Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 118

I'm outta steam right now...

So, yeah, I completely forgot about a Wednesday post... Sorry.

And today is Friday and it's time for another blog post as well as the weekend being upon us.

I haven't been feeling particularly inspired or chatty, so I think I'm going low key/minimal effort if that's all right with you. I'm thinking inspirational or motivational messages or funny graphics, maybe a song that tickles my fancy...

Not sure how long the drought is going to last, but we'll just carry on for a bit and see what happens.

With that in mind, I leave you with this...


Have a great weekend!

More learning from the telly...

Sorry, I'm steeped in British made dramas of late, the most recent being Call the Midwife. Based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, the show follows the lives of a small group of nurse/midwives and the nun/nurses with whom they lived and worked as the served the people of London's East End in the 1950s.


It seemed a silly thing to watch at first, but I was drawn in--not only into the lives of the characters, but into the amazing history of post-war London and the living conditions of the people who lived there, as well as the changes in medical treatments that saved the lives of so many. Especially the women and their babies. One episode put forth the numbers of between 80 and 100 babies born each month in the eight-mile-square district of Poplar, though they didn't say for how many years that happened. (And that was only the one district!)

Anyway, if you're so inclined, I think it's well worth an hour here and there or several hours binge...

If you've seen it, what're your thoughts?

TGIF

So it's Friday of a four-day work week. Wouldn't it be nice if every weekend were three days long and every week was four days long?

Some people do get to pull that off, but not me alas...

Anyway, this weekend will be all about the backyard. The squirrels have been raiding the acorns and, as a result, I have acorn pieces all over the back porch and patio.In addition, the lawn needs mowing again.


Hope you have a pleasant weekend and get to do whatever your little heart desires.

Nothing exciting going on around here...

See you Friday!

Holiday Weekend

Today, Monday, September 1, 2014, we celebrate the back bone of America--its labor force.

Why are you here even reading this?? Go--enjoy the extra day of rest. Go cook something on the grill. Enjoy the day and celebrate yourself. :)

No more Friday Night Lights...

Because of this...


There's no more of this...







Tonight's the first football game of the FWISD season and for the first time in four years, we're not there. I'm a little bit sad about that...

On the subject of learning things from TV...

Recently, I've been watching another BBC show called Land Girls.


The series tells the tale of women during World War II who were conscripted or willingly joined the Women's Land Army--an organization started up during WWI to place women on farms to do the work of the men who'd gone off to fight. It is estimated that in Great Britain, 260K women served during WWI and 80K during WWII. In addition to the Land Army in Britain, there was also the Women's Timber Corps to fill labor shortages in the Forestry Service as well.

Just FYI, the show itself is basically a period soap opera, not a documentary, if you found the topic of interest.

There were similar organizations in the United States, The Women's Land Army of America, as well as Australia.


Anyway, I love history, and thought I'd share the love.

The countdown begins...

So we got a definite date for Sonshine to ship out. October 8.

Until now, it's been a nebulous end-of-October time frame, subject to change depending on openings in the training programs.

Having an official date (though still subject to change, I'm sure) makes it all the more real.

You all know how proud I am of him and how excited I was for him to join the military, but having a date brings it all home. My son is going out into the world to make his own way. For good.

It's a good thing. I know it is.

But it makes me sad...

The Lie of Leinster Gardens

Watching TV can teach you things and take you places.

As I mentioned several posts ago, I finally discovered the BBC's Sherlock--a contemporary remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective.

One of the location shoots took place at 23 & 24 Leinster Gardens, Bayswater, London and was referred to as the Lie of Leinster Gardens. I Google-searched this to see if was true and sure enough! (Click the address for a bit more detail.)

 (image from Wikipedia)
So basically it's a facade bridging two sections of five-story terraced housing, but there's no actual home behind the two addresses. The underground train system used random open spaces to keep the tunnels free from smoke and for the old steam engines to vent their steam...

Click here to see more images of the back side of the "house." There's also more info via this link.

I wonder if there are any such anomalys here in the States.

An excerpt...

Forgot about today's post, so an excerpt from an attempt at a historical romance with the iffy title of Love in Uniform...not very telling I know. Here's the blurb:

In 1942, after a whirlwind romance and plans to elope, Caroline Kerr discovers that her fiancé, Navy fighter pilot Lucas Ellingsworth, is also a secret government operative and is in town to make contact with her mother regarding u-boat incursions on the Eastern seaboard.

Soul-searching and a heart-wrenching tragedy convince Caroline that love is worth fighting for and forgiving for.

And here's an excerpt...

~

Caroline glanced at the watch pinned to her jacket. She was late. Please, Lord, let him be waiting for her. Don’t let him have left. She almost cried in relief when the bus finally rumbled to a stop. She climbed aboard and checked the time again. It was twenty minutes past the time they were supposed to meet. Fear clogged her throat, making it difficult to breathe. Ten minutes later, she hurried from the half-empty conveyance. It pulled away with a belch of black, foul-smelling smoke.

Caroline looked up and down the street, checked the other side. Nothing. No Lucas, no waiting car. Distress strangled her lungs. Anguish clouded her vision. She pressed a fist to her swirling stomach.

No, Lord, please no. What had she done?

She stumbled to a nearby bench and collapsed onto it. He was gone. He’d  left without her. How long had he waited? Had even shown up?

Perhaps it had all been a cruel joke, even though he hadn’t taken her to bed. What had she been thinking? She hadn’t even packed any clothes for the journey. She just walked out of her home to run away and get married. To elope! She was such a fool. A silly, silly little girl. Led on by a man more interested in his mission than in her.

A horn tooted twice and she jumped. Whirling around, a sleek blue sedan pull over to the curb beside her. He’s here. Oh, he’s here. A sob stuck in her throat, but the tears spilled over. The frigid air froze the moist path down her face.

Lucas hopped out of the car and came around to her. “What’s the matter, doll face?”

She clutched the lapels of his overcoat, his arms instantly circling around her. “I thought you weren’t coming. That you’d changed your mind. That it was all a cruel joke,” she said, weeping, burying her face in her hands on his chest.

“Caroline. I’m sorry. The car wouldn’t start. Come on.” He clasped her upper arm and led her to the car, opening the door and helping her into it.

She swiped her gloves across her cheeks as Lucas hurried around the vehicle. He eased into the car and slid across the bench seat and took her in his arms again. He pressed a kiss to her nose then to her mouth. Her lips softened and parted under the assault of his mouth. Her stomach somersaulted. And then he stopped. She felt bereft.

In one fluid motion, he stretched over the seat back and presented her with a half-dozen white roses tied with a pale blue satin ribbon. “The flower man was late, too.”

“Oh, Lucas, they’re beautiful.” She stuck her nose into the velvety blooms and sniffed, her heart full. “I doubted you--forgive me.”

“Done. Are you ready to do this?”

“Yes.”

~

Hope you enjoyed it!