Category Archives: memes

amusements, memes

Unblogged February

Thu 1 Today is Imbloc, or St Brigid’s Day, depending on one’s belief system. It was originally a pagan, Gaelic festival which marked the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Imbolc holds significance in various modern pagan and witchcraft practices. It represents the awakening of the Earth from its winter slumber and the anticipation of the coming spring. It is a time for focusing on new beginnings, creativity, and personal growth; fostering a connection with the natural cycles of life and the energy of rebirth. As befits the day our weather, although chilly, was full of bright sunshine.
Fri 2 After a pagan festival yesterday, today is the Christian feast of Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. In Biblical times this occurred 33 days after a boy’s circumcision and is now set as the fortieth day after Christmas. In some traditions Christmas decorations are taken down on this day, as opposed to Twelfth Night.
Sat 3 We had the weekly supermarket delivery today, instead of yesterday. And it has completely thrown me. Today seems to have been some combination of Friday-not-Friday-not-Saturday-not-Sunday-maybe-Sunday, while at the same time being some inglorious admixture of them all – sufficient that my mental calendar is completely addled.
Sun 4 Squirrels like avocado, but who knew that foxes do too – or at least they consider it a trophy?
Mon 5 Having spotted the first mauve crocus a few days ago, we now have an absolute drift of pale mauve flowers throughout the lawn. I know we planted quite a few bulbs some years ago, but they must be spreading. Oh and the pink hellebore is now in flower.
Tue 6 I don’t quite know where the money has gone in the last month, and it isn’t the hangover from Christmas. But at least we’re still solvent, and may even be able to save a bit extra.
Wed 7 Well that scuppered that. We should have been having an outing this afternoon to the dentist for check-ups etc. But N wasn’t feeling well, so she cancelled it; and I had to nip to the doctors with a sample for her. I must say I wasn’t heart-broken not to be wasting an afternoon – much as we like our dentist.
Thu 8 Good grief! That never happens. A day when I didn’t have to do any work for anyone. So I actually managed to do a couple of hours on my family history – not that I made any progress
Fri 9 In the open porch at our front door we have a woven coconut fibre doormat; it’s been there for some years. Very recently something has taken it into its head to attack it, and has been pulling it apart so there are lots of broken and loose threads. The mat is too sturdy for it to be a cat, so one suspects fox; I don’t think even a bold corvid would come that close to the door for the time which would be required. But why would a fox do this? I can think of three reasons: (1) it could be territorial; either marking its territory or trying to remove the markings of another. (2) It fancies some (all?) of the material for lining its den. (3) It fancies the mat as a trophy – we know foxes like trophies – but it would be quite large and unwieldy for a fox to carry away!
Sat 10 Oh happy days! Afternoon spent setting up the mail merges for literary society membership renewals. Still at least I have all the skeleton documents and know how to do it after 20+ years! It’s just a tedious job, so you always miss something stupid which you don’t see until too late. It’ll be good when we can get the new website etc. completed, when with luck it’ll be a job that’s automated.
Sun 11 Spring is definitely on the way. Lots of stuff in the garden is beginning to move. I spotted breaking leaves on some of the roses, lilac, an ornamental crab apple and even the liquidambar. But not yet any sign of movement on the silver birch, oak, ash or hawthorn.
Mon 12 What a lovely sunny day – when I should have been out taking photographs. Especially as yesterday I noticed our small ornamental crab apple is growing a really superb crop of lichen – nothing very special I think, but remarkable that it’s there, so prolific and looking so good.
Tue 13 So today I was going to photograph the lichen I mentioned yesterday. But instead of being nice and sunny it was dull, grey and raining all day. Even the wildlife stayed hunkered down and out of sight; scarcely a pigeon, parakeet or squirrel to be seen; cats likewise.
Wed 14 It’s Valentine’s Day, and an excellent example of how to get the day buggered up! First comes the gardener, which is always disruptive. Then the doctors demand to see N today, to which she wants me to accompany her. We spend around 40 minutes with the nurse – never let it be said you don’t get the time when you need it! It turns out they’re being rightly cautious given that she’ll have surgery coming up – and it was useful for me too. But it took out a large chunk of the afternoon.
Thu 15 And the medical stuff goes on. My turn today with an audiology appointment. As I had a couple of errands to do on the way to the hospital, and they took a lot less time than expected, I was very early for my 12:15 appointment. Astonishingly I was seen almost immediately, so I was ringing for a cab to pick me up by 11:40, and was home about 12:20! Result! What wasn’t a result was that I got a tea on my way into the hospital; it was so hot that even with a carrier I managed to spill a bit and burn my thumb! By the time I’d finished my appointment it was still too hot to drink! Luckily it cooled down enough in the 20 minutes I had to sit in the sun waiting to be picked up.
Fri 16 A surprisingly quiet day, and not because I left my hearing aids out; just not a lot happening. And yes, I was wearing my hearing aids, which are much more comfortable having had them adjusted yesterday – although I’m noticing I need them turned up a bit more now. It’s good wearing them; everything is very dull without; but it is nice to take them out at the end of the day!
Sat 17 For the first time in some years we had a total reorganise and clear-out of the bathroom cabinet. No, we didn’t find a pile of expired drugs (a) because we don’t have expired drugs and, (b) most drugs don’t live in the bathroom cabinet anyway. There were a couple of ends of ointment that were consigned to the bin though, as well as a certain amount of supernumerary crap – but nowhere nearly as bad as I had expected. The first aid box – which is almost never used! – got turned out too.
Sun 18 Dear God, we had some rain last night. It must have been throwing it down all night. This morning we have standing water in the garden, on the path by the pond; an area of about 6m x 1m! I know the water table is high at present – the gardener reported on Wednesday that it was only a few centimetres down – but I think this is the worst I’ve seen it (except when next door’s kiddo leaves their garden hose on). Not that the wildlife is deterred: as I type this there’s a pair of magpies ripping twigs off the silver birch; squirrels and parrakeets hopping about everywhere. Well it’s better than that because the magpies have decided to build a nest almost at the top of the silver birch.
Mon 19 So how much worse does it have to get before it gets better? Everything’s going to the dogs in a handcart – or is that going to Hell in a dogcart? Either way there seems to be no chance to jump off and run away to sea.
Tue 20 Went with N to her hospital appointment this morning, which as usual turned into a 2½ hour marathon – consultant, samples, bloods, pharmacy, nurses … it seemed never ending – and apart from 15 minutes with the consultant all I was doing was sitting around. The waiting area we were in was heaving; hardly a spare seat. There must have been 50 patients/hangers-on all the time, plus at least 20 staff of all grades. Out of all those, at no time were there more than 5 mask wearers; and the air quality was dreadful. This in a clinic for people at high risk if they get Covid. Boy, was I glad of my well fitting N95 mask. Needless to say we escaped to the fresh, but cold, air as soon as possible.
Wed 21 What a dismal day, so no surprise that very little got done apart from the supermarket order. So I really cannot blame the gardener for not coming today. The weather was absolutely filthy. It had clearly been raining most of the night and was peeing it down until gone lunchtime, then on and off. Nobody would want to be out working in that, especially as everything is so wet that it goes audibly “squelch” under foot. And the weather people all seem to be predicting that we’re in for at least another two weeks of mostly wet, wet, wet. I think by then we might all have drowned!
Thu 22 Arrggghhhh!!!! My main email worketh not. Two ways to access it, neither works. Everything else is OK, including lots of other email accounts. Oh, N’s email is dead too! After much head-scratching the guys at the ISP find that there’s something misconfigured at our end (how?) which is causing our IP address to get blocked – but only for those email addresses. Seems all to be OK from soon after lunch – now to read the influx of 50 emails since last evening. Later I checked over N’s email and found a misconfigured server address.
Fri 23 One of the few perils of having a cat flap is that the local bovver-cats think they can come in; mop up any spare food lying around; and generally make themselves at home. But they soon skedaddle when we appear. Mind in this weather who can blame them. Oh, and by the way, it is Saturday isn’t it?
Sat 24 Something must have happened today, but if it did it passed me by and I have nothing to show for the day other than writing one of my monthly blog posts and then getting depressed.
Sun 25 04:00 Thick fog, and yet the full moon was visible.
07:00 Fog cleared, heavy frost.
11:00 Bright and sunny.
14:00 Dull and raining.
Mon 26 Well the magpies seem to have abandoned their nest building in our silver birch tree. Although a couple of days ago I did see one of them “paddling” in what little they’ve built, I’ve seen no activity, and there’s been no obvious construction since the day they started. But then we know that many birds will start several nests before settling on which they prefer.
Tue 27 Luckily it was dry, because the gardener came by. He spent the whole time from 11:00 to dark rise, pruning and cutting back shrubs etc. Then after dark spent an hour sitting nattering – once he starts it is almost impossible to get him out the door to go home!
Wed 28 So the magpies have obviously come into some funds, because they’ve restarted construction work in the silver birch tree. They were around a bit yesterday, but there’s been more activity today. Mind you they need a good Clerk of Works or QS … Several times today I watched one of them trying to magpie-handle a twig twice it’s own length, held cross-ways in it’s beak, into the nest and wondering why the twigs of the tree were getting in the way. They mostly succeeded, but knowing how cunning they are I’m surprised they didn’t work it out faster.
Thu 29 It’s Leap Day. We haven’t had one of those for a while. In fact it’s been four years since this happened. That calls for a celebration and a bottle of Champagne – after all we may not live to see another.
And I’ll leave you this month with a picture of my Dendrobium orchid, which chose today to burst into full flower.Three magenta Dendrobium orchid flowers
history, memes

What Happened in 724?

Here’s our next instalment of things that happened in ..24 years of yore.

Notable Events in 724

Unknown Date. A Muslim fleet raids the Byzantine-ruled Balearic Islands, as well as Byzantine Sardinia and Lombard Corsica.

Unknown Date. Emperor Shomu orders that houses of the Japanese nobility be roofed with green tiles, as in China, and have white walls with red roof poles.

amusements, medical, memes

February Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Medicine

  1. Where in the human body would you find the medulla oblongata?  The brain
  2. If you have cryophobia, what are you afraid of?  Ice or cold
  3. What is the largest organ of the human body?  The skin
  4. Which is the only body part that is fully grown from birth?  Eyes
  5. Where is the strongest human muscle located?  Jaw

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

amusements, medical, memes

February Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Medicine

  1. Where in the human body would you find the medulla oblongata?
  2. If you have cryophobia, what are you afraid of?
  3. What is the largest organ of the human body?
  4. Which is the only body part that is fully grown from birth?
  5. Where is the strongest human muscle located?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history, memes

February 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

3. Died. Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (b. 1856)

14. The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), based in the US state of New York, is renamed International Business Machines (IBM)

21. Born. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician, 1st President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)

memes, personal

Unblogged January

Mon 1 So … Happy New Year to everyone! I don’t want to alarm anyone, but having just been outside everything is the same. We really need something different. Maybe snow? Or sunshine?
Tue 2 At least three power blips late last evening. Literally off and on instantaneously. I think there was a bigger problem elsewhere locally, but I can’t find out. After the first couple of blips I made sure all the computers were OK and then powered them down until this morning. No damage done although one of the servers needed its disks scanning for errors. But curiously one of our neighbour’s lights came on. As she was away N went to investigate this morning and it turned out to be a side lamp which has a touch sensitive switch – presumably this was triggered by the power blip.
Wed 3 Cometh the gardener … to lift more artichokes, before the squirrels find any more of them!
Thu 4 Somehow this day has been like walking through a never-ending swamp of treacle. Made worse by the fact that I can’t wear my hearing aids due to a sore ear where the left one rubs where it meets my glasses.
Fri 5 I’m still doing Postcrossing, in fact today is one year since I joined (although I didn’t send my first card until mid-February), and today I sent off my 100th postcard to a guy in Finland. If I’m very lucky I might receive my 100th card by mid-February – I’m curious to see what it is and where it’s from.
Sat 6 The neighbours directly opposite us seem to have moved out, quite unobtrusively, over Christmas/New Year – having been here for 5 or 6 years. I saw a large van (nowhere near pantechnicon size) there one day but no other sign. But the house now looks empty and none of us saw the going of them.
Sun 7 When you’re awake for the best part of 2 hours in the middle of the night it’s no wonder you feel sub-par the following day. Not up for having to concentrate on a lot, so very glad I didn’t need to.
Mon 8 Snee. Not really any amount worth talking about. It started about lunchtime as some desultory drizzle of small flakes, and quite wet. There was a brief snow shower in early afternoon, when it started to lie, but it didn’t last at all. I’m not sure whether to be pleased or not.
Tue 9 So NASA’s latest shot at the moon isn’t going to get there. Peregrine 1, which was hoping to be the first commercial space probe to make a soft landing on the moon, lost propellant shortly after launch. Good! Now stop wasting money on unnecessary space missions; we’ve been to the moon, why do we need to do it again? There are much better uses for trillions of dollars.
Wed 10 This gets better. Now NASA have postponed the Artemis II and Artemis III lunar missions each by a year. Good. Keep going. Postpone them indefinitely (ie. cancel them). We (collectively as humanity) don’t need to do this and can’t afford it – financially or environmentally. As a scientist I’m all for discovery, but not at any cost, especially if the cost can be better used to rescue our planet.
Thu 11 At lunchtime today I completed my 73100rd circuit of our local star. How? It really doesn’t really feel like more than about 30. But how many more can I do? If my ancestry is anything to go by at least another 10 and maybe even more, but I’m not holding my breath.
Fri 12 Short of sleep again, so feeling fairly wrecked. I wish I understood what drives such variable sleep.
Sat 13 At lunchtime the garden seemed awash with squirrels, although I counted only four. But they were running around hither and yon like things demented.
Sun 14 The usual brain cock-up with knowing what day it is. By Friday afternoon I was, as always, convinced it was Saturday. Yesterday, being Saturday, I was absolutely convinced it was Friday. Today is Sunday and I’ve completely lost the plot. They tell me that tomorrow is Monday, and the gardener cometh.
Mon 15 As predicted, comes the gardener, and does lots of odd jobs – including changing the bathroom light switch, which has been on my agenda for months. But will the cord on the light pull thread through our existing toggle? Not a chance, it’s much too thick, so we have to rescue a thinner cord – but what a faff around.
Tue 16 A day of struggling to keep all the ducks in a row.
Wed 17 Good patient group meeting at lunchtime, with a very helpful presentation about asthma from one of the Practice Nurses. It’s surprisingly common, and like many conditions unless you or someone close has it you tend to not know a lot about it.
Thu 18 Someone please tell me what I did today and where the time went.
Fri 19 They do pick their times, don’t they! N had requested a phone call from her GP, and was told she’d be called between 13:00 and 18:00. Fair enough. Except that they then ring at 11:30 when we’re in the middle of dealing with the supermarket delivery. You just can’t get the staff these days!
Sat 20 There’s water running through our garden down by the pond. It doesn’t appear to be the pond leaking – at least I certainly hope it isn’t; will have to check again tomorrow. It seems to be running down from by the lilac bush which is a few inches higher than the path at pond level; and you can see it running in places. Also parts of next door’s garden are under half an inch of water, including their slightly (4-6 inches) raised area. Have they left their outside tap running again? Do we have the spring, which we think is there, in full flow? Or the backfilled field ditch, which we think runs across the garden at about this point, dammed and in flood? Or is it a problem further up the hill?
Sun 21 The mystery of the water is solved. It appears that next door’s wilful 6-year-old turned the outside tap on and left it. He had a habit of doing this a couple of years ago, but we all thought he’d been cured of it. Seemingly not, the little urchin. Anyway by this morning the flood had disappeared.
Mon 22 As regular readers will know, I’ve been taking part in Postcrossing for almost a year having mailed my first card on 12 February 2023. Having mailed my 100th card earlier this month (see above), today I received my 100th card. It was from a Postcrosser in Germany with a picture of the great Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) – Lutheran minister, theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician, who won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.Dr Albert SchweitzerAnd here’s the pinboard of postcards 51-100.Postcards on the noticeboard
Tue 23 For many reasons, not least the inability to dry laundry outside in this weather, we’re struggling to keep up with the laundry, especially the bigger stuff like bed linen and towels. So we’re experimenting with laundry services. We’re trying the apparent three front runners. A load off to each of two yesterday, and awaiting thee third to collect this evening. It’ll be interesting to see how they do when stuff starts coming back tomorrow.
[PS. No we don’t have a tumble dryer, and aren’t about to get one, if for no other reason that we have nowhere to put it.]
Wed 24 N to the hospital this afternoon, leaving me at home for the laundry deliveries. Finally the hospital did the ultrasound scans of her arms. It turns out she has particularly small veins, like her mother.
Thu 25 Wasting time this afternoon helping N to get her MedicAlert reconstituted online. You can’t join as there is an existing account with this email address: verify the account or login. Verify how? – no clues. We can’t login because we don’t know the password, so try to reset it. You can’t reset the password because the account doesn’t exist. Oh you can enter the membership number – N hunts existing tag – date of birth and postcode. No that account is archived; you have to phone us. And at 16:00 we’ve all gone home. Arrggghhhh!!!!!
Fri 26 N finally managed to talk to MedicAlert and get her membership reinstated. We then spent a happy(?) hour getting the online access sorted and all the details set up. But what a fight! Anyone would think they wanted to take our money.
Sat 27 This is just getting ridiculous! As usual, last evening I was sure it was Saturday. But I awoke in the middle of the night convinced that it was Monday. By teatime I was still convinced it was Monday, despite doing all the Saturday things. Guess I’ll be in the funny farm fairly soon.
Sun 28 Wandering round the garden at lunchtime, I noticed we had the first mauve crocus in flower, and the snowdrops starting to show.
Mon 29 Something must have happened today. Oh I know, I spent most of the day doing work for the patient group, putting together posters for the surgery’s waiting area noticeboards which we’re going to revamp.
Tue 30 I seem to be sleeping really well at the moment, although still struggling to wake up and get going in the morning. But what I have found is that I’m better if I make myself get up at a respectable hour, like 08:30-09:00 rather than allowing myself to sleep away the morning like a teenager.
Wed 31 I spoke too soon about sleeping well. As mentioned before, being awake for two hours in the middle of the night doesn’t do much for the following day. But we survived. And there’s nothing a good sleep tonight won’t fix – and that’s needed as the next two days are going to be busy.
history, memes

What Happened in 324?

Over the next few months we’ll have a look at some things – things which seem to me to be interesting or curious – which happened during other years ending ..24. Some years are busy; in others nothing much seemed to have happened, so there are some gaps. We’ll do a different year each month, starting at 324.

Notable Events in 324

Unknown Date. Constantine I (below) founds Constantinople and incorporates Byzantium into the new capital. He reorganises the Roman army in smaller units classified into three grades: palatini (imperial escort armies); comitatenses (forces based in frontier provinces) and limitanei (auxiliary border troops).