They say...

...don't put all your eggs in one basket, so I crocheted 12.  Yes I know there's only 4 in my blip, but I did make twelve.  And made 12 little flowers and stitched them on then sewed on the buttons.  It takes no time at all to crochet the baskets but the flowers and stitching is a bit fiddly.  Well it is for my achey hands.  

On Sunday they will be filled with either Cadbury cream eggs (other confectioner eggs are available ;-) mini eggs, assorted Haribo or jellybeans, and used as prizes for the Easter games I have planned for the girls.

Roofer and his colleague arrived at 10am to assess the house roof.  David went out to talk to them and before he could say I'm scared of heights, found himself on the garage roof!  A missed blip opportunity if ever there was one! :-)

They all had a good look at tiles on the section of roof adjacent to the garage with the roofer giving David a very thorough lesson on roof construction, slates, tiles, structures and pitfalls, then David left them to assess the rest of roof.  An hour and a half later their assessment was complete.

As ever in these situations, there was good news and bad news.  The good news is the inner structure of the roof is sound, the bad news is all the slate needs replaced.  He confirmed it is the original roof so no shame to it, it's protected the house for 122 years!   

That made me think of tradesmen who roofed the house way back in 1900.  They would know it was designed to last at least 100 years and I wonder if they thought about who might be living here when the time came to replace their hard work.  The new roof will also have a 100 year guarantee so it will see us out! And that made me wonder about who will be living here and what will be happening in the world, the next time the roof is replaced.  One thing's for sure, they could never have predicted Covid and all the other evils happening in the world at the moment.

We should have his quote tomorrow.  Double gin in hand when I read that!

Alan's support worker Lana is here this evening.  She is Ukrainian and although I've been in touch with her since this horrendous war started, it's the first time I've seen her.

She is such a gentle person, always so concerned about others and wanting to help in anyway she can.  I could listen to her soft accent for hours.  She is so wonderful with Alan and he adores her.  He also loves her accent.  

Tonight we talked about what is happening in her homeland (a lot more than the media is reporting, and what they're reporting is bad enough!)  The last time we spoke she was trying to persuade her parents to come to Scotland but they are farmers and wouldn't abandon their animals.  Things have escalated since then and she and her husband travelled to Poland recently to collect her mum and bring her here.  A female cousin and her two young children have since joined them.  Her dad and her cousin's husband are still in Ukraine, as is her 94 year old gran , who has another cousin staying with her, but if she leaves, her gran will be on her own (she won't leave)  It just doesn't bear thinking about.

As Lana was talking to me, the thought that if she had never come to Scotland and was still in Ukraine, this lovely, gentle, kind woman could have been raped and murdered by now! It's beyond horrific.  

Her heart is broken, and like her beautiful country, will take a long time to heal.  I pray this horrific and unnecessary war will end soon.  There is a special place in hell for Putin and his enablers.