General Chat

Bye Sue, Enjoy your day take care.

Linda I think the villages have largely remained the same as ever they were. Being smaller they are more manageable, and the villagers take care of their community. We have a local man who walks the village every Saturday with a black bag picking up every scrap of litter he may find.
I think the out of town shopping precincts are the cause of much decline in the towns, and exhorbitant business rates imposed by the councils. The little high street traders don't stand a chance, hence all the boarded up shops.

Tec.

We walk down to the market every Saturday morning and OH sets off with a carrier bag and a disposable plastic glove which he liberates from the petrol station. He picks up all the litter between our house and the main road.

My OH grew up in a Liverpool 'council house' and he often told me about how his father took pride in his rose garden.
He was able to visit his brother and sisters whilst on a business trip in 1982 and he went to see the house. It upset him to see that there was no garden, no roses, and the fence was in a sad state. When I went with him in 1989, we visited the sisters, but he wouldn't take me to see the old house - he was too ashamed of it.
Nothing ever looks the same when you have been away from it a long time. I never go back to visit old homes. I know I wouldn't like them.

I have been to photograph them all for the tree. The one thing which spoils the areas are all the cars parked everywhere. when we were small, there were hardly any cars so the streets seemed wider and they were safe to play on

What a difference it would make if everyone looked after the area around them. I think if an area looks tidy to start with, people are less likely to drop litter.
People in this village are very good. They plant things in public areas. I planted hundreds of bluebell bulbs from my garden along the riverbank, others have planted snowdrops, crocuses etc. I think I mentioned recently that I'm going to adopt the little area around the village telephone box, it looks very untidy now.
The villagers raised over £50,000 to refurbish the children's playground, now it's really nice with modern things all painted in primary colours.

Tec.

Well another day is over and it is time I was in bed again. The forecast said it is going to be cold overnight.
Keep warm Tec and I hope you have a sunny day, but a less humid night Berona

That is because you live in a rich village Tec, Here they have put a large fence around the playground and lock it at night to stop the vandals. Before it was locked up, they decided to build a youth shelter,so they had somewhere to gather. It had a table in the centre with fixed benches around it and a roof, but it was open at the sides.It lasted a week before they very people it was for set fire to it
goodnight again.

Goodnight Linda, yes it is very cold out there,
sleep well - keep warm,
Tec.

Berona you are so right about going back. Places are rarely as you remember them.The area I was brought up in was flattened, and is now a station carpark. That little community, some having lived there for generations, have been scattered to the four winds.

Tec.

That is sad Linda, and a real shame.

Well I'm also off to bed,
Enjoy your day Berona - say Hi to the cat from me.
Goodnight all who look in later,
Tec.

Weather report:

Grounds wet this morning and drizzly so when we went out I wore a jacket. By the time we headed home again the sun was out in full force and jacket no longer required.
I was sitting on a seat in a shopping mall drinking my coffee along side one of those moveable children's rides, an Indian woman (who looked lovely in her sari etc) was looking for where to put the coins in this aeroplane so her child in a pushchair could have a ride. I found the coin slots inside the plane but the child lacked any sort of emotion and showed no inclination as to wanting a ride. I don't think I have come across a child that showed no reaction to anything said or done before there was not even a flicker.

Persey

Good day to you all.

Persey, do you think perhaps the child had a disability of some intellectual kind? It is most unusual for a child to show no emotion, as you say.

It is sad to go back to old residences of which you have so many memories and pride in and find that they've been neglected. The house where I grew up has been demolished, a road put through where our driveway down to the workshed and cow milking area was, and a new subdivision built. But the creek where my sister and I used to play is still there.

We used to go and visit an uncle, aunt and cousins when I was a little girl out at North Rocks in Sydney. Imagine my pleasure when I found that the golf course which I'd just joined contained the creek where my cousin and I used to catch tadpoles. The area where their house used to be is now parkland. There's a 'grassy knoll' (shades of JFK?) there still which used to be outside their house. For those familiar with the area, it was just down behind the local school on Barclay Road. In those days there was the local state school on one side of the dirt road leading to my uncle's house and the Blind School was on the other side. The state school has now expanded to cover that whole area and the Blind School has relocated to across the road from the shopping centre. My uncle had a dairy farm in that area.

Pam.

Good morning/evening all.
We had a shower for about an hour late yesterday morning, then drizzle for the remainder of the afternoon. It seemed quite dry half an hour ago, but is wet again but can't see any rain. Seems like we might get more drizzle.

Pam- I think I know the area you speak of. There are a couple more schools in North Rocks now - and I'm sure there are no building blocks! The shopping centre is quite big, but semi-hidden from the main road. Once K-Mart moves in - the others all follow! It's still a nice comfortable and respectable area - not rich, but not poor either.

Good morning Berona , Pam and Persey .

Berona , I hope you day brightens up weather wise . It is a cold , cold evening here on the East coast of the UK but it had been a nice bright day.

Pam , going back to visit " past " places is always a risky buisness , things are rarely the same as they were when you left them .

Today was the six birthday of my first Granddaughter , it hardly seems possiable that six years have flown by so quickly . Daisy had a lovely time opening all her presents .

Good evening Amanda. Yes, it is brighter now and trying to dry up.

Happy birthday to your grand-daughter - and yes, they do grow up fast. It doesn't seem more than a couple of years since I was changing nappies on my 15 y.o. grandson and he is looking down on me from a height of 6ft!!
Make the most of it - they're not little ones for very long.

Because I arrived here early to-day, I 'slipped over' to transcribing index pages for FreeBMD. I don't normally do this until later in the day, but decided to be 'different' to-day.
I felt quite pleased with myself, having done 146 of 150 records, when a message appeared telling me a problem had been encountered and it was closing down.
And I hadn't SAVED it!!!
Not a good way to start the day. Well, at least the sun is coming out now, so I might take a trip to the supermarket to get what my poor old memory 'forgot' to get last week.
See you when I get back.

Good Morning - Evening,

Hope everyone is well today - not a bad day here for mid November, high of 8 C, AND 2C tonight, though minus 2 inland.
There was a dusting of snow on the mountain tops today.

I feed the wild birds every day - the cold weather brings them to the feeders. Today we had sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches, one goldfinch, blue, coal, and great tits, a robin, blackbird, and collared doves.
Last winter we had a buzzard visit us.

Happy Birthday to Daisy - how great to be six.

Tec.

Berona ....what an awful way to start your day : ((

I hope you have better luck at the supermarket ....perhaps you ought to write a list ( with a good old biro ) so you don't forget anything this time ...lol

It's very quiet here this evening .

That is frustrating for you Berona, hope you gave the computer a thump lol.
Enjoy your shop - don't forget anything.

Tec.

Good evening Tec ..... you sound like the bird man of North Wales ....lol

I get a few in my garden and I do put out a few feeders but unfortunatly I have one cat that is young and so I'm torn between feeding the birds and keeping an eye out as much as possible to stop that cat from hunting them .

Six is an excellent age .... she hasn't reached the " know it all " phase yet.....lol

Hi Amanda,

I've always been interested in wild birds - well all wildlife really. The birds seem to bring the garden to life, especially in the winter.
We used to have quite a few cats around here, one in particular was a pest hunting the birds, but there are very few now, so no problems.

Tec.