10K Race

 This was the scene on Sunday, the annual 10k race, this was the end when people are milling around talking about their efforts.

No need to peer to see where I am, because I'm not there! Racing or even walking at speed is not my thing!

It might do me good, but I know someone who enters a lot of races and she doesn't lose any more weight than I do.. Last night I dreamt I was pulling on a pair of knickers, that I know I threw out years ago. White cotton with little red flowers and a waist band that was always a bit tight to pull up. Probably that's why I threw them out. But in my dream they slipped on easily, perhaps it was in the days when I was under 10 stone! So I dream I'm slim! Ha ha.

Fuzzypeg can run, we saw him last night, he'd followed the trail of food (Thank you for the suggestions) on to the patio, where there was a dish of food, then mooched a bit, then he legged up to the top of the garden, really running, went across a flowerbed under the hedge and was gone! It's so entertaining to watch him.

Chrisxx

Why?

 July 8th, there were missile strikes on Kiev which hit a children's hospital, why?

The news reporting it, was awful, a woman looking for her daughter who was having dialyses, running through the wreckage shouted 'I don't know whose hand that is'  How are people living through this..what is it all about?

I can't imagine how it must feel to have a child in a hospital that's bombed, what anguish. It made me think of when my son was in hospital, I was there every afternoon as soon as school had finished, making sure he was comfortable, straightening his sheets, making sure his drip hadn't run out, getting anything he needed. 

And these poor children are in rubble, dust, bedlam! 41 killed, 120 injured.

Karl Marx said 'the root of everything is money' ...

 his own words......

“Money is the universal, self-constituted value of all things. Hence it has robbed the whole world... of its proper value. Money is the alienated essence of man's labour and life, and this alien essence dominates him as he worships it.”

Ukraine is a country rich in many things, so a target for Russia.

But the people are the ones who are suffering. 

We, Great Britain give aid,  so those who moan about money going out of our country to help foreign ones, thank the Lord its not us being bombed.

Chrisxx

A Senior Moment or a Biden?

 Yesterday I sat outside in the garden just 'wool gathering.' I needed the quiet, the sunshine and the flowers. So many blessings but sometimes I allow memories to cloud my thoughts. And then I gaze out at our garden and my mind is quietened. 

Often when Dh and I are chatting, if we forget the word we want, we used to say a 'Senior moment.' A 'saying' first said by lovely Terry Wogan, when you forget a word. I used to listen to his morning programme driving to work each morning. He was such a lovely man and I loved to listen his chat and got used to his sayings. And he introduced me to Alison Krauss and I loved her song, 'Now that I've found you.' My daughter played this so often, that my Grand daughter at age 3 could sing this all the way through!

And of course Eva Cassidy's 'Over the Rainbow,' But I digress, is forgetting a word, just a Senior moment? I hope so, although its said if you know you've forgotten a word, you haven't got Alzheimer's.

But having seen Biden's disastrous speech, when he seemed to forget the whole sentence and talked, 'salad.' That was awful. I hadn't heard of this saying so looked it up. 

'Word Salad,' ....When a person is unable to organize their thoughts into coherent sentences or phrases. And that was certainly true of Biden. It was agonizing to watch as his mouth moved, but nothing of any sense came out! If only he covered up his confusion by saying something like, 'too tired to think straight at the moment, give me a second, while I gather my thoughts'  it wouldn't have been so bad.

So now Dh and I say 'Senior moment' or is it a 'Biden'? When we can't think of the word.

I once forgot the word, 'sun dial.' looked it up on the internet and haven't forgotten it since. I searched for.... garden ornament that can tell the time by a shadow!!

Do you have those 'senior moments?'

Chrisxx

What happened next...

 .... the Dr I saw lovely, very understanding she has given me different tabs to see how that goes. She listened without saying anything. I had said I was desperate to have a full nights sleep instead of this having to get up every 2 hours for the loo. I explained I am so desperate, I'm happy to pay to have my bladder removed and a bag. She thought that was a bit extreme and there could be too many complications. But I came away feeling I had been listened to and a date booked for a further appointment. And I had a carrier bag of stuff, tabs, creams, and wash solution.. And she queried my age! I did say I may not look it, but I certainly feel it!

The young gardener girl did a super job, and well worth the money. We have 2 flower beds weed free and the soil looks nicely turned over. We've been out to buy some compost to top dress the one bed, which is like sand. So I'm very happy and will have her again.

The Chair.

Dh and I talked and talked about it.. I had been to other show rooms, I had 3 other catalogues and talked with sales people on the phone. This has been onward going since last summer. So I tried a cushion on the seat and  then all the controls in different positions to find the most comfortable position for me. The thought of going to yet more showrooms  etc is just toooo much.. So with careful consideration I decided I'd keep it, but have the controls on the other side. Ha ha ......£60 for an engineer to come and change it, even though I argued that it should have been changed over for me, as I had said in the show room I had a duff right arm.. So Dh has stretched the curly cable and we (probably me ) will sew a ring or something to stop the controls falling down where I can't reach it. And it's been fine, I'm using my old stool and its working ok for me, with my feet on it. It wasn't easy to decide this, but I do have to have a chair, although the new M&S arm chair is comfy too, my head isn't supported like The Chair!

But I needed to air my misgivings and talk it through, as we all do at times! What do you think?

Chrisxx

Fuzzypeg!

 We see the hedgehog in our garden every night now, usually around about 9 o'clock, so light enough to see him really well.  He arrives at one end of our garden from under the fence and then trundles across the patio, up one side of our garden, stops off at the bird feeder in the middle., where Dh has scattered meal worms there, just for him and then comes back down half way of the garden and climbs up a step to proceed up the side path, past all my pots of tomatoes and then to the very top end of the garden and off out through the bottom of the copper beech hedge!

He's a good size and can walk quite fast. I love the way he walks up the edge of the actual flower beds, mooching around. The other night we went outside to watch him by the bird feeder and you could hear picking at the grass.

(Stock pic)
So what do hedgehogs do all night? Evidently just walk around looking for food and looking for a mate. He does a lot of poos!

We are fascinated by him and have to watch him each night.

The Alison Uttley books were favourites of mine when I was little and I loved the stories of Fuzzypeg, whose mum was always mending the holes in his clothes from his prickles, so he looked tidy for school!

We feel so proud that we have a hedgehog, who loves our garden and comes each evening to trundle around it snuffling and mooching and eating! Who knows we might get a family here with babies. Wouldn't that be exciting.

Chrisxx

When in doubt both feet out!

 That was what my driving instructor said to me many many years ago.... brake!! Now I apply that to all life situations.

So...yesterday after another night awake worrying, I spent the morning on the phone.

First to a gardener, a young woman who we had agreed to come and help us in the garden to do some weeding.  I tried to look her up on FB but she wasn't there, no web page either,  so no portfolio to look at.. Was she qualified, was she experienced, was she ok? Anyway she assured me she knew what she was doing.. and as Dh said, what's the worst she could do? If she digs up a plant, we'll buy another one.

Then the Drs,, I had an appointment on 18th July with a Dr who's name I didn't recognize.. so phoned to ask who was she, how long had she been at the surgery. It seems she's been there a year, but her name was not on the list on the surgery web site. She is a Registrar getting in some practice to be a GP.. I stated I wasn't happy and would rather have a regular Dr. At 81 with a chronic urinary condition I want someone, who actually knows about me. So now have an appointment today with a Dr I've spoken to on the phone.

Then the most difficult phone call. I'm not that happy with this electric chair..the seat is too hard, if I lift up my legs with the lift up bit, my carves are resting flat on it, so could I get a DVT? And the controls are on the right side where my duff arm is, so proving difficult, but evidently I could have had them on the left, if an engineer came out to see it. I listened quietly while she went through her sales talk, but I held fast to, I would like my money back £1608.15.Yes I can, minus £60 collection charge.. 

After all that I was exhausted, I'd only had 5 hours sleep, and broken at that so not a proper sleep.

We wait and see what happens with the chair, but a weight has been lifted off my mind.

Chrisxx

What will happen after Friday?

 I see all the regular TV Friday shows are being dropped on Friday for continuous coverage of the post election news. If the polls and surveys are correct it looks like the Labour party will have something like 400 MPs. 

Chatting to my son we both aired views as to what we think might happen with the labour party in power. One thing we both thought was Council Tax will rise, a tax that everyone in a house owned or rented has to pay for local services. 

But what does it actually pay for? It is to support local services, rubbish collection, fire service, police, street lighting, libraries, public toilets, parks, street repairs and so on. But if the money is not spent wisely your town could end up bankrupt, like Birmingham last year.

Here where we live, street lights are left on all night, the new refurbished Eastern Prom had gardened areas, where trees were planted, however they weren't suitable for the salt air and died. They have all been replaced with the same trees at the cost of £1000 each!

New public toilets built by Cosy Corner, are often not working and the main town toilets don't open till 10 and close at 4! The block paved pedestrianised main street is a night mare, with many broken or slipped and stick up ready to trip someone, like many towns our pavements are broken and uneven. 

If our council tax is increased, I for one will be busy writing to complain at every opportunity.

And don't get me talking about our £8mill Medical centre.

Like a lot of places its not easy to get an appointment, and the number of Drs has dropped.. we've lived here 3 years and although I've had telephone appointments, as yet I've only spoken to the same Dr twice. I've recently learnt some GP practices are offering evening appointments and Saturday appointments. Ours doesn't, so by my reckoning it's closed for 104 days a year, that's nearly a third of the year.. what a waste of money.. No wonder our NHS is failing.

And Starmer says they will fix things, I'm not holding my breath, what about you?

Chrisxx

A very busy day, but exciting too!

 We've had such a busy day.. our new furniture was scheduled to arrive between 2:15 pm and 4:15 pm, so we were all vac-ed and clear for them. Our lounge looked really big, it is actually bigger than the average living room. 

But last evening I had a text message from the hedge cutting firm, who said he could come in the afternoon. I was not going to put him off we've had him booked for when he had time, for 2 weeks and it shouldn't affect the furniture delivery. 

At 10:20 am we had some one knocking on our front door, we both thought it was the furniture early, but no. It was the handrail for the new steps, which had been ordered 4 weeks ago! It was all happening together!

We had only just had a coffee, when a short while later the furniture did arrive and early and it looks amazing, Perfectly matches the silver green carpet and the teal colour we had the alcoves painted. We are now looking forward to our new curtains, which should be ready the week after next.

We do love them and are so pleased with our choice. And more importantly they are very comfortable. 

Then Dh said he would fix up the new hand rail! Well, that was a first for him. He usually takes a few days weeks or longer to get round to fix something.  So off he went and got all the gear to do it, yes we have the drill and bits and electric screwdriver all tidy in zippy up containers, looking very new.  He wasn't any time getting it done and I've been up and down them several times. It is perfect and I feel safe using the steps!

Then he fixed up another grab bar round the side of our bungalow pathway, where there is a steep step. All on the same afternoon!

And the hedge cutting firm came about 2 so that's all done..I went round with the weed spray for the edges of the drive and outside on the road, where new weeds had sprung up. I'm afraid my days of digging out those between the paver weeds are over, at 81 I need all the help I can get!

Today we plan to do the grass, I'll do the edges and a bit of transplanting more carrots into pots. We are trialing a new garden firm on Friday to do some weeding,  hope it proves to be ok. 

And we saw the hedgehog eating the meal worms Dh had scattered on the ground.

A very satisfying day and there is still the rest of the week to come.

Chrisxx

And then his brother came....

 In our bathroom we have a free standing towel rail which stands in front of the radiator. There's a small space between it and the side wall, about 4 inches,

It seems its the ideal space for cobwebs and when using the loo, it's possible to see a resident of that cobweb, it's one of the spindly legs' one, creepy!  

The other night I asked Dh to remove it, it seemed to be looking right at me, although you can't see any eyes. He's very kind and lifts it gently and pops it out of the window. So I can relax on the loo! I feather dusted the web in the morning, such a relief to know the bathroom was safe.

Then the next day, there in the corner was a web again and it looked like the same spider, was it his brother? Doesn't he look creepy??

So he had to go too. I'm not that frightened of them, they just make me feel that they are creepy and I can imagine them crawling on me, ugh!

How do you feel about them?

Chrisxx

Its a comfort.

 Every now and then I choose an easy read book, nothing too taxing but an author that I like, what I call a comfort read.  So I'm the same about TV programmes and Christine Walkden's TV show about her and her garden is quite lovely and very pleasant to watch.

A qualified horticulturist she travels all over the world giving talks and lectures. She's very down to earth, knowledgeable but also entertaining.

She gets on well with her neighbours especially Reg, who was 72 when this series were filmed (2005)

In the 6th episode, she is off to China to be a guide in some famous gardens for a Holiday Company and Reg and her other neighbour, Louise , have volunteered to look after her garden and her hundreds of house plants.

Before she leaves she gives them strict instructions on the watering of her precious garden. Personally I'd be really nervous to be left in charge of her garden, but Reg, just laughs and is his usual jovial self. And we see him with the hose spraying all round on the foliage, not as Christine had instructed, but he was smiling and happy doing it.

Dh and I once volunteered to water some friend's garden. It was a 15 min drive away and their instructions were for watering every other day. We used to go early-ish and have a cuppa and sandwich after the watering, as it was very pleasant in their garden, so no hardship.

When Christine arrived back there were a few plants a bit dry but on the whole all was ok.

To thank Reg and Louise and their other halves, she invited them for a Chinese Take Away and then after, she showed them some of her slides she had taken while away. There were a few yawns and Louise went to sleep!  There were a lot of slides!!

It's a lovely programme and she is easy to listen to. When talking about how she liked to eat her carrots, with new potatoes, courgettes and maybe some meat or not, she likes them with lashings of butter! She said, 'You don't get to be my size if you don't like butter!'

A very enjoyable programme, if like me you love gardening.

Chrisxx