Monday 18 October 2021

Blogtober 2021 :: Day 18

 




Well, no sooner had I said how nice the flowers were looking in the sunshine and dry weather than it started raining. It is very much a lottery as to whether the car starts when it's damp, so that is keeping me on my toes. It will be fine if there are boys around to push, they will relish the chance to try and get me freewheeling down the road at 20mph with no engine, but less good if they are at school. 

There was a wren on the patio earlier, such a tiny, delicate little bird, jumping around from pot to pot looking for little juicy things to eat. And blackbirds, turning over the fallen leaves, also looking for juicy things. 

There were loads of apples this year but I probably should have thinned them as they ended up being quite small. Still delicious, just a bit fiddlier to prepare. Conversely, there seems to be a shortage of conkers. Some years there are mountains of them, this year hardly one to be seen. Unless urchins have snaffled them all. Or maybe I just don't have my eye in now that the children are older. Meanwhile, the spiders are encroaching, climbing walls, settling into corners, spinning webs across the ceiling. Sofa Spider has been about, late in the evening, making risky forays across the carpet while the dog snores.

Just a short post today, as I am working madly, in the manner of a rabbit in the headlights, with half term bearing down on me at top speed, full beams and horn blaring. Three days of relatively uninterrupted peace, except for the postman, the washing machine, the occasional grocery shop/errand run, the bread machine and the odd Jehovah's witness - we are big on Jehovah's witnesses around here, and I feel I may have encouraged them slightly at one point by being polite and now I am possibly on a List somewhere. 

Anyway, the usual minor interruptions will all too soon become pitched battle as the littlest boy and I fight to the death over the amount of screen time that is acceptable. It will turn ugly.

6 comments:

  1. I remember the joys of starting cars that didn’t like the damp. We fortunately lived on a slight hill so we always left it facing downhill just in case. Mind you boys are very handy for pushing! Hopefully you will find a new one very soon.
    Hope you don’t have too many interruptions in the next few days. Jehovah Witnesses have been very quiet in this corner recently. I won’t tell you what my father said to some many years ago. Quite unrepeatable. Hopefully the sun will be back tomorrow. B x

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  2. I haven't seen a Jehovah's Witness for years. There must be some round here as there is a Kingdom Hall at the other end of town. Maybe they haven't recovered from the time I invited them in for a cup of tea and a chat! :O) Sofa spider sounds a bit scary. I had a floater in my left eye a couple of months ago and kept thinking that I was seeing a spider running across the floor. Very annoying. Good luck with the car. xx

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  3. Lovely pictures, I always that rain drops add a touch of magic. Lucky you seeing a wren, it's a bird that I very rarely see. xx

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  4. I think all the conkers are up here in Winwick - there are MASSES of them on the ground in the woods! I was told once that it's OK to ask JW visitors to take you off their calling list so that's what I do now as I am not going to change my beliefs and I choose not to spend my time debating beliefs that are never going to be reconciled. I'm never rude, but I think it's better not to waste my time or theirs! xx

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  5. Not many conkers here either but also not many spiders, which is unusual. Normally at this time of year, our house looks like a house of horrors, full of the 8 legged creatures. We have countless fights over screen time with our littlest one.... it is tiresome. Hope you get your work done before half term xx

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  6. You can ask to be taken off their List and they will never darken your doors again. Or you can do what I did once, which is to say you are in labour and they will scuttle off down the path. Although one of them did come back a little way to ask if I was alright.

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