Foggy morning - visibility about 200 yards - OK but dodgy on motorways because of the risk of running into bad patches. No reason to use M1 today though but Helen still abit poorly. She took the girls to school and she and David went to Asda but were done-for when they got home. But they really do make the best of things and David is very lucky to have her. I got her to promise that she won't hesitate to ring if they need transport, because we can be there in less than half an hour. Picture 1 is some Virginia Creeper at the bottom of the garden and it has surprised us by managing to grow through a conifer hedge.
Picture 2 is a stump, I think Beech but not sure, on Long Lane which joins Ravenshead to the A614. It looks as if it would not be out of place in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It captures my attention each time I pass. Probably run into the hedge on the opposite side of the road one day. A horse would suit me much better.
Computer-wise I've e-mailed Ray with a question about Acronis (a web-based free storage system). He sent me the link (Madeline also offered) and I went through the process of downloading it. I thought I had succeeded because they sent me a password and a serial number, and I clicked their 'confirmation link'. But I can't find it anywhere. No desktop icon, nothing in All Programmes - a mystery. To me at least.
I really enjoyed Eastwood Camera Club last night and I didn't arrive home till around 10,30pm. Wow! Lots of old friends still attend and the review of Photoshop was helpful. But, when I tried earlier this afternoon to do a 'selection' and a 'layer' I failed miserably. A chap called Roger had helped a lot, because I took my laptop. But he showed me how to do it. what I need is for me to be doing it and someone to be saying "Now click there" - "Now press that". Roger is a very pleasant man and our sort of age so, after I've attended the club another time or two, I might invite him round here for an hour to pick his brains.
I'm hoping that Bungus will enter a 'comment' about his walking-stick-making course. He is actually very good at wood carving and I'm keen to see some results.
Fish, chips and peas, today. And beans on toast for tea.
That's about it really .......................................
Perhaps what I really meant to say (Wed 11 Oct Comment) was that my wife and I consider it fortunate that so few ** elderly persons (possibly less than 20%?) some of them female, choose to display anti-social tendencies by commandeering chairs, demanding preferential treatment, and spreading terror and uncertainty by their aggressive deployment of shopping trolleys, electric scooters, and inappropriately controlled dogs ***. And young people, we find, cause us appreciably less distress (and that mainly by their free and unimaginative employment of what used to be considered inappropriate language) and are more generally pleasant, polite and considerate.
ReplyDelete** Not an appropriate footnote, but I am reminded of the epigram “It is just ninety-five percent of all lawyers who give the rest a bad name”.
*** Although in the last few weeks, I have myself twice been bitten by one particular dog (by ‘particular’, I mean both selective and exclusive).
He just happens to be my own much loved companion of over 13 years - and I should explain that he is not only old but also deaf, short sighted, a bit grumpy (who muttered ‘mirror image’?) and on both occasions he acted without malice towards me while attempting to take retaliatory action against one of his own kind.
Now to today’s blog:
I have to feel sympathy for the horse. I reckon it would be just as likely to take to the hedge as the car. But I do like the stump: before reading your comment my first thought was Henry Moore sentinels. We are agreed.
Ray also sent me the invitation to Acronis. So far I have taken no action (which is perhaps as well, considering your lack of success!) apart from asking Dan for an opinion: I assume it will be something of which he will be aware. I just hope he doesn’t try to explain it – one sentence will do!. As if!
Home at 10.30, indeed! Have you become what my mother would have called a ‘dirty stop-out’.
I am certainly not good at woodcarving. You would only need to see some of the work done by Dane and Roy, and others, to realize that. I have only made the one previous attempt, which resulted, at best, in a crudely effective large head with a resemblance to General de Gaulle. It now stands outside on top of a chimney pot. Thursday was walking stick day and today my left hand has three plasters on it.
Fish, chips and peas for us too, today. Sandra was one of several guests invited to Rufford Abbey to speak at a lunch with the Sheriff of Nottingham. I then drove her to a consultation with her diet and allergy guru at Newark in the afternoon, while I shopped at Aldi and Morrisons, and on the way home we called at The Angel at Kneesall. Their haddock is excellent and they again grilled Sandra’s perfectly, without batter to suit her non-wheat, non-dairy regime. She says it is the best fish she has ever tasted and by half-past-six she was ready for it, as a power cut at Rufford had meant only cold food.and no coffee. They had done their best but it seems that untoasted wheat free bread with no dairy or meat products does not make the best sandwiches – does anyone have any suggestions to liven up such a diet? On the plus side, the powdered glass effect beneath her eyelids does seem to have become much less of an irritation.
According to ‘Have I Got News for You’ there is a new magazine out for squirrel lovers called ‘In a Nut Shell’. I am sure Madeline will wish to reserve a regular copy at her newsagents.