Flabbergasted

  

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Toodle pip.    ilona 

A clean sweep

Look what I saw this morning, on my way to the Post Office. A brand new road sweeper. Doesn't it look lovely. Shame to get it dirty. I had to nip back home to get the camera, then brave the wind and rain under a very wobbly umbrella. I chased the sweeper down the road and caught up with it. 

There were two Council operatives in charge. One driving, and the other guiding him from the front over a particularly tricky stretch of road. This is a straight kerb edge so both of them are taking cover inside the cab. 

The gutters are covered in fallen leaves at the moment, which have turned to mounds of mush with all the wind and rain. Hopefully this will prevent at least some of the drains getting blocked and causing flooding. 

It was very noisy, so I couldn't talk to them much. I wanted to ask questions like how much does one of these cost, and have they got just the one or have they bought more. The question I did ask was, is it electric? I smiled when he replied, NO. 

There are a lot of Councils complaining that they have no money at the moment, but I suppose with a bit of jiggling their finances around they have found some from somewhere. Maybe they have got it on a five year plan to pay it off. 

Still raining. Toodle pip.   ilona 

Good news

 It was a good laffff today at Crafty Club. The chatter was very jolly. I told a couple of trucking stories.  Someone suggested we form a choir and sing a song. Lisa brought a laptop and put some words on the screen. Pat had printed the words out so we all had a song sheet, and off we went. The first was an Abba song, then I suggested, Always look on the bright side of life. And that's how it ended at 12 o clock. Everyone departed in a happy mood. I think we should have a proper practice rehearsal and perform a song on the stage at the next Christmas Fair. We could learn a dance routine as well. 

Me and Billy got blown about a bit as we did a 40 minute walk around the village. The wind has really picked up tonight. I went out and checked on the summer house. I added a few bungee straps to secure the door shut. The roof over the porch was lifting up when there was a particularly big gust. I could see that might be a problem, so I got my step ladder out and put some bricks and a big block of concrete on the top. The weight should hold it down. I've just been out again to check it. It seems to have done the trick. 

I am seeing some exciting news coming through on the channels I monitor. It seems the farmers protests are spreading. The truckers started it in Canada. The Dutch farmers are all out, and now the French and German farmers are following suit. They are using a mix of vehicles, mainly tractors, with many trucks backing them up. 

Every Town, village and city is seeing the farmer protests in Germany as hundreds of thousands of people in Germany rally to support them. The Globalists are failing to stop the coverage in the media despite their agents within MSN attempting to do so.

À cette heure, plus de 150 tracteurs sont en route vers l'A62, près d'Agen, pour bloquer les deux voies. L'axe Bordeaux-Toulouse est actuellement quasiment impraticable.

Translate. At this time, more than 150 tractors are on their way to the A62, near Agen, to block the two lanes. The Bordeaux-Toulouse axis is currently almost impassable.

This evening hundreds of farmers will spend the night on the highway in Agen.

Breaking News: Sirens wail and horns blare out in a strong show of force. French farmers protests are gaining traction as more join in and begin to block roads. The demonstrations are growing and could fully go International as people push back against the globalists and their infiltrated governments.

No news about it in Italy, but it is starting here too:

Wise words from this Scottish farmer as number of farmers in Scotland start a tractor protest convoy against the government who are wilfully destroying the farming industry through neglect and restrictive policies.

Keep it up lads and lassies.

Toodle pip.   ilona

The joys of nature

I did an extended walk today. Turned a five mile into a seven mile, by merging two walks together. I set off at 12 noon. The sun had been shining all morning but it was beginning to cloud over. It was a bit breezy but dry. I went to the park. The children's playground was busy, and the cafe was full of families getting their hot lunches.

There are several of these tall trees. I love the texture and colour of the bark. 

I think there are some winds due later today. Bit over the top. Most people ignored it. Dogs like to walk in the woods. 

The perfection of nature. 

On the way back across the fields I saw a murmuration of starlings. This is the best picture I could get. They landed on the ground at one point, then took off again. 

It got a tad windy the last half hour. I felt a bit battered when I got back into the village. Good to sit down with a coffee. Now I'm going to get something to eat. Avocado on toast with an egg I think. Simple and quick.

Toodle pip,   ilona. 

Too risky

 The walking home in the dark video garnered quite a few comments about my safety. The word safety has been bandied around a lot in the last few years. How do you know what is safe and what isn't? Everyone has their own measures of what is safe. I say it is down to personal risk assessment. All activities have a degree of risk attached to them. We can all work out how risk averse we are, and whether to take chances with anything we are not sure about. 

In the video I was about 20 minutes from home, in an area I walk frequently. I didn't get my torch out, even when I walked through a small wood. I know the ground like the back of my hand. I very rarely see anyone else in that area. If I walk in an unfamiliar place I would get back before dark. That is my risk assessment. 

I would be more nervous walking about in a city or town centre at night. I may never do that again. My assessment would tell me there are lots of places to hide in a concrete jungle, and to expect that someone might be lurking around a corner. I would be more cautious in that setting. 

Every activity we do, every encounter that we have on a day to day basis, can be risk assessed. I think it is risky to drink several pints of beer every night. My dad did and died at 46 of a heart attack. I think it is risky to eat out a lot. You don't know how clean the kitchens are, or what they are putting in the food. It is risky to climb a mountain, I won't try that. It would be too risky for me to get into a swimming pool. I hate deep water and would probably sink in a panic. Other people love swimming. 

When you go through life you sometimes have to listen to warnings from others. It would be folly not to.  Others may be possibly more aligned to the actual risk of some activities, depending on their experiences and qualifications on the subject. To put your trust entirely in the hands of others can be a mistake. Yes, take advice, listen to what they have to say, but listen to that niggling question in the back of your mind.

 The overriding factor of decision making should be how will this affect me. Is this the best option for me. And will I be able to deal with the consequences should it not work out well. There is always the option of casting fate to the wind and forging blindly ahead. It's easy to ignore the niggling doubts and go with the flow. Safety in numbers eh!. I'll do what they are doing, must be alright. They must know what they are doing, so I'll follow them. It's ok to do that, if that's what you feel comfortable about. But the bottom line is, if you screw up you learn from it, change direction and vow never to do that again. 

Have a good weekend. Toodle pip.   ilona

Walking home in the dark

Oooops, nearly forgot this. From the walk on Thursday. 

Beddybyes time. Have a good weekend. Toodle pip.   ilona

Stopping to chat

I had a choice today. Should I go to the cinema and see a film, should I have a soak in the bath, or should I go for a walk. We had a light dusting of snow, then the sun came out and it looked very inviting. So a walk it was. 

I saw three deer in the wood, they were quite close to me. They didn't notice me at first, but then realised I was there so they ran further into the wood. It was difficult to get a good photo. I reckon it was the same three I saw a few days ago, half a mile away from here.  

Karen's car was parked at the gate of the field where she keeps her two horses. She was making up their dinner. Two plastic buckets with an assortment of ingredients. It looked like a porridge mixture. She was telling me about doing some extra training at work. She is a nurse and wants to get more qualifications so she can teach the student nurses. I like her, I always spend a bit of time chatting when I see her. Of course this meant that I was going to run out of time again, and I would be finishing in the dark. 

Another twenty minutes to go. I looked back and saw this scene. I thought that might be the steel works in the distance, but now I am not so sure. It could be the BOC Factory which is on the outskirts of Scunthorpe. 

Another five miles added to my total. Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

If

 When I wake up in the morning, I sit up for a while and write a hundred blog posts in my head. Most go no further and are discarded, a few are plucked out and find their way through my fingers to the keyboard. Some are about topics which are important to me. Some are a collection of sentences which are thrown together, to fill the daily space. 

If I aspire to be a much loved blogger I would write about the topics which give my readers a fuzzy feelgood experience. If my role was to impress people to come back again and again, then I would monetise the blog and the yoootoob channel. I would become an influencer and bow and scrape and beg people to follow me. I would be chasing 'likes' and subscriptions. I would promote my opinions and ideas on lots of other social media platforms. But that is not my aim. 

If I wanted to I could become a mouthpiece for every act of unjust and criminal activity which is permeating throughout the world right now. I could expose a lot of changes that are being planned for us. Changes that are not conducive of restoring peace and harmony. There would be mountains of material to convert into juicy lip smacking shock horror articles. It  would satisfy the lust of those who relish attacking some of us who are following an alternative narrative.

If I followed that line I could bump up my numbers quite quickly, and the £1's would eventually come rolling in. There are enough trolls out there for everyone to share. I delete their comments every day. Perhaps I should welcome them in. My definition of a troll is those who comment with the sole purpose of looking for a verbal punch up. They are not welcome here, there are forums which might best suit their needs. 

Anyway, I was going to write about the birds that flock to my garden. It's interesting to watch them establish a hierarchy. One nominates himself as chief guardian over the food I put out. He is the chief of distribution, deciding which birds will be allowed to dash in and grab a morsel. Gotta admire his plucky stance. 

The snow has been and gone, the sun is out, and so must I get busy.

Toodle pip.   ilona

Good fun day.

 Our Coffee Morning has a lot more women attending than men. It was nice to see a neighbour that hadn't been before. She seemed to be enjoying herself. I didn't have time for breakfast so I made a banana and honey sandwich and took it with me. I always have a caramel latte, my favourite. I sat next to Pat's husband, not sure of his name, but oh boy did we have a laugh. We bounced off each other with the banter. 

I went across the road to Angela's afterwards, for another coffee. Three mugs in a day is too much for me. She was preparing a big pan of vegetables to make cottage pies. We put the world to rights. 

After a bite to eat at home, I got togged up and did a five mile walk. The sun was out and it wasn't as cold as yesterday. At least the ground was frozen so there wasn't any plodding through mud. It was dark when I got back. Must set off earlier. 

It was bin day today. The Council hasn't sent out any leaflets about which bins to put out on which dates. Some of us have got lists from the library, and there is a list on the Councils web site. Trouble is there was confusion today, because they had changed their mind about which bins they were going to empty. Which meant the brown garden waste bins didn't get emptied, only the cardboard and plastic ones were. 

Thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.   ilona

Compensation.

Apologies for the copy and paste. As the topic of conversation has revolved around the Post Office scandal recently, here is an update. From Kelvin MacKenzie. Let's hope this is true. 

Fujitsu’s European boss Paul Patterson told MPs today;” We were involved from the very start. We did have bugs and errors in the system and we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters and for that we are truly sorry.

Both Fujitsu and PO lied and lied to the courts.

A number of their executives will now go to jail and hopefully both companies will pay out billions in compensation.

Coffee Morning this morning. Catch you on the flipside. 

ilona.

A very cold day

 Good evening. Not a lot to talk about. It's been flippin cold today. I did my three miles this afternoon, layered up, hardly any flesh showing, just cold cheeks and cold wet nose. A thick skirt over my joggy bottoms, over my leggins, and extra leg warmers. Boots and socks. Long sleeve t shirt, cardigan, sweatshirt, fleece, and a big jacket with a furry hood. Two scarves. I tried to keep up a good fast pace, but I'm sure all this weight slowed me down.  

We are half way through the month and I am on 41 miles, which is about on target for the 84 miles at the end of Jan. It might be cold, but at least it's not raining. Have to look on the bright side, that's until the snow starts. How is everyone else doing? 

Now I am going to have a cheese sandwich with caramelised onion chutney, and a glass of sherry. Are you going to join me? What's your tipple? 

Stay snug and warm. Toodle pip.   ilona

Debate

 Bit busy at the moment. There is a debate going on at Westminster Hall, on trends in excess deaths. I am not sure how long this is going on for. I am watching live, you can as well by using this link. Andrew Bridgen is speaking at the moment. 

Catch ya later.   ilona

Open spaces

It's nearly bed time, just a few words. It's been very cold today. I managed a three mile walk, nearly freezed me tits off. Thank goodness I have got a sloth on my head. We have a brown wheelie bin collection on Wednesday, the first one of the year. I wondered if I should go into the garden and do some trimming up. Hedge cutting maybe. Too cold today, maybe tomorrow. That's after Crafty Club and dog walking. 

Here's a video I made yesterday. 

Been busy down the Rabbit Hole today. Lots on there for you to pick through. A report from Japan. Things are going in the right direction, still a long way to go.  

Ich hoffe, Sie haben einen guten Schlaf. Wir sehen uns morgen wieder. Gute Nacht. ilona

Laugh of the day.

 This is too difficult to resist. I read blogs, but comment on few.

Weave's post is a good read, took me a good half hour to go through the comments. A lot of familiar names that I recognise. Weave has more patience than I have to go through it all. It was a good idea to get her friend to help her sort out which comments to keep and which to lose. I find moderating before publishing is a useful tool. 

So what made me laugh?  😀😹😁😄  

Traveller continues his obsession to ridicule me at every opportunity. Apologies to Weave for stealing this, but if he can steal my words to rubbish my blog, then I can steal his. 

Have a nice Sunday. Toodle pip.   ilona

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I find it interesting that people without a medical background conclude their “reasoning” is more sound than people who have spent years studying and researching these matters. I believe in expertise. I am a world expert in a field - nothing to do with medicine and not particularly important but it has given me a perspective. I spent many years developing this expertise in my working life. I respect others who have spent many years studying their field. I do not respect people who grain all their “evidence” from Twitter, “alternative media”, decry the mainstream media, and feel they know more than everyone else.

Back to front walk

That was a nice walk this afternoon. I did a local circular route the opposite way round to what I usually do. The path goes through horsey fields. I always stop and talk to them. I also talk to cows and sheep when I come across them. Look at this handsome chap with his new coat. 

No I don't want to kiss you. Careful on that electric fence. 

Look at me mother, in my new sloth bonnet and scarf. It's lovely and snug around my ears and neck. 

The sun is going down over there, so I turned my back on it and snapped these gorgeous colours. 

A few berries left for the hungry birds. 

I normally walk down the hill at the start of a walk. Today I am heading back up to the village and the sun is behind me. 

I've made a stir fry for dinner. Mushrooms, chopped onion, noodles, and spinach. Washed down with one of my craft beers. I can't manage the whole bottle in one go, there is some left for tomorrow. 

See you soon. Have a good Sunday. Toodle pip.   ilona