WEEKLY CHAT (NON-OSPREY) SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Good Morning. A bit grey here again, and an unusually cold day predicted for today, which might be a shock as we've been enjoying very mild weather for the time of year. Only today and tonight, though, then it will return to being relatively mild but wet!

AQ - Great to hear from you and that hopefully you're feeling OK in the circumstances. Sorry your OH is already fed up, he had better get out for a walk around the block now and then to clear his head. Certainly it's fortuitous that you'd already stocked up on things. Take care of yourself and rest as much as you can. The strong anaesthetic seems to take a while to leave your system.

Gardenbirder - My OH much prefers a quiet Christmas Day at home with just us two. As our children both live at a distance, we usually try to see them both before and afterwards, which works well and as you say, you get the best of both worlds that way too. My late father in law had an exhausting routine where he wanted to go to church on the day, plus have as many as possible of his large family to lunch. He wanted to see everyone! By the end of the day, my mother in law was tired out. We eventually persuaded them to only have one family for lunch, and a brief visit from some of the rest of us. This then changed to no one to share their lunch. We were of course, all busy with our own small children in a sea of plastic and wrapping paper, and trying to visit our other halves families....

I like your description of it being "a peculiar year!"

Goodness, whatever happened to the last two days - and the last three pages! I thought I was up to date last night, but I was wrong.

Clare and Heather - Belated birthday wishes. Hope you both had the best sort of day you could in these exceptional times.

Can't quite remember who said what, but whoever said 'they' should not slacken the restrictions for Christmas because it will cause yet another spike afterwards - I couldn't agree with you more. I am desperate to spend a couple of days with my family at Christmas, but would far prefer not to if it meant we could get back to 'normal' safely and sooner. What's the phrase? - short-term pain for long-term gain. I can't bear the thought that we may still be living in these restrictive and artificial circumstances well into next year ... everyone really needs to accept that we can't just take a few days off and then go back. Viruses don't work like that!

Grey and miserable out there this morning. A friend and I had a rather damp wander around Hever yesterday and a different friend and I are hoping to get to Standen this morning for a brief trot around the gardens. We are very fortunate to have so many lovely places nearby, giving us plenty of variety for daily exercise.

Have a good day, everyone, take care and stay safe.

LINDA - Our 6-day lockdown is so strict we cannot leave home even for exercise. Only for medical reasons and one person per household permitted to shop per day. Early evening here and I am about to recline on lounge and snooze until bedtime.

I see that I have missed birthdays was well. Belated Happy Birthday to HEATHER and CLARE.

aquilareen said:

LINDA - Our 6-day lockdown is so strict we cannot leave home even for exercise. Only for medical reasons and one person per household permitted to shop per day. Early evening here and I am about to recline on lounge and snooze until bedtime.

Goodness!!  That's really strict. They 're certainly determined to knock this on the head.

Pat, I agree that it would be better to have an unusual Christmas than to have this present spike last even longer.

I agree with the views expressed here, regarding Christmas and New Year. It's a family tradition to have a big get together on Boxing Day but we are quite prepared to forgo it.
Yes, I did have a birthday - it was yesterday, the 18th. My 75th. Now I'm going to go backwards !
Thanks for the birthday wishes - and belated birthday wishes to CLARE.

Many happy returns for yesterday, Heather - I'm 23 years behind you!

Many thanks for all the birthday wishes - you're very kind! We did manage to get out birding for a while, but on the whole it was a quiet day.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO HEATHER AND CLARE! 

So very sorry I'm so late with good wishes for your special days. I haven't been on the computer. Extremely high winds here, and I've had several power outages. Also, the bloomin' internet won't stay on. I even have a Red Flag Fire Danger Warning. Rare for my location. 

I lost my original calendar with all the LG birthdays in my last computer crash, anyway. So, I don't have any prior notification now.

I hope you both had a lovely time!!!