That’s a gorgeous teapot Lin!
I checked out Max’s wonderful birthday video with so many photos from day one until now.

Not much going on here. Doggy walk, post office and shop for a few items then home to carry on preparation for painting. So much masking tape!!
My neighbour Louise popped in after my request for help putting a flat packed hifi unit together that came with ridiculously vague instructions. She managed to complete the task in about 90 minutes so my vinyl albums are now safely stored upright! Just have to rescue my dad’s 1970’s record player from the lock up my neighbours hire from the local authorities.

My bed was stripped and laundry done first thing so everything dry and back indoors.

We don’t appear to have rain in the long range forecast but the garden should be fine after days of on and off rain. I’m enjoying a few tomatoes from my greenhouse that taste wonderful so will of course continue to water them but the Albanian cucumber appears to be all flowers so nothing likely to grow to 3’ now. The plant was cheap but I still feel cheated.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday. I’ll try to remember to weigh myself in the morning.
Jackie 🥰

Friday and hazy and therefore a bit cooler here on the coast. Our son is still dealing with a/c issues, reluctant computers and over 105 degrees. That is pure misery! Today John has it on his agenda to breakdown all those Amazon boxes and take them to our dump. A nasty task that seriously feels overwhelming.

I rewatched the Olympic synchronized swimming on YouTube. I am astounded every time I see these events. It defies human capabilities. So beautiful.

Since we are experiencing a mask mandate and scary resurgence of Covid and variants, I am calling our doc about the booster shot. He mentioned it before as a possibility. And our FDA just announced their recommendations for booster shots for people like John and me. If we are to remain independent we must do everything we can to maintain our health. Also John is looking at cataract operation very soon. This will be tricky. Anything that curtails John’s independence is met with huge resistance. As part of the recovery, he could not lift anything heavy and he should not drive for a week or so and he would have to wear a clear protective shield for a couple days. Wow! Easy-peasy you say…well you have NO IDEA! John is the family admiral Pershing, He runs a tight ship, as they say.

As for me today is Friday cauliflower pizza day. I am going to try to finish my painted rocks to put near a Fishermen Memorial down near the river. These rocks all have fish images. So it fits…the tourists will have an interesting surprise.
Now I am looking at yet another jab in the arm.
Patsy☘️

Good morning. Still a bit bleary eyed this morning. I stayed up late struggling with heat embossing. And oh yes, first time ever, the container of fine embossing powder slipped from my hand. What a mess! I have not looked at the results of last night’s work. I cannot face that yet in the light of day. 🤦🏼‍♀️

My Facebook Live meeting is cancelled. The host has been having some problems but doesn’t want to share what is going on but we all knew she is ill. Someone else associated with her, posted that she has a serious illness and a number of events including the usual Saturday gathering are cancelled. It is one thing to know things aren’t exactly right but this is a definite confirmation. 🥺

Jackie, so upsetting to hear of the Plymouth shooting. So rare in your country. You must be devastated. I was very surprised as I thought, generally, no one had a permit to have a gun. I did read a story about the event on the BBC news app today. Very sad. Now, onward, how are the chicks getting along now? I hope they are mingling more with less animosity. Darn, so it’s not looking good for cucumbers. That is an unhappy event. I found a critter decimated one of my little winter acorn squash. Fingers crossed that one may survive. I hope you are having a good weekend.

Sandy, what did you decide to do today? Trip or no trip? Whatever you are up to, be safe.

Patsy, good morning, I am sorry that John may need some medical intervention. I will admit, I think I would be just the same. Transportation, prescriptions, etc. All sound intimidating to me. Best wishes on hunting for your third dose. Can your doctor get an appointment for you? Not many people qualify this time.

Find something to smile about everyone.

Lin🙋🏼‍♀️
❤️❤️

Ack! Bad night and very little sleep. But I have a few things to do today and in truth, being busy is good for me. It helps me stay in a more positive mood.

I think we all have MFP glitches. Not sure what Anne’s difficulty is. Hope she just rejoins. That’s what I did. It took a bit of juggling around but eventually it magically got fixed. I have no idea how I fixed the problem.

Our sons a/c is now fixed and he can return to his house. The inside was approaching 100 degrees. How is that possible? That heat wave was literally a killer. And to make matters even more interesting his landlord balked at the repair costs. Some landlords just love that rent check but forget the responsibility of repairs and maintenance. They are retired older people who remember prices from 20 years ago.

I admit that the sneakers posts for me is rather like journaling. It is not unlike a chat with dear friends. I love the way we can all participate and share in the conversation. Emails are a great way to keep in touch but not the same as the forum. I guess we can do both.

John really doesn’t have to make a decision right now about his cataract surgery. That clinic is closed because it is connected to the hospital and our hospital is over full with Covid cases. No elective surgeries. The ER looks like a war zone.. makes us even more cautious. We all must be vigilant. But positive at the same time. Possible?

While I disapprove of wild animals as pets, there is a YouTube channel showing a Japanese couple who have two otters as pets. They are so adorable and the couple have devoted their life to these little animals. They are like children or a cross of cats and dogs. Incredible personality.

Back later, the dryer binged…
Patsy☘️
.

Happy Sunday all Sneakers –

It was 56 degrees at 5am…and only going to 90 degrees after several days of 90. Should be gorgeous! No ran and all sun. For that reason, I am going to concentrate on the “good things” today and block out all the negative / sad things going on in the world right now. Gym opens soon.

All is well here. Jean and I have been doing a lot together and separate. She is super excited her sunflower is likely to make it and the tomatoes are coming along great. Our neighbor gave us a basket of tomatoes from her garden and we were in heaven yesterday (had then with our afternoon cook-out).

I have gotten back into some creative enjoyments with Photoshop lately. Always want to make one of those “Hope-style” pic. The program crashed a couple times but eventually I was able to accomplish it. Someone said I should make a t-shirt with it – so I did (see pic). It was fun. There is a church concert tonight (not our church) that a couple relatives are singing in. I had no plans to go and Jean invited a long-time friend. Now having second thoughts (don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings) and will see what Jean thinks when she gets up. She makes an excellent conscience sounding board.




Today is Uncle Jack’s 90th birthday! We will be celebrating this coming week with a small restaurant gathering. Just over a week ago he got his new dog (4 yrs old)… lots to fill in here later, but let’s just say he is on cloud #9 and it has had a tremendous impact on his daily enjoyment. With Jack’s eyesight severely compromised (can’t read newspaper, drive etc) it has been a huge blessing. More later on his new family member “Roscoe”.

Sandy – You are right, seems like many people have had active schedules. For sure, you have! Nice to see people enjoying themselves after those 15 days to slow the curve LOL. Looks like you have done a lot of birthday celebrating and I am with you re: hoping no shut-downs, but we are in a “blue” state so who knows. Thoughts and warm wishes that Robby does well. And you are definitely right about the importance of socialization. Glad you are enjoying some nice weather… middle 70's to 80 with sunshine is perfect.

Jackie – Good morning “pink-haired lady!” Sorry about your hairdresser and glad she is on the mend. Like you, I have observed a lot of people with actions that have been a by-product of shut-down conditioning. We have made a special effort to be aware of our own conditioning and behaviors. I can envision that greeting you got by the dogs after having been gone 6 hours.

That blackboard was a flash to the past. Thinking back to those young days of being chosen to erase the board and later solving problems in front of the class (see pic). Your ‘chook, chook, chook’ with regards to “chooks” actually makes sense.




Patsy – that one post you made had me singing – “Making Our Dreams Come True One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated We're gonna do it!” Hope that eye dr appt went well for John – the hard part is picking out those new eyeglasses…


Lin – Great minds think alike when it comes to Laverne and Shirley… amazing how all those old TV shows with great theme songs can spark a memory….next in line: Welcome Back Kotter. LOL Gathering all that information for your farm lease renewal sounded like a lot of work and glad you came to an agreement on the rent per acre for next year. Loved those last two tea pots….

Well – I am going to be late for the gym, so will sign off now. Hope everyone has a blessed day! Bob

A short walk today as the mist and mizzle hang around. On my way later to the local pet store to buy George’s raw meat and Brady’s sachets I stopped at the lady who gave me Lupin and Bluebell. She is busy preparing her home and garden for her Romanian rescue dog so I didn’t stop for long but left a box of eggs courtesy of her chooks.

Exciting times!! This afternoon I rehung a radiator on the wall in the snug and that turned into a fiddly job because the brackets were two individual vertical pieces of metal shaped into a line of hooks that holes in the back of the heater slot onto. Lots of mathematical calculations to get everything to fit together and I only resorted to a large hammer once!!
The rain has hung around all day so no gardening, just a quiet day with constant mellow music…. Otis Reading’s Dock of the Bay at the moment.

Love your photoshopped picture Bob. It works well on your t-shirt. The school pics are fab and I thought a nun teaching electrons of an atom surreal although really, why not!
Great news for Uncle Jack with his new best friend Roscoe. I look forward to hearing all about this latest addition to your family.

Patsy, do you ever watch Simon Reeves journeys round the world. His latest is following the Tropic of Cancer and at one point watched fishermen in Bangladesh use trained otters to drive fish into their nets. Smart little critters!

Time for me to contemplate an evening meal. Maybe a cup of tea first.

Have a safe but enjoyable Sunday everyone.
Jackie 🥰

Happy Sunday afternoon. It is quite warm and humid, of course, but tolerable with a fan circulating the air.

We have had a very interesting and sometimes stressful couple of days. John’s eye exam told him what he was dreading. He will need to have this cataract surgery as soon as possible. By that I mean as soon as the hospital is able to open back up for regular medical procedures. They are absolutely full right now. No room at all. Scary times here. Huge surge due to so many tourists. But our son is planning on coming to spend a week with us and drive us around when John gets his surgery. He has a couple of special areas of concern but fixable. Damon will be here to jolly us along until John takes the reins back again. Ugh! We do worry about the silliest things. This eye thing drives John nuts.

Today we spent an extraordinary amount of time finding a special “tuff” toy for Katie. She chews off eye and nose button when given the opportunity. Expensive but she is our substitute grandchild. We are going to check out a new farm and pet supply store later. Maybe tomorrow since it is late afternoon here. We will check on daughter Andrea, we must try to boss her around….I use the word TRY and excuse myself by adding I am a mom, after all! She has such a strong Personality and most of the time, both of our kids are a pure delight. Don’t all mom’s feel like that.

Jackie: that scene from your brother was glorious. Ohhhhh I want to go there. And to walk around some Goudy architecture. Your new hens are going be alright, little storm will need to be protected until she learns to demand respect. I see all of those YouTube channels on DIY and everything looks so easy and mess free. “Paint your living room in 30 minutes.”

Sandy: Santa village in the heat of summer? Maybe but confusing to my brain. I get confused very easily. Hahaha I’ll bet the kids are not confused. They will have a great time.

Bob: I loved Kotter and Mary Tyler Moore and their wonderful theme songs. Made me happy just to hear them. We are rewatching Mad Men now. Wow! What a soap opera this is. Need to find some interesting new views that John will watch. He is fussy. He wants car chases and explosions! Seriously!

Lin: I somehow missed your posts! And your great teapots! You must show us some of your new card designs. I am finishing up some rock paintings to share.
Press on with vigor!
Patsy☘️

This is unbelievable. I did hardly anything at all but today after just a few half hearted fiddles MFP seems to have reinstated me to delight you all. LOL

I can't tell you how happy I am to be back after a month of traumatic events. Did you receive the emails about Harry's ex house up for sale again! After the new folks only moved in on July 6th? It's just been one shock after another I can tell you. So will it sell again? Apparently it's in awful condition and one day after a particularly bad rain cloud burst the inspectors were clambering up ladders to inspect the tiles.

Fancy we can still rely on the late Harry to supply news!

Me and Bean are wallowing and sleeping well on a new mattress. This means no more treks swapping bedrooms with the seasons. We are back in the master bedroom at the back with my old familiar G-plan furniture. Goodbye motor cycle noises etc although if next door are abandoning ship I guess there goes the motorcycles as well. Of course if the dump, eh I mean house is pulled down I will be glad to be in the back room!

Must go because Bean is whimpering for her chicken dinner. Its quite pitiful. I still can't quite believe I'm back!
Your pal,
Annsie baby and Jilly the Beano.

Brrr, 15c today which is 59f, in other words COOL!! A thick fleece jacket required on our walk and I’m now home covering furniture and staircase with protective plastic while also preparing the old pine cupboard for a coat of undercoat. I’ve decided I’ll put a fancy wallpaper on the inside but having spent too long google searching have decided I’d do better to visit a store, but not today.

Welcome back Anne! 🤗. I did get your email about your neighbour’s and am wondering why they didn’t have the property surveyed before they bought it. No wonder Harry was in a rush to head north! Unsettling for you again and who knows what fascinating stories you will hear from new owners.

Patsy, yes old Spanish towns and cities have their own charm even in 119f temperatures! Remember that song, Granada I’m falling under your spell, and if you could talk what a tale you would tell 🎶🎶. Frank Sinatra I’m sure!
That’s wonderful Damon will spend a week with you when John gets his cataracts removed. Think of those hospital trains that a charity uses to travel across the African continent… in one end of the carriage and in no time at all, out the other with an eye patch! John will be fine I’m sure.

Goodness Lin, you do a remarkable job on your cards. I admit I couldn’t sit still that long!
I messed up the radiator last night when I realised I’d forgotten which buttons do what working through its programme. Ended up pressing them all at once so as fast as it switched on, it went off again! Don’t try my tricks when you put your tv together!
That’s a delightfully cheerful plate and teapot. 😁

It’s cold enough to consider Christmas but not sure I’m ready for Sandy’s Santa either!

Best get on with the cupboard painting.
Happy Monday everyone.
Jackie

All I can say regarding next door is the realtors I think have just appeared to "assess" the house. Actually, I was in the garden yesterday and the mother came over and was reeling off a list of problems in broken English when the son appeared and I'm sure shut her up in Farsi because she scuttled back inside. He then explained to me that the house wasn't good for his dad who has dementia and keeps wandering off to try and find their old place. Oh yeah!

I was pretty clueless when I emigrated SANDY and JACKIE, so maybe Afghanistan refugees are in the same boat and don't know about house inspection before buying. I've decided to keep well away from this one. They are a huge family. I did say to the owner, maybe you should tear it down and build again and I swear a light bulb went off in his head! Anyway, after reading about the terrible tragedy going on in their original country I wouldn't like to be in Harrys shoes if they find out who they bought it off!

Talking of Harry, I wonder who he is upsetting these days! I now wish I hadn't given him that bottle of Baileys as a parting gift, lol. Could have done with it myself this past month!

Yes, that is great news about Damon coming to spend time with you PATSY. I'm supposed to have cataract surgery as well but wonder if its worth it at my great age.

I thought we are supposed to unplug our TVs at night because of a possible fire hazard? Right LIN?

I have so much to read I think I will just stick to any reply comments from the point I suddenly appeared back. That was so weird, I was just looking to see if Michael had text and then decided to give MFP one last go. I did exactly the same as previous times but this time I got a note saying MFP was no longer with 'under armour' and they wouldn't be handing my email address over to them or something on those lines. Pressed the submit and wham there was dear little Jilly's picture on my home page. Took a while for it to sink in that I was really back! Maybe that was what it was all about - a change over?

Hugs to all from Anne.

We posted at the same time PATSY, I'm on the previous page. Could it be that my next door folk purchased with cash? They are a huge family and maybe had a whip round and in that case wouldn't have to go through the usual channels because Canada is exactly the same as the USA when it comes to house inspections and mortgages.

Can you find a dressmaker who would run up your new curtains exactly as you want them?

Anne.

Hello, the server has been down on MFP’s community section so I finally left the app and entered through the web site on Safari. Success!

Once again, yesterday, several posts never appeared for me no matter how often I refreshed. I really am not ignoring anyone. Darn it!

Okay, I was off to the grocery store early this morning. Not well stocked that early in the day but I got a few things. And weaved through road construction. 😂😂

It took a half hour to get the old television to power on. Fingers crossed the stand kit shows up today.

Also read through the new lease. There was a small error. I called and the person answering the phone couldn’t help. I went ahead and signed attaching a sticky note regarding the error. Whatever.

Patsy, I understand low tolerance for uncertainty. A friend called me this morning and told me our newspaper reported this morning that one of our hospitals has run out of beds. Not the children’s hospital which had been reported earlier but another hospital. That was surprising. Not a pleasant surprise. I have no suggestions when it comes to curtains or drapes. I am still living in the 1990’s here. 😂 And no, our weather right now is not scary. It may change as we are getting back to higher temperatures which can scare up storms but not right now.

Sandy, glad you had a good time with Joe. He is very lucky you are his friend and that you are willing to lunch with him. ❤️ I will say back at the time of the energy audit, I was quite keen on keeping my power bill as low as possible. I was out of town for days at a time so I did not need anything to run the meter. 🤣😄 most of my electronic devices are on power strips so I can power those off or unplug the entire strip. This particular television wasn’t on a separate strip. But after my research it seems all the people who posted for help about this particular model had an issue with the power not staying on. I bought a do-nothing television that one review said “no one would buy this except maybe a 70 year old who still has cable.” Haaaaa. Perfect for me!

Anne, yes, if purchasing with cash you are not required to have an inspection although most people here still opt for an inspection. Maybe you should purchase a new bottle of Bailey’s? Hope you are sleeping well. And is Jilly all,right?

Jackie, hello, have I missed your post as well? If so, again, sorry. Hope you are well and the temperature is seasonable once again. My tiny carrot crop looks quite nice right now with full lush tops. That might mean there is no carrot underground! I keep threatening to pull that last zucchini plant but each time I am ready to cut and stuff it into a compost bag, yet another little zucchini is found growing on the vine. Right now, I harvest about 2 per week. And I love them! I topped off the fading blooms on my marigolds and there are putting out a number of new colorful blooms.

Bob, the “Welcome Back Kotter” song started rattling around in my head. Oh my!

Be safe everyone.

Lin🙋🏼‍♀️
❤️❤️

Well I am having a do nothing day, that is to say I AM pottering around but it feels like a do nothing day.

We got up LATE. Late for us. This new mattress is a dream and is NOT being returned. In my whole life I don't think I have ever slept a full 10 hours, but I did last night and so did Bean! this sort of put me off my stride for the day.

Autumn has a hint in the air. We have a bumper crop of apples after a few years of not much, and the apples are slowly turning red. So many Mark and Mary Jo will have to help me harvest, no shinning up trees for me anymore. Of course we will lose half of them to the passers-by with the front tree. That's okay.

As for next door - not a sniff of them. This is unusual because one or two cars turn up during the day and Khalid is usually pacing the front with his mobile. They are not listed on the online sites yet. Maybe they've been advised to fix up before being listed, but the For Sale sign is still there.

The only people I've actually seen today are Maria wandering past and holding Tony's hand. I think she wanted to see for herself the new sign.

Michael still intends driving back from Quebec on Saturday and from what he tells me will probably sleep all Sunday.

And that's a very dull post folks after the traumatic past 4 weeks. I'll take dull !!!!!!

Yes, stay safe !

Anne and Jilly the Beanno.

No, I'm still here lurking in the shadows JACKIE. We posted at the same time yet again and I only found you when I checked out. Curtains! Ha! I've given up on new curtains! Just hoping that the faded bits arn't too noticeable when they are closed at night, but during the day you can't see them hidden in the folds. I do wish manufacturers would stop mucking about and modernizing us! It's the same with make-up, lipstick in particular or is it colouring gel these days?