Hi Brian,

Rain or  no rain, I have managed to get out (and very wet at times) every day for my walks so the camera has been busy capturing the autumnal changes.Invested in a good pair of all weather boots and it looks as though they will get plenty of wear.

Thankfully the Roofers finished off and I the house is now winter ready.  They were a great team of lads and would definitely have them again for an other work I may need (have a project planned for next year all being well and they can quote me for that when the time comes (not on the house but the unused garage).

Glad you were able to get more chestnuts as know how much you enjoy them.  Have not seen any nuts in local shops yet but as I theoretically do not have to shop for Christmas this year maybe I have just not noticed them ha ha.  

The writing bug is very handy to have in the current climate and I have signed up with 

Amazon to let me know when you pop new titles on Kindle so I will be 'in the know'.  Very handy to  be able to read the short stories when out and about/travelling etc.  I am sure you remember Sue (elephant lover) from Cancer Chat and she asked me to say well done for self-publishing and sends her good wishes.

I am still managing to do a bit in the garden though the lawn is spongy but much of my day is now spent listening to music, housework, walking and playing online word games (easy to lose myself for a couple of hours with scrabble etc).

Lovely that your local garage helped to fix your bumber free of charge.  Just waiting to hear if the garage where my son in law works will have to close again during the new lockdown.  He was furloughed for a month last time and then went back (works on the office side).

With the night camera my son bought me for my birthday I have pleasure watching the foxes in my night garden and sharing it with various friends and groups on social media so life is treating me pretty well at the moment.

Hope your grandson was able to return to school as I am sure he will have missed it and. as you say, learning via the computer is not the same.  Thankfully my grandsons seem to have caught up  with the time missed as, even though they could go into school throughout (with my daughter working inthe school becuase of the keyworker's children) a lot of the work was still via the computer.  Not easy to get them to plod on with all the homework either!!  My eldest grandson has settled in really well at his new school; hard to believe he is 12 this month and his brother turned 7 last month.  Makes me feel old ha ha.

Fingers crossed the new lockdown will not have to be extended beyond the month planned and that we can at least have some sort of festive period.   In the meantime hope you and Mrs B stay safe and well.  Best regards to you all.  Jules 

Hi Jules

Hope you are still keeping free of the virus.  I bet your grandchildren are looking forward to Christmas. Seems a funny time this year 

I have been to the hospital twice once just lately. Once regarding the cateracts I have and have been told they were deffinately worse than last time and they may be able to do the left eye before Christmas but they cant promise. Would be nice to be able to see properly again. The second appointment was for my glucoma and he was quite pleased. I found out I had slipped through the net as I should have been seen back in May.

Still cant seem to get the back page and the spine quite right on the paperback I mentioned but I will not give up. I still have 24 stories underway so have plenty of new stories to work on. We still have roses blooming in our garden and even few carnations still in bloom.  

The man came to mend our cooker but found the switch was also faulty so he has ordered this and will fix the lot all together. Not good for a fairly new oven. 

I have bought Mrs B a new 6 foot pre lit christmas tree. It is the best one we have ever had. I assembled it so as to make sure it worked okay and Mrs B said to leave it up as she liked it so much. It is the earliest we have ever had our tree up. 

I have also now changed all our light bulbs over to led as they last so much longer, give a better light and cost far less to run. 

Take care Jules and promise not to leave relplying so long next time,Brian

Hi Brian,

Thank you,me and all the family doing fine at the moment and lets hope we can keep it that way. Spent the weekend with my daughter and family and we celebrated my eldest grandson's 12th birthday with a long walk at a local Country Park following by cake.  I will see them again on Thursday as they have a family funeral to attend local to me so I can care for the boys and dog whilst they pay their respects.  I will then be going to them for Christmas this year and as a family have decided we will not be increasing to three allowable households.  Just not worth the risk. Hopefully we get a chance to see my son and family outside at some point to exchange gifts  (probably via the doorstep drop which we are getting pretty used to).  Will put up limited decorations as from tomorrow to cheer the house up but no tree this year as no one else to see it(I will miss the smell of a real tree!!).

I do hope you will be able to get your eye operations as soon as is possible so that you can then continue to see better and continue your hobbies as am sure it is frustrating.

I have just finished wrapping the seasonal gifts and my cards are all ready to post in a couple of weeks.

Walking and the photography has been keeping me going and I have several socially distanced walks with a friend in the past few weeks too so making the best of what we are allowed to do.  Also do my main shopping on a Monday now when it is so much quieter.

Hope you and the family and managing okay. Stay safe.  Jules 

Hi Jules

Sorry for my long absense but things have been pretty hectic for the past few weeks.I hope you and your family have been keeping well and free of the bug.

Had all of this written out and went to wipe a bit od dust off the keyboard and lost the lot so am doing it again.

I have had my cateract operation on my laft eye three weeks ago last Wednesdat and what a differnce it has made. I can now see to drive better without my glasses than I can with them. I was so lucky to get it done as they only did one more person that day then they closed the department except for emergenciy operations. How lucky was that. The nurse who looked after me had been told she was bieng transfered to the covid ward the next day and understandably was not looking forward to it.

Unfortunately I have had a stye in the eye that was operated on so for the last few days and it has effected my vision.Trust me to get one of these.

I had my 1st covid jab last Monday and Mrs B gets hers on Tuesday. 

I am now just two books short of completeing 100 stories and as I have 28 new ones underway hope to reach the 100 mark fairly shortly. You might just hear a big shout when I do ha ha.

I hope you are still enjoying your walks. Take care Jules and I wont leave it so long next time, Brian. 

Hi Brian,

Nice to hear from you and really pleased that the op was successful.  Now a nuisance that you have a stye infection so hope it clears up soon.  Must be wonderful to have got good vision back so fingers crossed the infection goes and you can enjoy seeing everything you want to do.

Thank you, all the family managing to stay well as well as home work, home school and generally keep their distance.  My daughter and son in law still key working in school and vehicle repair centre so eldest grandson remote live learning at home and 7 year old was in school up until the past week when his bubble was compromised so he homeschooled as well this week but but to school on Monday,  My daughter also getting tested twice weekly now as part of the school routine to keep staff and pupils safe.

I had my 1st vaccine on Friday; so efficient and lovely people there doing an amazing roll out job, Hope this means that by the Summer we have a bit more freedom. Thankfully still getting out for long walks at least every other day with my camera taking images along the way and see my son and the two youngest grandchildren once a week for a couple of hours as am part of their support bubble.  Find I have a good routine going now and our gym is providing live home exercise  sessions via social media three times a week.  I also do other classes via YouTube but still eating too much ha ha.

Sounds as though the writing has been keeping you busy and I will be notified if anything new goes on the Amazon Kindle site as have you as an author I am following.

Take care of yourself and am pleased that Mrs B will be getting her jab soon too.  Best wishes to you both and your family.  Jules 

Hi Jules,

the time seems to be going even quicker these past few weeks. 

Hope you are all keeping well and still doing your walks. 

Both my wife and my son and family have now had their jabs. Our NHS are doing a fantastick job of this roll out. We see to be leading the world on this. 

My stye has gone but I now have a great big floater in the middle of my eye but will just have to get used to it. But it is still a great improvement. 

What a beautiful day it is today and I am really enjoying it. Tried to clean our upstairs windows today and as they havent been done for a few months you should see the dirt that came off. I will have to do them again as I have smeared some of them even though I have got rid of most of the dirt off The water was absolutely black!!!!!!   At least it should be easier next time ha ha.

Have now got to get our clubs next newsletter done so will have to run now

Take care. Sending best wished to you and your familuy, Brian

Hi Brian,

Nice to hear that Mrs B and son and family have all received their vaccine.  Not too long before I get the second dose I expect.  Fingers crossed the Road Map out can be adhered to as think we all need a little more 'normal' in our lives.

Yes, still getting out walking with my camera for company but definitely looking forward to the time when I can go further afield and enjoy a good day trip.  Lucky to be in a support bubble and getting to see my son and family once a week which breaks things up for us all.   Most important is that so far, so good and keeping well.

Raining here just now but the sunny days are so welcome and my garden has it's Spring coat on and I even mowed the lawn earlier this week which always feels good.  Apparently this coming weekend is due to be cold again so am holding off from the veggie/seed planting as do not have a greenhouse. 

So pleased the stye has gone (painful things) and that despite a large floater  you are finding things a lot better.

I have foxes visiting most nights (trail camera set up for me to view over breakfast!!) and lots of birds so have treated myself to new feeding station and it brings a lot of relaxation as I watch their antics as there is definitely Spring in the air!

Sending kind regards to you and the family with the hope that the year will slowly bring us all some more freedom.  Jules 

Hi Jules

nice to hear from you. Glad you are still keeping up with your walks and are able to see your family.

I did the upstairs windows again and am happy with them now. Did mow the back lawn in Saturday and have done the front one today. so lond I had to have a lie down afterwarsd ha ha. Plus have cleaned the downstairs windows today and boy did they need it. 

Have also had a Rhubarb root delivered and have planted it so hope we will be able to have some of our own next year. Am also starting to re-do a lot of our plant pots as I am transferring them into long plant troughs. Rain stopped play for today unfortunately so will continue tommorrow.

Hope we dont lose to many club members during lock down but hope I have recruted one new member at least. So many dont like driving at nights. He has just turned a fantastic vase usising 1006 pieces of timber. It is about 20 inches tall!!!!!

I have ordered two more primrose plants for Mrs B as a surprise They should be here in the next couple of days. We have one big plant in our garden which was self seeded so a couple more to keep them company.

I have just had some more seeds arrive and one of them is a pack of black spanish radish which can grow to about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Plus some more pea seeds. I use a . company called PREMIER SEEDS DIRECT as most packets only cost 99p and have far more seeds in the packet than the local garden centres.They dont have fancy pack but who need this anyway.

Have not had time to add to my stories the last few days. But I di like ti keep busy 

Sending best wishes to you and your family, Brian

Hi Jules,

Just a quick update. I now have managed to get one of my books published on Amazon in papperback format I have ordered tree copies for my self. One copy is for my grandaughter as it is through her wanting stories made up when she was young i have got to do these stroies, one for my friend from the woodclub who encoutaged me to try Kindle and one for myself. I have sold two  more booksa couple of weeks ago making six in total.

The last few day I have spent an hour or so per day tidying up the tubs of flowers we have and putting them into black plant troughs and it looks so much tidier now. Next week I want to try and plant some seeds as our garden is reasonably shaded.

Take care and I wish a very good week, Brian