I'm walking in the air

I have bought some new shoes, and I am so surprised at how comfortable they are.  For a few years I have had metatarsalgia, so walking any distance has been rather painful, as well as having bunions, so imagine how surprised I am to have absolutely pain-free feet for the first time for as long as I can remember.

These are the beauties that feel so wonderful.

They are Skechers Shape Ups Action packed, and they are amazing!  I have been reading the reviews on Amazon, and apparently they are just the same as MBT's but £100 cheaper.  Actually, these were a bargain.  They are £65 at Amazon, but I bought them from Costco for £23, brilliant.  

There seems to be some controversy about whether they actually tone your muscles. Well, they will enable me to walk more, which must surely have health benefits.  I don't believe they will be a short cut to more toning, but then I don't believe in short cuts anyway.

I've worn them for most of today, and my feet feel more comfortable in these shoes than they do in just my socks.  I am so pleased to have accidentally stumbled upon something that has enabled pain free walking, very happy.

Real life!

As I said in my last post, the virtual world has had to take a back seat while real life takes over for a while. So what's been happening here?  The biggest excitement has been the arrival of a new grandson! Baby Samuel was born a few weeks ago.  He was quite poorly at first, he caught an infection so was in special care, but he has pulled through and is doing very well indeed!  My son and his partner are coping splendidly with it all.

Here is one very proud granny with our little fellow!  He was only a few days old here, and had only just left the special care baby unit.  Isn't he a little darling?

We also had our daughter and granddaughter Poppy to stay.  Poppy is now 9 months old, so very interested in everything.  We took her to a sea-life centre to see all the fish, and to a children's farm to see donkeys, goats, ducks and everything else in between.  Watching Poppy's reactions to everything was priceless.  

Here she is on the swing, one of her favourite things.  In fact, she likes the swing so much, we bought an indoor swing so she could go on it as much as she liked while she was here!

And finally, we made a trip to York to visit youngest son, so it has been a wonderful time of connecting with all our family.

I have just realised I am wearing the same top in both photos, I do have more than one top, just in case you were wondering! 

So what next?  Youngest son comes home for the summer in a few days, so I am cleaning up the old homestead and preparing the fatted calf in readiness! All good fun.

We didn't take this one!

I won't be blogging for a couple of days, as Real Life is going to be claiming my time, real people, real places, real conversations, I'll tell you all about it when I get back.  In the meantime, I am leaving you with a picture from the Jubilee weekend that Mr Letters From Home didn't take, as unfortunately we don't own a world war two war plane,or in fact any other kind of plane, now I come to think of it! 

(Google images)

This is a fantastic shot, taken from a Lancaster Bomber as it flew over London, showing Buckingham Palace and the long snake of hundreds of thousands of people filling the Mall on Tuesday afternoon.  The dark circle in the middle is a solid body of hundreds of thousands of people.  You can also see the London Eye in the background, which I've been on a few times.

Have a great weekend!

More pics

Hope you are enjoying the royal pics, we had a great vantage point outside St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday morning, and all these pics were taken by Mr Letters From Home.

This is royal correspondent Jenni Bond.....

And here I am, with her, just in case you thought I was just getting pics from Google!

Yes, I was really there, and it was such a fun time, the banter in the crowd was brilliant, we had such a laugh.

Here are the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Queen's youngest son, arriving at St Pauls, with their daughter.

en

Various participants entering the Cathedral.

I still have more pictures to publish, including one me in the middle of the crowd, so you know what to do, the more comments, the more pictures!

Royal pictures

Here are one or two of our pictures from the service at St Paul's Cathedral yesterday.  If you want to see more, leave some more comments please!

Here are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate entering the church...

This is the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles and Camilla, with Prince Harry...

And here is the Queen, climbing the steps.  It's one thing to see royalty on TV, but quite another to see them in real life, and suddenly realise they are real people, it was quite thrilling to be there.

These are the crowds where we were standing...

And here is a fun one of our granddaughter Poppy, wearing my flag!  We went to visit her after the service.  What a lot of fun we had!

It was amazing to see the Royal Family, but even better to spend some time with our own family afterwards!  I still have more pictures to publish, depending on whether I receive more comments!

The Day I Saw The Queen!

Today has been such a wonderful day, full of excitement. Mr Letters From Home and I took a very early train this morning and went to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, in plenty of time to see the Royal Family arrive for a service of thanksgiving for Her Majesty The Queen.

We saw every member of the Royal Family, but a special thrill for me, which I will never forget, was seeing The Queen.  Her car drove very slowly past the spot where I stood.  Her Majesty actually made eye contact with me and gave me such a beautiful, beaming smile.  Only a second or two in time, but at that point, time seemed to stand still.

There will be pictures of the day to follow, when we get them uploaded.

We also met some lovely TV presenters, including Susanna Reid from the BBC Breakfast News, and Nicky Campbell.  The most surprising thing was that as we were leaving to go to the tube station, we found ourselves walking with Jenni Bond, royal reporter for Sky TV.  Mr LFH whipped out his camera to take a photo of her, then she put an arm around my shoulder and suggested a picture of us both together, how kind was that!  She was so lovely and friendly, and down to earth.

Shortly after our exciting morning, we got on a train and visited our daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter Poppy, and spent a lovely day with them.  We watched the rest of the royal proceedings on TV, whilst madly waving the flags I had kept from this  morning, which of course Poppy loved!

I'm off to bed now, as it's been a very long day.

The more comments I receive, the more pictures of today I will publish tomorrow!  Goodnight everybody.

Diamond Jubilee

I have had a happy day watching the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames, from the comfort of my own home, with a lovely hot cup of redbush tea close at hand.

I felt quite concerned for the Royal Family, standing on the Spirit of Chartwell for hours and hours in the pouring rain, but it was a wonderful spectacle.  I love to see narrow boats, and they looked particularly splendid, bedecked with jolly bunting.

The Duchess of Cambridge looked especially chilly, as she didn't wear a coat, although she did look stunning.

Colour Analysis

Last week, I had a colour analysis consultation, which was really interesting and fun.  A friend of mine did this for me, she is very professional, I can warmly recommend her!  I always thought I was a 'winter' type, so I tend to wear a lot of black/white/red/blue, but apparently I am a deep autumn, so I've been looking online to see what colours I should be wearing.

This is my basic colour palette, so if I follow this, I should soon be looking like the lady above, hahaha, it's only a matter of wearing the right colours!

Best Colors:

Black brown, black, light yellow, marigold, peach, terracotta, salmon pink, tomato red, deep red, true red, dark rose, lemon yellow, camel, jade, moss, lime bronze, hot turquoise, cerulean, Chinese blue, evergreen, navy, purple.

Jewelry:

Shiny metals (gold), deep stones and enamels, black or white pearls, dark wooden pieces.

Your Deep Autumn look may feel...

* daring * charismatic * intense * splendid * powerful * playful * enigmatic * polished * gorgeous * grown-up * zesty * forceful * eye-catching * vivacious

* bold * enchanting * vigorous * roguish * fun * cultured * distinguished * luxuriant * clever * complex * feisty * determined * formidable * alive

Hmmm.........  I don't feel that these words exactly describe my current wardrobe, more like practical, comfy, doesn't show the dirt, warm, doesn't scare small children.....oh dear, must try harder, hahaha!

Anybody want to buy a blog?

I've just heard that Martin Lewis has sold the Money Saving Expert website for £87 million to Money Supermarket dot com.  I wonder whether they would like to buy Letters From Home too?  I probably don't have quite as large a readership as Mr Lewis, so I would happily accept just a few million.  Any offers?!