Killing Chickens

I guess that anyone reading this today will probably think what an old softie! –

but hearing on the news the other day that due to a few chickens dying of a suspected bird flu, they killed about 30,000 at the farm. To me, it was heartbreaking to see the way they were tipping dumper loads of them into trucks, all dead. All those chickens had lives, they were young living creatures, the majority of them weren`t ill, what right did we have to take away their lives. It seems a crime to do that.

Following that logic if someone in a town gets an infectious or contagious disease does that mean in future they`ll slaughter everyone in the town incase someone else get it???

Too tired

Having just spent three and a half hours looking at someones holiday photos of Turkey, I`m too tired to write anything tonight.

Oh, and update on the chair saga... we now have chairs! I went to a local garden centre and found just what we were looking for. Why is it that we never look at the nearest place first!

Garden Chair Saga

Our two garden chairs were worn out, so last week on a shopping trip I went to buy some new ones. I just needed some padded foldable garden chairs, eventually I found the ideal item in a large store on the outskirts of Norwich. There it stood on display, the perfect item. Unable to see where to pick up a couple from I caught a passing assistant and asked him, he took me to where they where located in their cellophane packs, and at my request carried two of them to the check-outs for me to collect when I`d completed my shopping. After paying for them another member of the staff kindly carried them to my car for me.

I brought the chairs home, and eagerly started to unwrap one ready to sit in after my shopping trip. I thought it felt heavy and looked rather long, but assumed that was how they were…. until….I got the packaging off and discovered it wasn`t a chair, it was a lounger. It would probably have been alright for me, but no way could my elderly parent sit on one of them.

Next day a phone call was made to the store. Yes, they`d got some chairs and would keep us two.

Yesterday I went to exchange the chairs. When I got there and they brought them to exchange for me - I looked at the size they too looked big and then at the label and.... yes.... they were loungers too! Oh no insisted the salesman they`re chairs, but it says loungers on the ticket I said. He still insisted they were chairs, and then said (I think to prove himself right to me), shall I open one to show you? Yes please, I said. He duly opened one…..and…yes it was again a lounger!

After a lot of sorting out they discovered that the wrong barcode was on them so they`d been ordering what they thought were chairs but they were all loungers. and they hadn`t any chairs. They could probably get me some. I said what about my expense of petrol coming back and forward to change them and now having to possibly come back yet again. It`s about a 50 mile round trip. They said they`d see if they could get the chairs to me or else reduce the price a bit. On asking how long it would take, I was told at least 14 days or so. Too long I thought, we need to be sitting on them!, So I asked for a refund, and said is there any chance on compensation for my petrol for this journey. The chap went to find out and said they couldn`t give me cash but would give me a £10 gift voucher if that was acceptable. I said yes.
I was quite pleased and am amazed now with myself for being brave enough to ask about that!

But, I`m still chairless. Everywhere I`ve looked today only has loungers. Is it the fashion? Do they not consider that less able people need something to sit on in the garden too?!
Who would have thought it would be so difficult to find two padded garden chairs.

Changes

I`m again `thinking aloud` as I type this today, to try and sort my thoughts and feelings out.

I`ve got a feeling that change is in the air for me. Several things seem to be going on and linking up and causing changes. But the thoughts of change also brings a lot of questions - what`s the right thing for me to do, dare I make a change etc..etc...

Firstly there`s a big change taking place where I work shortly. In one way it will make things different, yet in another it probably won`t affect what I do too much.

Secondly and perhaps more important is that several things I`ve found out, seem to give me more hope of the possibilities of giving up work or of reducing my hours still futher than I have already done. This is something I feel I should do to look after my parent more, plus it would give me the bonus of having more free time. Time to do what I want to do instead of working all the while.

Yet, is it the right move? The right thing to do for the right reason? I know I need to find out more definite information, but I somehow feel that`s what I`m being "led" to do. But how can I test if that is so?

Sitting Pretty

Another sight of spring. I wonder how many hours this bird will sit on that nest and what is actually under her at the moment - eggs or baby chicks. She certainly wasn`t going to move to let us see!

Quandry

I`m going on holiday soon, and am looking forward to it. It will be good to have a break from the routine of work and especially of home. But I`ve now got something on my mind, so I`m going to write it down. Writing things down always seems to help me think them round somehow.

My problem is that my parent is now starting to get worried about me going on holiday, says it’s a long way on my own. (I`m not I hasten to add, a youngster or teenager going away for the first time). I`ve gone before and got there and back safely. It`s not even out of this country! I surmise that her worry is really more to do with the fact that she`ll be left on her own while I`m away, rather than about my travelling but I`m now starting to worry because I`m making her worry.

So, do I go or do I stay?

Made Round to go Round

They say its made round to go round – what is? A coin.

Looking at a coin in my hand today set me thinking and wondering, where had it been, where had it come from, where would it go?

How interesting it would be to know where it first went from the place it was minted. Who had it next; and who after that; and after that; and after that. Where in the country had it been; How many miles had it travelled before getting into my hand; Who had held it in their hand; Where would it go next, who would hold and touch it after me; where would it end up?
I wonder how many years it would be around for too. And how many hands would touch it in that time.

Wouldn`t it be interesting if everyone that handled it had to place a mark on to say where and when they`d touched it?!

Rodent taming

I`ve been trying to tame a rodent today. It`s obviously a young one, because it keeps darting about all over the place. It`s very quick and lively in its movements and just scampers away from where I am trying to get it to go. My rodent is free, its not tied to anything or caged up, so perhaps it’s the freedom its enjoying. No doubt with perseverance I shall get it to behave itself and do what I ask it to do.

What am I rambling on about?... I`ve just bought myself a new Mouse and it’s a cordless one.

Optical illusion

Thought I`d share another optical illusion with you that I was sent.
What do you see in this picture?


If you look closely you should see a man playing an instrument, a person in a doorway, a person carrying something on their head, a bottle, a goblet.....
Clever isn`t it.

Kamikaze Pheasant

Can someone please teach pheasants the road drill to cross a road – to look right, look left, look right again and if there`s nothing coming to cross straight across. (and, don`t stop in the middle!)

One day this week I was driving back along a slightly winding but fairly main road in the early evening, it was just beginning to change from dusk to dark, when I saw a shape of something in the road ahead of me. It didn`t move. As I got closer I saw that it was a pheasant. It was on my side of the road a few feet from the grass verge and facing that way, but not making any effort to move.

What should I do? I didn`t want to run over it and kill it – I`d hate to do that to any animal. I`d got another car close behind me, I slowed and slowed but still it didn`t move, yet I could tell that it was alive because it was standing up. Panic – do I risk stopping and letting the other car run into me, because obviously he(or she) wouldn`t have a clue what I was doing they wouldn`t be able to see the pheasant.

In the split seconds I had to decide, I thought no, I daren`t stop that could cause an accident, sorry pheasant, I`ll try and get so that you hopefully go under the middle of the car and not under my wheels. I got, within about a foot of the bird when suddenly it must have realised itself what was going to happen and it flew up and just out to the right of me, thankfully alive and missing me.

Thinking about it afterwards, I wonder if perhaps it was mesmerised by the lights on my car which caused it to not know what to do? Either that, or it was very depressed and trying to commit suicide!

All Change?

Having worked in the same establishment for over 35 years, during that time I`ve seen many changes. The company when I joined had just a few outlets, it was then bought by a larger company, and has since then changed hands about six times. At times its difficult to really know who one works for! Now it looks to be about to change yet again.
When I started it was small and like an extended family, as it grew we still knew each other well and were a friendly bunch, but that gradually changed with the changes of management and attitudes and big business ideas. I`m not saying the `old hands` have lost the friendliness, we haven`t, but there seems a split between older and younger, but maybe that`s the way of the world now.

So will this be a change for the better? Since the news was given to us this week all the staff naturally keep coming up with lots of questions – what about our pensions? our discount? we`ve been told our jobs are safe – but will they be the same? Although probably with this change over we sense that us “lower down” may be safer than the management – after all, it could end up with too many chiefs and not enough Indians!

Am I worried about it? No, I don`t think I am – I`ve seen too many changes in the past, have put up with a couple of managers that haven`t been easy to get on with – and I`m still there, but they`ve gone! So, I`ll wait to see what happens, but I do think that this time it could be totally different.

Plant

I seldom buy myself plants, but walking round a garden centre today, admiring the beauty of so many different colours, shapes and sizes of plants, not really intending to buy one, my attention was caught by the sight of a miniature size - well miniature against the ones I`d normally seen - Peace Lily. It was so dainty, its flowers so white, dainty and pure, that I bought it, and it`s now residing on the top of my bureau.

I wonder how Peace Lily`s got their name? It certainly is quite a calming plant to sit and look at, so maybe that`s the reason? Incase you don`t know what I`m talking about, here`s a picture of one (not the one I bought though, I haven`t got my camera out on it yet!)

Seeing things!

Look hard, is this what it appears to be?

I like optical illusions, and a friend passed this on to me today, so I though I`d share it.

An afternoon with the birds

I`ve just spent an enjoyable afternoon walking round a wildfowl park. There is so much beauty in the different colours and patterns of feathers and features of the different ducks and geese. As well as the very brightly coloured Ibis`s. But then, sitting beside the window in the restaurant having a slice of delicious cream cake and a cup of tea, I saw something move on the ivy growing up the outside of the building, looking closer it was a little blue tit and in its beak it was holding some strands of moss. It just sat and looked at me for a second or two, then hopped a bit further and disappeared into the hole of a nest box, which I hadn`t noticed there before. During the time we sat there eating our cake and drinking our tea the blue tit kept flying back and forth, each time to a nearby roof where it was collecting the bits of moss to make its nest with.

It was lovely seeing all the ducks, and other birds, but what really delighted me was seeing that blue tit so close to and what he (she?) was doing just made my afternoon. I know I could probably have seen one in my own garden, but somehow seeing this one, so busy and so oblivious or so trusting of all the people that were around it, really was special. Sadly though it was too quick for me to get a photo of it.

I wonder too how many other people there spotted it, no one seemed to while I was there.

Easter Day

It`s Easter Day. Happy Easter to you who are reading this.

For me, the best part of Easter Day is going to the early morning service.
To be able to walk there in the early (well, fairly early!) morning, hearing the sounds of the birds chirping and singing in the trees and bushes along the way, seeing the cheerful yellow of daffodils in gardens that I pass, the occasional tulip and other spring flowers, the new life bursting from shrubs, blossom of the trees. Then to enter the quiet church, and to sit in the quietness. (Yes, at that one service people seem to respect the want of silence and don`t chatter and talk beforehand in the way they do at so many times of worship.)
To take in the beauty and stillness of the place, the joy that seems to radiate from all the bright daffodils that are decorating the church. To hear a powerful sermon, one of joy and hope, to really think about the true and real meaning of Easter, and then to walk slowly home again thinking about what I`ve heard and seen.
To me, that`s Easter.

Easter Saturday

It`s Easter Saturday, and I really can`t think of anything to write about. So, I won`t bore any readers by rambling on about nothing. But to keep up my entry a day, have written this!

Good Friday

There is a green hill far away
Outside a city wall
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.

Wood carving

I came across this wood carving of The Last Supper on here the other day, and found it had a lot of interesting information and the ability to look closely at sections of the carving. The expressions on the faces of the disciples and Jesus, and the details of the items on the table are so intricate that the more I look the more I find I see. I greatly admire the skill of woodcarvers and craftsmen who can do work like this, they are very gifted and talented.

Palm Cross

Sitting on my desk is a palm cross, and as I look as it I`m trying to imagine the hands that made it. Were they old, or were they young; were they male or female or maybe even a childs; where they smooth skinned or gnarled and twisted with the years. It looks to be so carefully made, so perfectly shaped, I imagine it being done with care and thought. How many miles has that cross travelled, how many people have touched that cross?

I wonder too if those who made them think about us and wonder about us in the same way, do they imagine the person who is going to hold that cross, and look at that cross that they`ve made.

Why have buns?

I`ve just tried this Easter Quiz or trivia questions, but only got 60% correct. And even these questions didn`t come up with one that I`ve been wondering about, and I guess I should know the answer too, but I don`t!, and that is Why do we have hot cross buns on Good Friday? I know on Shrove Tuesday we have pancakes because of the tradition of using all the fat, eggs, milk etc up before fasting for Lent. But what`s the significance of the hot cross buns? Anyone know?

Cloaks

Listening to the Bible reading in church yesterday of the day that Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on the donkey and people laid their cloaks and palm branches on the road for him, in the way that one would roll out a red carpet for royal visitors today. My practical mind came to the fore, and I`ve found myself wondering since then – what happened to all those cloaks on the road?

Imagine the state they`d be in after donkey`s hoofs and many, many people had walked over them, muddied, dusty, crumpled, maybe torn, perhaps stained with the green of the palm branches. Did the owners of the cloaks just go off and leave them lying there? Did they wait until everyone had walked over them then pick them up and take them home and wash them? Were they left there for others to pick up, and if so who and what did they do with them??

Strange isn`t it, how something from a familiar reading will suddenly make you think of something like that!

So Be It

I said it automatically and I`ll guess others around me did too, but then something made me stop and think about the word I`d just said. What was it`s real meaning, how many who say it really know what it means? It was an old word, but a translation of it I have heard. The thought that came to me after attending a service the other day, was why do we still use the old familiar word and not occasionally change it to use it`s meaning. The word I`m referring to is “Amen”.

I found that by substituting in my mind the meaning I`d heard of it as “so be it” made the prayer which preceded it so much more relevant.

Rainbow

I saw this beautiful double rainbow last Sunday afternoon, so thought I`d share it with you today. It was a perfect arc with both ends going into the sea, unfortunately I couldn`t get far enough back to capture it all. The colours in it though were really stunning.

Natural healing

In my blog a fortnight ago today I wrote about my poor finger that I`d stupidly burnt. Well for about ten days I`ve been going about with it wrapped up in a white hanky taped down, to keep it clean and so that I didn`t burst the big blister that had formed. (not one hanky the whole time, I hasten to add). How difficult it has been to keep it dry, and to do things with a bandaged index finger. And with my parent being unwell, it didn`t even get me out of doing the washing up!

I`ve left it uncoved these last few days and I can now see new skin forming as pieces of the dried scab come away.

Isn`t nature wonderful, I did nothing to it to make new skin grow, but it`s done it all on its own. What a wonderful thing the body is when you really stop and think about it.

Seasons of Colour

Thinking about all the beautiful spring flowers that there are, starting with the snowdrops, aconites, daffodils, primroses, I realised that the vast majority of flowering bulbs and plants at this time of year are either white or yellow. In the summer there are poppies, roses, and others that are red and pink.

It seems to me that there are seasons of colour, and that set me wondering why? For instance, why aren`t there pink flowers in spring?

Another sign of Spring

I saw some primroses the other day, another of the beautiful spring flowers. They were not in the easiest of places to take photo`s of as they were on the side of a deep ditch in a country lane, and not wanting to fall headfirst into the ditch, not get muddy, I reluctantly didn`t manage to take any photographs of them.

But then saw this similar although slightly paler plant growing in the border of my garden. So, out came the camera to capture it with the raindrops still sitting on its petals, and here it is.

Resolution Update

I said that I`d review my new year resolutions in three months, so I guess I`d better do that – but I know I`m failing on many of them, and we`re only a quarter of the way through the year. So to remind myself and try to stir myself up here they are – with the way I`m doing so far:

To have more patience with my parent – better some days than others, so neither success or complete failure

To make more time for myself – not very successful

To make more time to pray and read my bible – regretfully not very successful

To complete a needlework picture I started a few years ago – failed – but maybe in the summer I`ll get this done

To be more organised – partly successful

To keep things tidier - trying, but not too successful

To have more exercise – still trying

To try and talk more to people, to try and make friends – failing

To overcome the nerves I get at times about going anywhere – haven`t had to tackle this one yet this year

To find time and space to sit and read - failed

To write my Blog earlier in the day - failed

Wonder if I`ll do better by the half year stage – look out for the next report in another three months.

Can you see it?

I like experiment putting photo`s in my blog, and discovered the other day this way of doing a string of moving pictures, which I`ve experimented and put beside my Blog title. But I`d love to know if it appears when others read this blog. (that`s ofcourse assuming it is read by others? I don`t seem to get many comments, so maybe no one bothers to read it?)
But, to satisfy my curiosity on the picture strip, please just say yes or no that you can/can`t see it.

Pedestrian Pavement Code

Here`s my idea of a pavement code for pedestrians...

THE PEDESTRIAN PAVEMENT CODE

1. ALWAYS walk on the Left.

2. Look where you are going.

3. DO NOT stop suddenly (e.g. to look at a shop window).

4. Pedestrians are NOT PERMITTED to stand in the middle of the pavement to chat or for any reason, you MUST stand to one side.

5. DO NOT stand so you obstruct doorways.

6. If walking with others, pedestrians MUST NOT fill the width of the pavement, a path MUST be left clear for others to overtake.

7. Children MUST be supervised at all times, and NOT ALLOWED to wander aimlessly.

8. Pedestrians walking dogs, MUST have them close to them, not on a lead at arms length causing a tripping hazard to others.

9. It is PROHIBITED to walk along holding a mobile phone conversation.

10. GIVE WAY to wheelchair pushers and mobility scooters

11. DO NOT step off the pavement into the road, without stopping to look around and for traffic.

12. When needing to cross pedestrians going in the opposite direction, you MUST give way to them and not barge across.

Now, I wonder - how can I get that brought into force?!!

They`re back!

The grockles are back!

Yes, they`re wandering all over the place in our town today. Stopping dead in front of you without stopping to think that there just might me someone walking behind them. Spreading out across the pavements but not leaving enough room to get through and, if you are so brave as to think of passing and overtaking them they somehow meander across the same way, try to get round the other side and they aimless veer that way too!

Maybe pavements should be made like roads – keep left! and how about a pedestrian HighWay Code?