Hello everyone I thought I catch you all as you arrive. I was thinking as the weather is improving we could start sitting out in the garden ! I think it is looking good have a look for yourselves and then we can decide if we are ready to move out there!

Well what do you think shall we chance it we can bring out the heaters we used in the Autumn if anyone is used to higher temperatures. Now as always we have tea and coffee from all over the world not to mention all our cakes and muffins and as Paul calls them sweets! Every single one is calorie free! Plus of course we now have spirits and liquors to warm the coldest of you.

If we were having Coffee: I would ask you what has been going on in your world this week, has anything deeply affected you, have you need a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on or just needed someone to make you laugh! If yes feel free to talk it out here with us. We will all help if we can.

Join in !

If we were having Coffee: I would remind you that there are lots of other coffee mornings all shared and organized By Diana and Gene’O over at,Part time monster

Well, I am exhausted physically and mentally today so I am going to sit here and pour you all a drink do help yourselves to any cake or biscuit , remember as I have already said all are calorie free.

If we were having Coffee: I would tell you that we have just returned from a trip to Rome, well we actually got back in the wee small hours of Friday! We walked miles and saw so much! The weather was brilliant and we had also had some wonderful food and wine!

We stayed at an hotel that was in the grounds of a monastery it was set in beautiful gardens and there was a seminary and a church. There were lots of Nuns and Priests there on business and holiday, there were two groups of young people on Lecture Tours one group from the US, there were families and couples and of course us! It was quite a mix. It was a lovely hotel and the staff were excellent , polite cheerful and happy to help.

We had not picked the hotel because it was Catholic, we picked it for it’s location , a two minute walk from the Metro and really good restaurants. We visited The Pantheon, The Colosseum, The Forum, The Spanish Steps, The Borgesie Park,The Vatican, Sistine Chapel, The Vatican Museum and the Trevi Fountain . St Paul’s Basilica and St Paul’s Square, Argentina Square, Circus Maximus and Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II ( which the locals call either the Typewriter or The Wedding cake) and more!! PHEW!! I have included photos at the bottom of this post!

IMG_20150517_165038911 — Getting stronger

If we were having coffee : I would ask you if you would like another cuppa and some cakes all calorie free and waiting for you . Do you remember our tomato plants I have been charting their progress for you in photos for a few weeks now , well they are outside now and if you follow me round the side of the house I shall show them now that they are grown enough to be outside in their grow bags! Also the potatoes are coming along too! As you can see we have three rainwater collecting vats strange as it may seem no matter how much rain we might get in the winter or spring there are always hosepipe bans a couple of weeks into the summer!

If we were having Coffee: I would tell you that however lovely it is to go away we always have to return at some point and went we do all the problems and minutia of life will still be waiting for us on our return! So it is back to real life with a bang!

All the problems I managed to hide from myself are back, there is still a rift between us and the Newbie’s family and it feels as though it is getting wider… the hubby is still very hurt, as I am I but if I say anything I just make it worse so I am keeping my mouth shut!…… Anyway enough of that, lets enjoy the sun, the refreshments and all our friends!

And of course the

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE: WEEKEND COFFEE SHARE

over at Part Time Monster and Gene’O’s

If we were having Coffee..Alice?

Let us go and Join Paul and all his guests and see what they are up to and what sort of week they have had. Thank you all so much for coming and I look forward to seeing you all again next week! 🙂 And now some photos from Rome.

IMG_20150511_104459371 — Statues on a bridge

IMG_20150511_115835652 — Largo di Torre Argentina

IMG_20150511_121121521 — The Locals call this the Typwriter

IMG_20150511_123120494_HDR — Inside the Vatican

IMG_20150511_152548211_HDR — Largest and oldest cast concrete roof The Patheon

IMG_20150512_105139114 — Poppies in the Forum

IMG_20150512_120348285_HDR — View from the Palatine Hill

IMG_20150512_121210078 — Looking down at the Forum from the Palatine Hill

IMG_20150512_151256476 — The Spanish Steps

IMG_20150513_085505710_HDR — The Gardens in the Vatican

IMG_20150513_103956382 — Inside the Vatican

IMG_20150514_093047019_HDR — St Peters Squqre

IMG_20150514_095100650 — Inside St Peter’s

IMG_20150514_105149636 — Swiss Guards outside St Peter’s

IMG_20150514_105649863 — Fountain in St Peter’s Square

IMG_20150514_115214511_HDR — View from a cafe.

IMG_20150514_142056183 — Marked are some of the places we visited

IMG_20150513_115433691 — Double Helix Staircase in the Vatican Museum

IMG_20150513_153758373 — Trevi Fountain covered over for restoration!

LETTER TO A FRIEND

Welcome to Willow’s weekly coffee and tea garden. My name is Paul, I’ll be your Barista today and I’m happy to be here once again. Please come in and make yourself comfortable. Willow has plumped the cushions and started a cozy fire so we can warm ourselves while we have a cuppa and chat. As usual, I’d be pleased to bring a pot of whatever beverage you prefer – we have a wide range of teas and coffees to satisfy our world-wide readership. Also available is a large selection of spirits for addition to your cuppa or in its place. We can relax while we discuss the affairs of the week both personal and/or worldwide. How has your week been?

We discuss a wide range of topics here while having our coffee and tea. Today I thought that I’d do something a bit different and reproduce a letter that I just sent to a friend on Friday night after I got home from dialysis. I have changed her name and tidied up the punctuation and corrected spelling errors for ease for reading. Otherwise every word is identical. I chose to share this letter as I felt it gives a “real” glimpse into one day in my life.

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Hey Francine!

I went to the hospital for dialysis a bit early today. When the weather is nice, I’ve been going early. I usually run out of cigarettes about mid-month so I go and troll the smoking areas around the hospital. I take the partially burnt cigarettes that people leave in the outside ashtrays and then take out the tobacco and use rolling papers to make some home made “rollies” (as they are called here). One visit can usually keep me in cigarettes for 2 days. Anyway, I was pondering today how I was going to get some more rolling papers – they are only $1.35 (about a pound) for 100 but I only had 75 cents to do me until my next cheque (in about 10 days).

So I was walking around the hospital – good exercise for me (about 1.5 km or 1 mile)- collecting the butts when I got to the employee smoking area behind the hospital. This is usually the mother lode as the staff (non-medical) is mostly French and smokes a lot. They are well paid and often leave cigarettes that are only 1/4 burnt. There are about 500 employees working in the Hospital. Anyway, there were a few people there but I seldom mooch, I just walk around and collect from the ashtrays. There was a woman sitting there and I greeted her. When she looked at me quizzically I explained that I used the unused tobacco to roll cigarettes. She gave me 4 new cigarettes and I thanked her. So, I sat down to smoke one and chat with her. Her brother in law was into trucking so we spoke about trucks and when she asked what I did I told her. Anyway, after about 10 minutes she got up to go, reached in her purse and gave me a twenty dollar bill (about 15 pounds) – saying that she wanted me to have it. I was flabbergasted and thanked her very much.

When I was walking back into the hospital I was thinking and realized I had asked for 70 cents earlier today – it is so like God to give so much more than we ask for. You know, people often really are very kind. I had the transport drop me at the corner store on the way home and I bought some milk and bread and rolling papers. I still have a few dollars to get to my next cheque. I was pissed off last week, when I had purchased a big ham to cut up for sandwiches and when I went to use it, there were black spots on the ham, so I pitched it. It annoys me because I kept it very cold and it was not passed the expiry date. That left me a bit short on food.

Dialysis went pretty well tonight – few alarms and the needles were perfect (first shot and excellent flow – indicating they were perfectly placed in the fistula). I had “restless legs” a condition that happens sometimes on dialysis – it is annoying but I got through. There’s a new hospital volunteer in the dialysis unit on Friday evening and Saturday – a young student by the name of Mubarak. He is a third year biochemistry student at a local university. He does this because he enjoys helping – there is no requirement for him to do it. We chatted for about an hour about university and chemistry – it was a good break from the routine.

Anyway I should let you go F – I have to write a coffee guest post for Willow tonight. I wrote a long story, as a post, about a trip I took years ago and sent it to a blogger this week as a guest post. It wasn’t very good, so I told her to trash it. I need to replace it this weekend.

How’s things going with you? I didn’t follow you to Facebook today because my little computer freezes up every time I try to get on Facebook. I think it uses a lot of memory or something.

Anyway, I wish you fulfillment, health and happiness – and your family as well. Say “Hi” to Bill for me. Tell him that his fans are clamoring for more videos.

Paul

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On that note, that’s about all we have room for this week, so it’s time to settle in with another cuppa and watch the fire. Sweets anyone? Please join me in thanking Willow for her invitation to tea. We are all honored that you dropped by today to visit. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself and the conversation and please look around at Willow’s other posts while you’re here. Willow is over there serving her guests and chatting it up. Let’s go see how she is today. Have a great week. We look forward to seeing you back here for sweets and beverages of your choice again next week.

And of course the