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Post by htmb on Apr 4, 2015 16:15:46 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 4, 2015 21:00:32 GMT
There's no place like home ~
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2015 20:48:31 GMT
Oh wow, is that what your garden looks like now?
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Post by breeze on Apr 8, 2015 0:09:11 GMT
I second that wow.
There's something in your photo that I miss here in winter, the soft shadows of foliage. It's a relief to me when leaf shadows return in spring, to replace the harsh outlines of tree trunks and buildings.
Any day now spring could start to happen here.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 9, 2015 12:56:43 GMT
Impressive Bixa.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2015 17:19:52 GMT
Thanks, you guys! Breeze, the serpent in my garden is that damned tree with its soft shadows. Yes, it has lovely bark, yes I love the shifting shadows & that it gives me a place to hang pots & garden doo-dads, BUT .... it's a guava tree. For the past month it has copiously dropped its very stiff dead leaves, more than you could imagine any one tree would have. But worse, much worse, is that the #@%^&*! guavas are starting to fall. They're only good if picked, and even then, why bother? In season, I can buy much better ones for very little and don't have to pick up pounds and pounds and pounds of the damned things off the ground to take to the garbage. AND, when the heavy little missiles come down, they seem to target the loveliest plants in order to break & ruin them.
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Post by htmb on Jun 13, 2015 21:25:43 GMT
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Post by nycgirl on Jun 15, 2015 17:19:00 GMT
Good one! I love the people's expressions and gesticulations.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2017 14:42:51 GMT
I had completely forgotten this thread which is actually quite amazing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 1, 2017 18:19:06 GMT
Today I saw a long lost friend who contacted me last week after about 8 years of silence. "I'm coming out of a tunnel," she wrote. "Floating or drifting."
To say that she used to be a close friend would be an understatement. We were on a group trip to Budapest many years ago, and something happened, under the eyes of her husband, who had the good sense to back away in silence. We went to Copenhagen, we went to Aqaba, we went to New York, we went to Rome, to Brussels, to the Walibi amusement park in Belgium with her children. More than close friends. We worked at the same company. How long did it last? Maybe 3 years. She left the company, she divorced her husband, she began a new and different life.
We remained in touch sporadically, but of course it was not the same. So her email was a big surprise.
I didn't recognise her in front of the café. "Yes, it's me," she said. Her brown hair was now light blond, the sort of colour that many women choose when they know their hair is all white now but don't want to accept that completely. Her features were drawn, with wrinkles that I had never imagined would appear. "We've changed a lot," she said.
So we sat down for lunch. She did not waste time. "I have colon cancer," she said. "They've already removed half of the colon in two operations, but the cancer is still spreading. I'm starting chemo next week, but I don't think it will do any good." She had mentioned in one of her messages that she had a very busy schedule. And the reason for that is the giant cancer hospital, Gustave Roussy south of Paris. Scanners, dopplers, blood tests... she goes there almost every day. She is very close to her two sons, whom I have known since they were born, now ages 38 and 40. The older one is totally stressed because of the situation, because he has not only his mother to worry about, but his 3 year old son was born with a congenital condition, a hole in his esophagus or some such and which was operated as an infant, but he has spent about one year of his life in and out of the hospital so far -- 33% of his life. The father is risking a total burnout, she said. He has started seeing a therapist. The other son, luckily, is calm and takes life as it comes.
There are four grandchildren in all, and they provide great comfort to her although they are all too young to understand why grandma can't do so many fun things.
Why contact me after all of these years? Well, we had a good albeit short run, and she was sorting out her papers from times past and came across a huge collection of postcards from me. Basically she is getting her affairs in order before the end.
She still said that seeing me was part of her threrapy to get her mind off the recent events of her life. I did my best to stay cheerful and optimistic without overdoing it, because I knew that she would never go for any sort of exaggeration.
We promised to stay in touch, but she also said that if I didn't hear from her, her son would contact me because I am one of the people on the "list."
I have had better lunchtime meetings with old friends.
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Post by mossie on Jun 1, 2017 20:23:04 GMT
Not a pleasant conversation to have, and what can you say. Sorry doesn't seem to be enough.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 1, 2017 23:23:56 GMT
Kerouac, I am very sorry to hear that. She sounds like a wonderful, clear-eyed person capable of great love. Of all the emotions you may have felt when preparing to meet her again, sad shock was probably not one of them.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 2, 2017 1:34:32 GMT
Kerouac your dear friend is courageous and kind. I do not know how I would react, but I would hope in spite of the fear, sadness and uncertainty that I could gather the strength she has for her family and friends.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 16, 2017 14:04:30 GMT
Today I saw a legless man in a wheelchair wearing cheap plastic prosthetics, not even close to looking real and probably just meant to fill out trousers. But he was wearing shorts, clearly proud to display that his prosthetics had tribal tattoos on them. Did not notice any tattoos on his arms or any other visible skin. Always interesting to see how people satisfy their desires in alternate ways.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 28, 2018 17:12:21 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 29, 2018 21:11:05 GMT
I saw an article in the newspaper about this event. Apparently the same guy did it 3 years ago. This time he brought a harp and a kite (neither of which can be seen in my photos -- I guess the firemen had already taken them). His motive for doing this is not known.
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Post by mossie on Jun 30, 2018 13:05:48 GMT
Daft as a brush, attention seeker.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 12, 2018 17:57:12 GMT
My beloved likes making things...he likes to fix stuff and never throws anything away. Last year we were given some garden furniture, a metal seat with a glass table in the middle. It belonged to my late sister and I was with her when she bought it a few months before she passed away...ANYWAY. Although it has a fitting for a shade the ones we looked at were expensive..and as sunny weather is (usually) quite scarce here...we thought it was a waste of money. We had a sunshade umbrella for using on the beach, at picnics etc...and my beloved made a stand for it out of spare plastic plumbing pipes and connectors. Django loves it...and you can just about see my bleached barnet reflected in the window c1.staticflickr.com/1/845/43107362372_3680912225_z.jpg
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 12, 2018 21:44:58 GMT
How clever and infinitely useful! Think King Pup will ever let you use it?
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Post by lagatta on Jul 12, 2018 22:08:34 GMT
Django is a dearie! Well, he's found his spot.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 5, 2018 13:04:33 GMT
I was looking for a What Did you do Today thread. Would this fit the bill O Wonderful Helpers?
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2018 15:26:56 GMT
Seems perfect. It would be great to see this thread come back to life, too.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 5, 2018 15:45:11 GMT
It was a good day weatherwise so I spent a lot of time in my front garden (hardly surprising I know) and gave it a really good tidy up then cut the back and front lawns. In between walked the dog and took car for MOT test.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 6, 2018 12:30:24 GMT
It’s daughters birthday today and she left at 5 to go to the aurport for a short trip to Bilbao. That meant I was up at 6.30 to walk her beagle.
Then went to do one of the gardens I look after.
Pick up car this afternoon.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 6, 2018 15:35:32 GMT
went to do one of the gardens I look after. Do tell!
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 6, 2018 16:25:39 GMT
went to do one of the gardens I look after. Do tell! I look after 2 gardens for 2 disabled people. One is 85 and very immobile and the other is in remission from cancer and has just had a heart attack.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 6, 2018 16:30:40 GMT
Oh, that is wonderful! I'm sure those two people are extremely grateful to continue "gardening by proxy" and it must be interesting for you to work in gardens outside your own. It's very good of you to do that.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 6, 2018 17:30:21 GMT
One is quite small and basic, cut the lawn, keep shrubs trimmed etc but the other is very overgrown and I am enjoying rediscovering it. I found a shrubbery hidden under a totally overgrown Buddleia and reshaped all the shrubs and gave them their own space. Cut the Buddleia as far back as I could. Her husband died 20 years ago and the garage hasn’t been touched since he died. Even the car is still there, unfortunately not a very interesting one but all the tools are still hung up neatly although festooned in cobwebs.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 8, 2018 5:55:44 GMT
A friend just sent me photos of his burglarized apartment, complete with CSI at work with gloves and sanitary masks. Our lives have reached the point where we document everything. Unfortunately, he tells me that his entire life was on his stolen laptop.
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Post by mossie on Sept 10, 2018 14:26:15 GMT
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