2023 Quick Daily Posts

[Mabel Figworthy]

Visited Benton & Johnson today, makers of goldwork materials (they provided most if not all of the bling for the Coronation) and DH and I were given an 80-minute tour by Neil, the manager - really interesting! Will write more about it later but still very excited about it

[rcperryls]

That must have been an awesome tour! I can't imagine what is in there. I hope you will go into more description once you come back down to earth!

Carole

[Serinde]

That's really exciting!

[richardandtracy]

Had a very busy week on leave last week. Went to see my dad twice (500 mile round trip) and stayed at home in the mean time. So I was there when our 32 year old (minimum) central heating boiler decided to give up. It has been on its way out for years, staggering from problem to problem. It's now time to replace it with a newer, more efficient model. The new ones efficiencies are 95% compared to 66%. We've not gone to a heat pump, because at the moment they cost more to run than a high efficiency boiler, cost more and last about the same time (10 years). When the new boiler dies in 10 years, we'll replace it with a heat pump which we hope will improve over the intervening years.

My dad has improved dramatically. He was awake for 50% of the time I was there, and for 90% of that time he was compus mentus. For the remaining time he was away with the fairies, imagining things. He still has a chest infection, but he's out of danger. Unfortunately he needs a crane to get out of bed, so needs significant nursing care still.

On the way back from Devon to Kent I had to stop in Leatherhead, Surrey, to pick Tracy up from a course and Orianna up from Ashford. The timing was a bit off, and it extended the 250 mile journey to 300.

Ah well, happy days.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Good news about your father, and good thinking on the boiler. Hope all that driving hasn't tired you out too much. I'm sorry if I've got this wrong, but is Orianna the daughter who needs surgery? How is she keeping?

[richardandtracy]

It's Enya who needs the surgery, and she now has a date of November 14, which is early enough to think someone reckons it's pretty serious. Forgot that, came last Saturday while I was heading to Devon.

The cysts seem to be amplifying her monthly hormonal swings and she's getting rather tired of being in severe pain once a month. She's been told she's certain to lose one ovary, and may lose the other. She's not wildly fussed by this, which is rather nice to see. The surgery is going to start off as keyhole, but may turn into the size of a caesarian if the aperture is insufficient to remove the cysts.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Good news about your dad. Infections have that effect on older people, and when they really knock it on the head, that’ll make a difference to his mental state.

Poor Enya. November must feel like ages away. (Also my eldest sister’s birth date, so I see it as propitious.)

[rcperryls]

So good to hear about your dad he sounds like a real fighter and hope he continues to recover. Sometimes when people are flat on their backs in a hospital bed staring up at the ceiling a lot they experience what he is experiencing when he is with the “fairies”. Decades ago that happened to my father and the the nurses explained it to my sister and me. My dad’s experience was more on the paranoid side, so glad that your dad’s sounds more pleasant.

I hope that all goes well for Enya next month, I’m sure she will be so glad to get it over with. You and yours are in my thoughts and prayers as well as wishes for a calmer time ahead.

A role

[Mabel Figworthy]

Apparently it is Wombat Day today.....

[Steam.Jo]

I'll bring the chocolate and the wine gums

Jo

[richardandtracy]

Very odd little creatures. Very useful too. And like most Australian mammals, looks absolutely adorable.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Waddle crump (Ivan Smith's Death of a Wombat actually made me cry when I read it at university.)

(Sorry to bring down the tone...)

[Mabel Figworthy]

I'd never heard of that book, must look it up! I did read Will Cuppy's "How to Attract the Wombat".....

[fccs]

I've been AWOL for awhile. I did a quick trip to Florida the first weekend in October and was able to watch two rocket launches. Amazing!! And I just got home Sunday from a week long cruise from Boston to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Maine (Bar Harbor and Portland). I came home with a cold but also a ton of memories!


We went whale watching in the Bay of Fundy and saw two right whales (five or six sightings)


And I came home to this beautiful view from my patio. I do love autumn!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Wonderful pics both home and away!

[Serinde]

Totally agree!

[rcperryls]

Totally agree!

Completely agree and it sounds like a wonderful reason to be awol. We would have given you official leave for sure.

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Lovely view Debbie. Autumn hasn't really arrived here in SE England yet. 19 years ago our Oak dropped its leaves in the week after we moved in (19 Nov) so that acts as a fixed time reference for us.

Regards

Richard

[Serinde]

We have beautiful colour at the moment (and a blue sky!!), but the leaves are falling with the least breath of wind. I watch the blackbirds feasting on the catoneaster and all sorts of other berries around and about.

[rcperryls]

Can't go to much by the temperature outside to know when autumn is here. I think I have mentioned before that we decide that when the Hooded Mergansers arrive in the creek behind the house. They migrate from Canada and every year we get 6-10 that spend the winter. So much fun to watch. They arrived last week, even though we still had summer temperatures. Supposed to change by the end of the week.

Carole