Last saturday, my Granny, Thirza Mary English, moved into her final sleep after three years of living in a lost, confusing half-world of dementia. She started to become lost when I came back from USA in 2005, and since then, she has moved more and more into her own dreamscape. We should then perhaps remember her as she was, when her personality, and soul were intact, and the disease did not disintegrate and unravel her. And the normal aging process made her look different and lost.
She was a wonderful granny. And remembering her makes me know how lucky I am to have had a happy childhood, when so many do not.
I remember. Her telling me not to grow up too quickly when I told her I wanted breasts (!); her teaching Nicola and I how to knit (but our scarves tripled in width and were all wonky) and make rag dollies. We spent hours pottering around her garden in the summer, we loved the flowers (the fuschias were fairies) and we made perfume out of rose petals, which turned a beautiful shade of yellow-brown each time we did it (to our surprise). We made a den out of her clothes rail and old wooden chairs, and lurked for hours underneath blankets which smelled of their house. We made coconut ice and honeycomb crisp in the kitchen, and went on day trips to dunstable downs and Cassiobury park. We used to go round for sunday tea, and had bread and butter and home made ice cream (which I never did like, but Nicola loved). We loved going to their house, and used to take it in turns to stay over night on a saturday.
She was Mary, and she has been and will be missed. I wish she could have known her great grandchildren.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Little girl
And now its almost June. How bizarre. It really seems that time is hurtling by, and 2009 is disappearing far too quickly. We are getting quite excited as it looks like we will be in North Carolina in September for at least 9 months (possibly 11)....so its going to be a summer of packing and clearing everything out of this flat before heading on over. I will be taking a research sabbatical funded by my Bial research grant - which buys me out of my teaching duties and other on site duties at Hope.....by paying for someone else to be in my shoes for a while. We are waiting to have final approval from the Hope powers that be...just keep fingers crossed. The idea has been approved by head of department and dean...so it *should* be real. I just want to know for sure before I really feel it is real. We hope to live in North Carolina and I would base myself partly at UVA in Charlottesville and partly at the RRC in Durham. [thus necessitating a desperate need to finally learn to drive!!!].
In the mean time, our little baby is a little girl. She has long curly hair, and a cheeky smile. She is a big livewire who just loves people. Very chatty and happy and full of cuddles and kisses (and eskimo kisses - taught to her by Ms Charmaine Noyes this bank holiday weekend - it is very cute!). She is now getting into nursery. She goes two mornings a week, thus allowing Mr Moore to have two mornings a week to himself and focus on his writing. Said nursery is just around the corner from our house, so very convenient indeedy.
We have just had a lovely bank holiday weekend. Well, one and a half days of sun out of 3 is not half bad for the north west of England. Charmaine came up to visit. We had lots of lovely food and a picnic and beach visitation...sienna was in her element swimming in the sand and running around by the sea. She was not too sure about putting her toes into the cold sea, but the sand definitely had her seal of approval and it was hard to remove her from the beach at the end of the afternoon (when everyone and his aunt had descended beachwards - British people are amusing sun suckers when it does appear, and there were lots of red faces around today post bank holiday). Charmaine and I managed to down a few vodkas one evening and head to Lark lane for a mini adventure, but were not quite brave enough to go to town....lovely to see her. We are planning a girlie get together for later in the summer as I want to try to see people properly before I go.
I am (as ever) supposed to be working at the moment, so had better sign off. Steve and I are going to watch Driving Miss Daisy this evening, so only 30 mins left of possible school work now for me!
In the mean time, our little baby is a little girl. She has long curly hair, and a cheeky smile. She is a big livewire who just loves people. Very chatty and happy and full of cuddles and kisses (and eskimo kisses - taught to her by Ms Charmaine Noyes this bank holiday weekend - it is very cute!). She is now getting into nursery. She goes two mornings a week, thus allowing Mr Moore to have two mornings a week to himself and focus on his writing. Said nursery is just around the corner from our house, so very convenient indeedy.
We have just had a lovely bank holiday weekend. Well, one and a half days of sun out of 3 is not half bad for the north west of England. Charmaine came up to visit. We had lots of lovely food and a picnic and beach visitation...sienna was in her element swimming in the sand and running around by the sea. She was not too sure about putting her toes into the cold sea, but the sand definitely had her seal of approval and it was hard to remove her from the beach at the end of the afternoon (when everyone and his aunt had descended beachwards - British people are amusing sun suckers when it does appear, and there were lots of red faces around today post bank holiday). Charmaine and I managed to down a few vodkas one evening and head to Lark lane for a mini adventure, but were not quite brave enough to go to town....lovely to see her. We are planning a girlie get together for later in the summer as I want to try to see people properly before I go.
I am (as ever) supposed to be working at the moment, so had better sign off. Steve and I are going to watch Driving Miss Daisy this evening, so only 30 mins left of possible school work now for me!
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Timewarp
Hmmmmm. How is it April 1st tomorrow? feels like time is hurtling by, and like gravity, speeding up as we move closer and closer to christmas (but we just had christmas). Maybe this is the nature of being a multi-role, busy careerwoman, mum, person with a social life and partner.
Exciting news this week - my article has been accepted in Imagination, Cognition and Personality! very happy. Not sure when it comes out, but certainly a good excuse for celebration...difficult though, with such a large heap of marking to wade through.
Sienna is a pure joy. She is a happy soul, who loves to sing and dance and who is fascinated with colours...the language aquisition and ability never fails to amaze me. A tiny being whose personality is unfolding before my eyes. She is enchanting and captivating...exhausting too, though as she is a total bundle of energy and aliveness....with a twinkle in her eye...Still not getting sleep. Steve and I are very run down. We both have dark circles under our eyes....but, thank God, its almost easter, so we shall be escaping to Wales to relax and breathe....then to see the Simmonds', then to Aimee's wedding and then back to Wales again with Nicola, Simon and Amelie and Idwid, Caroline, Alfie and Ryan. Going to be lurking in the middle of nowhere, having unique overlap with each others' children and unique overlap with each other (with wine and murder parties and a guitar). Just wish I didnt have quite so much work to do. Ho hum.
Exciting news this week - my article has been accepted in Imagination, Cognition and Personality! very happy. Not sure when it comes out, but certainly a good excuse for celebration...difficult though, with such a large heap of marking to wade through.
Sienna is a pure joy. She is a happy soul, who loves to sing and dance and who is fascinated with colours...the language aquisition and ability never fails to amaze me. A tiny being whose personality is unfolding before my eyes. She is enchanting and captivating...exhausting too, though as she is a total bundle of energy and aliveness....with a twinkle in her eye...Still not getting sleep. Steve and I are very run down. We both have dark circles under our eyes....but, thank God, its almost easter, so we shall be escaping to Wales to relax and breathe....then to see the Simmonds', then to Aimee's wedding and then back to Wales again with Nicola, Simon and Amelie and Idwid, Caroline, Alfie and Ryan. Going to be lurking in the middle of nowhere, having unique overlap with each others' children and unique overlap with each other (with wine and murder parties and a guitar). Just wish I didnt have quite so much work to do. Ho hum.
Monday, 22 December 2008
Festive times and First words
I have been in a manic, exhausting bubble of work for the Hope semester, which seemed to be slow starting and then go by so very quickly, with still a ton of work to do before the new semester begins in 2 weeks time. Luckily two weeks seem like an eternity at the moment though. We are all off down south to visit the Simmonds zone in Hertfordshire. Having something of a jumping christmas, staying one night with sister Emma, one night with sister Nicola, to a hotel (the lovely Two Brewers in Chipperfield - where we stayed for our wedding) and then on a grand tour of the UK (meandering via Ali's in Wiltshire, hopefully meeting up with Nicola and Lee in Avebury or Stonehenge and up into Shakespeare land to visit Charmaine at her mum's before landing back here for a hermitty new years eve (with Mulled Wine)).
Ms Sienna is a happy little girl. Pottering about, talking her own language and now beginning to speak real words. Such an amazing thing to see. She says nooooooo (very often), Atishoo, Bye, mamma, dadda, noooooooo and night night. she is reinspiring me for christmas! I have shifted from a bah humbug soul who was fatigued with the plastic nature of the season, to feeling very festive and excited, and silly. Made my first christmas cake, and bought far too many things for little one. See photos for Simmonds-Moore christmas silliness!
Ms Sienna is a happy little girl. Pottering about, talking her own language and now beginning to speak real words. Such an amazing thing to see. She says nooooooo (very often), Atishoo, Bye, mamma, dadda, noooooooo and night night. she is reinspiring me for christmas! I have shifted from a bah humbug soul who was fatigued with the plastic nature of the season, to feeling very festive and excited, and silly. Made my first christmas cake, and bought far too many things for little one. See photos for Simmonds-Moore christmas silliness!
Friday, 7 November 2008
New President; New Era
Hooray.
This has been such an exciting week in our household. Steve has been glued to the TV and the internet, and tuesday night was a complete nail-biter. However we awoke to find out that Obama is the new president of the USA! Can hardly believe it. Felt overwhelmed with emotion of the significance of this change. And, finally, everything feels exciting and positive for a change. Feel less frightened.
It is also my birthday week, which of course I am stretching out and enjoying for a prolonged period. I love this time of year; halloween lantern parade in the park, fireworks, leaves turning gorgeous colours and birthday....
This has been such an exciting week in our household. Steve has been glued to the TV and the internet, and tuesday night was a complete nail-biter. However we awoke to find out that Obama is the new president of the USA! Can hardly believe it. Felt overwhelmed with emotion of the significance of this change. And, finally, everything feels exciting and positive for a change. Feel less frightened.
It is also my birthday week, which of course I am stretching out and enjoying for a prolonged period. I love this time of year; halloween lantern parade in the park, fireworks, leaves turning gorgeous colours and birthday....
Monday, 20 October 2008
around the world and back (and a new simmonds!)
It has been a long time since last we(I) scribbled on this blog. We have been VERY busy creatures. And appear to have been half way around the world (and back again).
Following a mightily huge deadline for submitting my paper to the Charting the Future of Parapsychology conference, we hopped to the Parapsychology conference down in Winchester, where I was giving two papers...we stayed a couple of days in Southampton with our Bronwen, where we celebrated Sienna's first birthday....then moved into a lovely hotel in the ancient town of Winchester (how wierd that it used to be the capital of England). Whilst there we pottered around cobbled streets and saw the round table on the remaining wall of the castle hall. There was a "Simmonds" street! and the place just felt alive with history...Conference was good. A balancing act for me as mummy and academic, but I am getting there! My first PA banquet since pre-Sienna times - really fun, but I turned into a pumpkin relatively early (seems to be a current pattern of mine). It was fab to see all the para dudes, in particular Nicola and Louise and Ciaran. Ciaran and I spent some time sharing baby photos and cooing over each others' offspring and the change in life. Which is so unfathomably huge. But wonderful.
On return to the Mighty Pool, I semi disappeared into a bubble of grantwriting (two exciting projects for the next round of Bial - fingers crossed! we find out in november)...broken up by a fabulous weekend of family visitation and friends lurking in the back garden for the official birthday of Sienna Iona Aurora. We had fantastic weather. Beautiful blue sky, and sunshine....with fresh pre-autumn air. Pottered to the farmers market on Lark Lane. Barbecued in the garden. And Ms Sienna was in her element with all her English cousins on board to play with (and her little friends from Liverpool).
After grant deadline came packing up my entire office. And then onto a plane to USA for three whole weeks. Wonderful weather. Lovely time with the Moores. Sienna got to meet her American cousin Angelina, and they were so cute playing together. Sienna wanted to hug Angelina and seemed totally aware that she was a smaller baby. So adorable.
And a LOVELY time with my wonderful friend Ferrell. But it went so fast. I just adored being in the Chapel hill area again.
Dad came out to visit for a week....during which time we took in loads of US history....and zooped up to Old Salem for a visit and up to Charlottesville, Virginia where I gave one presentation to the DOPS group at UVA. And the next day, the same talk to the Rhine Center in Durham...Phew! even on holiday we are busy!!!
Steve spent a lot of time catching up with Brian, and helping him out with his exciting new businness in Greensboro - I am Jacks.
We got to see Kim and Tony, which was lovely....and managed to overlap with Logan and Bernadette and Billy and even (very briefly) with Sharon and John.
And then back to earth. Back to work.
It has been strange being back at work full time. I love my job, and feel so inspired at the moment, and mentally alive and full of possibility. However, I am missing my sienna. It is so hard leaving her in the morning and not seeing her all day, every day. We have all had terrible colds too, which has made everything so hard. No sleep, and even less sleep with the poor little sienna waking up all the time wondering why she feels so bad.
We just got back (literally last night) from the Utrecht conference (in Holland), and just about survived intact ( the colds have not destroyed us yet!). I am swimming with ideas post conference.... and now feel like I can catch up with myself, as the deadlines seem to have slowed up for a while. And life is settling into the new term.
We have some exciting news - there is a NEW SIMMONDS! Little Ryan Thomas Simmonds was born last friday (9th?) October to my brother Mark and Caroline. We are planning on taking a trip down there this weekend to see him. The photos suggest that he looks a lot like Mark! I remember so well as I used to look after him when he was small.
Sienna is turning into a wonderfully inquisitive and adventuresome little girl. She has discovered the internet!!! she loves looking at Teletubbies and Night Garden...and her favourite song seems to be Twinkle Twinkle Little star.
Chocolate is calling me, so I shalt away. I will post new pictures soon - you will see how she has changed. She has thick curly hair and a cute little smile, and just loves showing off her bottom teeth!
Following a mightily huge deadline for submitting my paper to the Charting the Future of Parapsychology conference, we hopped to the Parapsychology conference down in Winchester, where I was giving two papers...we stayed a couple of days in Southampton with our Bronwen, where we celebrated Sienna's first birthday....then moved into a lovely hotel in the ancient town of Winchester (how wierd that it used to be the capital of England). Whilst there we pottered around cobbled streets and saw the round table on the remaining wall of the castle hall. There was a "Simmonds" street! and the place just felt alive with history...Conference was good. A balancing act for me as mummy and academic, but I am getting there! My first PA banquet since pre-Sienna times - really fun, but I turned into a pumpkin relatively early (seems to be a current pattern of mine). It was fab to see all the para dudes, in particular Nicola and Louise and Ciaran. Ciaran and I spent some time sharing baby photos and cooing over each others' offspring and the change in life. Which is so unfathomably huge. But wonderful.
On return to the Mighty Pool, I semi disappeared into a bubble of grantwriting (two exciting projects for the next round of Bial - fingers crossed! we find out in november)...broken up by a fabulous weekend of family visitation and friends lurking in the back garden for the official birthday of Sienna Iona Aurora. We had fantastic weather. Beautiful blue sky, and sunshine....with fresh pre-autumn air. Pottered to the farmers market on Lark Lane. Barbecued in the garden. And Ms Sienna was in her element with all her English cousins on board to play with (and her little friends from Liverpool).
After grant deadline came packing up my entire office. And then onto a plane to USA for three whole weeks. Wonderful weather. Lovely time with the Moores. Sienna got to meet her American cousin Angelina, and they were so cute playing together. Sienna wanted to hug Angelina and seemed totally aware that she was a smaller baby. So adorable.
And a LOVELY time with my wonderful friend Ferrell. But it went so fast. I just adored being in the Chapel hill area again.
Dad came out to visit for a week....during which time we took in loads of US history....and zooped up to Old Salem for a visit and up to Charlottesville, Virginia where I gave one presentation to the DOPS group at UVA. And the next day, the same talk to the Rhine Center in Durham...Phew! even on holiday we are busy!!!
Steve spent a lot of time catching up with Brian, and helping him out with his exciting new businness in Greensboro - I am Jacks.
We got to see Kim and Tony, which was lovely....and managed to overlap with Logan and Bernadette and Billy and even (very briefly) with Sharon and John.
And then back to earth. Back to work.
It has been strange being back at work full time. I love my job, and feel so inspired at the moment, and mentally alive and full of possibility. However, I am missing my sienna. It is so hard leaving her in the morning and not seeing her all day, every day. We have all had terrible colds too, which has made everything so hard. No sleep, and even less sleep with the poor little sienna waking up all the time wondering why she feels so bad.
We just got back (literally last night) from the Utrecht conference (in Holland), and just about survived intact ( the colds have not destroyed us yet!). I am swimming with ideas post conference.... and now feel like I can catch up with myself, as the deadlines seem to have slowed up for a while. And life is settling into the new term.
We have some exciting news - there is a NEW SIMMONDS! Little Ryan Thomas Simmonds was born last friday (9th?) October to my brother Mark and Caroline. We are planning on taking a trip down there this weekend to see him. The photos suggest that he looks a lot like Mark! I remember so well as I used to look after him when he was small.
Sienna is turning into a wonderfully inquisitive and adventuresome little girl. She has discovered the internet!!! she loves looking at Teletubbies and Night Garden...and her favourite song seems to be Twinkle Twinkle Little star.
Chocolate is calling me, so I shalt away. I will post new pictures soon - you will see how she has changed. She has thick curly hair and a cute little smile, and just loves showing off her bottom teeth!
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
We have Toddlidge
Ms Sienna is officially a toddler. Walking everywhere. Quickly. And she apparently has a homing device to anything remotely dangerous (in particular the oven, the toilet and the TV). We are going to have to invest in one of those baby leish type things for being out and about with a "toddler". I cannot quite believe that we have had Sienna in our lives for almost a year (exactly a year next thursday). Seems like she has been here forever, but I still remember the birth far too clearly to consider baby number two at present (!).
I am madly working around the clock trying to finish my essay and get talks written for the conference next week in Winchester. We also have Melanie visiting us this coming weekend, so have an excuse to go to lots of exciting places in the Liverpool zone : ).
Planning on beach on saturday (where there is also a first birthday party for one of Sienna's little friends), and Wales for a couple of days before heading down to winchester.
When we get back from Winchester, we are planning on a birthday party for Ms Sienna - with the Simmonds clan who are all coming up from down south.
We got our passports back on monday morning - hoorah! so have now booked our flights to USA for next month. Going to be in North Carolina for about 3 weeks. It will definitely be good to have some sunshine as the UK seems to think it is dingy autumn right now.
Off to sample some banana and blueberry muffins that I have created now! yummmmmmmmmmmm.
I am madly working around the clock trying to finish my essay and get talks written for the conference next week in Winchester. We also have Melanie visiting us this coming weekend, so have an excuse to go to lots of exciting places in the Liverpool zone : ).
Planning on beach on saturday (where there is also a first birthday party for one of Sienna's little friends), and Wales for a couple of days before heading down to winchester.
When we get back from Winchester, we are planning on a birthday party for Ms Sienna - with the Simmonds clan who are all coming up from down south.
We got our passports back on monday morning - hoorah! so have now booked our flights to USA for next month. Going to be in North Carolina for about 3 weeks. It will definitely be good to have some sunshine as the UK seems to think it is dingy autumn right now.
Off to sample some banana and blueberry muffins that I have created now! yummmmmmmmmmmm.
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