News came in late last night that a 28 year old white male has been arrested in South Yorkshire on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe. Devon and Cornwall police have declined to give out any more information than this which must be a good thing whilst investigations are still on-going.
At least 4 British people trapped in their car have died in the forest fires in Southern Spain. Others are missing and unaccounted for including several British people.
The EU used to send out directives to not clear scrub and allow it to grow. Five year cycles were recommended. This was and is bad husbandry and management of land My brothers said this would lead to uncontrolled under-growth and be a fire hazard and leaving scrub in this way would result in fields being taken over by brambles and dense and dangerous undergrowth. This is now happening. When certain individuals try to second guess why I voted to leave the EU I have said over and over again that I voted to leave the EU because of the stack of directives, bureaucratic, idiotic and many of them downright insulting, that we as farmers received every year. Often treated as criminals and talked down to constantly. Money being taken by Juncker for Luxembourg and the bureaucrats was also high on my list of disagreement with EU membership.
On personal news, I met my friend C for a lunchtime coffee/tea and chat yesterday. She requested to see some of my photographs of Azerbaijan so I showed her on my phone. How different it is now that we don't have a Boots pack of photos to hand over and go through. However, the phone photos had their advantages in that she was enlarging bits and faces she wanted to see in more detail. C and her husband have both worked in Baku in their oil business where C was a business language teacher and her husband in some kind of supply business that he owned.
We moved table in Waitrose café at C's request when two toddlers were playing running around the tables next to us. Later a man came over and spoke to us about our moving and said he sympathised. By then the family concerned had left. We all had a chuckle.
I enjoyed our chat immensely because C and I are on the same wavelength and oh, what a joy that is, no explanations needed when we chat. We have only known each three or four years and only closely for two years and been meeting up for Saturday coffees now and again during the time that her husband was extremely ill and she needed some respite. Sadly he has now passed away and she still needs the respite with me she says!
We chatted for two hours, two coffees and a cake each. I got home at 3pm and felt the happiest I have felt all week. Apart from the massage on Thursday and the septic tank maintenance man on Monday I had not seen anybody.
Hopefully this week I will feel well enough to go to the W.I. meeting and get back into that once more. I missed the June meeting because on the day I was not well enough to go out. I also missed the June Creative East session for the same reason. I also missed the late May session when I first got back from my holiday when my illness was at its peak. I am missing my Creative East friends. I am feeling very reclusive this summer in regularly not seeing anybody for days on end. I must not slip into this. It sometimes feels like it felt during Covid lockdown and that is not good. The blog takes on a greater significance because it is an opportunity to chat to friends, even it is a one-sided chat, it is still me talking if only to myself!
Harvest is well underway in Norfolk. It is a beautiful time of the year seeing the combines in the fields and the corn being cut and to smell the barley as you drive by with the window open. The growing year comes to its climax and fruition.
It's pleasant to find someone on the same wavelength. It happens rarely.
ReplyDeleteSo true, especially by the time one reaches a certain age it almost seems impossible that one can find a new friend at all let alone someone on the same wavelength.
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ReplyDeletehi Rachel
I am away at the momrnt and have no interne tto use, back in another few days.
Kathy xx
Hi Kathy, I have been missing you. Hope you are enjoying yourself wherever you are. Thanks for dropping by. Rachel xxx
DeleteI used to get bloody annoyed with EU rules and directives. They seemed like senseless directives from people in big city offices who took no account of the different, cultures and conditions. Not that they took much notice here of a lot of the stupid rulings. The EU was a joke and considered a source of easy money for anyone smart enough to fill out the right papers.
ReplyDeleteI can't be bothered with it all anymore. It's like Turkey. I've heard so much rhetoric and threats over the years, we've got wars all around us. What will be will be
We had a room full from floor to ceiling at the office on the farm. The directives used to come in packs before everybody had computers I suppose. The directives were often insulting to farmers, good husbandry and disrespectful to normal farming sense. My brother and I used to read through masses of paperwork to find what applied to us. I know of rules making farmers move a light fitting by a few inches or a tap in a dairy. Everything was measured to the inch and had to be obeyed or else there were threats held over you. I could go on and on. In Britain all the rules were always enforced by the bureaucrats. I know of farmers who would refuse access to them to their property. That was just farming. I imagine the fisheries had the same. It just went on and on..
DeleteShould have been like the French and disregarded the rules ,unless it suited them .
DeleteKathy x
Sadly that never worked in Britain. That was my point.
DeleteI think it was said at the rime, that uk was thw oly country that had enough officials ro enforce thw rules,
DeleteMaybe but there are also tge British jobsworths.
DeleteThe coffee, cake and chat with your friend did you a world of good.
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned how few people you'd met it reminded me of our dear late blogging friend Pat ("Weaver") who would always aim to speak to at least three people every day. Or was it six? Anyway, she was something of a role model to me when it comes to ageing with grace and dignity, in spite of her health problems.
Like you, I felt almost like under pandemic rules all over again when it was so hot that O.K. and I decided to each stay at our own places that one weekend, and I only went out for an early morning walk on the Sunday but did not to speak to or meet anyone apart from on the phone with my husband.
I hope you can soon pick up all your activities again, including the WI meetings and your Creative East friends.
Seeing my friend did lift my spirits. I can remember Pat saying that she tried to speak to at least three people per day. I try to go out of the house each day and come into contact with others even if only in shops or businesses, it is good to have some human interaction.
DeleteI have been out today to the cinema and I think I am picking up to my usual pattern. Thank you Meike.
Someone in the mental health field once said (jokingly, I think) that it is okay to talk to oneself and it is also okay to answer oneself, but it is not okay to say “Huh?”
ReplyDeleteYes, and it never happens. Thank you Bob.
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