That's Life

Food

Scraping the Barrel

Posted on 19/12/2024 by NatterBlog

List your top 5 grocery store items.

Well that’s not a very imaginative prompt now is it? But you did ask so here goes:

Milk

Now there’s rather a contentious item to start with. It’s our most essential item. We get through pints of the suff in a week and the majority is only used for cups of tea and on cereal for breakfast. And now we are faced with contaminated milk! Bovaer in cattle feed, meant to reduce methane produced by cows. There is one particular milk producer that we know of using it, but virtually every supermarket sells their milk so we don’t have a choice in the matter. There are very few dairy farms round here to get milk from so we’re still consuming that stuff.

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Cat and Mouse escapades

What’s your favorite cartoon?

This will be a short one. Firstly because its been a very busy day and now its 11.30pm but also the question. Um, I’m a bit long in the tooth these days for cartoons, do they still even make them? But my favourite cartoon as a child was definitely Tom and Jerry. I loved that one. I know there were others but for the life of me can’t remember that much about them. There was that “What’s up Doc” character. Who was that, was it Donald Duck? I don’t think I liked that very much.

You never see those old cartoons any more. I suppose when you think about it Tom and Jerry was quite violent, but it’s probably more because times change, kids sense of humour changes and the film is probably a bit worn and scratchy now anyway.

Random

What Could I Do Less Of?

Posted on 08/12/202408/12/2024 by NatterBlog

Daily writing prompt

What could you do less of?

View all responses

What could I do less of? You may well ask. I could do well to ditch WordPress. That would mean I would do far less swearing, I would do far less sitting around staring at a blank screen waiting for the editor to actually load one fine day. I could do far less sitting around drumming my fingers on the desk rather than drumming them on the keyboard, whilst I wonder just how much worse this thing has to get before I finally give up the ghost and get rid, take my little old book blog elsewhere.

It has been like this for over a year now. I strongly suspect, so anyone correct me if I’m wrong, but I suspect that as a free user, rather than having a paid for version, I am shoved right to the back of the server queue each time I try to get on here. It does all sorts of weird and not so wonderful things every time I try to use it. I have tried getting help, even the WordPress helper people stopped offering any kind of solution.

Even my published blog doesn’t render correctly half the time. There are pictures missing. And it is NOT my internet connection. I’ve even tried it at my daughters where she has FTP broadband. It’s lightening fast but still takes an age for the editor to load.

So yes I am going to spend less time wasting time on here and more time finding somewhere else to keep my blog!! I’ve just spent half an hour trying to get on here, so I may as well say my piece. I’ve had ENOUGH!

Create an AI image they said when I went to insert an image from Pexels. “Generate with AI” they said. Oh, OK I’ll give that a go. Ha! Guess what, “an error occurred, please try again”. It’s just the story of my life on here, absolutely useless.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

ramblings

Is a bird an animal?

Posted on 06/12/202406/12/2024 by NatterBlog

Do you ever see wild animals?

I haven’t done a blog post on here for absolutely ages. I’m always reading and I’ve had my book blog for 6 years now, which is pretty much around the time I abandoned this blog, apart from the odd visit back here, just for old times sake. Anyway I thought I’d start it up again using the daily prompts. And will take part in the January one too.

So anyway back to the question “Do you ever see wild animals”? We have a few squirrels that run along the fence in the back garden. I think I even have a photo somewhere of a squirrel looking through the window, if I can find it. I like squirrels, I know they’re seen as vermin by some but I think they’re cute. And if they destroy trees, well I don’t see much evidence of that around here, we have way too many trees.

A grey squirrel sat in the garden with the three wise monkeys.

Wood Pigeons

And because we have so many trees round here, (it’s like living in a forest) we have wood pigeons. Which brings me to is a bird an animal? I dunno, but apart from squirrels, birds are about the only other wild animal around here. Well, our dog is pretty wild but as he’s a pet I don’t suppose he counts. Back to wood pigeons then. I hate the things. They regularly sit atop our roof making the most annoying groaning noise which they’re capable of keeping up most of the day. It drives me nuts. And have you ever noticed how dopey they are? How they ever manage to raise chicks I will never know, because watching them attempt to build a nest is painful. They spend hours choosing a stick, they drop said stick so many times, give up, then go in search of another stick. I’ve never seen them actually fly off with any twigs or sticks in order to build an actual nest.

I tell you what they are good at. They strip our blackcurrant and gooseberry bush every year. This year we did manage to beat them to it and get some gooseberries but the blackcurrants – gone! Took the whole lot.

Crows

We did have a baby crow in our garden back in 2023. It was a fledgling. Apparently their parents just kick them out of the nest before they can fly and expect them to survive until they can fly. 3 weeks it spent in our garden. 3 weeks of the best early summer weather we had and we couldn’t use the garden because of this flipping baby crow.

And OMG, I got so attached to this little helpless bird. I fretted because I didn’t feel its parents were feeding it often enough, I spent ages looking up in the trees to see if mum was around to look out for it. We stood guard over it protecting it from neighbourhood cats. Three attempts were made by the local moggies to capture it and we foiled every one. When it got near dusk it would hide itself in shrubbery in a rockery just outside our back window. Every morning myself and my husband would rush to the bedroom window hoping it was still alive and hadn’t been murdered by cats or a fox. It survived, and eventually we watched it making attempts to fly. It managed to fly on to the top part of the garden and perched on some ladders right at the top of the garden. We went away on holiday and obviously it had gone when we got home. I often wondered if it made it to adulthood.

Crow sat on a ladder. — Finally made it to the top of the garden.

Law of the Day

I’m setting a law for myself each day.

Today’s law is no ranting, no complaining, no moaning.

That is it. That is my law for today. I will make it my day long mission to abide by it.

Status• Posted on 26/07/2020 by NatterBlog

100 Days of cheer and good fortune, Health

Day 1 – Achievements

Posted on 22/06/2020 by NatterBlog

So today was Father’s Day and today was day 1 of kicking myself up the backside and stopping sitting around wasting my life away.

Achievements

Finished a book this morning
Got up and got ready fairly early and went to see Mum and Dad this morning and took my Dads card and father’s day present
Socialised! – yay. As well as sitting outside my mums house and having a nice chat for an hour, after lunch our daughter and youngest grandson came to visit, and we sat out in the garden for an hour which was lovely. First time in months.
Took Louie out to the park, which I haven’t done for a few days because it’s always raining. So that was my exercise and movement for the day.
Found a couple of video’s on youtube for gentle exercise which I hope to do tomorrow. One is gentle Yoga to get body flexible as it is surely seizing up after doing so little. The other is exercise to help with knee pain.

Otherwise the day was something of a disaster as my son rang this afternoon to say he had just drilled through a water pipe and there’s water everywhere and I really don’t know what to do, or in other words HELP!

Super-hero Father of Father’s Day

So Dad lived up to his Father’s day card messages, put on his Superhero cape and had to go out to the rescue. Not good with all the social distancing stuff because obviously he had to go into the house, but he wore a mask and gloves and hopefully son isn’t harbouring anything nasty. Short of calling out an emergency plumber late on a Sunday afternoon? There was nothing else for it but to wade in there. Anyway sorted and by some incredible miracle, a corner shop which sells totally random things just so happened to have Olives of the correct size to fix the pipe which I thought just totally amazing. I mean, how much call for pipe fittings does a corner shop actually have to stock such an item. God was surely shining a light down on us at that moment.

New Start

Emerging from Lockdown

Posted on 20/06/2020 by NatterBlog

Wow, who knew. Last time I wrote on this particular blog, little did any of us even begin to imagine what was to come in 2020.

Sadly for many, lives will have changed hugely this year and not for the better. We’re far from through it and out the other end yet either. Many hurdles still to come, whilst others attempt to try to rebuild their lives after either losing someone special or perhaps still recovering from the devastating effects on people’s health that this horrible virus inflicts.

Every day, I count my blessings that, fingers and toes crossed, thus far my whole family have stayed well and escaped the virus. Especially so my Mum and Dad who are both in their mid eighties and living independently in their own home. It is their 60th wedding anniversary later this year – and both would be lost without the other.

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Book Reviews

Indistractable by Nir Eyal

Posted on 29/09/2019 by NatterBlog

I have a dedicated book blog now but I decided to put my review about this book on this blog. As readers of this particular blog may already know I am a bit of a procrastinator to say the least. How many times have I absolutely promised, at least to myself, that I will put my house in order – that I will declutter my home and make it beautiful. I managed to declutter and decorate our bedroom, I actually saw it through to the very end but that’s about it. So yes I am very distractable which is why, when I saw this self help book up on Netgalley I couldn’t resist a read of it.

You sit down at your desk to work on an important project, but a colleague taps you on the shoulder to chat. At home, screens get in the way of quality time with your family. Another day goes by, and once again, your most important personal and professional goals are put on hold.

What would life look like if we followed through on our intentions?
A former Stanford lecturer and behavioural designer, Nir Eyal spent over a decade researching the psychology behind habit-forming products. The result was his international bestseller, Hooked.

Now, the man who identified the habit has delivered the cure. Eyal describes how to manage the discomfort that drives distraction, and explains why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off your devices. With a four-step, research-backed model, Indistractable lays bare the secret to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of you.

Empowering and optimistic, this is the book that will allow you to control your time and attention – and live the life you really want

Review

So I guess I’m a hopeless case. I downloaded this review copy from Netgalley on 8 July, eager to get started. It’s now almost the end of September and I um haven’t actually finished it yet. Publication date is 17 October so I thought maybe I ought to write down my thoughts even though I’ve just under 40% of the book still to read. And I will finish it, just maybe not in time for publication date.

I hasten to add that my failure to finish this book is in no way a reflection on the book itself. I quote from the introduction page of my book blog:-

I sometimes read non fiction and am fond of personal development books, though I never seem to develop much into a super organised, super fit, well adjusted person. I just end up with a growing collection of half read books.

I start out on all these kinds of books with good intentions only for my enthusiasm to wane half way through; a prime example of my own propensity to be easily distracted!

I have found what I’ve read so far really interesting. It’s an easy to read book, not too dry. There are plenty of real life situations given as examples to prove points and theories. Like all books of this type research is cited often. That is the only part of non fictional self help books that I’m not too keen on, the constant reference to who said what in which research paper and from which educational institution they worked at the time. That for me is distracting but I accept that if you’re using someone else’s research to give as an example you have to credit them properly. I just wish all the credits could be at the end of the book, out of the way.

Once the author moves on to the subject of distraction in the workplace, this tends to be where I’ve given up reading. Maybe I’m a little out of touch but there seems to be a cavernous difference between office culture in the UK and the US. Apparently ten million people log on to Slack every day – I’ve heard of it, but that’s about as far as my knowledge, let alone experience of this (app?) goes. So I think I’m probably going to skip this section as it really doesn’t interest or appeal to me.

As you read through the book you are advised to download additional materials to help you get yourself organised and less distracted. If you buy the book, there is a code for you to enter onto the website for the book so that you can freely download the additional resources. However as this is a proof copy for review I wasn’t privy to this.

I have also been pointed in the direction of a few mobile apps that I’ve tried out. They’re really good and I have enjoyed using them.

Towards the end of the book there is a section headed How To Raise Indistractable Children. “What? where’s that, let me see that” goes the cry of every harassed parent and teacher in the land. I’ve had a quick speed read of it as I write this review and it does appear to give some fascinating insights. Perhaps a reason to buy this book based on this section alone.

All in all it is quite a good book with lots of helpful tips along the way. At the end of each chapter there are key points bulleted and in bold for you to remember and perhaps jot down as you work your way through the book. Like all self help books though, at the end of the day, you can read it as much as you like but until you put some of the ideas into action and practice on a daily basis you aren’t going to change your distractable little ways without some hard work and a will to change.

I think quite possibly I’m going to go back to the beginning of the book, take my own advice and work through each chapter relevant to me and start putting the advice and tips into practice.

Right, so what page am I up to again?

The book is due for publication on 17 October 2019 on both Kindle and in hardback. If you pre-order the hardback now from Amazon – you get it at a reduced price of £14.00.

With thanks to the publishers Bloomsbury Books for an advanced copy of the book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nir Eyal is also the author of Hooked – his previous book explaining how we become so reliant and obsessed with our online digital devices in the first place.

A weekly catchup, Cycling

A trip to the Devil’s Arse

Posted on 27/09/201927/09/2019 by NatterBlog

Well that’s charming I hear you say. We don’t hear from you for months on end then you turn up being all rude and offensive.

Ha. You may or may not know that the Devil’s Arse is otherwise known as Peak Cavern, one of four caves open to the public in Castleton, up in the Peak District of Derbyshire. We spent last Saturday there for a trip out with my brother-in-law and his wife.

I haven’t visited that area many times but on the occasions I have, it’s always been a grey day and absolutely freezing cold. However last week it was a beautiful sunny and warm September day, quite possibly one of the last of our summer days to be enjoyed so we decided to make the most of it. Um, so did the rest of the North West it would appear as it was absolutely heaving with visitors. My in-laws had visited over the August bank holiday and despite it being incredibly hot and sunny, they said there weren’t as many people there as there were on Saturday.

So this Devil’s Arse thing then. Apparently, and I have gleaned this from the internet so if it is wrong it’s not my fault, but it takes its somewhat rude name from the flatulent-sounding noises from inside the cave when flood water is draining away. The name was changed to a more respectable Peak Cavern in 1880 so as not to cause offense to Queen Victoria who was due to visit to attend a concert. However it is now promoted under its old name as we’re a vulgar lot in 21st century Britain and everyone likes to boast of where they’ve been with a smirk on their face and the odd snigger.

We didn’t go on a cave tour. For one, it is quite expensive and also if I’m going to wander around in a dark and cold cave I’d much rather do that on a cold, chilly day. We spend most of our summer sat in the dark under heavy, threatening clouds, so why waste the sunshine. We spent the most part of the beautiful afternoon sat outside incredibly busy pubs enjoying a beer and a chat with fellow visitors. I did manage to snap a couple of photo’s of the little passageway that leads up to the caves by the side of a stream.

It’s not a cheap day out, well I didn’t think so anyway. A 45 minute tour of the cave is over £11, not sure if there were family tickets but it would still be costly I imagine. Parking is between £4 and £5 for the day. There’s no half days as far as I could see. The beer is dear, fish and chips at a pub £13 + . There is a fish and chip shop in the village and I have it on good authority that they’re delicious, however they close at 4.00pm. We wandered over at 3.15pm to find they were closing up already. Sorry we’ve sold out! Sold out, how do you run out of chips in a chippy? Told you it was busy there. So for one afternoon out with a couple of drinks, a bite to eat and parking we’d spent upwards of £60 and that was without visiting the caves.

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My other reason for putting in a sudden and random appearance is because we also went out on Friday too. As always seems to be the case around here, the weather is so much more like summer in September than it ever is in the actual summer months. We decided to make the most of it and went for a bike ride along the canal. This time we took the Ashton Canal. We started out at Portland Basin in Ashton-under-Lyne. There is a brilliant museum there but we didn’t have time to look around properly as we had taken our bikes and wanted to ride along an as yet undiscovered route along the Ashton Canal.

We had a picnic lunch first outside the museum and then spent the afternoon riding at a leisurely pace along the canal. So on returning home, I decided that we are going to go somewhere once a week, dependent on the weather either inside or outside and see some of our surrounding area. We never go anywhere, mostly through a lack of planning and of course the weather. But you can’t let the pesky rain rule your life so from now on we’re off out once a week and I shall make a blog post out of it.

So ’til next time……

A footnote: Ugh! I’ve used this template before for my blog, I knew there was a reason I changed it and I’ve just discovered what the reason is. Do excuse the proliferation of hyphenated words at the end of lines of text. I have no control over it, that is the nature of the template used for this blog. How rubbish is that? Who would stick hyphens at the end of practically every line rather than just push the whole word to the next line. Annoying but there you go, it’s not my choice and unfortunately there is nothing I can do to stop this happening other than to change the template – AGAIN!

Frivolous Friday

This Girl on a frivolous Friday

Posted on 25/01/2019 by NatterBlog

I haven’t done a Frivolous Friday for such a long time. So I thought as it’s Friday and as I promised myself I would resurrect this blog and as up to now I haven’t been able to think of a damn thing to write about then why not throw in a tune.

It’s been rubbish weather round here this January. We did have a teeny little bit of sunshine at some point which I’ve promptly forgotten but on the whole we’ve had temperatures of -5, snow but mainly fog. Grey sky and fog 😕.

I had a look this morning for some fog related songs. They were all pretty miserable though, or ancient. Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald with A Foggy Day er nope I didn’t think it was very frivolous. I put the radio on and this came on. This Girl by Kungs vs Cookin’ On 3 Burners. Bit of a mouthful isn’t it? Anyway the sun is certainly only cooking on three burners, if that, so as I really like this record and haven’t heard it for ages I decided this is better, much more upbeat.

In other news last week I was a little over frivolous and got carried away with the sunshine. It looked so nice outside. I’d already been out on a bike ride a couple of days before and enjoyed it as I hadn’t been out on my bike since October of last year. I thought I’ll go a little bit further this time. It felt a bit cold when I set off but I thought oh it’ll be OK, look at the beautiful blue sky, it’ll be fun I thought.

Huh, my poor little fingers and toes, if they had eyes they would have cried real tears it was absolutely freezing. I was OK, I didn’t feel too bad but my hands and feet were like “hey, what in hells name are you trying to do to us woman” I got home and dragged the still warm hot water bottles from my bed from the previous night and shoved my feet inside the covers of the bottles – ah bliss.

So, anyway I won’t be doing that again in a hurry. It would appear all that glitters isn’t necessarily warm. Turned out it was only 2 degrees outside despite being a gloriously sunny day. I took the below photo when I stopped off to shove my hands inside my coat for a bit to try to thaw them out before the ride home. I was wearing my winter bike gloves but, they still froze. Maybe I should get myself some duck feather gloves, as those guys in the photo didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold.