General Chat

I dont think Tec would want a female clinging to his leg :-)

Veronica or Betty.. or maybe Jughead..

Linda ............

that is great news about Tec.

Please give him my love and best wishes next time you are in contact <3 <3 <3

Now, we have to help him think of a name for Archie's companion

The first decision of course is should it be a male or a female companion :-D :-D

Linda
That's great news. I hope Tec is able to get home very soon.

~~~~~~~~~~ to everyone on the thread
<3 Von

I have just had a nice chat with Tec. He wanted me to thank Shaun for his fantastic booklet which he sent with all the greetings in it

He sounded well. There is still some infection in his leg but as long as he doesn't get any worse, he may be allowed home soon. He has to go to the artificial limb centre next week to see about a friend for Archie. The occupational therapists also are going to take him home to asses how he copes and the couple of things which need doing. His doctors have had a case conference about him and are happy for him to go home once things are sorted out

He asked me to say hello to everyone

That is nice that your daughter is visiting Sylvia, you can play at doting grandparents which will be nice, I hope so anyway.

We have just been out for a pub lunch, so I feel like a sleep now.

I am looking forward to tomorrow because my nice new I phone 6 will be arriving, I can have fun setting it up. I should think it is very similar to my I pad, so it should be OK. I expected a load of hassle when I told mybcurrent provider I was leaving as the contract is finishing, bug they gave me my Pac code to transfer the number without a murmur.

I will be really glad to get a new phone as the current one has ground to a halt despite thecfactbthat I bought it an extra memory card. It takes for ever just to make a call. I am sure they build obsolescence into the software so that you have to buy a new one. OH is still using a really basic od model which only does calls and texts, whereas I need my internet on the go

It is very windy today, this morning it kept raining hard which was annoying as I was out and about, I had to wear a raincoat, but it was far too hot for that

The weather is mixed here ............. it was about 21/22C on Saturday, and hot enough in the late evening for me to suggest that it was time to think about cleaning the fans that we use in the bedrooms.

Today is it cloudy, showers, sunny periods, and about 16C or so.

It is supposed to get better toward the weekend.

Monday is a Stat Holiday, Victoria Day or May 24th weekend, which celebrates the anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria :-D It is held on the Monday before May 24th!

More importantly, our daughter and grandson arrive on Friday evening for a 1 week visit, and we're hoping the weather will be better than the last time they came. That was in September 18 months ago, and it was wet and cold. J had to go and buy some gloves for herself and the boy. Last year they came out for the long weekend in late June to Smithers, and it was also a bit on the chilly side up there, especially up on the ski hill where we spread sis-i-l's ashes.

Hi everyone ..........

we've never managed to get over there in May to see the display, but I've seen photographs, and yes, it looks magnificent.

There is one park that is said to have over 300,000 tulips all in bloom

The weather is dark and cloudy here. Auckland has had a Civil Defence Alert:
MetService have advised that thunderstorms may form in Auckland from dawn Tuesday through to midday Tuesday.

MetService expect that where thunderstorms form some may be severe, with rainfall rates up to 35mm per hour and possible hail up to 15mm in diameter. In addition MetService advise of possible damaging tornadoes particularly in coastal areas.

Where thunderstorms form, surface flooding is likely and localised flooding of streams is possible.

So I will stay here, our next Auckland trip is this Friday.

I am fairly certain that Janey sent some photos of the tulips in Canada. Interesting gift and would certainly make a magnificent display.

Thanks for the up dates Linda.

Morning Sue. xx :-)

Hello from a sunny, breezy and chilly part of Oz.

Good to hear some news from Tec - thanks Linda.

Very interesting story about the tulips in Ottawa, Sylvia. We have two big tulip displays in Spring. One only 40 minutes away in the highlands and a big one in Canberra. Nowhere near the scale of Ottawa I'm sure.

I had a couple of short texts from Tec. H said that he is getting on well and sends his love to everyone

Thank you for that Sylvia, it was interesting. All those tulips in Ottowa must be a magnificent sight.

The Canadian Army captured Apeldoorn on 17 April 1945 ........

........ so it was also the 70th anniversary this year, not the 71st as I initially said.

Linda ...............

it is a very interesting story, and the fact that it was the Canadian army that liberated Holland only cemented the relationship.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had only one child, Juliana, who married Prince Bernhard in the mid-1930s, and had a total of 4 children.

In 1940, the Dutch Royal family fled Holland for London as the Nazis over-ran the country, and set up the Dutch Government-in-exile in London. Juliana had 2 children at that point.

It was later decided that the heir to the throne should be sent further away to safety, so Juliana and her 2 children sailed for Canada in June 1943, leaving her mother and husband in London. They settled in Ottawa, and the 2 children started school etc

Her daughter Margriet was born in January 1943 in Ottawa Civic Hospital ........... the maternity ward was temporarily designated by the Canadian Government as "extra-territorial". This meant that the baby would have only Dutch citizenship from her mother, not dual citizenship ........ the latter would have removed "it" from the line of succession (important if the baby had been male).

The Dutch flag was flown over the Parliament buildings to celebrate the birth .......... the only time a foreign flag has been flown there.

After Juliana returned to the Netherlands in 1945, she sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa as a thank you. The following year, she sent another 20,000+, with instructions that half of them should be planted in the grounds of the Ottawa Civic Hospital. She also promised that she would send similar gifts every year during her lifetime.

Juliana became Queen in 1948, abdicated in 1980, and died in March 2004

The Netherlands still send 10,000 bulbs each year as a gift to Ottawa. The Canadian Tulip Festival is now the largest in the world. Estimates of the number of tulips in Ottawa vary between 50-100 varieties and 1-3 million plants in flower in May

Goodnight Linda - sweet dreams <3

It is time to sleep, so I will say goodnight.

I hope you manage to salvage some of your friends plants

Dont fall off the ladders

It is a shame. They struggle a bit and the plants are an extra bit of income.

OH is driving today so I have the house to myself. Apart from helping to sort out damaged plants I will do some jobs around the house. The ceiling fans and light fittings need some attention.

Good job your garden wasn't damaged, shame about your friends though

It happens Linda :-P it's no indication of age.

It was very windy overnight. No damage here but I've just had a message from a friend to say that her OH's greenhouse blew over and he has lost some of his plants. I'm going over this morning to help salvage some of them. They sell their plants.