Bits, Bobs and General Witterings

Strictly Come Dancing (your Dancing with the Stars) starts soon. We have watched it from the start and never missed one. We can't work up any enthusiasm this year. It will be very half hearted and lack lustre, no audience, and, as usual most of the 'celebs' we have never heard of. I think it would have been a good idea to rest it this year and come back with a new format next year. It has been looking tired for a few years
 

Dolly said:
Strictly Come Dancing (your Dancing with the Stars) starts soon. We have watched it from the start and never missed one. We can't work up any enthusiasm this year. It will be very half hearted and lack lustre, no audience, and, as usual most of the 'celebs' we have never heard of. I think it would have been a good idea to rest it this year and come back with a new format next year. It has been looking tired for a few years
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I feel exactly the same, in fact for the first time ever I think I'll vote with my fingers and now wtach at all. I feel that the producers need to get an idea that they're losing viewing figures by using people like ''youtube stars??'' and passing them off as celebrities
 
There are many like us Holly. Friends, relatives all feel the same. The ones who watch it, aren't catered for so much. It seems targeted at a younger audience
 

Boris and his merry band of 'advisers' have made the rules of do and don'ts in this recent covid spike, so convoluted and complicated, not even they understand them. Mark and I have made our own. We don't go out unnecessarily. Wear masks and gloves when in the supermarket. Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize and in between that wash, wash, wash our hands. Our Christmas away with Lochs and Glens coach holidays is cancelled. The cruise company has gone bust we had our money back than goodness and people here have started hoarding toilet paper
 
I've just read in the newspaper that the queen was so annoyed with Harry and his current wife whinging that they wanted a normal life, she was making arrangements to sent the pair to Africa. No wonder they legged it over the Atlantic
 
Mark and I resigned ourselves to no sport this summer. But the Tour de France was on and also the French Open Tennis A bit late but never mind. We thoroughly enjoyed the bike race, and are now enjoying the tennis. I still can't hep wondering though, if it was a bit unwise, considering how much the virus has spiralled out of control, to let both go ahead.
 
Today has been one of those rare, balmy, autumn days. A soft blue sky with fluffy cotton wool clouds just slowly drifting by, in no hurry to get anywhere fast. We played hooky from housework and scraping the garage door ready for painting and snuck off to Mortimer Forest which is just on the Shropshire side of our county. It has been more or less closed with the virus but is slowly opening up again

The forest covers a thousand hectares and is a remnant of the old Saxon hunting forests It hasn’t always been peaceful and has remains of an ancient castle, belonging to the Marcher Lords, in the middle of it. As well as the castle which saw many battles, the Marcher Lords also had fortifications at nearby Wigmore and Ludlow. Although it was originally used for hunting boar, deer and wolves, the Forestry Commission planted a great many firs in the 1920’s but the oaks have been there for centuries and some of the deer are direct descendants of the original herd.



What always makes me say Wow! Is that, if you know where to look, you can find limestone and shale laid down by the sea 400 million years ago.



We took a picnic lunch and had a lovely walk and then lunch sitting on a bench overlooking a valley. On the way out of the forest we saw a family of deer. They were so well camouflaged by the trees and the sun dappling its way through the remaining leaves, we wouldn’t have seen them if one hadn’t twitched its ear. We were so close that we could have touched them. Thank goodness they weren’t rutting or they would have seen us off!



I had left a pork casserole in the slow cooker (on days like this my philosophy is ‘bung it all in, switch it on and forget about it till you come home’) so the house smelt gorgeous and we were starving after all that fresh air. Going to have an early night tonight
 

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Dolly said:
Today has been one of those rare, balmy, autumn days. A soft blue sky with fluffy cotton wool clouds just slowly drifting by, in no hurry to get anywhere fast. We played hooky from housework and scraping the garage door ready for painting and snuck off to Mortimer Forest which is just on the Shropshire side of our county. It has been more or less closed with the virus but is slowly opening up again

The forest covers a thousand hectares and is a remnant of the old Saxon hunting forests It hasn’t always been peaceful and has remains of an ancient castle, belonging to the Marcher Lords, in the middle of it. As well as the castle which saw many battles, the Marcher Lords also had fortifications at nearby Wigmore and Ludlow. Although it was originally used for hunting boar, deer and wolves, the Forestry Commission planted a great many firs in the 1920’s but the oaks have been there for centuries and some of the deer are direct descendants of the original herd.



What always makes me say Wow! Is that, if you know where to look, you can find limestone and shale laid down by the sea 400 million years ago.



We took a picnic lunch and had a lovely walk and then lunch sitting on a bench overlooking a valley. On the way out of the forest we saw a family of deer. They were so well camouflaged by the trees and the sun dappling its way through the remaining leaves, we wouldn’t have seen them if one hadn’t twitched its ear. We were so close that we could have touched them. Thank goodness they weren’t rutting or they would have seen us off!



I had left a pork casserole in the slow cooker (on days like this my philosophy is ‘bung it all in, switch it on and forget about it till you come home’) so the house smelt gorgeous and we were starving after all that fresh air. Going to have an early night tonight
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Sounds like an enchanting day in a very unique forest. You are fortunate to live where there is so much history.
 
Dolly said:
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
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Be glad you are not here, in the USA. Lots of virus, lots of stupid people, equals lots more virus. 🤦🏻‍♀️
 
Aneeda72 said:
Be glad you are not here, in the USA. Lots of virus, lots of stupid people, equals lots more virus. 🤦🏻‍♀️
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We get all your news over here Aneeda I really can't understand your President's actions . We have silly people too, and our country is moving towards another semi lockdown because of them. Let us hope that whatever actions are taken by countries around the world, we conquer this horrible virus by all working together
 
Dolly said:
We get all your news over here Aneeda I really can't understand your President's actions . We have silly people too, and our country is moving towards another semi lockdown because of them. Let us hope that whatever actions are taken by countries around the world, we conquer this horrible virus by all working together
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No one can understand his actions, but it has certainly been an interesting four years. 🤣
 
Well, even Boris has had to admit, no one can understand his new rules. The virus up North is spiralling out of control. This evening he has announced a 3 tier system. It is much easier to understand. We are in tier one, which is areas with the least infections. We can meet up to 6 people either in or out doors. Pubs and clubs to shut at 10pm which means all the drunks stagger out into the streets! Basically in our area we conform to social distancing as we have always done and generally be sensible.
 
Over here people are blaming the university students for the huge spike in corona-19 cases. I know a middle aged couple in our area which is in tier 3 i.e an area of low covid cases, who have just been with their 3 teenage children all the way to Cornwall, a journey of 4 hours to 'get some sea air' So, stupidity, selfishness and a crass lack of good judgement isn't confines to the students is it?
 
We always take an interest in your elections over here. This year though, we are gripped by the forthcoming one. That and covid-19 fills the news channels
 
No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!
Thomas Hood


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