Hi Brian,

Taking some time out to answer my mail before heading off to the gym and get a few food bits and bobs. Thankfully a lovely bright sunny morning here so a walk may well be on the cards too.  The rain has been pretty relentless but feel blessed that no flooding to deal with here; just a very soggy garden which needs mowing but no hope of that yet.  I have managed to still go out walking most days when not at work either dodging the showers or getting wet ha ha (just not quite as long as usual).

Brilliant news regarding your psa levels and good to know it is downwards. Hope both you and Mrs B are staying safe and well.  

My grand-daughter is now over her mild case of chicken pox and as yet no sign of her brother having got it.  I am looking after him for a couple of hours on Sunday so that my son can take his sister to a party and then will have dinner with the family so looking forward to that.  

On Monday I am going to the Royal Albert Hall (first time) with a friend who had a spare ticket to music from the muscials. Quite excited!

Hope the barometer parts turn out to be worthwhile and that the weather soon improves so you can begin to enjoy woodturning again in your garage.  

I have been going to the cinema and/or theatre a few times in recent weeks which is a lovely pastime when the weather is a bit grotty. Certainly hope the weather picks up in time for my few days away over the Easter. I am going with my daughter and family to a cottage in Lincolnshire so looking forward to the break.  Watching the Gov.UK website as far as travel abroad is concerned as am due to go away to Italy in June and not that far from the currently 'locked down' towns. Hopefully all will be well and it can go ahead. If not insurance will cover and I will re-plan.

Look after yourself and stay safe.  Jules

Good morning Jules.

Hope you are able to get out for your Sunday Walk.  Its fine here at the moment. Sounds like you are keeping busy with all your visits so well done. 

Today is my sons archery club champioships and just know he will do well. Yesterday I finished amother story but still have loads more to complete. Am going to have to spend some time transfering photos on my laptop as they have got a bit muddled up when I transferred them from my old lap top. I need to re-catergorize a lot of them so this will keep me ocupied for a while. I need to be able to access them easier.

I need to send out our e-mail reminder about our next wood club meeting this Wednesday. All of our members have e-mail apart from two people so this system works well. 

Take care and enjoy your family visit, Brian

Hi Brian,

Hope you and Mrs B keeping safe and well.  Spent the day at my son's on Sunday with a couple of hours babysitting the youngest grandson whilst my son took my grand-daughter to a birthday party.  We were all  back together by mid afternoon so took the kiddies over the local playground before having tea and watching the Dancing on Ice final before my son ran me home.

Weather still pretty miserable so I went to the cinema yesterday and saw Military Wives. Very good indeed. Just the gym afterwards before I had an early dinner and then my friend picked me up and her brother drove us into London.  We had a lovely evening being entertained at the Royal Albert Hall with the Best from Stage and Screen musicals for two hours.  The whole show was brilliant and very uplifting after all the 'virus' news.

Hope there was good news from the archery championships for your son.  With so many sporting events being postponed/cancelled he was lucky it was going ahead as planned.

It's nice that you have your writing hobby to keep you busy when the weather stops outside activity and know the woodclub will appreciate all your hard work on the administrative side too.

Take care  and best wishes to you both.  Jules

Hi Jules,

Hope you have been able to take your walk today. And hope you and your family are keeping safe. Worrying times at the moment.

You woulnt think Mrs B had cancer problems just a short time ago. I am so proud of her as she didnt cry or get upset; she just wanted the op done and over with and am so please with the recovery she has made.  

With regards to what you said about the shops beimg quiet, I noticed on my laptop big superstores are so busy with online deliveries, People are having to wait for a week before they get their goods. Plus they are imposing limits on certain goods to stop panic buying.

My son has been and collected our granddaughter from UNI today for Easter and had a very good journey there and back as there was very little traffic on the roads.

I have downloaded more pics yesterday and today and have allready  transfered them into the right folders on my laptop. So much easier now I have got the folders sorted . Some pics are for the forum and some are for the wood club. The site where I get the good news stories from also have a load of good jokes. I was getting short of these as I always put one in our clubs newsletter so  have also downloaded quite a few jokes too. 

I have managed to keep my new dentures in for two days now. Where i'd had two teeth out the gums were still sore and I wasnt able to kepp it in for that long. But things are improving at last

Take care my friend and stay safe, Brian

Hi Brian,

I did indeed go out for a walk yesterday as planned (little keeps me indoors whilst it is still allowed!!).  Firstly I did my gym session and then walked the mile or so to the local artisan/farmers' market.  Quieter than usual but regular traders/visitors doing their bit and good community spirit as is usual.  They had to reduce the size due to a safety issue in the Old Barn (dodgy beam) so all stalls were set up outside.  I visited my usual cheese vendor and also the plant man.  Picked up two planters (filled with primulas) one in the shape of an owl and the other a hedgehog. Gave the food shops on the way home a wide berth as only buying as and when I need anything.

Good to hear that you and Mrs B are keeping okay and that your grand-daughter is safely home for her Easter break from University.  My eldest two grandchildren do not officially break up for Easter until early April and we are booked to go to Lincolnshire (self catering cottage) for five days after Easter.  Time will tell whether this can still go ahead as, like most people I expect, just enjoying life one day at a time just now.  My youngest two grandchildren are just getting over chicken pox so has been a busy time for my son and daughter in law as they juggle work leave to care for them.  Will catch up with them next weekend as have been invited for Mothers Day lunch.

Am pleased that you are finally feeling able to wear the new dentures for longer.  Certainly after extractions the gums are very sore and sensitive.  I had to have a course of antibiotics when first having dentures  but then I had 11 extractions before having them fitted (gum disease being the main cause sadly..............something my mum also had suffered with despite always going for six monthly dental checks!!).  At the time I took a week of work as looked like a 'gummy bear' ha ha.  Wonderful when sorted out though.

Thanks again for keeping us 'inspired' with the wonderful photos on the various threads you keep updated.  Will try and attach one of mine below from my walk (taken on my phone).  I have only just begun uploading photos from my new phone to the computer which makes it easier to 'share' ha ha.

A beautiful start here this morning after an early frost so just gathering my bits and bobs and going to enjoy sometime walking.  Nothing on at the cinema this week that I fancied!!

Take care friend and know you will be looking out for each other.  Jules

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Hi Jules,

Have just returned from the mad house that is Tesco's this morning. We always go down early but today, it was a job to find a space in the car park. Honestly it was worse than Christmas when we got inside. Never seen so many people at this time of day. We only bought what we normally do but several bays were completely empty including eggs and tiolet rolls. After getting what we wanted had to wait in a big long line to pay.

Yesterday the rubber gasket came off our new cooker so having failed to re-fix it myself, I phoned up the shop where we bought it and were told they couldnt get anyone out for about a week as people are going mad buying freezers and fridges to store all the extra food in. But on our return from shopping today, our next door neighbour told me if there is anything we want she will try to source it for us which was so nice of her.  She made me promise as she knows how independant we both are.

You take care while at work this week. Sending kind thoughts to you and your family, Brian

Hi Jules,

Hope you managed to get your shopping okay and was able to get all that you wanted without too much hassel. It looks like a lovely day for a walk even though we are advised to stay at home.  Are you family visiting for Mothering Sunday?

We have now had three of our neighbours offer to get shopping for us, which was very kind of them.

I have just finished sorting another slide show out for our club. Dont know when we will be meeting again though. It is devided into eight differnt sections. It has over 200 hundred slides in it and there is some fantastic work in it. I have tried to make it differnt to the last one I did for the club and have included several differnt diciplins. I have enjoyed writing about each seperate slide.

I bought Mrs B an big bunch of flowers, plus two solar powered snowy owls and an owl tea towel with all differnt owls on it which she has said is too good to use ha ha.

Take care and stay safe, Brian

Hi Brian,

Glad to hear you have neighbours looking out for you. Community spirit alive and well down our road too though I am still 'allowed out' as do not yet fall into the over 70 age bracket.  Shopping completed and if what I had on my list was not available (shelves depleted) I chose an alternative; no big deal.  Please dont get me started on the selfish individuals who are stockpiling though thankfully the large supermarkets round here are rationing to help with this.  I am just buying what I need as far as fresh produce at local stores to help them through this challenging period too.

Should have been at my son's for Mother's Day roast dinner and also going away with my daughter and family soon.  I have cancelled both as working with the public (and not knowing if I am a 'carrier' of anything nasty) I would not want to put them at risk. My son left my gift in the porch as I was out when he drove by on Friday and had gift from daughter through the post plus plenty of WhatsApp messages going back and forth.

I am sure when this crisis is over the Club will be back together and enjoying your slide shows once more and you will be ready and waiting.

Following my two hour walk this  morning I am going to spend some more time in the sunny back garden and carry on with the weeding I began yesterday.  Let's pray for ongoing dry weather so at least we can enjoy our garden when we have one.  Take good care and be safe.  Jules

Hi Jules, 

Hope you are well. Bet in a way you are relieved not to have to go into work. I expect your garden is looking nice now you have spent time working on it. 

My son had brought one of the firms computors home and was trying to work from home but there is no point now as all the suppliers they use  have shut down so there is no point taking any more orders. 

I completed the clubs newsletter yesterday but due to two features bieng cancelled (We have one listing our future talks and another one listing woodworking events that are planed for the next few months around the South of England) I have had to write an extra two A4 pages. So this kept me busy yesterday. I now have to wait for our chairmans letter and to insert this into the newsletter and send it out to our members at the beggining of next month.

I spoke to my sister who lives in Canada at the weekend and she told me the have had a very heavy snowfall with drifts of up to six foot. Food shops are similar to ours as people have been panic buying.

Do take care of yourself. Sending Kind thoughts your way, Brian