What’s going on?

Mahjong is a game that I’ve never played with real tiles, but  a few decades ago, I did enjoy playing it on the computer. This week, I downloaded a version onto my phone. It’s very addictive so, after reaching level 200, I deleted the app. Good fun though. And I’m sure the way I describe the Chinese characters and symbols on each of the tiles to myself has nothing to do with what they actually represent. The funny thing is, Liesel too has downloaded an addictive game onto her phone, and when she’s in the zone, she’s really in the zone.

It was pancake day and as there are now three of us in this household, I increased the volume of my batter mix by 50%. I do venture into the kitchen more than once a year, honest, and I’m glad to report that none of my tossed pancakes fell on the floor nor stuck to the ceiling. We had a mix of savoury and sweet, but I think my favourite will always be freshly squeezed lemon juice and white sugar.

In local news, gas mains are being replaced in Royle Green Road, round the corner from us. They’re working from both ends, which means whichever way we want to leave home, we have to wait in a usually long queue for traffic lights to change.

And if I wanted to draw attention to a specific house, this is exactly how I’d do it. With a nice big yellow loop.

It’ll be nice when it’s finished.

The Wednesday walk through the woods was wonderful, although Liesel missed out on account of having lots of work to do.

The Thursday walk through the parks and woods of Wythenshawe was probably wonderful too, but I wouldn’t know, on account of not waking up in time.

World Book Day was again celebrated by William and Martha and their schoolmates.

Leslie and I just went for a short walk in the sunshine to the community library and back: we had just one book to return.

It’s always nice to see Spring flowers surviving despite being so close to the public footpath.

The Friday walk was wonderful too, the short one in Wythenshawe. Again, Liesel was working so I took Leslie along. And then, in the afternoon, the three of us visited Dunham Massey for another quick wander in the sunshine. And, for the first time this year, I got my lallies out. Yes, it was warm enough to wear shorts and I displayed my pasty white legs for everyone’s enjoyment.

The Holly here and by the wooden bridge have been cut back as part of a 4-5 year cycle to allow more Light into borders and Keep the Holly at an appropriate Size.

The Gardeners

Well, I’m sure they know what they’re doing, but, have they cut back too far?

As we were leaving, Liesel spotted a heron over the water, sitting in a tree, which is unusual. It made us wonder again what has become of the heron that used to live on the Mersey near us? We haven’t seen him for several months.

That’s one National Trust property. One’s not enough, so we visited two more a couple of days later.

We have been here before, but not for a few years. This photo is almost identical to the one I posted last time. Spot the differences.

We met up with Jenny and family for a picnic as it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. We walked around the house with its wonky floors and creaky walls. It’s a fascinating place and I think Martha and William enjoyed looking at the old artefacts

The guide told us that this mantlepiece is one of only 4 places that are truly horizontal in the whole house. In real life, it looks crooked because the wall is leaning over and the floor is on a slope. He also told us a lot more about the history of the place. A guy called William Gee did a lot of the handiwork here and he oftem brought along his granddaughter, Mary Martha. Both are commemorated in a few of the 32,000 glass segments that comprise the windows of the great hall.

After eating our picnic lunch, we went for a bit of a walk. Through a few gates, but I stopped at one because I felt it was too muddy for my shoes. So while the others proceeded, I carried our picnic bag back to the car. I wish I hadn’t. I missed watching Martha plopping through the mud, losing one shoe, then another and ending up very dirty. Liesel and Jenny tried their hardest not to laugh. I’m sure I would have kept my composure as I took photos, but sadly, I missed the incident.

For a longer walk, we decided to go onto out third NT property of the weekend, Biddulph Grange Garden. The children were of course still full of energy and probably ran twice as far as us old folks walked.

They both enjoyed the climbing apparatus along the path, as well as climbing a fallen tree.

Soon after 4pm, we went our separate ways. Thanks to the fresh air and exercise, Liesel, Leslie and I were all tired so we ordered a pizza and picked it up on the way home. Very nice, very tasty. Then I received a text message and an email telling me that because they were out of some ingredients, they’d cancelled my order. As they say: to err is human, to really mess things up, get a computer system.

Well, I don’t often get drunk any more, I just can’t drink enough volume of beer or whisky. Plus I’m worried about how my bladder will behave later in the day. Recently, we’ve been binge watching the ITV medical drama, The Royal, about a community hospital in the 1960s. There’s one piece of dialogue that crops up often on many TV drama series: “What’s going on?” Yes, someone walks in on a discussion between other people and exclaims, “What’s going on?” Liesel and I started a drinking game while watching The Royal. One swig of whisky for every “What’s going on?” A double swig for every “What on Earth is going on?” And on the rare occasion it’s “What the Hell is going on?”, we enjoy a triple slurp. Yep, I haven’t been that drunk for years.

The other thing I enjoy about the show is the music, mostly from the 1960s, and including many Beatles songs. But the final episode of what turned out to be the final series ended with a Pink Floyd song from 1973.

Obviously, listening to a New Scientist podcast about sleep was going to send me to sleep. It did. Twice. Fascinating subject of course, but it took me three goes to hear it to  its conclusion.