A Few Days In Stamford Bridge.

Mum, Oliver (her dog), Tony and I all spent a few days in Stamford Bridge. We were going to watch my brother Russell run in The Yorkshire Marathon. This was his second marathon in six months! He ran the London Marathon last April at the age of 59 years which meant by the time he ran the Yorkshire one he was 60 years old. I think he is a little bit barmy myself, even more so when he is already talking about doing the London Marathon again in April and maybe the Yorkshire again next October!
When Russell ran in the London Marathon it was the hottest on record, when he ran the Yorkshire Marathon it rained continually throughout his entire run. He beat the time it took him to run in London by 38 minutes, finishing in 5:48:16 a time to be proud of I think.

Russell smiling while running the Yorkshire Marathon 2018.

Before we went home we had a ride through Sand Hutton where my great grannie lived. My Mum had a trip down memory lane telling us about her childhood. It sounded like she had some really happy times there. I remember going and staying at Sand Hutton when I was a small child, I remember my Great Grannie having to leave and move into a home at Thirsk called "Cherry Garth" I remember climbing up on the wooden horse used for chopping wood and knocking myself out, most of all I remember being happy there.

Sand Hutton.

The House Mum's Nana & Granddad lived in.

The House Mum's Nana lived in after her Grandad died.

The second house is the one I remember going to.

The apartment that we stayed in at Stamford Bridge was quite nice, it was situated in the middle of the square standing out in the middle of the river.

We stayed in the building in the water.

All night long you could hear moving water, which I have to admit made me need to get up a couple of times if you know what I mean. Oliver liked the apartment, he had a viewpoint from the back of the sofa, the window sills or even better if he could get somebody to pick him up to look. Oliver was very well behaved, he had brought some of his toys so it was home from home, he could play ball here just the same as at home. 

Oliver Keeping Guard

It was good to spend some time with Mum, to hear her talk about her past. She seemed to enjoy herself too. I hope we can do it again some time, we never seemed to have spent much time together.

I know you won't like it Mum but here is a photo of...

 Mum, me and Oliver.

 Tony has to get a mention of course because without him we wouldn't have been there. He drove the car to get us there, he watched Oliver while Mum and I went to watch Russell run, he mended the window that was left swinging free in the apartment when we arrived, he carried most of the bags in and out and he had to talk to the not so nice woman that told him he had parked in the wrong place.
Tony took most of the photos including this one that amused us all.

Wherever you go there is a woodpigeon

Until next time... 

Five Squirrels.

Today I thought I would stay with the squirrel theme. This is another story I read on the Internet.
However this one has a happy ending.

Five Squirrels with a tangle of tails.

PHOTO: WISCONSIN HUMANE SOCIETY.

This looked like a lot of hard work for somebody to untangle these tails.

You can imagine how scared the squirrels must have been, so the first thing to do was to anaesthetise them.

The Wisconsin Humane Society worker began working on unravelling the "Gordian Knot"(google it) of tightly tangled tails and nesting materials. It took about 20 minutes according to the worker.

The Squirrels after separation.

PHOTO: WISCONSIN HUMANE SOCIETY.

The squirrels will be watched for several days to keep an eye on the blood flow to their tails. If the blood flow is impaired it can lead to something called Tail Necrosis. This means that the squirrels tail could die, the squirrels use the tail for balance, losing the use of the tail could prove really disastrous for a squirrel, it would affect its ability to jump from tree to tree to find food. 

A sad day for an Albino Squirrel.

I was very sad today to read about an albino squirrel being knocked down and killed in Edinburgh.
Albino Squirrels are believed to have sight and hearing problems which makes them vulnerable to hazards. It is thought there are just 25 albino squirrels in the country, with odds of being born albino around one in 100,00

A Rare Albino Squirrel.

    © Alan C Tough / SWNS.com

                                                 

We are still having daily visits from three squirrels, it is better than watching the TV watching squirrels. They sometimes remind me of Benny Hill sketches the way they run around the garden, it just looks like they have been speeded up.

One of the Squirrels.

It always makes me think they are saying "Who me?" when they stand in this pose.

This one was so laid back he fell asleep eating.

It's a good job he woke up before he fell off.

The picture below is the new nut box I told you about that the squirrels took the nuts through the hole before realising they could lift the lid. You can see where there tried to make the hole bigger, it reminds me of what a lot of birds do, such as woodpeckers, magpies or crows to get to chicks in nest boxes so they can steal them away to feed to their own young.

 The new nut box damaged by squirrels.

A juvenile Goldfinch comes to feed on the sunflower hearts every morning, always on its own. The young finch stays about 30 minutes or so then flies off over the school roof until later in the day when it returns for another feed.

Juvenile Goldfinch.

The stump is still popular! The Sparrows and Blackbirds are usually the birds that visit it. The Sparrows often spend the most time there, however, today a male Blackbird ruled over it.

A Male House sparrow on the stump

A scruffy looking Male Blackbird on the stump.

Until the next time...

Wet Squirrels and The Many Faces of Willow.

Tony has made a new nut box for the squirrels out of a spare nesting box. He has put it on the wooden frame outside the garden hide. The squirrels soon found it, they discovered they could take the nuts from the hole that Tony had not covered on the front. The squirrel carried on taking the nuts from the hole until he could not reach them. So we thought they will lift the lid now like they do on the other nut box. Oh no, this squirrel decided it was going to try and make the hole bigger, so he began chewing the wood around the hole. After a while, he must have become fed up with that and lifted the lid. The next day it was absolutely throwing it down with rain, I thought nothing will be in the garden today. However, this is a couple of pictures that Tony took.

A Very Wet Squirrel.

There is just nothing to say to this...

We had a ride to Barnsley to take a card for Joanne because it was her birthday. It was raining but the sun was trying to shine too. the sky was not very blue but there was a very bright rainbow

A Very Bright Rainbow.

When we arrived at Barnsley all the children including Logan were at school, which meant that Willow would get all the attention.

Willow is growing into a really cheeky little madame.

The Many Faces of Willow.

Lynsey is still enjoying working, she rings me every evening to tell me about it. 

Mum is doing well, Oliver is keeping her busy throwing his ball for him. She goes out with friends for shopping trips and lunch. 

Mum, Tony and I are all looking forward to going to watch and cheer Russell on when he runs the Yorkshire Marathon.

If you would like to help Russell raise money for a charity you can do this by going to either of these websites,

uk.virginmoneygiving.com/bassman99

www.goraise.co.uk/bassman99

If you shop online a lot then the second website might interest you because every time you shop online you can raise money without it costing you anything.

Until the next time... 

The op went well, the surgeon told me in all the 30 years he has been doing this operation he has never seen a gallbladder so full of stones or so thick. I was just glad it was gone. The pain had gone and I felt so much better straight away. I had three small holes and a slightly larger one where a drain had been inserted. I  had to stay in overnight but I didn't really care about that either. Lynsey had told me all the horror stories about the pain I would get in my shoulders from the gas they would pump into me, well I waited for it dreading how bad this pain was going to be. I am pleased to say weeks after I am still waiting so I don't think it is going to happen now.
I am still having problems with my teeth another one broke the other day, it broke eating a jelly bean. I have been told the only way to stop it is to stop taking my meds. I think I will put up with the breaking teeth for now.
The garden has been fairly quiet, I think it was too hot for a while. I have never known it to be so hot for so long. But I have a few photos for you.

The squirrels find places to stop and stare at me.

Different Bugs in the garden & shed.

Bees on the lavender

I keep trying but I haven't got a picture I am happy with yet.

Oliver is very well behaved when he wants something.

That's not fair really Oliver behaves very well most of the time. I think Mum would be lost without him now.

May (Tony's sister) came from America for a visit.

She stayed with us for two weeks. It was very nice to see her, we took her to Knaresborough, Harrogate and Elvira took May & me to Roundhay Park.

We picked May up & dropped her off at Manchester airport.

It was nice to see her, but it was nice when she went home too, although after a few days we did begin to miss her a little.

We always keep a lookout for strange things.

We spotted this car whilst we were out one day, Tony always sees old cars before me so I don't always manage to get pictures of them. This time though I was lucky. Tony told me what the car was but as I am writing this I simply cannot remember what he said!

This last photo is one that Tony took, I think it was partly to prove that I am going a tiny bit daft or to show you how friendly the birds in the garden can be.

My friend the Robin.

I crushed some peanuts & put them on the wooden frame for the Robin. Every time I go into the garden now the Robin is waiting for his peanuts crushing. I also noticed two young blue tits peeping out of the hedge to see if the peanuts were there. I don't know what will happen if I run out of peanuts. I guess they will just have to go and mug a squirrel.

I have had a face to face assessment for my pip, to see if the powers that be still think I need it. I am not holding my breath, Lynsey had hers stopped because some dim wit said she wasn't unconscious when she had a fit. Luckily for Lynsey, she has managed to find a job and it a job in the industry she wanted.

Until the next time...

A date for my op and a date for a PIP assessment.

 I finally have a date for my op to have my gallbladder removed, 23rd July. That is, of course, providing they don't change it again.
This morning I received the dreaded letter saying my filled in application for my PIP renewal was not enough, I have to attend a face to face assessment on 30th July. This is so they can see if what have put on the form fits with what they think. I should have a good day just a week after the op. Oh and just to make things more inconvenient, I have to travel to Barnsley, it would be too simple for them to do it in Wakefield.

Since I last wrote there has been a couple of changes!

Lynsey has managed to succeed in securing herself a job. She started today, she knew a couple of weeks ago the job was hers and has been very excited about it.

 I have a new shed!
It stands where the greenhouse used to stand. The school bought it for me. This is because of one of the boys at the school decided it would be a fantastic idea to smash our greenhouse. The school headteacher was very apologetic and was very quick to replace the greenhouse. Tony asked if we could have a shed instead because it would be harder for the boy to smash the next time.

My New Shed/Hide.

It took Tony quite a while to put the shed together, it had a few teething problems, the door didn't fit properly, there were knotholes the size of a bottle cork (luckily we had some of those!).
As you can see Tony has done a very good job and I have a new place to sit and watch the garden.
We have at the last count 6 young squirrels who are not quite sure what to make of the new shed.

From the small side window, I can look out onto the birdbath. A female sparrow landed on it and took a drink, I took a photo. She must have heard the shutter. The sparrow glanced over her shoulder, did a double take then realised she was being watched and flew away into the bushes.

Sparrow is taken by surprise.

Also from the small side window, I can see the sunflower heart feeder. The young blue tits and goldfinches love this feeder and there are usually two or three on there. The young blue tit almost copied the sparrow move by move. It glanced at me, did a double take, then flew away into the bushes.

Young Blue Tit is taken by surprise.

The hot weather is not my favourite weather, it makes me swell and ache but I have managed to go into the garden a few times.

I keep trying to get some shots of bees and butterflies, I have managed to get some but I think I will keep trying to improve.

Hoverfly on an Aster.

The butterflies were easier to photograph than the hoverflies because they kept still longer.

Small White.

I have seen these Small White butterflies in the garden on many occasions.

Comma.

I have not seen one of these in the garden before, although it is said to be widespread and common.

We have had a bit of sad news in the family, Mums partner Trevor died at the end of June. She is coping extremely well and has the full support of her family. 

Oliver, the dog is also coming to terms with the disappearance of his friend. He is happy so long as he gets his food, has a bed to sleep on and the right ball thrown. I have never known a dog with so many tennis balls. Oliver decides which one he is playing with and if you try to throw the wrong one he will not play. He is certainly a little dog with a big character.

Until the next time...