These are your Mother's Day daffodils, Daughter 2. Aren't they lovely?.
The Weather Elves are playing one of their customary jokes on Britain - after basking in warmth and sunshine for the past couple of weeks, we're now being chilled by sharp winds which throw down hailstones the size of - well, not golf balls, though I'd love to claim that. Seed pearls, possibly. Chunky seed pearls. But anyway, none of it's doing my spring flowers much good. I've moved Daughter 2's daffs into the sheltered bit beside the front door. The cats haven't stirred from the sofa all day, as far as I've seen. I think they've gone into hibernation.
.
It's odd when you doddle along for 120 years or so, under the impression that you know what you think about something, and then you're made to reassess your opinion. For example, on the radio yesterday they were talking about drought - some parts of England are about to have a hosepipe ban to restrict use of water, though Scotland isn't in great danger of having this inflicted on it (as you'd realise if you were here, looking out of the window with me.) They were discussing putting washing-up water on flowerbeds and being careful not to run the water all the time you're brushing your teeth and so on. Then someone said that he puts the cold water that comes out of the tap while he's waiting for it to get hot in a watering can and waters the garden with it.
.
And everyone was jolly-gooding and then one chap said that actually it would be better to run unwanted or used water down the sink, because then it goes straight back into the system, whereas water on the flowerbeds doesn't. Which hadn't occurred to me.
.
I wonder if this is really the best thing to do. The thought of drinking (in due course) someone's used washing-up water doesn't appeal much but... . Hmm.
.
No doubt my brother has an opinion about this. I shall await his comment.
.
Daughter 1 and Grandson were here today. He has a cold. I won't tell you precisely what happened when he sneezed but he looked most surprised. We were a bit surprised ourselves. Fancy such a small person being able to produce from his tiny nose such a stream of... yes, well. (Two streams, actually.)
Oh dear. Poor little Grandson to be surprised by his own sneeze! There is a lot of tree pollen around here so we are all sneezing and the car is covered in fine yellow dust.
ReplyDeleteToday it rained for the first time in many weeks and the fields were drinking it in. It is as dry as a summer drought here and people are worrying about the hay crop as well as the river levels.
We have had water restrictions in our part of Australia for years. For the past couple of years, however, La Nina (the opposite of El Nino) has ensured we have had lots of water, so restrictions have been eased to a lower level. Apparently La Nina has now left, and perhaps we'll be back to drought again?
ReplyDeleteAnyway - while we had the strictest of restrictions, many people kept buckets in their showers and filled them up while waiting for the water to get to the right temperature - then they would carry those buckets outside to water plants, or use the water to flush the toilet, or some other worthy use - which lead to a marked rise in what doctors and physiotherapists tagged "bucket back". People were lifting too much weight in water when unused to it.
It just goes to show - these ideas are never simple and straightforward...
Down the sink or on the flowers? Where you live, it makes no difference as the drains go straight into the sea. Water on the garden or in the sea evaporates up into the clouds and falls as rain (sometimes). If you lived by the upper reaches of a long river it's possible that others downstream would reprocess your water, but I think it's so marginal as to be insignificant.
ReplyDeleteIsabelle---I understand, I think, how much you miss Daughter 2, but she must love this guy she married, even if you don't? If she's happy with him, as I assume she is, doesn't that make her being in London easier to take? And---you're retired! Go to London every once in a while! I hope you have a very Happy Easter there in beautiful Edinburgh.
ReplyDelete