Home from a pleasant walk in the woods with the noisy gang and now enjoying my morning coffee hit before going out again for a hair appointment. On the way home from the woods as I drove on a narrow section of road a car came straight at me off a wider passing area but luckily it was only our wing mirrors that knocked as she tried to squeeze past. I leaned out of the window to straighten mine in time to see the young woman from the other car get out letting a dog run free then put 2 fingers up at me so I got out of my car too and called out that if she had paused at the wider section it wouldn't have happened...... apparently I'm a stupid old cow that should mind my own business which made me laugh and despair at the same time. Hey ho, it's becoming a disfunctional world to my mind.

Anne, that's a beautiful hydrangea of yours and the exact colour my dad used to grow in his London garden. You're right, nails or ericaceous compost do the trick if you want a blue one. I'm sure your boys will ensure everything is hunky dory in your home before they go away and Jilly is small enough to cope with just garden exercise if necessary so stock up your fridge/freezer and I expect the time will fly by.

Sandy, I see we posted around the same time last night so missed yours. No win.... never mind, it's saving itself for a huge amount and hopefully for you!

Patsy, your town is going through similar changes to mine as our high street, such as it is, rapidly disappears apart from a few charity shops and estate agents (Realty). Banks are closing their branches telling us we all bank online which of course means the majority of older generation, including me, has no access other than cash from a hole in the wall because actually we don't trust online banking. Then our town planners approve every kind of out of town big store that kills off the smaller more personal ones because, we are told, it means more employment for the area but my experience is staff have to multi skill and are expected to be in at least 2 places at once..... result, angry and frustrated customers who can't get served which probably then spills out on to our roads!! I am just so glad the majority of my life has been during a relatively peaceful time and amongst my generally considerate and polite generation.

Buzz, don't give up on us, so long as we know you are ok. Sorry to read you are dealing with changes and hope it's not impacting on your life too much. I'll look forward to a post that isn't disappearing or bouncing!!

Must get on or I'll be late for my hair appointment. Hi Lin and Jeri and anyone else checking in.

Love you all.
Jackie

Good morning. I had a lovely day with all my morning and afternoon Tai Chi classes. Not as much fun trying to obtain my frozen organic vegetables on discount. I had to go to three locations of that grocery store to finally locate them. Clerk said the warehouse was likely out of stock on that item. So a bit of a waste of time but I did ultimately get my stock which should last a while.

Bonus! My Tai Chi instructor has room on her calendar today for me! Wahoo! A lesson this afternoon. Very much looking forward to it. Library ladies this morning. At some point I need a trip to the post office and the credit union. I actually go to the bank/credit union every few weeks to deposit a check or to get cash. I have given up using ATMs and debit cards in general.

A department store chain, Younkers, closed its doors late yesterday afternoon. It had been purchased by BonTon some time ago and they filed for bankruptcy of course. We had hoped some other company might rescue Younkers since we are running out of department stores, but no, a liquidator just finished selling everything. Three huge spaces are now empty in three of our malls. All are two-level anchor spaces. No idea what will happen next. We have huge shuttered ex-K-Mart spaces around town and now the only Sears store that I visit (because Land’s End has a spot there) is also going out of business. That will be two anchor retailers lost in one mall within a few months.

We will have to shop online soon as there will be no alternatives.

Anne, I hope someone arrives to mow your lawn today. And I trust it will not need trimming while your boys are out of town. Hello little watch dog Jilly. Love your plant by the way. I bought a little plant yesterday while flying through all the grocery store. I am told to totally ignore it and it will be fine.

I tried to add the photo twice and it failed so I will try later.

Buzz, sorry you lost your post but glad you stopped by.

Sandy, I like to plan ahead too. Many friends like to fly by the seat of their pants and do things last minute. That makes me crazy. Sorry about the Bingo jackpot. I am never lucky with those types of things. Best wishes for your next try.

Patsy, so sad to hear of the changes in your town. I live in a suburb of our capital city so there was never much of a downtown here. We have a historic Main Street and I love all the little shops. Unfortunately, that area is also declining. More than the normal turnover of mom/pop shops Empty spaces and now two bead/jewelry stores are quitting. One just shut the doors, the other is doing a going out of business sale. Also the paper crafting store, which was saved from extinction not long ago when someone bought the store and revived it is now also closing down. The owner has had mammoth personal problems and tragedies in the last year and said she cannot go on. Sad all the way round.

Jackie, my goodness, what a horribly rude person. No sense whatsoever. I can see how tempers seem to be at the boiling point at a drop of the hat these days. I am glad she didn’t attack you! Hugs for George. And I agree, isn’t that always what happens, time for a haircut just when you have some good hair days but if you don’t have the cut, it will not behave at all.

Jeri, hello! I hope you are receiving treatments now and are feeling better.

I must run away now.

Hugs.

Lin

Posted from my phone. New plant buddy.

I log on, thunder starts roaring! But I'm smiling ear to ear as I recognize a huge musical talent while watching amazing Max play his one man band!!! Thank you SANDY!
JACKIE, the rudeness of that 2 legged wretch on the road does not surprise me one bit! She must be getting lessons from my Peculiar President's tweets!
ANNE, since 82 is truly NOT 32, don't mess around! Lawn mowing wet lawns should be verboten!
LIN, so sorry about your papehr shop closing! Seems it's a whole new world we will have to get used to!
We saw Book Club, tonight, in our lovely new auditorium! It seemed amusing, but walking in I developed a miserable cramp in my left leg, leaving me crippled for nigh onto 20 minutes!
I crawled over to a chair, sat down, stood up, sat down again, and promptly fell asleep! I did not recognize Candice Bergen, who seems to have matured less gracefully than the others, but I may watch again Sunday afternoon, when it will be repeated.
Volley ball is difficult when players don't show up, and I don't feel prepared for an "Olympic" match! WOW! thunderstorm right on top of me, here! Night!...
Buzz

There was a gun battle between two groups of men in a huge Toronto mall yesterday. Terrified 'before school' starts shoppers running all over the place to hide. Then we have the talks on the Canadian/Mexican/USA alliance today. Will Trudeau cave in to the bully's demands?

Being called an old cow wouldn't bother me too much. Cows have beautiful eyes and any cow that makes it into old age is a truly loved cow methinks. I think the only way to get back at the young is to comment on their looks, but I suspect us "old" girls are too nice to do that! Could be fun mentally THINKING up replies though! "Get back in your car you bandy legged, acne potted twit" sort of thing. I think our language skills are a little better than the usual "old cow" remarks of the often illiterate young, yo? lol. Had to smile though that she got her come uppance with her dogs happily escaping while she was preoccupied with gestures to you JACKIE!

LIN. Your plant pot man reminds me of the Aztecs. I think it's the plant growing out of his head. Shall you keep him on the kitchen counter? I agree, a chat whilst you prepare lunch should encourage growth. Oh and I like him as well. Name?

I've got both sons over today. Jilly will be over the moon. Mike will take me for the groceries and then Mark will join us for lunch and a delicious pizza from The Boot. He was over yesterday. Apparently I'm to get a new deck and four steps leading up to it because the ancient present one is looking dilapidated, and maybe a new path to the sidewalk. Talk of the old Apple tree going as well which I shall be sorry about, but as the property belongs to Mark, I can't have much say in the matter. It is old and it is somewhat unusual to have an Apple tree in the front yard. Plus, dropped apples everywhere in the fall to add to the acorn shells from the oak between me and Marie next door. She was moaning about them yesterday as Mark and I swept the mess up. No effects from cutting the wet grass I'm happy to report. Cool today, but back to heat and humidity tomorrow. Oh and I read today that the EU is thinking of scrapping the clock change in spring and fall. Yeah, if it catches on here.

Must away,
Anne.

No scolding from the boys PATSY, just a mild, "oh mom, I was going to do that tomorrow" from Mike and Mark who came over just too late with just a "guess you're going to be around for a while".

Now Patsy, leave those snakes alone! You are so lucky to have them. We have the odd Mississauga snake here wiggling past. Becky once caught these little black snakes and she'd carry them inside looking as if she had a black moustache to match her black fur. Jilly has yet to catch them, or anything else so far. They are harmless to all but bugs. In the UK we had gorgeouse little green lizards living in the cotoneaster which grew up the side of the house. Just like jewels. I like the words "God loves the best, who loves the rest, all creatures great and small". IF I've quoted right! Suits me!

I've never had this SAD disorder. Maybe growing up in a beautiful but foggy island make it something I'm immune from. So sorry to read lack of sunshine affects you this way. We don't get much fog here and I sort of miss the ghostly shape of trees appearing as if from nowhere. Beautiful effect.

Anne, hugs all around - just a bit foggy minded these days!

Yes, very rainy season! Just glanced at posts and they look interesting but I'm very late for dinner! LATER!
Buzz

My day started off fine for a walk on the moors, just me and George then I made a flask of coffee to take to the allotment with my neighbours where we spent a few hours weeding. I'm home with a bag of rhubarb, carrots, beans, beetroot, corn on the cob and a few spring onions. Yesterday I picked the last of my cherry tomatoes that gave me a harvest of literally hundreds of the little red wonders so this evening as the temperature drops and Autumn feels upon us I can at least say we've had a fruitful year.

Patsy, I too have noticed the days getting shorter as a few leaves drift to the ground so although George has decided in the past week to sleep on the end of my bed and keeps me feet warm I'm thinking it will soon be time to place the electric blanket back on! We have grass snakes that look dangerous with their striped backs although they are harmless and slow worms that doze on the warm compost. The other day I found the biggest and wartiest toad scurrying out of my way as I cleared brambles so now I have to do everything in that area by hand rather than risk hurting her! Rats are my only true hate near the hens so I continue to feed them poison blocks and they continue to eat them and thrive!!

Sandy, thanks for letting us know about poor Anne with yet more security issues on her ipad. I've always had Malwarebytes on my laptop after a recommendation from someone in the know and at the moment am using AVG that cost me next to nothing for a year. It certainly does warn me if anything or anyone is trying to get into my system and junks suspicious emails so I feel as secure as I can be in these days of constant hackers!

A shrew close up would look pretty ugly but they are generally so small I don't get a good look at features! LOL My practical head takes over and I realise if I don't get the creature out it's likely to make its home here which would be a disaster. A Brady mouse that escaped from him to get behind the fridge a couple of years ago managed to climb an electric cable and get into a food cupboard to stomp around in hobnail boots in the night so I don't want that again!!

It's nearly 6pm so I must get something cooking for an evening meal while I chop the rhubarb ready for stewing. Put another layer of clothing on too with the temperature falling.

Happy Saturday to everyone. Hopefully we will see Anne back soon once she or the boys work out what's happened to her phone.
Jackie

It's fairly early but I keep falling asleep and I can'.t seem to type within the space provided. Is it the site or me? Everything keeps disappearing! Maybe the Orangeheaded WONDER may be investigating me! Having watched the so inspiring funeral of John McCain with the daughter's remarks, never mentioning one name , I think he planted a virus throughout the internet! I have to keep retyping this or it is all jumbled! Otherwise, I'm OK!
HUGS!!!
Buzz