Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 3 May 2020

Good Morning. Sunny here again, and a few more days like this, forecast. :-)

Annette, I hope your granddaughter has the dog and they both enjoy life together. Sounds like a great idea.

By the way, there have been reports here that people need to be urged to contact the doctors if they have chest pains or unexplained lumps or internal cramps, etc, as they are now worried that folks are not reporting what could be serious conditions -- the A&E Depts are only running at a quarter capacity for instance, and there are few new cancers being investigated. It's a worry that this could be a time bomb of future cancer cases and heart attacks waiting to happen as people are not reporting their symptoms for fear of going into hospital.

I have vivid, technicolor dreams, often. I have a vivid imagination and so my dreams match, with full, epic productions which sometimes include public figures, and members of my family both near and far - but this is nothing new for me, I save the world on a regular basis and wish I could bottle them and sell them - I would be wealthy indeed! Alas, Heather, don't think I've managed to have my legs both different colours yet..... LOL!!

Just had to sign in again, on my mobile now - well, it is Monday, LOL!

The flowering tree here is an Ash tree which my OH planted years ago,  after finding a baby sapling in our garden and replanting it here by a stream. We can see it from our house. The oak next to it sprang up in the meantime,  so they are quite close together but we hope that the oak will still be here in hundreds of years long after the Ash dies of old age!

I did put another pic on, too, but it hasn't appeared.... Grr .

Lindy: The trees are beautiful. Nice photo! Lovely to see a healthy Ash tree. Our Ash trees are all being destroyed by a non-native Ash Borer Beetle. The bug pests have destroyed tens of millions of ash trees in 30 states!

No, the farm is in the next village, Heather. But you could walk to it if you were energetic enough!! I never have, but I used to get on my bicycle to go & visit my in laws, years ago (no car in those days as my OH needed it to get to work.)

They (my in laws, that is) had a modern bungalow which was built on the fringes of the old farm, when we two got married and lived in the original farmhouse. Then, when the farm was sold they kept the bungalow to enjoy their last years in it. Another member of the family lives in that, now.

I've just been to see Sue, and take her some supplies. Also took a big cutting from our Lilac tree as I know she misses one she used to have in a previous house. My OH had sharpened her favourite carving knife so returned that. Stood in her driveway talking for half an hour, then got cold. Enjoyed the short drive there! - only a few hundred yards from The Farm, where she & my OH were born, together with their two sisters.

It must be lovely,,LINDY, to live near the farm. So many memories. My OH named our house here after the family farm in Aberdeenshire, or rather, the area where the farm was.
It is such a nice day here in Inverness and a couple more to come, I believe. I've been out in the garden, pulling weeds and pottering about. I hope to order some plants and compost online at the end of the week. They say that they will have begonias in stock, by then. Everything is later up here, as you would imagine.
My grandson Sam is 14 today. Hard to believe.....

The ash grove how graceful, how plainly 'tis speaking

The wind through it playing has language for me

When over its branches the sunlight is breaking

A host of kind faces is gazing at me.

The friends of my childhood again are before me

Fond memories waken as freely I roam.

With soft whispers laden the leaves rustle o'er me

The ash grove, the ash grove, alone is my home.

Oh my - memories of school singing lessons.  I gather there are at least two versions of this - and I didn't realize that it was written by Benjamin Britten.

Thanks Lindybird for those fond memories you triggered - and hallo to everyone else.

Annette - I couldn't remember the words, but as soon as I read your first line I started singing it. You're right about school singing lessons. That triggered another memory - I was at a boarding school (convent) for five years when I was far too young. Those of us who played the piano were sometimes called upon to play the piano for the morning service, and my abiding memory goes, 'All glory, laud and honour is Number ninety-eight'! Of course nobody uses that hymn book any more (Ancient and Modern) - but I have a copy, and it is!!!