Monday 28 February 2022

Monday

 How quickly Mondays come round.   I blame it all on my weekly pill box.   Once a week, on a Thursday during the day, I refill my box of drugs for the week.   No sooner do I fill it up than it is empty again and Thursday again.

I have settled back in home again  and am getting back into my routine.   I am managing a walk every day but not far - just round the block.   I am hoping to work up to my longer walk again but not just yet.  It is a long time since I did my old walk round the estate now and I have got out of condition.

My new cleaner comes tomorrow morning so I shall have to be up and dressed nice and early ready for her arrival.  Another new face to get used to.

See you then.

Sunday 27 February 2022

Back again

 Yes, back home again after a "funny turn" in the middle of the night.   My son rang the doctor and he sent the paramedic who promptly send me off to hospital as he thought I had probably had a fit.  After the scan it was decided I probably had had a fit.    I was kept in overnight in a pleasant little ward with three other ladies and then yesterday afternoon we were all sent home - after only being in there one night.  I feel fine - I have had one before, a long time ago so I understand about such happenings.   But I feel quite back to normal now so shall carry on. 

Friends coming for lunch on Thursday.  My treasure of a cleaner is cooking me a Shepherd's pie and another friend is doing buttered cabbage and other veg.   I am providing the"afters" (Wensleydale Fruit Cake and strong Cheddar Cheese).    It will be good to get back to normal although the little spell was interesting - the lady in the next bed was very chatty and we had interesting talks

In the time I have been typing this it has become a most beautiful day- light breeze, blue sky and full sun.   All the Spring flowers are coming out - I have large patches of snowdrops and crocus in my back garden as I sit here looking out of the window.  The situation in the Ukraine seems to get worse daily - the refugees, the suffering, the deaths and now this morning Ukrainian men seeking out men they accuse of being traitors - hatred seems to breed hatred in overwhelming amounts.   

I'll be 'back to normal' tomorrow but just going to have a stroll with Priscilla now while the weather is so beautiful.   See you then.


-

Thursday 24 February 2022

Chilly

 The less said about the world situation the better as far as I am concerned.   Terrible as it is. I cannot personally do anything about it so I try - as I am sure everyone else does  - to put it out of my mind as much as I can.

Here at home winter has closed in again today with heavy snow showers and a bitter gale blowing.   So, needless to say I have not been out again.   Friend W called this morning to collect some music I had found on my recent cupboard clearing and she stayed  for a chat for an hour.   Then at mid day Tesco arrived with my order - twice monthly so the fridge was more or less empty.   A good time to wash it out, which I did.  Now most of the food is away apart from  some bread  buns.   I need to try and get them into the freezer so in the morning my job is to try and reorganise the freezer to make room for them.  My freezer is in the garage and it is really too cold to do the job today - but the garage is so very cold it must almost be freezing in there.

I watched a really interesting programme on TV last evening where six young black men and women were brought together in a house somewhere for a week to discuss what it is like to be young, black and British.   The second half of the programme is tonight so I look forward to seeing that too.   There is so little of interest on at the moment.

I notice as I draw the blinds this afternoon, a snowstorm raging outside, that the brave little golden crocus, battered by a constant wind for days, struggle on and bring a promise of Spring just round the corner.   It can't come soon enough can it?

Wednesday 23 February 2022

Coincidence

Yesterday, as I expect you know, the date was a Palindrome - 22-02-2022 - it was also my friend Ps birthday.   Now for the coincidence - he actually received 22 birthday cards.  Happy Birthday P!

As I am sure you all know by now (I have complained about it enough) I have been having trouble with my cordless cleaner.   Derek (Letters from Sheppey) who is often a great help to me has looked into the situation for me and has advised me to ditch the wretched thing and get a new one.   Now I know the cost of a new battery I could almost buy a new cleaner for the same price so T and S  = also great friends= are going to go into town on Saturday morning and do just that for me.   Friends - what would I do without them.  The answer is without  friends - and in this include my wonderful carer- I would be in care by now.   Of that there is no doubt.

T and S called today, I made them coffee, put the coffee pot on my wheelie and promptly knocked it over.   Not the first time I have done that and always there has been someone there to help me clean up the mess.   When I say 'help me' what I mean is clean it up while I watch.    So I finish as I started - Friends  - what would I do without them

 

Tuesday 22 February 2022

My trip out

As I told you yesterday I have been to the Opticians today.   My son took me, Priscilla and my Zimmer frame, found a parking place as near as possible to the surgery and then  - in a very strong, gusty wind I walked over the road and he walked with my frame alongside Priscilla and me.

Once inside the receptionist helped me up the three steps and on to the stairlift (my first time) while the Optician stood at the top and helped me off.  My son had taken my frame upstairs so I was able to walk into the surgery with that.   After all the tests we did the same thing in reverse, I chose the two frames (varifocals and reading glasses) and then I rang my son to collect me which he did.   Crossing the road to his car was even more scary in the gusty wind.

I came back almost six hundred pounds lighter but I have gone to the same man for the last thirty years, my eyes are now almost ninety year old eyes and he keeps me able to read as well as is possible for my age - so a price well paid.

Too tired to write more.   Hopefully I shall sleep well tonight.

Monday 21 February 2022

Sun

 Well, the sun has shone all day.   Franklin is still blowing his socks off and the sun is beating him to it and my sitting room is basking in heat without anything artificial for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Of course Priscilla and I can't go out - it is still far too windy but I did stand in the front doorway for a few minutes getting fresh, warm air and it was lovely and it did bring a promise of Spring to come.

All that has happened today here is that it was the day for my Chiropodist to come and give my feet their six-weekly treat.   I am now walking on air.

Tomorrow is a day I shall be pleased to say good-bye to as I am going to the Optician.   This involves Priscilla and my Zimmer frame as I have to go to his upstairs surgery because my eyes need equipmennt which is only up there.   My eyes in their ninetieth year are sadly worn out.  The  thought of not being able to read just does not bear thinking about.

The other job I have to tackle is to find out whether or not I can ever obtain a new battery for my Bosch Athlet cordless vaccuum.   I have been waitimg simce last October for the local electrical shop to get me one and they keep telling me they are 'unobtainable'.   My carer has been bringing hers.  I have decided tomorrow is the day for one last push and then if all else fails I shall have to abandon my four year old Bosch and buy a new one.   But it certainly will not be a Bosch.


See you tomorrow.......

Saturday 19 February 2022

The calm after the storm.

 It is very cold here today.   Eunice seems to have passed on leaving a trail of wreckage and I believe four deaths.   Behind her she left very cold weather today and most of the morning it snowed on and off.  After lunch the sun came out and the sky turned blue and my spirits were certainly lifted.   Although it is still bitterly cold in the breeze the snow has all gone again and the sun shining into the bungalow has cheered it up immensley. We have escaped lightly here in the Dales thank goodness.

I have spent the day doing various jobs.   First of all I have checked (my son popped in and checked the cupboards I couldn't reach) and all the books for the   auditor are now ready for collection.  Then I wrote a letter thanking the electrician for coming and trying to investigate 'the noise'.   Now I have ordered a cake on line for when my friends come to lunch at the beginning of March and am putting on today's post.

As I said just looking at the sun pushed up my energy.   Now I just have to gather strength to write to British Gas and as several of you have suggested if they won't agree to cancel the call out fee when it was their mistake I shall cancel the contract with them and call local contractor.   Watch this space.

Friday 18 February 2022

Touch Wood!

 Well so far, dear readers, Eunice has been quite kind to us here in North Yorkshire.   She ravaged Cornwall, The Bristol Channel, the South of England and was reported to be creeping up the country.  Also she was dropping loads of snow on Scotland and all cross-country trains here were cancelled and also the A66 - the main cross-country road route.   Yes, we got up to a covering of snow but it is not cold so we get a black sky, a gale and a heavy fall of snow - then five minutes later Eunice is sending an apology in the form of bright sunshine and a drop in the wind - and lo and behold the snow has melted.  Black clouds just arriving, heralding the snow.  

The gas man cometh at around nine o'clock.   A very pleasant young man he finally located some switch or other (it was in the airing cupboard behind a very neat pile of my carer's towels).  He diagnosed the problem quickly - when it was last serviced the gas man did not correlate the boiler and the temperature control and the consequence was that when the central heating is switched on the water has a tendency to boil!!   He made the boiler make the noise and yes - it was indeed that.   He fiddled about with some temperature control and hey presto - all done.   It does beg the question though how did the man who serviced it leave it like that?   And also of course - I have a contract with British Gas- costs me something like twenty pounds a month but they told me this was not covered.   So I suppose I shall have to start a long correspondence to argue about that.

But so far Storm Eunice seems to be being kind to us.   Long may it continue.   Such a pleasant young man, he started my day off well.

Thursday 17 February 2022

Finished

 Well I think I have finished gathering together all the stuff to be shredded and got it ready for the auditor.   It has been quite a job but as it is too windy for me to walk at the moment it is good exercise.   

Half way through the morning friend S called to collect a bag of craft materials I found in my cupboard clearing out and also to collect an electric hotplate which I shall never use again as I am not likely to do any more entertaining and which I asked her to take to the tip for me.   She decided that T may well find it useful for melting wax -he keeps bees

As we stood in the kitchen chatting suddenly the loud buzzing noise I heard yesterday struck up again.   We went into the garage and she is pretty sure it is emanating from the gas boiler.   After a few minutes it stopped but it is quite alarming.   We came into the sitting room and she rang the Gas Board for me.   She tried number after number and could not get through to a human.   All the spoken recorded messages were the same, giving three alternative numbers to press.   None covered the area she wished to ask about.   Finally she got a human who made an appointment for the gasman to come in the morning and when she asked about switching the boiler off - was it dangerous? - she was told that was for her to decide.

She was not happy about the standard of service - nor was I.   After lunch I decided to ring Northern Gas Network and ask them (British Gas number is unavailable from the phone directory) - I got a human immediately on a line manned for twenty four hours.   She listened to my story and then said she would give me a number to ring that would help.   It was an unfamiliar number - I rang it - and got the same disembodied voice asking the same three questions that had been asked all morning.   I gave up.  Lets see what happens in the morning.

I was just standing looking at the empty cupboards where the accounts had been when the phone rang - it was friend M to say she was coming round for a cup of tea - lovely hour's chat after a morning of beaurocracy -thank goodness for friends.

Wednesday 16 February 2022

Half way through

....february and look who's arrived.   Yes storm Dudley - he made a bit of an entry last evening and has wetted us through more or less all day today with odd bursts of sunshine to suggest perhaps he was on his way.   But no,on the tea time news they tell us that it is tonight when he is really going to make his presence felt.   At least when I take my hearing aids out I can't hear what is going  on.

It was out in the stormy weather to the hairdressers this morning.   Because  I had to be there by nine it was too early for my taxi (he takes the school children) but my carer, who only lives round the corner from the hairdresser, took me and when I was ready to come home I rang her.  As most women will agree - there is nothing like a trip to the hairdresser for lifting one's spirits.    Add to that the lunch my carer had cooked for me today (beef stew and dumplings) and had I not been tired from having a bad night last night I would have got a lot further on with sorting out files for the accountant.   But one more bag done so better than nothing and as I have nothing to do tomorrow, with a bit of luck I might get two more bags done.

I shall slip off early now and relax until time for the repair shop at eight.   See you tomorrow folks.

Tuesday 15 February 2022

Sorry I missed a day

but life is a bit busy at present.   Storms are forecast from this evening so Priscilla and I will be housebound for a few days.   But I am having the perfect antidote in that I have heard from the Company accountant that at last the company can be 'wound up' which means that the seven years worth of accounts and books I have been storing in a cupboard can at last be disposed of.   The law says that seven years accounts have to be kept - after which everything can be destroyed because of course the company no longer exists.    In a way how lucky that this should coincide with a spell when I was going to be deprived of exercises.   Because all the bending and stretching I am doing as I am exercising different muscles.  Tonight I actually feel rather good although I am tired.

And what treasures I have unearthed - remember it is almost five years since I moved in here and put everything away in cupboards.   In the first instance friend W asked me if I had kept the file of words from when I played with ukuleles and we went round various nursing homes and played for the elderly to sing along (the group is still exists but arthritis in my fingers makes playing too difficult).  I couldn't find it anywhere but it was the first thing I came across this afternoon.   Then I found my craft bag - I used to indulge in various crafts - knitting, crochet, quilting, beading all impossible now with my hand tremor which means I can't even thread a needle.   Ispent an hour sorting it all out and have now sent a text to friend S saying will she please take it and anything she doesn't want can she put on the table at her next craft meeting for anyone to take.   There must be more than twenty pairs of knitting needles so hopefully folk will notice a size they haven't got.

 I have been worrying about all these accounts papers for a while, Mainly because it is a big job and not one I would wish my son to have to do after I am gone - at least I know what everything is.**

So what else is News.   I hear on the News at Six that Prince Andrew has at last done the 'sensible thing' - this must be a great relief for the Queen in her special year because it was a bit of a blot hanging over things for a lady of ninety five. 

And Russia has pulled some of its troops back from the brink - well at least that is a start.

And Jokovich has explained why he is willing to forego playing anywhere this year because he feels he is entitled to do as he wishes with his own body.

Oh goodness me, I only have to miss listening to the News for one day for me to get behind with it all.   The world has moved on without me - and I don't suppose it will make a scrap of difference.

See you tomorrow.   Cling on tight in the forthcoming storm. 

**  The accountant has an industrial shredder and all the material will go through that (what a boring job for somebody)

 

Sunday 13 February 2022

You need an umbrella!

 What a day.   It has never stopped raining.   I had my second Covid test this morning and again it was negative so it does look as though I have missed getting it now that a week has passed.   It was a weak link but I am nevertheless pleased at having the tests just in case.

I fiddled about doing various jobs this morning and had my lunch.   I settled down to put on a post and the door bell rang.   It was my friend and neighbour bearing gifts - two delicious chocolate and strawberry cup cakes for Valentines Day tomorrow. Thank you H - they were delicious.

I watched an interesting Countryfile about how the huge increase in visitors last Summer to the Snowdonia National Park resulted in a corresponding huge increase in the amount of rubbish they left behind.   And also they mostly tramped up Snowdon and wore the paths away so that they too are having to be repaired.   I have never understood peoples' attitude to taking their rubbish in the form of picnics and the like to various beauty spots, packing it carefully so that it looks a   delicious spread when they take it all out and spread it on the tablecloth.   At this point many of them become totally different people and just behave as if they have no need to clean up after themselves.   Similarly people let their dogs off leads and allow them to poo anywhere they wish and then ignore it, not cleaning it up so that animals grazing on the slopes pick up dangerous diseases.

The Countryfile programme was followed by the first in a new series of Antiques Foad Show.   The last item was a photograph  of the lady's Grandfather who had been a Battle of Britain Spitfire Pilot.   She brought several of his diaries, his photograph and - most importantly - his medals.  They were spectacular - just .medal after medal for extreme bravery.   The valuer - extremely visibly moved by the display- valued the collection at one hundred thousand pounds.   He was hardly able to speak as he spoke of the bravery of these young men.

If you want a really lovely walk today do go to John's post on my sidebar 'By Stargoose and Hanglands' An English Estuary'.   He writes very well and his photography is good and today's walk along the Estuary of the River Orwell is bliss on such a miserable day.

See you all tomorrow.   Friend M is coming for coffee in the morning and bringing two warm scones.   What more could a girl of 89 want?


Saturday 12 February 2022

Very windy

 It is essential, if I wish to keep mobile, that I keep moving.    This is easier said than done when the weather is bad and once or twice during this winter I have been housebound for a fortnight or so.   And then I have had to start again.   The last few days have been one of these spells.   Because the wind has been strong and our road acts rather like a wind tunnel I have often been housebound.   So mobility wise I have gone backwards and there is little I can do about it.   I try at least once an hour to get up and do something which includes mobility - make myself a cup of tea, walk through to my computer and switch it on and do something for a while, get up and chat on the telephone for a while, get my lunch (ie put the lunch my carer has brought for me into the microwave or the remoska.  )   Outside it is almost dark and it is only 5.20pm.

After lunch I got all togged up - duvet coat, red woolly hat, woolly mittens.   I went out into the garage (this in itself is a major operation for me,)and Priscilla and I set off.   By the time I had pressed the button to close the garage door it became obvious that it was too windy for us.   So instead, to break the monotony and to give us a bit of exercise and fresh air, we turned right instead, unlatched the side gate and went into the garden.


 

Sadly I can't get up the steps on to the top patio - so everything has to be viewed from ground level, but I could get the sense that everything is waking up. Osteospermum has never let me down and is happily flowering away in the long border.   Here and there are wallflowers (can't remember putting them in - (D the gardener must have done it.) and the odd candelabra primula in full bloom.   Not a lot but enough to make you think spring is on its way.

Round the back a viburnum is covered in blossom (not sure I have the right name here but can't find it) - bright pink and a joy to behold. My winter helebore - the Christmas rose - now has blooms - pure white and sturdy and right at the top of the plot my patch of snowdrops is in bloom.   Ajuga reptans, which has spread alarmingly since the Autumn is making its presence felt.   I hope that many of my bulbs are also coming up.   There are several hundred in and I remember this time last year I couldn't see any and then one day there were green shoots everywhere so let's hope it is like that this year.

I came round the side of the bungalow and through the other side gate, shutting it behind me because it is a nuisance if left ajar in the wind.  Walking along the front of the bungalow I had a chance to really look at my pots on the steps.   A shrub bought me as a Christmas present has shoots, both tubs of violas have several in flower and a lot more in bud and a geranium which is taking its chance tucked up against the South facing wall looks to have survived so far.

And that was my walk for the day.

Friday 11 February 2022

Logic

 Is it just m e I ask myself.   I am not short of brains - although as I approach ninety I do sometimes wonder whether it is thinning out a bit.   I have degrees and diplomas in various things and I held down and enjoyed doing quite important jobs.   This is not boasting it is getting round to telling you that there was a huge hole in my education.

Now I am ready to accept that all of us go down a particular road.   We develop an aptitude in a particular direction and usually follow it through.   My aptitudes all involved the English language, its development into literature, poetry, expressionism.  I taught along these lines and teaching English Language as a second language to children coming to this country from abroad.   All well and good.

Now let's think for a moment about other subjects. I loved history and geography and keep my world atlas by my  chair so th at I can look things up - if I hear something about a country and am not sure where it is I look it up.

But you will notice that one subject is glaringly obviously missing.   MATHS.   Yes, at Junior school I usually came top in the twenty mental arithmetic questions we had to do every morning. I could recite my times tables up to and including my thirteen times table.   I knew my number bonds - didn't have to use my fingers to add them up.   But that;s not maths to me - that is SUMS.

In my first marriage I always  the  did household books and organised the paying of the bills etc.   In my second marriage I took over the financial running of the farm  (always done before by my husband's niece who was an accountant) but steer me away from what I still think of as numbers and I am still like a fish gasping out of water.

Now retired long ago and pretty immobile I do all the Times Mind Games every day.   Early in the morning is best, before the old brain  tires-My favourites are not the word ones - the crosswords, the  codewords and the like.   No my favourites by far are the number games.   And I am ashamed to say that the Sudoku - which come in the form of Gentle, Moderate, Difficult and Killer stumped me at first.   Now I can always do the Gentle, almost always do the Moderate, occasionally do the Difficult and haven't dared try the Killer yet.   And why?   Well I think it is because I have suddenly realised just how very vital Logic is in Mathematics.   What wont go in the space is usually more easy to figure out than what will go in the space.   Every mathematical problem needs looking at from various angles to be able to solve it.

I honestly don't ever remember being told that at school . My beloved Chambers (I am on my fourth as the other three have fallen apart over the years - this one should last me - defines logic as - 'the science and art of reasoning correctly. logical elements which perform specified   arithmtical functions  (and another dozen lines my eyes are too tired to read at this time of day).   It has taken 86 years to realise that there are more ways of killing a cat as they say than by choking it with cream.


Thursday 10 February 2022

Mighty Oaks from little acorns grow...............

It's amazing how some very small thing can alter one's whole concept of things and an interesting example occurs in today's Times.   In a cave in the Rhone valley a fossilised molar  has been found from a child - 54000 years old the tooth shows that humans and Nean derthals once shared the continent.  The tooth suggests that within a year of a group of Neanderthals moving out a group of Homo Sapiens moved in and then they moved out and Neanderthals moved back in again.   It had been thought that once Homo Sapiens moved into Europe the Neanderthals moved out but now this tiny tooth suggests a much more complex picture.  After the tooth at the moment there have been no other human remains found for another ten thousand years.    It was found between two Neanderthal 'layers'.   Interestingly the Professor working in the cave has believed for many years that this was the case  because of more .modern tools found there.   He was mocked for this theory but now it seems there is some proof that he may well be right.

You can but wonder just how many things lie beneath our feet - just waiting to be discovered.   Not just coins, jewels and the like - but ordinary things like a child's tooth.   Imagine that - in most places it would just not be noticed.

**********

Blue sky, sun which is beginning to have some warmth in it, after lunch I shall 'test the water' to see how strong the wind is before I set out with Priscilla.   If anything interesting happens I will return.  Sadly it is far to windy to go out so I shall have to miss a day of walking.    So see you all tomorrow.

 

Wednesday 9 February 2022

Chilly rather wintry day

...and we are just not used to it up here in the Dales - it has been such a kind winter to us so far.   I needed to post a couple of letters this morning so I put on my duvet coat and crossed to the box before the post called but it was so windy I decided to go no further.   Then after lunch the wind appeared to have lessened a bit so I got all togged up again and set off but it was still very windy and I was pleased to get round the block and back home.   But at least it gave me a chance to have two or three conversations to break up the monotony.

J, who lives just a few doors below me, was walking her very old Border Terrier, Meg, who has sadly now gone almost blind.   It is so hard when old dogs become neither well nor ill.   At least my dear old dog had a bad stroke and it would not have been kind to keep her alive  But Meg has deteriorated every time I see her and J and I agreed that perhaps the time had not quite come to make   the painful decision. 

J now has her mother out of nursing home and at home and both J and her mother are happier as a result.   J offered me the use of her mother's motorised wheel chair to see how I felt about having one.   It is very kind of her (her mother is now bedfast) and I may well take her up on the offer when the weather gets a bit warmer.   Friend T some time ago did offer to walk with me the first time I used it to give me confidence - I am a little apprehensive.

I had two more pleasant chats with folk I recognised and then when I reached home neighbour M had seen me coming and was waiting in the shelter of the wall to have a chat before I went in.

I have now made an appointment at the Optician for the week after next - difficult because I can't get up to the Optician's surgery easily.   There is a stair lift but there are  2 steps up to it and I can't manage steps at all.   He does come to the house if necessary but he has looked after my eyes for years and he needs his specialist equipment which he can't bring.   However we have fixed it for my son to take me down - it is only a short distance - and to take both Priscilla and also my Zimmer frame so that Priscilla need not go upstairs.   I can't walk a single step without one or the other.  Time will tell how well it all works out.

There were a few more snowdrops out today here and there and M next door has a patch of yellow crocus - all signs that Spring is certainly considering coming.   Until tomorrow friends..... 

Tuesday 8 February 2022

Early one morning.

 Much earlier than sunrise - 4.29 to be precise- I am sitting at my computer unable to sleep.   According to my computer it is eleven degrees outside and cloudy.   I have just had a couple of Paracetamol and am just giving them a while to work before getting back into bed and trying to have a bit longer before thinking of getting up - otherwise it is going to be a very long day.

Today is the one day in the week when I manage without a carer - takes me ages to do all the things she does in an hour, but it does me no harm.   And I have a Zoom at 5pm with W, P, and D to look forward to.   The forecast suggests that it will be too windy for me to walk.

Well it is now evening.   It has been a dull day but not particularly cold. I did go back to bed and to sleep, waking at a quarter to eight, so had a reasonable number of hours.   But by the time I have done all the necessary jobs it is lunch time.   Afterwatching the News at 1 I dropped off to sleep for almost an hour and by the time I had tidied my lunch things away it was almost time for our Zoom.  We have this once a fortnight - in the Pre Covid days we used to meet for lunch in Kirkby Lonsdale in the Italian restaurant - now sadly closed for ever.   But, as usual, a pleasant chat for our forty minutes.   Tea over just time to go through my blog before Ben Fogle comes on TV with his Life in the Wild - a programme I enjoy.

Nothing else to report today - a quiet day but a pleasant one.   See you tomorrow again.   Hoping I would sleep well last night I decided to make myself a hot chocolate with milk,   As I began to drink it I had a fit of the shakes in my hand holding the cup and it spilled  all down the front of a cream pure wool jumper.   I am pleased to report that this morning I dampened the stains (quite extensive) with stain remover and washed the jumper, following the instructions carefully - and every one has come out and the jumper is as good as new.  I can't wait to show my carer (she would have insisted I left it to her).

 


Monday 7 February 2022

Monday

Busy day.   This morning was Book Group and the wonderful book about The Iliad - we all enjoyed it hugely (I talked about it last week and am too tired to go and get it to put the title but if you can't find it and would like it then tell me and tomorrow when I am less tired I will tell you author and title again).

It is some days since the weather was good enough for me to go out.   After lunch I contemplated it but the wind was very strong.    Then around half past three I looked out and the wind had dropped - I didn't feel like going out but the forecast for the week is not good and I knew when I got out I would enjoy it and I did.

First of all as I walked down the drive the opposite neighbour drove up in his van.   He has moved into a larger bungalow having just had a little girl - Daisy.   His bungalow is up for letting.   We had a quarter of an hour's chat.    Then Priscilla and I walked to the top of the road and I noticed the benefit of T's lengthening of the handles which he did for me yesterday (thankyou T - I am not stooping over her any more).    Then walking back along the footpath I met one of my favourite dogs - I haven't seen him lately.   I did wonder if he had died because he is an old dog.   But no - he was just as pleased to see me as I was to see him -  his tail started wagging long before we got to one another.

Then just as I reached home E was walking past and waited so that we could have a chat.   So - four people all morning at Book Group,     two people and one dog on my walk - I have managed my quota today -first time during this somewhat wintry weather.  See you tomorrow.

Sunday 6 February 2022

The Snow Line

It is one of those days when the only sensible option is to have a good fire in the grate, a good casserole in the oven and either a good book or something good on the telly.   Friends T and S came at around one after going to Northallerton    They drove here in a snowstorm and it has snowed for the two hours they been here.   The snowline is visible from the sitting room window.   East Witton Fell rises quite steeply in the distance - the bottom part is green - to top part has snow.   It has stopped snowing now and already the snow is melting but by next week end the weather will  be colder and then things might alter.

But be comforted, by next weekend we shall be half way through February and only a month away from the first days of Spring. 

The sky is a clear blue, the sun is shining, there is a strong wind blowing and it is still necessary to keep moving to keep warm. 

See you tomorrow.

 Blankets switched on and water bottles at the ready.


 

 

 

Saturday 5 February 2022

Saturday

 Always a bit of a 'nothing day', especially in February with a strong wind blowing, rain falling and the temperature not all that far above freezing.   We had a 'good' January but oh dear it is going uphill now that February is here.   Still, chins up, not long to March.   I shall now put this first paragraph into store, make a cup of tea and go and watch Escape to the Country for a bit of pleasant, sunny countryside.

Well the cup of tea was made, H next door rang and said should she come round and we had a nice afternoon chatting about the old days as we usually do.   To say times have changed since we were at school is a huge understatement.   Some things for the better, some for the worse. 

By the time she went home at half past five the weather was terrible - a gale was blowing and it was raining heavily - and it was 'February cold'.

Now I shall go and made myself a ham, cheese and salad sandwich and sit down and wait for the old version of Around the World in eighty days with the young Michael Palin.  Tomorrow is another day (as the heroine says in Gone with the Wind I believe  (can't remember her name I'm afraid).











Friday 4 February 2022

Weary

Yes dear blog friends - weary indeed.   I go out so rarely these days so when I do have the luxury of going out I like to get 'dressed up'.   Cashmere jumpers are not really the wear for sitting in the chair all day but they feel so wonderful.   So it was best trousers not my newest ones - as I predicted they will not fasten.   I have only worn them once and that was before I broke my hip.   Now I am determined to lose a  couple of inches off my waistline.  And when it came to putting on my new boots = they fit perfectly well but I just could not lift my leg high enough to get my foot in.   So it was last year's boots too.   But I managed to get dressed up well enough to feel good and the wife of the Audiologist (who is Chinese and possibly the most beautiful woman I have ever seen - and delightful with it) told me I looked good.   Please don't think I am vain but I have always taken great care with my appearance and always loved clothes and it is hard not to continue in the same vein.

The journey to Ripon is a lovely one - twenty odd miles through several pretty villages and roughly following the course of the River Ure which flows through Wensleydale and eventually joins the River Ouse and out into the North Sea at the Humber Estuary.   We drove through snow showers, sunshine, rainbows, strong winds, but all very beautiful.

My visit was not so long this time - just to check that I was happy with my new hearing aids - and he also turned them up to a full one hundred percent - they were only set at eighty percent before.

I tried watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony when I got home but I kept falling asleep and finally gave it up as a bad job.   It will keep until tomorrow.   See you then.

Thursday 3 February 2022

Never wasted

Thelma on her blog this morning jogged my memory - and made me think of memories per se.    Tomorrow it will be thirty-one years since my first husband,  Malcolm, died of kidney cancer.   It seems a whole lifetime away - so much water has flowed under the bridge and I have had a whole new marriage and twenty two years of another very happy marriage.   How very lucky I have been.   And now, at 89, pretty decrepit but thankfully so far with a reasonably intact memory I have so much to draw on - certainly enough to keep me going - all the music, the art, the travel, the friendships, the moving from place to place with my first husband's job and then the farming - the getting used to and involving myself with the animals, experimenting with keeping hens and geese,involving myself in feeding the calves, coping with foot and mouth and giving support, then many travels around the world mostly to the West whereas with my first husband it had all been to the East.   Both husbands were keen walkers so there were always places to explore, walks to be taken.

Now, when both are gone and I can no longer walk there are memories to look back on.   There is a mention or a picture on television, I read something in the daily paper, someone mentions something - and there is a 'ping' - and there's the memory - clear as a bell.   A piece of music we played together with our group, a church we went inside on one of our walks with a walking group or on our own.    The trigger can be so small but it can spark off a lifetime of memories.

So rest in peace dear Malcolm  - passed away 31 years ago tomorrow - - and it  will be 5 years next month since David went - and both left be hind a huge store of happy memories - and I enjoy them every day .

Wednesday 2 February 2022

A Cautionary Tale to start the day

Just had a little laugh amd thought it would amuse you all to start your day - so here goes.

As you know I am severely handcapped as far as walking goes and my drive is steep so I have to take certain precautions when going out.  

The post box is directly opposite my house on the other side of the road which is very handy but still I have to get all togged up, open up the garage, get out my walker and put on sensible shoes, struggle down the drive, cross the road and return - no chance of slipping across the lawn and back. 

Tomorrow is my step great grand daughter's birthday so it was vital I caught this morning's first class post - the card, along with by now five other items of mail, has been waiting a couple of days for me to catch the post lady who will always take them for me.

I decided straight after breakfast to put on my mac and boots (it is a wet morning), and go through the whole procedure so that the envelopes were in that box before the mail was collected (any time between half pa st eight and half past two this afternoon).   Half way through getting togged up I looked out of my sitting room window (half past seven in the morning) and there - right outside my window- was a young man - a teenager- presumably standing waiting for a lift- and while waiting he was quite obviously having a wee in the gutter!   I quietly opened the front door and stood until he had finished (quite a while he must have had a lot to drink at breakfast) and then called out 'Excuse me' -

He shot round - with a very red face I might add - and presumably expected to be told off.   Instead -in my very best school teacher voice- I said, "I wonder if you would be kind enough to just slip across the road with these letters to the post box to save me getting my invalid carriage out of the garage and struggling down the drive in the rain."   He was at the door in a flash - I watched him as he nipped across the road, put the letters in the box and then came back to where he had originally been standing.  As he got there I just gave him a bright smile and said "Thanks ever so much -you've done your good deed for the day and saved me a bit of a struggle".