dancing and orchids

Wow what a weekend. The dance festival at the University was just the most amazing thing and to think that Louie and his dance team were part of it, is just totally cool! I loved the performances and being a fan of theatre and all things like that, it was a complete treat for me. I was there for the dress rehearsal on Saturday before the first performance. Louie was as cool as the proverbial cucumber. He is something else. Not phased, make up, dance belt, loads of older dancers........green room, what ever and he just calmly sits down and reads his book!

Having seen the routine being put together it was a thrill to see it on the stage and so amazingly lit. The girls and Louie were just stella and they rightly should be proud of themselves. There were some male performers and I could sit there and dream of the big time for Louie. The standard of the performers is what really took me aback. They were all a lot older than Louie and his crew. To have this just down our road is wonderful. Louie also was there on Sunday and did another performance and this time I was in the audience. Us dance moms were hollering and shouting! lots of support for the groups it really is something that neither of us will ever forget.

Louie is the tallest one at the back!

 

 

The whole gang in the green room in their finale t shirts

The reason I wasn't there for the first performance was because I had double booked myself with a concert at Longwood Gardens. It was Lady Smith Black Mambosa, from South Africa, I took Lucy, Isaac, Mary and Emily. The setting was just simply amazing!

This is where we sat...the space in the middle, surrounded with flowers. The stage is where the purple flowers are. As it is the orchid festival right now, that is what was around us. It was just breath taking.

Longwood is an amazing place to go at the best of times but sitting in the sunken floor felt really special. The concert was really good. But I did feel I should have been there for Louie at the University. But he wasn't alone as Damian and Julie were in the audience.

Having seen the orchids at night I had to take Julie back to Longwood and as she was staying till Tuesday to see Isaac ride we went out there yesterday to have a look see. I never get tired of going there and as it was mild and not icy as it has been (I seem to have perfected the arms out stretched maneuver on the pavements that had black ice on and slip from one side to the other!!!! it is butt clenching scary!!!!) so we could enjoy a 'slip free' time.

It is hard not to relax in such surroundings!

The other excitement is that I have a new car and that also happened this weekend. It is a mini clubman and it is lovely. Apart from I am still learning to drive it! It is quite zippy! and I don't even have the sports model. But as I was dashing about town getting to rehearsals and master classes with Louie I had to learn on the job. As I was driving about I noticed that on the steering wheel it had 'thumb rests'. I thought that these were a really neat feature...........until Damian pointed out that they were gear changes! Boy would I have had a shock if I had pressed one!

All three boys love the car and having found that personalised number plates (vanity plates) are so cheap here I have had the best fun coming up with some choices. Now I can't decide. Some favorites that I have are: wc flush, f tuck(don't think they would like that one! but there was a guy on the IOM who had that on the side of his truck and I always did a double take), 00 mini, IOM GB, zen mini, size xxl (meant to be ironic), hms mini, brummm, pto. I have had some real fun as you can see and this is just the selected ones. Please feel free to make suggestions.

Freezing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup it is really cold out there today! I can't believe this but I am actually going to say it is warmer than yesterday, as "real feel" 1farenheit yesterday and some where higher today. But this is what I have to say about that, if you are cold, it is just cold!

The reason I am complaining is I have become addicted to walking outside....sounds strange but as winter is now upon us in West Chester, I should, like everyone else, go the gym. But I just can't bring myself to do it. Take today for example, really blue sky and any little bits of snow from Sunday (light dusting, that people then put deicer down and it melts freezes and produced lots of ice! for unsuspecting pedestrians like moi!) , the roads and pavements are clear of the slippy stuff and once bundled up, I am surprisingly warm doing a brisk walk (my favoured mode of exercise) and off I go. I travel along to where there is a small lake. It is so pretty there and I like to see what's happening. There may be ducks, geese or fabulous ice.

Yesterday the lake was free of ice, although bitterly cold but after a clear night the chances were that the lake was frozen and in deed it was. The criss cross pattern amazing and the whole thing iced up. It literally sparkled in the morning bright sunshine and once satisfied that my inspection was complete, I stomped back up the steep hill and through the estate another steep hill and finally home! Along the way I could hear bird song and was even lucky enough to see a cardinal close up. These startlingly red birds are such a delight to see and never fail to lift flagging spirits, even on a cold day. There is a superstition that you have to watch a cardinal till it flies away and I understand why. They are mesmerizing and I adore them.

The other day I was lucky enough to spot a red squirrel up close. They are so sweet but boy can they move fast. The are meant to be the more aggressive out of grey and red forms. But I have to say grey ones now look chubby and rather insolent!.

See I am addicted to the outside, wind in my face and things to look at.

Talking of wild life we have mice..............yes I know it's cold and therefore they are driven inside but as yet my coping mechanism isn't working. That would be screaming and sort of flapping my arms in a useless but comical fashion until I realise that is what I am doing and leave the room!

Of course we have Bella and Archi (our indoor killing machines) but they find the mice more fun to play with and I can't stand the mice jumping. Damian has installed plugs they emit a noise that mice aren't meant to like. It transpires that neither do I! It is a high pitched noise and makes me demented............I must be half mouse. So to see Bella (of course it would be the girl doing the real work), yesterday with the mouse hanging in her mouth. I didn't have the presence of mind to do anything other than said actions above. With the addition of pleading looks to Isaac...he left the room saying he couldn't cope with it. What could I do, I left too. I left the cats in the area all day (they did have the radio on!) and they still didn't catch it. I have no idea where the mouse is. But I am sure that should it appear they will give it a head start of about 2 seconds!!!!

Finally I have Woman Exchange stories. My first is about a lovely colleague that  volunteers as a pricer, so I see her Mondays. Her name is Fanny....it means something else here. So Fanny was talking to me about her family and she is Danish and Norwegian ancestry and said that she had a great grandfather who was Norwegian and he went to a private school on the Isle of Man and while he was there he drew a map of it and she has it hanging at home. She brought it in on Monday to show me. It is wonderful and the map had a shield in the corner saying Heywood House Academy and the date (of course I didn't write that down) but when I come to think of it I think I know where the building is on Ridgeway Street in the Isle of Man opposite the Corporation building.

My next story is about another broken down picture that came into the Exchange to be consigned. It is a simple water colour of Walberswick Ferry, Sussex, England. As it happens this is where my parents lived when they first met, Walberswick and the ferry is a small rowing boat that goes across a river. Strangely enough there is a woman who also volunteers at the Exchange that is from Norwich, also in East Anglia in the UK and she being from the same area where Walberswick is visits there every time she goes home. She bought the picture and at $7.00 that is a bargain!

I often have these amazing stories from the Exchange and it always leaves me with a sense that we are indeed a small place with many connections and maybe I am not so very far from all things familiar and home.

This really is finally...Louie has a big performance this weekend at the University, their dance festival. The YMCA who he dances with has a dance team that he is part of. There are 17 girls and Louie. They are doing a lyrical dance to a song called 'some nights' by a band called Fun. It is a big deal as this festival is for alumni of the University (you can study dance there) and they are all older and really good. Having seen the film of last year and the Y's team that took part it is amazing how well the Y does and really is on the level as the others.

The effort that Louie has put into this is stella and he is still singing the song and excited about the two performances this weekend. His Aunt Julie will be coming from Florida to see him perform and of course all Fozard's here will see him dance.

This is the dance team 'hair' dress rehearsal. Louie is in the Middle!

 

 

Mr Cardinal feasting between my house and Margey's

 Mr Cardinal straight on..red bricks are a bad background for a red bird. But you get the idea...he is red!

My favorite Mrs Cardinal puffed out and looking lovely!

 

Off to Ace Hardware now for some insulation for the kitchen windows............can't set foot in the kitchen even with the blinds down, without being fully dressed and wearing a coat. Oh how we love old houses!!!!! But I really shouldn't complain, Damian is in Kitchener Canada and they are into the double figures and in minus farenheit. -14f...really cold. 

 



 







I am writing under duress! Damian AKA the husband, seems to be living vicariously through the blog. He wants more blogs and stories!!(I know, I have only written one post so far! this is what I have to deal with, my husband is an over achiever with big ideas!!!!) Although one could say that it is sweet to have such support. That is very much a half glass situation. But it does get me thinking about the lot of the woman! OK lost half my audience with that comment. Seriously the woman chess piece from the Lewis Chessmen (see last blog) is the Queen. She is the only woman in the set, obviously and she looks quite fed up! She has one hand under her chin and glum is the word. You could interpret it as worry, but I am thinking fed up! It just isn't easy being a woman. For me it is the struggle not to be the pain in the butt nagola! But us ladies know what I am talking about. But for that to be so summed up in such an ancient artifact is pretty amazing!The fact is this has always been a tough thing, although these days we mostly are ok and heard......I think. Can't imagine being repressed and that brings me onto the book club book nicely. I am in the smallest book club in the world, just four including myself. With 3 of us from Fanklin Street, (Me, Mary and Dianne) I don't have far to go to talk books. But so far so good. The latest has been the 19th Wife. An amazing story about the Mormons and the Latter Day Saints and the beginnings of all of that and of course that old chestnut, polygamy. It is a great book and I think that we all enjoyed reading it, the author David Ebershoff is just brilliant. It talks a lot about woman and how we are viewed and the big story is that the children of these polygmy situations are so neglected. The historical context is also quite fascinating as most of the story is based on real people.

So onto the week that has been. Being the first week of the year we all have expectations....well maybe it is just the build up to Christmas and New Year. You are looking forward to the thing ie the holidays for months and then when it is over, boy is it over! I am so pleased that this year there wasn't a tree to take down. But in some ways the clearing it all away and making space for the year ahead is rather refreshing and now all of that is packed in the basement and I can have thoughts of lightening evenings and longer days. In the IOM we longed for those days to get longer! here the difference between winter and summer hours of day light are less. For all those who might resent my extra daylight and the fact that I get winter sun, there is an unfortunate downside to this, DUST! yup that sunshine shows it all!!!

But being out and about this week trying to get back into the daily walk I have seen some birds,  snaking across the sky I am told by a reliable source,  was geese. Then in the week sat at my small granite work table I see a bird snacking. This I think is a Coopers Hawk (see picture Russell) On Saturday Mary and I spot a Red Tailed Hawk in a tree! Those birds of prey are busy.

Mr Hawk

And finally, Louie had spelling homework and came up with this piece using his spelling words. I of course think it is the work of a genius...please no comments on his lack of editing :)

 



 

The Air, moist with a summer breeze,

resigned to a different course,

bombarding me with the sent of summer,

bringing a softening peace,

the aching pain of tired muscles,

and the designated resign of limbs,

hastened away,

As peace filled the body,

crumbling hatred,

moistening the world,

with PEACE

 



 

Happy Birthday Louie! 11yrs

 

Oh No Daddy is a Mini Figure, sorry Maxi figure!

Cake Cutting ! with Paddy

After the Nutcracker, Louie and Henry

Miss Rhonda the dance teacher and the Star!

The Studio and Caroline, Louie and Paul. Christmas 2012

Completed Christmas present jet lagged! and in a matter of hours! Isaac the wonder.

Here are some photos for the previous blog, this is the park (marshall sq) at the corner of our street during Autumn leaf change.

 

Louie at Longwood Gardens and their Tree House, early November

Fozards Males !

 

 

 

Halloween a Wizard and Witch!

Well here goes, I am going to attempt to write a blog so you can get a flavour of life for Fozards in West Chester. We have some dear friends that live in the Street and they do a blog and in some ways, yes I am copying! So that is why I thought that I should blog too.

Firstly to those who have not already been bored to death with my stories and the characters need to know, "to whom and I referring".There is of course Lucy, she is an old friend, no that isn't right ! a friend from a long time ago. We met when Isaac was a baby and we visited her with Isaac when he was 9 months old. She lives outside West Chester and on that first visit I remember being driven to down town West Chester and seeing some beautiful houses around a park. It isn't the park that we live near but showed me that America had some amazingly characterful places. Lucy of course knows all the scerets and has more, much more stories than I do!

Then there is the Exchange, as in the Woman's Exchange, I have to include this under introductions as The Exchange has been such a huge part of my life here. It is a charity organisation that raises money for local causes, fire houses, library, homeless shelter and food cupboard etc. It is part of a nationwide collective and ours has been runing since the 40's.We sell cool stuff by consignment and now I am the President! I go to the Exchange 3 times a week and do various activites there from selling to sorting out the merchandise and generally being there!! Did I mention that I don't get paid for my services? I seem to have become a professional volunteer.

There are the neighbours and friends, Scott and Marge next door to us and their four children. Scott this last year broke his ankle and tore ligaments but now he is back on his bicycle and life returned to normal...Scott in lycra

There is Dianne and Stan literally across the street from us and they have two boys the same age as our boys. They have really scarey Halloween and I am in the bookclub with Dianne.

Now finally to the Moore/Rogers household. (They live 2 doors down from Dianne and Stan.) Anyone who has spoken to me this past year will have heard of this gang. There is Mary (Mary Catherine to anyone from Newfoundland), mother to Emily who is 14, loves UK cool stuff and of course Dr Who! There is Willy 12, he loves insects and all things creepy and there is Paddy, scallywag aged 8, Louie's best pal (apart from Henry) and general partner in crime. We also have Russell the originator of the blogging...a wild life biologist and fantastic painter!!! He and Damian are like salt and pepper ie in together!!!! they are always playing flippin words without firends, as I like to call it. But infact it is that online scrabble wordey thingey.

Of course Mary isn't just the mother to the gang and Russell's wife she is along with Lucy is the reason I have remained being me~! We seem to have a remarkable affinity and with her having lived in Washington State and having close family from and still living in Newfoundland, we have an understanding of each others backrounds. More about Newfoundland in a bit. Oh and Mary also is in the bookclub....it's a pretty small book club. She is also a wonderful teacher and knows all things historical and literary.

Mary et al live with Mary's father Kenny. Mary's brother Kevin is in Jersey City and lives with Rico and is also part of our extended gang and having seen and visted them this year, are now firmly on my list! (Not going to say of course what list that is!!!). Oh and Kevin has joined the wordey thingey game with Russell and Damian and there is lots of screen tapping because of it!

This last year has been amazing and a lot of that is because of this fabulous cast, they really have enriched my life and hanging out with them has been just great. I will try not to blab on but the highlights have to be the trip to Cape May when Mary and Emily stayed for one night and they didn't leave for 4! It was just such a hoot and Emily played with the boys on the beach and had a blast, it truley was a joy to see. Once we returned to West Chester and the schools began fun times with Mary almost stopped...well not really we, as in the familes started doing what I know now is called a "Jiggs dinner" (I am sure the spelling will be corrected!), where the Moore/Rogers and the Fozards gather at the weekend for a meal. This isn't grand but lots of fun and just shared time. Well that is me and Mary talk and laugh, kids are somewhere and Russell and Damian play on their phones, whilst sitting next to each other.

As the term rolled on life could have got boring but after a weekend when Kevin and Rico had come down to West Chester, we, as in Mary and I went to Jersey City to stay the weekend with Kevin and Rico. It was the first time that I have been away from the children and Damian since moving here three years ago. We had the most fun and of course I fell in love with Jersey City. It is a totally cool place, consisting of brown stones and unique iron work. I loved walking along at night and looking into the rows of houses and seeing that from the outisde they look the same but the insides are all different and had amazing art or chandeliers that were breath taking.

We also walked out with Kevin to the park behind the Statue of Liberty ( that statue is just so big! and green. I love it and although we see her behind, still is one of my most favoured landmarks). Whilst we were there the wind was strengthening and we were feeling "Sandy" so we toddled off to West Chester and home and braced ourselves. It wasn't too bad for us on the street, that wasn't the story for others and as the days rolled on, it really became a terrible story of mass destruction.

So the weeks rolled along Brian and Kay, my inlaws, came to stay and Louie got ready for his various Christmas performances. His biggest being the Nut Cracker in the Y's show. This is normally a small affair, this year not so. Luckily he didn't have to do too much dancing but being the Nut Cracker is a touch gig and he pulled this off really well. He was practising for that and a dance team in addition to his normal dance classes. The dance team will perform at the West Chester Univercity at the end of the month. There was a lot of dance.

We had decided that this year we would travel home for Christmas and left festivites here and went to the IOM. The trip wasn't long, just 8 days with feet on the ground but we saw family and dear friends and it was wonderful. Marks and Spencers being a favorite food and clothing supplier...saw me a lot. We also whilst there saw a wonderful exhibition at our local museum on lone from the British Museum, of the Lewis Chess Men. It really was excellent and to see the history and how they linked into the story of Mann. It was very well done and the boys really enjoyed it. I found it fasinating that the Island so small played such a huge part in the Viking Kingdom and these small chess men so beautifully carved told their own story. From the expressions on the chess pieces faces, to the intricate carving on the chairs that they sit on.

Fozards landed back in West Chester the 29th December in time to see in the New Year. We resumed meals with Mary et al and she introduced me to yet another family member who I love! Sheldon. He was visiting from Newfoundland (where Mary's family on her mother's side are from). He was kind enough to put up with all manner of questioning about Newfoundland and life there and the history and of course the fantastic accent that he has. He literally sounded to me like all the accents of the Bristish Isles and then nothing I had heard before, so familar yet not. I love Sheldon and of course now I have seen the pictures....I have to go to Newfoundland! They really have an amazing place to live, but I won't be getting the boat!

That could have been it but we had two more things to celebrate NewYears Eve party across the road closey followed by Louie's birthday and turning 11. I really felt almost too tired to party but managed to drag myself across the road to Dianne and Stan's and we had a really good time. I had not intended to stay till midnight but all of us did and Louie was able to see in the new year and have happy birthday sung to him, a tradition that will see him through the rest of his life. Another reason we love Sheldon, he too is a new years baby!

For New Years we had Lucy and Mary's family for a traditional New Years Lunch, I managed to create a fantastic stuffing, although Russell said that it was meat loaf! I beg to differ....We did well to eat and talk and laugh. Louie had two cakes to cut (one made by Emily..thank you ) and one bought by me. I can't believe we were able to eat but we did and it was a lovely meal, made by Damian. It was a wonderful way to start the New Year.