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Understand much of what you say, Suzie. I am a diabetic and suffer from neuropathy so get ice cold feet during winter. Have to use thermal socks from Autumn to Spring and, as you say although shouldn't do it, we climb into bed while electric blanket is still on - cuts out after 1 hour, but at least it warms us up. So long as feet are warm, sleep descends. Cold feet and no chance.BTW, obedient dogs!
Warmth often comes to be such an essential and precious thing whenever you are struggling with a illness or lifelong condition, doesn't it?In Summer though, I also find sudden heat-waves to be just as agonisingly painful and it also becomes just as hard a struggle in order to maintain my body temperature so as to keep it down! - LOL!!! ;o>
EDIT : these two are probably the most intelligent of all of the little hairy woofers that we have ever owned - and so they know that the "wait" and also the agreeing to the occasional request to "shake a Paw" as well, in order to get fed Meals and Treats, is always going to be well worth their while.
I'm eating some Fruit Salad right now and so Tia-Maria is sat 'high fiving' with her left Paw in front of me to remind me just how much she loves to share any 'spare' pieces of Peach ;o>
My labs almost tapdance while waiting for their kibble. They're so excited to eat. My cat sits and burbles at his dish and purrs while eating. We got snow and now colder temps again. Paul, I suggest thin silk socks with wool ones over the silks. Both fibers will maintain their heat-trapping ability even when wet. Avoid cotton at all costs in cold weather. Cotton pulls heat away from the extremities. You can get frostbite quickly. Out in the great white North, we say "cotton kills". Polypropylene is a synthetic fiber that acts similarly to wool. It will keep you warm even when wet. My favorite combination is thin silk/lycra or nylon blend liner socks with a wool/lycra or nylon blend fuzzy oversock. Take care that they don't wrinkle however. Stay warm, my friends.
Something amazing just happened. I was rinsing out my mug and a movement in the garden caught my eye. I barely looked up as we have a pair of resident wood pigeons who like to sit in the crook of the cotoneaster's trunk, about four yards from the window. Not a pigeon at all but a kestrel just sitting there, looking round! I didn't dare move and she (definitely a female, by the colour and markings) stayed there for nearly a minute before flying off in to the oak tree in the unused plot beyond us.It's only a small suburban garden but we try to be as wild-life friendly as we can. It makes me so happy when something like that happens, just being in the right place at the right time.
Granny wrote: "Avoid cotton at all costs in cold weather. Cotton pulls heat away from the extremities. You can get frostbite quickly. Out in the great white North, we say "cotton kills"I don't think I've ever worn anything else but Cotton Socks? - now I know where I am going wrong! - thanks Granny ... x x x ;o>
Granny wrote: "My cat sits and burbles at his dish and purrs while eating"It always delights and amazes me how Cats can manage to both eat and purr at the same time ;o>
Isabella wrote: "Something amazing just happened ... It's only a small suburban garden but we try to be as wild-life friendly as we can. It makes me so happy when something like that happens, just being in the right place at the right time"What a truly magical moment, Isabella!!! ... I absolutely love it when time just seems to ever so briefly stop and stand still and I suddenly find myself right there in a moment just like that ;o>
Now you know how cats can eat and purr at the same time Suzy!One such moment happened several years back. I was out with my then dog, collie/alsatian cross with a deep yellowish brown coat of thick fur on our usual walk along some railway lines. Ben was of exploring as was his want looking for rabbits, it was early morning in summer about sixish. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye a movement as a stoat ran hurriedly between the tracks then dashed into the cover of some thick bushes and nettles, luckily it escaped Ben's notice as he had the habit of bringing back mice,shrews and voles or young rabbits, I think there must have been some feline ancestry in his gene pool. Another day we came across a female grouse with some young chicks, unfortunately it was quite bare and open ground, then I noticed Ben standing proudly with two longish legs dangling from his mouth before swallowing them. He had been a rescue pup so he may possibly have been used to scavenging at an early age.
Speaking of genetic make-up what do you reckon to the latest announcement that the first ancient Britains were black, UKIP may have to revise their policies. I have this vision of Theresa May standing before the UN saying "What do you mean "Give it back"?" Still it would solve the inherent problems with Brexit!
I remember hearing a programme on Radio 4 many years ago now with a very interesting discussion about the rarity of there being black Madonnas and Jesus statues in Churches around the World despite the strong probability being put forward that Jesus may have been a black man ;o>
The scarcity of black Madonnas may simply be down to a kind of historical coincidence. People, whether artists or not, tend to depict what's there and if all the people we see appear to be white, then the paintings will show white people, believably or not.All prejudice is based on fear at some level. Long ago, it may have had a survival value, now it seems only to be a foolish and dangerous failure to understand that we are all connected, however distantly.
Quite probable Suzy, there is also some evidence that Jesus actually married Mary Magdalen and had a family. There are a series of books by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas that delve into all sorts of stuff entwined with the masons and the early history of the church etc. Interesting reading, I'm not sure how much truth is in it but it's all very thought provoking.
Isabella wrote: "The scarcity of black Madonnas may simply be down to a kind of historical coincidence. People, whether artists or not, tend to depict what's there and if all the people we see appear to be white, t..."I also think sadly that many early Christian missionaries still have an awful lot to answer for in the way that they put across and imposed their own extremely rigid and elitist versions of Christianity onto the native people in faraway lands as well?
I've never been very keen on Organ Music, as I often find it to be far too discordant to my ears, but the Choir voices are wonderful and the pictures on the Video are both fascinating and beautiful ;o>
It's a fascinating subject about the history and origins of what we now regard as being Christian theology, it's links to the Torah and the myths surrounding Christ and not forgetting about The Dead Sea Scrolls. I have only dabbled in a small way, being born into a Roman Catholic upbringing I found in my early teens that the whole system made little sense and I'm not the sort of person who excepts things on faith so I began to dig a little deeper. Did you know that Christ appears in several other religions and some belief in his thirty years spent in the wilderness he travelled far and wide studying them? Some schools of thought hold the belief that he was not an only child and had brothers and sisters. That the bible in fact has been rewritten, translated and generally twisted into it's modern version to conform to what was palatable to the hierarchy of the by then dominance of Rome and other European nations in their naive beliefs to their divine given supremacy. It is also very misogynistic in it's teachings and dogma, a state of mind that still persists to this day despite what the pc brigade would have us think otherwise. Do we live in an equal and liberal society? Some would have us believe so but the sad reality is we still have a long way to go as intolerance and ignorance are still very much a part of the modern world.
Isabella wrote: "Not a pigeon at all but a kestrel just sitting there, looking round! I didn't dare move and she (definitely a female, by the colour and markings) stayed there for nearly a minute before flying off in to the oak tree in the unused plot beyond us.t..."A kestrel! How lucky are you!
We are blessed every summer with flocks of lorikeets who feed on the flowering gum trees. Each night between 6 and 8 we are entertained by them using the birdbath outside our living room window. Sometimes there is a queue of up to 20 waiting for a turn, hanging upside down on overhanging branches, and what a racket! You can almost hear them saying "Come on Reg, 20 seconds is more than enough for a bath! Ethel here has been waiting forever!" The magpies and native mynahs have to wait their turn or use a smaller bath, but they're all wary of the smaller butcher birds with their threatening beaks. I've managed to post (a not very good) video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK22N...
Val! - they are absolutely gorgeous! ;o>We excel in LBJs (aka many varieties of Little Brown Jobs) in the UK but living near to several Country Estates and Park Grounds we do look out on the occasional Peacock just casually strutting around in our Back Garden ;o>
I’ve not seen any kestrels for a few years. There used to be lots above the motorway, but the buzzards have taken over. It still seems strange to see them on the motorway fences and above my garden when you used to have to travel into the hills to see them.I have a woodpecker from time to time and flocks of lovely long-tailed tits, twittering loudly. I’ll try to follow Suzy’s instructions and post a picture.
"varieties of Little Brown Jobs" - parp, fnur! :)
I bet I know just what's piled up under your Bed? ;o> ...
At my mum's old house we had a large tree just outside on the street, we often heard the plaintiff hooting of an owl, though we never actually saw it there were plenty of pellets.
alas, no, the bodies i keep there take up all the room! :)
Martin wrote: "At my mum's old house we had a large tree just outside on the street, we often heard the plaintiff hooting of an owl, though we never actually saw it there were plenty of pellets."You should never ever trust an Owl with an Air Rifle, Martin ... their night vision is undoubtably excellent, I grant you, but nevertheless they are still absolutely hopeless at aiming straight at any targets ;o>
Tech wrote: "alas, no, the bodies i keep there take up all the room! :)"I know it can't be easy, what with both you and Mrs tech working part-time at Weekends as Assassins for MI5 - but do you really have to take so much work home with you as well? ;oO
Val wrote: "Isabella wrote: "Not a pigeon at all but a kestrel just sitting there, looking round! I didn't dare move and she (definitely a female, by the colour and markings) stayed there for nearly a minute b..."Thanks for the clip of your lorikeets, Val. They're beautiful.
I have sparrows and nuthatches and chickadees. Occasionally a woodpecker or cardinal drifts in. Crows call back and forth also. I love watching the sparrows hop. 🐤🐥
Well, the weather here is lousy. An ice/sleet/freezing rain mix has made conditions messy. It's grey and gloomy. The county trucks are scraping the roads and laying down a thick spray of salt on the main roads. The back roads will remain slick for some time. I've got bird food out but the birds are cranky anyway. It's too nasty to walk outside so I will stay in on my off day and read while listening to the Olympics.
Awww, Granny? ... x x x It sounds very like a Snuggle-Up-On-The-Sofa-And-Eat-Treats Day ;o>
It is a rather beautiful, clear and bright, Spring-like day here in Stockport today - and the first dry day in well over a fortnight now. It isn't exactly warm out? - but it also isn't exactly cold out either and the soft fresh breeze is quite pleasant instead than being chilling right through to the bone.
It really does feel like Winter will soon be over here now and I also wish you a day like this very soon as well ;o>
I've just got back to Shrewsbury from Manchester. I didn't notice the sun shining in Stockport, but the train windows were pretty grubby.
It's probably just as well that the Train windows were so grubby, Gordon, as Stockport Town Centre is sadly never all that much of an attractive place to look at even when on a really bright and glorious sunny Summer's day! - LOL!!! ;o>I much prefer the side of Stockport where we live - in a large and still quite rural Village almost on the outskirts of the Borough. It has been such a lovely light and bright day here that I've even managed to get several loads of Laundry out drying and airing on the line ;o>
Still plenty of cold weather to come Suzy, Arctic fronts covering much of Europe over the weekend and into next week so don't put away your thermals just yet!
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Stockport Town Centre is sadly never all that much of an attractive place to look at..."But... But... What about the Hat Museum?
I'm hoping that we will manage to miss the worst of it here. We often tend to get quite a sudden and rather unpredictable mish-mash of the Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and Derbyshire Weather Forecasts - which is why I always have a Pakka Mac and some Sun-screen Lipbalm with me whenever I go out ;o>
Gordon wrote: "suzysunshine7 wrote: "But... But... What about the Hat Museum?"Some of the older and historical Buildings are really beautiful, such as our Town Hall, but the whole of the actual Shopping Centre is just an awful out-dated concrete monstrosity full of long since closed-down Shops and a place that not even the most loyal of Stopfordians ever has anything good to say about it.
Hopefully though the long-proposed £1 billion pound Redevelopment and Regeneration Plans, that are finally just starting to become a reality now, will help to make all the difference.
If it doesn't then places like the Hat Works will surely be shutting down soon as they just have too few Visitors now to be able to keep it going for that much longer.
Iccccceeeeeeee. Traffic collisions. Unhappy dogs as they're older and don't like slippery surfaces anymore. I'm out of Cadbury eggs.*sigh*
Glad y'all have nicer weather than here. It's gladdening to hear about twittering birds.
Granny wrote: "I'm out of Cadbury eggs. *sigh*"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ;oO
For some reason our little corner of Northamptonshire seems to evade the worst excesses of any inclement weather, we still get a fair share of cold, wet and windy with some snow but compared to other parts of Britain for the most part we get off pretty lightly I am happy to say. No major floods, blizzards and despite being townies we have retained a great deal of our agricultural and rural heritage and bus journeys still pass through small villages and hamlets, thatched roofs and roses round the door cottages abound. In summer you can watch cricket in the early evening or enjoy the pleasures of some bowling green and a pint or two of cold ale, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Granny wrote: "I'm out of Cadbury eggs. *sigh*"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ;oO"
That's what I said. 😭😭😭😭
Awww? - is there no-one who you can call on to do an Emergency Chocolate shop and delivery to your Door? ;o<
Martin wrote: "For some reason our little corner of Northamptonshire seems to evade the worst excesses of any inclement weather, we still get a fair share of cold, wet and windy with some snow but compared to oth..."Northants always looks really attractive on ‘Escape to the Country’ and the presenters seem quite surprised!
Seems to have something for everyone (apart from a coastline) and property’s reasonably priced.
From some places with a high vantage point in the summer months you get some magnificent vistas, fields of green and yellow laid out like a huge bedspread dotted with church spires and little villages nestling peacefully in its folds. Whenever I think of Tolkien's Shire I picture this rural landscape and thankfully with some major roads and motorways many villages are now free from heavy traffic and quite unspoilt. I still haven't come across the Green Dragon though but there are plenty of pubs and inns to enjoy.
My nephew’s wife (niece-in-law?) comes from a small village in Northants on the corner with Leics. and Rutland.
I may well know it Lez, what it's name?
No idea, I’ll try and remember to ask when I get the chance.
I don't know why but I just seem to be having 'one of those days' today ;o> ...
Ohhh? - right! ... HA HA HA HA HA!!! ;o>
The Great Britain Curling team had one of those, Suzy!
Amazon exiles
Books mentioned in this topic
Ten Poems about Snow (other topics)And So This is Christmas: 51 Seasonally Adjusted Poems (other topics)
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (other topics)
The Quangle Wangle's Hat (other topics)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Christina Rossetti (other topics)John Keats (other topics)
Joan Aiken (other topics)
One of my biggest problems with my Severe End-Stage OA and Fibromyalgia is my inability to be able to generate or to maintain my own comfortable level of body heat. I so easily get very cold, start to stiffen and to seize up, and I feel the cold like an extra level of pain in my bones. And although I can get extremely cold very quickly indeed - it can take a really long time and a lot of effort to manage to get me warm right through to my bones once again - and most especially in my Hands and in my Feet.
I tried using a Hot Water Bottle for a couple of years but found it to be such a painful thing and a right faff to set up every night and I kept on painfully knocking into it when I was in Bed. Plus it was so often either not even close to being warm enough for me or simply far too hot at times to tolerate - and it had to keep on being moved all around to warm up the whole of the main part of the bottom of the Bed as well.
I am sure that someone will tell me that I should not do this(!) for all of the more obvious health & safety reasons - but for the last two years I have gone to sleep most nights with my Legs and Feet resting on an extra-large Heat Pad in my Bed which has got an Automatic Cut-off Switch that means that it turns itself off after 90 minutes.
I had never used one of these things before but I would never ever be parted from mine now - and I also have a spare one too just in case my current one ever suddenly stops working on me. My lifelong typically poor sleep cycle has improved considerably because of it - as I usually just drift off within mere minutes of lying down these days.
If I don't use a Heat Pad, then my Legs and Feet will stay resolutely ice cold in Bed all night long, no matter just how warm the rest of me is, and this keeps me awake and aching with it as well. I never originally intended to fall asleep with it still on when I bought it, but I almost immediately do every time, and I find that it really does work for me. I only need to put it on half heat just before I get in and now it is absolute bliss for me to get into Bed and so very much easier to get myself all comfy as well.
Sadly the one that I have, chosen mainly because of all of the good Reviews and because it was the biggest sized Heat Pad that I could find, doesn't have too many highly rated and impressive Reviews on Amazon - but, nevertheless, I still love mine to bits all the same! ;o>
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beurer-HK125...