What is making holes in the lawn? This time, not squirrels.

 

Two foxes in back garden. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The first time I saw holes in the lawn, I thought I had caught the culprits a few days later. I saw squirrels, nose down, clawing away frantically at the lawn. 

I thought that there was only one type of hole, and only one type of animal digging. Only one type of animal that likes lawns.

I took this picture on a mobile phone. If you look at this on a mobile phone you can hardly see the foxes. However, if you display on the screen, you see very clearly the two V shapes of their ears. They are listening and watching. To get them to look at the camera I bang on the glass. I had to bang three times.

I sent the picture to our WhatsApp group of family in different addresses and countries.

I said in my comments, I had the feeling I was being watched.

My son replied, So did they. 

One of the foxes left. The other one started digging.

You see foxes race across the road in front of you when driving at night. As we turn into our drive, one races out.

I had considered trying to get rid of the foxes.

Eaters

Our neighbours have a long back garden and put out food for their cat. The food kept disappearing and the cat was still hungry. Then the neighbours saw a fox. So they put out food for the fox when the cat was indoors and fed her indoors.

The fox must have been a vixen, or taking food to a vixen (female fox). It set up a set, if that is the right word.

This was a few years ago. The fox ate the rabbit of my other neighbours. 

Strong Foxes

The rabbit keepers thought they had had a strong wire netting around the rabbit area. Strong wood.

They underestimated a hungry fox. All that was left was white fur.

Anti-Fox

For the rest of that year they would not talk to each other. Not angry. Too embarrassed and upset. I brought them together at a New Year's Day drinks. 

Note the large shallow area which I had thought might be a nest. Just in front of the tree in the foreground. What do you see there? Nothing. A bit like an empty road at night. That doesn't mean there is no traffic.

Photographing Foxes

 Another fox had moved area to the distant right. Half hidden by the lower tree branches. I had to move to another window.

I have a video of one of the foxes.

Useful Websites

Wiki foxes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox

https://www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/urban-fox#:~:text=Virtually%20anything.,dogs%2C%20cats%20and%20other%20wildlife.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Rusting White Clothes Rack Restored - with nail varnish

 

We have a rusting white clothes rack. I asked my husband if he could paint it.

He replied, "No. I would have to sand it down. Then paint it. The shape is awkward. It's not worth the effort."

I was painting my nail with white varnish in the bathroom. I thought to myself, it's a pity I can't get a tiny white paint pot like this varnish. It's a pity I can't use the varnish. Why not try. Nothing to lose. Just a few drops.

I painted over the rust. The rack looked a lot better. 

No rust to stain the clothes. Stops it getting worse. 

Some of the varnish dropped into the base of the bath. i wiped it off fast.

Problem - Overwhelmed By Problems? 20 : Reframing, motivational quotes, more

 1 My Husband's Solution

 I said to my husband: "I have too many problems."

He replied, "They are not problems. They are tasks. 

"Just make a list. Put them in order of priority and work through them."

2 My Son's Solution

I said to my son: "I try to get one major thing done every day. That way I get seven things done every week."

He replied, "Why not try to get three things done every day. Then you'd get three times as many things done. Twenty one things every week."

3 My Neighbour's Solution

I told my neighbour, Alice, who was a nurse before she married, "My mother worries a lot".

Alice replied, "Your other doesn't have enough to do".

Modern Solutions

1 Meditation

2 Water

Drink more water

3 Sleep

Get enough sleep. Set an alarm 30 minutes before bed to allow time to undress, clean teeth, shower or bath, make bed, read.

4 Eat

Snack on fruit, not sugar which gives a spike of energy followed by a decline. 

Go out for a good meal. A change is as good as a rest. 

5 Phone Friends

Phone a friend

6 Call the Samaritans

Keep their number handy.

7 Discard Prablems

Write your problems on a piece of paper and throw them in a wastebin.

Other solutions are burying or burning, but the wastebin is quicker and more environmentally friendly.

8 NLP 

Put your problems in the past. Don't say, I have a pain. Say, I had a pain.

9 Tapping

The tapping solution. Tap your wrist and say an affirmation.

10 Pinboard Affirmation

Write affirmations on post-its and place them on a pinboard to look at and cheer yourself up.

11 Pray. 

12 Advise Yourself

Say your problems aloud. Reflect. Answer as if you were a head teacher advising a pupil. Thank yourself. Nod and say you agree to follow the advice.

13 Pinboard Praises

Whenever you hear a compliment or praise, write it down. Put it in a book, or a jar. When you are sad or discouraged, read all the good things people have said about you.

14 Copy Compliments

When you hear somebody else being praised, instead of being envious, decide whether you would make the effort to achieve what they have achieved. If so, start doing it. 

If not, just write down the compliment, and remember to praise them and others for doing things and making efforts which you would not do. You will make them happy.

15 Pet A Pet

Get a dog. Or cat. Or pet. A fish tank.

If you can't afford a dog, or don't have the space and time, babysit or dog walk a dog for somebody else once a week.

16 Reframe your name

Name and describe yourself positively. For example, rape 'victims' are told not to call themselves 'a victim', but to think of themselves as 'survivor'. 

Do so alliteratively, or with rhyme. Active Angela. Brian the biker. Contented Chloe. Danny the dancer. Efficient Emily. Funny Freddie. Gorgeous Greta. Generous Georgina. Happy Harry. Humorous Hubert. Intelligent Indra. Johnny the joker. Jolly Jasmine. Kathy. Lovely Lucy. Modern Mary. Neat Nora. Organized Olive. Powerful Peter. Recovered, rested Rebecca. Rupert the runner. Sarah the saver. Smiling Sally. Swarna the swimmer.  Tidy Tommy. Early Ursula. Victor the victorious. Wonderful William. Excellent Xavier. Easy-going Yvonne.

17 Write A Speech

Imagine a local school or college has asked you to advise the school leavers on getting a job, studying, getting married, having children, and life. 

Write a list, two lists. Divide a piece of paper in half. On the left write down all the disasters in your life. On the right, write down all the successes. Opposite the disasters, write what you could have done better and differently. Does everybody face that problem, or is it something you faced which you hope they will not have to face? Regarding the successes in life, were they out of the blue? If so, you never know how your luck could change. Or did you work hard for them? If so, that shows hard work pays off.  

Summarise your speech with a catchy phrase. It can start with a bad thing and end with a good one. Think of the book title, Feel the Fear and do it anyway.

How to find and photograph the model number of your hob

 

We have a broken part on a Neff hob. 

What is the part called? The saucepan support. 

I took a photo of it to send to Craig on the Neff chatbox.

He said he needed to know how old the hob was. About twenty years old. 

And what was the model number?

No idea.

The website advises that the number is on the underside. A photo shows the hob with the front raised. 

I told the patient and sympathetic customer services person that I could not lift the hob and was afraid or dislodging wires or pipes.

I sent him a photo of the broken part, above.

He was unable to find the part. He said he had to hunt through lots of catalogues. A pity he did not have them online. He might have been able to do a picture match.

I looked at the picture of the place of the number. Where was it? At the front - or the back. Could you actually see it, from underneath, if you were a contortionist, or was sight of it blocked by a shelf supporting the hob and protecting the electrics or gas pipe?

I found what i thought was a raised section near the front. But how to see it?

I looked around a spotted a magnifying mirror. I tried holding that under the hob, but no luck. What I saw was distorted and dark.

So I called my husband, Trevor. 'Trevor - do you have a torch?'

He said, No, but you have a torch on your mobile phone.

Torch In Phone

You go into settings. Find the symbol for torch. Switch it on. When you have finished, you tap the symbol again to turn off the torch.

Yes, the words and number were there. How to take a photo in the dark? Use flash!

After that, you can expand the picture on the phone. And email it to yourself and then forward it to the appliance maker's spare parts department, or hunt online for a spare parts supplier. i found them on ebay, amazon, and comparison sites.

I pulled out the drawer below the hob and felt.

Make a record of your hob number and email it to yourself. Write it in a book, or on a page of vital information about your property.

At the end of the year, review and recall and remind yourself of all dates. We bought this house in such and such a year. We replaced the car in this year. He bought the oven in that year. We bought from this shop. From that manufacturer. The guarantee and instruction book are in this colour, with this label on this shelf in this room in this property.

Useful websites

ebay

amazon

Neff

How I lost so much weight - from 56.5 in January 2021 down to 47.9 in June, that is about 7 stone 7 lbs

Angela on the left in red at Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters club. Between 2018 and 2019.

Angela After 2021 about June 20th.

Before Covid-19 when we met at the Community Centre

Let me tell you how I did it. First you need a good enough reason. Not just, 'I would like to wear that dress.' I was weighing I didn't know what, and had to wear caftans to be sure the sleeves would fit over my arms. I bought cape blazers which don't fit over the upper arm, just the shoulder. I was

 I had a good reason to slim. I wanted to lose weight to look good in the photos at our son's wedding. September 2019. I used to swim intermittently. I ate lots of pizza and samosas and chocolates at Toastmasters International meetings.

The Slimming Mantra

'Move more and eat less.' So said my husband. I was moving a bit more and eating a bit less, every now and then. We had to change that to every day.

The motivation came with the start of Covid-19. Danger, or rather risk factors, were being older and overweight. I could not change my age, except by lying, but that would not change my body. I could, however, change my weight.

I started by swimming. I used to swim when I felt like it. I often postponed until later in the day. It sometimes rained in the afternoon. I changed to swimming in the morning.

Slimming By Swimming

I was swimming most days. 

 I knew I had to increase the number of widths. So I increased gradually. Each month I added an extra width.

Slimming By Moving

While waiting for the lift, I walked up and down. Walking to the swimming pool and back increased my steps. So swimming every day not only increased my swimming, it increased my walking.

When I woke at night, or early in the morning, I kept moving. I twirled my ankles, cycled with my legs in the air. I lifted one leg when I was on my side. Anything to keep moving. 

When I remembered, such as right now when sitting at y laptop, I swayed from side to side, or lifted my feet off the floor and taped my feet together.

I weighed myself every day and wrote the result in my diary.

It was easy to see that when I ate out at a restaurant I put on weight.

I cut out eating out. When we had a stop for coffee and cake, my husband and I ordered one coffee and one cake. We looked up the calorie counts. He had two thirds. I ate one third.

I hope this helps you. To motivate you. You should consult your doctor who may give you a diet sheet, taking into account your needs and medication.

Diet

No Sugar

Elevenses at 11 a.m. each morning, consisting of half a biscuit with a smear of soft cheese, an apple slice, and half a teacup of apple juice and a glass of water.

First I cut out sugar in my coffee. 

Less Alcohol

I cut out alcohol altogether some months. Otherwise I limited myself to wine with one meal at the weekend and only half a glass.

Less Milk

Later I went onto skimmed milk. 

Not enough result. 

When I stopped losing weight, we changed to low fat yogurt and the slimmest milk.

Less  Dessert

Instead of dessert I ate a piece of fruit.

Smaller Snacks

For elevenses, I had coffee and sometimes a dice size piece of cheese. 

For tea time mid afternoon I had apple juice and a date, or at weekends, for a treat, one third of a scone or crumpet. 

Fruit

Half an hour or an hour after dinner in the evening I had four grapes, or two sections of an orange, or both. With a glass of water.

I never felt hungry.

Useful Website

https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/weight/kg-to-pound.html 

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

 

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Next BHA meetings?

Wednesday July 7th 2021. 7 pm Singapore time on bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha

Meet Angela and the new committee.

Glues of different kinds

 What is contact adhesive? A strong glue which needs two piece to come into contact with each other.

Glues start with the weakest and simplest glues suitable for positioning paper. Some allow you to slide the top piece around and get it straight long before they set.

Paper glues are often like roll on deodorants in small sold sticks at small prices from craft shops. You can wind them up by twisting the base like a lipstick, without touching the glue. Advisable to wear an apron and place an important piece of paper below. Practise on an unimportant objects. Wipe your fingers before touching the front of any drawing or photo.

Shoo goo.

For shoes you want glue which won't pull apart. But you don't want a glue which sets so rigidly that your sole of your shoe cannot flex as your foot bends as you walk along.

Next we come to tougher glues. 

Evostick

The strongest glues stick firm. But you don't want them to glue your fingers together. Nor to glue to the table top the item you are repairing on constructing.

To prevent any danger of making a mess on a precious work surface, it is a good idea to use these stronger glues outside and not on a precious work surface. You might want to wear old clothes or overalls or protective gloves or use tongs.

You can also buy spray on glue. Not cheap. About 20 US dollars.

Read the instructions before starting.

Broken spectacles

The glass fell out of my spectacles. Again. 

First we hunted for the missing teeny screw. We have a kit for mending frames. You can buy the kits online. The kits consist of teeny screw and a teeny screw drier.

You might be able to find the screw - easier at home.

Don't sweep or vacuum clean!

You need strong lights. The overhead light. The table lights. The light from your mobile phone . A torch.

A magnetic picker.

Look from different directions. Look in your clothes. Shake your clothes over a white plate or large with a deep rim. Then you will hear the clink and see the teeny screw.

Glues

 A temporary fix when the thread was worn: superglue. (Ordinary paper blue won't work. See later article on glues.)

The problem is worse if the thread is worn. You cannot get the screw to fit back in. 

While we waited for it to dry, I used those glasses you can buy everywhere. My eyes are different. However, the reading glasses, size one, were good enough for me to read and look at the computer screen.

Opticians

I had already looked for frames in two local shops. The frames (plus lenses!) were all expensive - but looked cheap. I want cheap but look expensive!

So the next hunt is for an optician. Google to find one.

Useful websites

https://www.amazon.sg/Kingsdun-Screwdriver-Eyeglasses-Sunglasses-Spectacle/

https://www.amazon.sg/MagnetStick-Telescoping-Retractable-Neodymium-Extendable/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectacles-Including-Silicone-Assortment-Screwdriver/d