30/01/2009 by Ted.

Hi Richard, Linda and family, and my thanks for your birthday wishes. It is lovely to hear from you. You are all often in my thoughts.

What a curious question about Lord Fly. I must ask him when (if) I next see him. He seems to have dropped off the blog agenda just lately. Perhaps he will see your post and respond favourably.

I am sure that you are all well. Nathan must be really growing now too. Please give my love to everyone as you see them

And loads for you, of course.

Ted.

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30/01/2009 by Richard.

Sorry for missing your 75th birthday brother . We down here in Worcester  hope you had a lovely day and we send you all our love.

p.s Is it true you share your  birthday with Lord Fly ?

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29/01/2009 by Ted.

Hi James and Kasia and Gabriela and Jonathan and many thanks for you birthday greeting. Lovely to hear from you.

Yep, I have at last got seventy-five years service in. Wow! Three quarters of the way to my century!

It is true that I dont personally know how many more years I will be journeying on this terrestrial plane, but I awoke this morning and tried to count my blessings which are really too many to count. I enjoy perfect health (just a smattering of hypertension, and mutter of tinnitus and a bit of deafness (which can be a blessing on its own as I can remove my hearing aid to find peace and tranquility in the noisiest situation)), but apart from these I am superbly fit and well and raring to go! So having tried to count my multitude of blessings and not exhausted them, I resolved that the next ten years were to be the most fruitful of my life.  WATCH THIS SPACE.

Had a lovely day today. Shopped with Grace at ASDA and LIDL and ALDI and Netto before a delicious liver and onions lunch. This afternoon enjoyed a brisk walk - guess where! Yep, Barrow Park where I saw the first crocus of the year in flower. (Another blessing!!!)

Had a delicious tea - toasted cheese crumpets with a side salad and crisps (learned about these from you, Kasia, during our visit to you - now one of our favourites) and then travelled the world a little on the internet. Actually got to Hawaii and enjoyed some sunshine and friendly faces and the views on the Hawaiian web-cams. And then, best of all, found your greeting on the blog. Lovely!

So, whichever way I look at it it has been a lovely day and a foretaste of many more lovely days to come as we head towards Spring and Summer. It gets better and better.

Well, there I go rabbiting on again. Please give each other a hug from me.

My love to you - and everyone else out there,

Dad.

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29/01/2009 by James.

Just to wish you a Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you have a great day.

with love James Kasia Gabriela and Jonathan

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28/01/2009 by Ted.

We have a new entry on the panel on the right - DO YOU REMEMBER?

I was walking down the road this morning wearing a brown jumper.  I noticed that the sleeve had become “turned down” and was about to adjust it when I suddenly in my mind heard a voice say “Don’t wipe your nose on your jumper sleeve”.  I don’t now, of course, but it took me right back to my early years when that used to be the convenient for a three-year-old to deal with a “snotty” nose when we were playing out as children - as my honest fellow siblings will bear witness.

Anyway, it set my mind thinking of other unique and personal memories from childhood many of which are now still buried in the mist of time but which I am sure will pop up to the surface in days- weeks - months etc to come and which I will put to the blog.

These are and will be placed under the DO YOU REMEMBER heading at the bottom of the column on the right. Just click on it to get access.

You may yourselves also have never-to-be-repeated-because-times-have-changed childhood memories of your own.  Why not share them on the blog and give us a nostalgic chuckle? 

PS. Lord Fly has just e-mailed me and bet me a million pounds that we wont have even one response to this. My life is in your hands.

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26/01/2009 by Lord Fly of Bogland.

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22/01/2009 by Ted.

Have just has a scintillating walk through Barrow Park. Wind a bit cool but the sun was shining and there were plenty of people about. Also - good news - the ducks and geese hadn’t become Christmas dinners for hungry Barrovians. They are all back again today and more beautiful than ever. The seagulls who I left standing on the ice - which has now melted - have forsaken the water and are sitting on top of the posts which decorate the edges of the lake as you may be able to see in the photograph. And the best news is that the pussywillow catkins are out as you can also see in the photographs. Wow - Spring is certainly in the air. Anyway, here are the photos, which, click on the thumbnails as usual to see a larger picture.

And, from the headline shown below from the local Evening Mail last night, it seems that Barrow-in-Furness is bucking the depression trend which is sweeping the world.

Not bad, even when you consider that in its heyday the shipyard employed around 30,000 people.

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20/01/2009 by PeterJohnson.

Yesterday, in Barrow, it snowed, well rain and snow. Mind you I can’t really say we are at ground level! Thanks Ted for the sunrise/sunset table. By the end of the month we will almost have a further hour of sun(?)light, than on January 1st.

Happy New Year to all, and hope that 2009 will be a better one. Having said that, some happy things happened as well as the not so happy things. Births of Edward (little little Teddy) and Jonathan, to name but 2.

Like Ted said, it’s nice for us “older” folk not to have to get up so early (we lie in bed and think about you Richard!). If you have retired, let us know and we needn’t think about you delivering milk to far-flung places in Worcestershire, getting up at some ungodly hour.

Seriously, folks we do think about you all, and wish we could come round and and give you all hugs. Our hugs are not the same as Ted’s, I don’t know why.
However we send our love to you all, and should have some new photos of William and Edward to show you soon.

God Bless,

Pete and Barbara xxxx

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19/01/2009 by Ted.

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13/01/2009 by Lord Fly of Bogland.

Hi Sue,

Greetings (again) from Lord Fly,

Luckily my laptop was on when your post arrived. The steps are as follows:-

First, click the “Write a post” tag as normal.

Scroll down the page until you see the line headed “File”. 

At the end of this line is the “Browse” tag.Click on this and find the photo you wish to upload. 

Click on the photo and then on the “Open” tag on the Pictures folder.  This will cause the location of the photo to be copied onto the “File” line on your blog.

Next click on the “Upload” tag just below the “Browse” button on your post. 

This uploads the photo into the space below your post. 

Click “Send to Editor”.

The photo then moves up inthe Post area.

Click on “Publish” to publish your photo to the blog.The photo will appear as a small thumbnail, but a click on it on the blog will enlarge it to its original size.

If you are uploading more than one photo onto one post, instead of clicking on “Publish” click on “Save and continue editing”.  This will save that photo and then make available the “File”, “Browse”, and “Upload” buttons to upload another photo(s).

From your post it seems as if you are not clicking “Open” after selecting your photo.  Check that the location of your photo gets copied into the “File” line.  If it is there the upload will work ok.

Nice to hear from you again,

Lord Fly of Bogland.

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13/01/2009 by Ted.

Have just had a nice conversation with aunt Clarice who gave me a little story to share with you.

The local vicar called on one of his senior citizen parishioners and over a cup of tea tried to turn the conversation round to spiritual matters.

“Mrs P”, he said, “Do you ever give any thought to the hereafter?”

“Eeee, bless you”, replied Mrs P, “I think about the hereafter many times a day”.

The vicar couldn’t really believe this and said, “Really, Mrs P, that is wonderful!”

“Oh yes”, said Mrs. P.  “I can’t count the number of times I go upstairs and when I get there ask myself “What the heck did I come up here after”.

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13/01/2009 by sue.

Just been trying to upload some Cuban photos but I seem to fail at the point where Lord Fly tells me to click on upload as when I do that my photos do not appear anywhere. What am I doing wrong?

No time now so I will try again another time when Ihave received further expert advice from all those computer whizzes out there. 

 Tata for now

Sue x

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13/01/2009 by Ted.

Well, I might as well make hay while the sun shines and grab another post while no-one else is doing so.

Herewith more delightful pictures of James’ and Kasia’s little ones.

The one of Jonathan is as he is now; those of Gabriela were taken within the past month or so.

As their proud dad would say, Enjoy!

Click on the thumbnail and then the photo to double the size!

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10/01/2009 by Ted.

MAKES OUR FEET AND FINGERS GLOW!

Well, for some anyway. Here in Cumbria we are still enjoying a Cumbrian summer - cold, grey and all that - but beautiful with it too. A joy to be alive - no, I really mean that. Nothing can overpower the beauty of this place - it is gorgeous whatever the weather!

We haven’t had any snow at sea level but there has been plenty on the hills.  However we have plenty of ICE. The river Duddon has been frozen over,  and boating has had to be abandoned in Barrow Park because there is a one inch thick ice covering all over the lake - not to mention a lot of bemused seagulls who are standing on it getting cold feet. I think that the geese and ducks have all see it before and flown off to somewhere not frozen as they are nowhere to be seen.  But …. I have just remembered that Christmas has recently been and gone - perhaps they all became the meat portion of Barrovian Christmas dinners. Hmmmmm!

Well, it has been very quiet on the blog.  I look at it every day, and it is a real and rare joy to see a new post.  I have been expecting Lord Fly to do one or two,  I think he is still in London, but he has his little diddy laptop with him and can get in touch.  If you are there Lord Fly how about a word letting us know what you are doing and where you are - if you are not down there?  And anyone else too.  We have between thirty and forty registered family subscribers and I know that they are all still alive.  Well, you better had be!

We are now well past the shortest day and, believe it or not, the days are getting longer - and darker at both ends I think.  (There is now a link to sunrise and sunset times at the top of the column on the right hand side of the blog) Having retired I am able to laze around a bit and just lately have been trying to wait until it gets light before throwing the duvet back.  But getting light seems to be getting later and later and for the first time in my life I have not been out of bed (some mornings) until eight o’clock - halfway through the day almost.  What a lovely life I have!!!

You may remember that some time in 2008 I mentioned that I had heard that United Utilities were proposing to fill in the reservoir - way out in the country - where I went to catch rainbow trout.  I expressed incredulity that such a hairbrained scheme could be reality - but now it has been confirmed and they are proposing to fill it in some time in 2009.  I am thinking of organising a petition in protest at this infringement of our (fishermen’s) yooman rights.  Not to mention the yooman rights of the poor rainbow trout who will be made homeless.  I suspect that if we were to import a few foreign fish and put them into the reservoir then United Utilities would be foiled because they could then be accused of being racist against the foreign fish, and that would certainly bring it to a halt.

Anyway, even if they do fill it in it is an ill wind ….. etc etc, …. because just a mile or so from my house is Hodbarrow Lagoon which is many, many time larger than the reservoir. In the past two years it has been stocked with 8000 brown trout some of which are now being pulled out weighing up to seven pounds apiece …. and who has a fishing permit and permission to launch a boat to fly-fish from?  Wow! And just in case you are wondering - brown trout don’t have yooman rights as they are native British fish, so they can be caught, as we all are every day of our lives these days, without let or hindrance.  Hmmm … I’m beginning to sound like Lord Blog did before he received his peerage (when he was just ordinary common  Fly-on-the-wall) so I’ll say no more. I wonder where he is!

Well, it is teatime again and time to have a rummage in the wheelie bins.  I do hope everyone is well and happy out there.  I think of you all a lot and, of course, send my fond love to you all now.

God bless,

Ted

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03/01/2009 by Andrew.

Greetings everyone, wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year.