And since all this loveliness cannot be Heaven, I know in my heart it is June in Scottish Meanderings
- June 30, 2021, 5:03 a.m.
- |
- Public
So the laugh of the month is the fact that, after shelling out to get my side of my neighbour's hedges trimmed in my last entry, she went and got them dug up 3 weeks later! Could have saved myself some dosh!
It's fairly made a difference to the space and light aspect of my patch though I have to admit but I hadn't quite realised just how much privacy the front 2 hedges gave me. This is the view before and after from my garden chair.
Opens it up a bit doesn't it? And also gives everyone a lovely view of my desperately peeling rotten old front door which was nicely hidden previously!
As is obvious and should have been included in my last entry, there's a tad more greenery abounding in my front garden than the back so when the weather's nice, that's where I sit and although it's lovely to see more of the street when I sit out the front now I do feel a tad more 'exposed'. However I don't get so much blocking of the sun either so - swings and roundabouts.
I can just about manage to keep the grass cut and do basic weeding at the front throughout the summer and I'd like to carry on doing that as much as I'm able. I plan to get some more colour into it - some nice border plants for next summer, maybe another azalea in a different colour - I'm fancying red.
Can anyone give me advice what to do with daisies and weeds/moss in the grass? I read you can just pull them up rather than spraying them but when I tried that I was left with unsightly patches. I bought grass seed but can’t figure out how to put it down in just those areas but keep mowing the whole lawn (if that makes sense)?
When winter comes, I'm going to get the willow tree replanted over a bit because, as you can see, it's come off its stake and folk have to fight through it to get up the path when it's in full bloom! Trying to get Ruari in the buggy past it was a feat and a half I don’t mind telling you.
I might get the Japanese Quince bush at the door taken out as well and put something nicer up there - I used to have a lovely 'Buckeye Belle' Peony but it vanished for some reason so it would be nice to have another one. Or maybe a Laurel bush.
Reading Project
Ever since I was bedridden with the worst of the CFS, I've slowly started to claw back as much of life as I could. A lot of that was done by sheer hard slog - 5 minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time, building up some strength and resilience until I was left with what I now call 'a diluted life'. But a life nevertheless.
Certain things still elude me though and for some strange reason, one of them seems to be reading a book. Not reading per se because obviously then I wouldn't be able to keep up with you prolific lot every day but there's apparently a block to picking up a book and getting immersed in it somehow. And it’s not the book itself because I picked out old favourites from the bookcase thinking I just needed to regain the habit itself but it didn't work.
For a previous avid reader this has caused me great sadness.
So I decided to make it into some sort of project and see if I could somehow get myself back on track with it.
I set out some basic rules.
I will read for 30 minutes a day no matter how bad I feel.
🤗
I will check to make sure I’m retaining what I'm reading.
🤗
I will not read anything I've already read (if possible).
🤗
I will choose from my own reading material in the house at first.
🤗
I will choose something I know to be good so is more likely to hold me.
🤗
I will keep track of books on Goodreads so that I can see the progress.
I decided the reading location was probably pretty important - at least at first - I needed a sort of nook of some kind with decent lighting which I didn't really have but made do with my tub chair in the sitting room and the lamp behind it.
I used to do all my reading in bed but that wasn't working as a viable time because I don't feel too well late at night so that would get in the way - or I would be so sleepy that I would only get a couple of pages in before the book would plonk on top of me! And I tried reading via a Kindle on my iPad or phone but that didn't seem to work either.
So last Monday in the early evening I curled up in the chair with ‘Conversations with Primo Levi' by Ferdinando Camon -
At 76 pages, it wasn’t too onerous in length as to be too off-putting. And it worked better than I thought - my half hour turned into an hour and a half and I devoured it all in one sitting!
Greatly encouraged by this, I browsed through the bookcase the next night for my second selection and decided on ‘The Guernsey and Literacy Potato Peel Society’ because it looked like a fairly light, easy read.
And I managed to do an hour without too much problem. The following night it was only 45 minutes but I’ve had another hour and a half stint since then so it's got off to a far better start than I'd hoped because I've been plugging away at this for a while without success. My fervent hope is that it will begin to feed on itself and start to give me the pleasure it used to give me before.
Ironically I found a very apt paragraph in it last night -
'That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and the tiny thing will lead you on to another book, and another bit there will lead you on to a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.'
That's exactly what I want to happen.
Mike
My nephew, Arran, messaged last week to say his Dad, my brother Mike, had been rushed in to the Emergency Department with a collapsed lung! Apparently he thought he had a bad case of hay fever or maybe a bad asthma attack so the doctor asked him to go to A&E for an ECG and that's when they discovered it. They drained it, he got the drain out the next night and they let him home the morning after.
Whereupon he went straight to work🙄 Just for a few hours though and felt well enough the day after that he was attempting some gardening. They said if he hadn’t contacted the doctor when he did it’s pretty likely he would have had a heart attack and may not have made it but they still couldn’t say what caused it.
I don't have a good feeling about this but I'm hoping it's just the normal dread that we've all reached 'that age' (Mike's 74) where something serious could happen at any time. He's been through the mill with heart problems having had a triple bypass a couple of years ago and he lives on his own - a bit of a loner with no family nearby - so I worry about him needing extra care because he would NOT be the kind of bloke to welcome carers or help of any sort.
Fingers crossed it was just a one off🤞(It doesn’t help that the other night I dreamt I was telling someone “I lost my brother two weeks ago” and it was definitely Mike I was talking about😳).
Alfie
So on Saturday Alfie (Nikki’s new puppy) was allowed to come to his new home and I was there to see the transition which went remarkably better than we thought it might. The plan was for me to go out on the Saturday rather than the Sunday because it was the girls' weekend for going to their Dad's and we thought less people might be a good idea for his first day. However Joel's fiancée, Sarah, was expecting her first baby at any minute and they were just waiting on a call from the hospital for her to go in and be induced so the girls were staying at home.
I still went out because it was easier for Nikki to go up for him with just Lily and then I could stay and look after Lilah and Ruari. When they came back, we all stayed in Nikki's bedroom at first to try and get him used to a small space and his cage and he did well with that, making friends with my slipper and Ivy in equal measure (Poppy just did a lot of sniffing the air and Daisy took off once she got some biscuits, no doubt packing her case for pastures new :)
Then we took him out to the garden in case he wanted to pee and he did a lot of exploring out there and got used to his collar and lead. He didn't seem phased by the number of people or cats or anything although kept flaking out in exhaustion every so often which was really sweet. He ate some food and later did a pee and a poo in the garden which Nikki got terribly excited about, thinking she was going to have to deal with little accidents all over the place at first!
I left them at 9 p.m. playing in the sitting room -
Her plan was to try and tire him out for bedtime then put him in his cage at the bottom of the bed but she sent me a text at 11 saying 'the crate training is going splendidly' and this pic -
- beaten down by copious whining! And that's where he stayed sleeping soundly the whole night until she got woken by a lick on the nose at 7 a.m. which I would say was a pretty good first night all told. Later on she took the cage into the sitting room and despite following her around all morning, he went into it all by himself when he wanted a nap and was quite happy with her sitting on the settee.
Trying to get him used to being in it when no-one’s in the room for when they have to go out is proving a harder nut to crack though. She can work at home for most of the holidays but may have to go to another nursery about 30 miles away for one week and obviously will be out and about with the kids in the summer holidays where it may not always be practical to take him as well. So that’s a work in progress but it’s early days yet.
New Stepsister!
Sarah had her baby - a little girl - on Sunday so that’ll be a different dynamic for the girls to get used to when they go to Joel’s. He and Sarah also got engaged on her birthday recently which I thought might do a number on Nikki but she seemed to be handling it quite maturely.
On Monday she texted to ask if I’d sit with Ruari while her and the girls went to the hospital to see the baby in the evening. I thought wow this is good and said yes. Then I got a text a couple of hours later saying Joel hadn’t got back to her so ‘clearly he doesn’t want them to visit’.
I said Sarah maybe wasn’t ready for visitors yet and from experience, I know that the birthing partner gets inundated with messages, calls and texts from friends and family after a baby is born and it takes an inordinate amount of time to reply to them all so Joel could be a bit overwhelmed with everything. (Nikki and Joel weren’t together when the girls were born and he wasn’t at either of the births).
‘I suppose but his kids should come first’ she replied.
I had to quietly chuckle at the irony of that statement!! Maybe we're not quite at 100 per cent maturity after all :)
It's fairly made a difference to the space and light aspect of my patch though I have to admit but I hadn't quite realised just how much privacy the front 2 hedges gave me. This is the view before and after from my garden chair.
Opens it up a bit doesn't it? And also gives everyone a lovely view of my desperately peeling rotten old front door which was nicely hidden previously!
As is obvious and should have been included in my last entry, there's a tad more greenery abounding in my front garden than the back so when the weather's nice, that's where I sit and although it's lovely to see more of the street when I sit out the front now I do feel a tad more 'exposed'. However I don't get so much blocking of the sun either so - swings and roundabouts.
I can just about manage to keep the grass cut and do basic weeding at the front throughout the summer and I'd like to carry on doing that as much as I'm able. I plan to get some more colour into it - some nice border plants for next summer, maybe another azalea in a different colour - I'm fancying red.
Can anyone give me advice what to do with daisies and weeds/moss in the grass? I read you can just pull them up rather than spraying them but when I tried that I was left with unsightly patches. I bought grass seed but can’t figure out how to put it down in just those areas but keep mowing the whole lawn (if that makes sense)?
When winter comes, I'm going to get the willow tree replanted over a bit because, as you can see, it's come off its stake and folk have to fight through it to get up the path when it's in full bloom! Trying to get Ruari in the buggy past it was a feat and a half I don’t mind telling you.
I might get the Japanese Quince bush at the door taken out as well and put something nicer up there - I used to have a lovely 'Buckeye Belle' Peony but it vanished for some reason so it would be nice to have another one. Or maybe a Laurel bush.
Reading Project
Ever since I was bedridden with the worst of the CFS, I've slowly started to claw back as much of life as I could. A lot of that was done by sheer hard slog - 5 minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time, building up some strength and resilience until I was left with what I now call 'a diluted life'. But a life nevertheless.
Certain things still elude me though and for some strange reason, one of them seems to be reading a book. Not reading per se because obviously then I wouldn't be able to keep up with you prolific lot every day but there's apparently a block to picking up a book and getting immersed in it somehow. And it’s not the book itself because I picked out old favourites from the bookcase thinking I just needed to regain the habit itself but it didn't work.
For a previous avid reader this has caused me great sadness.
So I decided to make it into some sort of project and see if I could somehow get myself back on track with it.
I set out some basic rules.
I will read for 30 minutes a day no matter how bad I feel.
🤗
I will check to make sure I’m retaining what I'm reading.
🤗
I will not read anything I've already read (if possible).
🤗
I will choose from my own reading material in the house at first.
🤗
I will choose something I know to be good so is more likely to hold me.
🤗
I will keep track of books on Goodreads so that I can see the progress.
I decided the reading location was probably pretty important - at least at first - I needed a sort of nook of some kind with decent lighting which I didn't really have but made do with my tub chair in the sitting room and the lamp behind it.
I used to do all my reading in bed but that wasn't working as a viable time because I don't feel too well late at night so that would get in the way - or I would be so sleepy that I would only get a couple of pages in before the book would plonk on top of me! And I tried reading via a Kindle on my iPad or phone but that didn't seem to work either.
So last Monday in the early evening I curled up in the chair with ‘Conversations with Primo Levi' by Ferdinando Camon -
At 76 pages, it wasn’t too onerous in length as to be too off-putting. And it worked better than I thought - my half hour turned into an hour and a half and I devoured it all in one sitting!
Greatly encouraged by this, I browsed through the bookcase the next night for my second selection and decided on ‘The Guernsey and Literacy Potato Peel Society’ because it looked like a fairly light, easy read.
And I managed to do an hour without too much problem. The following night it was only 45 minutes but I’ve had another hour and a half stint since then so it's got off to a far better start than I'd hoped because I've been plugging away at this for a while without success. My fervent hope is that it will begin to feed on itself and start to give me the pleasure it used to give me before.
Ironically I found a very apt paragraph in it last night -
'That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and the tiny thing will lead you on to another book, and another bit there will lead you on to a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.'
That's exactly what I want to happen.
Mike
My nephew, Arran, messaged last week to say his Dad, my brother Mike, had been rushed in to the Emergency Department with a collapsed lung! Apparently he thought he had a bad case of hay fever or maybe a bad asthma attack so the doctor asked him to go to A&E for an ECG and that's when they discovered it. They drained it, he got the drain out the next night and they let him home the morning after.
Whereupon he went straight to work🙄 Just for a few hours though and felt well enough the day after that he was attempting some gardening. They said if he hadn’t contacted the doctor when he did it’s pretty likely he would have had a heart attack and may not have made it but they still couldn’t say what caused it.
I don't have a good feeling about this but I'm hoping it's just the normal dread that we've all reached 'that age' (Mike's 74) where something serious could happen at any time. He's been through the mill with heart problems having had a triple bypass a couple of years ago and he lives on his own - a bit of a loner with no family nearby - so I worry about him needing extra care because he would NOT be the kind of bloke to welcome carers or help of any sort.
Fingers crossed it was just a one off🤞(It doesn’t help that the other night I dreamt I was telling someone “I lost my brother two weeks ago” and it was definitely Mike I was talking about😳).
Alfie
So on Saturday Alfie (Nikki’s new puppy) was allowed to come to his new home and I was there to see the transition which went remarkably better than we thought it might. The plan was for me to go out on the Saturday rather than the Sunday because it was the girls' weekend for going to their Dad's and we thought less people might be a good idea for his first day. However Joel's fiancée, Sarah, was expecting her first baby at any minute and they were just waiting on a call from the hospital for her to go in and be induced so the girls were staying at home.
I still went out because it was easier for Nikki to go up for him with just Lily and then I could stay and look after Lilah and Ruari. When they came back, we all stayed in Nikki's bedroom at first to try and get him used to a small space and his cage and he did well with that, making friends with my slipper and Ivy in equal measure (Poppy just did a lot of sniffing the air and Daisy took off once she got some biscuits, no doubt packing her case for pastures new :)
Then we took him out to the garden in case he wanted to pee and he did a lot of exploring out there and got used to his collar and lead. He didn't seem phased by the number of people or cats or anything although kept flaking out in exhaustion every so often which was really sweet. He ate some food and later did a pee and a poo in the garden which Nikki got terribly excited about, thinking she was going to have to deal with little accidents all over the place at first!
I left them at 9 p.m. playing in the sitting room -
Her plan was to try and tire him out for bedtime then put him in his cage at the bottom of the bed but she sent me a text at 11 saying 'the crate training is going splendidly' and this pic -
- beaten down by copious whining! And that's where he stayed sleeping soundly the whole night until she got woken by a lick on the nose at 7 a.m. which I would say was a pretty good first night all told. Later on she took the cage into the sitting room and despite following her around all morning, he went into it all by himself when he wanted a nap and was quite happy with her sitting on the settee.
Trying to get him used to being in it when no-one’s in the room for when they have to go out is proving a harder nut to crack though. She can work at home for most of the holidays but may have to go to another nursery about 30 miles away for one week and obviously will be out and about with the kids in the summer holidays where it may not always be practical to take him as well. So that’s a work in progress but it’s early days yet.
New Stepsister!
Sarah had her baby - a little girl - on Sunday so that’ll be a different dynamic for the girls to get used to when they go to Joel’s. He and Sarah also got engaged on her birthday recently which I thought might do a number on Nikki but she seemed to be handling it quite maturely.
On Monday she texted to ask if I’d sit with Ruari while her and the girls went to the hospital to see the baby in the evening. I thought wow this is good and said yes. Then I got a text a couple of hours later saying Joel hadn’t got back to her so ‘clearly he doesn’t want them to visit’.
I said Sarah maybe wasn’t ready for visitors yet and from experience, I know that the birthing partner gets inundated with messages, calls and texts from friends and family after a baby is born and it takes an inordinate amount of time to reply to them all so Joel could be a bit overwhelmed with everything. (Nikki and Joel weren’t together when the girls were born and he wasn’t at either of the births).
‘I suppose but his kids should come first’ she replied.
I had to quietly chuckle at the irony of that statement!! Maybe we're not quite at 100 per cent maturity after all :)
78 Comments
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Just Annie ⋅ June 30, 2021
I like your reading project and I'm going to do it, too. I lost my ability to read avidly when my parents were sick and I've struggled to regain it ever since. I'll start in July and keep track in the lovely reading log Katie got me for Christmas. :)
Marg Just Annie ⋅ July 03, 2021
I didn’t realise that - we’ll cheer each other on then! I’m just keeping a more detailed track in my paper diary for now then I’ll stop once the habit gets established and just keep an overall ‘books read’ track on Goodreads :)
IpsoFacto ⋅ June 30, 2021
Is Alfie a Welsh Terrier?
Marg IpsoFacto ⋅ July 03, 2021
No he’s a Cockapoo :)
blackpropaganda ⋅ June 30, 2021
Ah, the lawn - ours, front and back, is has a depth of a few inches on rubble - you can bounce on it - it is made up of grass, weeds, moss - but it is essentially green. Just requires mowing - but not at the moment since there are all kinds of flowery things attracting the bees - and I am a Springwatch person. I asked about having the lawn done properly - stuff taken out and reseeded - but it is likely never to improve - so I have no problem with it - and do not envy those who have to work hard to keep theirs pristine.
Glad you are getting into reading - I found diaries are good because you can read as many entries as you like - I just must have a book which will send me to sleep at night after a few pages!
Marg blackpropaganda ⋅ July 03, 2021
Yes I had a bit of a problem doing it while there were so many bees around and then a nest took up residence under my shed just along from the door so that made getting the lawnmower out dicy - I was worried they would see me as a threat!
I read diaries in the morning so no problem there but I was really missing getting ‘right into’ a book which I used to really enjoy.
mcbee ⋅ June 30, 2021
I am an avid reader, but realize I use up a lot of my reading "energy" here online. I do read at bedtime, but like you that doesn't last long due to my brain being tired by then. Your efforts to get back into it seem to be working and inspire me to get off my tablet and back into a good book.
Marg mcbee ⋅ July 03, 2021
The other good thing about it is the hour I used to spend in the evening playing a game on my phone is now being spent reading so win all round :)
woman in the moon ⋅ June 30, 2021
This is a lovely entry. So much here.
Taking out the hedge after you'd trimmed your side is one of the worst 'neighbor' stories I've heard... and you are taking it well. Your yard and plantings look so nice. So good to have a place with growing things.
I'm nowhere as good a reader as I used to be. I did some good reading when I was working and I would read for ten or 20 minutes on breaks. I found that was a good length of time to read and then I could think of what I had read (and look forward to what came next) when I was working. (I had routine factory jobs and sometimes I was looking for a bit of distraction.) I read a number of books and felt I 'retained' a lot of what I read. Now I've become more of a dip in and out reader. I console myself thinking of the traditional reader who read in his chair every night and perhaps was also a dip in and out reader. I love my books though. I love reading things over and reading bits and pieces and then perhaps putting them together. When I finish a book, I like to look it up in Wikipedia and read about the author the author's other works. I like knowing about writer's lives and often seek out biographies. Reading is all about connections. And learning. And comfort.
The new baby will be a big step for everyone. I love your recognition of your daughter's comment about her kids' father needing to remember them too. I trust all will turn out happily - with bumps, like all of life.
Oh and the puppy!!!! Great pictures. Slight suggestion which I suppose your family is taking anyway - give pup a treat when he goes into the cage. Food is such an encouragement.
Marg woman in the moon ⋅ July 03, 2021
She’s a very quiet private neighbour so I don’t think there would have been anything malicious in it but I hope she at least felt guilty when she saw the gardening service I got round trimming all the hedges 3 weeks earlier! :)
I had a problem retaining what I read as well but I think reading at bedtime just wasn’t working so hopefully this new regime will get it all back on track. It seems to be working pretty well. Like you I love biographies as well and I always go on Goodreads after I’ve read something to find out what other people thought of the book - I find it fascinating to see so many different opinions about the same set of words!
Yes she’s using treats to reward positive behaviour but she’s wondering now if she’ll use the cage at all - different people have varying opinions on it - so she’s going to try and babygate the sitting room and leave him in there next time to see how that goes.
woman in the moon ⋅ June 30, 2021
Oh and best of luck to brother Mike.
Marg woman in the moon ⋅ July 03, 2021
Thank you! My other brother phones him every week so he updates the rest of us and all ok so far :)
Camdengirl ⋅ June 30, 2021
I actually know the answer to the lawn - you need a scarifier to take up the moss. Then get lawn seed and sprinkle, Leave to grow.
Marg Camdengirl ⋅ July 03, 2021
Someone else said to put the lawn seed down in the autumn when the grass stops growing - I hadn’t thought of that!
thesunnyabyss ⋅ June 30, 2021
I may just steal your reading project idea, very awesome!
And it's amazing how much removing those hedges opened everything up, totally get why you might feel exposed now.
Dreams like those are never any good, ugh. I hope Mike recovers well and it was just a blip.
And what an adorable little puppy!!!!
Take care, enjoy your books and that pup!
Marg thesunnyabyss ⋅ July 03, 2021
Thank you! The project’s going pretty well so far I’m glad to say :)
thesunnyabyss Marg ⋅ July 03, 2021
Awesomeness!!!
elaine2 ⋅ June 30, 2021 (edited June 30, 2021)
Edited
What a gem of a puppy.
noko ⋅ June 30, 2021 (edited June 30, 2021)
Edited
Gardeners' World this season is talking a lot about lawns (and the history of lawns) and on episode 8 Adam Frost talks about fixing patches in the lawn. Reading is such a delight and I hope you are able to come back to it regularly. That puppy! It is a huge change with the hedges gone out front there. Scary about your brother. Having our family members age along with us is a bit hard to bear sometimes.
Marg noko ⋅ July 03, 2021
Someone told me to put the grass seed down in the autumn when the grass doesn’t need cut - hadn’t thought of that!
NorthernSeeker ⋅ July 02, 2021
Your neighbour is a cow to dig up the hedges after you laid out the money to have them trimmed on your side. My goodness Alfie is cute! I'm sure that Alfie will eventually conform to household life...sounds like he's got a good start on it.
Marg NorthernSeeker ⋅ July 03, 2021
He’s actually done really well in the time he’s been there - it’s only been a week. I’m sure they’ll crack the crate issue - she’s going to try putting the babygate back up in the sitting room and leaving him in there without the crate next time they go out and see how he gets on :)
Serin ⋅ July 02, 2021
Relieved your brother felt so quickly better!
I'm happy you're getting sucked into your books. I know there are some books that do better or worse for drawing me in.
Marg Serin ⋅ July 03, 2021
It was a big part of my life before - I knew I was definitely missing out so it was worth making it a project :)
Kristi1971 ⋅ July 03, 2021
Good for you on the reading! Yes, I have two places I read. I have a chair in corner of my living room. I have a window on both sides of the corner and a lamp behind like you do. The other place is a cozy chair on my front porch.
‘The Guernsey and Literacy Potato Peel Society’ _ I read that this spring and really liked it. I tried to see the movie, but it was changed up too much. I really wanted to remember the book the way it was written, so I didn't bother with the movie once I realized how much they changed.
Marg Kristi1971 ⋅ July 04, 2021
I remembered you writing about how much you loved reading it - that was a factor in choosing it actually - weird thing is I have no idea where the book came from! I know I didn’t buy it - I did take a good few books back home from Mum’s flat after she died so maybe it was one of hers. Maybe she’s helping me out with this project :)
history of love ⋅ July 08, 2021
Well congratulations to Joel and his partner. Hopefully the girls have seen their new sibling.
Alfie is cuuuuute! Such a heartbreaker already.
That it a massive difference to your front garden, with the hedge being gone - are you used to the change yet?
I'm glad you're starting to read again, I can only imagine how bereft you've felt.
x
Marg history of love ⋅ July 10, 2021
Well if we ever get some sun to sit out in I’ll let you know😁The girls have seen the wee one and are suitably charmed - Nikki hasn’t and is suitably uncharmed🙄 But y’know - treat people like shit and they tend to not want to share their new babies with you. I’m so pleased how well the project is working so far! 5 (mostly short though) books down already :)
Oswego ⋅ July 09, 2021
That reading nook looks just perfect! Really like it!
I find that it’s getting harder and harder to escape from the blizzard of distracting and interesting things to read, write about and watch on the internet. I am close to being addicted to YouTube.
Ironically when I do pick up a good non-fiction book, I read a few pages and get really immersed, marking up the pages, but then I put it down to check my phone and get back to YouTube! Big sighs!!
Loved all the photos in this entry. Always such a delightful peek at your life and family! 😌
Marg Oswego ⋅ July 10, 2021
I’m so pleased how well the project is going and can relate to your woes! But another good thing which has come from it is that I used to play a game on my phone for an hour every night but now have no time for it by the time I’m finished reading so that’s gotta be a double positive right?😁
Sabrina-Belle ⋅ July 11, 2021
That's a pretty little front garden. I see what you mean about being exposed though, could you plant something yourself to create a private corner? I love the daisies in our lawn and tend to just leave them, moss too, but we do have a much bigger area.
Your reading project sounds good. I try to keep a record on Goodreads too, but keep forgetting.
I would think your dream was just your subconscious expressing your fears. Glad your brother is recovering ok, it's always a worry when things like that happen.
Lovely pictures of the puppy, and the cat!
Marg Sabrina-Belle ⋅ July 12, 2021
I think I like the light and sun too much to plant anything else which would block it out. And seeing as how we’re hardly getting any decent days to actually sit out in, it’s starting to be a moot point lol :)
The problem with the dream is when I have ones which are just my subconscious working through stuff, I forget them pretty quickly afterwards but the ones which seem to carry some kind of message so to speak stay with me and never fade. Let’s just hope it was wrong🤞
edna million ⋅ July 23, 2021 (edited July 23, 2021)
Edited
ooooh, that puppy!!!! Maybe since he's a baby, the cats will get used to him faster than they would a grown dog. Hopefully they will find him cute, lol. I know my grown cats always adapt to kittens a lot faster than other grown cats.
Lots of good thoughts for your brother - that is very scary!
And the hedge being gone is a HUGE difference - it is nice to have more light though. Was it dying? It looks a little brown. What a relaxing spot to sit in-
SOMEBODY I know was just mentioning The Guernsey and Literacy Potato Peel Society, and said they loved it. I am pretty certain I got the kindle version YEARS ago and am bumping it up to read soon. Glad the reading project is going well!
Marg edna million ⋅ July 24, 2021
It's such a shame - Alfie is desperate to make friends with the cats and they're having none of it lol!
I think I had probably done something awful to the hedge - not sure what - just tried to clip it a good bit on my side because it was getting in the way but clearly I did something damaging because after that was when it turned brown!
I can very much recommend The Guernsey and Literacy Potato Peel Society - a nice, feelgood read. I thought it would be a bit 'twee' but actually it wasn't.