Thursday already.

 Thursday already -not sure where the days go but I assure you all that the days have sped by and I have just not had any spare time.

Tuesday P and D came over from Grange over Sands and together with mutual friend W, we all four went to Tennants, our local Auction  Dealers,for lunch and very nice it  was too.    I(didn't need any rocking off to sleep that night)!

Wednesday - well I am always tired the day after I have visitors.   That doesn't mean I don't enjoy having visitors but it does mean I have to watch it the day afterwards.  I always enjoy Wednesday evening television.   First of all Michael Portillo's train journeys - at present through Vietnam (how very civilised and peaceful it all looks after years of savage warfare) and then a quick switch-over to Channel 4 for the country's finest woodworker.   Isn't anyone else watching this - it is fascinating and such talented individuals? Then another switch over to Doc Martin.   We are nearing the end of a really enjoyable series over the years (I thought it was the last one last night but it is next week) - the last series of all.    I don't suppose the residents of Port Isaac, where it is filmed, will be sorry to say Goodbye to it.   By this time it was half past ten and I was ready for bed.

Because of my recent seizures I keep a bag packed - my "hospital bag" and when I go to bed I leave both pairs of specs in the same place so that my carer can put my specs in the bag at the last minute if necessary.   This is the last job I do before 'lights out'.   Crisis.   Half past ten at night and I can't find my reading specs!!!!   I usually carry them around with me and leave them on the desk in my bedroom,    They weren't there.

After searching for an hour I gave up and got ready for bed.   Then before I got into bed I thought I would look round one last time.   They were where I always put them but because the specs case is black and they were sitting on my black printer they just had not shown up.   By now it was midnight.

I usually get up at a quarter past six (my carer comes at  seven on the dot ).This morning I was awakened by a furious banging on the window - I had slept in.   It was seven and my carer  was getting wet we  were experiencing the worst thunderstorm she could ever remember.  The flashes of lightning were an electric blue the noise of the thunder was horrendous and the rain was literally 'sheeting down'.   An exciting start to today.   Still pouring when the taxi came to take me to the hairdresser; still raining heavily now at halfpast three. See you tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language

Lovely bright morning again - not sure how chilly it is and I haven't had my walk yet but I would guess there's a nip in the air.

I am here with a moan today and I am anticipating you will all disagree with me but I am keen to know what you think.    As a teacher of English there was a time when I would have debated this with a class and I know they would have disagreed with me strongly but I still cringe when I  hear somebody on the television say "different than".   In my day, according to my revered English teacher, Miss Ryder, it was always "diferent   from".  And any divergence away from this would have received a severe reprimand.

 

And secondly - how to receive a compliment.   I only noticed this last evening while watching "Strictly Come Dancing".  The judges sive a judgement on the standard and then a score (out of  ten).  Do the two contestants say "thank you"?  No  - they put their open-palmed hand on or near their heart and give a little bow/nod and say 'thank-you'.

Is this how we move forward language-wise?   If so I hate it.   What do you think?

Rejoice!

I am so glad that I vowed a long time ago not to be political on my posts - alright I have slipped back a bit now and again but on the whole I have kept my promise haven't I? 

The other non ending debate of course is the weather.   We had a lovely day about three days ago, since when it has gone steadily downhill.  - this evening is clear-skied very chillyand frost forecast- so that is farewell to my autumn flowers.

I made myself go for a short walk = I shall keep it up as long as I can.   My son came for half an hour and filled a few more in in The Times crossword.   My paperboy is not my favourite person this morning.  When he came it was pouring with rain and he left the paper half in/half out of the letter box.   By the time my carer saw it the top half was sopping wet.   It wasn't dry until it had   been draped about until mid afternoon.   I must watch out for him in the morning.

See you tomorrow.

Perfect Day

 It is a perfect Autumn day today - hardly a breath of wind and wall to wall blue sky and sunshine.  It is so quiet you can hear it if you know what  I mean.  I had a walk along the patio and back but it has been windy and I found it too much.   I really must walk at every opportunity or I shall lose the ability.   The last few days of sunshine have brought out various  clumps of different colours in my osteospermum - pink,white,yellow and several two tone ones - and also a patch of the Johnson's blue geranium and a few clumps of Michaelmas daisies.  Sadly it will be their swan song and I shall miss them when they go and look out eagerly for those first patches of white - the snowdrops and the Hellebores - the Christmas Roses.

We have moved on a day - I never got round to finishing this post so it is Friday now - the day when for tomorrow and Sunday I have my relief carer and then I am back to J again. After that one lovely day weather-wise we are back to distinctly Autumnal weather.   But I have made myself have a short walk - yesterday's struggle gave me a bit of a shock so I am determined to make myself go every day unless it is raining.

Not tonight Josephine!(anyone  know where the expression comes from? - it was one of my father's stock of sayings)   I see from today's Times that, contrary to expectations, nine months after the first Covid lockdown the  birthrate fell across Europe.    The research was carried out by the University of Lausanne.  The researchers  say it is similar to previous crises - also long days of lockdown dulled the nation's passion.   And at the beginning researchers were not sure how Covid might affect unborn babies.

I think folk around here are beginning to be aware again of Covid as steadily but surely it is beginning to rear its ugly head again.   Now everyone aged 50 and over is advised to get another 'jab'.  I, and most of my friends, are now vaccinated up to the eyebrows.  What is the position where you live (or are you anti vac?) 

Whilst I have been writing this the wind has dropped, the sky has cleared and is blue and the evening sun is shining.   But the central heating has come on!

See you tomorrow.

Wednesday

A weak and watery sun hangs overall and, although I haven't been outside I would guess it is probably one of those days when it is warmer outside than in because   there is hardly any wind either.   But it is not warm sitting here at the computer.   My thermostat is set nineteen (I put it up to twenty in the evening) and I have added a mohair shawl round my shoulders and a body warmer to my usual layers.  I have a feeling I shall weaken and turn up the heat shortly.   How does everyone else compare?  Really I suppose I suffer by not being able to walk quickly - in fact without the aid of wheelie I can't walk at all.

Interesting,  when I still had my car and could go out and meet friends for lunch wherever we decided to go, I never gave it a thought - I just took it forgranted.   Now, of course. I can no longer drive, I have found most places we used to go inaccessible to wheelchairs because there are steps so I am entirely dependent upon others and I find it  rankles.  Luckily I have enough friends to keep me going.   Next Tuesday friends P and  D are coming over from the Lakes for their birthday visit.   Priscilla fits easily into their VW and Tennants, our local very grand Auction House has fascilities for the disabled - two retaurants and both are fully adapted so that wil be my Birthday jaunt.

And on my birthday itself I am just having a  "pop in" - helped by J in the morning and S in the afternoon.   Wish you could all "pop in" - wouldn't it be lovely to meet and chat?

Well I shall pop into the kitchen and make myself a cuppa (and turn the thermostat up a notch  on the way. )  See you all tomorrow.

Book Group

 Book Group morning again - how quickly these monthly meetings come round and how much all five of us enjoyed discussing "The Night Tiger" - it generated more discussion than I ever remember before.  Accompanied by a Garibaldi and a cup of "Lazy Sunday" coffee - perfect.   I don't think I would like a biscuit named after me though!   And how interesting that more or less all of us had lived and / or worked abroad -   looking back to when I was young - very few folk had "been abroad".

The first time I went overseas was in 1953 on a slightly delayed honeymoon when we went to Paris for a week and stayed in the Hotel Rembrandt on Rue Caumartin.  (interesting that I can't remember  what I intended to put on my Tesco order five minutes ago and yet I just dredged this up from almost 70 years ago.)  I also remember that my mother asked not to be told which day we were flying (out on an Elizabethan and back on a Viscount with BEA) because she knew she would be sitting on the toilet all day!   Now of course we nip over to the States for a holiday and think no more of it than crossing the road to go into the supermarket.

And as for Supermarkets - I can't imagine how my dear mother would have viewed them when I think of the village shop where she shopped for the whole of her married life - the same order each week:  sugar, butter, marg, lard, tea, coffee. yeast. dried fruit= and from which she fashioned delicious bread and cakes and pies (jam and fruit from the garden).   Women staying at home and having their man's tea on the table when he came through the door.

Those were they days (or were they girls?)

Too many things happening to write a post

 Sorry but another hiccup - tired and callers adds up to no time to blog for two days.   Hopefully back to normal whatever that is today and a lovely sunny day it is too.   Still plenty out in the garden, especially Michaelmas Daisies and what a glorious purple they are too, especially with the sun full on them.

As so often friends S and T called yesterday with two splendid little LED torches - one for the side of my bed and one for the side table in the sitting room.   As Cro quite rightly says, we should be ready for all eventualities over the winter = and if my two Tesco lanterns arrive with my order on Thursday that's another tick.

Friends have persuaded me that I should hold a get-toge.ther for my ninetieth.   After feeling very tired the other day after my jaunt to the newspaper shop I had more or less decided not to hold an  y festivity at all.    But J my carer and Smy friend have volunteered/been roped in to give me assistance and I have decided to just invite friends for sherry, wine or coffee and a piece of the cake S and T have kindly provided.  So it is 10 to 12 and 2 to 4 on my birthday.   I just hope now that some folk can get otherwise that's a lot food and sherry!   Wish you lot could get here - that would just be an extra layer of icing on the cake!

Now before I finish the second reading of my book for Book Group in the morning just to say to Heather if you are reading this - as usual I have your lovely little Autumn Sketchbook you sent me several years ago out on my dresser and it looks just as lovely and gives me just as much pleasuree as it did the first year you sent it.  See you tomorrow,

Friday

After a miserable wet day it is suddenly a clear blue sky and sunshine.   There is a sharp wind blowing and it is not warm - at nineteen degrees the central heating has come on and I have just put a shawl round my shoulders.  But what a difference the sun makes.

I have been tired all day today and have done little and casting my eye over the television pages for this evening there is nothing particular I wish to see except Gardeners' World.    So it is a good night for making a few notes ready for Book Group on Tuesday.

My son has just been round for half an hour for a chat and H my neighbour has been round to borrow my scales so that she can make a cake, so not a day without company to chat to.

See you tomorrow, 

Tired!!

 Well dear fellow bloggers, I exhausted myself in the first two hours or so this morning and as a result I have slept most of the afternoon.   I suspect if I did the same thing every day it would soon get easier.

My fortnightly hair appointment , as usual, was for half past nine.  My taxi could only take me at nine (and the journey into town takes no more than five minutes.  I did a quick think while on the phone to  J my taxi driver and then said yes to nine because   the next slot was half past nine and I didn't want the hairdresser to start late right at the beginning of the day. And I had several jobs I could do (I hoped).

M dropped me at the newsagents and I did everything I needed to - buy a book each of first and second class stamps,  choose and buy at least a dozen cards suitable for birthdays, blank for other occasions.   Then pay last month's bill and go back across the Zebra and along the footpath to the hairdresser.   I arrived just five minutes late with all my jobs done.

I arrived home about half an hour before the lady from the Fire Service came to check all  the electrics in the place (I had invited her).  I passed with flying colours apart from my smoke alarm which for some reason had stopped working.   She fitted me a new one (no charge) which means I have two side by side on the hall ceiling (the alternative was bare wires until the electrician came to remove the old  one).   She was a very pleasant lady and we had a lovely chat.

By then it was lunch time.   I put the bed clothes out of the washing machine into the tumble drier, ate my salad lunch with a jacket potato, sat down to watch the news and woke up two hours later,   Just read your comments on yesterday's blog and am now off to make my tea.   See you tomorrow.

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Chilly dismal day

The thermometer tells me it is warmer today but my body tells me something quite different.   It is grey and it is raining on and off.  A string of "beads" hangs along the washing line. It will be nice to get all closed up for the night - the doors locked and the curtains drawn and one or two programmes I enjoy on TV.   At the moment there is  a programme on to find the best woodworker in the country.   So far competitors have made a dining table in Week 1, a clock in Week 2 and now, tonight a toy.   They are such gifted people I am sad that people have to be eliminated.

I must also - as promised - tell you the book we are reading in this month's book group.   It is "The Night Tiger" by Yangsze Shoo - a story set in Malaysia.  Both my friend M and I are enjoying the book immensely. 

What a difference the sun makes.   As I have been sitting here doing my blog the sun has emerged and the wind has dropped and it is altogether a much nicer day.   I might even have a stroll along the patio.   See you in a few minutes...... 

Two hours later huge black clouds have loomed in and beads hang heavy on the washing line again.

A couple of days ago, when friend M called we were talking of what we did as children before television and we both remembered the same things.   On Winter evenings my parents and I (both my older siblings had by this time left home and were out in the wide world and friend M was an only child )played 'pencil and paper games' - and how it widened our general knowledge: capital cities of the counties in the British Isles, capital cities of the world, rivers of the world, wild flowers, birds, and many more topics,   I loved it (probably because I swotted up and usually won but I guess that is why my parents encouraged me to play.)    I do notice now that on University Challenge contestants have a very scant knowledge of these areas but incredible knowledge of much more 'serious' subjects.   How times have changed  I only am able ro answer when there is a question on wild flowers or birds;  my son beats me every week!

Time to get myself some tea - not sure what until I look what's available.   Until tomorrow:

Honey cake

I was sitting here just trying to get on to a site selling a possible birthday present for a friend when the same friend and her partner arrived with cheese scones and a slice of honey cake which has just won him a cup at a local show.   Since then we have chatted for an hour and they have just gone.

It isn't a cold day here but it is a damp, windy, chilly day with no sign of the sun - and that is really so much worse.

The bins are out for morning - my carer does that before she goes.   A green bin for garden waste (I have nowhere for a compost heap), a blue bag for newspapers and a plastic box for tins and plastics.

When it is windy like today they have to be well-anchored  otherwise they are prone to blowing down the road.   This fortnight (the other week is ordinary dustbins) all my hedges have been cut and my lawns too so there is an excess which will have to wait for next fortnight.

In the old days when I was  child I remember we had the dustbin men who came round every week.  As for garden rubbish everybody had a compost heap - or a "muck heap" as it was commonly called and absolutely everything went on it.

That's it for today.   I have been busy finishing my Book Group book for next Tuesday.   Now I have until next Tuesday to make notes.   It has been a really good choice this month.   See you tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry

 Two day gap but both days, just as I started a post, friends came. I do like to post every day because it aids the 'continuity of thought' in my brain - difficult to explain to anyone younger I think but if I miss a couple of days I tend to lose the thread and I have to do a bit of a search through my brain cells to find it again.  But friends - actual human beings here in my bungalow and actually touchable - are so important and have to take precedence don't you agree?   (although all of you are so important and keep me in touch with reality)  so "Good morning bloggers and dear bloggy friends!"

Now what did I intend to post about?   Well, first of all about Gwynneth Paltrow (or Gwynnie  as theTimes calls her) who has reached fifty and wishes to be noticed in a really big way.   So how does she go about it?   She takes all her clothes off and covers herself in gold paint!!   Well, in another 28 days I shall be ninety and when I get out of bed and look in the mirror I can say with certainty I shall look more or less the same as I did the previous day.  Time marches on and how ever much I spend on creams, potions, beauty products, ready meals and sex aids , in spite of Gwynneth's  advice  nothing can really - in the real world -stop the march of time which always wins in the end.    So my philosophy is to live one day at a time  and just make the most of it.  No pills and potions on earth make much difference.   On the scales of life you (or me) sit on one side and fate/time/ call it what you will sits on the other and sooner or later you lose.  So what do I intend to do on my 90th birthday?   Not sure yet - depends how well/agile I feel but one thing is for sure - if I paint anything gold it will be my front door!

See you tomorrow dear friends.