Good morning Mick and all GN's from a very dark, chilly North Yorkshire morning. Can just about see an outline of the tree but that is all and have fleece blanket wrapped round my legs as rather on the cold side here. Reluctantly will have to put the radiator up a bit and accept that now at this time of day, too cold to do without a bit of heat.
I hope I havent waited too long to cover my salvia near the wall, which has been flowering and giving a lovely bit of red colour to cheer the day, but if it has been frosty I will probably have lost it. Ah well wait and see when it is a bit lighter. Yesterday had quite a lot of trouble with my leg still, and too wet and cold to go on the yellow peril , so it was off in the car to get a few bits but mostly the milk that was just about finished. Somewhat of a hassle trying to get parked in the disabled bay at Tesco, had to drive round and round, but cant fit in normal space and was in too much pain to have to walk far. Anyway eventually got sorted and got their buggy to drive round the shop. It was of course busy and quite ridiculous to get round as with all the christmas stuff they have blocked so much of the end of aisles with flimsy stands that at one point it took me 4 goes to get round a corner, and I would call myself an expert driver of these things. I know it is not the staffs fault they are told to put these things out, as Tesco want to put as much as possible out to get our money. But making it so difficult to get round does not encourage us to stay shopping, rather to get out asap in a bad mood and go elsewhere!!
Managed to get a few things from the stalls, but couldnt walk far so didnt get down to the fish stall, so that will have to wait for another day. Anyway got the basics home and unloaded, and cheered myself up with a cup of coffee and a look at my Yorkshire Post. That was somewhat fatal to my plans of getting on with a lot of jobs, but did get the basics done, but the cooking plans got left until today, as did more sorting out of dresser stuff. I was in too much pain with both my back and my legs, of which my right leg for some unknown reason has decided to be so painful up to the groin area. This is a flipping nuisance as of course, didnt sleep well and am having to be aware of it all the time and not make things worse. So not a very productive day, and the washing had to forlornly sit on the clothes horses as it never dried up enough or have enough wind to even put them out at all.
So today is clearly mapped out for me. Getting the mince and various vegetables sorted out and get the good gravy added to it to give me something for both todays dinner with probably a jacket potato and having some to freeze to have ready for a day I am not up to cooking. Then have some baking apples that I must also get peeled and cooked down as easier to store in the freezer, by putting a clean freezer bag into an oblong plastic box and then freeze it so that I end up with probably 3 lots of apples ready to turn into crumbles or whatever, but easily stored and taking up the least space in my miniscule freezer. Then the ironing looms large and with the added stuff that I have just washed, if it is dry enough.
Ah just heard my lovely Bach for the day and it has definitely cheered the morning for me . Need to add my best coffee of the day and that will complete my "cheer of the day" answer to struggling to get going. So with very cold weather outside, I think I will actually get a fair bit done here today. With my radio 3 as good companion, I shall be quite happy on my own plodding along, and feeling pleased at any task that actually gets done today. Strange isnt it, that you can follow exactly the same pattern of behaviour and jobs on two different days, yet on one day you are quite content to be alone and happy with your own company and on another day you can feel very alone and struggle to motivate yourself to do anything. Yet often you cannot pinpoint what makes you feel like this. Hooray for GN's who can provide you with ideas or sympathy as the case may be. I look forward to reading all the posts and finding out what is happening in your worlds. Enjoy reading of your travels and travails, and getting good ideas from others, and as getting up and getting going is always a frustration and difficult, sitting here writing to you, I kid myself that I am fine and choosing to sit here and not that at the moment moving about isnt really very possible and I couldnt move about much anyway!! When you can kid yourself that what you are doing is what you want to do rather than what you are able to do, it lifts the spirits!!
Radio 3 is continuing to cheer the morning as it has just had a lovely medly of G@S tunes and so I now have the policemens "tarantara tarantara" tune in my head. Now it is Ravels Bolero and I am old enough to think of Torvill and Dean on ice to this music! (Actually in those days we also used to skate in Nottingham and enjoyed our own skating and then sitting watching them practising) Just peeped out of the curtains and it is much lighter now but have hastily closed the curtains as it is very cold . Definitely time to look out more winter style jumpers etc, and my crafty use of my polar long johns underneath allows me to still wear my more cheerful coloured linen trousers on top. Why are winter trousers all such dreary colours? The other day I wore my red linen ones with the long johns underneath, and a matching red and white striped T shirt. I was sat in Cafe Nero and a lady passed by on her way out and said how cheering it was to see some bright colour but wasnt I very cold. I told her what I did and she said what a good idea and was going to go and sort her stuff out so that she could also wear something a bit brighter to cheer the day. Who knows I may spread the word and this will become a town of brighter cheerier dressed women for this winter!!
Well today will be dressing in easiest stuff to get on, and what I have left clean and available until I get round to doing some of the ironing and get myself a bit more organised. So that is all I have planned. I havent yet looked at the tv and I heard of the awful floodings and need to check on my own flood alerts as a lot of the area here gets flooded with several rivers close by, so you then have to work out possible ways to travel safely. Flooding is so awful, because not only is it the actual situation on the day, but it takes so very long to restore things to as they were. The misery of possibly having to move out, the sorting through stuff and of course the water is so contaminated that there has to be so much stuff like taking plaster off the walls and letting it all dry out before you can even start to think of how you can get back to something like normal.
They all have my sympathies and having lived in areas that flooded such as in the Nottingham area where the river trent and soar caused a lot of flooding when I was there years ago, I found that the one thing that I could do , after the initial mess was to offer a sort of sanctuary space . As I had both a lounge and a quite large dining room, with a table, I used to offer people a few hours or a morning or a day or whatever to come and be in my house. That if they wanted company I would be there , but also I used to say I am going to be out on thursday, would you like to come over, have a quiet day here, where you can treat my house as your own, and do some washing, cook what you want and sort out paperwork on the table. Put what you like on the tv or radio and just be yourselves. I found it was much appreciated, as people had to come to terms with what was happening and needed to have some private space to talk within their families. Often they would have had to be put up in b/bs or hotels, or whatever was available and no matter how good or helpful it was , there was no private space and even though you are being given decent food to eat, it was not your own comfort food etc. Even having somewhere that you could at last let off steam and have a row that has been brewing for days was worthwhile and let you then move on. We dont always value or realize how lucky we are to have that ability to do our own thing whatever that may be. They could also just sit in peace and quiet and do nothing if they wanted. I didnt ask, just said there is the tea coffee etc and the pots and pans , showed them how the washer worked and then left them to it.
It is a shame that politicians and others do not put two and two together and make four. Even with the flooding happening today all over, they will carefully not connect the fact that insisting that more housing is build and letting firms build on what has always been known as flood meadows and fields, will affect every flood that occurs now. People knew their own area and had the sense to keep water meadows as very useful for good hay and feeding animals but never put buildings on such an area. Nowadays if those of us who have lived a long time in such an area go to meetings and say that they should not allow buildings there and why, we are seen as NIMBY's and that it doesnt happen these days etc etc!! when we already build roads and fill in ponds and alter the way rivers flow, which in itself is causing more like flood scenarios, but just to say that there has been no flooding in this field for the last 10 years , does not at all mean that you can ignore the fact that it IS a flood meadow. Often the names of fields will clearly tell you what it has always been known as and you ignore it at your peril. Joined up thinking should mean looking overall at the whole picture, building houses that are well insulated and all have solar panels and using common sense about where you put them. Well ,perhaps only the fact that the insurance companies will refuse to insure or charge a huge amount for houses built in such areas will mean that people will not choose to buy them and just saying we need to build everywhere can be revised to where can we build sensibly. Building companies dont want to use areas in towns and cities as it will cost them a bit more to start those sort of sites, but this is exactly what we should be using , removing old out of date factory or shop areas and using them for more housing, providing more homes without taking up more countryside. Here endeth the lesson for this sunday!!
Sounds a good idea to hunker down today Mick. Hope you keep warm and well. Hallo Tuinoma, I am also in North Yorkshire so perhaps we might manage to organise a meet up for a coffee if you would like that in the future. Hope it stays dry enough for your walk. Bellasnana, so good to hear that your goddaughters husband is able to go home and at least not need an operation. They will be thankful to be home together and relax a bit. Sounds as though you too could do with a bit of peace and quiet and relax.
Well I hope everyone can have the best day possible and keep well and warm. May it be a peaceful day for everyone
WORD ASSOCIATION - 9th May 2026
