INVITING OURSELVES OUT

One afternoon during February, from inside the outside looked bright, cheery and tempting.  So, we, that’s hubs and me, invited ourselves out for a coffee.  There was a noticeable icy breeze, truly icy. It wasn’t too bad once we’d got used to the feel of it. I was glad of the thick jeans I was wearing, (these days, jeans seem to be made with much thinner denim cloth).  Together with my hip length padded jacket and a big scarf wrapped round my collar it all worked a treat. Hubs was well wrapped up too.
Crossing a bridge, I saw a tight ‘ruck’ of Snowdrops, the first I had seen this year. They bank onto a river.  In another week or so, the whole bank should be carpeted with them.

Snowdrops From A Previous Year

We arrived at our destination and found our favourite seating area was free and only one person, the manageress,  was at a table. It was an oasis of calm.  A lot of people favour the same seating area, and  it can be teeming with bodies from whom emanates a very high volume cacophony of sound.  A group of teachers is one of the noisiest.  Next are parents who allow their little offspring with their metal toys -small cars  mostly-to bang them on  the glass table tops. The kids love it. This is an efficient way to clear the nook of other customers!


On the way home  we wandered up to a farm and bought some fresh eggs, chatted to the shepherdess, who also runs the egg enterprise and does lots of other things in the modern diversified life of farming.

A plop of icy sleet startled me, followed by a few more plops.  Then I noticed an unexpected clump of bright yellow in the shelter of closely planted leafless bushes.  Crocuses were about to bloom.  Could Spring be just around the corner?

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW...

Whahey!!!....my sharp-eyed sister-in-law has worked out what I was growing  from seed in the fish-box, which has been turned into my cold-frame - see here http://myword1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/bounty-from-kailyard-and-harvest-from.html  There were faded letters on the white plastic name sticks which I had not noticed.  I now know for certain I have radishes, there's more lettuce, over and above that which I planted outside the cold-frame.  The thin green spindly things that sprouted out in a loop, then straightened up, (after a fashion) have been put out to grow as I think they are spring onions.  S-I-L agrees with me about them.  That leaves me with at least four cucumber plants not yet ready to pot on.  When they are, they will live under the polythene cover of the frame. 

However, not all is resolved; I pricked out some slim pointed leaves into larger pots to give them more space to develop.  I have absolutely no idea what they will become.  Back to the drawing board then - check in the box in which the packets of seeds were and with any luck, (fingers crossed) I might find a part packet of seed with a name on it.  I cannot remember if I decided to try growing the beetroot. If I did, they should be yellow ones. 

THE UNEXPECTED

Being shut out of my blog site recently threw up  some unexpected feelings.  See here: http://myword1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/getting-locked-out-of-my-blogsite-me.html   

Someone suggested that it must be interesting being a visitor to your own blog site, it giving another perspective on what [I] do and see. 

Well, no, being locked out of my site did not give me another perspective on what I produce and publish on my blog.  I believe it did not do that because I was, and I am, already very familiar  and closely linked with all of it.  It was not like visiting someone else's site, where I would be seeing different perspectives,  reading something new, meeting up with a different writing style, or, mulling over other and possibly new and refreshing ideas.  


Not being able to fully access my blog site was frustrating.  I  was on the outside looking in. The nearest analogy would be, being shut out of my own house.  Something or someone had a power to do that and I was almost powerless to do anything other than look in through the glass window.  It was  very uncomfortable.  My discomfort, doubtlessly prompted my inner drives to resolve it.

I was also prompted to think about the very many displaced and dispossessed people we hear about, as well as those we are not told much about. The majority have fled to find relative safety; recent history  is full of brutal examples of sequestrating people's homes, taking their livelihoods and their lives.  By comparison, my little cyber experience rates as nothing, and yet,  the event itself, raised my emotional awareness of a particular kind of loss.  It was not a comfortable place to be in.  It will be unimaginably uncomfortable for those who are living the full blast of it right now.

GETTING LOCKED OUT OF MY BLOGSITE-ME VISITING ME

I have had a worrying prospect in sight today, it seemed I had lost access to all the delights of my blog.  I couldn't write a post, I couldn't find tools with which to modify anything, in other words, I was visiting my site as a visitor.  Weird, worrying, puzzling and frustrating!  

Just in case I have been too optimistic about today's muddle, I am posting while the opportunity presents itself.  I have yet to find my associated email,  another concern, so, I cannot be too jubilant.  

If I meet up ever again with another 'give a profile'  to a comment, with no options on offer, I shall back step out of it.  I ended up with a blank sheet of questions requiring to be filled in. Current ones, (by then probably 'ex' ) not being acceptable.  There was no mailing feature to be seen. A tremendous amount of time has been used to  try and sort out the consequences of doing something I was unfamiliar with.  Has anyone else been faced with this?  

The questions that are asked to restore an account are amazing.  Just in case you are faced with this experience; you should have a record of;
When you opened  the gmail account/s, dates etc.
Other facilities you use with the account/s and the dates they were  installed,
5 contact emails.
4 labels,
Security data.

I might have forgotten something, but you get the gist.

WALKING OUT OF YOUR SOCKS

Have you ever walked out of your socks?  It's a strange sensation. 

When you walk out of your socks, it is about time you walked into a different pair.

 A WARM GLOW!

A card arrived yesterday; we are fortunate to receive many lovely greetings.  This card though, was a real puzzle.  Who on earth were the people who signed it!

Hubby trawled the internet and found some interesting personalities in the U.K. with similar names, who were not known to me.  I checked the envelope.  Yes, it was correctly addressed, in fact the detail was absolutely right.  It was obviously a card sent by people who knew us.

It is one of those uncomfortable happenings, when someone cares enough about you to send you their wishes and hopes for you, and you have no idea who it or they are. It bothered me all day. 

Last night, hubby had an idea, I checked it out.......voila!  Eureka!  Apart from being really, really pleased that I now knew who had thought kindly of me, I was very touched.  I have known the family, for about three years, on and off;  the odd  chance meeting in the street, or a community event, on rare occasions, a coffee group.  This year, they have checked out my address and sent me a card.  It has given me a warm glow.