16 May 2010
A miserable few weeks with some highlights which is the way of life.
Our new lady vicar seems to be ruffling a few feathers but I am enjoying the services again having missed several owing to an abscess under a tooth which resulted in antibiotics and an hour and half of root canal stuff which has not done the job so I have to return for more torture in a week or so. Teeth cause nothing but problems from the first - I am sure a better way could have been found for us to masticate.
For the last month or so I have felt my life slipping out of my control and it is only when I realise that I actually have no control over events that I am once more serene. I was feeling quite low one day last week and a new acquaintance said to me that I have a lovely aura. I was a bit bemused and merely asked if it was pink (if not it should be).
"Oh, no" she said "it is much more than that and all sparkly".
I have therefore a picture of my head with a sparkly halo round it - erm, no I don't think so. Still it was a really nice and unexpected thing to say and it cheered me immensely and I was then reminded that I am as happy as I choose to be on any one day which I tend to forget. So I will abandon all the black and wear lovely colours.
My friend-across-the-road now has a new grand-daughter after some real trauma and that gave me a wonderful excuse to go to John Lewis to buy pink things as all the baby clothes they already have are blue, beige and yellow as the first baby was a boy. As the little one is so tiny this it the only store that sells Tiny Baby clothes and even so one of the outfits is still too big. Ah well, she will grow into them I'm sure.
Where is all this warm weather I am told to expect?
A miserable few weeks with some highlights which is the way of life.
Our new lady vicar seems to be ruffling a few feathers but I am enjoying the services again having missed several owing to an abscess under a tooth which resulted in antibiotics and an hour and half of root canal stuff which has not done the job so I have to return for more torture in a week or so. Teeth cause nothing but problems from the first - I am sure a better way could have been found for us to masticate.
For the last month or so I have felt my life slipping out of my control and it is only when I realise that I actually have no control over events that I am once more serene. I was feeling quite low one day last week and a new acquaintance said to me that I have a lovely aura. I was a bit bemused and merely asked if it was pink (if not it should be).
"Oh, no" she said "it is much more than that and all sparkly".
I have therefore a picture of my head with a sparkly halo round it - erm, no I don't think so. Still it was a really nice and unexpected thing to say and it cheered me immensely and I was then reminded that I am as happy as I choose to be on any one day which I tend to forget. So I will abandon all the black and wear lovely colours.
My friend-across-the-road now has a new grand-daughter after some real trauma and that gave me a wonderful excuse to go to John Lewis to buy pink things as all the baby clothes they already have are blue, beige and yellow as the first baby was a boy. As the little one is so tiny this it the only store that sells Tiny Baby clothes and even so one of the outfits is still too big. Ah well, she will grow into them I'm sure.
Where is all this warm weather I am told to expect?
19 April 2010
No broadband connection for nearly 24 hours and BT running British Gas a close second in poor customer service. How is it that it is always the customer who is in the wrong? We were out for lunch yesterday and when we returned there was no internet connection although I had been using the computer up until around 12 noon before we left. So BT decide that it must be our equipment that is at fault although nothing had occurred between us going out and coming back in that could possibly have caused mayhem. None the less, we retired hurt at 10.30pm with the promise that "the line would be tested". My mobile was also used for communication although the cable which feeds broadband is the phone on which I had rung them - ergo it must be working OK?? No??
8am and another very nice, foreign lady, speaking very fast, assured us that things would be looked at. I was not happy and told her so and also that I had done everything asked of us, including replacing the router, splitters and filters (what a good job we had spares!) all to no avail.
"Oh", she said "there must be a fault on the line" Doh!
Curiously enough, around 11 am everything suddenly shot into life and I am connected again. At 2 pm this lovely lady rang again to arrange an engineer's visit and on being told that I had miraculously regained internet access she said "Oh, that's marvellous".
Should she not have known that all was well?
No broadband connection for nearly 24 hours and BT running British Gas a close second in poor customer service. How is it that it is always the customer who is in the wrong? We were out for lunch yesterday and when we returned there was no internet connection although I had been using the computer up until around 12 noon before we left. So BT decide that it must be our equipment that is at fault although nothing had occurred between us going out and coming back in that could possibly have caused mayhem. None the less, we retired hurt at 10.30pm with the promise that "the line would be tested". My mobile was also used for communication although the cable which feeds broadband is the phone on which I had rung them - ergo it must be working OK?? No??
8am and another very nice, foreign lady, speaking very fast, assured us that things would be looked at. I was not happy and told her so and also that I had done everything asked of us, including replacing the router, splitters and filters (what a good job we had spares!) all to no avail.
"Oh", she said "there must be a fault on the line" Doh!
Curiously enough, around 11 am everything suddenly shot into life and I am connected again. At 2 pm this lovely lady rang again to arrange an engineer's visit and on being told that I had miraculously regained internet access she said "Oh, that's marvellous".
Should she not have known that all was well?
10 March 2010
The sky was gun-metal grey, the foothills deep purple and Kinder Scout was there in all it's glory arrayed by the sun like a princess in gold and pink brocade with rivers of gleaming snow. Absolutely glorious. I may miss the wonderful sunsets of my Liverpool home-town but there are such beautiful compensations.
The sky was gun-metal grey, the foothills deep purple and Kinder Scout was there in all it's glory arrayed by the sun like a princess in gold and pink brocade with rivers of gleaming snow. Absolutely glorious. I may miss the wonderful sunsets of my Liverpool home-town but there are such beautiful compensations.
25 February 2010
Well, the small irritations of life continue. We are having a porch installed and the company kindly rang up to say that the preliminary work would be done on Friday with completion hopefully next Wednesday. Within half an hour the builder turned up to announce that he would be here today. Uhh?
The good thing is that I am here today and they are starting the job, also they are builders I know who always do a good job so that is OK. The bad thing is that I am here because OH's car has gone into be serviced and it has a couple of unidentifiable faults which would mean it would fail it's MOT (it is only four years old) so I he has taken my car to work and I am waiting for the garage to tell me that all is well. I am sure that this is the problem with computer-controlled engine management systems - I remember being told that a Ka which I had which was quite old was malfunctioning due to the computer chip in the engine and I was incredulous that such an old car would have such a thing! This however, is progress and a far cry from the time that I used to have to take out the spark plugs from my Mini and put them under the grill in order to start the thing on damp mornings.
Then we ordered a shoe cabinet which, when it arrived was a much darker colour than I thought it was going to be. It is very heavy as it is solid wood and when OH had put it together it turned out to hold not as many shoes as promised so I compared it to the picture in the brochure. It was different with a different product code. So I hung on for about ten minutes to an 0871 number and got a really snotty lady who insisted that I had put in the wrong code on the on-line order! I was patient and in the end she had to admit that they had substituted the one I had ordered with this without letting me know and apologised. What was more, she offered a 20% discount to which I gracefully agreed. And just as I was typing this the builders managed to fuse the electricity.
Oh, and OH has managed to get superglue all over our black kitchen worktop. GRR!
Well, the small irritations of life continue. We are having a porch installed and the company kindly rang up to say that the preliminary work would be done on Friday with completion hopefully next Wednesday. Within half an hour the builder turned up to announce that he would be here today. Uhh?
The good thing is that I am here today and they are starting the job, also they are builders I know who always do a good job so that is OK. The bad thing is that I am here because OH's car has gone into be serviced and it has a couple of unidentifiable faults which would mean it would fail it's MOT (it is only four years old) so I he has taken my car to work and I am waiting for the garage to tell me that all is well. I am sure that this is the problem with computer-controlled engine management systems - I remember being told that a Ka which I had which was quite old was malfunctioning due to the computer chip in the engine and I was incredulous that such an old car would have such a thing! This however, is progress and a far cry from the time that I used to have to take out the spark plugs from my Mini and put them under the grill in order to start the thing on damp mornings.
Then we ordered a shoe cabinet which, when it arrived was a much darker colour than I thought it was going to be. It is very heavy as it is solid wood and when OH had put it together it turned out to hold not as many shoes as promised so I compared it to the picture in the brochure. It was different with a different product code. So I hung on for about ten minutes to an 0871 number and got a really snotty lady who insisted that I had put in the wrong code on the on-line order! I was patient and in the end she had to admit that they had substituted the one I had ordered with this without letting me know and apologised. What was more, she offered a 20% discount to which I gracefully agreed. And just as I was typing this the builders managed to fuse the electricity.
Oh, and OH has managed to get superglue all over our black kitchen worktop. GRR!
21 February 2010
I could not believe when I woke up at 6am that the outdoors was awash with snow and at 11 am it is snowing again. I am getting really fed up with this as we now have at least 3 inches of the stuff and haven't managed to do any shopping yet! That is because yesterday we spent with R and went to Hanley Museum to see the Staffordshire Hoard which involved queuing for about and hour and a half and which was very hot and tiring.
The museum had been host to Prince Charles the day before so I am glad I missed that as it would have meant even bigger queues. It was well worth the wait although I was well-provided for as the museum had provided little collapsible chairs for folk who could not stand for long but R and OH were really tired and a bit fed up. The only consolation was that the queue was the shortest it had been during the week that the exhibition had been open! It was incredible to look at the pieces of gold set with garnets and the intricate filigree work and set us to wondering all the whys and wherefores of the find, particularly the Christian crosses which were amongst the hoard.
Several people wanted to know why it was all still caked in mud with some clean bits and this is apparently owing to the fact that the hoard is the property of the Staffordshire Coroner until someone makes an offer for it. This was also why no photography is allowed - or a least that is what we were told. All in all we were too tired to do more than a quick bit of shopping so I am just hoping the snow goes quickly.
There was also a celebration of the Chinese New Year complete with stalls and firecrackers which were a bit alarming to drivers who were not aware of what was happening (me in other words)
I could not believe when I woke up at 6am that the outdoors was awash with snow and at 11 am it is snowing again. I am getting really fed up with this as we now have at least 3 inches of the stuff and haven't managed to do any shopping yet! That is because yesterday we spent with R and went to Hanley Museum to see the Staffordshire Hoard which involved queuing for about and hour and a half and which was very hot and tiring.
The museum had been host to Prince Charles the day before so I am glad I missed that as it would have meant even bigger queues. It was well worth the wait although I was well-provided for as the museum had provided little collapsible chairs for folk who could not stand for long but R and OH were really tired and a bit fed up. The only consolation was that the queue was the shortest it had been during the week that the exhibition had been open! It was incredible to look at the pieces of gold set with garnets and the intricate filigree work and set us to wondering all the whys and wherefores of the find, particularly the Christian crosses which were amongst the hoard.
Several people wanted to know why it was all still caked in mud with some clean bits and this is apparently owing to the fact that the hoard is the property of the Staffordshire Coroner until someone makes an offer for it. This was also why no photography is allowed - or a least that is what we were told. All in all we were too tired to do more than a quick bit of shopping so I am just hoping the snow goes quickly.
There was also a celebration of the Chinese New Year complete with stalls and firecrackers which were a bit alarming to drivers who were not aware of what was happening (me in other words)
11 February 2010
Today is a beautiful day, light scattering of snow, brilliant sunshine, blue sky, temperature minus one and overnight minus 6 - and guest what? Our boiler did not come on this morning so I am typing wearing fingerless gloves and as many layers as I can move round in! It is just the culmination of a frustrating couple of weeks when small things have gone wrong but for me, to have no heating is a major disaster. The lady on the phone said it could be any time between 9 and 6 today but I shall have retired to bed with a hot water bottle long before that I think!
I had a singing lesson booked for this afternoon and I am really sorry to miss it although the boiler is now fixed - something to do with a pressure switch - but it was at least 4pm before the house was warm enough for me to have a shower so it is going to be a couple of weeks until my lovely teacher can fit me in again.
Today is a beautiful day, light scattering of snow, brilliant sunshine, blue sky, temperature minus one and overnight minus 6 - and guest what? Our boiler did not come on this morning so I am typing wearing fingerless gloves and as many layers as I can move round in! It is just the culmination of a frustrating couple of weeks when small things have gone wrong but for me, to have no heating is a major disaster. The lady on the phone said it could be any time between 9 and 6 today but I shall have retired to bed with a hot water bottle long before that I think!
I had a singing lesson booked for this afternoon and I am really sorry to miss it although the boiler is now fixed - something to do with a pressure switch - but it was at least 4pm before the house was warm enough for me to have a shower so it is going to be a couple of weeks until my lovely teacher can fit me in again.
4 February 2010
A new decade which seems to be a focal point for the media and certainly the snow has concentrated my mind wonderfully. I dislike snow except on postcards and when it falls in the quantities it did and prevents me getting out and about then I hate it even more. Fortunately, OH and I had done a Big Shop on the Saturday before Christmas so we were all stocked up for food but I like to do stockings for all members of the family and sadly, the quirky stuff I like to include was missing this year. No complaints were received but there was no silliness which I thought was a pity. Also a pity was that I missed all the wonderful Christmas services at church and also my choral society Christmas concert so I sang not a single descant except along with the television on Christmas Day which was from Chester Cathedral.
Nonetheless, Christmas was lovely with visits from family and a trip to see R which was fitted in between snow - I could not believe it when it started again in the New Year. After five weeks I managed to get myself to church and I felt liberated!
The long-awaited insoles arrived in mid-January and they have been an enormous success with the only niggle being that I have only one pair so have constantly to swap them around from shoes to shoes which makes getting ready to go out fairly tedious. I have to return at the beginning of March for another assessment after which I will be able to buy more than one pair which will be marvellous.
We have two printers and neither of them will work as they are both saying they are out of ink (not true incidentally) one colour and one black but sadly, they are two different makes so that is annoying. This means that I cannot print out the minutes of the various meetings I am Secretary for, I cannot compare attachments to emails without opening two windows and anyway I would rather have paper, I cannot write vital letters, I cannot get the rotten bank to explain why their letters regarding important matters are not arriving, why has the zip broken on my almost new boots, why did the windscreen washer thingy on my car pack up et al . . .
A new decade which seems to be a focal point for the media and certainly the snow has concentrated my mind wonderfully. I dislike snow except on postcards and when it falls in the quantities it did and prevents me getting out and about then I hate it even more. Fortunately, OH and I had done a Big Shop on the Saturday before Christmas so we were all stocked up for food but I like to do stockings for all members of the family and sadly, the quirky stuff I like to include was missing this year. No complaints were received but there was no silliness which I thought was a pity. Also a pity was that I missed all the wonderful Christmas services at church and also my choral society Christmas concert so I sang not a single descant except along with the television on Christmas Day which was from Chester Cathedral.
Nonetheless, Christmas was lovely with visits from family and a trip to see R which was fitted in between snow - I could not believe it when it started again in the New Year. After five weeks I managed to get myself to church and I felt liberated!
The long-awaited insoles arrived in mid-January and they have been an enormous success with the only niggle being that I have only one pair so have constantly to swap them around from shoes to shoes which makes getting ready to go out fairly tedious. I have to return at the beginning of March for another assessment after which I will be able to buy more than one pair which will be marvellous.
We have two printers and neither of them will work as they are both saying they are out of ink (not true incidentally) one colour and one black but sadly, they are two different makes so that is annoying. This means that I cannot print out the minutes of the various meetings I am Secretary for, I cannot compare attachments to emails without opening two windows and anyway I would rather have paper, I cannot write vital letters, I cannot get the rotten bank to explain why their letters regarding important matters are not arriving, why has the zip broken on my almost new boots, why did the windscreen washer thingy on my car pack up et al . . .
4 September 2010
Well, here I am with a brand new computer which is causing me more than a few headaches. Apart from transferring all the stuff from the old one and retrieving all my emails there is a marked reluctance on the part of the new beast to download updates from Windows which is a bit of a nuisance. It also is quite good at losing my printer but I think I have got round that by just ignoring the warning sign on the printer icon and proceeding with printing and so far it does seem to be working.
A couple of weeks ago OH and I went to see Big Sis and her husband and we trotted off to Liverpool to look at the "Crown Princess" which is the biggest liner to visit Liverpool so far and got talking (!) to some people who were in the crowd of a couple of hundred or so who were also just watching. It transpired that it was a girl I was at school with some 50 years ago in my Junior days who remembered that I was good at dancing. Just what are the chances of that happening.
OH was a bit surprised that so many folk had turned up just to look at ships but this is something that I have done since being a very small child - if you live where big liners come into port then you want to see them. The Crown Princess is enormous at apparently 116,000 tonnes and I was amazed at it but it is not the biggest - that was coming into port on the following Monday and is called the "World" and apparently people live on it full time which I am certain I would not care for. It was worth the experience of being wheeled, or should I say bounced, over cobbles (which look very nice) left me feeling as though every bone and muscle in my body had had a workout. Not nice.
I have been finishing up some projects in the handicraft line and am delighted to say that a very difficult cross-stitch which was foisted on me is now completely finished and with the framers for the finishing touches. It was not something which I would have undertaken voluntarily but my friend's daughter bought it thinking she would complete it in no time, took one look at it and decided that she would ask her mum to ask me to take it on. It was a lot of work but it will be ready in time for Ben's second birthday in October. Of course, I could not overlook the fact that Ben now has a baby sister so I have done a smaller, Pooh Bear for her which I enjoyed.
Well, here I am with a brand new computer which is causing me more than a few headaches. Apart from transferring all the stuff from the old one and retrieving all my emails there is a marked reluctance on the part of the new beast to download updates from Windows which is a bit of a nuisance. It also is quite good at losing my printer but I think I have got round that by just ignoring the warning sign on the printer icon and proceeding with printing and so far it does seem to be working.
A couple of weeks ago OH and I went to see Big Sis and her husband and we trotted off to Liverpool to look at the "Crown Princess" which is the biggest liner to visit Liverpool so far and got talking (!) to some people who were in the crowd of a couple of hundred or so who were also just watching. It transpired that it was a girl I was at school with some 50 years ago in my Junior days who remembered that I was good at dancing. Just what are the chances of that happening.
OH was a bit surprised that so many folk had turned up just to look at ships but this is something that I have done since being a very small child - if you live where big liners come into port then you want to see them. The Crown Princess is enormous at apparently 116,000 tonnes and I was amazed at it but it is not the biggest - that was coming into port on the following Monday and is called the "World" and apparently people live on it full time which I am certain I would not care for. It was worth the experience of being wheeled, or should I say bounced, over cobbles (which look very nice) left me feeling as though every bone and muscle in my body had had a workout. Not nice.
I have been finishing up some projects in the handicraft line and am delighted to say that a very difficult cross-stitch which was foisted on me is now completely finished and with the framers for the finishing touches. It was not something which I would have undertaken voluntarily but my friend's daughter bought it thinking she would complete it in no time, took one look at it and decided that she would ask her mum to ask me to take it on. It was a lot of work but it will be ready in time for Ben's second birthday in October. Of course, I could not overlook the fact that Ben now has a baby sister so I have done a smaller, Pooh Bear for her which I enjoyed.
24 July 2010
I had a small fraud on my credit card which the bank eventually agreed was part of a much larger fraud. Naturally, they insisted that I have a new card which would be couriered to me. I missed the courier by five minutes on Wednesday afternoon and then missed the deadline for arranging a next-day visit by ten.
When he appeared on Friday afternoon (having got a bit impatient because I did not answer the door within ten seconds) we had a chat about how I had just missed him and that he did not want to leave the letter in the porch as the door was ajar. I asked him why he did not post the letter through the actual front door which was, of course, locked. He said he had not noticed the letter box. Before he would let me have my letter he asked for identification. I asked him what he would have done if I was once more not available and the door was locked.
"Oh, I would just post it through the letter-box"
"So why do you need identification?"
"It's the rules"
I stomped off grumpily upstairs to get my wallet and showed him a card which he glanced at and then handed it back to me. I almost said that I would close and lock the doors so that he could post the card through but did not. Ironic?
I had a small fraud on my credit card which the bank eventually agreed was part of a much larger fraud. Naturally, they insisted that I have a new card which would be couriered to me. I missed the courier by five minutes on Wednesday afternoon and then missed the deadline for arranging a next-day visit by ten.
When he appeared on Friday afternoon (having got a bit impatient because I did not answer the door within ten seconds) we had a chat about how I had just missed him and that he did not want to leave the letter in the porch as the door was ajar. I asked him why he did not post the letter through the actual front door which was, of course, locked. He said he had not noticed the letter box. Before he would let me have my letter he asked for identification. I asked him what he would have done if I was once more not available and the door was locked.
"Oh, I would just post it through the letter-box"
"So why do you need identification?"
"It's the rules"
I stomped off grumpily upstairs to get my wallet and showed him a card which he glanced at and then handed it back to me. I almost said that I would close and lock the doors so that he could post the card through but did not. Ironic?
29 June 2010
Well, here we are back home after a lovely break in Somerset seeing Wells Cathedral, Axbridge, the dubious delights of Burnham-on-Sea in glorious weather and I am now faced with a pile of ironing which would equal England's mountain to climb to field an effective football team! I have seen pub teams play better.
Robinson was well looked after by my lovely neighbour and has repaid us handsomely by peeing in OH's (not unpacked) holdall over two silk shirts!
He used to do this apparently when he was very much younger and staying in a strange environment (with OH's ex actually!) but has never done so since we moved here in early 2001. I can only think he is displaying his displeasure at being left. Luckily it all seemed to go into the holdall which, although smelly, is easy to clean and of course the clothes can be washed. If it had gone on the sofa or carpet I would have had to get started with the bi-carb but thankfully that is not needed. I just hope this not the beginning of incontinence problems owing to his longevity.
Since we came home he has been sweetness and light and very pleased to see us so I hope that will be a one-off.
Before we went off to Brent Knoll, we visited Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire, which is a county dear to my heart as I was born there. The weather was wonderful and the various guides made the Hall come alive. In the long-distant past I once played Lady Jane Grey in some production or other actually at the Hall and was surprised to learn that I may well have been treading in the footsteps
of the Bard who apparently put on plays there. Oh, and the food was good too!
Well, here we are back home after a lovely break in Somerset seeing Wells Cathedral, Axbridge, the dubious delights of Burnham-on-Sea in glorious weather and I am now faced with a pile of ironing which would equal England's mountain to climb to field an effective football team! I have seen pub teams play better.
Robinson was well looked after by my lovely neighbour and has repaid us handsomely by peeing in OH's (not unpacked) holdall over two silk shirts!
He used to do this apparently when he was very much younger and staying in a strange environment (with OH's ex actually!) but has never done so since we moved here in early 2001. I can only think he is displaying his displeasure at being left. Luckily it all seemed to go into the holdall which, although smelly, is easy to clean and of course the clothes can be washed. If it had gone on the sofa or carpet I would have had to get started with the bi-carb but thankfully that is not needed. I just hope this not the beginning of incontinence problems owing to his longevity.
Since we came home he has been sweetness and light and very pleased to see us so I hope that will be a one-off.
Before we went off to Brent Knoll, we visited Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire, which is a county dear to my heart as I was born there. The weather was wonderful and the various guides made the Hall come alive. In the long-distant past I once played Lady Jane Grey in some production or other actually at the Hall and was surprised to learn that I may well have been treading in the footsteps
of the Bard who apparently put on plays there. Oh, and the food was good too!
Oh and why has Robinson decided that my hessian long-life bag is just the place he wants to be so that I cannot clear up? It is decorated with ladybirds which he has attempted to catch and is just the place to lie in the hall which I find puzzling. There are many of these bags in the house which are left in the hall awaiting transfer to the car where they normally live and it is just this particular bag which has apparently an enormous attraction for a very silly cat.
3 December 2010
Well the snow has not been anything like as bad as last winter but nonetheless is has kept me indoors since Monday evening when I managed to get to and from choir practice although the roads were like skating rinks.
OH was in Chicago the week following my birthday and I succumbed to something called bronchiolitis which is apparently an airborne virus which is common amongst babies but of course I had to catch it. My lovely GP prescribed what he calls his Domestos dose of antibiotics (large amounts for seven days) so I was glad in a way that I was on my own as I did not do a great deal except stay in and keep warm. I did manage a day to see Big Sis but I drove there and we did not go far so that was OK.
Robinson was really funny - depressed is the only way to describe it. He was very good and ate everything I put in front of him but he was really not happy. He only smiled when OH came home!
I have been putting out food for the birds although there are plenty of berries in the garden and it has been a challenge to keep the ground tray snow-free. The blackbird, robin and dunnock had managed to get to some of the food on the ground (plenty more on the bird table but they are a bit scared of being up there) and I had cleared away some of the snow and there was my little wood mouse! He is beautiful and was hiding from the blackbird who was being aggressive to him. He was scuttling in and around the (sadly frozen) bird table, burrowing into the snow and when the blackbird flew away he came darting out to the food with snow on his ears and nose. He looked really comical but it made my day.
Well the snow has not been anything like as bad as last winter but nonetheless is has kept me indoors since Monday evening when I managed to get to and from choir practice although the roads were like skating rinks.
OH was in Chicago the week following my birthday and I succumbed to something called bronchiolitis which is apparently an airborne virus which is common amongst babies but of course I had to catch it. My lovely GP prescribed what he calls his Domestos dose of antibiotics (large amounts for seven days) so I was glad in a way that I was on my own as I did not do a great deal except stay in and keep warm. I did manage a day to see Big Sis but I drove there and we did not go far so that was OK.
Robinson was really funny - depressed is the only way to describe it. He was very good and ate everything I put in front of him but he was really not happy. He only smiled when OH came home!
I have been putting out food for the birds although there are plenty of berries in the garden and it has been a challenge to keep the ground tray snow-free. The blackbird, robin and dunnock had managed to get to some of the food on the ground (plenty more on the bird table but they are a bit scared of being up there) and I had cleared away some of the snow and there was my little wood mouse! He is beautiful and was hiding from the blackbird who was being aggressive to him. He was scuttling in and around the (sadly frozen) bird table, burrowing into the snow and when the blackbird flew away he came darting out to the food with snow on his ears and nose. He looked really comical but it made my day.
11 March 2010
Another glorious morning and I have just seen a very small and special visitor!
I put out a metal plate for the ground-feeding birds last Autumn which has been well-used by the blackbirds, robins and dunnocks which worked well until someone stood on it and broke it. It has been frozen to the gravel for some time now so I am waiting for better weather to go and tidy up but in the meantime the birds still use it. Whilst having my morning tea I looked out and thought "that's a very odd-shaped bird" as I could see a little brown head bobbing up and down in the hollow formed by the broken bit of plate. Then the little creature stood on it's hind legs and I saw the big ears and eyes of a wood mouse. I was so thrilled. When I consider that there must be twenty cats in a radius of about a hundred yards I could not believe what I was seeing. I have never seen a wood mouse in reality before, only in books and it has made my day.
Another glorious morning and I have just seen a very small and special visitor!
I put out a metal plate for the ground-feeding birds last Autumn which has been well-used by the blackbirds, robins and dunnocks which worked well until someone stood on it and broke it. It has been frozen to the gravel for some time now so I am waiting for better weather to go and tidy up but in the meantime the birds still use it. Whilst having my morning tea I looked out and thought "that's a very odd-shaped bird" as I could see a little brown head bobbing up and down in the hollow formed by the broken bit of plate. Then the little creature stood on it's hind legs and I saw the big ears and eyes of a wood mouse. I was so thrilled. When I consider that there must be twenty cats in a radius of about a hundred yards I could not believe what I was seeing. I have never seen a wood mouse in reality before, only in books and it has made my day.