What AM I doing Today in the World?

[Horus]

Not a lot going on today, just arrived back from an uneventful shopping trip, will make myself a coffee and catch up on here. Hopefully I will finish off the garden planting today, it was delayed due to the local Moggies deciding that my newly compost filled little rock enclosed flower bed would make a good toilet. So yesterday I had to buy some plastic coated rectangular mesh which I have cut and shaped to lie flat on the soil, hopefully that will deter them and I can still plant through the wires and it should not stop bulbs from growing through, time will tell.

[Ruby Slippers]

With much trepidation I finally got to the dentist today. Where I thought I needed a filling turned out that I don't! In fact, no work was suggested, apart from treatment for receding gums - which I turned down. At my advanced age, I don't see the point to paying out possibly an eye-watering amount of money for something that has no effect anyway! The dentist seemed to agree with me so didn't push it. He did offer to send me to the hospital to have X-rays taken of the problem though, but I turned that down too. I have an instant gagging reflex when I get anything near the back of my mouth, which means that the dentist couldn't get any. Apart from that, nothing to be done!

[LovelyLadyLux]

What I AM doing is rolling on the floor in fits of laughter over our Prime Minister being caught out wearing black face although the News media is trying to minimize it by calling it BROWN face.

Our PM already said this was a sole incident when in fact there are several photos and videos of him dancing and pracing around with his face, neck, hands all browned up.

Of course he is apologizing, apologizing, apologizing ........ BUT he ALWAYS apologizing for EVERYTHING!!

[Grandad]

@LovelyLadyLux
LLL, this has all been reported on our news but I confess that I didn't listen to the reports. Was he not simply attending a fancy dress event and had gone as Ali Baba complete with turban. Am I missing something? If it was fancy dress, what is wrong with dressing as whoever you wish or is this another example of PC gone crazy????

My morning blog.
I often make a fequent trip to Sainsburys Local, about 1.4 miles round trip. This is a small store with a complete range food and drink products. It operates as a 'Corner Shop' and on Sundays is open from 7 am to 11 pm, contrary to most Sunday trading hours. But, you do need to watch the prices because they are generally higher than the main supermarket store.

I had another example things being different this morning. On yesterdays shopping trip my wife was given the usual bunch of various money off vouchers at checkout, most of which she throws away because they are for products that she doesn't buy. One of them was for a 'Free' tub of ice cream as a reward for being a regular customer. As I was going to the 'Local' store I took the vouch to get some ice cream. The tub was marked up at £4.50 which should have been charged then credited at check out.
BUT, only a credit of £2.50 was made. I challenged this and a staff member gave me the additional £2. It simply occurred to me that there seems to be different rules for the main stores and the convenience store of the same high street brand???


To close, I travel down the edge of a large field. This was one of the pastures of the farm that I mentioned earlier in the week. It is a huge field, probably 10 acres, which is cared for and kept well cut by the council for use as a recreation space. They do five a side and other field games on it.

To give some idea of size, in the picture below the path lit by the row of lamp posts to the right is 300 metres which I have measured with a sat nav app. Nice bright and sunny day today.

IMG_20190920_101718.jpg

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Grandad re: our fearless clown of a leader - there is more than 1 photo. Lots of them and - it isn't the clothes it is the blacking/browning up of your face to me. If it had of been me going to a costume ball (well "I" would NEVER go to something like that as it isn't me) I may have well dressed up but I sure would NOT have blacked my face ever. This happened 2001, he was 29 yrs old and a teacher sooooooo I'm darn sure he 'knew' or 'should have known' if he was perceptive at all that in 2001 this was considered totally taboo in our societies here.

If this photo was from even the 1960ies or 1970ies it could be taken as something that happened "then" but by early 2001 IMO it was pretty mainstream culture here in North America (pretty much all USA & Canada) that this sort of thing was taboo. I really don't believe this is PC culture gone crazy.

The picture of this morning he is wearing a sweat shirt of the photo of the Last Supper with emojiis over the faces. Not that I am religious at all but if you are (right or wrong) how can you actually WEAR something that is insulting to a group of people? Even it is a group that I don't really ascribe to...

71750926_10217827984684432_6034119753105145856_n.jpg

Personally nobody would be able to force me to wear this type of clothing ever. It is just too biased and insensitive however it sure doesn't seem to bother our fearless leader. He seems naive to how his actions and behaviors affect others.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Today I'm delivering a chain saw over to my gf en route to me getting groceries so her husband can see if he can fire it up and use it cause they need to cut down a tree by their driveway that is starting to lift up the pavement. They had a tree topping company come in and they brought it down about half way but the tree is growing better than ever. They'll work away at it then I'll go and pick it up tomorrow over luncheon they're hosting

[LovelyLadyLux]

Today and I guess it is Sunday albeit 4am Sunday - heard a noise, woke up but didn't see anything, couldn't go back to sleep so am now sipping some tea in hopes I might get tired enough to go back to sleep. The implanted tooth has been bothering me a bit (fair amount of pain) so I haven't really been sleeping overly well anyway these past couple of nights but overall is getting better - just want it to get better fast(er) than it is happening.

Watching "Zoo Diaries" on TV right now. I find it fascinating how they train wild animals to respond to various beeps and buzzers so as to be able to manage them in captivity.

[Horus]

I was awoken very early this morning due to heavy rain and lightning after what had been a really lovely day but Annie had decided that I should also be made aware of this phenomenon even though I was out like a light at the time. Earlier that day I had met up at my sons house and we all (he, myself and between us 3 dogs) piled into his car and drove to a lovely reservoir surrounded by woodland walks. It is a 9 kilometres walk around the reservoir (5.6 miles) and it is very pleasant, some parts are shaded by trees and others are open paths alongside meadows, all of it is safe enough to allow dogs off their leads apart from in a couple of places. The path varies from flat to some uphill and downhill and although it can be a bit tiring on some of those sections it is never too hard of a going. It is very popular especially on a nice weekend and the first mile or so is often busy with people picnicking and walking with children, but it gets less crowded as you go further around towards the dam wall at the opposite end. It is a very irregular shape and you cannot see from one end to the other as large inlets go off at various places meaning you are sometimes going East, West or South. It is a bit of a haven for wildlife and the authorities have made several ‘Butterfly Beaches’ to attract the various species that live in the area, the photograph of the sign shows some of them. During our walk we did see several Red Admirals, one of my favourites and for some reason they have been quite rare this year. We finished our walk with a pint of ‘Old Speckled Hen’ beer on draught at ‘The Lazy Trout’ pub and it was very welcome, I could have stayed in the pub longer but I was having to drive home afterwards, so just the one pint. Annie was flat out when we arrived back home and only woke up for her dinner, I enjoyed a nice big salad and in the evening I relaxed in front of the TV with a bottle of Merlot although I found myself nodding off so went to bed earlier than usual and there I stayed until my little friend decided I should see the thunderstorm.

[Grandad]

So far we have missed the rain H but I think there could be some on the way. I am aware that you have many reservoirs and dams in your local counties. It is much flatter in the south east so we don't have any reservoirs high enough to produce pressure for local towns.
Water for the city is pumped up to a water tower which is on the highest point locally to produce pressure for the mains supply to the city. It can be seen on the horizon to the right in this picture.

20140408 Views from the Mound-029.JPG

To get the picture I had to climb to the top of 'The Mound' which is IN the city and reputedly an ancient burial mound or possibly a defensive position. This is The Mound.

1004060030.JPG

SO, on balance, I think you are very fortunate to have so many lovely places to visit 'Up North' But I think we are also fortunate to have the whole of the Kent coast within a 15 mile radius.
Making the 'Butterfly Beaches' is such a good environmental idea. I agree that there has been a big reduction in butterflies this year except for the 'Whites' that seem to survive whatever the conditions. I have talked about planting some Buddleia on the bank to attract butterflies. So far, Mrs G has objected calling them 'bombsite weeds'. It is true that they grew in abundance on bombsites, however I think I have won her round and some bushes will be planted in the early spring.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Horus and @Grandad - Terrific photos from both of you and interesting tidbits of your local history.

That is quite interesting they made butterfly beaches. I wish they'd do that here. I personally grow a couple buddleia bushes in hopes of attracting butterflies however mostly I get the small white ones. The neighbour next to me has an absolutely huge one. He cut it down last year so it could re-grow and it did very well this year.

Not too sure what woke me up last night but fell asleep again around 5am and woke up 9am to medium rain and quite overcast day. Not too sure what all I'm going to be up to today probably not too much. Maybe will find a good movie on Netflix.

[Horus]

Yes we have noticed all you Southerners stealing our water Grandad

[FABlux]

We had rain!! OK the first lot started at 9.05 and ended 9.25 but it resumed about 10.45 for another couple of hours. Not very heavy but enough to almost fill the 320 litre water butt from the garage roof & give the plants a nice drink. Ground is dry now but the soil still looks moist. Spent the time indoors doing tackling the ironing mountain

[Grandad]

What do you think of this folks?
Isn't it the coolest mobility scooter around?
Claimed range well over 30 miles.
Full lighting kit and a lockable storage compartment.
4 and 8 mph so it is pavement and street legal
I am thinking of getting one but I have to convince Mrs G that I NEED it first.

Mobility Trike.jpg

[Horus]

Looks more like a Vespa scooter Grandad, go for it

[FABlux]

Grandad of course you need it. You need to be able to drive 30 miles whilst being legal.

[Grandad]

It actually has 3 gears. The third gear gives max speed of 16 mph but that is not legal in the UK but it is in Europe? In the UK that has to be locked so it can't be used.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Grandad That scooter looks pretty rad. Gorgeous colour and red always make everything look fast.

On a more serious note though it looks fairly narrow (and maybe that is just the angle of the photo). If it is narrow would it give a good stable ride? And I'm assuming it doesn't disassemble so must be a much heavier model than the one you can fit into a trunk/boot. All is all it definitely looks pretty neat.

[LovelyLadyLux]

What I did today was get up at 3:30am and head to the Ferry and am now watching TV in a hotel in Bellingham. Shopped through a few of my favouite stores here today. Found almost nothing of interest but did buy 2 16gb cards for the twins camera and another new 32gb for mine.

By afternoon it started to rain fairly hard so I headed here and checked in early.

Tomorrow in the afternoon I head over to the Dermatologist for a skin check. Fun stuff but will shop in the morning as I need to buy thread for sewing and a few other sewing supplies.

[Kiya]

@Grandad It looks super , go for it, I'm sure you could get round Mrs G

[Grandad]

Looks more like a Vespa scooter Grandad, go for it

@Horus
It is not far off H. Even has twistgrip throttle and lever breaks.
I am very tempted. They are also available in blue and white but the red version is 'the business' for me.

@LovelyLadyLux
LLL, I do agree that the C of G is quite high, and it is only 26" wide, but that is something to keep aware of. I call it 'Managing Risk', you are aware of risks and work within them. Otherwise we may as well stay at home all day.

Gotta live a little