GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

This morning I went into 'orrible Aylesbury and actually backed into a space in the Disabled section. I never back into spaces on the roadside, my reversing isn't that bright! It wasn't taught when I took my test back in 19 mumble-mumble... I managed it in one go...
That's the good news.
I was so pleased with myself I went off without putting my Blue Badge on the dashboard and when I came back - found I've had my first ever parking ticket.

Strangely enough I'd spoken to a traffic warden on my way round trying to sort out which roads in the town centre are which way round and he'd told me that Aylesbury Parking People are very strict. I think 'mine' must have been finishing off a ciggie just round the corner - I'd only just arrived, from the time on the ticket.
I've sent a letter explaining the reason but I expect I'll have to pay £70 as it was my fault. Still, I did put my age in the letter, for what it's worth. I would have emailed them except that Bucks CC website says to go to a particular site but - 'This Site is Untrusted. Then it gives the site address and says '[this company] uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is not trusted because no issuer chain was provided.' What would you do, chum? I'm waiting for a call back from the man at Bucks CC who, apparently, OK'd using this site...... That's the bad news bit.

I went to pick up - not a Penguin - but a prescription then decided to go to Haddenham Garden Centre to have some lunch. It was a h-u-g-e jacket spud and salad, very tasty with lots of cheese melting into strings on the spud. Remembering my evening friends I brought the skin home for them, a tasty addition to the hard bread they'll also be getting.

Some you win and some you lose....

MORE CAT BLANKETS & EVENING VISITORS

Well, I'm back again - AT LAST!!!
 I've had a real problem with being able to download/upload photos to the blog, basically, I couldn't.
I kept getting a message that 'Internet Explorer has stopped working' so that was that. Sarah, my youngest granddaughter at virtually 22, came last night and spent ages clicking here and there and finally decided that Internet Explorer was the problem. She downloaded Mozilla Firefox and - touch wood - it seems to be OK. I can't get to the top of the page, though...stop grumbling!

I'm still making cat blankets for Blackberry Farm at Quainton, the RSPCA homing centre about 6 miles away from here. This is the latest batch of blankets I took up about 3 weeks ago. They are 'cat size', depending on whether the animal is stretched out or curled into a ball! So far I haven't repeated a pattern - any ideas?
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 The harlequin blanket at the top of the page took the fancy of the lady I liaise with so sent her the pattern when I got home. It takes 20 minutes to make a diamond and a very small amount of wool.

 The one above is using up random oddments and just attaching them in the middle of a row rather than at the side, which is the normal thing to do.

 This one is rows of garter stitch with every 6th band in black to break up the long run of colour.

 And this measures about 12". It's a pattern I found on-line, just changing colour but knitting 'in the round', if you can say that about a square object. It's one section of a much larger blanket but I won't make it again, it takes too much wool of one colour as the square gets larger. It's a kitten blanket, I think!

These are my nighttime visitors - 4 badgers taken from indoors by the light of the security light. I don't normally get this many but last night there were four again, squabbling noiselessly right outside the patio door. I put out three or four handfuls of peanuts plus (last night) pizza crust left over from our supper. Usually the oddments include cake-y bits, ends of a loaf, ancient biscuits, anything that's cereal based and it all goes. Peanuts cost the earth - £40 for 25 kilos - so what with feeding Brock and the jays and tit families I get through that amount in a short time. How many sacks have I bought this year? I've lost count. I'm lucky because the people in the village who supply them take them down to the shed, tip them into the bin and relock the shed for me, no heaving heavy sacks around.

The warmth of the last few days (if you ignore the biting wind) means the daffodils have suddenly appeared - they look more impressive in actuality - and a cultivated primrose plus a blue hyacinth from long ago, still managing to produce a flower. A different colour, at least.

 Whoops, I haven't put out any bird seed yet this morning...

I seem to be also feeding the little fieldmouse which appeared (I'm guessing it's the same) in a previous post. I had thrown out broken up pieces of a kind of Garibaldi biscuit. The mouse appeared, taking a piece probably as big as itself. It threaded it through the gap at the bottom of the shed door then flattened itself and slid into the gap as well - imagine a human picking up a fence panel and managing that first time of trying!!

I'm going; since I don't have focusing computer glasses any more my eyes are beginning to hurt trying to see what I'm doing...