Do you have a nickname?  Or a shortened version of your name that you are known by?  My “Sunday” name, as we always call it, is Susan, when I was at school everyone called me Sue but at home my family always called me Susie.  To my Dad I was “Ooney”!  This was because I could not say Susan when I was little and used to say “Oosan” which Dad shortened to “Ooney”.

When I married DH I went from having one of the longest maiden names, 13 letters none of which were repeated, to a very short surname, Parr.   Then some wag said Sue Parr and then laughed and said “oh Supar”!!!!  Needless to say I now introduce myself as Susan Parr!!!

Treacle was always Treacle but I used to call her “Treaks” and “Teak teaks”.  Our Boys names are called by the shortened versions of their names as is DH.  Coco we didn’t think would be shortened but I have lengthened it by calling her “Coco Pops” after a breakfast cereal in the UK, I have also found myself calling her “Cocolokes” (your guess is as good as mine!!!!!!!) and I cannot get out of my head the song “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys!!!  particularly “down in Kokomo”!!!!!

Our neighbours and friends said they were determined when their daughters were born to give them names that could not be shortened, so they had Holly and Poppy.  Sure enough they call them “Holls” and “Pops”!!!!!Names are such a funny thing.  All our friends children have what I call normal names but as Grandchildren are now being born the parents are choosing quite unusual names especially what I would call quite old fashioned names.  We know a Stanley and a Florence, there was a Sylvia and at the swimming club there is an Edith.  Quite a few of the older names have come back into fashion and sound okay but I do think some of them really should stay in the past.  We did have an Hermione which I think is lovely obviously named from the Harry Potter series. Our Boys have normal names, both with a strong Scottish influence, as my Dad’s heritage is Scottish and DH and I both liked the names and had not gone to school with anyone of those names we hated!!!!!

I hope you are having a lovely Wednesday, two days to go before the weekend and it is going to be a busy one for us!! 

Hugs & Love Susie & Cocomo!!!!!!!!!!!!!  xx

Happy Father’s Day!

To the Best Husband and Dad.  We hope you have a wonderful day.

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To all Daddies/Dads/Grandads/Step Dads out there we hope you have a terrific day too.

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Sorry for lack of posts this week it has been very hectic as always with work and it is also our Business Year End, Carnival in the Village at the end of this month, swimming events and everything else I normally have to do in the week!!!!  No excuse I know but……..

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend. 

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

It has been a bit warmer over the last few days and it is so nice.  The sky has been very blue and it is great spending time out doors.

It will be Wimbledon soon, despite all the controversy, and the strawberries will be out in full force and hopefully we will get some good matches.  Can’t wait.

And when the sun does go down we can light the candles and carry on reading!!!!

We have been busy doing jobs and keeping Coco from getting into too much mischief in the garden.  It is amazing how many hiding places one puppy can find!!!  Hopefully I will be able to sort out the Book Club Books this coming week too as I think I have missed a month!  Hopefully by the end of the month I will be back up to date with everything!!!  You will not believe how many lists I have floating around at the moment!!!! 

I hope you lovely lot have had a wonderful weekend and a good week to come. 

Hugs & Love, Susie, DH, Eldest, Youngest & Coco. xxxxx

June 1992 –  Britain was in the middle of a Recession; the controversial Book “Diana: Her True Story” was published; The Queen celebrated 40 years of her Reign and Margaret Thatcher entered The House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher.  It was also the Month that DH and I started our Business! 

So after the past two years of being restricted in get togethers with family and friends we decided to host a dinner and celebrate our 30 Years in Business.

Whilst planning it, I kept everything crossed that the weather would be fine as I wanted us to eat outside.  Although our dining room is large, it is not large enough for fourteen to sit down and eat.  The weather was good, although a little cool but at least it did not rain!

Our Table ready for our guests.

Of course as well as food you have to have plenty to drink!

More pictures of the table.

We had Drinks and Hor d’ouvres from 5.00pm onwards, followed by Dinner.  One of our friends gave a toast and thanked us for the evening and DH responded, giving a quick resume of our 30 years, which when you look back has certainly been interesting, stressful at times but thoroughly rewarding as well.  Especially as we were able to have the Boys and I was able to be with them whilst they will little, take and fetch them from school every day and also be at home with them during the holidays.  Something we definitely would not have been able to do had we had jobs working for other people and that has definitely for me been the best bit of it!

So never mind H.M. celebrating 70 years of work, the important celebration was our 30 years in Business!!!!  Although DH and I will be extremely old if we do celebrate our Platinum Anniversary, DH would be 104 and I would be 96 (which is how old the Queen is now).  I think I would like to retire before that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is the first day of our Long Weekend and again I am hoping that the weather is kind and we can get some jobs done in the garden and our home.  We have quite a few busy weekends coming up with swimming events, Carnival in the Village back for the first time in two years and some family things too.  I think our first free weekend is middle of July!!!  Not complaining of course as it is so nice to be back to normal again!

Happy Thursday Everyone! 

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

So sorry for no posts for a while.  Coping with not having Treacle around has been hard and we have also been very busy with work.  Although we do not directly have anything to do with the Ukraine it is having an affect on other aspects of the business and there has been an uptick in work, which is great but busy.  Spring Cleaning is going slowly due to tidying up as well so that is a little behind. 

We had a family discussion over dinner one evening regarding our “empty” home after Treacle’s passing and we all agreed that we will never replace Treacle but feel that our family would like another dog, especially as I am at home all day and feel it the most.  We then discussed what sort of dog, a smaller breed, a rescue etc.  However once you have had a few of a certain breed I feel you tend to get drawn back to that breed.  Airedales first came into our family from my Grandfather who bred them and my first instance of them was when my Mom had her Airedale, Kelly. 

Anyway the upshot of all this is say hello to Miss. Coco!

First night home and in her basket.

DH & I collecting Coco.

Coco & Eldest, a new playmate.

Youngest and Coco, another new playmate!

Not long before she was on the Boys beds!

This step is a bit high!

This outdoor life is all very tiring for a young Puppy!

Fluffy Toy!

Coco’s Mom, Luna!

We picked her up three weeks ago which have passed in a flash and of course it has been very busy.  House training is going well but have the odd accident but it has been nice weather so been able to have the back door open all the time which is helping and it is a good time of year to be doing this.  Coco is very keen on emptying her toy basket and taking all the toys into her basket which then means she cannot get in, so we have a great game of putting them all back and her emptying it again.  She has now had her second set of injections so after ten more days will be able to go outside although we are not keen on the lead at the moment!  She is booked in for a puppy socialisation day at the beginning of June.

I am with her all day of course but have left her for a couple of hours here or there in her crate and after a little bit of crying she settles down and goes to sleep which is good.  The Boys have been great helping out when they are home and of course playing with her.  DH and I are away next week in London so Youngest is having the week off work to look after her and Eldest is helping out. 

Treacle was a huge part of all our lives and we will miss her forever but the Boys have never known our home without a dog and really noticed it whilst we were away and of course because I work and at home all day it was really empty for me, so Coco came home.

So I will hopefully now be back to blogging every day after the initial chaos of a new puppy!!! 

Being in London next week is part business and part social, so will have lots of pictures to show you especially as London is gearing up the for Queen’s Platinum Jubilee so I suspect it will be very colourful.  Also DH and I are hosting a dinner for fourteen at the end of May so will have pictures of that too.

I hope you lovely lot are all well and had a good week.  It’s Friday!  Have a great weekend.

Hugs & Love, Susie, DH, Eldest, Youngest & Coco! xxxxx

It is my Darling Dad’s Birthday today and he would have been 98.  I actually found the above picture in a box of slides that I inherited when my Mom passed and had the picture printed out from it.  Yes that baby is me and it was taken in the garden of my Grandparents home on my Christening Day!   It was obviously a busy day as I look fast asleep!!! 

I have lots of other pictures of Dad but they are all in the attic and it is one of those jobs I need to get around to, sorting them out into albums.  In fact I have a box load of pictures that I know are relatives of mine but have no clue as to their names or where they were taken. 

I will offer all who read my blog this piece of advice; put the details of the pictures on the back of the photographs then future generations will know who they are, even if they never make it into photograph albums.  In fact DH’s Dad was moaning one winter that he had nothing to do (he was a great outdoorsman) so I said he could spend his time writing on the back of all the old pictures of who everyone was and where it was taken.  He spent quite a few happy hours doing that and now that he has passed at least we know who the relatives are (they also need to be put into albums!).

Of course it is all now digital and stored on the computers but I have started, when I get the odd few minutes, to put notes with the stored ones too so that our Boys will know who the people are and where they were taken.  Another job for the winter evenings when it is cold and dark!!!!

Anyway Happy Birthday Dad, love you to bits.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

This wonderful little girl would have been 14 yesterday and we miss her terribly!

DH and I got back from our shortened Easter break on April 23rd and from the Monday we seemed to go back into manic mode!  My freezer broke so I had to get a new one and fortunately it was only a two day delay before it was delivered, I had a dental check up, DH had an event on the Friday night, set up on the Saturday morning for a swimming event on the Sunday and then we were off to the wedding.

The weather was good for the wedding and the happy couple got married at the Registry Office in Lichfield and then a reception at a local country pub.  We expected to have dinner when we arrived but it turned out that there was a buffet but it would not be until 9.00pm and this was from 3.30pm!  DH and I had to leave as he was up early on Sunday so ended up having a takeaway!!  There was also another swimming event on the Monday at a different pool, so DH and Youngest had to move all the equipment and add more on the Sunday night for the Monday event (it was a long weekend for us). 

This week has also been the same, despite it being shortened by one day, and this weekend DH and Youngest are again out all weekend at another swimming event!  I am trying to get some Spring cleaning done but to be perfectly honest do not feel like doing it!  I know it has to get done but my enthusiasm is non existent!  In fact my enthusiasm for anything at the moment is missing!

We have some nice weather over the next few days with some warm sunshine which is nice as it has been so cold.  Especially as the cost of heating our homes has shot through the roof recently.  The whole current situation is getting hard for everyone at the moment with rising prices, household bills being more expensive, food prices are ridiculous and now talk of a recession.  Just to add to the misery of the last two years!!  I am thinking of taking to my bed and not coming out again!!!  To add to everything I was at my desk working this week when up the bird feeder pole this scampered!  They are not my favourite animal.  We have mice in the garden and they are fine but rats no you can keep them.  Possibly because Treacle is no longer out in the garden it has become brave.  She always knew that something was living under the steps in our garden and we think it now might be this!  Hmm not sure what we are going to do!

SO how was your week?

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Today is International Women’s Day and as you know in our Home it is just Treacle and I as I am surrounded by Men!!!!  When I was growing up it was just my Mom and Grandma the main female influencers in our family, as I am an only child and so was my Mom, tiny family!  However they both taught me a lot, especially my Grandmother who I spent all the holidays with.  

My Grandmother when she was young.

My Mom on her Wedding Day, March 19th 1949.

When you have such a tiny family and especially as by the time I was twenty I was on my own, I found that my friends became my family and I have some great friends who are like my sisters, despite not being related at all.  So on International Women’s Day I would like to recognise them;

Carol E, Val T, Christine T, Anne M, Tricia B, Pat M, Jayne M.

And truly International for me;

Sue S & Susan R.

What I was lucky with when I met DH was that his family became my family which was wonderful having not had a family for ages.  Some have now passed but I am so grateful for them;

Auntie Moll, Auntie Sue, Auntie Margaret & Auntie Margaret

We also have DH’s Cousins;

Judy J, Elaine H, Jackie F.

Over the years there have been other friends from work and social things which were great at the time but moved on when circumstances changed but they have all been in my life.

Today we also stand with those women who are currently fighting with their fathers/brothers/husbands in the Ukraine against the invasion.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Treacle xxx