Where I live

I haven't got the brain power to bring you up to speed with everything that we have been doing here yesterday and today, but I have taken lots of photos, so I will get to sharing that soon.  Suffice to say that I have been very active, busy and moved a lot of stuff onwards towards new ideas and projects - hurray!

So instead of telling you that tonight, I am going to share this photo and some thoughts about the area I live: the Fens.  The EFG took that photo last Thursday night on our way home from the Slimming World meeting, and it was about 6pm.  This is a typical scene around here at the moment - windmills in the background, and a field of pongy oil seed rape - I have to wind my windows up sharpish whenever I drive past a field of this stuff or else I start to sneeze!  What the photo doesn't show is the other typical Fen feature, which is a "drain" or river channel, which is right at the front of the picture, and the light green grass is the river bank.

Sometimes, when I am driving in the Fens, I can see for miles, and it reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie" from my childhood, when all you could see in the shots of the family on the covered wagon was grasslands for miles and miles - here it is fields for miles, flat and green or brown depending on whether it has just been ploughed or has a crop already growing.  The land around here is Flat.  Flat is the word for it - there is so much sky: the EFG criticised my photo above when I took it, saying that there was too much sky in the shot, but I replied that that was the point - the Fens are full of Sky!

Do I like living here, you might ask?  Well, yes, I suppose I do: I have got used to it now.  It was a terrible change when I first came to the Fens from Fife, and it felt too wide open, too much sky, and not enough trees!  I didn't like it then, but it's OK now.  The sunsets are amazing sometimes, and it is lovely to be able to see so far on a clear day.  I do miss the hills now and again, though.  I am not a Fenlander, though, and the locals don't let you forget, in a kind sort of way - there is still a "them and us" feeling in the village but not in a bad way.  There is recognition that some people are incomers and others are from village families which have been here for generations, but mostly, the village families are  tolerant of the incomers to liven things up a little and bring some new ideas.  Those who come in and join in are welcomed more than those who come but remain apart!

Thoughts for the day are for the child who fell out of a coach on the A47 near King's Lynn yesterday and who is very ill in hospital and for the family of the man who died after completing the London Marathon yesterday.  

That was Sunday

Busy day.  Need some sleep - talk tomorrow xx

A couple of pictures

This one is a version of Noah's Ark that I borrowed from the chapel collection, and the FH loved.

And this is a fantastic Mike Judd picture on a Ravensburger puzzle that came from the village surgery yesterday morning - he has enjoyed this one so much that it was done in just over 24 hours!

There is so much to look at in this one - I shall keep my eyes open for more by this artist.

The FH's son has been here to see him tonight, so I have been the taxi service for him as he doesn't have any transport at the moment, and the girls made the tea for us all whilst I was fetching him.  He lives in a village with only a "One Stop" shop and a little Co-op so we went home via that supermarket as he had a £25 gift card to spend, and he wanted to stock up on some staples like oil and tins of beans and tomato puree that the little shops in the village charge a fortune for.  He does get a good supply of reduced-to-clear meat and veg there though so he doesn't do too badly!

Late to bed tonight....

You did ask!

A blue parrot will be winging [couldn't resist that one!] its way from Paris to the FH's son's home by Eurostar early next week - he found it on a free-ad on Gumtree!  A lady has had the parrot for a couple of years, but has had to be taken into residential care, we understand, where pets are not allowed.  Said parrot has a passport and has gone to Paris with the lady's daughter, but the daughter wants to re-home it in England because it speaks English - so the FH's son saw the ad and replied.  Being the only response, he has been weighed up and found suitable in this case, and the parrot will come by courier.  Apparently it has a good vocabulary and loves a shower......should be interesting to see it make friends with him, his terrapin, and his chinchilla - what a combination!  She's called Carla.

Edit - further investigations have proven this to be a scam........a warning to us all, but thankfully, he hadn't parted with any cash for the delivery.  One just has to google "parrot delivery scam" and a history of several years is revealed.  Likely that Carla doesn't even exist.

Bit of a difference

Had an offer today on Freecycle for "5 boxes of puzzles" which seemed like a very generous offer, and the girls were already thinking that some old lady had died and her children were moving on a stash of puzzles.  After all, "five boxes of puzzles" sounds quite different from "five puzzles", doesn't it?!  Turns out that it was just the five puzzles though.  The FH has instantly fallen in love with one of them, and it is next on the heap to be done.  I also picked one up at the doctor's surgery this morning, so he has enough to be going on with now for a week or so!

Cleaned out some chicken houses, cooked some tea, slept in the sun for 10 minutes, heard from the FH's son who now has a parrot on the way from Paris [don't even ask!] and have done two loads of washing and hung it out to dry in the lovely weather we have had today.

Cream crackered now, so off to bed.  Weekend tomorrow - hurray!

Bag lady

After loading up the car with old things and junk to take to the tip, I gently encouraged everyone to have a look through their wardrobes and see if they had anything to add to the donations heap for the charity shops which has been living at the bottom of the stairs for a month or so........little did I think that they would decide to become the fashion police and go through my wardrobe too - I had to fight to keep one or two pieces that I really liked, but they were fairly ruthless!  My wardrobe has been considerably thinned out now....

The utility room has shed two defunct dehumidifers, the verandah has been cleared of three old polystyrene incubators which had been attacked by a mouse, and some sheets and pillowcases that I was given have been re-gifted on to the charity shop.  Quite liberating, all this de-cluttering!

I have also lost three pounds in weight, according to the scales at the slimming club this afternoon - we went to the earlier session as we weren't bound by the YFG's piano lesson the way that we usually are.

The grass was also cut this morning, and two loads of washing hung out in the sunshine - what a glorious day we have had in the Fens today.  Driving through the fields this afternoon was lovely, but the oil seed rape does give off quite a pong, so I have to keep closing my window when we get too close to that.  The YFG has washed my car this afternoon too, so I was able to go out in a gleaming black vehicle.  Quite swish too.

The FH also got up for about an hour today and had a mooch around the garden whilst we were packing the car for the tip trip.  He was pleased to be able to walk around the garden in the sun, and enjoyed being up and about, but was glad to get back to bed to rest his legs again after his exploring session.

Hope you have all had a good day.  Craft Club and Worship Lunch in the morning, and then more de-cluttering in the afternoon, I hope xx

More moving on..

Yesterday was quite cathartic in a way - and all over a man with a van!  A transit came round, bearing a sign that scrap metal was wanted, so I leapt up from the table by the window where I was working and ran outside to stop him, because I knew we had some scrap to move on!  He soon loaded up some lengths of old aluminium that had been a trampoline, including the trampoline springs, and an old rotary washing line, and some lengths of some obscure metal from the FH's workshop.  I am so glad that we have finally got rid of the trampoline's remains, and the washing line as they had been cluttering up the garden all winter.......

AND I worked out how to post on Freecycle for jigsaws - just waiting for all the offers........but a local friend from chapel phoned yesterday to say that her relatives in the village have a stock of puzzles that the FH is welcome to borrow!  How kind was that?!  So we have another supply...

Hoping for more like this with plenty of detail

I made progress towards another of my goals yesterday by buying a bag of seed compost too!

I spent yesterday evening working my way through a huge heap of ironing and joining in with the YFG watching a little Suits marathon on Netflix.  She and the EFG have suddenly found this American series and are both working their way through the two series on the system - but not together!  Occasionally this means that I end up hearing [if not watching] the same episode twice.  Thank goodness that the young chap who is not a lawyer has a strong sense of right and wrong, although it mystifies me that he also seems to think it is ok to smoke some kind of green plant....that doesn't fit!

Early morning today as the YFG has to be in Peterborough for 9.30am for her physio appointment, and then we have to go to Cambridge this afternoon to have new impressions taken for replacement retainers from the orthodontist - I can't believe that they are going to charge me £67.50 for each one!  If she needs both, I shan't be too happy, but needs must.