HAPPY NEW WEEK and HAPPY NEW MONTH!
I hope everyone has a wonderful and healthy week, and I hope you all have a lovely March. Roll on spring!!!
Here's a photo of some Northern Cardinals in this past week's Indiana snow storm. HERE I have several pairs of these on my patch.
Morning all: OG: That leg pain sounds just awful; bad enough by itself but when you can't sleep...... Hope you can enjoy lunch tomorrow. Lindybird: Funny you mention bird baths. We had a mystery here Sunday morning: Late Saturday afternoon I cleaned out the fountain and filled it up - it has an upper small bowl and a larger lower one that hold multiple gallons. Next morning, I was chatting to my sister in the UK and looked out the window to see the lower bowl was almost empty. I've never seen the level drop so suddenly. I wondered if I had the pump set too high and the water was just splashing out but no - I filled it up again and there was no excessive splashing. Made sure it was topped up Sunday night and it's been okay since then. I can only think an elephant poked its trunk over the wall sometime Saturday night and sucked up all the water..... The only other possible explanation would seem to be that a family of raccoons had stopped by (some years back I awoke to find the heavy top bowl had been toppled over), but none of the ladders and other perches where the little birds perch over the water were disturbed.... All quite odd.
I have a few minutes to finish my Travel Tips. On the plane: These days, we're told we can only have one carry on bag, on most airlines. The best solution is to have a bag within a bag. I use a small plastic carrier bag, with a gusset so that it will stand up unaided, but you could use a small handbag. Fill this with everything Wanted on the Voyage, so to speak. I put in my Kindle, a puzzle book, biro, packet of paper hankies, hand wipes, small bag of jelly babies, purse in case I need to buy a drink, and some sheets of kitchen paper. My OH has his book, a newspaper, a soduko book and a biro. We whip these out as soon as we find our seats, and then put our luggage away in the locker. Your small bag can then sit on the floor by your feet - they never give you enough storage space on the back of the seat in front of you. After a while, my OH only has to open his bag to remove our food, which we take because we're not fond of airline grub. We usually have cheese or egg sandwiches and a bag of crisps. But.... take note of what is wafting by your ear, as sometimes we have to buy a meal on the return journey if we can't grab a bought sandwich. So we study what other people have, and make a mental note of whether we fancy any, later. We put our sandwiches into plastic boxes which are very useful later on, to keep biscuits or leftovers in. It doesn't matter, by the way, which seats we're allocated as they all have advantages and disadvantages - the inner seats means one of us can loll by the window, but the outer seats mean you can stretch out one leg at least, if you're tall like my OH. Also, you can stand up when you want (good for your health) and go to the loo without asking! We don't even care if we're split up, which doesn't happen very often anyway. ----------- --------- --------- ------------ ---------- I always take a piece of hand luggage with tiny wheels, these days, to save trying to carry it a long way. My OH carries his passport in a small pouch around his neck as he often loses it (he can lose it in a walk of about five yards.....) and I carry a large purse with my passport, money and credit cards. Money: Years ago we heard a TV expert talking about money abroad. We need various kinds, anyway, when we go Self Catering. He advocated not putting all your eggs in one basket, so we take some Euros, or whatever the countries currency is, plus some British currency (useful on the plane) our credit cards, a Bank Card for our joint account, and a debit card which you can load up with Euros before you go, and then spend in shops and restaurants. We used to have one from Thomas Cook, but alas they are no more, so now we have one from Tui. If you have money left on it when you return, you can either draw it out or leave it in ready for the next trip. If we have a lot of actual currency, I have a soft pouch to put some of this in, around my waist, and my OH has some in his wallet, too. That way we never lose the lot! Of course, a whole lot of these things go into the safe once we reach our destination.
I don't make lists, any more. We've been so often that I just do some imagining about what we might wear in different situations. I do take a medicine box, which is an old ice cream carton with plasters, paracetamol, sting relief, mosquito repellant, etc. My OH hates having to buy anything we might need, apart from food! Once, someone said to me, "Well, you don't need to stress about forgetting anything, you can buy new shorts when you get there, if you need!" I was silent, as the very thought would be The End of the World...... he once forgot his toothbrush and was grumpy all day because he had to buy one :-D