Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 13 October 2024

Lindy - beautiful photos. Glad you had such nice weather. It is damp and gloomy here today so I imagine it is like that there too. 
OG - I hope you all got on OK with your jabs. As you know, I got mine on Sunday and was fine at the bowling party in the afternoon. However, I woke up yesterday all cold and shivery with my sinuses hurting. I think it was a reaction because I am fine today. I didn’t go to French but I got a few useful jobs done instead. 
I am sorry to hear about people’s family difficulties. We are only a small family but we are very lucky that we all live relatively close to one another and that we seem to enjoy each other’s company. 
This morning it was the turn of the French group to make the teas and coffees at a U3A Open meeting in town. It was very sociable and we seemed to manage OK. We made a good team. 
I had planned to bring all my potted geraniums into the conservatory this afternoon but it is far too damp and horrid for that job! What a shame. I will just have to sit and read a book!!! 

LINDY   love all your literary bits and bobs.  I cannot imagine not having shelves of books or not being a member of a library.  I love our librarians here so much I wrote to the Daily Mail about how great they were and the letter was published.

RUSTY  You are so lucky to have a lovely family.  We too have small families on either side and as you know I have an ongoing problem with my Brother.  My OH has one Sister and they do talk on the phone (she lives near Oxford) but it is not the best of relationships.

Hi all, lovely to read all your news and see the pics re books and growing old.   Also Lindy, the one of Black Rock Sands.   Visited many moons ago when staying in the area. I have the one and only pic of my mum in a bathing costume there.

Diane - nice to have a country festival celebrating the covered bridges but understand you wanting to hunker down until finished.   Hope it brings in rewards.

I received the other day pics of our former Methodist Chapel in Worsley and they have done a great job in transforming it , or part of it, into a community cafe.

You can see they've retained the balcony and opened the roof to show the rafters.   Also the pulpit and organ are still in there. It really looks like a great renovation and hope I can visit it when next up there, probably Christmas now.

Lynette - they have done a great job with the old chapel. I go to a cafe near the Pontcysyllte aqueduct where they have done the same thing. Because it is at a World Heritage site, they do very well.

I have been to town shopping!!! It’s awful out there. The roads are big puddles and the rain is heavy, I got drenched just walking from the car park to the charity shop. It’s market day but I didn’t linger. I have just had to change my socks and trousers!!!!! Stay safe everyone. 

Rusty - I was just looking at the news and saw floods in Oswestry, which I think is somewhere near you?  Looks horrible.  We have bright sunshine and temperature around 20 degrees.  Crazy weather!  Although we are forecast thunder storms later ... 

Morning all:

Lynette:  The converted church looks lovely - if perhaps a bit echoey.  I was struck by the pipes of that lovely old organ - maybe they could even host musical evenings there....  Christmas Carols?  Chamber/Folk music?  Maybe even Bach's Toccata ad Fugue in D Minor?  :-))  

Rusty: What is U3E?

Meanwhile, granddaughter and Ms D made quick trip to AZ over the weekend primarily for the penultimate visit to Ms. D's orthodontist (apparently a better option than going through all the rigamarole and expense of signing up with a new doc here in SB where everything is twice the cost).  On a previous trip back there this summer, they visited the goat (Billy, what else?) who'd been taken in by a mainly equine horse rescue group when they moved back to CA.  On that visit, they found out that the organization had hired a new manager who had completed neglected the smaller critters with the result that poor Billy was emaciated with full-body mange.  On that visit, they scooped him up and moved him to a friend's ranch where those friends fed and shampooed him every day so he's back to full health.  So a big surprise when she arrrived back from AZ on this trip with the goat in tow!  She'd traded vehicles with a friend who had a truck; he'd built a crate for Billy, and now Billy is living happily ever after on the same ranch as their two horses.  That first morning I took my daughter to her first riding lesson some 50 years ago, little did I know that subsequent generations would be carting critters large and small back and forth across the desert!  Maybe I should've paid for art or piano lessons instead.....  Still a bit late now.

Very odd weather here:  It's like May Gray and June Gloom in October.....  even the weather people are mystified.

Annette - Love the story of Billy, and hope he will, as you say, spend the rest of his life living happily ever after!  Sounds like a wonderful place.  My parents paid for me to have both piano and horse riding lessons as a child - and ballet.  Now there was the problem - I was told very firmly around the age of ten that ballet and horse riding did not mix - apparently your legs have to do entirely different things - and I had to make a choice.  I chose horses over ballet.  Do I regret my choice?  I don't think so - but I enjoy watching ballet and I can still remember the leg and arm positions!

Annette - U3A stands for University of the Third Age. It is a self help organisation. I believe it was started in France. Here we have area organisations where people with some kind of expertise offer to coordinate groups to pursue a certain interest. My French and Flora and Fauna groups are in the organisation. You can do things as diverse as philosophy and dining out!!! There are book groups, poetry groups, science groups, flower arranging. Art - all sorts.

Pat - I am about an hour from Oswestry further into North Wales. Mercifully, the rain now seems to have eased off. 

ROSY – Very wise to go with OH to Doc’ You can fill in what your OH doesn’t mention.

LINDA – I hope your earache has gone. I love your book jokes.

HEATHER – So many congregations/parishes have amalgamated that redundant churches have closed. Some of the ethnic groups or non-traditional churches hire them for their services. If I were in a foreign country I would prefer an English-spoken service.

OG – I wonder how these churches think to gain newcomers if they don’t advertize their times or exact location on their websites.

DIBNLIB – I could not survive without the libraries. I can’t afford to buy as many books as I read.

LYNETTE – What a wonderful way to use a former church. I want to have coffee there!

Hello EVERYONE I haven’t mentioned.

Have I mentioned the shrub that OH chopped down last year but did not kill? I don’t know its name but it is some nasty Aussie thing with extensive root system. As he did not kill it, EVERY root is now sprouting vigorous green shoots covering about 5 sq feet. Enquiries from friends said that tree removalists are useless and I should use blackberry poison. More shopping. Then followed a week of showers. Last week I sprayed every shoot I could see. . . and waited, watching the sunny days with occasional showers. I intended giving another dose but it has rained. Some of the shoots are looking sick, but alas about half think I gave them a tonic. <sigh>

Summer is near. Bleah. Last 3 days max of 31 C. Today “only” 28 C with occasional showers, so quite sticky. Last night was too hot to sleep.

I delivered OH’s summer clothes to Nursing Home this morn. I hope they enjoy labelling them! I could not find OH; not in day room (exercises), not in his room. Carer found him asleep on the bed in someone else’s room. She brought him back to be dressed. He was not “with it”. I stayed while he had his morning coffee & fruit. He was definitely not with it – he ate a slice of watermelon which he has always hated. When I left, it was time for escorted walks outside. On my way home I topped up my fruit & veg. Now I have made a double casserole with lamb chops and every veggie I could find.