.

So yes, it is all true, and Noel Coward said it best:

Mad dogs & Englishmen (really do) go out in the midday sun. Enjoy it 🙂

Posted in Childhood Memories, Current Affairs, Family Life, Musings, My California, Photos | Tagged beach, British Weather, California, Crete, dry heat, Heat wave, humidity, Musings, Noel Coward, Photos of beach, Summer, Sunbathing, Sunshine, Thermometer readings, video games | 30 Comments

I Want To Break Free…From My Spam Prison!!

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

How ironic, then, that I should be listening to the car radio earlier today whilst stuck in local traffic on a hot, summer’s day wishing I was anywhere but there, only to be jolted back to my ‘blog angst’ by the incomparable tones of Freddie Mercury belting out the lyrics to “I want to Break Free”!!!

Yes, I am still in Spam prison and I want to break free alright!

So once more, my posts for this week have not gone quite to plan as I have had to spend quite a bit of time getting this problem, as per my previous post, sorted out. Who thought I would be posting about all this technical stuff?

Many, many thanks to those of you who have been offering advice, help and just plain moral support, and for keeping in touch, even when I can’t keep in touch with you 😦

It is incredibly frustrating as I have read several wonderful posts these past couple of days and all I can do is ‘like’ them when I have really wanted to comment. Thanks for understanding!

So, just to update you, and to pass on what I have learnt thus far to any of you who are reading this and having the same problem:

Having contacted Akismet via their support page at http://akismet.com/contact/ not once but twice, I did not receive a response (still waiting) but was advised by WordPress that I just need to be patient. Fair enough, but not one of my better traits…

However, Dylan a fellow-blogger who kindly came to my assistance, suggested that I email Akismet directly at support@Akismet.com which I did first thing this morning. This time I received a reply immediately from ‘Mark’ who asked me to fill in a comment test sheet and who is now looking into the problem for me. As at the time of writing, I have not received a response but it does seem that there are quite a few of us bloggers experiencing this very same problem at the moment.

Since my plea for ‘comment help’ yesterday, it is good to know that I am not the only one having this problem, as I did wonder there for a little while, but of course commiserations to all you bloggers like me who are having the same problems, and I wish you all the very best in getting it sorted out quickly! We all agree, it is not nice, not nice at all!

Finally, there is one more thing that you can do to help. If I am one of your regular visitors could you possibly please check your spam folders and see if any of my comments have gone there, and if so, could you approve them as ‘not spam’ and then approve them as comments on your blog? This achieves 2 things:

1. You can release me out of spam prison, my comment will post properly and then I will be able to post comments once again on your blog; and

2. This shows Akismet that I am not sending spam comments and so helps my cause!

I have already emailed some of you this morning about this and you have very kindly already ‘sprung’ me, thank you so much, but others I haven’t been able to contact.

Keep in touch and let me know how you all get on. Meanwhile, I will get back to posting very soon… 🙂

Posted in Blogging, Uncategorized | Tagged Akismet, Blogging Problems, Comment Spam, Spam, WordPress | 8 Comments

I Can’t Comment On Other Blogs – Please Help!!!

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

This is just to let you know that I can’t post comments on any other blogs. This has gone on for several days now and the issue still hasn’t been resolved. I can ‘like’ but not comment, and so I can’t interact with any of you at the moment, so sorry!!!

I really don’t know what to do about it! I contacted Akismet as advised by WordPress but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

Meanwhile, I wonder has anybody else had this problem? If so, would you mind letting me know what you did to resolve it?

I would very much appreciate some help with this.

Thank you very much!

Posted in Blogging, Uncategorized | Tagged Akismet, E-mail spam, Google, Hosts, Problem with my blog, Publishers, Spam, Tools, WordPress | 11 Comments

It’s Too Hot Even For My Cats…& That’s Hot!

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

You know it’s too hot here when even my two cats can’t take the heat!

Normally Maisy, my 11-year-old grey & white tabby (she of the barometer ears which go blue when it is cold and red when it is warm) laps up the sun and can’t get enough of it. But today, it is a sweltering 27 celsius in the UK. That’s almost 81 Farenheit (I googled it, to be sure).

‘Not that hot!’ some of you may be saying! Well, it might not seem so but to us it is blisteringly hot because we just aren’t used to it here! I am actually having to use a hose pipe to water my precious garden. That’s serious!

What we have been used to, you see, are storms and floods and very unsummer-like weather indeed the past several years. Now we are being told that we are in for a heat wave! Well, we shall see.

Meanwhile, as I was saying, my cats aren’t quite sure what to make of it all.

So Maisy takes to being inside to cool off.