Joys of Autumn

Talking of Butterflies one of my friends lives in an Elizabethan style house..beams, high roof etc....when you go up the stone staircase you go along the landing and there are old beams there. when I first started to go there many yrs ago..butterflies would come inside the house and make them selves comfy I presume for the winter,they would stay there until spring time..and when the windows were opened they would make there way outside fluttering against the windows..But for the last few yrs the Butterflies have not come inside the house when it starts to get cold..but last week I counted 11 all sat here and there high up on the beams! not sure what this is a sign of...!! maybe it and why they have come in this year and not the last few yrs.

No, it wasn't a surprise. Had been trying for a while . And yes, she's good fun.

Wow that must have been a surprise at nearly 45, but no doubt she keeps you young!

You're right, banana, the menopause didn't 'hit' me. DD3, who was born when I was nearly 45, was my last good egg (she still is a good egg ). Things just gradually fizzled out after that. Lucky me.

I've got a streaming cold at the moment.I'm very fit and NEVER get colds normally. Coincidently, OH has started a new job in London and he seems to have inflicted an alien virus on us.

Oh Bags you obviously either haven't hit the menopause, or if you have you may have sailed through it and didn't experience any of the nastier symptoms, hot flushes, sleepless nights and worst of all night time sweats, bring on the colder nights!

That, of course, was to annodomini

I think a healthy individual can shake of an illness more easily than an unfit person, and might be less liable to succumb to an infection in the first place.

I think keeping warm is important. When you are cold your body is again, more likely to succumb.

That's my view of things. If you have a different view, that is fine.

anno My cousin died from Asian Flu. She was seven months pregnant. We both have the jab. Mr soop is asthmatic and he has the jab for pneumonia too.

JO4, the flu virus doesn't discriminate between the fit and the unfit nor does it make a difference whether you keep warm or not. And the only 'sensible precaution' you can take against it is to keep away from all human contact for the entire flu season. The worst attack I have had was when I was 17, fighting fit but there was a major epidemic (Asian Flu) and it was hard to avoid at school.
Hang on, where's JessM? She's usually the one who can give us all the scientific info.

Wherever the storm came from that caused havoc in our village, I don't want to go there.

I think Scotland got the back end of Iceland's snowstorm, pleased family were safely home before it started.

Thanks baNANA but I think I'm with J04 on this one - and I'm not 65 yet anyway!

banana (you'll hate me for this! ), what are night time sweats?

Anagram go to Boots it gets cheaper every year, it's probably only about a tenner now and you can use your points card!

Over 65. I didn't take it up last year and probably won't this year. I think, keeping yourself reasonably fit by keeping to a healthy lifestyle - good diet, reasonable exercise, and sensible precautions about keeping warm is adequate.

How old do you have to be to have the flu jab? OH has one every year, but I haven't been invited!

Very inconvenient - flu jabs at local surgery 6 October - I have much more interesting things to do that day - or 3 November - guess whuch one I'm going for!

I love my hot water bottle- with a wooly cover it keeps warm until daybreak

Bags, colder getting up for the loo in the night can be good if you are still having night time sweats!

Yes. But snugglier getting back in again!

Another sign of autumn arrived in today's post: an 'invitation' to have a flu jab, which I will, of course, accept.

Forgot one:

Colder getting up for the loo in the night!

Bracken browning,
Trees thinning,
So I can see loch through them
As well as over them.
Fewer bat droppings
In the porch,
And an autumn crocus
In flower.
Small things that delight
In the ever-onward march
Of the changing seasons.

I'm convinced it always feels cold down here as soon as they have snow in Scotland. Can the cold air really be felt that far?

(Not really blaming you Bags )