The Earth Did Not Move For Us

At around 1 a.m. this morning England suffered an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale. It is, apparently our biggest earthquake in 25 years.  People all over the country reported feeling it.  We were both still up at 1 a.m. and felt absolutely nothing, the earth did move for us, I am glad to say. As far as I know only one man was injured when a chimney stack fell through his roof.

I am not turning alerts back on just yet, I got to the stage where I needed a complete break from journals and more time away from the computer.  I have spent countless hours glued to the chair in front of the screen for the past ten years.  I used to transcribe old records for people researching their family trees and was sometimes doing that for twelve hours per day, at the same time I was also doing research on my own family tree. 

When that all finished I got into journals and, as many of you know, I used to post every day plus visiting so many other journals.  Just under three weeks ago I logged on and saw the list of alerts and all the e-mails from my graphics group plus personal e-mails and I sat there and thought "I just cannot do this, I cannot face it."  I knew it was time to take a break.

So I shall only probably post about once per week for the foreseeable future and I will return to commenting on your journals when I feel ready.

So, what has been happening in our lives?  Well, Mike has been extremely unwell for a week but thankfully he is picking up now although we are awaiting test results from the hospital. The doctor ordered Mike to have the tests done because of the symptoms he was experiencing.

Nathan naturally caught Chicken Pox  but not necessarily from Daniel because he is in a different class at pre-school and everyone in his class went down with it as well.

Our sun-lounge is in need of major repair work.  We lost all the carpeting out there due to water getting in so it looks a bit of a mess at the moment.  Dean is on holiday this week and they had hoped to make a start but Mike has not been well enough.  It can wait but at the moment it is not pleasant to look at.  When Mike took the carpet and underlay up before he was ill there were some horrible vinyl tiles underneath and that is our view right now.  The whole structure really needs to be torn down as it was a home-made affair when it was erected well over forty years ago, but we cannot possibly afford to put up a new one.  It has done well considering its age.

We did have a scare a couple of weeks ago, thought we had lost Jack.  Mike took the two dogs out for their nightly romp in the local fields.  The railway runs close by and maintenance work was being done.  There were a couple of louds bangs and big flashes of light and when Mike looked around, Jack had disappeared.  He searched and searched but could not find him.  He came home without him, then took the car out driving around the streets to see if he could spot him.  Nothing.  By now it was gone 1 a.m. and we were getting frantic.  We were scared he would get onto the main road and be run over.  Maybe even stolen as he is so very friendly towards everyone.  Yes, he is micro-chipped but unfortunately when someone takes a dog to the vet it is not normal policy to run a scanner over them.  So, with his collar and tag removed, he could belong to anybody.

After the third attempt, we rang the police to report him missing and give full details.  Neither of us could sleep so Mike said he would go looking again.  I told him to take his powerful torch this time.  Lucky I suggested it.  Mike went back to the fields and stood in the middle and shone the light around.  He saw two green orbs glowing in the darkness which could have been a fox.  But he went towards them and yes, it was Jack - cowering under some bushes and now frightened that he had been left behind and had been alone for around three hours.  He crawled to Mike on his belly.

We were so relieved to have him back.  It took Jack ages to be willing to go back to the fields again at night but he seems over it now.

I have been doing lots of reading and catching up on things I have not donebecause of spending so much time on the computer.

I was happy to see one friend, David, return to journalling and sad to hear we had lost another journal friend, Irene. I have now added Irene's photo and journal link to our memorial journal.

Well, there is not much else to tell you.  The evenings are really drawing out now and the new leaves will soon be breaking out on the trees.  This Sunday is Mother's Day so I would like to wish all U.K. Mum's and Grandmothers, a very happy day.

I hope life is being kind to you all and I will be back commenting when I feel the time is right for me.  Take care everyone

Love,

Thursday

At last the winds have died down although the sky is overcast and it remains chilly.  Apparently Spring has come a whole month early this year.  In the past couple of years they say it has been a week or two but this year it is a month.

In the botanical gardens at Kew all the spring flowers are out and the trees are in bud.  I heard someone on the t.v. saying that Hawthorn blossom is starting to emerge.  Apparently the Hawthorn does not throw forth its flowers if it knows there is going to be any more really cold weather.  I wonder how they know that, years of study I suppose.

Well, I reserve judgement.  We have had snow at Easter before.  Last year we were told we were going to have a scorching summer.  It did not happen.  At the beginning of Autumn we were told we were going to have an artic winter.  So far it has not happened.

Thank you for supporting the new funnies journal (yesterday's entry).  Those that have visited and taken part seem to enjoy it and that is the main thing.  What is life without laughter?

Talking of new journals, Guido has also started another one. If you know of any J-Lander who is in need of moral support for whatever reason, then this is the place to go:-

Call for Support

Poor Daniel is not having a good year so far.  First his operation in January and now he has Chicken Pox!  There is an epidemic of it in this area and many at his nursery school have it.  When I last spoke to Becky, Nathan was showing no signs of it, but there is sometimes a gap. We can only wait and see.

Well, I am going to spend less time on the computer today.  I spent a whole day sorting out my alerts and adding you, another day setting up the new journal and popping back to read all yourjokes so I have a stiff back and neck today.

Do not forget to pass both journal addies on to all your friends.  That way many more people get to know about them.

Hope your week has been going well.  Take care, dear friends and readers.

New Journal

I have told as many people as I can think of.  Today I started a new journal.

It is for all of you, you can all add an entry by using the green ADD ENTRY button at the top.   A little bit of fun to cheer people and make them smile.

Please put on alerts so that you do not miss out on the fun.

Here is the link

Make 'Em Laugh!

Thank you all for providing your journal links thus enabling me to sort out my alerts by deleting and starting over.  The only thing I am having trouble with is Other Blogs.  I have managed to add a  few names and then, for some unknown reason, it is refusing to let me add any others no matter how many times I try.  So I will wait a few days and maybe it will sort itself out.

I Need Your Help

I need your help my friends.  My alerts are in a total mess and have been for a while.

Some I have down three times, others I do not seem to have at all, so if I have not been to you for a while, you know why. Some have gone private, some have stopped writing altogether.  I just do not know where I am with them anymore.

So, I have decided that I am going to delete all my alerts and start from scratch.  This seems the only sensible way of getting things back to normal.

Therefore I am asking you all to please leave your journal addies in comments.  That way I can add you as they come in.

I do realise that not everyone will read this entry but, hopefully, people will come along sooner or later.  I do not want to lose any friends or lose links to journals that I like very much.

So, please - leave your journal address or if you do not know how to do that, then leave the name of your journal and I will try to find you under search.

I shall also be deleting other blogs from my sidebar and starting that again as well because some of the links are now obsolete.

I will be leaving this entry up for a couple of days to give you all a chance to leave me your URL if you wish to do so.

Thanks in advance for your help.  Have a good week everyone.

P.S.  I know that some of you now do multiple entries per day. I have no problem with that.  However, it is not good for my health problems to sit for endless hours at the computer which my doctor has told me on several occasions lol.  So, please do not be offended but I shall only ever comment on one of your entries, unless there is something really special you want me to see or something you wish me to know about. If so you can drop me a quick e-mail asking me to view that entry.  I hope you will understand.

J-Land Photoshoot # 127

This subject this week is OLD

I knew immediately the image that I would use  (no, it is not me!).

My maternal Grandfather, William, whom I loved so dearly as only a child can, was an athlete as a young man.  In fact he was a champion middle-distance runner for the Essex Beagles Athletic Club, one of their stars.

For one race ( I have no details of it) instead of being awarded a tropy he was presented with a pair of these:

Copies of the famous Marly horses.  He won them circa 1898 when he would have been around the age of 22. That would make them 110 years old but we do not know if they were new when presented to him.

In their house my Grandparents had the most beautiful and enormous dresser and these horses took pride of place, one on either side.  My Grandmother, whom I adored and have written much of in the past, treasured them and always told me that they would be mine one day.  They meant even more to her after my Granfather passed away in 1949.

After Nan died in January of 1972 my Mother went and collected them for me as Becky was less than three months old.

I have had them ever since.  In monetary terms they are worth very little. They are not bronze but probably spelter and there are, no doubt, many around just like them.  But in terms of memories, of the love I had for my Grandparents and the joy I had in visiting their house, they are absolutely priceless and I hope they will always be kept in the family and treasured.