Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 15 January 2023

Hi, all. I owe several replies to folks. I need to sit down at my computer to pay bills and take care of some financial stuff, so I'll post to you all tomorrow. It's supposed to be warmer then. I've had terrible nightmares for the last 3 nights, some of the worst of my life! Don't know why that's happening. Stress, I reckon. Or a bad moon. LOL. Sunday is the first new moon of 2023, the lunar new year, so maybe that will ease my brain. LOL Take care all.

Nice to see you, OG.

Annette - the hearing aids were great at the Indian restaurant. It wasn’t too busy but I was able to follow the conversation around our table before without straining or feeling I had to concentrate so hard. My lunch friend today is very softly spoken and I still struggled to hear a couple of things she said. I will mention it to the audiologist when I go back on Thursday. That’s what a trial is all about isn’t it?

Oh, dear, Diane: try to think nice thoughts! I think that sometimes you do seem to have several of the same type of dream all in a row. It must be the brain, as you say

Thank you for the link. I saw that one in a list of references which came up on a search, but I haven't had time to look at all of them yet. I do think that I'm either going to have to gift them to one of our sons, or else to a museum! It doesn't matter if we don't get money from them, just that they don't go into a dustbin (they're not very intricate or even very old, I'm sure).

Annette: The penalties for "dealing" in ivory are very scary, with heavy fines. And quite right too: the poor elephants are still being poached. It breaks my heart.

Rusty: Glad you enjoyed your lunch.

 We've had snow but I don't think it will last the night, it's going to get warmer. Today it was minus 1 degree all day!! My OH still played golf, ha ha.

Lindy - If you have a fairly local auction house they will probably do free valuations - most do. They will also know all the rules about ivory. They will also be able to date your items more accurately. There are indeed very strict rules and it all depends on how old they are. For me the interest would be not so much in the monetary value but the history behind the items. Good luck!

It hasn't risen above minus 1 all day today here either. I had an early morning appointment and had to scrape my car, which numbed my fingers - they took most of my sixteen-mile drive to come back to life! Then another meeting this evening, this time only about ten miles away - just got back and it's minus 3. It's supposed to be a couple of degrees higher tomorrow ...

Good Morning. Still white here: last nights snow froze over and we've just had the most stunning red and pink sunrise.

It's zero degrees and will rise to about 4 degrees this afternoon.

Pat - Take care going out! The ivory doesn't look old - I suspect that my brother brought some local craft work with him when he came back to the UK. We used to have a wonderful local auction house here, but it's closed in recent years. I'll probably go to an antique shop for advice.

Wondering now whether to go out at all today: my OH is hoping to attend a cremation of an old acquaintance at lunchtime.

View from our bedroom window a few minutes ago.

Birds on the feeder outside my kitchen window.

View across the garden to the misty white fields beyond.

Lovely pics, LINDY
ANNETTE - I had no way of knowing if it was local or not, I phoned my daughters in town and all was OK there.
I'm not very tech savvy and don't have much contact with neighbours :-( so didn't feel that I could ring their doorbells. It was strange but all was well by mid afternoon.
No fresh snow here today and some has melted.
DIANE - I've had vivid dreams for the past year or so and some are quite distressing. I'm inclined to agree that it is down to stress - although I've got nothing to worry about ..
Everyone - thanks for your news !

Parts of yesterday rose above zero; the night was less cold; this morning was just above zero when J set off (one tenth of a degree). I have decided I shan't go shopping wih OH today, and we have rediced his list to M&S only, although he has a couple of local messages to do before setting off.