🦞🦂 *What are we up to?*🦂🦞

Just popping in briefly as I'm still working towards my mother-in-law's little service and helping my husband with admin stuff. I can't believe the convoluted way some things have to be done!

I'm not really ignoring everyone - and hope that the "warmer" weather here has also travelled north to you Grammaretto
No chilblains for Kaimoana's toes though!!
eek
🪲

I hope you've warmed up a bit Grammaretto🥶. Being cold is miserable.

So sorry to hear about your friend. I recently bought a new Birthday and Special Events book.
Sadly, I transfer fewer of the former and more additions to the latter in the form of R.I.P.s

Continue to take it easy with the back, Doodle. We could get our Team Sports Physio to work on you, but it's a bit, er, strenuous.

Watch those toesies when sitting out, Kaimoana
I hope you get some company soon🌺.
I would come round every day for your drinks and home baking, honest.

Kaimoana your ladies used to be so friendly are these new people. Have you heard from your son? How is his job going?
I bet you’re a tasty morsel. I quite like bagpipes too. Stirs the blood.
Sorry to hear about your friend Grammaretto even if expected it’s a shock.
I’ve still got a bad back. Not as bad as last night but still painful so talking it easy (well that’s my excuse anyway)

I wish I was sitting knitting with the French windows open.
I'm sitting with my coat on. My fingers are too cold to knit.

Can't you phone friends for a chat or invite them round Kaimoana? Or is this like Marie Antoinette allegedly inviting her subjects to eat cake?

If so I am sorry.

Another old friend has died. It wasn't unexpected but a shock for his family nonethelessless.

As it is summer here, I was sitting with the French windows and doors wide open, knitting and listening to a Jane Austen novel (Sense and Sensibility for the umpteenth time).
I felt something at my big toe and saw a rather large beetle (about an inch square) nibbling it.

It made me laugh - was this the first stage in its grand plan to consume me nibble by nibble?

After this, a moment of pure delight as I played a video of a Scottish military pipe band marching through the streets of Rothesay, taking me back to my girlhood.
I had the shivers from start to finish.
I know bagpipes are not everyones cup of tea but they go right to my heart every time.

Apart from a visit to the podiatrist Monday, I have not left the house, nor had a proper conversation since Christmas Day.
My homecare ladies come of course but they don't want to talk So mainly they come in, say Hello and get on with the work and leave for the next client.

It’s a quiet life.

Just popping in to say hello. Went to sit fit this morning for the first time in weeks. I can hardly move now. Think I stretched to far. Going to head off to bed to see if I untwist myself while I sleep. 🤣. Take care all

I had a similar experience, Grammaretto, when collecting for a leaving gift for a work colleague.

Not from me, thank you. I never really liked her.

No wonder team building was so difficult.

I had the job of phoning everyone in mum's address book after she died and had some almost funny conversations. One woman said she hadn't liked mum at all and certainly wouldn't be attending!
I can laugh now but was quite hurt at the time.

I hope it goes well. One good thing that came out of lockdown was streaming funerals.

ixion - he had already spent the best part of a day phoning people up before he wrote
but yes, he is really lovely, kind and generous

I'm sure the clearing will be straightforward - it's the legal stuff that's maddening and the rules around music at the crematorium for example.
My mother-in-law was from Swedish stock and lived her life as though she was "death clearing" - lots of "hard tack" and frugality interlaced with rash moments which made everyone gasp!

Just this minute discovered my lovely husband has given two different dates to some people!
aaaarrrrghh!

Thank you all for you compliments. I will invite you all to my next exhibition 🤣🤣
Notspaghetti a stressful time for you all. Sometimes it’s hard to make decisions when you want very thing to be “just right” .
Jan we once planted a whole row of pansies along the border of our front garden. They looked so pretty until the following morning when they were all decapitated. Muntjacs again!
Have a nice evening with your friends.
Grammaretto your new tenants sound very exotic. I take it quite young, Hope they will be good tenants and not cause you any problems.
Good luck with your fast broadband. BT have just cancelled my order because they can’t complete the work. Hopefully I’m now sorted with Talktalk.
ixion the art class is a franchise. We paint what we are told to. Each week we get a new subject and run through a variety of mediums. It’s a candle next week I think. Not particularly inspiring though I am learning.
I must admit I have never heard of a solicitor notifying anyone of a death. Is this where a will is involved?
I have only ever been notified by a member of the family by phone or letter.
Went to the panto last night and had a lovely time. Very good. Only downside was trying to get a taxi in the rain after and trying to get out of the cab when we got home. With one friend pushing and the other pulling I made it 🤣🤣

Have you heard how Gubbins' first days at school have been at school, Kaimoana? I get the feeling that she will be no shrinking violet, tho' I could be wrong!

I was going to ask about your new lodgers, Grammaretto, they sound a good choice. Are they new to the area?
Will you miss your landline?

Do you know what you will be painting when you return, Doodle?
Do you get to choose? Is there a theme running through the term? I wish I was artistic- think I'm too much of a pragmatist. Mr.I's family are the artistic ones and luckily, all 3 DC have inherited the skills and enjoyed the pastime.

Would Theo get near your muntjac through choice, Jan? Could he move fast enough to avoid their heels? Barney used to be a nosey parker, but now that he has found our home comforts away from the mean streets, he has become very slothful and pampered. My cousin, on receiving a recent photo, called him 'sweet, but a proper pudding'.

I have to side with your DH I'm afraid, NS. Writing in advance of funeral notifications is something our family does. It started (in my experience ) on the unexpected death of a youngster in the family, when my father wrote to everyone personally before sending formal printed details. He said it removed the shock of getting the invitation out of the blue without any advance warning, and I did the same with my mother's death at 92. Of course, it wouldn't necessarily have been a surprise to most people, but many were elderly and it seemed the kindest thing to do.
I also now feel that writing initially by hand is a sort of catharsis and gives the writer, as well as the recipient, the time and opportunity to reflect and to take a step back from the busy-ness that always surrounds these sad occasions.

Thinking of you all at this difficult time 🌺.

I also love your peacock Doodle. It's so bright and cheerful.

My new tenants have just moved in! I have met her at last. They seem very young and very sweet.
Their home is Katmandu.
I have been fussing around trying to get everything ready but now I am sitting down with a G&T. Old habits die hard.

This morning I had BT fit new fast fibre broadband so it's all happening.

I missed both exercise class and history group but it was important to be here for all the comings and goings.

I chuckled at your DH NotSpaghetti with his promise to write again. What a kind fellow.

I have the roe deer to eat everything in my flower beds and in my veg garden the pigeons descend on the winter greens.

Ah well, c'est la vie.

Good Morning or rather Good Afternoon from a strangely mild Norfolk! Cant believe the sudden change but shouldnt complain - actually Im not complaining but from being wrapped up yesterday suddenly Im taking off my big winter coat in exchange for an anorak!
Doodle I love your peacock it’s brilliant. Clever lady. You definitely must frame it.
No peacocks round here which Im pleased about as they do make an horrendous noise.
However we do have muntjacs. Suck pretty little creatures but they can do an awful amount of damage. We once filled a trough with very pretty orange pansies but in the morning all the heads had been nibbled off! Much of the problem around here is the amount of building going on. It has taken much of the muntjacs habitat so they have no alternative to invade gardens looking for food. Luckily we arent fussy gardeners but have friends who are and they get so cross when their plants are eaten. We arent fussy gardeners quite laid back about it but I suppose it’s annoying if you keep your garden immaculate.
I do worry about Theo although apparently muntjacs dont bother about cats but Im still wary.
NotSpaghetti Yes such a lot to do when someone dies. I try to get my DH to get rid of the amount of “stuff” in our house so that its not so much work for the kids but I might as well bang my head on the wall. I can honestly see an enormous skip appearing in our drive and everything being thrown in!
Well we have friends coming for wine and nibbles later so must make an effort and tidy up. Best wishes to All

Thank you Cherry - we are bearing up here but such a lot to do.
I wish we weren't so choosy and could just "go with the flow". My husband is agonising over the "right" photos whilst forgetting what the solicitor said... he is writing to all his mum's friends with basic info and saying he will write to them with more info soon.
...there is no point doing anything once if you can do it twice!

I really love him such a lot but his number one skill is not organisation.
😬😬😬

Very very tired
💤
Goodnight
- and nice artwork Doodle!
👍

Doodle, I actually love your peacock. I've seen so many pieces of artwork in galleries that leave me flummoxed as to why they are there, I 🤔 they're a bit emperor's new clothes. Yours is quirky, has character and appeal. It's great 😍.

I'm glad you had such a good time away Grammaretto, from your photos the landscape looks magical. I hope you've warmed up nicely at home now and I hope your new tenants settle in well and prove to be good ones,

Naughtyneine, don't take this the wrong way, because I really am only teasing, of course "knowing the cause of my seizures doesn't help" me ^ "whilst" I am "experiencing them". Why? When I'm having a seizure I don't know anything at all 🤣. To be honest, I'd rather know the cause than not - least then I know I'm conscious 😂.
I'm sending you a warm cwtch, with all you are having to deal with at the moment, life is dealing you an unfair hand X

I hope you are managing okay NotSpaghetti 🌻, and you too Kaimoana 🌼.

Night 🌙 lovely lobStars.

Hear, hear Kaimoana.

Aim high, Doodle.
summer.royalacademy.org.uk/

You know when you go to an amateur art exhibition and come across a piece which stops you in your track because it has that certain, indefinably something which makes it infinitely better than everything else?

Your art work has it Doodle. I wish I lived in the UK because I'd buy your work for sure.

This is not idle flatttery. I wish you'd have a little exhibition andshow your skills.

Don’t believe it. When I did preview it was there. Oh well. Another snowy scene from my winter collection.

Ixion i had to work hard on that to get the right texture.🤣Sorry I did try it’s meant to be a peacock.
Kaimoana no i dont believe it. School already. I bet she’ll love it.
Grammaretto glad you enjoyed your trip. I shall try again with the painting.

Gubbins starts school! I find that hard to believe. She can't be 5 already?
I hope she loves it.

Doodle is it a picture of an aeroplane out of sight?

I did make it home Ixion. My house is still here but very cold so I had a hot bath and came to bed. The sunrise was from the ferry window observation deck coming into Ullapool.

The bus journeys were long but I enjoy the changing landscapes. Sorry to see sheep in white snow fields trying to graze.

Who would have thought it would come so quickly?
Gubbins starts school this week.

I suppose Spud does too??

Worthy of a place at the Tate, Doodle .
Snowy view from my window? 😄

Hope you're safely home, Grammaretto and that you found your house safe and sound.

Here’s one for you.

Grammaretto 🤣🤣. Looking at it like that is indeed good progress.
Pleased you’ve enjoyed your stay. Will you visit again?
Hope the new lodgers are nice people.

I’m going to the pantomime tomorrow. (Oh yes I am) Cinderella . Church in the morning. Sleep well all

That's fabulous art progress. Doodle improving by 6 years in as many months 😄. I would love to see some of your work.

Ixion you and I both failed at wordle! Not that it matters 😒

My final day here. I don't want to go home.
I leave very early tomorrow. It's been yet another lovely day; meeting some of their friends, shopping, museum, exhibition of dolls houses, even speaking Gaelic at the Gaelic café

My new tenants are due to move into the flat on Monday. There's a lot still to get ready before they arrive.

Have you Lobstars survived the snow storms?