A Sad Time

My blog this week is in memory of my mother, Kathleen Lilian Eshoo, who passed away at the age of 89 in Perth Western Australia

Kathleen was born on 3rd March 1922 in Bramley, Yorkshire.  Daughter of Herbert William Tirrell and Edith Butler.  

Sadly Kathleen's mother Edith died  at the age of 25 when her clothes caught fire as she was dusting the mantelpiece at their home. In the picture below, which was taken shortly before this tragic accident, Kathleen is sitting on her mother's lap left front.

Kathleen's father remarried when Kathleen was 5 years old. Here she is with her father and step mother. 

Herbert and Evelyn had two children, Joan and Walter.

This is mum with Joan and Walter taken sometime in the 1980s I think.

Kathleen went to school until the age of 14.  She then went into service with the family of the local vicar.  At the outbreak of World War 2 she decided, against her father's wishes, that she wanted to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service.  After the initial training she was transferred to the Isle of Wight where she worked plotting the  movement of the German aircraft.  Later she decided to transfer to the military police and became a lance corporal. She was transferred to Liverpool where she met met her husband William Cox. 

Kathleen and William were married, towards the end of the war, in Liverpool.  After the war they went to live with William's parents in Romiley in Cheshire where I was born in 1946.

Over 3 years later in 1949 my brother Brian was born

In 1967 William and Kathleen decided to emigrate to Australia.  Brian went along with them but I stayed behind, planning to follow later but never did.  The photo below with mum's parents and me and dad was taken shortly before they left.

They sailed to Australia and this photo was taken on the ship. 

Sadly my father William died 2 years after they arrived in Australia,so mum had quite a difficult time. 

At the age of 50 she learned to drive. This is her with her car. 

She also went out dancing

And started playing bowls

When she retired she moved into a retirement village and this picture shows her with Mr Bob Hawke who was prime minister of Australia and who visited the village. 

Sadly, because I did not follow them to Australia, mum did not have very much contact with her grandchildren.  Here she is in 1976 when she first met my son Darius and daughter Sophia.

Her first meeting with my next son Imran was when he was born as she was staying with us at the time.

She had a grandson in Australia by this time and this her with my brother's son Jason.

The first picture I can find of her with my 3rd son Sameer was when he was about 5. 

In 2002 she was in the UK at the time of Imran's graduation, which was a great day for her, she was so proud. 

Next came the great grandchildren.  Here she is with Stuart and Jakob in 2004. This was her last visit to the UK as she had a stroke in 2005.

I visited Australia in 2005 when she had a stroke. The doctors thought she wouldn't recover, but she was a fighter and did eventually go home and  looked after herself until earlier this year.  This photo was taken in 2005 while she was still in hospital.  Since the stroke her health had not been good as she had  vascular dementia which made it more and more difficult for her to care for herself.

The last time I saw mum was in October 2009. Here she is with me and my brother Brian and his wife Marg on my last night there.

Mum was  moved into a nursing home from hospital a couple of months ago as she was not capable of looking after herself any more.  She  passed away on 1st July following a heart attack.  The staff there were very good and looked after her so well. 

She had a long life and although she had her ups and downs I think it was quite a happy one. 

Pond and garden news

The good news today is that the pond is looking much clearer, maybe the rain has helped. I can see much more wildlife in there now. The picture below shows one of the newts, not very clear but recognisable. If you click on the picture it will enlarge. Also at last there are some tadpoles with back legs and one was actually starting to look quite frog-like and no longer round. Spotted a few very small snails grazing around the edges of the pond liner so the snails I introduced have also been productive. The newest things I have spotted though are several small newt tadpoles. They look like tiny fish with feathery protrusions on their heads. Still have damsel flies around and there was a dead one floating on the pond and being eaten by several pond skaters.

Damselfly

Still seeing many young blue tits and great tits and saw a spotted woodpecker in the tree near the bird feeder but it didn't come down to feed.

Flowers now in bloom include Astilbe

Hypericum

Lilies

and Freesia

Whilst searching under rocks for sheltering amphibians I disturbed a rather large ant's nest. So many eggs and they all scurried around trying to move them all.

Wetlands Walk

Went walking at Newport Wetlands today. Very windy and cloudy as you can see from the pictures, but the rain kept off.

Had trouble taking photos because of the wind.

This is a small tortoiseshell butterfly on bramble.

A cinnabar moth is something I have not seen there before.

Lots of Burnet moths fluttering about. This group were feeding on thistles. So many thistles, you can smell their scent whilst walking round. Great food for the insects and later the birds just love feeding on the seed heads.

The pretty flower of the everlasting pea which is very abundant there.

The lions of Longleat

Had a day out yesterday with my son and his family. We visited Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire.

We saw lots of animals including the famous lions

and tigers (my favourite)

The young fallow deer came right up to the cars looking for food.

Just the right time of year for visiting if you like flowers. The rose gardens are beautiful and full of the amazing scent of the flowers.

This is the 50 year old silver back gorilla who lives on the island in the lake. He is alone now since his partner died about 5 years ago. He has his own little house on the island with a television and his favourite programme is Spongebob Squarepants. Not a very clear picture taken from the boat. He is very grey because of his age, a bit like me!

I just had to hold this lovely big spider

but Zachariah preferred the snake (which I would not touch!)

"I will lead you through the maze"

But maybe we needed someone taller. We didn't make it to the centre and I became rather claustrophobic and decided we should find our way out, or stay all night.

Not sure Zachariah liked Postman Pat

No definitely not!

The Giraffe sculpture is rather nice though.

"Look at me, I'm Spider man"

It was a lovely day and though rain threatened it didn't actually come.

Lost bird

Forgot to mention this unusual visitor to the garden last week. We are not very far from the sea but it is the first time I have seen a seagull in the garden. This one wandered down the drive one wet day. I think he must have been lost.

Back in the garden

Looks like summer has arrived in the garden. The first picture here is of Stuart's potatoes. They are growing so fast. Can't wait for them to be ready to eat.

The bees are very busy still lots of sweet white flowers around for them

Time for the roses now.

I have found a second strange spider on the purple clematis. This one is a Cucumber green spider.

The blue tits and great tits have now fledged and these are two young great tits fending for themselves on the patio. Saw a pair of bullfinches 3 times this week but didn't have the camera handy at the time. Also had a visit to the feeder by a nuthatch.

Still lots of activity in the pond, even though the water still looks a bit green. Newts are very elusive but if you stand for a while they do pop up to the surface now and again. Still lots of legless tadpoles around ( I mean literally, they have not had too much to drink). Can't understand why they are so slow developing. Still find occasional dead ones floating around and some very small live ones.

The picture below shows a pair of damselflies mating. You can also see a tadpole and a few other little pond creatures that managed to get in the picture too.

This is a little 14 spot ladybird I found on Stuart's potatoes. It only measures 4 mm. and was difficult to photograph. I think I got it ok though