Apologies I didn't return yesterday but it's all Wimbledon here at the moment and although it's great to have a couple of Brits in the semi finals it does rather restrict my time for doing anything other than sit on my b/side and shout!! On Monday night I drove myself and a couple of friends to Plymouth city to see Sister Act at the main theatre there which was wonderfully entertaining and we came out feeling uplifted. George's groomer was very patient with him yesterday as he was in one of his strops and when she finally had to give up tidying around his face she commented that he was hardly a good advertisement for her work so I've promised to get the scissors out today and trim any fur that shouldn't be there! We had rain all day which was wonderful for the garden but I know that now the sun has returned the weeds will too!! This morning after our usual walk I set up a car video camera on my windscreen because after that man in his buggy drove at me a few months ago and damaged the car I've thought I must at least have evidence of all the bad driving that sometimes has my heart in my mouth. It seems to record a decent enough quality of picture but I've just laughed as I've viewed back my journey from the woods into town for pet food and then home on my laptop because it seems I do talk to myself a bit.... and George of course!

Anne ~ Last year the BBC made a documentary about all the women who used to fly Spitfires from the factories they were made in to wherever they were needed during WWII which was incredibly dangerous work that was never recognised and of course as soon as the war was over they weren't wanted in the services anymore so were sent back to civilian life. There were incredible stories of their bravery but also funny ones about how they'd fly into an airbase to the shocked faces of the men when they pulled off their helmets to reveal themselves!

Sandy ~ George is more lively already now his coat is off his back although he's sulking on our walks this week because my friend is looking after someone's Jack Russell for the week and he's jealous because he doesn't have Scruff's full attention!

Lin ~ It might be that friend is more absent minded than anything serious which reminds me, no I haven't found that bunch of keys anywhere so am going to have to get a new set cut at great expense. Of course as soon as that's done I'll find the original in a silly place!! Her sister will hopefully survive her surgery and begin a journey to some quality of life.

Buzz ~ A wonderful story about your friend and his survival which just goes to prove you can't believe every diagnosed life limitation. All that sea food sounds delicious and certainly difficult to decline.... I'd have the same dilemma!

Patsy ~ What a great idea.... go fly a kite on your sunny beach! Of course houseplants are members of the family and my favourite is my Mother-in-laws Tongue that flops about in a way it shouldn't but has lived with me for nearly 40 years so has every right!

That's it, 1pm and Wimbledon about to start on tv as I can hear John McEnroe giving his opinion in the other room so I must miss another few hours in the garden, make some lunch and settle down for the rest of the day..... thank goodness it's only once a year!!

Jackie

Jackie – My grandson just turned 9 yrs. old the month they moved out.”Hope springs eternal” that he will have good memories of his time here with me and that he does encourage his dad to let him visit me.
I do love getting 'lost' in my gardens. Currently I am trying to find shade perennials that have a variety of colors with full season re-blooming and that do not over take their space. When I bought this house they had all annuals in that area and I would like to not have to replant each year. Most things I have tried have not faired well in that area.

Anne – Nice to hear your potatoes are doing well. I wonder if it is too late to plant a few?....no harm no foul! Penny-pinching is a survival technique for many of us seniors today unfortunately.
Isn't it great to live vicariously through others? The internet is so great for that.! I so enjoy all the vacations of family and friends and am having a hard time thinking I may have to make the difficult decision to cut the Internet to save funds.

Patsy – Gutters can be an area of home care that get forgotten ' til they cause a problem, glad you got them done and at a reasonable rate!

Lin – It can be trying to deal with and help someone with memory issues, bless you for your diligence in helping your friend, you are a great and dedicated friend. You are a very busy and productive person, I envy your energy.

Jeri – Sounds like you had a great time with your family both camping and your B-day BBQ.

Buzz – Glad you had a nice lunch with Mike's family. It is always a a bonus to bring home 'leftovers' for another meal.
You are like me with the sleep/wake pattern disturbances. It is difficult for some of us to maintain a regular sleep/wake cycle, but the experts say if you can not sleep get up and do something and do not fight sleep when it comes. You, my dear friend, seem to do that. It is easy to say 'you need to have a regular schedule' , but for some of us it does seem elusive! I am sure your friends enjoyed your cards, very thoughtful.
Buzz, I marvel at all you do at your age; I am a lot younger but feel a lot older

Sandy – Your hair style is very fitting for you. You are blessed with lovely hair. I have decided to forego haircuts and just pull it back in a pony flipped back thru itself thus saving on my expenses. Come winter I usually just put barrettes in the sides and let the curls take over...I quite fighting the frizzy curls! LOL!

We have had rain showers especially overnights, but they are not soaking rains so I end up having to water the gardens frequently. Carrying gallon milk jugs of water to the community veggie beds does give me exercise. Some days I push
the walker vs hand carrying the H2O. It is about 200+ ft. up a little incline from the car to the gardens.
Yesterday was a good day I filled and carried 12”pots with loam/garden soil mix from a pile dumped outside my fence
to a raised bed and 4 holes (dug earlier last week) and planted a few more plants. I transplanted a few flowers I was thinning out (Siberian Iris,Clematis,creeping phlox, etc.). Later I went to the community garden and hand carried 9 gallons of H2O up the incline, did some weeding and hand picked/killed cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Immediately after this I visited my sister, swam laps /exercised in her pool for approximately 75 minutes. I find it so much easier to exercise in the pool vs on dry land! Today is a 'down' day; yesterday took a lot out of me. I could not sleep, tossed for hours so I read a book then fell asleep about 6:30 this morning and woke about 12 noon.
Well, guess I should go get something to eat and then do some dishes ( pans too large for dishwasher), sweep the kitchen and bathroom and maybe even wash those floors.
It is 88*F here and quite muggy so I may not get the floors done, time will tell. I do not have any air conditioning and only 2 room fans. Maybe I will stand under the hose to cool off when I water my flowers later.
Getting too lengthy again....sorry!

Stay healthy and happy Sneakers!
Mae

Excellent ideas Anne!!!! We were talking about how to keep Internet and TV service yesterday while coloring. Apparently the issue of frugality is on many minds these days.

Sorry to just fly by but I am again behind schedule. Looking forward to seeing my friend today. Yippee!

Hope to get back later today.

Hugs.

Lin

Actually SANDY we do have cowboys in England only they are called "drovers". They once drove the cattle from Scotland to London and I suspect the American cowboy evolved from them. Settlers and pioneers. Small world, eh. However I don't think we had John Wayne to save the day!
Thanks for the Amelia link. Interesting.
Anne.
These are the cattle they drove up to a 100 years ago.

Interesting topic, at least for me. Being raised on a ranch, we had mainly Hereford cattle. But we always had a hobby cow or two of the Texas Longhorn variety. Rangy and very poor meat potential. It looks like they were relatives of your Scottish cattle. Only the Longhorns were leggy and tended to be very cranky and mean-tempered. We also had several of those immense bulls for breeding purposes. They were like walking mountains. So huge and unruffled at anything.

YouTube is full of stuff about the Earhart theories. To my mind, we still haven't a clue. There are interesting possibilities but we can't seem to really find definitive answers.

I think Being frugal is a mind set about waste. There are times I find myself being just crazy about waste. It can turn into a waste of time as well. We have been strapped for cash and we have had times when we are flush with cash. Oddly, our lifestyle didn't really change all that much. Of course, some by necessity.

Have a great day, dear sneakers.
Patsy

Just logging on to let you know I'm alive and going crazy from the work being done in the apartment above me. Sounds like they are drilling all day long inside my ear!
SANDY, can't believe it's been 5 long years already! Such a shame the granddaughter got caught up in their mulishness! You were always so good to them all! Thank you for that link; perhaps someday we'll know, though I think she went down at the time.
MAE, nice post, and yes, I just have to go with the flow, too!
Love those pictures of the fierce cattle, ANNE. Did you take them yourself ?
LIN, you and I are forever running late!
Aaaaggghhhhhh! The noise is deafening!
Buzz
..................Always believe something wonderful is about to happen................ (I hope)!

All that chat about cattle reminded me of the little video I put together yesterday to test my new car camera. You'll see why when George and I arrive at our walking destination!
https://youtu.be/T1GYYWkkSCY
The large pub on the left driving back out of the village of Minions is where I usually go with friends for meals. They cook a mean cod and chips!! Also Buzz, you can see all the overgrown trees that my neighbour should be cutting back along the side of the track at the end of the video!

Being careful with money is something I've had to be all my life so it's become a habit and saving items for other uses is a favourite thing of mine! Anything from yogurt pots as freezer containers to old sheets to be cut up for a variety of tasks, I don't throw anything away until I'm sure it can't be recycled. Amazing that a whole documentary could have been developed about the fate of Amelia Earhart from one photograph but then so many conspiracy theories seem to have little real evidence to back them up.

Sandy ~ Tennis was a favourite sport for me at school although I used to drive our teacher mad by swapping the racket into the other hand rather than bother with a backhand and I remember one school report that stated I'd be a good player if I wasn't so lazy! Field hockey was another sport I enjoyed but being tall I was put into a defensive position and another school report said I was "too dangerous for team sports" because I used to swing my stick high to keep opposing forwards at bay! Those bumble bees that were run over had every right to sting.... I'd be pretty cross if I'd been one of them!! Generally though, pottering about collecting nectar they'll retreat rather than be aggressive..... honestly!!

Mae ~ Do let me know if you come upon successful shade loving perennials because since getting help from the gardening lady who seems to love to clear complete patches rather than allow the cottage plants to flop about I need to fill a few gaps!! Nine isn't so young that your grandson won't remember or care about you and who knows, he may well be asking already why he's not seeing you. It's so sad when children are almost used as weapons but as you say, hope springs and all that! Anne's potatoes didn't take long to grow whereas my weather being a bit changeable means a longer wait so I'm imagining you could get a good crop before the end of summer. Phew, that's a lot of water carrying although you seem to have organised a way of doing it without too much strain.

Buzz ~ Afternoon napping was something I used to tease a friend about who is just a couple of years older than me but I now find if I sit about after lunch I'm likely to doze off so try not to..... no doubt one day I'll have to!

I hate to admit that I'd now be lost without the internet what with looking things up, shopping and most importantly chatting to my friends on MFP. I can live without facebook and other social media but am sure I'd feel cut off from the world for the rest.

Past my lunchtime with gardening still to get started and tennis to watch so I'd better make myself a sandwich then get on. Enjoy your Friday everyone.

Jackie

Happy birthday Connie!!!!

Lin

Girls, be very carefully when digging in your garden. You never know what you might find!
This 1759 cannonball/incendiary was just dug up in Quebec from the Battle of Abraham Heights and was chucked at the French by the British. It didn't explode, and is still capable of exploding today. Fancy having your house blown up today by a 1759 cannonball! Now there's a tale to tell the grand kids!
Anne, gingerly digging in hers, because we don't live too far from the fort in Toronto and quite a few cannonballs where slung at each other by the Brits and the Americans. I've yet to find a flint arrow head like I did in the UK but I have found a fossil etched into a rock from when this area was sea.

...................................................HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR PATSY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!
Anne.

Hey JACKIE, talking of cannon balls do you remember that poem, humorous but cruel, about the guy who came back from the battle of Waterloo badly injured but still wanting to woo his sweetheart? All I can remember is "a cannon ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms" and although he had "one foot in the grave" he still wanted to marry her. Golly, older and wiser, it's not so funny anymore!

Yes I did see the sink holes BUZZ. Horrendous, fancy watching your home and possessions disappearing! Mother Nature is often cruel enough without man adding to the mix with craters of his own making!

Well, Michael says he will honour us with his presence today. Wrong time of year but I've all the ingredients to make a hearty stew! That's if he makes it, he lives opposite a race track and all the employees were on strike and picketing yesterday and there was a traffic jam when he tried to drive past after work. Long story, but I don't blame the employees for striking! The Bean will be disappointed if he doesn't make it, so I cannot mention his name because she gets very excited when I do and sits by the back door for hours hopefully.
Hope everyone has a smashing Sunday, especially birthday girl PATSY,
Anne.

Wimbledon mens' final about to begin so back later.
Jackie