@Eigon - I've never heard of The Golden Cockerel Crows in the Morning, and I'm not going to look it up on YouTube, in case of earworms! Thanks for the Orful Warning...
Ditto.
At least it's not Autumn Days - as heard on yesterday's "Songs of Praise". I left the room to do some washing-up.
I have fond memories of playing both the Golden Cockerel and Autumn Days on my guitar for primary school assemblies, children singing away with gusto. Delightful.
Anywhere else, perhaps not so much 😆
ION Husband Beaky is now into his second week back in our old stomping ground of the North Rift of Kenya and I am tonight feeling a bit lonely but am looking forward to grandparent duty tomorrow.
I remember both singing The Golden Cockerel and playing it on the recorder - not, of course, at the same time; I am not that gifted. I don't remember Autumn Days but it may come back to me. I was planning to try and catch up on yesterday's "Songs of Praise" as someone I was with yesterday said how good it was.
Friends from Town Where I Used To Live came over for lunch today and we did a lot of talking. Also went for a short walk and got very hot. One of the friends was saying how a walk after a meal is deemed to be a Good Thing and is known in some quarters as a "Fart Walk" due to its aid to the digestion and the possible consequences thereof. We got childishly giggly about it and decided that in our advancing years we must be reverting to playground humour.
A fairly lazy day followed by a night out in town to the north with some of the people I was with yesterday afternoon. A fun evening, but I'm very much in need of a bed now.
One half of our garden is being taken over by comfrey plants, so today was spent dealing with them.
Mr RoS cut down/pulled up the lot, and I cut them into pieces and put them on the compost heap - having first removed any remnants of root, and a vast number of flowers & seedpods.
We didn't manage to do any of the autumn jobs last year, so this is an improvement. However, it does seem odd to be thinking of autumn when the tomatoes are fruiting like billy-oh, and the cucumbers have started growing a second crop.
I guess we will be eating salads for another week or so, and will need to keep an eye on the comfrey as I expect it will soon be pushing up new shoots. Weird weather!
Out to lunch with one of my German friends today. Looking forward to it.
I've given in to market pressure and bought 'jumpspeak' the language learning app. Only to discover that it still doesn't improve my memory!
But it's a good app nonetheless.
Thanks for the heads up about Jumpspeak @Boogie . I know a lot of Italian but can't really communicate. I'd wondered if that App was any good.
I'm feeling rather weary today after three days of doing civic stuff. Fortunately my usual Tuesday meeting has been re-arranged for Friday when I'm in the Town Hall to meet someone else. At the moment I'm dithering about whether to go to another meeting I vaguely promised to attend or send in my apologies.
In the garden our runner beans are still being very prolific and we have a lot of wild tomatoes of various varieties still ripening.
I’m just back from Aldi. I forgot to take my shopping list so was trying to concentrate when a man asked me to help him find three specific items, none of which seemed to be available. He then disappeared to ask a shelf-stacking chap, without a word of thanks for my efforts. I only forgot one item.
I am going to try to make the effort to try out an exercise group this afternoon. Now I have written that, I guess I have to do it. But first, it’s time to mow the front lawn.
On my second full day of not-being-employed, I went to Iceland this morning. Saw something I've never seen before: An "advent" calendar for Halloween. It was a 13 day countdown and with its own theme, but otherwise exactly modelled on a normal advent calendar.
A bare faced money grab, in my view.
There seem to be more and more 'Christmas' items re-purposed for other celebrations, wreaths seem to be available all year for instance.
I went to the meeting and it was useful. I now need to send a couple of emails about things. My hip was really painful on the short walk home which is beginning to make me really worried for my walking holiday next week. I have a doctor's appointment via phone on Thursday that may or may not be useful.
I'm just back from an Ophthalmology appointment at the hospital. Good news, my incipient glaucoma has, if anything, improved - no operation needed.
That is good news! Mrs Sioni has regular retinopathy checks but last time out she had the same positive result. That’s her driving license ok for a year or three.
Etsy are advertising on YouTube 'ways to catch every Halloween moment', with what looks to be a form of pseudo-Nativity set (I haven't checked to see exactly what it's supposed to represent).
Folk religion...
ION, a fine Sun-Shiny day in Arkland the Warm. It's just the kind of September day on which the hobbits (Frodo, Sam, and Pippin) became ensorcelled by Old Man Willow beside the River Withywindle, in the land of the enigmatic Tom Bombadil, in the early days of their journey...
I got halfway through mowing my front lawn when the battery died. Whilst I was out this afternoon my neighbour finished the job. He normally does mine as well as his as the front gardens are open plan, so it is no trouble. I can do it easily enough, but as I hadn’t had to for months, I didn’t realise the battery had run down. I have the luxury of having two mowers, a battery one kept in the garage for the front , and a corded one for the back, kept in the shed. There is no side path, so it saves dragging the mower through the garage and the extension, with steps to negotiate.
I went to the exercise class which was just at the right level for me, so I will probably go again. Tuesday is a day when I have nothing else fixed.
Fish ( hake) tonight, with new potatoes and green veg. I might make a sauce.
I received a text message saying I had an in-person appointment at the GP's surgery tomorrow. Normally I'd be delighted but I'm out at an event I don't want to miss. Of course they wouldn't answer the phone so my husband drove me to the surgery so I could sort it out in person, parked in the car park of the nearby supermarket and got the ingredients for the very nice stir fry we had for tea while waiting for me. The appointment tomorrow was the physio and that has now been re-arranged for when we're back from holiday. I still have my phone appointment on Thursday which I hope is positive.
I have to say that I quite like seasonal door wreaths for different seasons/celebrations - and you can always re-use them each year. A Halloween "advent" calendar is silly though. I think decorations that you can re-use year after year are OK as long as you do re-use them.
It's been a very mild day here: it was 15° at 7 am, 21° by lunchtime, and still 16° just now, past 10 pm.
Decently but not scarily busy day at work, followed by a quick supper of BEANS ON TOAST, because I had Things To Do in the evening - getting my nails resprayed followed by a Vestry meeting.
Thinking about seasonal decorations, I think different coloured door wreaths/decorations (some like large bows for eg) corresponding to the liturgical year could be fun for Christians who follow such a calendar. It would be easy to make a "wardrobe" of fabric wreaths you could re-use year after year - you could plait fabric around a hoop, or wrap short lengths of fabric or wide ribbon around width-ways and knot so that the cut ends of the fabric stick out in "rays" around the hoop. Add some LED battery-powered fairy lights and I think that would look nice, and you'd keep the neighbours guessing as to why you're changing them so often around Holy Week 😂
I wonder if it could be a fun church craft group or even youth group activity....you could easily use recycled sari ribbon or similar.
Busy Tuesday. Into town in the morning to the Apple Store with my waning iPad. As I expected, the solution was a new one - but I got £170 trade-in. Pleased to find M&S stock Scotch Bonnet.
Out to dinner with friends. Combined ages of those round the table would amount to at least half a millennium. We drank (among much else) a suitably venerable port - 1970.
Not too much of a head this morning all things considered. Quiet day anticipated of waiting in for fish van and grocery delivery. Then deploy the Scotch Bonnet in a Chilli con Carne in the evening.
Thinking about seasonal decorations, I think different coloured door wreaths/decorations (some like large bows for eg) corresponding to the liturgical year could be fun for Christians who follow such a calendar. It would be easy to make a "wardrobe" of fabric wreaths you could re-use year after year - you could plait fabric around a hoop, or wrap short lengths of fabric or wide ribbon around width-ways and knot so that the cut ends of the fabric stick out in "rays" around the hoop. Add some LED battery-powered fairy lights and I think that would look nice, and you'd keep the neighbours guessing as to why you're changing them so often around Holy Week 😂
I wonder if it could be a fun church craft group or even youth group activity....you could easily use recycled sari ribbon or similar.
An interesting idea!
FWIW, Our Place's FatherInCharge has the eccentric habit of carrying the processional cross himself (the only server is Madam Sacristan, carrying the thurible). He makes sure that the crucifix on the cross is decorated with ribbons (!) of the appropriate liturgical colour, so that the thing resembles a Holy Maypole.
I really like those seasonal door wreaths and have never had one. I'd like to start having them on the front door here - new house and all, and autumn seems a good time to start - but am a bit taxed in my mind about how to hang it.
I've also had a couple of interesting conversations in the past few days about air fryers - something I don't have but I think I'm being persuaded towards. What do other people think? One question that occurs to me is, what size should one go for? Most of the time I am only cooking for two.
This morning I took the bus to meet Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling for coffee in City Where They Live and we then went back to theirs for snack lunch. Mr Nen drove over in the afternoon to pick me up. It worked very well indeed; if I'd known what a lovely and straightforward journey it is I might have done it before now and with my Old Person's Bus Pass it cost me nothing.
I make a lot of use of my air fryer. There’s only one of me but if I were buying again I would get a slightly bigger one. I can do a piece of meat and veg for one.
Captain P's therapy appointments this morning. Last week we went to the physiotherapist's and she had her arm in a sling after falling and breaking her shoulder. In a odd coincidence, this morning we went to the psycho-motor therapy, and she also has her arm in a sling, having dislocated her elbow. They're both young women in their late 20s / early 30s. I hope it's not catching
The rest of the day was taken up with doing the Iron Ing and taking the Captain to his theatre workshop.
I used to put up a wreath at Christmas before we moved here, but not normally at other times of the year.
Unfortunately we have no front door now, so it seems a bit pointless. The entrance is down the side of the bungalow furthest away from the drive, so callers are few.
I bought a nice wreath one Christmas and was able to hang it on the front door by sticking a drawing pin through the hanging ribbon into the top edge of the door, thereby not making any visible holes.
After a wet start, it was another lovely day here: when I pootled along to the hairdresser's at lunchtime, the sun was splitting the trees, and continued until I got home from work.
I like Christmas wreaths and always had one here until we changed the front door. Now there isn't really anywhere to hang one, so I hang a decoration in the living room window instead.
I headed off with our local Town in Bloom group to see how we'd done in the awards for our area. A couple of nice surprises and also a bit of a disappointment. Now thinking about next year.
I've caught up with the last episode of the 7up documentary series. I'm three years older than them and remember seeing the first series back in the sixties. So interesting to see how people's lives pan out.
@Nenya I would recommend the kind of air fryer that's like a mini oven, rather than the basket kind that slides out - the former is just more versatile. The rotisserie attachment that usually comes with this type is very useful, and is ideal for small joints of meat as well as small whole chickens (I put a tray on the bottom covered with either sliced maincrop potatoes or halved/quartered new potatoes, to catch any drippings). For chips I highly recommend using a rotating basket as you won't need to shake them and they end up much crisper. You can easily buy attachments separately - as long as the air fryer has the rotisserie mode, anything like a rotating basket or kebab skewers etc can be added.
@Bishops Finger I really like the idea of the be-ribboned processional cross!
For door wreaths, I see a lot of people using over-door hooks to attach them to their front doors. I also see people who use large fabric bows instead (especially quilted/patchwork ones) attaching them to hair scrunchies so they can be easily put onto a door handle. Some people put a large bow on the door for Christmas by using wide ribbon tucked in at the top/bottom/sides, so it looks like the door is wrapped up like a present.
The North East Man made A Discovery yesterday. When we moved into our house (in 2003!), there was a chrome peg in the wall next to the sink. I suspect its intended use was for hanging a wet face flannel, but I use mine once and then they go into the laundry basket. I hung a bag of cotton wool balls from it.
Yesterday I was on a video call and splashed some coffee onto my keyboard. So I asked my husband if he could get me a cotton wool ball from the bag next to the sink. He looked mystified and asked for more explicit instructions.
Just go to the sink, and take a cotton wool ball from the bag hanging next to it. I said.
Off he went, still mystified.
Back he came, with a cotton wool ball, and the news that there is a bag of cotton wool balls hanging next to our sink! Who knew!
Apparently this would have been useful knowledge when he nicked himself shaving in said sink.
Fair enough, if he had his glasses off while shaving he might not have seen it, but it's impossible to clean the sink, or the floor around the sink, without knocking against it.
I love these stories from the North East Household...
Another Sun-Shiny afternoon in Arkland the Elysian, after the default Cloudy morning.
A productive day - flu jab arranged for 3 weeks time, a telephone appointment made with my GP tomorrow afternoon (I think she's concerned about my blood pressure, following a recent blood test), and the electricity bill paid at the Arkland Orfis.
Tess Coe was also visited, accompanied by Neighbour S, and both of us have stocked up on various Essentials, so that our Apocalypse Cubbuds are now well-filled. Hopefully, el Nino, Trump, and AI will give us time to eat at least some of the Stuff...
Alas! I had a Fall just before going into Tess Coe. Somehow, I contrived to lean on the empty trolley so that it tipped backwards, throwing me onto the ground. Three people instantly rushed to my aid, whilst I sat up and checked for broken bits...happily, I was intact (I don't care about my dignity any more - too old for that), and two Nice Young Men helped me to my feet. They did it very carefully and quickly, bending their knees, and I'm guessing that they both may well have had some first-aid training.
However, my Pore Ol Frame is feeling somewhat Feak and Weeble this afternoon, and I'm sure I shall have extra Aches and Pains for a couple of days, but it is what it is. Doing Nothing At All™ is the programme for the rest of the day, after Lunch, which is a CHICKEN RISOTTO thingy from Tess Coe, requiring just a few minutes in the popty-ping.
There is also BEER, because God is good, and she wants us to be happy.
I fear you may be right, but glad that you weren't seriously injured. BTW in your description of apocalyptic causes you forgot to mention that nice Mr Putin .....
Here it has been sunny most of the day and sheets have been washed (my wife said, "What, again?" but they needed it). I had a very good swim (indoors!) before lunch. Dinner will be corned beef pie made by one of my church members, with baked beans and left-over red cabbage.
Comments
I have fond memories of playing both the Golden Cockerel and Autumn Days on my guitar for primary school assemblies, children singing away with gusto. Delightful.
Anywhere else, perhaps not so much 😆
ION Husband Beaky is now into his second week back in our old stomping ground of the North Rift of Kenya and I am tonight feeling a bit lonely but am looking forward to grandparent duty tomorrow.
I remember both singing The Golden Cockerel and playing it on the recorder - not, of course, at the same time; I am not that gifted. I don't remember Autumn Days but it may come back to me. I was planning to try and catch up on yesterday's "Songs of Praise" as someone I was with yesterday said how good it was.
Friends from Town Where I Used To Live came over for lunch today and we did a lot of talking. Also went for a short walk and got very hot. One of the friends was saying how a walk after a meal is deemed to be a Good Thing and is known in some quarters as a "Fart Walk" due to its aid to the digestion and the possible consequences thereof. We got childishly giggly about it and decided that in our advancing years we must be reverting to playground humour.
I think the Diabetes UK website has recipes.
Mr RoS cut down/pulled up the lot, and I cut them into pieces and put them on the compost heap - having first removed any remnants of root, and a vast number of flowers & seedpods.
We didn't manage to do any of the autumn jobs last year, so this is an improvement. However, it does seem odd to be thinking of autumn when the tomatoes are fruiting like billy-oh, and the cucumbers have started growing a second crop.
I guess we will be eating salads for another week or so, and will need to keep an eye on the comfrey as I expect it will soon be pushing up new shoots. Weird weather!
Maybe the front one tomorrow?
My wife has stacks of diabetic cookery books from years and years, and we have most of the Riverford recipe books which are mostly plant based.
My lawn needs mowing ... I only cut it last week, too!
I've given in to market pressure and bought 'jumpspeak' the language learning app. Only to discover that it still doesn't improve my memory!
But it's a good app nonetheless.
I'm feeling rather weary today after three days of doing civic stuff. Fortunately my usual Tuesday meeting has been re-arranged for Friday when I'm in the Town Hall to meet someone else. At the moment I'm dithering about whether to go to another meeting I vaguely promised to attend or send in my apologies.
In the garden our runner beans are still being very prolific and we have a lot of wild tomatoes of various varieties still ripening.
I am going to try to make the effort to try out an exercise group this afternoon. Now I have written that, I guess I have to do it. But first, it’s time to mow the front lawn.
A bare faced money grab, in my view.
I went to the meeting and it was useful. I now need to send a couple of emails about things. My hip was really painful on the short walk home which is beginning to make me really worried for my walking holiday next week. I have a doctor's appointment via phone on Thursday that may or may not be useful.
That is good news! Mrs Sioni has regular retinopathy checks but last time out she had the same positive result. That’s her driving license ok for a year or three.
Folk religion...
ION, a fine Sun-Shiny day in Arkland the Warm. It's just the kind of September day on which the hobbits (Frodo, Sam, and Pippin) became ensorcelled by Old Man Willow beside the River Withywindle, in the land of the enigmatic Tom Bombadil, in the early days of their journey...
FISH CAKE, CHIPS, n'MUSHY PEAS for Lunch.
I went to the exercise class which was just at the right level for me, so I will probably go again. Tuesday is a day when I have nothing else fixed.
Fish ( hake) tonight, with new potatoes and green veg. I might make a sauce.
Decently but not scarily busy day at work, followed by a quick supper of BEANS ON TOAST, because I had Things To Do in the evening - getting my nails resprayed followed by a Vestry meeting.
I wonder if it could be a fun church craft group or even youth group activity....you could easily use recycled sari ribbon or similar.
Out to dinner with friends. Combined ages of those round the table would amount to at least half a millennium. We drank (among much else) a suitably venerable port - 1970.
Not too much of a head this morning all things considered. Quiet day anticipated of waiting in for fish van and grocery delivery. Then deploy the Scotch Bonnet in a Chilli con Carne in the evening.
An interesting idea!
FWIW, Our Place's FatherInCharge has the eccentric habit of carrying the processional cross himself (the only server is Madam Sacristan, carrying the thurible). He makes sure that the crucifix on the cross is decorated with ribbons (!) of the appropriate liturgical colour, so that the thing resembles a Holy Maypole.
I've also had a couple of interesting conversations in the past few days about air fryers - something I don't have but I think I'm being persuaded towards. What do other people think? One question that occurs to me is, what size should one go for? Most of the time I am only cooking for two.
This morning I took the bus to meet Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling for coffee in City Where They Live and we then went back to theirs for snack lunch. Mr Nen drove over in the afternoon to pick me up. It worked very well indeed; if I'd known what a lovely and straightforward journey it is I might have done it before now and with my Old Person's Bus Pass it cost me nothing.
Sunny and warm here. Easy pasta for tea.
The rest of the day was taken up with doing the Iron Ing and taking the Captain to his theatre workshop.
Unfortunately we have no front door now, so it seems a bit pointless. The entrance is down the side of the bungalow furthest away from the drive, so callers are few.
After a wet start, it was another lovely day here: when I pootled along to the hairdresser's at lunchtime, the sun was splitting the trees, and continued until I got home from work.
Supper was fishcakes and veggies.
I headed off with our local Town in Bloom group to see how we'd done in the awards for our area. A couple of nice surprises and also a bit of a disappointment. Now thinking about next year.
I've caught up with the last episode of the 7up documentary series. I'm three years older than them and remember seeing the first series back in the sixties. So interesting to see how people's lives pan out.
@Bishops Finger I really like the idea of the be-ribboned processional cross!
Yesterday I was on a video call and splashed some coffee onto my keyboard. So I asked my husband if he could get me a cotton wool ball from the bag next to the sink. He looked mystified and asked for more explicit instructions.
Just go to the sink, and take a cotton wool ball from the bag hanging next to it. I said.
Off he went, still mystified.
Back he came, with a cotton wool ball, and the news that there is a bag of cotton wool balls hanging next to our sink! Who knew!
Apparently this would have been useful knowledge when he nicked himself shaving in said sink.
Fair enough, if he had his glasses off while shaving he might not have seen it, but it's impossible to clean the sink, or the floor around the sink, without knocking against it.
I love these stories from the North East Household...
Another Sun-Shiny afternoon in Arkland the Elysian, after the default Cloudy morning.
A productive day - flu jab arranged for 3 weeks time, a telephone appointment made with my GP tomorrow afternoon (I think she's concerned about my blood pressure, following a recent blood test), and the electricity bill paid at the Arkland Orfis.
Tess Coe was also visited, accompanied by Neighbour S, and both of us have stocked up on various Essentials, so that our Apocalypse Cubbuds are now well-filled. Hopefully, el Nino, Trump, and AI will give us time to eat at least some of the Stuff...
Alas! I had a Fall just before going into Tess Coe. Somehow, I contrived to lean on the empty trolley so that it tipped backwards, throwing me onto the ground. Three people instantly rushed to my aid, whilst I sat up and checked for broken bits...happily, I was intact (I don't care about my dignity any more - too old for that), and two Nice Young Men helped me to my feet. They did it very carefully and quickly, bending their knees, and I'm guessing that they both may well have had some first-aid training.
However, my Pore Ol Frame is feeling somewhat Feak and Weeble this afternoon, and I'm sure I shall have extra Aches and Pains for a couple of days, but it is what it is. Doing Nothing At All™ is the programme for the rest of the day, after Lunch, which is a CHICKEN RISOTTO thingy from Tess Coe, requiring just a few minutes in the popty-ping.
There is also BEER, because God is good, and she wants us to be happy.
Feel better soon ❤️🩹
Here it has been sunny most of the day and sheets have been washed (my wife said, "What, again?" but they needed it). I had a very good swim (indoors!) before lunch. Dinner will be corned beef pie made by one of my church members, with baked beans and left-over red cabbage.