Mum with her beloved Rosie(left) and Beauty

June Patricia Annable Hall 

16.6.29 - 18.11.94

Thank you Mum for your love, and for all the hard work, you are always in my heart, always missed, gone but never forgotten....

The 18th of November will forever be etched in my memory as the day my Mum died. I was 33 and she was 65. My lovely Mum. She was so young.  I can see that more clearly from the perspective of now (age 52)  I can tell you. 19 years this year
since cancer took her from us,  and she never met my husband or our wonderful kids. Loving, devoted to her family, crazy about her dogs (a regular delivery man said, 'when I come back I want to come back as one of Mrs 'all's dogs') steadfast, full of integrity,
a person of high standards, vegetarian,a great cook, an animal rights activist (she belonged to 'chickens' lib') were all things you could say about my Mum.
I was remembering and talking today about a time when Mum got really furious with us. I don't recall her being a cross person a lot. But, she had her hands full when Dad had left home and she had four children,
including two extremely hormonal teenage girls - 14 and 16 ish - who were already off down the pub?! How? I wonder when I think back - but somehow we were. Thank the Lord - that is nowhere near being on my 14 year old's agenda.

Anyway - as I say - Mum did not explode that often - but on this one occasion - we did something (can't remember what) - and she just stood in the the middle of us in the kitchen and smashed a plate on the floor before storming out. Our mouths dropped open we were so taken aback.

Well today I came back from church - having heard my friend Gareth Jones (runner up of radio 2 Pause for Thought search for a new voice - and he would have been sooooo good) talking about 'blessed are the pure in heart'. Pure hearts, love, it was a great morning and I returned home peaceful and full of good cheer.

Sorry to say several hours later I found myself having a big row with my beloved teenage son - and taking to smashing a plate on the floor...I did have another plate chucking  incident outside a year or so ago ( it's not that frequent - honest). It's satisfying in terms of 'expressing' oneself at certain times, but I think I must look into plate smashing places to go,if there are such places?? if you do it at home it's a bit of a comedown having to get the sweeping brush out.

Other Stuff .......

Me and Moy

It's been a hectic old time since the Ralph Steadman opening. All that excitement pushed me up into the 'high' ish zone for a while. After posting on facebook about the Ralph exhibition my friend - the Scottish Artist Moy Mackay - asked me to be her PR person for a London show at the Caledonian Club in Belgravia. So I whizzed down there - and had an awesome night. It ended  up with Moy and me and some old friends - Mairead Devlin - who I used to work with at BBC radio, and Sankha Guha who I was at the London College of Printing with - hanging out in the Caledonian Club with some characters who were attending a function there. 'Twas a veritable scream, with the tour de force coming from a Scottish Etonian Lloyds insurance guy - who wandered into the drawing room where Moy's art show opening was taking place, with his Country Life magazine,  hoping for a quiet half hour.....and instead ended up sitting with us and having us in fits as he pontificated on the state of the nation and thank goodness Cameron was an Etonian, as all other Etonians could come out of the closet etc etc. A good night was had by all, as well as some of Moy's lovely artwork being sold.

At half term, later in October, I visited the Scottish Borders. We stayed with Susana and family, and her hospitality and cooking skills were, as ever, wonderful. It is such a blessing to spend time there. I also had the great honour of sharing my testimony at Hope Church at Tweedbank in the Borders. The church was recently set up by my friends Michael and Suzanne Mcleister. It was great to be there, to see what they are up to and to be with the group of gorgeous Christian women who are, and will always be such an encouraging, uplifting, heartwarming and cherished part of my life. Thank you.

Good to be back visiting the Borders which was
 looking stunning in autumn sunshine