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General => The Stay Safe Board => Topic started by: louisa maud on Monday 07 July 25 10:03 BST (UK)
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Morning folks, have just put a message on last week's diary but thought I would open up this week's before ladt weeks is locked.
Hope you all had a nice weekend, much cooler, thank goodness
LM
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Tynwald Day here - Manx National day and a public holiday :D
Tried our new Wetherspoons last week. 9 ciders available! I was very happy :D
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Hope you are enjoying at least some of the ciders available, KGarrad, happy Manx Day. Yorkshire Day doesn't happen until August. I remember the first Yorkshire Day - I was greeted by a chap handing out white roses on Leeds station as I arrived!
No one does that for me now!
TY
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KGarrad, watching BBC news coverage of the Manx celebrations yesterday, can you tell me what on earth were the rather feeble sprays of foliage that so many seemed to have embellishing their lapels?
Really couldn't decide what plant they were!
TY
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KGarrad, watching BBC news coverage of the Manx celebrations yesterday, can you tell me what on earth were the rather feeble sprays of foliage that so many seemed to have embellishing their lapels?
Really couldn't decide what plant they were!
TY
They are wearing Cushag - the national flower.
Otherwise known as Common Ragwort!
ADDED:
The ragwort, under its Manx name Cushag, is the national flower of the Isle of Man According to one story King Orry chose as his emblem the cushag flower, as its twelve petals represent one of the isles of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles: the Isle of Man, Arran, Bute, Islay, Jura, Mull, Iona, Eigg, Rum, Skye, Raasay, and the Outer Hebrides. The ragwort, in fact, usually has thirteen petals.
When I played hockey, I played for a team called Cushags! :D
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Sadly Ragwort is lethal for horses, consequently horse owners pull it up .
However it is the only food of the caterpillar of a lovely butterfly ,the black one with magenta spots and underwings .I think it is really a moth given the Vulcan shaped wings. Cinnabar moth?
We saw some plants with lots of the caterpillars on them ,next day the plants were almost all eaten so guess what ,the caterpillars became cannibals!
What a shame it has to be pulled up.
Viktoria.
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Thanks for the identification, KGarrod. I spent ages staring at the rather feeble looking sprays, trying to work it out!
As usual, Viktoria, you come up with interesting and unexpected information. Thank you, also.
TY
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Ragwort is also poisonous to cattle. My farming cousin checks his fields before cutting grass for hay or silage. I always leave ragwort until the end of June, and look for the caterpillars which have tiger stripes, black and gold. The remaining plants can be eased out with a garden fork, then I keep watch on the tiger plants and remove the flowers if they look like going to seed before the caterpillars vanish. Only one plant with caterpillars this year.
You are correct about the cinnabar moth, Viktoria. Cinnabar is mercury sulphide, an important ore which is said to be cochineal-red, the colour of the spots on the moth.
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I have just identified asmallish white butterfly ,with black wing tips and a black spot on each big wing —- Ooooo! I thought a Cabbage white but my butterfly book showed it was a Small White ,it was gathering nectar from the tiny individual Verbena florettes,it or some like it have been coming all week .
Not seen any other butterflies at all yet this year.
A glorious afternoon, I shan’t feel like our usual fish and chips this teatime .
Prescriptions all correct so that is a relief ,almost always a problem or two!
Look after yourselves folks and thsnks for the family news etc.
Viktoria.
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It has been a beautiful day here, I haven't been outside but it's been quite comfortable indoors. I keep the curtains and blinds closed in the front which faces east, with everything open at back, then changed them over when the sun moves round about lunchtime, it stops the house getting too hot.
Viktoria, a peacock butterfly flew in this morning and spent about an hour trying to find its way out again. I tried to get it to go the way it came in but I can't move quickly enough to have any effect. In the end it got stuck behind the closed curtains in the front room so I had to open them all up and open the windows. Still the silly thing flew backwards and forwards trying to get out through the centre pane which is fixed ignoring the big windows I had opened on each side. In the end I closed the curtains again and left it, when I looked sometime later it had gone.
Booked my Sainsbury’s delivery, as it's due to get hotter so I have ordered plenty of salad and fruit.
After complaining about the television programmes last week, I couldn't believe it on Sunday, when looking for something to watch in the evening they had Andy Pandy starting at eight o'clock in the evening. Were they expecting all the very young children to be up at that time, or did they think it was what us oldies wanted to watch. ??? ::) ;D ;D
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Jebber, you made me laugh about Andy Pandy.
When my twin brother and was young we often visited an aunt in Mill Hill NW London, she had a huge TV in a cupboard as I remember and we would watch the programme on their, by the time my parents could afford a TV I was about 15, to old for Andy Pandy and Luby Loo
The car registered 35 degrees today but there was a breeze from time to time
LM.
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Yes, a lovely day here too, hot but not really uncomfortable .
Just had fish and chips,very tasty but not really for such hot weather but son likes them.
Tried to explain to our Health Centre Pharmacist , a telephone appointment - that I was asking for advice re my fragile breaking hair and how much was in the upstairs vac,downstairs vac and little quick whizz around carpet sweeper!
He was useless and told me to go to the Chemists ‘ “ Ask the Pharmacist “——
well I thought, I am speaking to a Pharmacist now!
Honestly!
I am fed up with Wimbledon! So many programmes replaced for it.
Hope no one is adversely affected by the high temperatures .
Started to read a book I have had for years ,a present from s friend of my parents ,a very kind generous person .In 1948.
I treasure it ,a story of children and how they played and amused themselves
with very few toys ,but they did live in the countryside, just as I had done .
Told as if written by one of the children .
It is called -
“Dew on three grass” by Eiluned Lewis. Mine is a Penguin edition .
I have read it so many times it is falling to bits.
It takes me back so many years - well 77.
Don’t suppose it is still available so many years after .I will look online.
Well how the weeks do fly by!
Talking of flying - a Peacock butterfly - so sad that they are so rare ,well any butterflies these days .
I had a bluebottle that even though everything was open the stupid thing just banged into the windows !
Cheerio folks ,thanks for the news .
Viktoria.
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I’m glad I amused you LM. You would have been even more amused if you could have seen my 6fr husband dressed up Andy Pandy. In our forties we were invited to a New Years Eve fancy dress party, someone loaned him Andy Pandy and Looby Loo costumes, at 5ft 10 ins I was far too tall to get into the Looby Loo costume, so my best friend at 5ft went as Looby Loo. I went as a punk rocker all coloured hair and safety pins and chains. We looked right idiots doing the conga up the High Street at midnight.
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I oince made an "Andy Pandy" costume for my OH, complete with hat, for a fundraising Fancy Dress Day - all doing our normal jobs, but in silly outfits. 10.00 the night before I realised I'd not done one for myself, so I set about cannibalising a blue and white striped evening dress, and used that and the fabric left over from A-P to dress myself as Mrs Andy Pandy, nee Looby Loo!
Those two costumes went the rounds of loads of people over the next 15 years! Wonder where they are now?
TY
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Oh boy it is a hot one today , been to the audiology department at the hospital, yesterday and today I can't hear a thing, sent me to see if I can have my ears washed out, used to be syringing, squeezes me in for Thursday next, feel as if I am locked into a box oh well, excuse not to listen to anyone but I have a funeral to go to plus I have helped to do a fund raiser at the church tomorrow, I feel sympathetic to anyonee who has hearing problems.
Keep cool
LM
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Weather pretty warm here, too! 27c forecast for tomorrow.
IoM record is 28.9c.
I have to be out tomorrow.
Handyman and plumber coming to replace my loo, and floorboards.
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A glorious morning here ,up early to do housework before it gets too hot .
The nice young man who did all the gardens for me is coming to change a few things so it will be much easier for me to manoeuvre the scooter in and out.
I mentioned my concern for my three little goldfish ,they need somewhere better shaded as whatever I do the water goes green very quickly - in a few days even after a thorough clean out and algae killing substances ,and I wanted to re- home them.
His Dad has a pond and he is coming at lunchtime to see them and hopefully to adopt them .
Then my herb raised bed can go where the raised pond is and the herb bed removed so the way is clear without complicated manoeuvres to get the scooter in its shed.
Phew.
Just seen a butterfly on my curtains ,trying to get out of the window, I did not recognise it so got the butterfly book and seemingly it was one that is not native,an American Buckeye.
One big spot on each forewing with a very small blue centre then a brown circle round it, then a yellow circle, two orange stripes and white dashes .
Then two smaller spots on each hind wing ,those blue centre with yellow edges. The main part of the wings dark brown.
With wings closed against the light the butterfly looked black.
It flew out when I just moved the curtain a little as the door was open,
Son off to head office today but is not up yet, will perhaps wait until evening when it is cooler.If so it will be bacon and eggs for tea as my Tesco order is not due until tomorrow!
Watered pots and containers yesterday evening but topped them up early this morning ,- a mystery- I grew poppies from seed,the big
oriental ones - But they have come up mauve with a deep purple inner edge to the centre of the petals,not really attractive ,bet they are opium poppies !
No white butterflies as yet today , but very small bee like insects gathering nectar from the poppies ,——- now then, just been to get the post and two white butterflies have flown in to the Verbena plants.
Time for another cuppa ,coffee this time .
Cheerio and hope the extreme heat does not affect anyone adversely .
Viktoria.
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A real scorcher yesterday and I had to do a bit of shopping in town, so dragged myself around, but got a lift back home, thank goodness. I spent the rest of the day indoors watching tennis (sorry, Viktoria :-[) and reading. No housework done because of the heat, but today I have washed the two cellular blankets from our bed. Yes, we are old-fashioned enough to prefer the flexibility of sheets and layers of blankets to the suffocation of duvets! These blankets are very easy to wash and dry very quickly, so they, or maybe only one, will be back on the bed tonight.
Today is supposed to be the hottest day in our area, but I am singing tonight in a concert. I hope we can all stand the heat in the village hall. My husband is manning a stall in a park for the local festival all weekend, but luckily he has a gazebo for shade and is positioned under some trees. We can only be thankful that it isn't wet and windy, I suppose.
Keep cool, everyone and drink lots of water. I drank gallons yesterday! Don't forget the sunscreen and the hat.
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Gillg, my husband prefers sheets and blankets also, I have just washed my blankets and and bedspread a throw, I hate it, so often I get out of bed in the night and catch my feet in it, years ago I made my own fitted bedspread but then we changed to a king size so it had to go, can't really see a nice fitted one I like, so I am stuck with trying to remember not to trip over the throw.
Viktoria, I really don't know how you manage to pack so much into a day.
I rescued a butterfly on my windows behind the net, took some catching I must say.
Church has new fund raising committee, mentioned before but we have a quiz night tonight, went early to arrange the chairs, just hope it goes well, not done one before but you will always get those who are negative and there is no need, all for the good of the church for on going repairs.
27 degrees in my garden, I won't be sitting out there.
Keep cool folks
LM.
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27 degrees in my garden, I won't be sitting out there.
Keep cool folks
LM.
32c in front, south-facing garden; 20c in back yard, north facing.
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My French windows from the kitchen always swell in the heat, I had to hose them down yesterday evening so they would close for the night.
Well fish gone and I am sad really, they are going to a well stocked big pond -
They have only really known each other for over eight years ,I will worry about them .
They came every morning when I tapped the edge of the raised pond.
I will have to get a dog!
Son just rang,has arrived safely .
Must check up on eldest son, not been very well this week ,gets severe indigestion from time to time.
Hope your Quiz night does well L.M.You too seem to do a lot as many of us do, even those with difficult conditions, it is our generation I think ,many born in the 1930’s. To be fair I think life is very difficult often these days for the younger ones, mortgages for example - phew - we would be living in the coal scuttle as that was all we would have been able to afford !!!
Cheerio folks.
Viktoria.
Hope all have a restful night,not easy with high the temperature.
Cheerio.
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Think i would be in the background 20 degrees,
Hot and bothered now having to get dressed up for the quiz evening
LM
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not been on here for a while
27 degrees here too.
i went out this morning to check on 2 friends one who has hurt foot so i took. shopping but i cant carry much
tne other who has been left in charge of 4 dogs for the day . 2 which hed never met before and wasnt told about til this morning
respective owners went to seaside 4.30 am to beat heat and havent given. a return time yet
nor have they checked in . which i think is really bad
if theyd paid an official dog carer im sure it would have been over £160
.i came home to cool flat curtains drawn &high ceilings cos its a victorian house divided into flats . i tried to have a nap can hear the. gentle sound of tennis ...live from tne courts at the back of back garden . no noise from any neighbours & no TV
temperature predicted to fall at 7pm and if i decide to catch the end of cosmopolitan carnival theres a bus around 8pm when temperature will be 23 degrees
local reggae band is playing at 8.45pm
and i can go to bed a bit later than my usual 10.30pm
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Hope your friend in charge of 4 dogs is still OK!! :-X :-X
I hope that she/he does not volunteer again - disgusting
Good luck with everything else.
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We are having a very hot July here in the frozen north. It felt like 40c with the humidex today. I went out this morning but went early enough to escape the worst of it. In a little while will take the dog outside - am dreading it.
Duvets are not very popular here despite the cold winters. Most of us go with sheets and bedspreads and maybe an extra blanket.
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jebber et al big andy pandy made me laugh to . sisters & I were dressed as Bill Ben flowerpot men & little weed aged 5 . 3 and 1 ish but we didnt have a TV in those & i think when we got one aged 14.11& 9 the program had stopped .
sorry about your. fish Victoria is a dog the best replacement .
how did singing go Gill
& quiz LM
Bumble friend separated the dogs after 7pm & told owners he was leaving them too it . they were still in skegness im not sure how far that is to leicester ...i know its the nearest seaside but we are in centre of England . their relative lives there so it wasn't just a jaunt . + he hadnt been expected to sit with them whole time. he'd only discovered there were 4 at 7am in the morning when he.d been left a request & leads to walk 3 of them.
so he didnt exactly volunteer & definitely wont again !
while I was there the snappy one went for 1 of the others twice ....its a risk .
another of my friends is an experienced dog walker & trainer of 18 years and was asked to look after an Alsatian for a week
she met it + owner once & realized it was jumpy but the second time it jumped on her for no reason with owner present and bit her quite badly ...
owner wont compensate so its going to court. .
she was shook up & had to go hospital it hasnt put her off dogs ....just Alsations.
i wonder what will happen to the dog if its a public danger .
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Had plumber and handyman in yesterday.
Apparently I had a leaking WC, and wet-rot floorboards!
Turned out to be a bigger job than expected, and they will return on Monday.
Meanwhile, I had to be out of my flat yesterday, and (fortunately) will be out for most of today.
Have reverted to flushing with a bucket of water!
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Well , Brigidmac, I would love a dog but sadly could not take one for walks,
however when the access in and out of my garden is properly sorted I could take a dog to a very nearby sports field with a good perimeter walk ,my scooter is all terrain.
There is a playground with swings etc ,enclosed so no dogs there and two football pitches so no dogs there - well I wouldn’t let mine there ,but I am too old and have been rushed to hospital twice so I am really unreliable .
Not fair to burden my son ,who is all day working on computers just as if he were in an office ,his life is dictated by those,that is his employment .He has no set routine as it depends what is coming in internationally . When there are little lulls he does a bit of work in his house which he is getting to his
taste .That is next door.He has no Broadband there yet but is therefore on hand here mostly if I am suddenly unwell again .
No ,my pet owning days are over .
Cheerio, off to get “ dashing away with the smoothing iron “ —— who remembers that from schooldays when we sang folk songs rescued from oblivion by Cecil …..Sharp?
That is not fair to a dog either, I feel very sad at birds in cages ,Guinea pigs and rabbits in hutches and aquariums ,love cats but not how uncontrollable they are re using the garden as a toilet,and other people’s too .
I don’t like cat litter trays and my utility room is off my kitchen and two sides all windows so like an oven in the Summer.Yuk,imagine a litter tray in there .
The access to the garden from the kitchen is by French windows so nowhere for a cat flap which would anyway allow a cat to use my or other people’s
garden’s .
No, I am doomed to a petless old age now!
Much cooler night and funnily enough picked up a book at our local Tesco charity book stall ,about a young woman renovating a period cottage and is tricked by a neighbour into having their ex racing greyhound “ for a few days”
but the neighbour doesn’t come back .
The description of the weekly Farmer’s market venue makes me think it is Ludlow market hall which is as in the book on stilts .
Well now 8-20, so will get up ,have a cup of de- caf tea and iron the bedding from sons’s bed I washed yesterday,before it gets too hot.
Then bath and hair wash .
Salmon for tea with new potatoes and new peas.
Tesco delivery at nine - ten ,pm.
Cheerio, look after yourselves thanks for your kind wishes ,and I really do miss the fish and hope they can find each other in a much bigger pond ,they have been together for eight years.
Viktoria.
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Viktoria
You could always get a stick insect! I used to threaten my children with one or two of those when they begged for a dog. Wouldn't want a pet now - they are too expensive to feed and pay for insurance and vet fee cover and I certainly wouldn't want to be picking up dog poo. I am fond of dogs. but make do with my friend's sweet little Border Terrier. Like you, I don't like animals in cages or enclosures.
Do you really have to iron sheets in this hot weather? I have been known to wash and line dry mine and put them straight back on the bed in very hot weather. :o It's around 25 degrees here now in Devon at 10.30 a.m., so heaven knows what it will be at mid-day! Our concert yesterday evening went well, though there was a lot of use of programmes as fans. Everyone sang heartily, especially a little choir of under 10s and our shanty choir of men, and our choir enjoyed our performance, too.
Take care, all, in this extreme weather and keep on drinking (whatever your choice of refreshment). ;)
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Thankfully today is much cooler, dull and overcast but inside is 25 degrees.
My friend has 2 dogs, one a pup bought recently, the older one, a white ball off fluff was making such a racket he was sent into the garden to behave, after a little while he appeared inside, no doors open, the little rascal had got in through the cat flat, wasn't silly was he,? they don't even own a cat, recently moved into the property, so the cat flap has to go, he might get stuck..
We have never had an animal although as a child we had cats, a dog, chickens and my dad bred canaries, because I worked I didn't want a dog causing a nuisance to neighbours, doesn't stop my present neighbour though who has a dog that barks everytime someone passes the door or a car and howls when left alone, they are in but it takes them a long time to call it to be quiet, so although I do like almost any animal we don't have any now, my daughter did have a rabbit though.
The quiz went well, my husband and I aren't quizzers, left it to our daughter and family, we came 3rd, one question they got wrong after I told them the answer and they chose to ignore me, I was right, how many hubs has the London Eye got, no prizes for guessing but does anyone know and why the number. We raised a staggering £565, well worth the effort for church repairs.
Enjoy your day everyone
LM
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Congratulations L.M.that is a good sum .
Hope you had help with putting the chairs back .
I like quizzes , like Mastermind and Eggheads and University Challenge .
Can’t always answer of course but what bright people take part.
I always feel Mastermind is really really unfair ,each contestant should have the same number of questions in the last round ,some are so long that some contestants get fewer than other participants .
Well a cool drink and then a fridge tidy ready for my Tesco delivery this evening.
Cheerio.Viktoria.
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Must say I don't like quizzes, 5 of my team were smart on films and Bond, James Bond, we aren't but we didn't come home disgraced?, I am good when sitting in my lounge and I have no competition except the TV
CORRECTION, it was how many hubs does the millennium wheel have, not London eye
3 had been to the hall to set it up AM and amazingly quite a few helped to put chairs and tables away, 3 just got up immediately and went out but hey ho those that stayed did a good job, was a good evening and best of all our Reverend gave a huge thanks you to those concerned, we now have the fete to think about and that has a lot of things going on, new broom sweeps clean as they say, the old fundraising committee which I have been on for years needed a shake up, boy have we got it with our new leader, good things lie ahead.
LM
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Lm i know its a new week but am intrigued about the question you knew + they didnt
+ of course i want to know how many hubs are on the millenium wheel even if I never need to know + will promptly forget the answer .
ive only ever wanted a pet once mostly for reasons of not depriving animals of freedom .
In sahara i fancied a lizard to catch cockroaches +scorpions
did have a kitten for a while but while i was away +a friend caring for it ..it disappeared ..might have jumped off a balcony window . there was no cat food or dog food there in the shops 1980.s so the animals ate all sorts of things + actually clever cats could catch + eat scorpions ..leaving the tails .
My sister got her children 2 stick insects in leicester
they bred + there were 1000.s of babies that were so tiny they could squeeze out of the aquarium thing ..and invaded the house ..it was a nightmare .
Victoria ..sheets DONt need ironing ..in any weather .!
Thats insanity to me !
They probably feel a bit nicer but 5 mins of tossing + turning or sweating + they.ll be in same condition as if they.d never seen an iron ..trust me ,try NOT ironing next time .
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The answer , sorry, no prizes, you was the one,y one who asked so here goes
32 hubs because I think it represented at the time the 32 boroughs within London, the boundary lines change so there might not be 32 boroughs now.
Must admit I don't iron sheets anymore unless we have visitors, I used to iron everything including tea towels, not anymore.
Off to the new week Brightman before this one is closed.
LM
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Viktoria, many cats are indoor, with a wired mesh cat run for outdoors. One could be built acessible from your utility room. The cat we catsit sometimes has its own "doorkey" to its own catflap in its implanted chip. Can get in and out whenever she wants. That's one solution.
TY
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Well, having got up,washed and dressed ,brought the milk in ,I went to kitchen and got Aquarian goldfish food ———-
I just keep hoping they stay together but with lots of other fish ———.
Mind you one was a bully so was regularly isolated in a bucket after which it would behave for a while .
I used to put two sprinkles of food a distance apart ,that kept the bully busy so the bullied one could feed in peace at one or the other .
Started organising their pond now as my herb patch and present herb patch to be converted as an entrance to the mobility scooter shed so I can drive straight in from the lane and no awkward turns and manoeuvres in my flagged area - yard before the garden or patio if I am trying to be posh .
Well a mild morning but a really lowering grey sky which portents rain ( that’s my big word for this week),The gardens need it .
I know it is not necessary and a bit daft to iron sheets but I quite like ironing especially if there is something good on T.V.
I do resent how duvet covers get so creased when being put on!
Why not side openings ?
Well things to do ,hope all are O.K.
I have got AntiWimbledonitis! I am fed up with the change of programmes and the grunting and screaming!
Look after yourselves . Viktoria.
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Has anyone started the new diary?
I can’t find any posts.
I just wanted to say there is a programme on this evening - channel ITV 3,,
10-45 ,about the Sycamore tree, their trial and the sentence.
Should be interesting.
Viktoria.
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Yes, it's been started and has a couple of responses.
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=892647.0