I have to start with an apology. One of my lovely readers emailed me to point out that a comment I made yesterday could be considered offensive. I would like to say sorry to any American readers who were annoyed or offended by my post.

**edited to add: I do understand, and there was further reasoning, why this caused offense. I am happy it was pointed out and would rather write this post to make my point clearer than to have confusion. If you weren't offended then I'm glad but this is for those who were or might have been. Everyone has an opinion and all are valid.

To clarify I have to state that neither me or my Nan are Anti-American. For me the complete opposite would be true; I've spent most of my life wishing I lived there, after living in CO when I was younger and family living in beautiful CA. I wasn't trying to debate the meaning / religious heritage / cultural meaning of Mother's Day or Mothering Sunday either, just reminding myself of the fact that my Nan prefers the later term. She dislikes the change in our style of speaking, in part influenced by the American language (which is what I meant by Americanism) but also no doubt many other factors of our globalised world, the internet and technology included. For a 96 year old she is incredibly open minded (and seriously smart, she did a politics degree in her 60s) but she can be very particular about linguistics. I am not making excuses, I hope that all makes sense and I'm very sorry if I unintentionally offended you.


Regardless of where we live, what language we speak, our religion or traditions I know we can all agree how special Mothers are and they deserve to be celebrated. Yesterday Joan gave me this lovely card:


I do carry my heart around and it hurts to think I've upset anyone. Love to you all.

(just in case you were wondering, that pink bit is my skirt!!)