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Hi, Rusty!
I have just been talking to my cousin.
All are well up North, but finding it extremely cold!
Now....actually, I quite enjoy the challenge to produce interesting and useful, yet inexpensive, presents for my friends!
Yes, I think giving money is an excellent idea for family if the age range is right, and the recipients will enjoy choosing their own gifts ........
But all my grandchildren are a lot younger than are yours, and still expect to be handed an actual present, such as a toy or game!
I saw the beginning of the tennis match, but then my cousin phoned....so I have no idea as to the outcome!
Novak was playing Zverev, and not Anderson as I'd put previously!
(That was a 'senior moment', as that was yesterday's match!)



Hello, Jigjag...it is to be hoped that your friend does not come on this Forum......or then she would learn the true fate of her jigsaw present!



Yes, Pigale!
It is very cold here ...and feels as though it is getting colder by the minute!
I wore my thick padded coat this afternoon, when out walking with the dog.
I don't think we are expecting snow? I hope not anyway!
Funny, and I used to love its snowing when I was but a child!
Now I worry lest I fall.....

Understandable Elle - you did have a bad experience a few years
back! I would be wary too, particularly since you do a lot of walking
in the early (very early to me) hours of the day.
Or do you delay going out in extreme weather conditions?

Hi pigale
The badgers haven't been back, but I am not counting my chickens! The real test will be next year's ripening fruit. They also make gouges in the lawn but haven't for a while. I am hoping for fewer animal visits of all kinds. I watched a beautiful fox eating the food put out for the badgers next door just this evening.

I went to the wood today and put masses of ash brash round my growing collection of evergreens. I believe that might prevent deer eating them. Can't stop humans nicking them if that's what they have in mind.

Have you often been lucky enough to watch deer in your wood?
They might eat your young plantations, but are rather beautiful
to watch.
We have a lot of deer and wild boar around here, and some small
roads are rather dangerous at twilight or early evening when they
tend to cross the road to go from one wood to another.
Just a baby boar (do you have a name for a young boar?) can do
a lot of damage to a car and create an accident, and they usually
move as a family group

I've never seen a full-grown deer in the wood, though from footprints I can tell they have sometimes passed through the glade when I was there but not looking! One April I did see a nearly new-born fawn, it was beautiful. I own the shooting rights, but do not use them. Others adjacent do and the deer are decreasing. Maybe I will get some saplings one day. There are almost no wild flowers as the deer eat everything except brambles.
I saw a family of wild boar on Corsica once. I believe the young are just called piglets. They were so sweet! But I know they churn up the roads.
On the way to the wood today I saw a car shooting flames from everywhere- never seen anything like it. The people were safely out and I saw the fire engine coming. Passed very gingerly on fast lane of motorway!

Hello, Elle!
Seems to be cold all over, now, if your cousin has it too, in the North.
Money is by far and away the best way to give at Christmas, Elle.
Then nobody is disappointed, no matter their age.
I came to that conclusion a long time ago.
I do not know how the tennis went, but Lexi Thompson won the women's golf.
I like Lexi, and it's good to see her back winning again.
Are you and Brave still getting on fine?

The area where I live is full of game - hunting is allowed (at a cost)
in some private estates and to by an 'hunting action' as it is called
costs an arm and a leg. I do not like hunting but I know
that the wild boar population needs to be culled - there are
special days and permits for this.
The boars are in such great number that farmers do suffer - or rather
their crop does; it is a cereal growing area (though there are some
livestock farms too, but they are not the majority).

The boars create havoc with the crop, fences, roads etc... so they
must be kept under control ..... unfortunately. And because there
are also unfenced woods on either side of roads (even some major
ones), the animals are responsible for a fair few road accidents, some very serious ones.
Deer families are in number, so are pheasants and partridges, but
the latter do not create a problem.

But it is a great hunting area and land owners make a fortune during
the season!

Hi, Rusty!
Tomorrow is set to be even colder, according to the BBC local forecast.
Just so long as it does not snow!
Folk in the park still talk about the noise my head made, when I cracked it on a concrete edging, hidden under snow, when I slipped on an icy patch and fell, about two years ago now!
See, I am famous!
Novak lost out to the young German, Alexander Zverev, losing in two straight sets.
It will be interesting to see how Zverev does when Wimbledon comes around.
Yes, "Brave" is good......it is great not to have to cope with the ads on my tablet any more.
Thank you for suggesting it.

Could that famous crack in your head be responsible for some
of your 'senior moments' Elle? :))


I am going to bed, promise!!!

Hi Pigale!
It would be nice if I could just blame my "senior moments" on a bang on the head, wouldn't it?!