Shaun Ellis

This chap standing here with yours truly is none other than Shaun Ellis, the wolf man who at one point lived with a pack of wolves at Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park in North Devon.

We visited the park this summer and I was made up to catch him there being a keen wolf fan myself.

Julia took the photo for me and plucked up courage to ask for his autograph too so I am one happy bunny :-)

A Good Quotation...

Found this quotation in a recent copy of My Weekly and thought it quite apt given the current trend to be "perfect", its by E.E. Cummings :-

"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight; never stop fighting."

My daughter, like most young women her age, has a vivid interest in body image. In fact it has formed the basis of a couple of college projects for her. The various women's publications bombard us constantly with images of the "perfect" woman, all achieved with copious amounts of airbrushing until the model is beyond human and becomes almost plastic. And that's not including the body part models used in adverts to provide, say hands or whatever, along with someone else's face. You just cant believe what you see in the mags and to persuade young, impressionable women that this is somehow achievable and desirable is pretty irresponsible if you ask me. Its high time we saw real women in the magazines modelling real size clothes so that our young girls have a chance to grow up without being fixated about their size and shape, so that they realise we are all unique and should be proud of that simple human trait.

Remember Me - David Harkins

Do not shed tears when I have gone but smile instead because I have lived.
Do not shut your eyes and pray to God that I'll come back but open your eyes and see all that I have left behind.
I know your heart will be empty because you cannot see me but still I want you to be full of the love we shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live only for yesterday or you can be happy for tomorrow because of what happened between us yesterday.
You can remember me and grieve that I have gone or you can cherish my memory and let it live on.
You can cry and lose yourself, become distraught and turn your back on the world or you can do what I want - smile, wipe away the tears, learn to love again and go on.

Found this reading on the web and wanted to dedicate it to both Nan Florence and Nan Alice.

Ear Rim Update

The ear rim is closing up pretty nicely now, despite it only being about a week since I removed the jewellery. The lump on the back is going down I think and the front looks closed. I've been rubbing it occasionally with some base aromotherapy oil which seems to be helping, other than that it seems fine. Its certainly easier for me now when brushing/combing my hair not to have to worry about catching it, likewise when washing my hair. All in all I think it was the right decision and I guess there's no going back now anyway!

Nan Florence (1913-2010)

This image here is a montage of photos of Nan Florence who sadly passed away on Sunday 11th April 2010 aged 97yrs. Like my other Nan, she was an amazing person and someone who was very important in our lives, especially for my daughter Julia, for whom she was almost a surrogate mother whilst I had to continue working when Julia's Dad walked out. In the latter years she began to suffer from dementia which was very distressing to see, but prior to that she was a very strong person, rarely ill which was good because my Grandad Henry was always in and out of hospitals when my brother and I were younger. We used to stay with my Nan when Grandad was in hospital as she hated to be on her own, something which she had to learn to deal with when he died in 1985.

She will be sorely missed by all of us, God Bless Nan x