Settling back home..

 The third funeral done..another for Pirate to  meet old relatives and new. 

Then back home in two days, with a meal out with a friend at the halfway stop. We hadn't seen her for years, and she had a new home and garden to show us!

Since we got back we have been getting everything back into gear..now after two days the washing mountain has been done, the car has had its MoT, and some tlc..it wasn't technically due for a full service but it deserved it!  It was good to know that everything was in good order and not all the new filters were needed..so we didn't have to pay for them!

Unfortunately someone else had knocked and scraped our car while it was in the garage's yard... luckily we noticed it..he polished off the scrape and ordered a new light unit straight away...and will be checking his CCTV videos....he was annoyed that someone would do that and not say anything.

We picked up some good long timber from the fencing company by our garage...two very large pallets..and they took them apart nicely for us and delivered what we couldn't take in one trip with our car. It is only their rubbish...and they are pleased to see it being used instead of being burnt!

Part of our haul was also wooden fencing panels, where they had replaced a fence for a customer. Enough to do our front, with the gates that we have and most of the side, and only the upright posts to add. We have been having trouble with dogs using our front lawn as a toilet...some of them still on extending leads..so this should stop that problem!!

One sad thing to return home to was that our neighbour with the hens and homing pigeons is in hospital with a tumour I think on one kidney, but it is also by one lung.

I knew that he had been going downhill for a while...looking too much like my Mountain Man when he was in his last months. Its a year since his wife died with dementia..and she was a heavy smoker all her life...so he is paying the price for that.

My mystery bush has flowered! It is a Ribes odoratum, or buffalo currant..which I expect to be pink. However this is from Central USA!!

The berries might even be edible...if not, the birds will like them!!

It was biscuit day yesterday...Anzac biscuits..

Thanks to the Australian army for sending grandpa Harrison home to Australia from Gallipoli with "neurasthenia"...code for PTSD or shellshock...their point of view was that there was no point calling someone a coward and shooting them, send them back home to be useful.

When you think that NZ sent 100,000 men out of a population of just over a million...not sure of the numbers for Australia, but a similar proportion.

Pirate is gradually recovering, but isn't happy with the after effects of Covid...and is definitely not happy with the fact that it will take six months to get back to anything like normal.  But accepts that it is far better than the alternative!