Back from The Brink ...

Tried to edit 'the late, great Roy Ayres'. Think he only passed last year.

Hi Welshblue and absolutely no apology needed! I hope you had a lovely few days away and Happy Anniversary celebrations too 😊.

I've given up on the idea of a swing now 🙄 😂, don't fancy mowing the grass ha ha, going to save up for a swinging chair so the muttlets can sit on it too, shan't worry about burning a few calories now.

It's great that you've got a forestry so close; I once asked one of the Rangers at Delamere about the tree felling I wasn't happy about that for the birds etc anyway, there are wetlands and peat bogs at Delamere and they're felled in rotation which supports the wildlife, some of it rare, they've got the white-faced Darter Dragonfly their now which is rare/? extinct in the UK, not that I've ever seen it. They later introduced beavers which have successfully bred but that was around the 'Covid' outbreak so I've not been since then. I'd love to have done voluntary work their 🫠 some parts felt spooky to me, it was formed in the 11th century I think but the land goes back to the Triassic period, 220 million years ago. So to cut a very long story very short (😂) I was happy about the 'carnage' after talking to the Ranger.

Talking about trees I bought a gift for my vet after he'd looked after Jack after he'd passed away in 2016, it was a pair of bookends from 220million year old fossilised wood I can't recall if they originated in Arizona or Madagascar as I'd bought something else too. They were very reasonably priced c £140.00 although I didn't know there was a customs fee of c £60 on top but they were beautiful, the fossilised shape reminded me of Jack's shape. I must try and find the photo I took of them.

'Tome 2' cont'd....

Probably my shortest post 🫠😉😊. Absolutely love both, 'Beauty in the Dark' just brilliant; but 'Under Welsh Skies'..... another level of moving. Your very beautiful love story, a real, very meaningful celebration of love thank you for sharing, not a lot brings a tear to my eyes but this has. Wishing you both a Very Happy Anniversary and that the dancing lasts forever.

I occasionally buy other newspapers and there was a great article about Willie Ray Thornton in The Guardian a few weeks ago. 'Big Mama's' voice was incredible I don't think she made real money though, like Elvis, for Hound Dog. I think she had a very difficult, really quite hard life but had an amazing voice.

I once moved to a flat I bought (to 'get away from 'Elvis'' 🤣😂.... I moved in a few days before Christmas on the previous Friday in 2001. Sat with a glass of wine feeling pleased with myself that I'd done it. I am not exaggerating when I say not only did 'Hound Dog' come thumping through from the flat above but it was NON STOP, CONTINUAL Elvis music 🙄😬. I knew after a few days I'd move out so I got my rescue dogs Minnie and Jack on 12th Jan 2002 (dogs weren't really allowed) and put it back on the market on the Monday. Luckily I moved to a cottage in the April and made enough to just cover the fees to move. That was a big relief!!

My boss around that time found some premises to move the company to in St Helen's/Merseyside. The move got held up for months because great crested newts were found. I don't think they moved their at all in the end but I'd left by then and moved home to another cottage on 2006. I remember thinking you wouldn't expect that in St Helens but there are wetlands there.

I was a member of 'The Badger Trust' but had a car accident in Sept 2019 when I hit one. I was devastated, the badger didn't survive, I won't be graphic but I went back in a cab later to retrieve it and my vet sent it off my me to be cremated. I wanted his ashes back to go and sprinkle them near his home but it's not permitted and was a 'communal' cremation so I just did a little service with candles at the time of the cremation whhch the crematorium kindly let me know. It cost me a fortune as I paid my cab to have his car valeted but I don't regret it. I felt I couldn't leave it their in case it's family found it. Too sentimental I know ! But I've never been able to go on that road since around Tatton Park. Think my vet probably thought PLEASE don't hit anything else and bring it here (especially risks of TB etc 🤭).

'Nobody can spout drivel more than me'.... do you want a bet @WelshBlue 😂😂😂. I can remember Jools Holland taking over from Chris Evans in the '90's on 'Don't forget your toothbrush' although I didn't watch it much then. Makes me laugh thinking what amused me then when Evans used to have a competition where people used to turn their lights on and off across the country and then had to chuck loads of stuff out of their window if they were chosen (promise that really wasn't my inspiration for the towels etc!) but my husband was a spoilsport and wouldn't play/enter the competition. When I divorced and had to catch spiders for the first time I must admit I was like 🤔🤔🤔, oh, what have I done, the realisation dawned on me I've now got to catch them myself; I did ring a few workmen to see how much they'd charge to come and get rid of them but it was too expensive, think they thought I was a prankster but I really wasn't !!!!

'Foreign' spiders 🤣😂. A tip: I only buy bananas once a month, unravelling the tape off them like it's a major surgical operation - on top of a towel - ready to wrap it up and chuck it all in my bin outside if a foreign spider emerges and in readiness to call the emergency services. I only get the baby bananas 🫨 now as less likely something like a tarantula will be lurking 🤢😬. The police are not interested in foreign spiders; I rang once when there was one on my washing line the depth of a brick, I could hear her laughing and said it was probably a common garden spider, there was nothing common about it, I'd took a photo but they weren't curious to see that and I just had to leave my washing out for several days.

New Year's Eve JH is my choice, I flick over briefly to the display in London just for the countdown, kiss the muttlets with us all wishing each other a Happy New Year 🫠😊😂 and flick straight back to JH. Some people who I watch, including him, I can't help but think we're really lucky and I really appreciate and savour watching them.

'Not one fox was shot today, the powers decreed a holiday; the flunkeys cried we'll get no pay!!'... a line from a verse my dad wrote but I can't remember the rest now.... was around Christmas time as that day was one of the few there was no fox hunting...... cont'd....

You mentioning you spray painting the fence (wow, I bet that dried quick/instantly!).. reminds me I need to get mine creososed, if that's even a word 🤔 😅. Don't think I can do that myself even though I like the smell. My COPD was mild and no sign of it on xrays before Covid/2020 but worsened when lung collapsed and left lung extensively scarred from Covid that's mostly why I stay out of the sun (and to protect my dogs as they're brachycephalic breeds) but luckily, just my inhalers work and occasionally steroids. I just have to really try and avoid getting double pnuemonia again like last year which was a bit scary.

I had to have a biopsy of my thyroid in c 2003, my sister came with me and sat listening, I hate my neck being touched always have, I scream sort of. Like a quiet scream if such a thing exists. My singing teacher asked me to scream a few years ago but I just can't which she thought was weird, just no sound came out at all 🙄😂 . My psychotherapist thought that related to my complex PTSD but I don't know. Anyway when I felt the pressure of the biopsy I emitted my funny quiet screaming noise and my sister told me she fainted in her chair ha ha. I was with her once when her partner was being taken off a ventilator and she fainted then. She's very queasy.

My neck 'issue' led me to have a past life regression. That was very interesting/fascinating in a very ordinary sort of way. I lived in a place (an obscure village I named) but that I'd never heard of or been to before and described it all in great detail, particularly the church and the roads including the bends and dips in the roads and exactly what was their. When I later researched it the church was not as I'd described but further research led me to find that there was a second church, exactly as I'd described and in the time period. It was all a bit freaky tbh in all if its accuracy I knew my name and that of my husband and child who died very young. I knew how they passed but not myself. I was going to go to the churchyard but thought better of it! Some things are best not knowing I'm too easily spooked 🤭🙄🤣. I doubt very much I'd repeat the experience.

Well, from one tangent to another ha ha. I've just got a small drink of hot chocolate, a rare treat, muttlets are comfy with two fans on them and I'll try and sleep which is ever elusive. Take good care and I hope Ruudy is as comfortable as one covered in fur can possibly be. I'll be very glad when this heat has gone and praying no thunderstorms come over here. If it wasn't for spiders, the dark, thunder and lightning and imagination I wouldn't have a care in the world ha ha ha.