IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN…

 

I have to say, if anyone took a photo of me like this, I wouldn’t be too happy.  It did, however, tickle my funny bone.  Frankly, I can see myself here.  I have been known to fall asleep on the sofa while sitting up and reading.  No warning!  No rereading words, no drifting, just waking up having slunk down almost horizontal, just like this dear lady.

The photo looks like it was taken in the 50s(?), and I found it endearing.  Bless her heart, she must have needed her sleeps.    

I was given my first camera on my 13th birthday.  Mum and Dad’s gift to me. That evening I took a photo of my Dad snoozing on the sofa. It wasn’t done out of mischievousness, but the start of me wanting to capture interesting moments in time.

Do you remember your first camera?  I would love to read about it in the comment section.    

It was my birthday last Friday.  Another year older, 72 years and counting.   And nope, I have never been a party animal...

but I had a wonderful time celebrating with family.  Good company, flowers, gifts, and Thai Food.  

They make me feel special all the time, but that day was sweet! 

To anyone out there who is celebrating today, Happy Birthday!

(The above photo was taken at my nephew's wedding last year, at a photo booth set-up at the reception. The lady told us to get silly and even made a few suggestions.  This is about as silly as we got, and oh how we had fun!  What a great idea to have one of these at a wedding reception.)

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY...

and my son and daughter-in-law are coming over this afternoon.  They are bringing Thai Food and my daughter-in-law is making me a birthday cake.  I am always happy when I know they are coming over.   I am not one for big parties but having my darlings here is going to make this day extra special.

I am now 71 years and as mentioned in my profile on the right of this page (which I changed around just a little), age has never really bothered me. At this stage of my life I want to be kind to everyone, life is too short to do otherwise.  I am not perfect, no one is, and neither is life but if you approach it with kindness and a good attitude, you're going to see that it's going to be worth it.  Wise, I read that somewhere and it has always stayed with me.  It's why I like quotes so much, they speak to me.

I found an old photo album when tidying up the storage room yesterday, and brought it upstairs.  We enjoyed looking at our younger selves, and talked about each photo.  It was a great walk down memory lane.

For those of you who have a birthday on the same day as mine, or this week even, Happy Birthday! Today is your day, hug those special people in your life, enjoy the things you love doing, smile at everyone you meet and if they don't smile back, realize they may be going through a few things (life can be a rollercoaster for sure).  Lastly, laugh out loud when you are told those corny jokes!  I aim to do all of that.

I will be away from my computer for a couple of days, but here are a few cards for you that I found online. 

DENISE'S 70TH BIRTHDAY

Two days ago I celebrated my 70th birthday.  And as many must ask, where did all those years go?  I don't worry about aging, in fact I found it painless, this as I keep my fingers crossed.  When hubs asked me if I felt like 70, I looked at him and said I didn't feel any different than when I was 69.  Perhaps I had a wry smile when I said that, plus added baggage, a few more wrinkles, okay a lot of each😉

A memory of a friend who was older than I just came to me, when years ago she got out of her seat and groaned.  I remember her looking up at me as I voiced my concern for her well-being, and she said, "Don't worry, at this age we come with sound effects."  We both laughed.  She was 70!  Well, now I am at that age where I come with sound effects, quite often as a matter of fact.  But I still feel like I am 30 in my head, so I don't worry about it.  

That's not to say I take anything for granted, especially in this day and age when there are so many who are having such a hard time.  I'm not going to get maudlin but I said to myself a long time ago that I was going to enjoy each new day.  And yes there have been days when it has rained, figuratively speaking, quite hard but I made up my mind to try and find as much happiness in the next sunrise as I could.

I am blessed with a dear family and many good friends.  There is a roof over our heads and food on the table, and we try to help others whenever we can.  My greatest blessing is to have a sweet husband, an equally sweet son who brought into the family our daughter-in-law whom we have grown to love as our own, and there are family members I am very close to.     

Saccharin-fest over, because today I feel like it, no apologies. Tomorrow I may reach for my 🐻grumpy mug🐻 who knows!  Yes I jest but I am far from perfect, you just never know.   

Here are a few photos from yesterday.  I started off with the bouquet hubs gave me, and here are two more.

The Flower that follows the sun does so even on cloudy days."

~Robert Leighton~

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower, clearly our whole life would change."

~Buddha~

Here are my "flowers".  They asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I jokingly said, "Bring wine!"  I was joking but not really and they know me well. They stopped off to pick up....

a bottle of Prosecco and this pretty wine glass, along with some fancy dark chocolate truffles. They were so good!

And the sparkly design on the wine glass was a nod to my roots.  Loved it and its new home will be displayed in pride of place in the china cabinet.  The truffles are no longer around. I am glad I took one photo to show how pretty they were.  There were five in a box, don't judge!  Hubs is not a chocolate lover and my ‘flowers’ would not take one, saying they were mine to enjoy, and I surely did. 

So there you go, that was my birthday.  Sorry for the ramble but it was a ramble kind of a day today as I become more reflective.  

Thank you for stopping by, and have a great weekend.

(my signature is mini me at my Christening)

MONDAY FOOD POST AND BIRTHDAY AT CAPO'S RESTAURANT

Not a recipe today, this is one of those restaurant visits where Gregg took me for my birthday meal in July.  I have been meaning to share it for a while now.  We love the people here who are always so welcoming and friendly.  The atmosphere is lovely too.  

I enjoy the décor and as we were there at an 'off hour' (past the lunch crowd), it was fairly quiet and I felt I wouldn't be disturbing anyone if I took a few photos.

There is a fountain right in the middle of the restaurant.

And isn't this a wonderful work of art?  It depicts the Mayan Calendar.  According to Wikipedia, "among their other accomplishments, the ancient Mayans invented a calendar of remarkable accuracy and complexity."  You can read more about it if you click on the red lettering.

I love arches, anywhere...

and this beautiful print of sunflowers, so cheerful!

A sculpture of the man with the horses, and the cactus.

Here is a more of a side view of that sculpture.

The young man who helped us overheard Gregg wishing me quietly a happy birthday.  I truly do not like to make a fuss.  However, at the end of our meal I saw several staff members heading to our table. There were no other customers around. My first thought was to look at Gregg with a quizzical look and a silent “did you?”!  Gregg gave me a “wasn’t me” kind of a look. One of the young people had a guitar and started strumming the happy birthday song with a Mexican flair. He played well and had a good voice, as did the others.  The pink hat was placed on my head and I was presented with a dish of ice-cream with a lit candle.  They all had big smiles on their faces. They clapped their hands all through the song, and at the end they all wished me a very happy birthday, as they had done for every customer who ever celebrated no doubt. But what I really appreciated was their genuine happy demeanor for it was as though I was their first birthday customer of the week.  

I gave my hat back and thanked them all very much, and I enjoyed my ice-cream, smiling broadly to Gregg as he knows I would run in the other direction at this kind of attention, but not this time.  With this and our son and daughter-in-law's visit that morning, it all made for a very enjoyable birthday.  I hadn't intended to go out but after saying later that afternoon, that I needed a new pair of ear buds for my iPAD, this restaurant was right across from the place we bought them and well, there you go.

The meal I ordered was a seafood fajita.  It was excellent!  

Gregg's meal was a plate of tacos.

A very special birthday meal, thanks to my dear husband who took me there, and to those lovely young people who sang me my birthday song.  

To finish off my post I found this online.  I used to love cutting out paper dolls when I was young.  I also enjoyed taking my colored pencils and drawing many of my own, and often made their dresses cut from old catalogs Mum gave me after she had finished with them. It was a favorite hobby.  Fitting in with my theme, I found this one of the famous Mexican Artist
Frida Kahlo
1907 - 1954

The first part of her biography (found by clicking on her name) reads:

"Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.  Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, post-colonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society.  Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy.  In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Frida Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist."

Thanks for looking and I wish you a great week!

RANDOM PHOTO

I found this handsome lizard in a local restaurant.  We were there yesterday for my birthday, and we had the most delicious Mexican cuisine.  The artwork and the southwest sculptures added to the great ambiance, also the friendliness of the staff was very heartwarming.

Enjoy your day everyone, and thank you for stopping by.

A FEW PHOTOS FROM MY BIRTHDAY WITH OUR FAMILY

I had a real nice time on my birthday.  My son and daughter-in-law came over and we all went to the Cheesecake Factory.  

I haven't been there in years.  The young lady who took care of us was very sweet.  As busy as she was, she didn't bat an eye when I asked if she would take our photograph. 

You will recognize some of these photos from my post yesterday.  

My Darlings made it extra special by being there. We had a lot of fun together, as is always the case.

The guys had fish tacos...

daughter-in-law had a delicious looking salad...

and I had the chicken pot pie, and this delicious chocolate cake.  I had heard a few of the staff singing happy birthday to someone, and I looked at our son and said, "No thank you!"  I knew what was on his mind.  Our young lady heard me and got the message, and her face was a question mark, like don't you want us to sing?  I said out loud no thank you with a greatful smile.  But she did bring me this, which I thought was a lovely touch, and not expected.

It was delicious, very rich and I could only eat a couple of bites.  I took the rest home to be enjoyed later.

 Gregg ordered a piece of cheesecake...

 and son and daughter-in-law shared key lime pie.

Gregg had given me two birthday cards early in the day, along with these gorgeous flowers.  

My favorite color roses.

And our son and daughter-in-law gave me the prettiest pillow.

I looked at the square shaped package and had a good idea what it was, even after our son jokingly said, "Bet you can't guess what this is Mom." I loved it and it couldn't have been a more perfect gift. I have been looking for pretty pillows to brighten our sofa.  I even turned it into a painting.

Here is my card from them, next to the pretty paper rose that came on top of the parcel.  The bulldog Bobby was a gift from our son years ago when he went to England on a school trip.  His grandfather, my father, was a 30 year career police officer in the UK. The background is part of a painting of the village I lived in.  That church is where Gregg and I were married in 1975.  I've shared all this before but am adding these little tidbits just in case there's anyone new popping in since then, and it was a long time ago that I last mentioned it. 

And that was this year's birthday.