Sort of Busy

Thank you for the compliments about the pics. I'm feeling a lot better. 

Today has been an off balance sort of day. I didn't have a clean shirt for bear (and it's one bit of housewifery that I'm usually really good at). I finally packed a parcel that I'd been meaning to pack for ages. I had a bit of a fail printing the label, as the ink is getting sparse, but I got there.

I met up with a friend for a coffee and I had a blast. Her son was at primary school with bear and while they are at different high schools, they are both doing well. I forgot the time and had to rush back. 

I failed to take the right turn off for the post office at the Co-op so I ended up lugging the parcel around Heckmondwike to get to the post office there. Most post offices seem to be in shops these days, like the Co-op, and this is one of the few stand alone ones that I know. Then I went to get a fuse.

You see, bear has a heater in his room. That room is the coldest in the house, and bear has a small, oil filled radiator for when he's up there. This was vital a few years ago, when bear had so much trouble with his legs. The medication they gave him made him absolutely crippled with cold. He went from a furnace to an iceberg. It is a known side effect of the damn tablets (which didn't really help) and it's only now that he's getting back to not feeling the cold at all. However, after the warm summer, it feels chilly and he does a lot of homework up there, so I'm happy for him to have that radiator. Of course, now it's stopped working after some sterling service. I wondered if it was the fuse, so we checked and it needs a 10amp fuse, so I thought I would call in at the hardware store that I had noticed at Heckmondwike. 

It was amazing. The store is so full that you can barely squeeze around. There are peg boards on every wall with screws and washers and padlocks and bolts and wires and plugs and string and, well, everything. Things hung from the ceiling (I got a decent sized pan at last!), things were propped up in corners and against shelves (I did not expect to see a warming pan) and there were relics like oversized purple brandy glasses. The nice man (who was lovely) had to move half a dozen ladders to get to the fuses, and he pulled out a pack of four with three left in them. He pulled out one and charged me 30p. 

It had a story to it. The store had been going 67 years and once had nine people working there plus two drivers supplying the local mills, workshops and factories. They have all shut now, and I think that it's much reduced. He told me he had the old imperial measure drill bits in the back room but that there wasn't a call for them. I shall be going back there whenever I have an excuse. It reminds me of the sort of shop that my grandfather used to use.

I took a view of that fuchsia from a different angle. I swear that next year I'm going to be measuring it.

You can understand why I'm worried about it blocking the path, but the flowers are such a lifeline to the bees and I'm worried that the sparrows would get even more assertive with me.

Hugs and good health to all.