Bits, Bobs and General Witterings

Dolly

Member
Location
Welsh Borders
We are gradually coming out of Lockdown in my corner of the world. Yesterday we went bird watching for the first time in months and what a treat we had. The Red Kites were teaching their youngsters to fly and at one point we had 4 pairs up. The sun was shining and their plumage glittered like gold. Today we went shopping and because it was another beautiful day, took the back road home. It's a very old road which meanders through oak woods, and dingles where the wild flowers bloom. At one point there is a pond either side of the road. As we got to it we saw a mother swan right in the middle for all the world like a school crossing warden, marshalling her seven signets from one pond to the other. They were still grey in colour but quite large. Across the road they flip flapped with a waddle, one behind the other and in step, like a row of soldiers. It was a lovely sight.
 

Without wishing to put a pall on things. I must tell you about a lovely surprise I’ve just had. We used to adore Christmas, but following a bereavement, Christmas was just another date on the calendar. I know we both sound pathetic when I say that it has been 10yrs and we still just go through the motions.
We love Scotland and manage to get up there twice a year with a holiday coach firm called Lochs and Glens. We haven’t been this year. The firm has its own hotels and they are gorgeous. My husband unbeknown to me, has booked Christmas with Lochs and Glens. A beautiful old Victorian hotel, much loved by Queen Victoria, on the shores of a beautiful Loch. I’m ever so excited! Here I am age 70 and feeling sick with excitement. What a Wally!
 
Dolly the Wally??????
Never, never, never.
If it were me going, I'd be looking forwards to the occasion too, enjoy your visit, Dolly. 😊
 

Last evening, we were tidying up the kitchen before going to bed and there was a heck of a noise outside. Snorting, snuffling, grunting. It sounded as if something had got caught in one of the garden planters. So, we put on the outside lights, looked through the French doors and got a lovely surprise it was a family of hedgehogs. During the day we had filled the bird feeders and dropped a few dried mealworms on the brick paving. By gum those hedgehogs were enjoying them. Tonight, we are putting out mealworms and peanuts which, apparently, they also like.
 
Yes we have a family of hedgehogs in our garden too, had them for years, but no way of knowing whether they're the same family or not, but we always put water and mealworms out for them during winter, and only water during summer, because they have to not become reliant on humans to feed them when they can dig for their own food in summertime, particularly after the rains
 
All winter through, we make sure the bird feeding stations in the garden are kept topped up with seeds, nuts, fat balls, suet blocks and sunflower hearts and I make sure, in the most vile of weather, that there is always a source of unfrozen water. Not just for the birds, but for any wildlife passing through. How do the birds repay us in the summer…? Pooping all over my washing on the line. That’s how
 
Oh Dear! Our county is in the top 10 UK counties with the lowest covid-19 cases. Or should I say, used to be. Leading this evening's early news was a big piece on our county where a fruit farm has registered 43 new cases and 200 are in lock down. As far as I can make out, the confirmed cases are Romanians. I wish they hadn't been. 'Immigrants' get a bad enough press as it is.
 
In a way, it is a wake up call for us all. When the infection rate and deaths were rising alarmingly at the beginning of the outbreak, my husband and I were vigilant: Although the supermarkets sanitized the cart, we did it again with our own stuff. When we had packed the shopping into the car, we sanitized the door handles and our hands. Before we put the groceries away we wiped every tin and packet with an antiseptic wipe. We obeyed all the rules and didn't go out unnecessarily. Just lately we have been a bit lax and sometimes forgetting to sanitize our hands so, maybe, this spike has come at an opportune moment.
Busy day ahead for me today. I knit all my husbands socks, aran sweaters, and woolly hats balaclavas scarves and mittens for the mission to seafarers. With the odds and ends left over, I knit woolly waistcoats for 'liberated' battery hens ( feel free to laugh, my Canadian relatives nearly burst with laughing about the vests and demand photos) My wool stash is in the garage and quite honestly, in such a mess, I have no idea what's in there:( So this morning I am getting to grips with it.
By the way. I love this site. I have never before met such warm friendly people
 
My aches and pains usually have the good manners to take their turns on which bit hurts the most. The past week, all my ‘parts’ have hurt at the same time and it has really got me down. This afternoon I was feeling more human and we went for a short walk, keeping to the paths, through our favourite wood. It is beautiful any time of year. In the winter, the branches make the most dramatic shapes against the sky and it is easy, in the snow, to see animal and bird tracks. You can, if it is very snowy, catch sight of the deer who live deep in the wood as they come down lower for food. Spring sees a carpet of bluebells and primroses as far as the eye can see. And when we get out of the car, we see a ‘mist’ of green around the tree branches when they are waking up after the winter. In summer it is always cool and the birds you catch sight of, are too many to list. Deeper in the wood are the oak trees. Truly huge. Admiral Lord Nelson had some of them for his battleships. Autumn (Fall) are when the woods are breath taking. It’s as if the trees are making a last gasp, and dressing in their finery before going to sleep for the winter. The colours are just beautiful. Ranging from pale yellow to rich orange and fiery red. We both always feel better after a walk.
 

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My aches and pains usually have the good manners to take their turns on which bit hurts the most. The past week, all my ‘parts’ have hurt at the same time and it has really got me down. This afternoon I was feeling more human and we went for a short walk, keeping to the paths, through our favourite wood. It is beautiful any time of year. In the winter, the branches make the most dramatic shapes against the sky and it is easy, in the snow, to see animal and bird tracks. You can, if it is very snowy, catch sight of the deer who live deep in the wood as they come down lower for food. Spring sees a carpet of bluebells and primroses as far as the eye can see. And when we get out of the car, we see a ‘mist’ of green around the tree branches when they are waking up after the winter. In summer it is always cool and the birds you catch sight of, are too many to list. Deeper in the wood are the oak trees. Truly huge. Admiral Lord Nelson had some of them for his battleships. Autumn (Fall) are when the woods are breath taking. It’s as if the trees are making a last gasp, and dressing in their finery before going to sleep for the winter. The colours are just beautiful. Ranging from pale yellow to rich orange and fiery red. We both always feel better after a walk.
Your writing is so descriptive, and your photos are enchanting. What a lovely part of the world you live in.
 
Thanks Pinky. We have not been hit with Covid as many cities but lockdown was particularly grim. We could go out for groceries, and 1 hour exercise a day and that was all. So our walks were a bit curtailed. It brought home to me, how precious freedom is
 
Oh Dear! Our county is in the top 10 UK counties with the lowest covid-19 cases. Or should I say, used to be. Leading this evening's early news was a big piece on our county where a fruit farm has registered 43 new cases and 200 are in lock down. As far as I can make out, the confirmed cases are Romanians. I wish they hadn't been. 'Immigrants' get a bad enough press as it is.
..and sadly it's right on the Hereford and Welsh borders too ...200 in lockdown on a static home site.. 74 confirmed with Covid-19.. worse still even after the police locked down the site, 3 Romanians escaped,..2 have now been apprehended but one infected is still on the run :rolleyes:
 
Oh I am a daft old fossil I forgot to put the photo on the above The osteopath can't see me until tomorrow morning. The pain relief my husband
( an old sailor) swears by is large whiskies 🤪
This is we two. On a loch last year. It was bitter cold, bitter. My husband was 71 and me 69.
 

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Oh I am a daft old fossil I forgot to put the photo on the above The osteopath can't see me until tomorrow morning. The pain relief my husband
( an old sailor) swears by is large whiskies 🤪
This is we two. On a loch last year. It was bitter cold, bitter. My husband was 71 and me 69.
What a lovely couple :) I love the colour co-ordination too!
 
Oh I am a daft old fossil I forgot to put the photo on the above The osteopath can't see me until tomorrow morning. The pain relief my husband
( an old sailor) swears by is large whiskies 🤪
This is we two. On a loch last year. It was bitter cold, bitter. My husband was 71 and me 69.
What a happy, loving couple you are!
 
We had planned a cruise for last March. The Covid-19 put paid to that, so we transferred our original booking to the same cruise next year. This evening we had an e mail telling us the cruise company has gone bust. Mark is sorting things out tomorrow. We paid by debit card, so apparently we are insured. The holiday we are looking forward to is Christmas in Scotland and that is as safe as can be
Had my discs sorted out this morning by the osteopath. I have a narrowing of the vertebrae and also some muscles on spasm. I haven't slept properly for 3 nights, so I'm hoping I will have a better night tonight. I have another apt. for Thursday
 
The back is much better and I'm sleeping like a log. Went to the osteopath today and he is please with me. It's so nice to be out of pain. We saw the oddest thing this morning. We were in the car coming down a slope to join the avenue which takes us onto the main road and a young buzzard shot across our windscreen going like the clappers and pursued by an irate looking crow. We stopped for a while and the crow returned with a 'how very dare he' look on her face and checked her fledglings which were on the grass in the shade of an ash tree. We reckon this young, and a bit thick, buzzard had a go at taking one and boy had he made a mistake
 
The back is much better and I'm sleeping like a log. Went to the osteopath today and he is please with me. It's so nice to be out of pain. We saw the oddest thing this morning. We were in the car coming down a slope to join the avenue which takes us onto the main road and a young buzzard shot across our windscreen going like the clappers and pursued by an irate looking crow. We stopped for a while and the crow returned with a 'how very dare he' look on her face and checked her fledglings which were on the grass in the shade of an ash tree. We reckon this young, and a bit thick, buzzard had a go at taking one and boy had he made a mistake
Crows are so smart, too.
 
Dolly: I LOVE the way you guys talk! You and Ferocious! It's musical and magical! "What a wally!" What an expression!
I'm so tickled because I found out just a year ago, I'm part WELCH! I love being part Welsh! Hi Cousin!
 
It is so nice to be almost pain free again. I had 2 discs out and one 'thinking about it' It was just tipping the sciatic nerve. I can sit now for longer periods and get a bit done in the kitchen. Tomorrow I have, which I think, is my last osteopathy session so its a case of being sensible for a few weeks. It is nearly the end of July, this time last year we had a heat wave. I'm looking out of the window as I'm doing this and the sky is as black as Egypt's night, the poplar trees look as if they are doing the lambada they are bending all shapes in the gale.
 

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