Yeaterday I had a hospital appointment with as we thought the MS nurse. WRONG. When we got through to Canterbury and parked up we got to reception and were told our appointment was with the consultant. When he saw me he asked “what are you doing here?” After much jollyfication (is there such a word and if there is what does it mean) we had a good laugh about the mistake but did arrange a meeting with the MS nurse in September and left. We headed on to the NNR nature reserve at Stodmarsh and had a well earned picnic. For pictures of me stuffing my face with Tesco Sandwiches click here http://disableddon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/hospital-appointment-and-picnic.html
Fab blog again Don!!! It sounds beautiful there. Nice to read from my bed in the Big City! Pic’s are good too. I didn’t know about the smallest town in England. You and your wife certainly get around… must say she sounds lovely. Thanks for that…I tweeted it. Pat xx
Great blog Don, as always! We have several nature reserves too but sadly not wheelchair friendly 
Like Pat I also think Heather sounds like a super star! You live and learn … I didn’t know about the smallest town in England either! Cheers Don! Nina x
Thanks Don, I so enjoy your blogs, and the pictures are lovely. Your wife sounds like a diamond, you are very lucky, as we say here in good ole Gloucestershire…she’s a keeper.
Sorry about your wasted hospital appointment, but hey ho, the rest of the day made up for that.
Pam x
You not feeling so good Pat or is it just the heat that has driven you to bed? we went out earlier I sat in the car in Tesco car park and when we got back I almost went to bed for an hour. I am home alone now Heather has gome for a walk with our eldest daughter they dont get much time together so a walk along the cliff top and an ice cream is the agenda I declined and am sitting here curtains drawn windows and doors open and fans on.
Heather is a worderful wif and mother I am so lucky.
Don
Nina we are so lucky here we have about five NNR’s withing short car ride.I love my birds and try and get out to a reserve as muuch as possible and add to my list of birds spotted, once I used to write them down in a log now I cant hold a pen or write now I have to remember what I have seen. Sorry you have nothing you can get out to we are well serviced in this little ccorner. Don
Pam we had a great time evenn at the Hospital we had a ball it was a blast I know all the nurses etcc and we have a laugh.
The Nature reserve was great but I must remember to take the cucumber out of the salmon sarnies from tesco I paid for it laterwith painful indegestion and couldnt use gavescon for a couple of hours because of tablet clash. Heather is definatly a keeper, bless her she has just gone out for a walk but I have drink crisps peach or an apple phone and tv on she looks after me more thanshe does herself.
Love her Don
I remember playing Poohsticks at the bridge over the Stour behind the Fordwich Arms when we were students at UKC in the early 70’s. Happy days!
Thanks for stirring up some nice memories of Fordwich and Stodmarsh, Don. Just the thing to brighten a bit of a grim day for me here.
Good stuff Don.
Heck, make hay while the sun shines, and all that.
[quote=“kevadams”]
I remember playing Poohsticks at the bridge over the Stour behind the Fordwich Arms when we were students at UKC in the early 70’s. Happy days!
Thanks for stirring up some nice memories of Fordwich and Stodmarsh, Don. Just the thing to brighten a bit of a grim day for me here.
[/quote] Kev hope your ok mate. I love Poohsticks had great time doing them. Is it the heat getting to you or other problems? Don
Talking of making Hay they had a combine out in one of the fields on the way back maybe not quiet hay but they were going for it with combine plus lots of tractors and trailors getting in the harvest.
Don
You’re very lucky Don, my mum says that every man I brought home needed mothering or smothering and she’s right.
Cath xx
Yes, just the heat, Don. Plus we went out last night (Wednesday night is date night!) so I was pretty tired anyway. Stayed in bed today until 4pm. Worth it last night though. I had a brain wave to go to a pub we haven’t been to for years, with a really nice garden and good accessible bar. Had a good fish pie. Then met a nice couple, she has SPMS and every Weds they go to a local MS centre where you can get massage, reiki, hyperbaric oxygen etc. They always then go out somewhere afterwards (obviously their 'date night!), We’ve been meaning to try this place ever since my dx but never got the energy to do it. I’m determined to now, it sounds really good.
Don, I love my birds too. Besides the RSPB Garden bird watch I am a member of the BTO and I do their weekly garden birdwatch. I used to keep a written list too but now I do it on my iPad, can you not do that on your kindle? Although I can’t go to the reserves I am lucky in that we are in the country side so I do get a lot of visitors to my feeders. Also have a large pond and we have a pair of mute swans that live here all year. My granddaughter calls them the Swanson family…three cygnets this year. I can see then from my sofa…they give me so much pleasure. Hope you are having an ok day. Nina x
Hi Nina
Following on from your post, we live near the canal and river, and every year about April time we have a pair of ducks visit us every day for food. Lots of school children are always mezmarised when they see them on our lawn.
The female will eat out of Hubby’s hand, but the male is not as brave, but they have only once brought their babies with them. It was fantastic to see them waddling behind the parents.
They only ever visit for about two months, while they are building nests I presume, but we all look forward to their daily visit.
Pam x
Hi Pam, Is it the Stroud canal? I used to live in Painswick! We have ducks too, Mallards and Mandarins but they are not as tame as the swans…who will feed from my hand …they also will come up the steps to the door and bang on the glass if they think I am not quick enough with their food! Perfect entertainment for a person who spends so much time sitting on the sofa! Have a great weekend Pam, hope you don’t melt! Nina x
Hi Nina
Yes, the Stroud water canal and the River From, both 5 minutes walk away from us, and you used to live in Painswick …wow, what a small world!
In our little cup de sac we have lots of people in their 80’s and 90’s and they, like us, love to see them, and welcome them every year, they have been coming now for about 15 years.
I don’t know if you know this, but they have re opened the canal, done loads of work there, and are going right through to Sapperton. All the years it was open and working, then they decide to leave it, and now years later, after building roads over it and goodness knows what else, they have decided to open it up again, makes no sense to me. They will have their work cut out at Eàstington, cos the M5 was built over it there!
We also have a pair of woodpeckers come sometimes, and they are a lovely green with red heads, really pretty birds. Gives us who sit by the window something too watch, they are a real spectacle most days.
Stay cool and take care.
Pam x
Hi Pam, The canal and the river were very good birding places back in the days when I was a proper birder as opposed to the arm chair variety ! Cooling off just a little in Ross! Nina x
Since this has turned into a birding thread, i almost mentioned this in my first reply to Don:- Ruth and i rented a house just down the road from Fordwich (1979, this was). Sturry Road, Canterbury. We had a long overgrown back garden which backed onto the River Stour, and at that point there were some old gravel pits totally reclaimed by nature. I was out birding there and heard a most unusual birdsong. Couldn’t work out what it was, it was skulking in the deep undergrowth. It took me days before i caught a glimpse of it, and reached the conclusion it was Cetti’s Warbler. It was the explosive song that nailed it. At that time they had established a colony downriver at Stodmarsh, where Don went the other day. We obviously had two or three pairs who had moved further inland. They are a lot more widespread in this country now, but every time i hear that explosive outburst i think of our little house and the gravel pits in Canterbury.
Morning Kev, nice one for the list! Of all the things I can no longer do birding is one that I really miss. Have a good Sunday! Nina x