Have anyone seen this movie yet? Oh dear me ....long time since I've cried :bigcry: so much in a fliek! Very good indeed if you need a good cry!

Well, given the disaster that last year turned out to be vegetable garden-wise, I have decided to scale things down for the coming year.

I am hoping to plant runner beans(roll on curried green beans!), salad greens and a selection of herbs this year as I am confident that they will grow regardless of how many sunny days we get.

I am also going to try again with the tomatoes and chillies and hope for a sunnier summer than last year.

All of this might be slightly complicated by the fact that we may be 'inheriting' a rather active dog in the next few days though.

Have any of you planned ahead for the season?

Whose planting what this year?

I noticed on my way into work yesterday a pair of magpies attending their chicks. They are about a month early with the breeding but I have also heard that the nightingales are already back and they normally only return to Ireland in mid-April!

It is a fact that spring is arriving earlier and earlier with every passing year, and that all the other seasons are also shifting earlier every year. It remains alarming though when you see flowers in bloom throughout winter, and birds building nests from just past Christmas onward.

....in choosing another book for February and then chatting about it once we have finished reading it ? :read:

I started with 3 suggestions, in a previous thread which I shall add again to this, these are only 3 perhaps someone can come up with something better ?
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter, Dinah. Told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah (who only received a glimpse of recognition in the Book of Genesis), we are privy to the fascinating feminine characters who bled within the red tent. In a confiding and poetic voice, Dinah whispers stories of her four mothers, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah--all wives to Jacob, and each one embodying unique feminine traits. As she reveals these sensual and emotionally charged stories we learn of birthing miracles, slaves, artisans, household gods, and sisterhood secrets. Eventually Dinah delves into her own saga of betrayals, grief, and a call to midwifery.
"Like any sisters who live together and share a husband, my mother and aunties spun a sticky web of loyalties and grudges," Anita Diamant writes in the voice of Dinah. "They traded secrets like bracelets, and these were handed down to me the only surviving girl. They told me things I was too young to hear. They held my face between their hands and made me swear to remember." Remembering women's earthy stories and passionate history is indeed the theme of this magnificent book. In fact, it's been said that The Red Tent is what the Bible might have been had it been written by God's daughters, instead of her sons.

Queen of the Big Time - Adriana Trigiani

In the late 1800s, the residents of a small village in the Bari region of Italy, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, made a mass migration to the promised land: America. They settled in Roseto, Pennsylvania, and re-created their former lives in their new home-town to the very last detail of who lived next door to whom. The hardworking Castellucas work the land outside Roseto. Nella, eighteen, aspires to a genteel life "in town," far from the rigours of farm life. But Nella's dreams of making her own fortune shift when she meets and falls in love with Renato Lanzara, a wordly, handsome, devil-may-care poet who has a way with words that makes him irresistible. Their friendship ignites into a passionate affair that Nella is certain will lead to marriage. When he disappears without explanation, Nella is left with a shattered heart. Five years later, Renato's sudden return to Roseto, just one week before Nella's wedding, leaves her and all the townsfolk shaken. For although Renato has chosen a path very different from Nella's own, they are fated to live together, in the same town, for the rest of their lives.

The Know - Martina Cole

Joanie Brewer loves the bones of her three children. She'd do anything to protect them, even resorting to prostitution and petty crime in order to feed and clothe them. So when her beautiful teenage daughter is raped and murdered, only one thing will stop Joanie's pain - seeing her daughter's killer brought to justice. Joanie knows who he is and she'll do whatever it takes to nail him...

:read: Now over to You! :read:

So what stories do you read to your kids for bedtime??? :babyroll:

Last year it was horrid henry..... :crylol: :crylol: this yr i have not thought of it yet...he will probably bring something nasty for me to read to him...but normally he now reads his beano comics... :rofl:

welcome to the Rugby Season

:duh:

Need diplomacy here and not sure how to go about it. Why don't things like this come in a nice book like 'Parenting for Dummies'! :rofl:

Connor is 7 next month and I am planning his birthday party. He's decided on a place, and I decided that at £8.50 a child (!!) he can only invite six other children. Last year he invited a few who didn't pitch up, no phone call, nothing, just didn't come and at £8.50 a head I DO NOT want a repeat of this! So these children are off the list for a start. But how do I make sure the other ones will come. I don't want to hand out six invites if some of them aren't going to make it, thus leaving me with spaces and no more invites. How do I do this diplomatically?

Last year there was a child who cried as he wasn't invited. He's not my favourite type of child but since Connor is inviting this child's best friend, should I pay for another child (making total children to 8 and therefore an even number for the bowling alley - equal teams of four) so there's no repeat of the tears? I can't bear the thought of making a child cry - even though he made Connor's life a misery for most of last year. :hug:

Aarrrgh, I wish his birthday was in Summer so that I could just have a house party!!!

Does anyone else think the prices are a bit steep as well? They get a game of bowling, a gift and a meal. All in an hour and a half.

Mourinho rules out Beckham swoop
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has ruled out ever signing David Beckham or any of Real Madrid's other "Galacticos".
Beckham reportedly told Chelsea last summer he wanted to join them at the end of this season.
But Mourinho said: "All you need is a strong group of players - you don't need a Hollywood star.
"What the devil is a Galactico anyway? The image comes from the social lives, and fame the players have achieved. It is those Galacticos that I distrust." from BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football...199499.stm

#################

This guy really spells it out ... I sometimes wonder if he is for real

My father in law just passed away and my mother in law has asked me to find out how to claim on an Old Mutual life assurance policy from SA. She is now resident in UK. She did inform Old Mutual of the move beforehand and they advised her there would be no problem. Old Mutuals website haven't been very forthcomng so has anyone had a similar experience and maybe a useful contact?