Banking and biking, haziness and happenings.

Well it's 3 week since our holiday, and we've been keeping quite busy, I had to go into town to sort out a bank card which hadn't been sent to me when the other one was due to expire. I spent some time explaining to the cashier what had happened, she offered to let me draw money from one of the other accounts, so arranged that. We have about 4 accounts between us, with this particular Spanish bank, as they took over several failing banks when the crash happened.
Later on, when I got home, I checked the accounts online, and realised that she had taken the cash from the wrong account. that should have set alarm bells ringing, but it didn't. When the card arrived, it was for the account for which I had already received a new card, so that necessitated another visit, later on that week to try and get a card for the right account.
One card number was also used for my internet access, so to be on the safe side I had to order new internet access details. I was not too pleased.
On the Tuesday, we went for a bike ride.  I hadn't ridden for ages for various reasons, mostly health and lack of time. I was surprised how far we got, in view of that, four and a half miles in total, but can only surmise that all the walking in the Lake District had improved my overall fitness. We only realised after we got back from the holiday how much stuff we hadn't put back after the decorating. I found three boxes, mostly containing clothes, one with a load of socks, which explains why I had trouble finding enough socks to take away with me, and after I had put things back, and was rearranging things, I also found the pack of tights which had been meant for the Lake District trip. They had some how leapt out of the case and hidden in another plastic storage box alongside my ottoman. The mystery was solved. I changed the bed linen, for the new stuff, so the bedroom transformation was almost complete, just still some items to be put back, but husband has forgotten where he had them before. Another bagful left home for a temporary stay in the charity shop, before hopefully finding new homes.  We have discovered that the Lions charity will even take out of date, computer books as they still get 20 pence for them even if they don't sell to the public.

Curtains are actually the same shade, blackcurrant

We looked after the children, as normal. They were not too much trouble. However we saw more of them than usually,as the Sunday after was Mothering Sunday, so we were invited to their home for lunch. Our Son in Law cooked a roast dinner in honour of his wife, I received a hanging basket of spring flowers, and a copy of the first Poldark book. I had them all at one time, but some fell to pieces, I did wonder if they would start reprinting them with the remake of the series. As dinner was late, so was tea, which meant we didn't make it to the evening service.

new hanging basket

During that week there seemed to be a haziness hanging around the town, then we heard that it was actually a sort of pollution smog, I didn't take Lydia out with me on the Thursday, but she awoke wheezing from her nap,and we had to collect her little puffer from home. Whether the smog had crept in through the bedroom window, or whether it was just her cold  we don't know, but she brightened up after a while.
On the Friday morning, we were hoping to glimpse some of the partial eclipse of the sun, but we awoke to thick cloud cover. All that happened was that it got darker and colder, then suddenly, we were aware of the sun trying to break through the clouds, and I realised we may be able to see the last quadrant. There was still a certain amount of cloud, but we donned protective glasses and got our cameras, and it looked as if something had taken a bite out of the sun. Later that day, we rode along the canal bank on our bikes in the opposite direction, 4.7 miles in total.

eclipse

I baked a chocolate cake, as we had a fellowship day on the Saturday at church. The speaker was Prof Edgar Andrews, a brilliantly clever man, who wrote a  book, 'Who made God?', which was in answer to the militant aggressive atheists such as Dawkins, who is prone to asking that question. As he spoke, he revealed by scientific deduction, that the theory of evolution and the big bang theory are just theories, and can never really have happened.
He had books at a reduced price, so we bought one. I had a hunch that we already had a copy,and sure enough, later that evening, husband discovered a hardback copy upstairs, which was part of his Christmas present from me, 2013. Oh well I'll read the paperback and pass it on.

Spring in my garden