Just Be kind, Inane Chatter and Saving Lives

We need to be kind in these crazy Covid-19 fuelled days.  

Be kind to people even if they do come close looking at you as though you are about to murder them with a sneeze.  Be kind to people you don't know and maybe even more importantly be kind to those that you do.

It's hard when you're cooped up with someone day in day out, but being kind to those closest to you should always be a pre-requisite of day to day living.  It's easy to forget and to not give those that you love the most the same telephone voice you  that you give everyone else.

I do my best, but I'm not perfect.  But Alan is still alive so that's saying something ... surely!!

I was kind to a wasp yesterday, after a false start. 

 I was busy washing pots, daydreaming as you do, half looking out of the window at the birds splashing in the birdbath in the old rhubarb bed, half watching as the dried on bits of pasta gradually dissolved as I scrubbed and scrubbed at the baking tray, when I heard the littlest of thuds on the windowsill.  I looked up and there was the body of a wasp, legs upwards.  I'll see if I can revive him when I've finished the pots was my immediate thought.  So I did, I finished the pots and then got a spoonful of sugar added a few drops of water to form a sticky mess and put it near the prone wasp.  It showed no interest, so I gave him the littlest of pokes.  Nothing ... as dead as a dodo and almost as stiff.  Oh well I thought, and put his little body in the compost bucket ... I'm nothing if not environmentally friendly, ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that.

Then an hour or so later when I was putting something else in the compost bucket I moved it slightly and there behind it was the body of another wasp.  Aha ... thought I this is the one that fell off the window!!  So I repeated my sugar, water, spoon trick and put it right next to the prone, but legs still kicking wasp.  Immediately his little proboscis started twitching and he climbed up, making a pretty remarkable recovery.  I gave him a minute to drink up some of the sugary water and then took him and the spoon outside and placed them near some flowers. 

I don't know how long he lasted or where he is now, but a little life saved for how ever long it lasts is worth feeling pleased about. 

I'm kind like this on a daily basis to all the little insects I find in the sheep's water buckets, fishing them out with pieces of grass or leaves and putting them on the grass to dry out.  A life a day is my current rate of rescue.

Every little helps ... to quote a famous supermarket that cares not a jot for bugs!!

Sue xx

Talk About Confusing ...

Talk about confusing.  Boris' little Address to the Nation just served to confuse everyone all the more.

There are photos all over social media this morning of busy roads, full buses, underground trains etc etc.   Everyone dashing back to work to workplaces not ready for them yet.  It's a bit late to announce  'No, no we meant on Wednesday'  when everyone had already gone to bed and set their alarm clocks ready for a working day.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland it seems to be Stay at Home as usual, something which the majority of the population are happy to do.

And the BIG message the Welsh Government are trying to push today ...as they have been saying for weeks ... is that WALES IS CLOSED, you cannot drive here to do any form of exercise so don't bother.  The minute you cross the border you are under Welsh rules, which clearly state that you cannot drive to anywhere to begin exercise.

Just me doing my bit to clarify things  😁

Sue xx

Just Snippets of Home

Sunny kitchen window sill.

Love.

Lazy morning snoozing.

Looking out to the Carneddau Mountains.

Ginger's selection of beds.  

The little grey dog bed that usually lives in Alan's car is the current favourite.

Seasonings and phone charging shelf.

Sue xx

Just Sitting on the Hill with Sheep

Every night we walk the dogs around the paddock and they have a play.  When the sheep are in the big field they join in too, it's usually a woolly and furry free for all.

Ethel of course is really friendly, she's been with us for years now and is used to us and the dogs, her lamb Joey has only just gained enough confidence and learnt enough about the dogs to begin to have a bit of proper fun with them.  It seems strange that this boy lamb has taken so much longer to get the confidence, that his sister Jasmine had right from the start, you would sort of expect a boy lamb to be a bit more assertive and brave.

And as you can see from this photo the other ewe (one of Will's sheep)  is starting to be a bit more friendly to Suky too.  She really wasn't used to dogs when she first came here and Suky tried to make friends straight away only to be flipped and head butted by mum every time she went near the lamb.  She soon learned to keep her distance from both of them but it would seem now that mum is getting used to the dogs and is relaxing a bit around them.

Alan usually leaves a line of ewe nuts for the sheep to snack on and of course Suky the Pug tries her luck to snaffle a few.

Once they are all gone the playing begins.

Suky saying 'chase me, chase me' ....

... and then 'wait for me, wait for me', as Joey's longer legs and bouncy step get him quickly into the lead.

Then it's all slow down and get your breath back time.

Joey up close and personal.  He's a lovely sturdy little lamb.

And then even closer, showing off his beautiful eyes and eyelashes.

Once they get fed up with playing and the sheep all meander down the hill leaving the dogs sitting on the grass with us, we take a slow stroll back to the house and start to make our tea.

Sue xx

Celebrating VE Day

All over the UK today there is a 2 minute silence at 11am and then later tea parties galore, all in our own homes.  Some people are having picnics ... weather permitting ... on our own little patches of land, however large or small they might be.

The official timetable of events for the day is this:

Which national events are still going ahead?

The government had moved the traditional Early May Bank Holiday from 4 May to 8 May this year to allow for a range of celebrations across the UK, including a veterans' procession and street parties. But social distancing measures mean those have been called off.

However, various events are still going ahead, including:

• 10:50 BST - at a service in Westminster, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will lay a wreath on behalf of the Commons. Lord West will lay a wreath on behalf of the Lords
• 11:00 - a national moment of remembrance and a two-minute silence will be held
• 14:45 - in a special programme on BBC One, extracts from Churchill's victory speech to the nation announcing the end of the war in Europe will be broadcast
• 14:55 - solo buglers, trumpeters and cornet players will be invited to play the Last Post from their homes
• 15:00 - as Churchill's speech is broadcast, people will be invited to stand up and raise a glass in a national toast, saying: "To those who gave so much, we thank you"
• 20:00 - another BBC One special will feature Welsh soprano Katherine Jenkins, actor Adrian Lester and singer Beverley Knight, who will be performing some well-known songs from the 1930s and 40s. The programme will culminate in the nation being invited to sing along to a rendition of wartime classic We'll Meet Again
• 21:00 - the Queen's pre-recorded address will be broadcast on BBC One at the exact moment her father, King George VI, gave a radio address 75 years ago. It will be her second televised message during the coronavirus outbreak after a rare speech to the nation last month
• 21:30 - Spotlights will light up the sky in Portsmouth to recall the experience of blackouts during the war. The local council says the lights are also to remind people "that lighter times will come again"

*** *** ***

There are lots of bunting images to print out or colour in available on Google Images for anyone who wants to decorate their homes. 

 I decided to make a little string of laminated paper bunting to hang on our gates.

Then a few more ...

And a couple more for the old egg sign board.

Then I threw some extra corn to the chickens, just like you can see me doing here, and settled down with a nice cup of coffee and a slice of cake to watch a nice old movie.

❤🤍💙

Sue xx

Let's Not Go Back To Normal

Wouldn't it be lovely if we didn't ... go back to normal.

I couldn't agree more.

Sue xx

The Ever Changing Kitchen Shelves

Someone admired my shelves ... and then asked if they are just a static display of unchanging items.

Nope, they are an extension of the food cupboard and contain the most frequently used foodstuffs in this house.  Hence the contents of the jars may appear to be unchanged, but they are filled, emptied and are re-filled as we use what is in each and every one of them.

Occasionally the jars are refilled with something slightly different but usually we have the same foodstuffs all the time, perhaps now and then there's white rice instead of brown rice or a coconutty granola instead of a fruity one.  Sometimes I decant down a jar size if we have used most of something up to leave my bigger jar available for re-use for a similar product.

But mostly the shelves stay similar looking as over the years we have refined them to the things that we use regularly and that are handy and decorative to have around.  After all who doesn't love to see food in glass jars  😃

What the question did do is make me wonder how the shelves have evolved over the six years we have been here ... so I went back through my photos to have a look.

Completely empty in November 2013 ... just before we moved in.

We had spent the previous couple of months decorating and getting the house ready for us to live in.

January 2014

October 2015

January 2016

I can only find this snippet for 2016.

February 2017

No photo for 2018 ... I cannot believe I didn't take one shot of the shelves they seem to be photographed almost as much as the dogs 🤣🤣

December 2019

April 2020

This morning.

You can play Spot the Difference with the last two  😃

And that's what you get when you ask me a questions about something I've photographed!!

Sue xx