Happy St George’s Day everyone… not that you’ll probably notice it in England apart from the odd limp flag fluttering in a few places (mainly pubs!)… I don’t really know why it’s not celebrated that much here in England? Imagine if we took a leaf from the Irish’s St Patrick Day celebrations… we could have a big parade through towns & cities and instead of nice Irish folk music, maybe we could have Fat Les singing “Vindaloo”?? Well, there’s a thought!

According to Wikipedia, “St George’s Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century” but “waned by the end of the 18th century after the union of England and Scotland”. Wikipedia also says that “Today, St. George’s day may be celebrated with anything English including Morris Dancing and Punch & Judy” – boy, us English know how to party! ^🤣🤣

Of course, as the name suggests, St George’s Day is the feast day of St George and as such, is celebrated in many other Christian countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Greece, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Syria etc etc… let’s hope that those countries make a bit more of it than we do!

We have of course had Easter during the past week and the end of Lent which meant I could resume my participation in the eating of copious amounts of chocolate… I aimed to wait until Easter Sunday to do this, but broke my fast a day early when a Cadbury’s Flake that Pete had bought earlier in the week kept calling my name from the cupboard and my resistance failed! Easter Sunday brought with it a 2nd Lindt chocolate egg which I have steadily been making my way through ever since… yum!

I have continued to manage to avoid social media so far… I am not sure I will bother with Facebook or Instagram as they can easily take over your life, although I do miss seeing what everyone is up to! I just trust that those true “friends” out there know how to contact me by other means should they need to, and remember to let me know directly if they need me or if something happens that I (or we) should know about! 🤞😊❤️

I went to see Mum on Easter Sunday and took some of those Cadbury Easter cake bars… the ones with the Cadbury’s Mini Egg on top. I enjoyed one with her, gave another away and, as we sat together for the next hour or so, she kept spotting them on the table and commenting how nice they looked… at which point I would ask if she fancied one and, when she said she did as she hadn’t “had one of those for ages”, I’d get one out for her to eat until she had polished off the lot! That’s 3-4 cake bars in about 1.5 hours and all before lunch! 🤣 🤣

It was nice spending a few hours with Mum – one of the staff gave me a card she had made at a craft session earlier in the week and, although my 7-year old granddaughter could probably have done a better job, I am surprised that she remained focussed enough to create the card in the first place and, to me anyway, it’s special!

The weather seems a bit more seasonal at the moment – one day it’s lovely sunshine and warm, the next, raining , cloudy and cold! We still manage to get a walk in most days, whether together or alone, near to home or a short drive away… this week, I have been along the canal at Silsden a few times, had a stroll around Ogden Reservoir and Skipton Castle plus a walk over the moors at Penistone Hall Country Park near Haworth – all lovely places!

Of course, there’s also been the death of Pope Francis this week too…

Although I am not a Catholic, I was saddened by the passing of the Pope – not necessarily because he was a holy man, but because he struck me as being kind and, having come from humble beginnings, perhaps seemed more human than some of the Church leaders you see (Justin Welby might be an example for some… I could never warm to him!). It is always sad when someone special in your life passes away, so big love and condolences to all our Catholic friends & family 🫂❤️

I have always tried to avoid talking about religion… in my drinking days, it was often said that you should never talk of it, together with politics, if you didn’t want to fall out with your mates during the evening! Now I avoid it as I think it’s a very personal thing for people…

Whilst I would say I endeavour to uphold the Christian values engrained in me during those early-years spent at our local Church of England Sunday school (love, compassion, humility and service), I am not overly religious, as I find the world of organised religion far too confusing… all the bad things that happen and are claimed to be done in the name of, or at the will of God, leaves me completely baffled – war, terrorism , torture, suppression, the “bad” list is just too long… I would rather pin my flag to the wonder of the natural world than a Church but accept that everyone is different and that for some, religion is extremely important – in this instance, the saying “each to their own” is my philosophy!

According to our kitchen calendar, the 22nd April was also “Earth Day” – not really something I’m over familiar with but, according to the BBC News website states, “Earth Day is a global event which aims to highlight the importance of protecting the environment” and was set up in 1970 as a way to engage the public and push green issues to the national agenda. It became a global event in 1990… so there you are!

I had a look to see if there was anything going on locally to celebrate Earth Day but the computer said “NO”! So we decided to go for a drive over the hill to Penistone Hall Country Park just outside Haworth for a walk on the Earth to celebrate it… oh, and to walk off some of that Easter chocolate! 🤣

Today, we went over to Skipton so that I could pop to Next… after parking at Morrisons, we decided to take a walk around Skipton Woods – it’s really lovely up there behind the castle – so peaceful considering it’s quite a busy little town!

After having a mooch around Next, I was just about to head upstairs to see where Pete was when someone called my name – it was my ex-colleague and friend, Mel! How lovely to see her looking so well, and meet her Mum for the first time (even though we worked together for 8 years!)… such a lucky coincidence that we happen to be in the same place at the same moment – especially as Mel now lives over on the Yorkshire Coast!

I am off to Birmingham tomorrow to meet up with some other ex-colleagues and celebrate some of them moving onto pastures new… who knows, it might inspire me to get back onto Indeed and make myself available to the job market again… although, if I am honest, I still cannot decide whether I really want to work or not. Don’t get me wrong, the money would be handy, but I kinda like not working! Also, I feel my anxiety levels increasing just thinking about work and, God forbid, having to prepare or attend an interview! Anyway, like selling our house, I am not going to worry too much about work and trust that, when the time or opportunity is right, the right thing will happen / come along! 🤞 I am sure my catch up with these particular colleagues will be a good laugh so am looking forward to it!

So there’s the last week of my life. So much can happen in 7 days… I hope yours has been just as interesting! ❤️