Skip to main content

Posts

Featured post

Coping with Shielding in These Difficult Times - Our Reality.

Everyone has their own tale to tell.Some have been largely unaffected apart from taking more care and working from home to minimise the spread of the Covid-19. Many have had the added responsibility of home schooling their children. A big ask as not everyone is equipped to cope with this.Some were deemed to be vulnerable if over 70 years of age and even more so if there were underlying health issues. The argument prevails that if there were no underlying health issues and are fit and healthy, they are not as vulnerable as someone younger who is not healthy.Others fell into the unfortunate group where isolation was needed as they were high-risk due to, not only age, but various high-risk conditions which could affect the chances of survival if infected.This is our reality. 
On Facebook, I joined a group to do with ageing healthily run by the remarkable Ann Girling. The group's name has recently changed to How to Have a Healthy Body, Positive Mindset & Radiant Skin.  This resonat…
Post a comment
Read more
Recent posts

You Live and Learn. The Vagrancies of Technology.

They say - and I have written passionately -  that learning is lifelong.What fun I have had over this last week with my mobile phone suddenly not accepting security codes for critical changes in applications. More critically, the codes sent for two-step verification sign in from my website provider would not come through. One day they did and the next they stubbornly refused to do so.
So, hereby hangs a tale. Listen, read and learn.Online support suggested solutions depending on what you wanted the outcome to be. Yes, I know, I wanted to access my website for administration purposes.  I duly sent off the required information and, nervously I have to say, the required ID to secureserver.net who provide all the security for my product Website Builder. In the due course of time I received confirmation e-mails that the request had been successfully completed. Great! But I still could not sign in without a code which would not come through on my phone.  The next step was a telephone call to sp…
Post a comment
Read more

A Bit of Sunshine in the Retreating Dark Days of Covid-19

I wrote this on Sunday and was about to post when Google played tricks and deleted everything! 
Saturday. After the heavy rain of the last few weeks the emerging sunshine not only dried out the garden but prompted a lot of new growth as plants lifted their faces to the sunshine. Along with growth was, at the bottom of the garden, a veritable jungle of rampant trailing tendrils of the evergreen winter-flowering jasmine. Somewhere among this was the rambling rose that had sent new shoots high into the sky. This is what happens when you turn your back. All this was a welcome relief from the recent depressing days of lockdown during this pandemic as we shield to keep ourselves healthy. We are not out of the woods yet but life is slowly turning back to normal and we  can now go out but carefully. Ongoing monitoring and little blips resulted in communications with doctors etc but those have abated now somewhat. Thankfully. With a promise of a fine day on Saturday morning. after lying awake fr…
Post a comment
Read more

Website updates and a 'Look Inside' Island Interludes.

What a busy week it has been.After a technical hitch with the historical Search Engine Visibility I upgraded my Website Builder package to integrate full Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media - as opposed to separate packages -  into the back end of my website. (I also got more disk space and bandwidth which may have been the cause of slower page-load as I have lots of photos and videos on the site.) Although both of these are Google based and take all the hassle and mystery out of things like robot.txt, keywords and all sorts of other essential computer things for a beginner and beyond, I also went into exploring Google Analytics further.   I reflected that twelve years ago I nervously put my toe in the water to develop a website and, having no understanding at all of computer language like html or scripts - no not the sort that playwrights write - I plumped for Website Builder as all you need is a good understanding of Word, with PowerPoint and image editing an advantage…
Post a comment
Read more

Memories - The English Riviera and Paignton.

Paignton,Devon 

"The English Riviera is a 22 mile stretch of outstanding South Devon coastline consisting of seaside resorts, rocky coves, picturesque villages and warm weather, making it one of the top places to holiday in the UK. If you’re not sure where we mean then The English Riviera is essentially the Torbay area, acclaimed by the Victorians for its sub-tropical plants, ‘bracing’ sea air and scenic waterfronts. (source https://www.visitsouthdevon.co.uk/places/english-riviera 23.06.2020 09:09)

The temperatures are so warm here that palm trees grow as they do on the French Riviera. last year we spent a few days in Paignton which is across the bay from Torquay which many of you will be familiar with location wise. We were not disappointed. I wrote about our few days in the sunshine at https://discover-rosalie.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-english-riviera-perfect-sojourn-at.html There are photos and short videos there to enjoy.Highlights."Firstly: The delightful Palace Hotel on…
Post a comment
Read more

Memories of Travel Experiences. Week 4. Into North East Spain

Galicia and Northern Portugal.The eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula consists of Portugal and, sitting on top of this wonderful country is Galicia in the North Eastern corner of Spain.
We had first planned to visit this part of Spain with friends when we still had our Honda Gold Wing motorbike - 2008? The plan had been to travel through France, over the Pyrenees through the Basque country of Northern Spain to explore the mountains of the Asturias of which we had heard so much. From there we would go to the far west coast of Spain into Galicia to visit the hidden parts that simply look like a insignificant pinpricks on a map but in truth are enchanting discoveries Our friends had enthused about a little place on the west coast called O Grove. Santiago de Compostela was also on our list. The route and all the hotels were planned but it was not to be.
Some years later we heard of an escorted tour to Galicia and the Duoro Valley in Northern Portugal to the places that we had abandoned …
Post a comment
Read more

Memories of Pre-Lockdown Travel Experiences. Week 3 To Northern Spain..

Our most memorable journey was from the south of Spain to the north. That was in the year 2001 when we travelled on our Gold Wing touring motorbike from Ronda in the hills of Andalucia right through the centre of Spain to Donostia-San Sebastián on the chilly north coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We had earlier reached Ronda by riding along the coast from Nerja  via Marbella to San Pedro where we turned into the hills to the ancient town ofRonda its famous gorge with a prison in the centre of the walls and the Moorish Mondragon's Palace


I wrote at the time: 'On leaving Ronda,we were entranced by the fields full of large sunflowers turning their faces to the rising sun and waving in the breeze as they nodded us on our way.  They grew here as we grow corn in our fields in the United Kingdom. Our route was to take us by the lakes and we decided not to go on the little roads to Campillos, as they looked quite rough but one sign said Malaga and we thought: “On no we don’t want that one …
Post a comment
Read more