Diary > Friday 23rd October

[louisa maud]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

I see my mother now in the mirror

LM

[roopat]

Caroline, I know what you mean about the skulls but my neighbour has been making masks throughout as well & she got requests from younger people/men for that type of pattern - she wasn't impressed but they were very popular. I think her OH said he wanted some too once he saw them. This was early on when some people (my brother, my son-in-law  ) were saying they would never wear one. So if it encourages the reluctant ones as a fashion statement - go for it!


By the way I'm always so impressed by how busy you are, what you achieve in a day takes me a week 


Pat

[Roobarb]

MH - I did wonder about it being police tape across the door but theirs is blue not red and I think bears a stronger message. Nothing in the local news about anything going on there. Having thought more about it, the tape wasn't across the door frame it was around the door itself and must have been fastened inside. I wondered later if it was something to do with Halloween but the rest of the house didn't have any decoration to suggest that.
How awful to be stung by a wasp, thank goodness it only got you once. Like Viktoria, I knew that the sting pulls a bee's innards out and then it dies, unlike a wasp that can have multiple goes. My knowledge is courtesy of the author Peter May, it was in his Coffin Road novel.

Viktoria, glad to hear you got the stain out of your rug, well done. Some of my paintings don't reproduce well, this particular one being a case in point, the tonal value of the colours doesn't always reflect the actual painting. But I'll see if I have one that reproduces better.

LM, I don't see my mother in the mirror (I've never looked like any of my family!) but I do find myself saying things that she did. I think once you get past forty you start to realise that your mother was actually right!

Pat - a good way of looking at the face mask issue, I hadn't thought of that, getting people to wear them can only be a good thing.

[Viktoria]

Well I always thought I was adopted, I mean ,no one understood me.
However, before I lost a lot of weight  ,a relative sent me a photograph of my maternal grandmother,I had not seen it before.
Gosh it was like looking in the mirror .
No one in Mum’s family had dark eyes,they come from my Dad,and the almost black hair .
Don’t know how old she was  in the photo  but she died in 1932 ,born 1866 so 66 when she died.
I now have pretty grey hair,I mean it is almost all grey —-far from pretty,knife and fork job!
My Mum was a good looking woman and my sister takes after her.
But ,sister thinks the  world  owes  her !
Still got very blue eyes that seem to sparkle ,mine are very dark brown but nowadays are like nothing on earth!
I am not too wrinkled but just look drawn, I really seriously need to get out in the fresh air more but these #££%£#£& eyes keep  me back so!It will be alright one day.
Dad was a handsome chap ,very dark hair and eyes.
Tesco delivery tomorrow, but I was amazed people can book so far ahead as Christmas !
I don’t know if Tesco is like that ,I hope not .
Another cuppa, and an extra hour in bed !
Cheerio folks .
Viktoria ,

[louisa maud]

Sleep tight Viktoria,  the hour I  guess plays havoc with  most of us , takes me time to get used to it

LM

[Mowsehowse]

QUOTE from VIKTORIA:  "Well I always thought I was adopted, I mean ,no one understood me.
However, before I lost a lot of wight ,a relative sent me a photograph of my maternal grandmother,I had not seen it before.  Gosh it was like looking in the mirror."

I am sure many of us can empathise Viktoria.
I well remember, in my early 50s, staggering up the stairs to bed after a night shift.
It was a 3 storey house and there was a large mirror on a vacant wall at the top of the stairs.
In passing I glanced at it, and almost fell backwards to see my mother there!
A horrible shock I can tell you, and not encouraging to my self confidence from then on.

[Viktoria]

I would be fairly old when the photograph was sent to me ,lost all the weight in 2009 ,after heart attack.Aged 72
Idid not need to do anything, it just seemed to drop off me ,from ten stones to eight stones  five pounds in months .
A drug called Clopidogrel seemed to be the reason. When I did not need that anymore the loss stopped. I am now a steady  nine stones.
I was six stones seven pounds when I married.
Stayed around eight stones but then got heavier ,under active thyroid diagnosed , did not get any heavier with medication but found it hard to lose any.
Then the HA.
But I would have been quite chubby when the photograph arrived.
She had twelve children , and  was a little role poly figure in the picture ,so similar there but it was her face ,——me!
I do feel I have put some on during lockdown ,must weigh myself .
Try very hard re sugar as not yet diabetic but levels were raised last blood test - 42.
Well Tesco comes today ,fridge all done, freezer organised and just a bit of washing ,but it can wait,in the fond hopes we might have a dry day in the near future .Weeeell ,it might happen you never know .!
Must get some fair sized plant pots, used up all my decent sized ones and still got things to be planted, then I place them among the perennials and evergreens .Black pots are not seen then they are moved when flowering over and more stuff put in,it saves planting  in error where I have forgotten  bulbs have established themselves.
Oh what pleasant problems a garden presents .
Cooked two steaks of Salmon yesterday ,had one with lemon butter sauce ,new potatoes little peas and French beans.
Second will be for tomorrow .This tea time it is gammon slice ,new potatoes ,peas and ——- Oh common as muck —— pineapple !,mushrooms .
Well this is not getting anything done , still feeding the fish , must pick the apples before any more fall ,good tidy up and rubbish out ,kitchen and bathroom bins washed ,then the day is mine to do ,nothing exciting at all!
Could start to write Christmas  cards ,have enough for friends and I could start to make nicer ones for family .
So cheerio girls, look forward to your daily happenings, it is a normality which is very steadying .
Kind regards to you all .Viktoria.

[Mowsehowse]

Clopidogrel didn't cause me to loose weight sadly. Just about stone would have been so helpful. Fortunately I more or less cut out sugar in 2018, so hopefully diabetes won't get me.....
I was thinking I should make a start on some Christmas cards......  great minds!! 

[Viktoria]

Wonder what it was then, the weight stopped dropping off soon after I was
taken off it ,when a really bad angina attack had me back in hospital.
But, come to think of it ,the  Consultant  also lowered the dose of Thyroxine
for the under active thyroid .
So perhaps that was it, my thyroid may have re acted too much to the usual dose, given I was then on so many more drugs so he lowered it and my weight has been a steady nine stones give or take a pound or so.
The thing is even at nine stones ,I look so different to the ten I was.

Well had a nice walk round the Cemetery .
Just one other person in,with two dogs,a Visla /Spaniel Cross and Labrador/ whippet Cross.
Spoke at a distance ,they seemed nice dogs ,but raring  to go on the adjacent playing fields.
Baked apple pie ,made custard .
Not hungry yet.
Early tea perhaps .
Just having a cuppa ,then kitchen sorted. It looks as if vandals have been in,!
Did a small load of washing. Just lightweight jumpers.On the line ,oooooh I love “pegging out “.
Time was you did not do that on a Sunday!My Methodist and Baptist ancestors would frown it !
Had a chat with a passerby ,” Ow do cock, ‘ow are yer ?Art askin ferit’rain?”
No, just giving them a blow whilst it is dry and breezy.

Son number two may call ,phone that is .

Well do a bit more , cheerio.
Viktoria.