slightly walker but downgraded

Friday 22 June 2012 Raining again. Good for the tanks maybe good for the garden although nothing is growing at the moment (the grass fortunately having it's annual vacation). Won't be going out today, but have to go to dietician and chemist tomorrow morning in Oberon. Anticipated with some dread. ABC is celebrating it's 80th birthday and recounting various sometimes hair raising tales of musical incidents during this time (we have just had the story of Klemperer and Brahms 4 and the revolver -a successful strategy which resulted in Brahms 4 being broadcast for the second time in a few days). Standards regarding the gap for rebroadcasting the same works have clearly slipped as they go through stages of almost continually playing the same works (Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture from a few years ago comes to mind). We have had several very frosty mornings with heavy layers of frost on the garden, in the courtyard, on the roof of the cottage (possibly this sort of thing is responsible for the leaks in the cottage roof). The rain has made it 5 degrees walmer this morning. iPad doesn't like walmer and wants to put walker in it's place. Sigh. We are victims of technology. Not to mention bank rating agencies who seemed to have caused another crisis by downgrading many overseas banks. Someone should downgrade the ratings agencies who seem to have no useful real world

Saturday 16 June 2012 But running late with Post; very cold with very heavy frost ce matin. Winter is here. Rain, rain, rain Although only 6.6 mm according to my weather app; it seems much more as it has been raining loudly most of the day. I have more or less stayed in bed, my mother bravely going to Lithgow for the newspapers this afternoon. I will go tomorrow for the Sunday papers and some firewood. One blog I have been reading is Wishing I Were in France by Martine, a Belgian lady who lives in a village outside Brussels who has just spent a week in the Loire which has many photos of Amboise and other parts of the Loire which we visited last October (and which we would happily visit again). She also seems to have experienced quite a bit of unseasonal rain, echoed by other bloggers living in the Loire/Touraine area. Our rain isn't especially unseasonal - it seems that it can rain anytime here; we didn't seem to get our usual early autumn dry spell in March but had some dry weather in May. I have given up worrying about the rain here; wait long enough and there will be plenty. We haven't yet needed to buy water for the tanks (no town water here) but no doubt we will have to one day, but not today or tomorrow. It is not especially cold although it feels coldish, the effect of damp no doubt. Though it certainly isn't hot. Link to Martine's blog:  I'll shortly list the various blogs I have been reading recently once I reacquaint myself with how to give the correct location.

Foggy days in Hampton

Tuesday 12 June 2012 Foggy damp day spent mainly in bed reading frances Parttidge's biography via kindle (diaries not currently available through kindle, one of it's irritations). - Cancelled appointment this morning with diabetes educator in Oberon as too agitated about forthcoming eye sight doctor appointment in Lithgow. Turns out that this will now not be until 1 August, so have arranged return visit to Bathurst this Saturday to get temporary glasses. For see much going and froing over all this. - Now as anticipated change of doctors for 9 July at Lithgow and no appointment for optometrist at Bathurst until after then. Was hoping for an improvement in eyesight a bit sooner so we could drive to Sydney to butchers and to see a friend having his 90 th birthday next Monday. Life unpredictable. Ho hum. - Having a brief holiday from blood sugar testing (just for today) as I am finding doing this five times a day plus two lots of injections plus tablets all a bit overwhelming. Not really sure why but it all came a bit too much for me last night after dinner. Don't want to have to return to having to write down everything I eat. Did this for several years whilst losing weight which I subsequently put on again when things got difficult with my father's health and work. Can at this point see that lap banding surgery, suggested by Oberon doctor, is probably only real long term weight loss solution for me. Dieting doesn't seem to be the solution without daily exercise and daily exercise except gardening isn't much of an option for a dweller in damp countryside.  - Australian country not especially conducive to long daily walks where there are no quiet roads to walk along. Our road is actually quiet most of the time but at other times is like being on a truck freeway, as it is a link road from a highway to a logging area (although they could go another way and slow down a bit). 

The eyes have it

To Bathurst yesterday at last to see optomertrist. Very pleasant woman who more or less explained what she was doing. My eye troubles (clouded vision) may be the result of mild cataracts, which I had suspected from my last visit to optometrist in Katoomba which I have realized was two years ago - I had thought it was only last year. My eyes notbapparently damaged by diabetes, which is a relief. - I am to see an eye doctor at Lithgow Hospital tout suite; as ever when there is a problem these matters are speedily arranged. The optometrist is to make an appointment and let me know when on Tuesday afternoon. This does not apparently necessarily mean surgery, at least at this stage (bet it does though). After this visit glasses can be procured. Slight relief but mindful of a great deal of hoping and froing that all this is likely to entail. At least eyesight not ad enough for there to be, at thispoint, a problem with driving (which is really why I would like new glasses). - Optometrist's former assistant used to work for optometrist I used to go to in Sydney so if necessary she can obtain data from him. - Cold weather turning damp this afternoon. Getting more interested in doing yard work. Slightly more stable on feet. May call at hardware store when I shortly go to Lithgow for Sunday papers and firewood (life's neccesoties). - Have formulated plan to go to UK for November 2013, hopefully this can be afforded (a lottery win would be useful). it is interesting to note from JL-M's diaries that John Julius Norwich used to plan on a lottery win, even though he was better off than we are. Don't think this ever happened.

Good grief ...... And paragraph trouble

I have just been stumbling through Blogger -one lives and learns even if one doesn't intend to!!! * Since I can't work out how to paragraph properly from my iPad I'll use a star instead (reliable old option 8 isn't available). * I think I just have to recover from my adventures in the Bloggosphere. I was going to write about oldentimes at Berowra Waters Inn which again piped up in tonight's replay of The Cook and the Chef.

Wednesday 06 June 2012 Weather warmer, snow all gone leaving damp ground and bits of mud in driveway. Mother into Lithgow for various errands, at home mainly watching Lifestyle channels. Usual trouble with getting fire to ignite - firelighters are a necessary evil.  Hope economic growth figures out today are sign of improvement; it's getting gloomy here at ground level, and potentially downwards interest rates on money in bank is not good news for us. Don't know who often to post; obviously more frequently than in past but maybe not every day. Probably slightly inspired by diaries of James Lees-Milne which, via the Michael Bloch editions I have rather extravagantly purchased from kindle, at rather high prices, courtesy of Hachette. My print editions of these are buried somewhere in the cottage. He at least seems to have had many people to write about, with what initially seems like a very busy life with socializing and writing, although there is often a week or ten days between entries. Wonder whether I have found a way to paragraph in Blogger? Will see.

Royal Snow Day

It's snowed on and off since about 7.30 am this morning, although most is gone as it heated upmonce darkness came. (I'm putting in extra returns to see if this solves the problem of no visible paragraph spaces whenthe blog is posted.) This will be one of the six to eight snow days we will probably have this year. As I havevalready said, the winter seems to have come a bit later this year than previous years. I can't remember the date of the first snow day in 2011 but in 2010 it was the last weekend of May (so winter is not as delayed as it seemed). It's Royal because there has been much of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on television. We watched various programmes on Saturday and Sunday afternoon on television, and tonight my mother has been watching the service from St paul's in London on television (I was watching a home repair horror programme from Manchester). We have fortunately not had the high winds that Sydney has had late this afternoon (hence there is still television to watch) although the falling snow did interfere with thevsatellite signal late this afternoon, as usual, and both televisions had to be restarted. Power was obviously off during the night as I had to reset the clock on the stove this morning. By this afternoon there was a light covering of snow, presumably now gone. And of course it is Grace Agnew's birthday.