I knew a lovely chap. His wife left him for someone else. They had 5 grown up children and he was devastated. He moved to my village in France. I was newly widowed and 20 years younger. We were platonic friends. Then he met a lovely lady and they married. She was a keen gardener and became my friend. @D0rdogne_Damsel has met her. Sadly, he died, but he was in his late 80s by then.
I bought 6 bags of compost to dig into my new bed. I dig, remove weeds and add compost when making new beds, then it's "no dig".
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Quiet and still - although the promise of sun again today, the temperatures will be dropping over the next week - and rain is forecast for tomorrow.
My wildlife pond has a clean bottom - it was quite black. The birds are back this morning for their first drink of the day and a good gossip. My back is sore after carrying bucket loads of silt which I put onto the veggie garden. I have put the oxygen weed back and some other grasses - they may live to tell the tale after winter. So a restful day today feeling pleased with myself.
Four years after my husband died of lung cancer, I met a very nice man. Quite unexpected. Instant attraction and we led a very loving life for 6 years. A wonderful trip to India and then another to Nepal returning just before first lockdown. This man was a great guide as he had worked in these countries so I was able to see India at its un touristy best. In June of this year, he said he was leaving me. The reason? He wanted to move on. I had to let go. I was devastated - left hanging in the air. I have spent the last 5 months trying to get my head around it and learning to let go.
@punkdoc DD feels that it is her fault, and as I said, we tend to blame ourselves - something we said (or didn't) something we did (or didn't) - but it's just the way it is. And you never know @Hostafan1 what is around the corner. When you least expect it ........
Time to get cracking!! Enjoy your Sunday and for today which is Saint Brice: Sera celui du jour de l'an. So whatever your weather is today, it should be the same between Christmas and New Year.
My first wife decided she loved me 'like a brother' after seven years. To be honest, she just had more courage than me, as we both knew the marriage wasn't working.
Then a few years later, I bumped into a women that I'd worked with years before. It all seemed to work brilliantly and we got engaged, but my wife and I hadn't divorced (there seemed no reason). Then it was me. Filling out the forms and just writing off seven years of my life just seemed so strange - and my fiancee rightly saw that as me not committing to her. So she decided to go.
But life is fate eh? Cause and effect. Years later, I was going to a business 'do' and didn't have a partner (I was never a ladies man who had a stream of women) and a friend/business partner said his sister in-law could come along. I had met the woman before, so it wasn't a blind date per se, but that evening started our relationship that lasted til she died seven and a half years ago.
I was talking to someone on PM about this - and what was odd for me, is that Covid hit a few years after my wife died and as I'd become a bit of a recluse, it didn't really affect me. What's the issues with being told to stay in when you don't go out anyway? But that changed - when they announced the end of the second (? I think it was the second) lockdown, I really wanted physical contact. I think that was driven by the fact that everyone seemed to be talking about being able to hug loved ones again and to just enjoy that physical contact that had been missing for the past couple of years. But after that initial phase, I settled back into my life as a hermit.
I really appreciate everyone sharing their stories, I know it seems odd but it makes me feel less alone in this difficult situation. And, of course there's always hope at the end of the tunnel as it were.
Beautiful day here, hard to believe it's mid November.
I'm having dinner with Charlie tonight and he's invited me to go bowling with all his friends on Wednesday afternoon. Bless him.
Hugs to you all and a special one for @Hostafan1. We'll get there, as they say, wherever where is. 🤔🤞😁
“Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?” —Betsy Cañas Garmon
Watching the Remembrance Sunday broadcast and thinking of when we used to take Pa to the war memorial in Southwold ... DS would push him in the British Legion parade to the memoral and place a cross for his younger brother ... I love the music ... The Minstrel Boy to the War has Gone pulls at my heart strings ... just as you think it can't sound any sadder, it does ... gets me every time ... and now it's David of the White Rock .......... just beautiful. Oft in the Stille Night always has me in tears.
I can't help thinking today of all those in Ukraine and dispersed across Europe and beyond, and indeed those in Russia too, who have so much sadness now and ahead of them .... and all those who suffer inhumanity ... mankind never learns.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gosh, @tui you have had a hard time. I didn't do any gardening for about 2 years after he died, felt he wasn't there to see it. Then I did it for me, then friends said it was lovely so I opened it for the French NGS. Now I've sold it but I'm making another one. Gardening always gives you something to look forward to. Wish there had been this Forum when he died. But now I'm happy with second OH.
We went to the Remembrance Day service at the Church that the C of E borrow in a village 10 mins away.
Now off to finish my new border so I can plant my tulips.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
I didn't know that @Dovefromabove! Partridge now off the menu! What a lovely post @coccinella. We watched Gogglebox the other night (don't judge us!) which showed a scene from one of the soaps depicting how dangerous it is for women walking home alone at night (this one was young, dressed for a nightclub and drunk, but the point was made that it was still not her fault when she was attacked - it was the attacker's). That came into my mind as I walked home just after it got dark from a friend's, going the back way, as I always do from there, as I walked along a dark alley that is part of that route. I felt safe enough as we live in such a low crime area, but it made me think. Now it gets dark in the late afternoon, women and girls everywhere have to be extra careful to keep themselves safe. Oh I know the vast majority of men are not predators but, when walking home alone in the dark a woman has no idea whether the man walking behind her is nice or not. My OH always crosses the road if he finds himself walking behind a woman on her own but this is not something that occurs to most.
Good afternoon, after a very dull and misty start the sun finally broke through about 1/2 an hour ago. The thing I remember most about armistice day when I was young was being on my father's Allotments. We could hear the repeat guns up on the hill, so all the men would stand at the end of their plots and observe the silence. I guess at that time the majority had served in the forces or been involved in some way, it was very moving. Nowadays on my present plots no one takes any notice, quite sad.
Posts
I knew a lovely chap. His wife left him for someone else. They had 5 grown up children and he was devastated. He moved to my village in France. I was newly widowed and 20 years younger. We were platonic friends. Then he met a lovely lady and they married. She was a keen gardener and became my friend. @D0rdogne_Damsel has met her. Sadly, he died, but he was in his late 80s by then.
I bought 6 bags of compost to dig into my new bed. I dig, remove weeds and add compost when making new beds, then it's "no dig".
My wildlife pond has a clean bottom - it was quite black. The birds are back this morning for their first drink of the day and a good gossip. My back is sore after carrying bucket loads of silt which I put onto the veggie garden. I have put the oxygen weed back and some other grasses - they may live to tell the tale after winter. So a restful day today feeling pleased with myself.
Four years after my husband died of lung cancer, I met a very nice man. Quite unexpected. Instant attraction and we led a very loving life for 6 years. A wonderful trip to India and then another to Nepal returning just before first lockdown. This man was a great guide as he had worked in these countries so I was able to see India at its un touristy best. In June of this year, he said he was leaving me. The reason? He wanted to move on. I had to let go. I was devastated - left hanging in the air. I have spent the last 5 months trying to get my head around it and learning to let go.
@punkdoc DD feels that it is her fault, and as I said, we tend to blame ourselves - something we said (or didn't) something we did (or didn't) - but it's just the way it is. And you never know @Hostafan1 what is around the corner. When you least expect it ........
Time to get cracking!! Enjoy your Sunday and for today which is Saint Brice: Sera celui du jour de l'an. So whatever your weather is today, it should be the same between Christmas and New Year.
Tui
Beautiful day here, hard to believe it's mid November.
I'm having dinner with Charlie tonight and he's invited me to go bowling with all his friends on Wednesday afternoon. Bless him.
Hugs to you all and a special one for @Hostafan1. We'll get there, as they say, wherever where is. 🤔🤞😁
A nice Sunday to everyone.
Take care, always.
Luxembourg
I love the music ... The Minstrel Boy to the War has Gone pulls at my heart strings ... just as you think it can't sound any sadder, it does ... gets me every time ... and now it's David of the White Rock .......... just beautiful. Oft in the Stille Night always has me in tears.
I can't help thinking today of all those in Ukraine and dispersed across Europe and beyond, and indeed those in Russia too, who have so much sadness now and ahead of them .... and all those who suffer inhumanity ... mankind never learns.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gosh, @tui you have had a hard time.
I didn't do any gardening for about 2 years after he died, felt he wasn't there to see it. Then I did it for me, then friends said it was lovely so I opened it for the French NGS. Now I've sold it but I'm making another one. Gardening always gives you something to look forward to. Wish there had been this Forum when he died. But now I'm happy with second OH.
We went to the Remembrance Day service at the Church that the C of E borrow in a village 10 mins away.
Now off to finish my new border so I can plant my tulips.
have to be honest, I have just got up after watching the cricket in bed, on the laptop. great performance by England.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
What a lovely post @coccinella.
We watched Gogglebox the other night (don't judge us!) which showed a scene from one of the soaps depicting how dangerous it is for women walking home alone at night (this one was young, dressed for a nightclub and drunk, but the point was made that it was still not her fault when she was attacked - it was the attacker's). That came into my mind as I walked home just after it got dark from a friend's, going the back way, as I always do from there, as I walked along a dark alley that is part of that route. I felt safe enough as we live in such a low crime area, but it made me think. Now it gets dark in the late afternoon, women and girls everywhere have to be extra careful to keep themselves safe.
Oh I know the vast majority of men are not predators but, when walking home alone in the dark a woman has no idea whether the man walking behind her is nice or not. My OH always crosses the road if he finds himself walking behind a woman on her own but this is not something that occurs to most.
The thing I remember most about armistice day when I was young was being on my father's Allotments. We could hear the repeat guns up on the hill, so all the men would stand at the end of their plots and observe the silence. I guess at that time the majority had served in the forces or been involved in some way, it was very moving. Nowadays on my present plots no one takes any notice, quite sad.