At our zoom church home group on Thursday evening, as usual we chatted about out concerns large and small, ranging from the upcoming election, and which is the best optician in town, and the difficulty of finding space to reflect on readings or sermons or prayers in a sunday church service...
Along the way we always talk about our own concerns, prayer needs, and how we can 'keep on trucking' through the coming week.
One of the group suggested this verse;
We thought we would each spend time through the week reflecting on it, reading it in different translations and 'chewing over' the words.
A gentle morning, dealing with paperwork and paying bills. All the juggling with passwords, pin numbers, user ids and texts with pass codes went smoothly for once, so the work was soon completed.
After lunch my brother and father came round for coffee. My brother lives nearly three hours drive away. Even so, he will come will come over every 6 weeks or so to take father out to lunch, drop by, and drive back again. His wife couldn't come; she's chair of governors for a cluster of schools so June and July are wall to wall speech days, sports days, prize givings, end of term celebration services and so on.
And then, what a whirl, we had been invited to friend's, just round the corner, for tea/coffee and cake in her garden. We had been intending to walk round, but took the car as we were running a bit late.
While we were waiting for father and brother to arrive I pottered in the garden. Oh the joy of messing about with plants and earth... I've missed it. I repotted a couple of plants and had a look at the Walking Onions. The new little bulbils don't show any sign of rooting themselves so I picked a stem to see what would happen if I planted them. I think it's probably too early, but I've plenty to experiment with.
The Internet says the bulbils are good to eat.
I brought some in to try. That will be tomorrow's adventure.
Yesterday vanished... morning, noon and night, well, evening were filled with several appointments, necessary admin, and a piano lesson and blogging got left out.
Suffice it to say it was a busy and fruitful day and left the way clear for a more restful day today.
I've cleared the broad bean plants and Swiss chard from the veg patch. All that's left is a tangle of walking onions and several tubs of potatoes. I might not bother with anything else this year. The combination of the long cold wet spring, feeling unwell,not ill but just not well, and then the pulmonary rehab programme has somehow left veg growing behind. Perhaps I'll just kabel the tubs as 'set-aside land' - all 6 square feet of it, or pretend I'm letting it lie fallow until next year.
It will save on the watering...
So, what's new?
I'm immensely cheered by a small 'win' regarding playing the piano. I've hardly played at all this year because I was getting so out of breath. I did discuss it briefly with the rehab therapist but he said 'no, it comes into the category of sitting down, so don't use supplementary oxygen. You should just pace yourself.'
I have to say that I felt mutinous. I couldn't see how you can 'pace yourself ' while playing a Chopin nocture or Beethoven sonata. But I gave it a go.
I found I could play for about 90 seconds - scales, or a fast piece, or a slow piece, before becoming too dizzy to continue. Then I (im)patiently waited for 10 minutes before I could play for another 90 seconds. And wait. And play. And wait. QED as my maths teacher would say.
At the rehab session I asked again... miming playing a scale, while the oxineter was still on my finger with the readings plummeting before his eyes... 'Ah, yes, you had better use oxygen when you are playing. It is far more energetic than I had realized'. I smiled and said thank you...
I've been playing again for up to an hour at a time ever since... that's three pages of Beethoven sonata op 22 resurrected - this is Barenboim playing. I've a wee way to go yet!
and the first two pages of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag.
I've finished reading 'Pigeon Post'. I'd remembered the fire but forgotten mist of the rest of the plot in the decades since I read it. I sent off for a second-hand copy
This a relatively recent copy 1986, compared to my others. The dustjacket was in a protective polythene cover, all torn and stuck with horrid brown decayed sellotape so I've thrown it away. Inside it is the nice dark green linen like all the originals so that's hold.
And we're off! Our next collaboration starts on 1st July.
Collaboration - I hear you ask?
Well, a couple of years ago Ang posted about two people - sisters? - livened up lockdown (remember that? 2020?) by taking turns to add an embroidery to a piece of cloth which they posted each other. I commented that it seemed a wonderful idea, but I wouldn't want to share the single piece of cloth!
Ang and I hardly knew each other. I would read her blog and occasionally comment, but look what happened...
The Postcard Project - which ran through most of 2022... The top piece of cloth is Ang's to keep, and the bottom oe mine.
I think there were a few more bits of embroideries added after I took these pictures, but anyway you get the idea.
Next we did the Cross Country Cross Stitch Collaboration, which we have just finished. The bottom one is Ang's.
Now, we are ready for the next one - what will it be? We haven't decided on a name for it yet, but Ang has prepared the foundation cloths.
This arrived in the post, with the card and little tin of peppermints. A notebook travels back and forth wit the cloth, with information on the inspiration for the picture and details on how it was sewn, and also a 'flat gift' that fits in the parcel, hence the card and tin of French mints.
I've got a few days left to think about what I shall sew for July...
Jigsaw
Message to Best Beloved - leave the page now to avoid the picture!
I finished the jigsaw this afternoon. The whimsy pieces are easiest to pick out in the sky; there were about a dozen or more of them all together
I looked up Kinnordy on the internet. It is a Scottish estate north of St Andrews, quite near Edinburgh and Glamis Castle. The picture reminds me of the 'What to look for in Autumn' Ladybird Book. The more you look, the more you see...
Off to the rehab exercise class this morning, with more vim and vigour than last week, or even the weeks before. I suspect I had been brewing up for an episode of lurginess for a while. I'll just have to curb my enthusiasm for a few more days...
The bread machine ginger cake turned out pretty well; borderline dry, maybe, but will be pretty good with custard. Of course, being made in the bread machine means that it is the size of... a loaf! Slice and freeze, I reckon,
A parcel arrived from Ang today; the prepped foundation cloth for our next collaboration, a note on a postcard and a sweet little tin of delicious mints from Paris.
When my mother was little Sunday was a solemn affair; best clothes walking sedately to church (twice), perhaps a little walk in the afternoon but no noisy, energetic play or laughing and loud talking. This was in the Netherlands, but I'm sure many others of us had similar experiences.
My childhood Sundays were very different. My parents were not churchgoers in spite of their upbringing, apart from Christenings, Marriages and Funerals. We had a lazy morning, monumental Sunday lunch and soporific afternoon s.
Sundays were hectic at university - I was fully embroiledininvolved with the Christian Union which meant charging around from prechurch prayer meetings to morning service and afternoon fellowship and evening gatherings. Monday mornings came as a bit of a relief.
Once I was the church organist Sundays became a working day - early service (three hymns intro and outro) family service (at least 6 hymns and songs, walking at a brisk clip between the piano at the front and the organ at the back plus intro and outro) and midweek practice and admin, oh and don't forget evening prayer... and the Sunday lunch...
Somewhere between all these different kinds of Sunday there has to be a middle way.
Today I listened to Sunday Worship on radio4 (thanks for heads up, Ang), read, (Peter Duck, by Arthur Ransome), watched the tennis and made a cake.
We've been using bread machines for over 20 years - why has it taken me so long to try the 'cake' programme?
Thinking about it, Peter Duck is quite a good choice of book; there was a storm and an earthquake and a volcano eruption all in one night... earthquake, wind and fire, followed by calm...
Jigsaw
There doesn't seem to be much left to do; but still a surprising number of pieces in the box yet. I did have a few quick looks at the picture but mostly I have managed without it. The houses were very confusing.
It's Church Camp Weekend. A large part of the congregation will be camping at a smallholding near the village, and others will be 'day-tripping', turning up around breakfast time and going home to hot showers, modern plumbing and real beds!
When our children were young, 30 or more years ago, I used to take them. Things were different then; they have real portaloos now so no-one has to go on the rota for the unlovely job of emptying the porta-potties!
I'm hoping and praying that the weather holds for them for the weekend. There is a humongous marquee so rain wouldn't be the end of the world. It such a wonderful time for everyone, and a lot of friends and neighbours join in as well, whether or not they church-goers.
We're not going, but today we did go out for a second breakfast with our offsprings at our regular meeting up place. They had waffles with bacon and maple syrup as usual, but I chose avocado on sourdough bread with lemon juice and sumac, so healthy, and a sausage, so delicious! I did share my sausage.
I keep almost remembering what sumac is.... I must look it up.
It did rain last night (any campers with soggy tents could take refuge in the marquee!). So my watering yesterday morning had a bit of a top up. The forecast for the morning wasn't wonderful, and in fact '10% likelihood of rain' became a shortlived and very, very light shower. Our table was by a high wall with roses and honeysuckle growing up it from large planters
.........
Jigsaw
I spent a short time on the jigsaw in the early evening sun - yes, the cloudy skies turned to sunshine for the afternoon so the camp barbecue evening will go well - and have made progress. It's very satisfying when you reach the stage of being able to pick up a piece and add it in rather than putting it vack!
According to the calendar, today was a 'day of rest' with nothing scheduled. Well, no.
Best Beloved has had a busy day... my father needed a number of things sorting out which meant going round to fix his telephone handset (flat batteries- it doesn't always get put back exactly in the holder) and so on.
Now, I have a confession to make. I haven't told him yet, and if I manage to keep quiet he won't find out until he reads this post... it's because he has to do so much looking after me and our house and my father and shopping and getting meals that sometimes I haven't the heart to add more to his list...
But with several days of warm, or even hot weather and no rain the garden was looking very distressed. Watering has been mentioned once or twice... but when he at last sits down to read his book and relax, well, you would need to be made of stone to make him to get up and start watering the garden. Anyway, the gardening gurus are all saying that watering is best done in the mornings to annoy the slugs.
So I gave it some thought, and while he was out I set about watering the garden. I used 'ambulatory' oxygen and proceded with due care and caution and managed to get most of it done while he was out. And all the evidence put away, apart from the unavoidable damp trails on the path.
I went back out this evening and the plants are certainly recovering. These potatoes were all completely flopped
I would have been very sad if the sweet peas had all died. I'm not sure if the one nearest the front of the picture will survive but the rest look a bit more hopeful
I'm not at all sure what on earth is going on with the Egyptian Walking Onion. It does appear to be on the move.
The garden has got a bit wild and untidy over the past weeks while I've been lurgied.
I have been rather cast down by the state of the broad bean plants. First slugs and snails, then blackfly and then getting so dry. I gave the blackfly a good blasting with the water set to 'jet' and that seemed to be effective.
I managed to pick a few pods. Just a handful of beans; I cooked them briefly in the microwave and ate them at a snack.
The weather forecast for tonight is rain. Hohoho. (Hollow laugh).
It's rather fitting that Summer weather arrives on the longest day of the year. I mean, it would have been nice if Summer had started in... in the Summer season, like, at the beginning of June but - better late than never?
I finished reading 'Winter Holday' by Arthur Ransome, a most unseasonal read as it concerns the lake freezing completely over. This means that the Swallows and Amazons (apart from Nancy who has caught mumps) and the Ds (new additions to the stories as this is early in the series) can make an expedition to the North Pole. (The North end of the lake).
Now for 'Swallowdale', the previous book. I am reading them all out of order! I shall borrow 'Pigeon Post' from my father to read next.
That's pretty much it for today's activities...
I did manage to teach a couple of piano lessons but I shall not stay for all the church home group zoom later this evening. Once everyone has joined I shall hand it over and fade out.
I'm still cancelling everything in my diary, day by day, as I know it is the sensible thing to do. Tomorrow I have three events; a scheduled piano lesson in the morning, a rescheduled piano lesson (the student taking a Grade 6 piano exam in ten days time) and the Home Group Zoom meetup in the evening. I can truncate the morning lesson to just fifteen minutes, teach the afternoon lesson, and then bale out of the evening zoom meeting by setting someone else to be the 'host' after we start. That will have to do!
Meanwhile I started Arthur Ransome's 'We didn't mean to go to see' yesterday evening. This morning I stayed in bed reading until I finished it! I ALWAYS cry at the end, even though I knew the ending. All's well that ends well.
My father has a nearly complete set of the old green hardbacks, given to him for birthdays and Chrismases when he was a boy. He's kept them, all in a very well read and re-read state, and once I discovered them I too read them over and over.
I used to pass a second-hand book shop as I walked to work back in the 1980s, and the bookseller used to keep copies back for me when he found them. At about £7 each they were really too expensive for me, but... and oh, the difficulty of choosing just one when he had several on the shelf sometimes...
The old green hardbacks all have maps inside the covers. I have just started reading 'Winter Holiday' which could be only the second or third in the series, because Dick and Dorothea have not met the Swallows and Amazons yet.
Jigsaw
It's coming along nicely. It's always satisfying when all the disparate chunks start joining up. There are still a vast number of pieces left in the box, but it's getting easier to see where they might fit.... or not! The bits spread out on the sky are all to do with some cottages, but which ones? The cottages on the right or the left... it's all rather confusing!
I had a routine appointment in the morning with the chest clinic. Confidently it was a zoom appointment so we didn't have to go to London. As per normal it was yet another brand new doctor, but she was very on the ball and informative. I am becoming steadily more hopeful that a way through the tangle of different hospitals and clinics I am involved with will be found.
I watched the tennis at Queens all afternoon. I've never been a tennis watcher - probably a rebellion against the PE teachers and the 'sporty set' when I was at boarding school.
Oh goodness, how I disliked PE. I longed for wet days in winter when afternoon lacrosse - the whole school spending the whole afternoons in the pointless pursuit of hurling a very hard rubber ball at each other with unladylike force - was cancelled. It was rumoured that none of the first team had all their own front teeth; this was before the days of Health and Safety. We all crammed into the school hall and did 'Scottish Prancing' instead, warm and dry... and much safer!
The tennis today was actually quite gripping; Andy Murry is through - hurrah.
In between times I fiddled with the jigsaw - no spoilers today as all I did was swap two large sections over. That was a fiddly business, but I managed to slide bits of card under the pieces and move them more or less in one chunk.
I have the concentration of a goldfish at the moment, and have gone back to childhood favourites for reading.
Summer has arrived today, for which I am very grateful. I shall swap 'what to look for in Spring' out and find 'what to look for in summer '
But I am in the process of 'cancelling ' this week; zooms, piano teaching etc. The cold I started last week has not disappeared as hoped; at the rehab gym session they eyed me up, measured my oxygen SATS and said 'no gym, no walks, no exercises for a week, and start your rescue pack of antibiotics '.
I think I'm going to have to develop an interest in the tennis this year. I watched Roanic versus Norrie this afternoon and found it surprisingly gripping, plus it meant sitting /quietly on the settee Not Doing Anything. See how it goes.
Jigsaw
I can manage to do some jigsaw for about fifteen minutes at a time; it's a 'sitting up straight' activity which makes me breathless at the moment. So here's where I've got to;
I'm still trying not to give in and look at the picture.
Meanwhile I have covered it up until I have another go. I'm hoping that hiding the position of the whimsy pieces will prevent BB from picking up clues for when he does it!
but because of His Son, Jesus, who came to live on this earth, and the Holy Spirit he left with us, Our Father's not just in heaven, he's everywhere. Here, with us, in us, accompanying us, enfolding us, today, back in our past, and forever.
My father on this earth, living down the road in very sheltered accommodation is 95, not very well, dealing with all the ailments and limitations that age has brought upon him. Our roles have changed; he no longer looks after me as he did when I was little, advising me, rescuing me from all my woes. That falls to me to do for him now.
Fortunately there won't be the same role-reversal for us and our heavenly Father. He, with His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit will always look after us, be with us, rescue us.
Ah, it must be April! A day of wind, and rain, and sunshine all by turns throughout the day.
I'm just wondering about all the hundreds of soaking wet uniforms to be dried out after the trooping of the colour today. Not to mention the bearskins, and those heavily embroidered cloths on the horses... Still it was a Jolly Good Show. I'm glad King Charles and Princess Katherine were kept nice and dry throughout, and I do admire Princess Anne for deciding to ride. I hope she was wearing thermals...
We visited my father just before lunch. While I waited for him to come down from his flat I saw this beautiful rose outside the entrance to the flats.
It's not a great picture as it was pretty gusty. I just wanted to record that lovely yellow fading out to pink at the edge of the petals.
Once again it wasn't a good day for going out...
This was the garden moments after some brilliant sunshine e which had raised my hopes...
So it was back to the jigsaw (time to go, BB so that I don't spoilit for you!)
I've sorted out the rest of the whimsy pieces
and finished the sky, and separated out all the edge pieces i could find. There will be more, as some edge pieces are literally just a point.
This cold weather is set to continue for a good few days yet. I have got as far as the patio outside, but haven't stayed out very long! Today is a 'low energy' day and I'm feeling a bit lethargic.
It's probably because I didn't sleep so well last night; it happens every so often. I don't let it bother me, but if I find I'm doing too much thinking to let myself get back to sleep easily, I resort to listening to the radio (BBC sounds) or a book on audible. I have Bluetooth headband headphones, which are very soft and comfortable to fall asleep in, and can operate my tablet without switching on a light so I can avoid waking BB.
Last night I was just a little too cold to settle, so I pulled up the knitted blanket up the duvet a bit, and listened to 'Death in Diamonds' by S J Bennett. Samantha Bond does the voices so well, especially Queen Elizabeth that I don't mind missing chunks of the plot (which I vaguely remember) as I drift off. Except, this time, I became too engrossed in the story and listened for longer than I intended! Hence being a bit floppsidaisical today.
Jigsaw - Best Beloved had better close this post now! He has an uncanny memory for jigsaws he has seen, and as he hasn't done this one yet, looking at the picture would spoil it for him.
Here's where I got to this morning.
The reflection is from a cheap rechargeable desk lamp I bought a while back to help with crossstitching.
I'm fortunate in that I don't have 'a Summer wardrobe' and a separate 'Winter wardrobe'. I know many of my friends do a great changeover and fetch things down from the loft and swap their clothes over. I admire their skills! My chest of drawers and wardrobe contain ALL my clothes, more or less, so when June starts feeling like January I go back to wearing winter clothes again!
Having designated today as more like midwinter than midsummer, I started a jigsaw. Best Bel9ved had adapted the tray top of an IKEA folding side table so that the jigsaw will just fit, by removing one edge (top of the tray), skimming a piece off at the bottom, and fixing it back. That's because the tray was just .25cm short to fit the finished jigsaw! You might just spot some of the pieces at the top are under th8s lip.
This a 500 piece Wentworth jigsaw with whimsy pieces. There's a dog, butterfly, pumpkin, trowel, wheelbarrow, leaf, potted plant and a watering can, all to fit into the sky which is where I'mstarting. The brownish blob beneath the dog is an acorn. I'm also trying not to use the picture on the lid; it's not a great help anyway as it is a much smaller scale.
Here's where I got to when I stopped for mid morning coffee;
You might be able to see the dog on the left (standing on it's hind legs) and the pot plant on the right. These jigsaws are notorious for tricksy shaped pieces. That break in the middle of the horizon is to confuse the unwary puzzler trying to find the edges of the puzzle! I reckon there must be a few more horizon pieces left in the box as well.
......
Yesterday and today I was a 'talking cookbook'. In other words I sat on the IKEA step stool and issued the recipe instructions while Best Beloved did the actual chopping and cooking. Last night we had chicken noodle soup, made almost from scratch - the chicken was precooked barbecue chicken pieces from M&S. Memo to self; use less stock cube next time
For lunch today we had stir fry. Normally BB adds a packet of preprepared stir fry veg to the grocery delivery but this time it was unavailable. A rummage in the fridge produced 3 stems of broccoli, a couple of spring onions, some red peppers, carrots and a big handful of frozen sweetcorn. Roughly the same as went in last night's soup, but a bit more.
Fresh veg made such a difference, both to the soup and to the stir fry. (But ready-prepped is soooo tempting!)
I arrived at my respiratory rehab class with TWO oxygen cylinders; one on the back pack and one in a sort of trolley that was supplied by the oxygen company. They wanted me to do an 'endurance walk test' but needed extra to use a higher oxygen flow in order that I would be able to walk for longer.
However, one cylinder is only just enough for the normal rehab session, so doing a test, even a short test, would jeopardise the longish walk back through the hospital at the end.
Hence the extra cylinder.
Well, on the usual 6 l/m flow rate I 'endured' walking up and down between the cones for a mere 100 seconds, before I staggered to a halt gasping like a landed fish. On 9 l/m I managed a full 3 minutes, and remembered to stop a bit sooner so that I wasn't so completely out of breath. Result! At least, the physio thought so.
Years ago we were walking in a Country Park in Canada with friends, and we had nearly finished the circuit round the lake when the heavens opened. I don't think I have ever experienced such a drenching cloudburst.
The same lake, on a different occasion!
'Quick, let's make a dash for it' they said, and ran the short distance along the path and up a few steps to the shelter of the visitor centre. I guess they were in the dry in just a couple of minutes.
I shall always treasure the look of sheer astonishment on their faces as we walked slowly along the path, as wet as though we had taken a shower in our clothes, and puffed up the steps. (I say we; true love is my BB holding my hand and staying with me in the deluge). But there was absolutely no way I could have gone any faster. And it was then that they realised how much the pulmonary fibrosis was already affecting me.
Luckily we were in the middle of a bit of a heatwave, and our clothes pretty much dried on our backs as we sat in the sun, steaming gently, once the rain had finished.
Well, hopefully the exercises and the going for walks will help me add a couple more seconds to these 'endurance ' walk tests. I've only five sessions left, and now I'm in the groove I don't really want them to end.
This the completed Cross Stitch Collaboration, that I get to keep. I suspect I was meant to sew the word 'Norfolk' rather than 'Norwich' in the top right corner. It was Pentecost when I spotted that, and since the lower edge has the words 'Candlemas 2023 - Pentecost 2024' I reckoned time was up!
Here is Ang's, (with 'Norfolk' in the top right corner!)
Each stitched section was a bit of a revelation - history, techniques, and our own creativity. I should say we both discovered a lot about ourselves in the process.
This project, at any rate for me, was a huge challenge and very time consuming. Who would have thought stitching such relatively small areas would take so long!
I'm very proud of our achievement, and also very glad that our next collaboration (yes, we are plotting and planning and finalising details) will be on a much smaller scale.
It's been a pretty busy day, and I'm only just - literally! - catching my breath.
'Pacing yourself' was the theme of the education bit of the respiratory exercise class this morning. Well, if only...
Today's activities were
1. Having a shower
2. The exercise class
3. A zoom, arranged so my uncle, who is 90 something and has dementia, could chat to my father, who is 95 and just about managing in his sheltered accommodation. It went very well; my cousin was there to support her father and my brother and I were there too. Zoom is such a boon for keeping families and friends in touch. We have decided to make this a regular meeting from now on.
4. Teaching a piano lesson
That was actually too much for one day...
Somewhere I read the phrase
LET GO OR BE DRAGGED -
In my case, it means 'let go of all those lower priority things that can wait - or be dragged down into exhaustion and breathlessness.'
So, no pictures, no drawing, no knitting, no sewing today. I've spent the rest of the day reading and breathing, and I have finally, literally, 'caught my breath'!
'He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell, how great is God Almighty who has made all things well...'
It was pretty crowded at Nymans Gardens this morning, but I knew it would be. We got there soon after the gardens opened so we were ahead of most of the families bringing picnics and anticipating a day enjoying themselves together.
I remember when this rose garden was being replanted, and the fountain installed maybe thirty years ago now.
The advantage of going slowly is that you have time to notice things that you would normally miss, like this little carving on the side of a shed in a slightly hidden path.
We had ten minutes or so before we needed to think about making tracks for home. Just enough time to take in the view across the valley to the ridge
There were many, many different flowers and grasses in the wildflower meadow. The white vertical spikes dotted about are orchids. But what are these? The flowers look like thistles but the stalks and leaves are not at all thistly. The colour is a beautiful fuschia pink.
It's easy to wander around in the sun among the flowers and views singing praises to God. I'm 'banking' today as a memory to turn to on greyer, tougher days when praising and blessing doesn't come so easily, and I'll need some extra help.
Our neighbours went on holiday today, and warned us that a taxi would be coming to collect them at 4.45am. That's EARLY! They did warn us, and they were very quiet, but when our bedroom is at the front of the street and it is already light and our windows were open it was inevitable that we woke up.
We're feeding the cat while they are away, but we were weren't too concerned not to see him around as they had given him breakfast, his only meal, before they left.
Today was so quiet, and we were feeling the effects of getting up too early that I thought I would have nothing to post. Apart from blackfly on my broad beans - and that's really not interesting.
However...
the day was derailed when we had a text from the neighbours at about 5pm, now in France!
'We've had a call from the vet to say they have got our cat!'
Well, it turns out that a near identical cat has been missing from its home several streets away, and the owner has been widening the search area as the days went by. A picture of THEIR cat, and mobile contact number appeared on the telegraph pole outside our house, and then, 'OUR' (well, the neighbour's) cat disappeared!
I rang the contact number, and sure enough, they had spotted 'OUR' cat at the far end of our road and swept him up thinking 'Hooray'. At first, they thought they had found their cat, but as he became more and more stressed they had the vet come and check for a microchip. Wrong cat.
Anyway, 'OUR' cat is safely home in his kitchen, eating a long delayed breakfast and overjoyed to see friendly faces again. Sadly, THEIR cat is still missing...
I have put a note on their 'lost cat' poster warning that a near identical cat actually lives around here, so please could people not take it away by mistake!
a number of blogging friends are having difficulties with blogger misbehaving in various ways.
I was having problems getting it to load properly, and putting photographs up.
This time around, today, I am using my laptop - a PC -and have had no issues at all.
However; from a position of near ignorance technically speaking, I can say that since we did a slew of routine software updates on this PC, and also on my Samsung tablet which was also giving me grief, and restarted both devices, I haven't had any more trouble.
I don't know if the version of Windows is a factor; all I can say is that I have been on Windows 11 for quite some time.
I don't know anything about ipads and apple computers so can't contribute anything more to the discussion.
.... I will just mention that a couple of times when I have made some changes to the page layout, I have completely missed the 'save' button at the bottom of the screen which has been mega-irritating once I realised why nothing had changed!...
The weather was unpromising this afternoon, cloudy with a cold wind, but we set off to the Prairie Gardens again anyway. We've got the season tickets, and I want to use them, and given a choice of doing my exercises or going for a walk - well, today a walk seemed the better choice.
It was worth the effort of getting out and driving down there. The sun came out and we spent a cheerful hour, this time with a break for refreshments halfway through.
This time I had my notebook with me, and did rubbings of two blocks. I am amused that the picture on the outside of the box bears no relation to the animal inside! We passed a number of boxes, but I resolutely walked past. I'd like to complete the set slowly over the season rather than trying to get them all in one visit.
Even in just a week - since the opening day on Saturday 1st June - more flowers were out. I have no idea what these pink ones are called, but they are so pretty, with daisy-like petals around the ase and delicate little spikey centres.
These were the sculptures that caught my eye this time. They are called 'Pilgrim Shafts', made of charred oak and shiny pewter. Later I saw another on, this time with the base hidden by plant leaves, which looked more effective than these rather prosaic concrete stands. Behind them, over in the next flower bed, is one of the stained glass pieces.
The tea room has a large outdoor area, perfect for us. Even though Best Beloved was carrying the oxygen cylinder I was really not feeling energetic so was glad to sit down in this sort of pergola/alcove for two. Just look at the lichen on the benches! The alcove was against the wooden wall of the tea room, with some kind of climbing plant growing up the wall and along the backs of the benches.
We shared a piece of flapjack and a chocolate brownie; one-third of each for me, two-thirds for Himself (aka Best Beloved). Mid-week on a cloudy day meant that the gardens not at all crowded, so I ws able to go and look at the art exhibition inside.
They have cardoons! Indeed, this is why I have a cardoon plant in my much, much smaller suburban garden!
I wonder if they would like an Egyptian Walking Onion.... I will take one of mine if they root as a present.
