Not Locked Down but may need to be locked up

Hello Doodle, I do hope today is a better one for you.

To answer your questions.
My other grand-daughter lives in Tauranga, a 3 hour drive away on the east coast but being young and sprightly, she often comes over to see various friends and her Grandma.

My DiL has a 3 hour manicure/pedicure appointment every 2-3 weeks, so leaves the children here.

My grandson was wonderful with his sister and me too, spontaneously washing up and asking if he could help with anything.

He was in charge of the glue during craftwork, neither Gubbins nor I being reliable

He's at least 6ft now and it seems strange to have to crick my neck to look up at him.

He's a talented water polo player in a regional team who have tournaments and pratices quite often, so is filling out as well as growing up I love him very much and am so grateful to have him here while I can.

I'm just back from my kaumatua group where the usual hilarious time was enjoyed.
Today we did a Q & A session. Each person had a list of questions and had to go round asking who was left-handed, had been on a cruise, wore contacts, was an only child, had a Masters Degree, had an allergy, had ever needed stitches, owned a cat and so on.

We learned a lot about one another

Hope everyone has a good day.

...tomorrow.
More lovely photos of your walk, Grammaretto. Hoping all goes well with your German helper.

Spud and Gubbins, what a lovely pair! Enjoy your break, Mamissimo.

--The gasman-- Openreach still doesn't cometh to sort the phone, but the chairs at least are being collected tomorrow.
Irritatingly, I have received no notification of an approximate time, the window being 7.00 - 18.00. As Cherry has said previously, what's the betting that being up and dressed for 7.00 means that they will arrive at 17.55?

Hey - I haven't finished yet😡

Oh dear, a day of mixed fortunes here.
Doodle, I am very sorry you have had a Bad Day. I hope you can get a decent night's sleep and wake a little tefreshed to face

Sorry Kaimoana I forgot to Star Treck my post.

*Kaimoana I didn’t realise (or had forgotten) that your other son lived in Australia. Does your other granddaughter live in NZ ?
What a lovely day you had with the family. Did your DIl bring them over. Was your grandson there too? Oh you made me laugh about Gubbins and her knickers🤣🤣. So pleased she liked her whatu kakahu .
*Mamissimo how lovely to hear from you. Love Spud in his dungarees. Quite the young man now.
That cabbage is excellent not surprised you won. Have a lovely holiday.
*Grammaretto your friends are lucky you can accommodate them while they have their kitchen fixed. Ah another German helper this time. Hopefully we’ll able to lend a hand with whatever needs doing.
Glad you got to see your DGC. That picture is lovely.
I’m off for an early night tonight. The less said about today the better. Sleep well all x

I expect a framed portrait of that cabbage Mamissimo !

Spud and Gubbins, our poster kids. Adorable.

It looks like my friends will be moving into the Helpx room this week while their recently flooded kitchen is repaired. Its quite a turn around. My next helper will begin next week. She's German.

I saw my little DGC briefly yesterday. They were staying at the other DGPs. Other gran has taught them both to knit. They were very proud. The puppy is a cute at the moment Kojak. That is a Corgi/ Jack Russell Cross.
A photo from our walk yesterday.

Snap!

Nice to se yiu and what an absolutely perfect cabbage, Mamissimo its placing well deserved...but how can you bear to eat it?

I once saw an unusual table decoration, a cabbage - but not as beautiful a brassica as yours, with oxe-eye daisy heads placed between its leaves. Very effective and pretty.

Dear wee Spud, he's such a joy

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A rest? me? You're having a laugh!

Dear friends - I have been utterly absorbed by work lately but I have been reading every day so that I won't be completely lost when I get my life back when this commission is complete.

I have also become somewhat disappointed in the way some people are talking to each other/about each other on other parts of GN and I hate unpleasantness. Once I'm through this commission and have rebalanced my ballast I will no doubt be back posting more regularly.

In news...Spud is walking like a drunk cowboy who's lost his horse my cabbages won Best in Show on Saturday - and Mr M and I are off to Norfolk for a short break this week as we need to relax.

With you in spirit.....x

I've never had a 100% rock-solid belief in ^anything Cherry The nearest I ever get is accepting a cautious 'maybe' because, who knows?
I am fascinated by the 47 year meticulous research of Prof Ian Stevenson and his teams, cataloguing the stories of thousands of (usually remote, rural Third world) pre-schoolers who recount in detail past lives.
Hamlet was right.

In the BBC's Just William collection, an Eng. Lit., teacher talked about Hamlet and whether it was written by Shakespear or Bacon. William says Ham? bacon? let’s call ‘em both eggs’.

Now, NotS <wags finger> only last week you said my slow, mundane day sounded tiring and now look! You had a veritable tornado of a day but it must be a relief to have the shed work in progress. Let's hope those tradies are not from the same school as Grammaretto's recalcitrant crew.

Yes, Grammaretto eventually I will have to grasp the Australian nettle but that’s well into the future.

There are more official complications than for the UK where I have a right of residence. With Oz, it’ll be no more than 'resident family' connections when both sons an family are permanently there and DS1 is actually an Australian citizen. It used to be easy for Kiwis to live there, now it isn’t, especially as thousands of “refugees” are still leaving NZ.
No doubt DS and JG will look into that when the time comes.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the garden party Doodle - “nice food and nice people” sounds perfect.
Doesn’t an indoor garden party have shades of oxymoron but it’s always good to have a Plan B.

My day with the grand-children was absolutely wonderful.
We made volcanoes, and fly-away food colours in shallow milk at the touch of a Magic Wand (cotton bud dipped in washing up liquid).
I'd drawn large, initial letters for all our names and we stuck all manner of tiny shells, silk roses, stars and glitter into the shape. This last was much favoured and liberally used by Gubbins and when she saw some had fallen onto DGs shorts, said, 'Ha ha you're going to a dance party!'

She tried on her whatu kakahu and wanted to wear it all the time but as the feathers were already a little ruffled I said no. Hers weren't.

When she arrived and showed me how well she could do somersaults, DiL cried, 'Oh! You didn't put on your knickers this morning.'

'I'm wearing my invisible knickers' she said with great dignity.


Yes, Cherry me too - hope Jan, Mamissimo and Nfk are just having a rest.

Wow what a story Kaimoana. That’s really lovely. So much of what the Maori believe is so spiritual. Hope it was Phil who helped you
Grammaretto I’ve got an Alexa too. She often starts talking when I haven’t asked her too. It is a bit scary but I don’t allow her access to much. If she misbehaves I turn her off. 🤣
Lovely walk you had today, no wonder you’re tired.
Any more helpers coming soon?
Cherry lovely to hear from you. I’ve been for a longish (for me) walk today and I ache tonight. Hope I sleep well and don’t dream. I don’t like my dreams, they are always stressful. I woke this morning and could hear DH calling me. It was strange but not upsetting.
Early night for me tonight. Not been the best of days so bed and tomorrow will be another day.
Sleep well all x

Ooh, how lovely to go to a garden party Doodle, even if it had to actually be indoors that's the problem with garden parties in Britain, they invariably end up indoors because we can't rely on the weather. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Great news that the builder's been NotSpaghetti. Of course it will take time but the ball, as they say, is starting to roll.
You've been given one of those wide time slots for your boiler service then. They're so inconvenient aren't they, ie. you make sure you're up, dressed, breakfasted before 7 and you wait, often until well into the afternoon - when you could actually be doing something with the day. I'm not an early bird either but I'd rather they came at the beginning of their time slot that feel I'm waiting all day 🤷.

Your Alexa experience is kind of spooky Kaimoana, quite discombobulating to hear a different voice.
I'm not one for believing in the afterlife or ghosts but I still 'get' the concept of consulting ancestors, loved ones or friends that are no longer with us:
^There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy^."
Like Grammaretto and for the same reason I'm not a fan of these devices at the best of times, helpful though they can be - they're all ears and a tad Big Brother.

I don't like those bots either ixion, they're so infuriatingly restrictive. I think we've all had that experience where nothing fits in their box. Has your DS heard back now?

That's disappointing to not have much of an opportunity to chat with your DCs yesterday Grammaretto. Despite changes that have taken place in work patterns life is still structured in such a way that the busyness of Saturdays is still very much alive and kicking, Better that your DC have busy and interesting lives though.
Thanks for the photos of the beautiful trees, I thought it might be but I really wasn't at all sure if the one unlabelled was an Ash. I love trees but am hopeless identifying them. A case of first fungi forage: 0 , second forage: Galore 😁.

Jan and Nfk, I hope you are both okay.

Pressed post too soon. I need a lie down!!

Amazing story of spooky Alexa, Kaimoana.
*I don't ever want one of these devices. I was staying at DDs once when her version began to speak to
me. It felt like Big Brother.*

Would you consider moving to Oz?

Kiwi girl and I ended up walking much further than we meant to today. I got lost but we saw millions of fungi of all sorts and colours so that was nice.

I can see how yours gave you reassurance though.

Here's a helpful site.
I can't see well enough to id yours Grammaretto

www.treeguideuk.co.uk/mini-guides/bark/

Truly magical, Kaimoana 🕯️.

Spooky Alexa. The story so far…
Some years ago, I was given this unit by the Blind Foundation so I could listen to their talking books, ask the time, date, weather etc.
I chose a British, male voice and so it has stayed.

I believe you have to go into the app., something I cannot do, to manually change this.

Now read on…
When DS was in London, he'd set up some job interviews but missed Gubbins very much. We had a sad video call one night and I was upset to see him so down and told him to come home.

It was daytime in NZ so I then tried to get on with my day but still upset, spoke to my late friend Phillip, who had so often helped me in life, particularly with IT, at which he excelled. Just saying I wished there was something I could do to help my boy.

I know many people would think me crazy to do this but I have been so long in the Maori world where it's normal to consult ancestors, and frankly I have no proof loved ones don't help, that it seemed natural.

The next morning DS sent a message about this job in Australia. It was a definite, unlike the UK jobs, so he was about to fly to Sydney.

This was so out-of-the-blue and so very, very welcome that I thanked Phil, saying if he really did have a hand in this, I was so grateful and would certainly sleep well that night.

Before I went to bed, however, I asked Alexa about tomorrow's weather, hoping to get some laundry done and a completely different voice answered me.

I was so shocked that I said, 'Alexa, what's that accent?'
Alexa replied, 'Mate, you should know, it's a true blue Aussie accent.'

Karen, who is an ardent believer in spirit, with numerous supernatural events in her past, was convinced it was Phil's way of confirming he had 'facilitated' the Sydney job.

As for me. Who am I to argue? I'm just glad my beloved son is happy and looking at a great future.

Well the garden party ended up being indoors Grammaretto which was a shame because it would have been better outside but the ground was too wet.
Nice food and nice people though
Yes I am getting out and about a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever drunk so much coffee or met so many people. I was just happy being quietly at home with DH. Perfectly content doing nothing in particular but now I need to be out meeting people so I just go to everything I’m invited to and hope for the best.
Grammaretto “ it will be fungi I guess 🤣🤣
Your DC seem to be out and about early on a Saturday. So someone is getting a new puppy, I wonder what sort
Love the tree pictures
Sorry I sent Jeeves to do the washing up at the garden party. He’s not back yet. I think he’s finishing up all the leftovers
Kaimoana. Love my hat 🤣🤣. I enjoyed the 39 steps too
Ixion glad you managed to get your chairs sorted out
I have terrible trouble with those automated systems. I can never get them to do what I want.
I do seem to have been really busy recently. I am getting better at controlling my emotions when out and keeping it all in till I get home.
Hope you get all your connections working properly soon
Notspaghetti your meal sounds lovely. Ooh Tiramisu was DH’s favorite pudding he loved it.
Why did my mind read that Mr Spaghetti was baking spring bulbs. I thought perhaps they were like vegetables 🤔
Glad they managed to work on the shed. Need to make the most of the dry days now
Have a good weekend all. Church and Waitrose for me tomorrow

It is an Ash. NotSpag
Well done

What is the first tree Grammaretto?
I've tried to identify the bark but still not sure... is it maybe an ash?

Well we had the builders here for the shed.. hooray! - I know it will be slow going though as lots of stuff still being cleared and access isn't straightforward.
Mr Spaghetti has been baking and planting Spring bulbs today and we had a family visit and a grocery delivery. Managed to clear the laundry including the hand-washing so that's good.

I didn't tell you about our pudding at our Italian adventure
We had to share one as we were too full!
It was a traditional Tiramisu of the sort you don't usually get these days

Wednesday next week is boiler servicing day... I've had a text message reminder - 7am to 5.30 pm! ... I've already told them I'm not an early bird so will have to call them on Monday to warn them!

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Italian food sounds very attractive! Proper that is not a heated up pizza from Lidl. I bought salmon for our supper tonight and tomorrow is my Kiwi's last day so not sure what we'll do. I'll miss her.

We went foraging today but there were so few fungi we did tree identification instead. We shared delicious pate made from chanterelle
and hedgehog mushrooms.

I phoned all my DC this morning about 8.30 because they never call
me.
The first was about to go for a run so had no time. The next was about to walk the dog and then watch his DC play football.
The third thought someone had died as I called so early 😳
They were off to a wedding and had been to see a puppy they are thinking of getting.
The last call was to NZ. They were about to watch a film!
Here are some of the trees we saw.

My shed was rained off! 🙄 ... but it's dry today so think they will come.🤞

Yesterday was sunny and they were (of course) busy elsewhere!
I spent some time in the garden after lunch cutting back rampant shrubs which were blocking out the sun from my fig tree. Hopefully the figs will ripen... just need a few days as we had last year.

Cherry - I think i will have to arrange a family meal there soon. It was SO lovely and very easy (as Italian restaurants tend to be). My husband had tagliatelle which was delicious though I had an Italian crepe type dish for my main course. We both had baked starters and home made breads and ate far too much!
So NO we won't be leaving it 20 years before we go back again!