Misty

Posted on November 17, 2012 by freda

Misty, most unusually, did not feature in my previous entry.  A whole month’s catch-up and no mention of the little dog……  As a friend pointed out, was she hibernating? Well, Herself does not much like this time of year, though she did enjoy the Day Out in the campervan. The most traumatic thing for Misty, was when us humans had a whole day away and Misty was left behind.

Being left always results in very sad eyes and many sighs. And as we go out to the car I can hear the whole house being informed that Misty is in charge so everything and everyone had better be well behaved and in good order. Not that she is nervous or scared………  well maybe a little bit.

On that particular day we had arranged for a neighbour to call in at lunch-time to give the little girl a walk.  This was a departure from the norm as she has never previously been left for a whole day. N told us the story the next day.

Lunchtime duly arrive and N came into the house calling for Misty. No response and no noise. N shouted for Misty again, this time adding in the incentive Walkies, walkies.….  Still no response. So N goes through the utility room and into the dining area. From underneath the table comes a sound.

Grrrrrrrrr!

Oops, the silly little pooch had got a fright and not recognised the kindly neighbour – incidentally the same neighbour that Misty is desperate to see when she is out in the garden. All ended well as the neighbour bent down and reassured the nervous dog jingling the collar and lead.

Now each time we go out, Misty looks even more nervous than usual, but we haven’t repeated the experiment yet.

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Remembrance Day catch up

Posted on November 12, 2012 by freda

The autumn has flown past in almost indecent haste; much of the time has been spent in helping Son #3 to move house. HBTW and myself are not as spry as we used to be, but we are pleased to have managed and to be enjoying quieter times now.

Remembrance Sunday always signals the start of winter proper. The British Legion Festival of Remembrance is a highlight for me, and interestingly I notice that this year there was little mention of the 1st World War. Let me right that by giving a mini-review of the film War Horse, directed by Steven Spielberg. I had been avoiding watching this as I suspected, (rightly as it happens) that it would be traumatic, a bit gruelling and leading me to tears. Having said that I am glad to have seen it, even if I did go online to get the plot and provide a “spoiler” for some of the scenes so that I could carry on. On the Dalamory-scale it gets a 9 out of 10.  The only reason it failed to get a 10 was more for the story itself being split into separate stories with little sense of the backdrop of the whole.

An ongoing project has been counting Weight-Watcher’s points. And in the main, sticking to the right amount. The downward trend is very slow, but I have been losing at the rate of 2lbs each month. (Slightly less than 1kg per month – incidentally I weigh myself in kilgrams because it doesn’t frighten me so much.)

 

Other items of note:

  • A Birthday Day out in the motorhome: picnic lunch, walk by the Crinan Canal and evening meal out on the way back home. HBTW is now in his 70th year and quite proud of it he is too.
  •  My time as Interim Moderator in the parish is over. We are really glad to have our Minister back from her Study Leave. Thankfully there were no real emergencies.
  • It’s study time again for my OU student friend; she is doing a course in Psychology, so I am trawling the depths of my psyche for memories of my own under-grad course.
  • The inclement weather has given me the excuse for some serious reading. The Awakening of George Darroch deserves an entry of its own, and Ken Follett’s offerings have weighed me down both literally and metaphorically. More of that once I am at the end of the 12th Century.
  • Extra individual dance classes has helped our passa and tango…… I think.

    Let’s hope that blogging service is back to a more normal pattern now. I have missed spouting forth as much as I have missed catching up on the exploits of blogging friends. Now I shall need to do a whirlwind catch up.

 

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Dragonfly break

Posted on October 21, 2012 by freda

I looked down at my arm and saw a dragonfly briefly resting on it. For a moment the world faded out and I thought of all the summers and all the moments and all the many dancing dragonflies that inhabited the moorland next to the duck ponds. The sun warmed my soul, the lone dragonfly flew away and I was alone. Gradually the sounds of the countryside came back into focus: the ducks fussing in the pond, a pheasant clucking in the undergrowth, the whisper of the wind in amongst the dry-leafed birch trees. My mind came back into the centre of myself. Misty-dog pounced on something moving in the grass and my heart bounced back into the present.

It was no more than a moment – sitting on a pallet beside a lochan, but it refreshed and renewed and gave courage for the walk back to the car. Why did I need courage? Because an extremely large chocolate brown labrador had nearly knocked me over as we walked up the track to the ponds, and now we had to go back the same way, past the badly behaved labrador.

Thank goodness for the courage that a dragonfly gives. And after all, I am here to tell the tale aren’t I?

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Happy Dancing

Posted on October 12, 2012 by freda

It’s a wet Friday here in Dalamory – A soft day, as my Granny used to say. The undernoted clip is a couple of minutes of fun from Strictly Come Dancing. I didn’t see it on the day and only caught up with it a couple of days ago. Magical rhythm from a large lass. Gives me hope for Dance Class tonight.

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Special ears

Posted on October 6, 2012 by freda

Read today in Sacred Space:

God has ears to listen to our hearts……

Sets the tone for the coming week, a busy one with helping Son #3 to move house. I’ve just sat down and counted up the number of places HBTW and myself have lived. (Plus assorted family members of course.) It turns out to be fourteen.  There is at last a sense of  permanence here in Dalamory – it’s not quite Brigadoon, but has some of that fictional town’s better parts.

Today the mist is down over the mountains and a watery sun lights up the trees, leaves fast falling. Autumn never used to be a favourite season of mine, but now that I am entering the autumn of my life things seem different. There is more time to be like Pooh Bear and just sit. There is the luxury of not even having to think. The trouble is that I achieve that blessed sense of well-being far less often than I should like. Anxieties are too ready to rush in and whisper in my inner ear…….. What about the cobwebs on the windows? or I must remember……….. such and such.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to have Autumn Resolutions. After all it is also a season of new starts. The start of the season when nature rests up. I quite fancy that. This year my resolution is to try and remember the many ways we are blessed. It is far too easy to think of all the bad things. Counting blessings has always been a good way to remain positive and bring cheer to self and others.

Happy Autumn

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Sunday Paper

Posted on September 23, 2012 by freda

Reading the Sunday Paper used to be an energetic, messy but informative experience, which on completion made me feel well informed and slightly virtuous – it was a broadsheet after all. Nowadays things are different. First of all I read the paper on my ipad; this makes the experience cleaner (no newsprint to get all over me and my clothes) and easier…… but. And it is a big But…..

It is almost inevitable that newspapers have to change in this day of instant, rolling news, internet and twitter. News, for example of a celebrity’s death will be transmitted round the world in minutes rather than hours or days. So what is the role of the humble paper? It used to be about profit, and thus resulted in sensational stories which would sell lots of editions and make someone rich. Nowadays it is about influence in greater measure, and thus there is a lot of opining and sermonising and downright nastiness. The restraint shown by the press over the Duchess of Cambridge is offset by the strident calls for Andrew Mitchell, the Chief Whip, to resign because of his ill-advised display of bad temper.

That brings me to the sheer power of the press. It can be used for good as well as bad; it can be divisive or inclusive and it can lead to injustice as well as a call for fairness. There is a struggle going on in newsprint and only time will tell what we will end up with. I would predict that there will be a leaner press with more comment and posturing over political matters. Will I still be reading a regular newspaper? I doubt it. How about you?

 

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Dancing Star

Posted on September 12, 2012 by freda

Our Dance Class held their end of summer dance at the weekend. It was very good – well attended with plenty of fun and laughter. The novelty dances dreamed up by the leaders had everyone in stitches. However, going into church on Sunday morning, (after a very late night) I was heard to mutter – I am never, ever going to do a Conga again. This was as a result of dancing our way round the world, with the type of dance fitting the appropriate music of the country. This particular piece was made all the more frenetic by the need to rush to a table in the middle of the hall holding items of cultural significance……… maracas, garlands of paper flowers, castanets, fezes, glittery pom poms and much more.

The highlight of the dancing year was celebrated by the awards ceremony. HBTW was given a trophy for the Most Improved dancer in the past year. And it wasn’t teddy who got the dancing star medal – that was myself. At one point whilst we were dancing our way round the floor, I found myself thinking how lucky we are to live in a village where such events are still part of the culture. Mind you, that was before the conga!

 

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Salmon Fishing where?

Posted on September 10, 2012 by freda

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen sounds totally bizarre. When the Librarian handed it to me saying, “You’ll like this,” I was rather dubious.  However, the book turned out to be an unusual but fascinating tale of machinations amongst government departments plus the assumption many people have  that money can do all things – or can it?

Whereas the book encouraged the reader to look beyond the script – largely emails, the film is a beautifully crafted telling of the story which leaves one in no doubt that the moral of the tale is not just about salmon. It is a feel-good film poking fun at the workings of politicians behind the scenes.

Ewan MacGregor plays whimsy like no other actor I know. His gentle burr of a Scottish accent is ideal for the part – or maybe I was just in that kind of mood. He excells as a government officer in the scientific middle ranks of bureacracy. Emily Blunt, responds to him well as a financial overseer, whilst Kristen Scott Thomas is only stopped from stealing the show by the calibre of the other two. In fact, the actors are all superb.

The film is directed by Simon Baufoy whose other films include Slumdog Millionaire and The Full Monty. Enough said I think. Oh yes, I give it a 9 out of 10.

How about you?

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Autumn nearly?

Posted on September 2, 2012 by freda

Looking at the picture of my bruised face gives me a definite shudder, so I shall resolve to post some other photos before long. I had to seek further medical advice and it has been confirmed that I did indeed suffer a concussion.  As that can take 6 to 12 weeks recuperation I feel quite relieved., that means I can take my time to get better and have a good excuse to dilly or dally over the next wee while.

Re: the inauguration of The Anniversary Month, it was not an unqualified success because of the fall, but we did manage some special treats:

  • Visit to the Royal Yacht in Leith – most enjoyable, especially the apple tart, which of course I should not have had. It was a special treat, what more can I say?
  • Trip to the Scottish Parliament: not much to see as it was the holiday time and the debating chamber was closed for some wiring work. However, it was good to see the architecture first hand and get a sense of the sheer scale and quality of the design.
  • Visit to see Grandchildren of #1
  • Few nights away in campervanning – culminating in the trip, but meaning that it was possible to follow the good weather.
  • Retail Therapy in the sales – specifically two handbags, one bright pink, the other donkey brown with pale pink trimming. Both have had outings already.
  • Retail Therapy on ebay: fluffy cairn toy, (I couldn’t resist), 10 emery boards, 2 parker pens and a lip-brush. (The brush needed HBTW to show me how it worked – ie retracted…… I know how to put on lipstick, not that I can use make-up yet, my face is still too mauve and yellow.)
  • Friends visited and we set the world to rights.

So – a good month on the whole and to be repeated next year, if we are spared and well, as my Granny used to say. I’ve still to catch up with friends’ blogs, so shan’t weary.

 

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Update

Posted on August 24, 2012 by freda

Several people have asked for an update on the state of my face, one even suggested a photo. To be honest, I tried another photo but it didn’t look so very different – the large splodge of yellow tends to disappear into the rest of my face.

It has of necessity been a quiet week. After the endorphins of last weekend wore off, I found myself washed out and suffering from LOLS. Fortunately, I had an absorbing book on the go by a new author I’ve found recently – Tasmina Perry – a bit like Penny Vincenzi’s  sagas in the world of big business. So when I’ve not been reading, I’ve been dozing.

The wake-up call is Dance Class.
LOLS = Little Old Lady Syndrome.
And I am slowly getting my sense of humour back.

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