The Waiting Game

The quality of these photos is not brilliant because I took them through the window for obvious reasons.

As I regularly put food out for the sparrows, the pigeons have caught on that they'll be getting a free dinner from the mess that the smaller birds make.... so they line up on the kitchen roof waiting like vultures to seize their opportunity.

Meanwhile, next door's cat stretches out on my small shed roof in whatever sunshine he can find and the birds carry on feeding in an unafraid way. 

Occasionally the cat jumps down and tries to seize one of them, just to let them know who is in charge. He's getting too old and very rarely does any damage to them.

So life goes on.

Eyeing The World Through My Lens.....

I've been a long time between posts as I've been in a kind of limbo with my eyesight and reading (which affects blogging) has not been too easy for a while.

This is because of the cataract operation that I had in June made my eyes very imbalanced while I waited for my second eye to be operated on. Meaning I needed my varifocal glasses for the bad eye and which I couldn't use with the good eye because of the lens implanted in that eye but I still need reading glasses for it. Anyway, everything is a bit of a mess until I get my second operation in a few days time. I'm writing this with great difficulty.

Surgery is very good in England but we have to be prepared to wait for it.

We've had some very varied weather over here from very hot to cool, dry to wet but nothing like the awful floods going on in USA right now. That is a terrible disaster which we're following on our news- reel. The TV news is full of disasters and worrying things right now and some people don't watch it anymore. However, I feel I need to know what is going on.

We were fascinated by the total moon eclipse galloping across USA.

I seem to be writing to USA and Canada readers so if I have anyone over here reading this, you'll know all about the weather etc so please excuse me.

I've had a good display of flowers in my tiny garden and the above Clematis flowered for a long time but is over now.

Bristol Harbour Festival

Every year, Bristol, being a large city with a pretty long stretch of waterfront which leads out into the Bristol Channel and then the open sea, has a Harbour Festival. It attracts crowds from all over the country and lots of tiny yachts and boats of all kinds, make their way into the harbour. We also have several tall ships with masts and canvas sails rolled up. 

One small replica ship that Bristol people are very fond of, is the Matthew that John Cabot used to find North America in 1497. It was widely believed that the sea was flat, so he was a brave man to take such a small ship out into the unknown.

Yesterday I was actually on board the Matthew while it was tethered to the wharf and I realised just how small this little ship is and this replica has actually traced it's roots to Canada and braved the Atlantic Ocean there and back just like it's predecessor. Apparently the ship rolls as well as pitches into the waves, according to the man who showed us round yesterday and who has sailed the Ocean in this ship, so it takes a strong person to overcome sea sickness. He believed in chewing root ginger when he felt queasy.

The Festival goes on for the whole weekend and as well as the ships, there are musical events, stalls and thousands of people who cram themselves into a smallish area.

I'm glad I went yesterday before the crowds arrived but of course, I didn't get to see any of the events but managed a long walk round the harbour that stretches a good few miles and had a quiet pub lunch in relative comfort with a friend.

All Things Bright And Beautiful

'Have a little peek under the bandage' my son said on returning from the eye hospital. 

'No!' I'd decided to go by the book of instructions that I'd been issued with.

The next morning, I nervously took all the padding off.

WOW! Everything was crystal clear and clean and colours looked beautifully bright.

The day before, I'd had the cataract on my left eye removed. Although I knew my sight was getting pretty abysmal, I hadn't realised quite how bad it was..... how yellowy brown everything was becoming and how indistinct everything looked.

I'd bought some wool to knit a cardigan, thinking it was a sort of smokey grey and when I looked... it was a much brighter denim blue. This was just the beginning. All manner of things are being noticed and I can't get over the pleasure of looking out into the far distance with my good eye and seeing everything clearly.

In the meantime, I have a bit of a problem. My untreated eye now seems to be redundant. I can't see a lot out of it without my prescription glasses which I cannot now use because of the good eye. Taking one lens out of the glasses makes me see double and causes me profound giddiness. I talked to my optometrist who told me he will not prescribe a contact lens and that I could put a patch over one eye.

Well, I decided to just get on with things and can see well enough with my good eye to live a pretty active life. Reading was a problem until a friend kindly lent me a cheap pair of reading glasses which I'm using to write this post.

Hopefully when the next eye is operated on, I will not need glasses except for reading. This is quite exciting as I've been very shortsighted since I was ten and have worn glasses most of that time to correct this.

Bristol Eye Hospital is really marvellous and the consultant who did the operation, put a lens of my own prescription into the eye itself after taking out the cataract. What marvellous technology.

Can't wait for the next one to be done, though I might have to wait a while.

Little Nooks and Crannies

I spent most of the day yesterday in my little garden. Cutting things back, weeding, tidying up and repotting etc.

I had a lovely time and although I was very tired and achey afterwards, I found the day passed so quickly and I hardly stopped to eat.

Looking around, I realise I have lots of strange things in little nooks and crannies of my garden but I love finding little things to add to it.

Sometimes children have called it *a secret garden* as you can search and find some hidden thing amongst the plant life. 

Other people's junk is fine for doing this.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone.

I wish you all peace.

Hope to be back soon.

Colours of the Rainbow.

I seem to have been knitting in bright colours throughout the winter. I think it reminded me of Spring and Summer flowers to come.

When I was a child, I can remember that winters were really cold and summers very hot. Nowadays, we seem to have very temperate seasons with nothing very definite between them. 

I keep changing from warm woollies to lighter things and back, so I never really know what to wear or what to expect from one day to the next.

Keeps us guessing.

However, it is officially Summertime!

I like that!