Saturday 18th and it's O's 11th birthday.
I had made him a big card (but forgot to take a pic) and did a money transfer for him to Daughter's account and we managed a video call so Hubby and I could sing badly but he appreciated it. I'm keeping count of how many cuddles I'll be collecting as soon as I can.
I fancied some cake, however making a whole one means unnecessary overeating so a small mixture and just a few little cranberry and lemon sponges cooked in the sandwich toaster.
Well I managed to video Hubby, in uniform with his liveried bike in front of the banner, clapping. Two takes to get it all in without sun interference. That was the easy bit. I'd recorded it on my tablet and tried to upload it following the link for the person who is going to edit all the members together. With lots of messages on facebook going back and forth we discovered it had failed and so did the second attempt. Maybe my tablet wasn't up to the job, it was quite a big file. I transferred it to Hubby's laptop via Bluetooth (after Hangouts/email/Flickr all failed even my memory stick with micro usb connection had mysteriously broken). Oddly on the laptop there was image but no sound but Hubby sent it on its way anyway with fingers crossed. Big sigh of relief when we got confirmation of its safe arrival and all working as it should. I'm not even going to attempt adding a file that caused that much trouble so just a screenshot
While the weather is so nice I've swapped the indoor treadmill for walking around the garden. We are blessed with a good size garden so why not get some vitamin D along with exercise and fresh air.
We've been lucky getting groceries. Daughter has managed two deliveries this week and another booked in for next week. Hubby secured a click and collect for this week too. I'm now struggling to think of what groceries we still need.
Seems most of us need a bit of structure and after a month at home, with our normal diaries wiped clean, I'm now included (mostly by others) for....
- on the drive coffee morning Mondays
- usual Wednesday night girls chat on messenger
- 8pm Thursday clapping outside for the key workers
- 8:10pm Thursday virtual pub quiz with Daughter&co on zoom
- daily 17 laps walking round the garden
- most days mid-morning tea by the pond with neighbourA
And now neighbourT has volunteered her husband to lead us in a stay-on-your-own-drive-keep-fit-session Wednesdays at 11am
We are still having the battle with the heron and our pond! Even with all the temporary blue rope across the fence top and bits of net across the blue rope the heron was calculating what gaps to get in and even when he was chased off and caught a wing on the rope it didn't put him off coming back.
So we've bought more net.
The first plan was to attach the net to the fence and create a cage roof. However, Hubby had bought netting in metres having measured the space in steps!!! I'm helping at 4'9" to net the nearly 6" high pond area. Two attempts failed, so we stopped for a cuppa and a rethink.
We cut net a bit bigger than needed and secured it at pond level on the hooks Hubby had already cemented under the slabs. Probably the best way but not the most convenient while Hubby is still paving.
Early the very next morning I'm looking out and there's the (insert swear words) heron! He was sitting on the top of the fence obviously sizing up the situation. We left him thinking he would realise he couldn't get breakfast and never come back..... but then he flew through the blue rope and landed on the paving, then sat down, what a cheek! He waited, we waited, then his head went down and up with a fish in his beak quickly swallowed grrrrr.
I rushed out clapping and shouting and off he flew.
Not sure if you can see from this photo, but he'd gone in at the small gap we'd left at the far end where the plants are growing. We've now closed the gap.
And no doubt you've been desperate to know how my poor nails are doing. Well they are the shortest and weakest they've been for about twenty years! However I've discovered that a first coat of pva glue before the varnish helps the varnish stay on, and when they need repainting I've just layered over the top yet another pva coat and then the varnish and a top coat.....gotta try anything. This time I went for two tone green.
It's been so nice having the time to write a regular blog post, and even nicer to actually have plenty to write about even though it feels like every day is leisurely and almost the same.
Stay safe everyone, same time next week eh?
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3 comments:
Loved the cranberry and lemon sponges. And the stones to count laps. Brilliant idea.
Naughty heron. We try and go to the heronry near us in the spring but it is all shut this year :-(. Sure the herons are still doing their thing though.
We do get a bit panicky about the heroin which is a shame as they are beautiful birds, but those long pointy beaks darting into the pond for fish have in the past punctured the pond liner and that makes for a massive amount of work rescuing what we have and rebuilding the whole thing.
The heronry has its own lakes so let's hope they tend to leave the private ponds alone where they are.
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