Wednesday 30 October 2013

Oh, wild west wind......

I was all keyed up for the biggest storm since 1987 and then it was quite mild here in quiet sedate Dumbrells Court, though people not so far away had power cuts. Brother P came to stay last week and we were just settling down to a play to kill game of scrabble when the electricity went off. I couldn`t find candles or matches -lost in the move, and it was a while before we could get back to our game, (which was a tie!) So I learned a lesson to buy some candles and torches. I realise that if there were more power cuts this winter I wouldn`t even be able to make a cup of tea which is a sobering thought, but in the meantime it is cosy and comfortable here. I keep discovering new and interesting footpaths on early morning walkies with B. Wiggins (better now that the clocks have gone back) and I am getting niftier over the many stiles. B W is now used to all the rabbits, geese and sheep (on a lead of course) Grand daughter M is going to a world U.N. conference on Climate Change in Poland. She is travelling to Warsaw by coach, 24 hours. I suppose I did uncomfortable things like that when i was her age, but I worry about her, though I am proud of her too for going. We had a good quiz night last Friday in the Village Hall. I was the only one on our table to know that Hans Brinker was the the name of the boy who stuck hos thumb in the dyke to save Holland from being flooded, but I was woefully ignorant of Olympic sporting heroes and pop music idols. But it was a lovely evening with delicious food, a typical Ditchling event.

Friday 18 October 2013

on the buses

One of the many delights of old age is going on the buses. Most of the passengers are oldies like me, anxiously gripping our wheelie baskets and fumbling with our bus passes. I don`t think I have ever been on a Brighton bus without engaging in a lively conversation, sometimes an entire life story. The younger generation, often mums and dads with buggies, totally ignore their offspring and spend the entire journey on their phones tapping out messages feverishly and gazing anxiously at their screens. The only time we all communicate is when there is a madcap driver who careers round corners and brakes suddenly.I really love it It makes up for no longer being a cyclist The carpet men came yesterday (carpeteers?) Wesley and Sunny. it was a chaotic experience.I had to move all the books yet again, the grandfather clock was carried out into the garden, I was stumbling over bedclothes and cushions and rolls of carpet. Fortunately B. Wiggins was parked at daughter J`s otherwise it would have been even more like a Marx brothers film. But it now looks pristine and elegant, though this may soon be defiled by B.W`s muddy feet. I still have no curtains in the sitting room but only the squirrels and rabbits can see in. Otherwise apart from putting up some more pictures It is finished. I am trying to get to grips with a new lot of names for my Wednesday afternoon voluntary job at the Infants. I am always learning new things there This week it was that a spider is not an insect as it has eight legs, and insects have six. I had got to the age of eighty three without knowing that.

Sunday 6 October 2013

Eighty three is neither here nor there......

My first birthday in my new home. I have a wonderful postman who just picks out the letters to the old place in Ditchling and brings them here, no need for re forwarding by the expensive Post Office. That`s service for you. What with texts, emails, e cards, and the Jolly Postman, I have had a heart warming birthday. Brother P,daughter J and grand daughters M and G plus Jumble and B.Wiggins and I had lunch in Hyde Park by the Sepentine (one of the few places that welcomes dogs) and very nice it was too. As it was National Poetry Day, we all recited the only poem which we knew all through by heart and quite surprised ourselves. Mr Wiggins and I like the bung. I luxuriate in walking from room to room without laboriously climbing up and down the stairs. I am getting to know my neighbours (I have a Dorothy next door and everybody needs a Dorothy in their lives) who is out in the garden at 7am in her nightie feeding the squirrels. Everyone is helpful and pleasant. I have been picking blackberries on my morning dog walks. The autumn films in the Village Hall have started We had The Well Diggers Daughter, on Thursday, a French film that I had seen before but enjoyed just as much the second time, and last week Whistle Down the Wind, an old black and white from the sixties, a brilliant film. Lunch out today with son C and gg E. Life is such a social whirl here in Dumbrells Court. We went to the Ram at Firle another place which positively welcomes dogs, there was one sitting under every table and next to us actually UP at the table.