‘Us’ is being relentlessly reduced to ‘just me’.
Today I received the final bill for the Grant of Probate, the cancellation of Jeremy’s Powers of Attorney, and the annotating of the Powers of Attorney for myself, whatever that means. I have trouble following Thomas the Tank at the moment.
The postman also brought a closure form for an ISA held in his name.
Feeling reckless and in need of excitement I drove to Sainsburys, sailing straight past the local Asda I normally frequent. In addition to food shopping I bought some pens and notebooks for my journalling which is starting to grow to War and Peace in length.
I was still feeling grumpy when I got home. I had half a packet of chocolate cookies for lunch, with a virtuous handful of late strawberries. Then I sat on the garden bench with a cup of coffee, soon a robin and a bluetit came to see me and cheered me up. So I got the secateurs out and did some pruning.
The farmer in the field over the hedge spoiled my peace because he was shooting pigeons and I got liberally sprinkled/pelleted with lead shot. Some even landed in my coffee.
Living in the countryside is supposed to be peaceful, but not today.
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After the incident with the parasol are you sure about the secateurs? Not just peace in the country. Used to live in Fleet Hampshire. Every so often a loud bang would be heard at 6a.m. and then it sounded like WW3 had started with gunfire and shells. The army were playing at war. That and the chinooks flying over head. Very peaceful. These days it is the helicopters from Yeovil and Leonardo. Is anywhere truly peaceful? Did the lead improve the coffee? Must be a new blend.
That reminds me, I think a piece of my thumb is still in the parasol! I had better clean it before putting it away for the winter. Another lousy job, putting all the summer stuff away. The cushions are still in the conservatory, having never been put on the garden furniture this summer. And I have to sharpen and oil secateurs and loppers.
The spiders are back, I swear they must queue up to limbo dance under the doors and into the house.
When I moved a pile of fallen leaves today I uncovered a nest of little field or harvest mice. Tiny little things with bigger ears than a house mouse. I covered them back up again. I don’t mind anything but spiders. The squirrels are a pain because they bury conkers in my lawn and we had to put a fine wire fence in the hedge because the deer come into the garden and can destroy it in one night.
I love living here though, there’s always something to look at.
Even if it is the postman pushing unwanted legal documents through my letterbox!
Xx
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I’m the same with spiders. Absolutely petrified of them.
Few squirrels here, but the badgers are getting me in trouble with one neighbour at the back. His lawn now looks like a golf links!
How lovely to have deer.
We have badgers in the lane a few metres away. Luckily they haven’t moved into our garden. They are enchanting but very destructive little buggers.
There is one very bold deer that looks at me through the kitchen window. I took a carrot out (do they even eat carrots?). It sniffed it and wandered off! In search of someone else’s roses, maybe.
I even had a young hare in the garden yesterday.
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Oh wow! I feed the badgers every night. And two feral cats. And the local fox. No deer or hares (it’s by the coast, not hare country) but there are tons of red kites. And it being Wales, a lot of sheep!
I love Wales. My husband’s father came from Cardiff.
We had a lovely holiday in Anglesey last year. And another in Tintern the year before.
We also have lots of red kites here, they seem to be common all over the Chilterns in the last few years.
Last year we were sitting in the lounge and a cow walked past the window (in our back garden)! I rushed out and by this time there were 6 of them, with a queue of them coming through the gate. I started smacking the lead one on its bottom and shooting “shoo-shoo”, the farmer appeared and got them under control. The lawn looked like the surface of the moon, the front garden and drive were covered in poo. Then my very staid and proper neighbour came out in his pyjamas and started checking his brand new car for damage. It was chaos! Me and my husband dissolved into fits of laughter. Then we had to jetwash the drive, how can a dozen cows poo so much in 5 minutes? There was a river of sludge running down the lane. And the smell lingered for days.
Xx
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Seems to be a default reaction when they walk! Step-poo-step-poo. Our lane goes past a farm, so going for a walk down there requires wellies, as the cows get moved from the field for milking twice a day. Also not good when you’re mid-walk and 70 cows come hurtling towards you, all pooing!
Haha! It sounds as if we got off lightly. I am not familiar with the digestive tracts of cows! 
Thanks for the heads -up.
Xx
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I have a plug in device which spiders don’t like. Think it emits a high pitch sound. Seems to work. When we moved in loads. Now hardly any. Only birds we seem to get are pigeons, crows and sea gulls. We do get badgers but not in our garden and neighbours had rats in garden when they were replacing the gas pipe down the road.
I will investigate the plug in device. Someone told me to put conkers at points of entry. I tried that as I have a ready supply of conkers, and it gives me a bit of a thrill to deprive the squirrels. The sneaky little critters bury them all over my garden and each spring I have a forest of horse chestnut trees to dig up. But it didn’t seem to deter the spiders.
I’ll try the sonic thing too. I have an armoury of weapons; 3 Lakeland long-handled bug catchers, a kind of plastic dome with a sliding base to put over them (if I can bear to get that near), and some less-kind home-made Implements of Torture. Have tried tea tree oil, peppermint, you name it, and nothing deters them.
Look for plug in spider repellent. They are ultrasonic.
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