Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 41

 I am writing a quick post tonight as I have been out most of the day and am now tired. I had an appointment at Shrewsbury hospital this morning but it turned out to be a bit of a marathon, because when we came out we had just missed a bus back to Oswestry and they are only one an hour so we had a long wait. Then it turned out that on its way from Oswestry the bus had broken down so we had to wait for a replacement to be sent. We left home at 10.15 and didn't get back until 4.00pm. However I did have a very thorough and helpful discussion with my dermatologist so I guess it was worth it. 

Last Saturday I went up to the market because it was a special day known as the Apple Festival. The aim is to encourage folk to eat some of the less known varieties of fruit. There were several stalls with baskets of apples, plus a few pears and I saw one lot of quince. 

I chatted to some of the stall holders and tried tasters of several apple varieties. I bought a kilo of the red ones in the central box which are called Jupiter and they are crisp and very tasty.

There were also stalls selling items made with apples such as pies and crumbles plus jams and chutneys. I bought a jar of apple butter though, if I am honest, it is not as nice as the one I used to make when I had a very prolific apple tree in my garden. I also picked up a little booklet of apple recipes.

Then I walked to the end of the street and at the cross roads there was a very colourful group of men and women. The men started playing instruments such as accordions and fiddles and the ladies started a folk dance.

When they finished I was quite surprised when it was all change. The ladies took over the instruments and the men did Morris dancing. It was fun and a good crowd gathered to watch them.

Sunday was Harvest festival at our church. I do miss the harvest services I went to years ago when the church smelled wonderfully of all the produce that had been given. I remember making up little boxes for my boys to take, which were later given to local elderly people. But times have changed and there are more needy folk than ever it seems, of all ages too, So now we are asked to donate tinned goods which can be handed to the food bank to distribute. But there were still beautiful flower arrangements on pedestals around the church. I particularly liked this one because it had sunflowers in it!

The rest of the week has hurried past. I have had a few video calls with our son who is trying to arrange a family day soon. So I am looking forward to that.

I have also made some birthday cards and put inserts into all my Christmas cards. I usually do that when I make them but this year I was just hurrying to catch up with the making so didn't stop to put inserts in. But they are all done now and I think I have almost enough cards ready to write.

And that is about it for this week.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 40

I can finally say that I am more or less back to normal, so this week I have  managed a couple of trips into town. In fact last Friday evening I walked the furthest I have been in over a month. Back at the start of the summer I saw an advert about a new choir that was going to start in Oswestry  come the Autumn. It sounded a bit like the one I was a part of in Spain, singing mostly music from the shows and films. It sounded very laid back - no  need to read music, no auditions etc - and the deciding factor for me was that rehearsals would be at the Memorial Hall; just five minutes walk from home. So I signed up for the two free sessions they were offering for anyone who wanted to learn more, and the first of these was last Friday evening. Unfortunately on Thursday I received a message to say that the response had far outdone their expectations so they had moved to a larger premises which are a half hour walk from here. This is not ideal for walking home at 9.00 at night but I decided to go along anyway, so Chris walked with me and came back to walk me home.

The choir tuned out to be great fun and I am definitely going again, and already I have sorted out a lift each way which makes it possible. A young woman called Amy is leading us and she says there were 80 of us at the first meeting. She took this photo of us to go on our Facebook page.

I also went back to church this week as I thought I could get through a service without coughing too much, and as I walked through the park on my way there I saw some big brown clumps on the ground. I wondered whether the strong winds the night before had blown down a squirrel's drey but when i got closer i could see it was fungi. There were three of these, two just emerging from the ground and one at the base of a newly planted young tree. According to google lens they are Meripilus giganteus and there have been several sightings of them this year with people remarking on their huge size.

We have also had some lovely sunny days this week so as I was walking to choir I had to stop to take photos of this glorious sunset.

I mentioned to Chris that I wanted to have some practice at using a touch pad on a lap-top. I have never mastered this, being far more at home on a PC and using a mouse. But he has lent me his Chrome book and I have been using it this week and managing quite well. He has set it up as a Windows remote desktop so it is synced to my computer and I can do everything down here without going up to the top floor - unless I want to use one of my cutters or the printer of course. I do keep trying to use it like a touch screen but  I am getting there.

And  that is it for this week.  It is October now and getting cooler so I am happy to be able to work down here. Hopefuly I will find it easier to visit you all now.