Clocks and Dogs

I lost a couple of hours this morning. I woke up when Jade was pawing at me and looked at my watch - 6.30. Ok, time for a cuppa before I take her out. I took my tea back to bed and sipped it while reading the current book on my Kindle. Soon after 7 the landline phone rang. I galloped downstairs but just missed it. 1471 told me it was my daughter.

Thinking it must be an emergency for her to call that early, I phoned back but she couldn't talk as she was on another call. I finally discovered that it wasn't an emergency after all. She just wanted to ask my advice on something that wasn't particularly time critical. Strange.

I went back upstairs and got dressed ready to take Jade out. In the kitchen, I faffed around finding tissues and pooh bags for my pockets. I glanced at the clock: 9.58.

What!

Every other timepiece agreed, even my mobile phone. All except my watch, which clearly needs a new battery. So it was actually after nine when my daughter called,

Poor Jade. Instead of having her morning walk before 8 as usual, she had to wait until 10. Do you think the picture is the equivalent of a dog with legs crossed? No wonder she had been pawing at me to wake up.

Getting Back to Normal

Felt quite proud of myself yesterday for what I managed to achieve on my own. I had got the floors, worktops and cupboard doors cleaned up the day before, and was wondering how I'd manage to get the furnishings back in place, even the curtains which had previously been a two-man job. But I worked out the way to do that before I even got out of bed in the morning. And my plan to take the curtain rail down, resting it on chairs to get the curtains on and then put it back, worked a treat, even if I was in danger of falling off the step stool a couple of times. Later I found it was possible to drag the fridge and the heavy furniture across the tiled floor, and now I have my kitchen/diner back. It won't have to be moved around again until the decorating contingency arrive just before Easter, by which time the plaster around the new window will be well and truly dried.

My lounge is still covered with piles of books that need properly sorting before I decide where the ones I want to keep will live in new house format. Jade is somewhat confused by it all and frequently escapes into the garage conversion where she has a comfy bed  behind my computer. The only trouble with that is, while she can push the door open and go in, it swings to again and she can't get it open to get out. So I have to follow her and wedge the door open. If I don't see her go, I know where to find her later. But she's usually quite happy if she has a warm bed to curl up in.

Let There be Light

This is my new window which has just been fitted. It lets more light into the ground floor extension, opposite the alcove that used to house the kitchen and is destined to be my new study area.

My Great Grandchildren

At Christmas I was given a lovely calendar for 2015 with various photos of one or more of my three greatgrandchildren. This is the one for March. It's so lovely I can't keep my eyes away from it. It had to come down from the wall as the builder has finally arrived to add a new window to my kitchen diner, and I wanted to protect it from dust. A great opportunity to scan and share this one.

Friday the 13th

I'd completely forgotten that today was Friday the 13th until a few moments ago when I logged into my email and discovered I am a little over $40 better off as my article about this phenomenon sold today at Constant Content.

That was only one of the happy events of today. It rained quite hard in the night and was still raining when I got up this morning, but by 10,30, when I was ready to take Jade for a good walk, it had stopped. Before that I had tucked her into her rainproof coat and let her out into the back garden.

After the rain we enjoyed a grand tramp through the woods and Jade obediently stayed on the far side of the gate while I hotfooted it to the pooh bin at the Upton House car park. The farmer was about to bring his cows across the lane and was really impressed that she stayed exactly where I left her until I returned. I wasn't: that's what I had told her to do. (The picture is by John Lamper, and shows the rather splendid frontage of Upton House, which is surrounded by the country park.)

After that Jade stayed at home while I went to catch up with some of the Streetlifers over a drink at lunchtime. I had to leave them early though to head on to my singing group practice, where we had a hilarious time with all the jokers bang on form. When I got home Jade was looking out of the window to watch for me and we've just had a lovely cuddly hour on the sofa.

So I have enjoyed today. I think Friday the 13th could be good for me.

Postumous Poetry

One of my friends lost a dear friend last year. She told me that she was the only person who had seen her friend's poetry, and there was plenty of it over the years. She doesn't want it to die with her, so has undertaken the massive task of collating and publishing it on a website. I've looked at quite a few of the poems and found some of them really intriguing. I'll be popping in from time to time to read more as the collection grows. If I have piqued your interest, go to marionjonespoetry.com.

Here's a taster - my favourite so far:

Not when the sun-lit blue of summer seas

Posted on February 11, 2015

Not when the sun-lit blue of summer seas
Laps softly white against the golden sand ,
When fluffy clouds drift gently in the breeze
And the fierce sun glares in the blueness over the land ,
When tanned young swimmers laze by the lazy deep ,
With soft warm sand for a pillow as they sleep —
But when the white unbridled horses shake
Their manes of foam , and leap in the grey-green sea
When grating rollers wild on the pebbles break
And the black sky thunders warning of storms to be ,
When men in oilskins struggle with wind and wave ,
In peril launching , loved souls in peril to save ,
Praise we most fully Him who all things made
Whose voice these men , as once the storm , obeyed .

14th September 1952

How to Make Friends and Influence People

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My life by Jade: Helping my Mummy

My poor Mummy has writer’s block so she asked me to help her out by producing this and apologising for not posting for such a long time. Actually I think the block has been in getting her to sit down at the computer. There has been so much else going on here, and it’s not going to get much better for a while.

She finally found a builder to put in the new window that will bring light into the alcove that the computer is to move into with all the stationery and stuff that is left after the big turn-out (which is still under way). We hope that will be done next week. The leak from the towel rail in the shower room has been fixed properly at last. When all the lights went out last night, it did rather seem like the last straw, but in the morning light she found the trip switch that turned most of them on again: all except the one which broke and tripped us into darkness. We can manage just as well without that one.

Today we went to another vet to get a second opinion on my ‘arthritis’. I am only four years old but my front legs are hurting nearly all the time now. He was a very thorough vet and he confirmed that I have joint problems in both my shoulders. Mummy had thought it was only one but I let her know about the other one this morning when he pulled it. He was a very nice man and gave us several options for how to deal with it, and now we have to discuss it with my usual vet again.

In between all this Mummy has been making some new friends which meant one day we went for a walk with four other dogs and their two Mummies. We also had some visitors so we can write more posts about all that as well.

Will that do for now, Mummy?  Thank you, Jade.