No not impressed

All over various sites there has been a makeover more like a whitewash...
Facebook rolled out its bland makeover, Google followed suit and there's whitewash everywhere.
I prefer pages like newspaper pages with proper distinct columns and breakpoints.
Obviously my age is telling again.

Deja vu

It must be because I have reached a certain time in life that I get an increasing sense of deja vu...
Recently a TV presenter was complimented on her apparel...but to me it seemed nothing new...just a reappearance of a style by Mary Quant.
Now there are reports of hosepipe bans and what 'to do'.


In certain water company areas: Anglian Water, Southern Water, South East Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Thames Water, Veolia Central and Veolia Water East, hosepipes may no longer br used for
• Watering your garden
• Cleaning a private vehicle, taxi or minicab
• Watering plants 
• Cleaning a private leisure boat
• Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
• Domestic recreational use
• Filling or maintaining a domestic pond using (unless it has fish – see below)
• Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain – including those powered by a pump.
• Cleaning walls, or windows, patios, paths, garden furniture or any other outdoor artificial surface


At times like this it's good to live in the wetter west...
And I've been thro' all this before...
May 1975 - August 1976 - when you were a good citizen if your vehicle was covered in grime, showing it had not been washed.
Standpipes were erected in some areas and people queued to use them.
A minister encouraged people to 'bath with a friend'.
Standpipes reappeared in some areas in the 1995 drought.


So, 2012 is another 'drought year'... Hey ho history repeating...
Whilst water companies continue to lose thousands of litres of water thro' leakages...
People 'insist' on being profligate with water...showering several times a day, wearing clothing once before washing (some even wash articles that have only been tried on). 
Water usage increases, so does wastage...

It used to rile me when camping in Cornwall with notices everywhere saying to 'Save Water!' to notice how many people turned taps on and left them running (teeth cleaning)...

April come she will...

Sayre wrote a while ago...
Spring is in the air!!! What is it that you look forward to the most once the frost-date has passed?
We don't have a 'frost date' as such. Frosts can and do occur as late a June (ground frost).

Daffydowndillies

A bank of bluebells

The gracious magnolia - over all too soon

Fruit trees in blossom

This is my choice of images to show typical English Springtime flowers... 

Open Uni

And the Result...

Oh Yes!!!

Wednesday

is shopping day and sometimes time to top up with fuel.
Having made our purchases and put them in the car we went for fuel. Something was not quite right.
Usually there are four lines of traffic and an 'express' lane. Today there was one lane plus the 'express' and notices saying 'no unleaded petrol'. 
The lady in front pulled up at the pump, got out and went to the cashier, then came back. By now OH was topping up with diesel. So, lady made a point of telling him 'did you know there's no fuel here'? I could not keep my face straight as he told her, 'It's okay, they have diesel'. A most perplexed lady got back in her car and left. 
On the way home we passed another filling station with a queue of traffic waiting on the road to get on the forecourt and go to the pumps. A while later OH went out again and on his return said that that filling station was now closed.


(Reuters) - The government urged the public to fill up with petrol on Wednesday ahead of an impending strike by tanker drivers that could see stocks run dry, but was branded irresponsible by petrol retailers who said the government was creating a crisis.

apropos

of a 'conversation' elsewhere...
One of the enduring delights of retirement is to throw out work clothes and never purchase or wear their like ever again.
I remember OH getting rid of his sports jackets and boxed shirts. Work-wear was to look smart in sports jacket, trousers, shirt and tie (double Windsor).
Now he's happy to don denim trousers, t-shirt, sweatshirt or sweater.


When I first started at work women were not allowed to wear trousers except as a trouser suit. If the weather was inclement and you wore boots, they had to be taken off at work and proper shoes put on. A member of the management team told another newcomer that if she could not afford shoes a temporary loan might be had to purchase some!


How happy was I when the dress code was relaxed to include 'smart' trousers. Wearing trousers was preferable and more convenient. 

In the early days I often used to make my own clothes.

Spring forward this weekend?

Or, more precisely...
Let's go an hour ahead of GMT...


Seems Mother Nature is thinking even further ahead if these images are anything to go by...

Daffadowndilly looking a picture in subtle yellows

Camellias are almost over, only a few buds left to flower.

White star-shaped scilla

Bring on the magnolias...

What a day for...

finishing off an assignment and treating myself to a dose of relaxation...


OH has got gardening 'fever' hardly anything that can be pruned has escaped being 'scalped'.
We have a recycling collection fortnightly. The last was last Friday. Hey ho! OH has already filled one of the bins to the brim. Fortunately, we have two or three, three if you count next door and 'more' if you include other nearby neighbours. He's also mown the lawn and applied feed and weed. The onion bed has been planted, but according to M, OH has also planted some shallots (groan). Here was me thinking blissfully 'no more shallots'. They are a 'pain' requiring 'topping and tailing' as well as peeling. I thought with my passive resistance I'd convinced him not to grow any this year.


So, as a reward for getting on with my eTMA I shall treat myself to some knitting and perhaps some crochet.

Three years ago

a lovely, bubbly, delightfully out-going friend...

Died.

Our 'briilant' NHS failed her. She'd been sent as the saying goes 'from pillar to post'. Appointments had been made, only to be cancelled again and again. In the meantime dear Liz struggled with everyday life and hoped 'they' would make her better.

Then, the operation was scheduled on Friday 13th March. Dearest Liz went for her operation and it was then that we lost her...

RIP my dear friend.

What a silly illustration? But one my dear friend would have appreciated so well.

and today

has been spent reading with a break for carpet cleaning...
Postie arrived early bringing a book from the Saint book store, Southport. Not a books on shelves and go browse place, but a repository of texts accessible via Abebooks online. Double bonus, usually new books at discount prices with further discount when accessed via Topcashback.
Why carpet cleaning? I have a snazzy machine from Bissell which deep cleans and uses a formula containing cleaner and protector. OH let Z-dog in without paw cleaning and there was therefore a set of dog footprints in mud to be cleaned away. Why get down on hands and knees when you can use in succession the vacuum cleaner followed by the carpet cleaner. So for a while all smells cleaner and less 'doggie'.

Life like Flanders and Swann

Feeling sorry for neighbour who is enduring her personal version of Flanders & Swan 'gas man' song.
Gas supply is 'inadequate' not enough from the mains...
So, no gas yesterday and still none today. She's got two small fan heaters and a hotplate to cope with. 
Men in fluorescent jackets have taken up residence outside her house and are 'digging to Australia' thro' the pavement.

'Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call. The gas tap wouldn't turn - I wasn't getting gas at all. Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.'

When you remember that she is blind and finds great difficulty coping with any changes in routine; I really hope they hurry up and let her get back to normal. 

P.S. intermittent posting here now have begun blog for latest OU course.

It can pay to ask...

My latest in a long, long line of courses in my OU studies commences today. SXN390 Science in Society project. 
Mid-January notification of tutor allocation; ought not to have been problematic but it was...why?
Reason being the said tutor lives in Galway, Ireland. Beautiful place and all that. but any phone-calls would be prohibitively  expensive. Seeing as this course is more dependent than most on tutor contact this information was worrying.
Typically, I had to investigate further, well why else have access to the world-wide web.
Having honed my skills over the years, I soon found out that not only was the tutor in Ireland, but specialises in Chemistry and Education. Whoa! Not promising especially as tutor also has a Ph.D.


This knowledge set the alarm bells ringing. Okay, I have no axe to grind with folk being highly educated, but I'm not including any chemistry in my project. Last year's tutor was chemistry Ph.D. as I found to my cost we were not on the same wavelength. So, I phoned learning support over a period of a week and a half without reply. In desperation, I sent an email and a lovely lady called Sue worked her magic. Today, when I logged on I found my tutor is in the Lancaster area and has listed a phone number, cell phone number and email address.
So, it pays to ask...please might I have a tutor located on mainland UK instead of one in Ireland? Thank you ever so much Sue.

Happy now!

As the weatherman said...

There's a large area of high pressure over Russia, Scandinavia and central Europe. It's so large and such a heavy airmass it could stay for a while.

So, Jack Frost is here to stay for a while. Not only nipping at fingers and toes, but jamming locks and making it treacherous underfoot. On a brighter note...tis a lovely, sunny day!


Dear Mr. Weatherman, I know you have forecast snow for overnight, please let it pass by and head further inland.

Dearest OU

 my old friend, my old bacteria (apols Charteris) the c*ourse has not begun yet and am already at screaming pitch.
"log format is not mandatory" but "I prefer portrait orientation" we'd prefer "not to waste time trying to understand a unique format."
Yes your log is personal to you...



Oh and by the way...you know my polite request, followed up a week later by phone-call...?
It is two days to the start of my Course and I still have no tutor...

at long last

MJM got together for coffee, laughter and to 'put the world to rights'...


The charity has benefited from some unwanted Christmas presents which added another £300 to the funds. 
One is a tea/breakfast collection from us which is to be raffled next month. Am still puzzling why we received it as our friends know we only keep tea for visitors; neither of us would drink it by choice.
M is busy knitting chicks and the other M is tasked with adding their beaks. M's friend in Orkney posted a parcel to her; and as both Ms were out it was left with us. Turns out is contained creme eggs, hundreds of them as fillers for the knitted chicks.


I really ought to pick up my knitting again soon...


Have been browsing the Lowry theatre website looking for musicals. Starlight Express returns in June; hope I can convince my theatre-going friend to see it again.

Eventful...

My school friends and I are of a 'certain generation' and this year sees another milestone in our lives.
God-daughter is excellent at planning and organising. Knowing of the approaching milestone, she began planning last July and it all came to fruition on January 20th.

Her Dad is well-accustomed to public speaking and being Master of Ceremonies.

Between them they convinced my friend that she was being taken to Scotland to celebrate her birthday.

Standing on the left of this photo is my friend and focus of the celebrations.

H grandmother to my god-daughter who greeted me with 'You must join the family table'.

In any gathering there has to be one with the mulligrubs. 

Too old to be with the younger children, but, not old enough to party with the older teens.

Time it was...

I have a photograph from twenty years ago...

Grey showing in his beard has become white and so has his hair. I gave up perming my hair when I retired 10 years ago.
Wishing Happy Birthday to my bff who has her birthday on Monday...

This

was going to be yet another forray into sadness, bitter-sweet times past. Then I ventured into Facebook to find one of my OU and click of the mouse friends had put up some photos.
Thanks to Susan England for giving me permission to borrow from her set of photos. 


A long, long time ago before colour photography became commonplace, let alone the marvels of digital imagery, I visited Coventry cathedral as part of a youth group. I remember the awe in the truest sense of the word when I first set eyes upon the tapestry.

Graham Sutherland tapestry

The city of Coventry was blitzed in WWII. Amongst the devastation was the ancient cathedral. As with other blitzed cities a decision was made to incorporate the old with the new. 

This year marks the cathedral's Golden Jubilee.

January

Two-faced Janus
Harbinger of sorrows
Memories of departed friends and family.


Why must you haunt the year's beginnings?


Birthday month riddled with deaths.
One by one the days arrive,
Each with a death tag...


Birthday month for self and friends.
Why must death drown out all celebrations?


'Come, celebrate with us!'
Celebration?
Not for this traveller; locked in an enduring embrace with her ghosts.


@2012

Wordless Wednesday

One of my friends with grandson #2

Little Sweetie another friend's daughter

With her mother and brother.