Saturday, 9 June 2012

Not just any old olive tree

This may look like any other olive tree in Andalucia. To me however, it is a special tree, where, over eight years ago, an abandoned dog looked after her five puppies. One of those puppies became my dear Cara, now no longer in this world.

On a recent trip to Spain, I was able to find the tree again, and in my mind, saw again those wonderful puppies. The inside of the tree is now so large that it could accommodate even more puppies, but thankfully there were no dogs around. Just as well for me, as I could not have coped with importing them into England. It's a journey I shan't make again for sure, but I was delighted that I could see the tree.

Thursday, 26 April 2012

U3A meetings

It's been an enjoyable week for U3A meetings. Wednesday the intermediate computing group had a guest speaker, and the whole meeting was given over to the subject of making your family tree via the net. Most illuminating, and as many of the people there have large families, and have started tracing their ancestors, it was of immense benefit to them.
This morning we were at the Meeting Points, the social gathering of anyone from any of the groups, plus visitors. The first half was dedicated to coffee, biscuits and chat plus any administration news. The second half was presented by a guest speaker, who showed photographs and told us about the weather in Swanage, past and present. Some great photographs, and wonderful stories from the past.

Thursday, 22 March 2012

A couple of March outings

These old houses in Cerne Abbas took my fancy recently, not a straight line among them. We had a lovely visit to the area, with firstly a look at the Cerne giant! After a visit to the village of Cerne Abbas, we stopped on the way home at Nether Cerne to look at the churchyard. Very pretty.
Today we've been to the U3A Meeting Points social and enjoyed a talk and slides on the Galapagos Islands. Beautiful photos too.
Pleased with some progress on the writing front. Posted an article off to a magazine this morning - yes I do sometimes still use snail mail. Fingers crossed for a good result.

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Could we have some good news?

The only place for murders is in fiction. Just at the moment though, all the news bulletins are full of reports of terrible violent incidents. Can everyone please stop killing each other. What has happened to people in this country? It seems that if a relationship is over, or somebody has offended another person, revenge has to be taken.

Does anyone else think there are more of these events than there ever were before? If so, what can we do to stop it? Any ideas please? Let's keep the killings for the pages of the books we read or write.

Monday, 21 November 2011

Lovely Party Yesterday

Really enjoyed the party to celebrate the Ruby Wedding anniversary of my good friends Sue and Dave. It's quite an achievement in this day and age. Their family and friends met up for a good lunch, and a great time was had by all. We met at the St Peters Finger pub; most impressed with the choice of menu.
I was one of three bridesmaids at their wedding, and we were all there, and recreated the photos which were taken at the time. Guess we all looked a little different!

Monday, 24 October 2011

Praise for the NHS

The NHS has come in for a lot of criticism recently, a lot of it with due cause I think. However, praise where it's due - last Thursday Mike had an appointment for laser surgery at Bournemouth Hospital. The actual procedure took little more than 5 minutes, and the results are brilliant.

The next day, while driving he commented how clear things looked compared to recent times. He'll never have excellent sight in that eye, but he'd not noticed how bad things had become until the treatment. All praise to the doctor and the technology involved.

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Flu jabs today

Glad that we've managed to have our flu jabs this morning, before all the winter bugs are let loose!

What a contrast in temperatures this week to last weekend. Mike was swimming in the sea just a week ago, now we're thinking of getting sweaters out. The good thing is that with the changing weather, the plants are becoming even more colourful with their autumn shades.