My experience of running a business and a home

Happy Birthday B

Today B, who is my only remaining grandparent turns 90!

What a grand old age to reach, so a big congratulations to her (even though B will never see this post, as she has not ventured near the internet and finds it very hard to grasp what I do every day)

B lives in a little cottage at Robin Hoods Bay overlooking the sea and has lived there for about the last 20 years since my Grandad, Papa, passed away. A few of the cottages in Robin Hoods Bay have been in our family for the last 60 or so years so its a special place for us all.

My family have all been gathered at Robin Hoods Bay this weekend to celebrate B’s birthday, including my Uncle Richard who came back from Canada for the weekend. I have scheduled this post in to publish on Sunday, but I am writing it before we head off for the weekend, so I hope we are all having lots of fun :)

Here is B a few years ago on the beach at Robin Hoods Bay with Dave and the kids

b on the beach 2009

and here she is last year when we had our wedding vows renewed

b at the wedding 2

I have been busy organising a few surprises for the weekend including making a birthday banner and getting some wooden keepsake bees made for everyone

bee banner

as well as getting some cupcakes made

bee cupcakes

Oh, and if you’re wondering .. we all call her B as her name is Brenda and she thought that she was too young to be called “granny” or anything when we were kids. My kids don’t call her B, they call her Queenie B.

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If Only We All Could Get Tested

The news today that Angelina Jolie has undergone a preventative double mastectomy is brilliant. It raises massive awareness about breast cancer and for such a huge celebrity to have undergone this surgery paves the way I think for many more women to follow suit.

angelina

I have always considered Angelina Jolie as a stunning woman, as well as being a brilliant actress and having a gorgeous husband, and undergoing the double mastectomy will not change any of that. Reading the article that was released today which describes some of the procedures she had it sounds like she has just been left with a few small scars, and has had the breast fully reconstructed, so no physical change either.

Angelina had the terrible experience of losing her Mum to breast cancer at an early age, and was tested for the rogue BRCA1 gene which she has, and this gave her an 87% risk of contracting breast cancer. Having the gene also gives a 50% chance of contracting ovarian cancer too so I wonder if she will go for a preventative hysterectomy too? Now that she has had the mastectomy her risk of breast cancer is just 5%.

I am fortunate that none of the women in my bloodline have had breast cancer but it doesn’t always pass through your genes. If I was offered a test for the BRCA1 gene I would definitely go and get tested, as it would be just like getting a regular smear test for cervical cancer. Then if the gene was present I wouldn’t have any issue with getting a mastectomy if it took away the risk for the future.

It will be interesting to see what happens following this high profile mastectomy. Would the NHS ever bring the test in as a routine check for women over a certain age maybe … then what would the follow up course of action be if you tested positive? The cost of testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 is apparently $3000 in the USA which kind of makes it prohibitive to many.

According to the article, breast cancer kills 458,000 a year in the world so there should be a bigger push to reduce this. If this is the figure for the number of people who die from breast cancer, how many have suffered the affects and treatment of the cancer, including a mastectomy.

As a side note I love Mr Skin’s take on the news *farewell funbags* … I’m sure she looks just as good :) (Warning…naked Angelina)

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So We’re Getting a Puppy!

It’s something that we have been thinking about for the last few years and kept putting off, but we have taken the leap and decided to finally get a puppy that will be joining our family towards the end of June when he’s ready to leave his mum. Now that the kids are old enough to take some responsibility for the puppy it will be a good addition to the family, and will fit in with our lifestyle getting lots of good walks and playtime. You never know he may become the office dog too :) We’ve decided on a chocolate brown Cocker Spaniel.

So here he is today chilling out at just 5 days old, born on Saturday .. May 4th … (May the 4th be with you!)

Cooper chilling 5 days

I took the kids to see their new puppy after school, they were so excited to see him

Ethan & Cooper 5 days old

Miles & Cooper 5 days old

How cute!

IMG-20130508-00247

So then we have to think of a name … the one that we have been thinking of recently is Cooper … this is my maiden name, and also one of Miles’ middle names .. its a good solid name, that if I had to call across a field I wouldn’t feel an idiot.

When I did a search for “cool dog names” today the top site had this list of popular names

cool dog names

and OMG what happened to be in position 13th … our lucky number .. but Cooper. Seemed a bit like destiny somehow.. but we kind of feel that he deserves a Star Wars themed name too (May the Forth (May 4th) be with you!) … so some of Dave’s suggestions are

Cooper Chewbacca (maybe Chewy for short)
“C”ooper 3PO (C3PO)
Cooper Trooper
Chewy Cooper-Bacca
Darth Cooper
Cooper the Hut
Master Cooper
Cooper Skywalker

Any other suggestions??

We’ll be regularly visiting the puppy so I’ll take some more pictures as he grows :)

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A spot of birdwatching

Living in a rural City has many benefits, and one thing that I love is the amount of birds that we get in the garden everyday. I have been feeding the birds everyday for the last few years and we now get a lovely bunch of birds come everyday at different times, for different food. I think my “feeding station” is a bit like an “All You Can Eat” buffet at times!

Here are some of our daily visitors …

(Click to enlarge the photos for a better look, and thanks to Dave for taking the pics for me :) )

We are surrounded by big trees so we have quite a few of these giant, food guzzlers.. the mighty wood pigeon (very different from the normal pesky urban pigeon)

wood pigeon

Next up we have the handsome blackbird

blackbird

And what about the greedy starling

starling

Staying on the same colour trend what about the cheeky jackdaw .. I just love his eyes

jackdaw

Then a bird that was once really common, but numbers are dropping, the trusty sparrow

sparrow

Let’s get some colour now, how about the chirpy blue tit (slightly out of focus)

blue tit

Next up one of my favourites, the bright and bold chaffinch

chaffinch

How can we beat the chaffinch … well what about these guys … 2 male goldfinches. These have just returned to the garden in the last couple of weeks after being away during the winter. These 2 came all last year, every day together, to feed on their ultimate favourite meal of niger seeds.

gold finch

Then to finish off is what we think is the female goldfinch and a young looking blue tit.

female goldfinch

We have a robin that comes every day too, and I’ll get a shot of him soon, and sometimes the red spotted woodpecker pays us a visit, but I haven’t seen him for a while.

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The Bronco Family