Diary > Sunday 8th November

[Viktoria]

Lovely to read all your posts and  the many activities.
Well shed cleaned out, the bird food is now in a metal container with another inverted over and a full brick on top.
The trap is the only source of food now ,soooo!
Someone along the road has some timber etc stored from a job in the back lane ,have started moving it so just perhaps the rat had nested there and had been disturbed, it has only been gnawing through door last week.
BUT ,it is the obnoxious owner of the dipped kerb!So I am saying nowt,!
For many and varied reasons!

Just been reading up re slow cooker loin of pork not - tenderloin - I can cook
the crackling with roast potatoes.
You see I am planning already, time to put the sprouts on!
Apple sauce is in freezer , made as apples ripened .
So not much more to do! 

All bulbs planted,some shrubs pruned ,must do the purple leaved hebes at the front garden ,getting leggy, should have been done in Sept.
Need a tall thin Italian conifer taking out ,too near a lovely Firethorn full of
berries,If birds come I won’t be able to see them.
The conifer could be planted in my little shrubbery,different heights and textures are more interesting.
Stripped bed but weather changed suddenly so washing waiting now ,quite dark ,and black clouds.
Must add to my Tesco list , I am well stocked up but an appeal letter came  today ,I think a very nice neighbour popped it in the letterbox ,she gave me a kit, exercises, puzzles ,suggestions etc for housebound people in this difficult time .From a local Church group
When I had my virtual tea party I gave her some chocolate cake , and some groceries for a collection for disadvantaged families.
I will get some extras this time and give them to her.
She attends the church from where the appeal has come .
What a lot if good kind people there are about .

A Big Bang this morning woke me up. In my sleepy state it sounded like my neighbour had fallen in her bathroom ,which is the other side of my bedroom wall ,
Dashed downstairs ,her blinds and curtains not open,so phoned, no answer ,!
Then it came again, but was obviously not upstairs ,went out of the kitchen
door and it was workmen shifting the huge planks etc from the back lane and letting them fall on to my gable wall, !Such  a bang!
Said nothing as did not want more trouble from you know who!
Such disregard though for others’ property .
Spoke to next door neighbour a bit later and all is well.
Daughter phones tonight ,has decided to close the franchise as you know, customers not taking things seriously.She needs a break. Only very recently got her B12 ,so long without it is not remedied by one injection.
Nice to read all your news , and walks, gardening ,sewing ,baking,cooking,etc.
Just wonder how the gents are coping , well mine would be watching TV,Telegraph cryptic crossword.Washing up ,vacing  my rooms which would be round by now!( never moved anything ) 
And just being here , but as to essential hospital visits?
Was in heart failure so sadly I often wonder how I would have coped if he had lived longer and his funeral so limited as now .

Well bathroom floor dry by now so will put down two new mats I got to match the newly painted walls.
Not had lunch , not hungry but will have a common as muck huge mug  of LadyGrey orange tangy tea..
Must drink enough .Or I might go funny!!!
Cheerio ,see you later no doubt.
Viktoria.








again,

[louisa maud]

I am really fed up, rang my Dr early this morning, an automated phone call, spoke to no one in person, asked for date my  of birth of birth, postcode and telephone number, I never heard if my name was asked for, recorded voice said they would ring me back, so just stayed indoors doing silly things to be alert for a phone call, did I have one, no I  didn't  so I am feeling decidedly disappointed , well tomorrow is another day

LM

[Mowsehowse]

SO disappointing for you Louisa.
Suggest you phone early, and then march into the surgery if you aren't getting the service you require.

[louisa maud]

Can march but I'm told the doors are locked, don't want a flat or broken nose by marching and can't stop!!!,   will ring early
LM

[Mowsehowse]

Wishing you luck and thinking of you.

[Viktoria]

You see , like me , you believe people even automated thingies .
If I say I will do something it nags at me until I have done it.!

But it is dangerous that such a supposed service is not there!
An advert on TV ,Lloyd’s Pharmacy ,” Free delivery” ——-
Well, I have just paid £60 for a year’s delivery,  hitherto it has been free and I must say they are marvellous .
So why the advert?
I am annoyed now.

When I talk about believing people ,When about twelve ,on a holiday with the kind people who I was evacuated with.
My play friends had a cat, it had kittens ,five and one was a gorgeous blue/ grey.
They were too young for me to have one and take back to Manchester .
However I wanted one so much ,the grey, so the teenage son of the cat’s owner said he would cycle from Shropshire and bring it to me.
I believed him.
He would only be able to come on a Sunday .Every Sunday I waited and waited and waited ,eventually I realised he would not come .
By that time the kitten would have been fully grown!!!
Well myOH being him, drove us down,as we often did, when it was my50th
Birthday.Guess what , a cat of an old lady had grey kittens,I got one Sian,
I had only waited about forty years for her.
Sadly ,got run over—- I phoned thr people with whom I had lived abd yes there was another litter and they would ask for one to be kept for me .
Not sure why there were grey ones,seemingly a British Blue had got about a
bit! But as a child I remember grey cats and kittens.
The replacement for Sian( oh she was such a super little cat ,woke me up each morning by getting under the duvet at the bottom ,wriggling up and buffing me on the nose!
Ashley was the new one, a long rangy cat.Sian had been chunky ,cobby
He lived to be 18.I took photographs of him “ watching” the goldfish in the little pond.He was not looking his sleek best ,a week or two later he was
Doing the same but dipping a paw in the water and shaking it as if to say       “   That water us Wet!.” I was shocked at the big change.
Eating well, never ever an accident in the house, but so thin and his coat dull.
Vet’s tests, etc and lots starting to go wrong , liver function over active thyroid and heart murmur.
So sudden it seemed .
On advice he was put to sleep ,purring as I stroked him.
Oh dear I will have upset you cat lovers now .
But 18 years , Not an overly cuddly cat ,but was 11 weeks when we got him.
When we came back  from holidays he would be waiting and purred and purred.My good neighbour had
 fed him twice daily and sat with him,,one of those quiet people cats like.
He was named after Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind .
Gentle .
Well this is not getting  anything done !
Cheerio. See you later!
Viktoria.

[Caw1]

Oh Viktoria my heart goes out to you remembering you little cats, they sound lovely and so pleased that having waited for 40 years you finally got your cat... what a lovely hubbie you had...
My son and DiL had three cats when they moved to NZ that DiL rescued with the mother... they were wild cats especially the mother who the vet advised them to have her put to sleep as she’d never be tamed....
The kittens they kept and were quite a challenge... Jemima, Squeaky and Houdini ...sadly J got run over but the other two have given them much pleasure....
Houdini named for obvious reasons and Squeaky too.
When they moved from NZ to OZ the cats went too! 
They are always wary of people still after all these years (17) sadly H developed cancer and first had one ear removed then in the end was put to sleep, so now just S left who is ‘an old lady’ according to my son! They both dote on her and nothing is too much trouble including him building steps up to his desk as she can’t jump up as well these days! This is where she spends her days lying on his desk whilst he works or if he’s in his workshop on DiL’ s desk as she has steps up to hers too!
They will be devastated when she eventually goes.... they have no children so the cats have been their life....
When we talk to him the cats spends all her time walking in front of the screen and meowing as if she’s talking... funny to watch... he tickles under the chin and if he stops she put her paw on his hand so he resumes.... true love I think...

 Sorry to hear too that your chemist is now charging for delivery of medicines ... has the chemists got a new owner perhaps with new ideas....

 Caroline

[Mowsehowse]

I love it that your son's cat has her own steps to help her access things Caroline.

So sad your tale about the kitten Viktoria.  I very hard lesson learned, and I bet it had a profound effect on your levels of trust, in every area of your life, but at least you got one eventually.

I watched my kitten being born in Jubilee year. He was coal black and I named him Shadow.  I had him about 10 years.  Shadow didn't need help to access anything he found interesting and he was a rogue. 
One Christmas I made a nut loaf especially for my SiL who was a vegetarian.  I left it decorated with pastry holly leaves, ready egg washed on the top of the cooker to pop in the oven at the right time.  When I went back several of the leaves were missing, and SiL was in the living room. 
What could I do?   
I quickly repaired the damage with some extra leaves and whacked it in the oven.
It was well received, and no-one got sick!! 

[louisa maud]

My parents always  had cats,  mostly ginger , one we called Wuffy, goodness knows where that came from , he died after apparently  a man over the back garden threw a brick at him, mum couldn't prove it so the nasty man got away with it  , then we had Pickles
My father was a  groom working for the United dairies and the dairy cat had a litter of kittens, poor Mary was very ill and so  dad brought her home,  kittens never came home, we nursed her back to health and no doubt she went back to catch more mice in the stables, then came a beautiful  tabby, we named him Teddy as she strutted about, every spring and autumn he lost all his fur around his neck,  my dad made an ointment to use, didn't work and the vet advised that we put him to sleep as it would happen every rise and fall of the leaf and he could do no more
My uncle worked in a factory and they found 2 kittens, brought them  home for us to choose one, well my mum couldn't choose one and kept the 2, they were supposed to be wild cats, they were what was called blue and white, not grey, both of these cats my mum put in the Chelsea cat show and she won prizes with them, they were beautiful cats
We all got attached to each and everyone of these cats plus a dog we had, everytime  one died it was heartbreaking but we will outlive our animals in most cases, enjoy them whilst we can.
Since I married I have never had animals except my daughter had a rabbit,  we have so many cats around her that mess in my garden, why not there own?, and now we have dogs barking, I never wanted an animal to annoy anyone else, no one else seems to think their barking dogs are a problem, of course they don't,  they are out and we have to listen to them barking
On a light hearted note on TV  recently someone called their Dalmatian Measles, what a hoot?

LM