What's the very worst thing about...

breaking your right arm? For me, anyway, the only thing I am finding impossible is doing my hair. It just isn't possible to wrestle waist length hair into submission with one hand, especially when it's the 'wrong' one. I'm sure I remember a time when I was surrounded by little girls who liked nothing better than fiddling with other people's hair, especially mine because there was so much of it, bu I can't find anyone now.

The (female) friend we were with for the weekend when it happened used to work in a hairdressers, although not, obviously, as a stylist, but couldn't get the concept of winding it into a bun and holding it against my head so I could slap a clip on it. Ron took several goes to manage getting an elastic band (well three, at 12 inch intervals) round it, but mastered the technique eventually shortly before I got the big scissors out. Not that they would have done me much good - they just don't work in the left hand at all.

Eating is also tricky and will have to remain a private struggle for now, cutting bread isn't very good, but most other things are possible. I have had a shower, with my right arm taped into a plastic bag, and I have hung out the washing. I have put the bread machine on, and I've found the bus timetable for my appointment at the fracture clinic on Friday. I have told Ron I can't wash up...

"It's for your own protection"!!

This is a bit of a rant. All those who approve of and understand banks and their call centres, ignore me, I'm just a grumpy old woman.

Last Saturday, I tried to get money from an ATM with my A&L debit card. It was refused, but as these things are not unknown I didn't pay much attention, just used another card from a different bank. Yesterday the same card was again rejected, this time in the Co-op, so as I had to go to the town where the nearest branch is this morning I thought I would call in and get things sorted out.

After the cashier had passed the card through her machine and confirmed that it was blocked, she called the 'branch hotline', was put on hold for five minutes or so, then went through several minutes of security checks involving details from my driving licence and my account before being told that they were unable to deal with it in that department, and that she should call another (callcentre) number. The first attempt involved another long wait, with her explaining the problem then being told to hand the phone to me to answer about ten questions, including whether I had an overdraft facility (yes), details of any direct debits and the colour of my grandmother's eyes. Then I was told that they could not deal with this in that department and I should call again to ask for an advisor. At this stage I passed the phone back to the cashier, but she fared no better; the girl who had taken all the details attempted (possibly) to transfer the call, but failed.

The cashier tried again, with much the same results. By this time I had been in the branch for about 45 minutes and was getting a little frustrated. This time, however, the interrogator actually managed to put me through to an advisor. Who advised me that the card had been blocked because they had detected some unusual activity. Had I used the card at 9.58pm on 13th June to pay Kodak Galleries a very small sum? No, hardly, I was in or around the swimming pool at the local leisure centre at that time. Right then, that's it, the account is blocked, your card (and your husband's) are now dead and new ones will arrive in about ten days. In the meantime, should you need any money, you are to phone this number, pass through the security system (what colour were my grandmother's eyes?) tell them how much money I would like from which post office and then they would phone the PO and tell them to expect me and my cheque book. Or turn up at the branch with said cheque book and my driving licence or passport and they will phone the branch hotline for you and get authorisation to part with the cash. Could you possibly authorise them to give me some money now, as I have my cheque book etc with me and I've been through your security process three times already? Thought not.

After waiting another ten minutes or so for the branch hotline to answer so that the cashier could go through the rigmarole again and ask for some cash for me I gave up and went home penniless. I had been in there for well over an hour and had other things to do. I have to confess that I did express my dissatisfaction to the cashier, not with her but with the system, and even muttered darkly about closing accounts, etc.

On reflection, I suppose that some security is obviously necessary, and it was really rather clever of them to detect a fraudulent transaction, especially for a 'negligible sum', but what should theoretically be simple (phone up, get authorisation, carry on with a smile) falls down because the phones aren't answered quickly enough because the operators are taking too long asking too many security questions before they even know what the problem is and then not being able to transfer calls to the correct department or to an advisor who can actually advise. Which means that clients are then having to make more calls and go through it all again, thus clogging up the lines for the next customer in the queue. And it's no comfort to be told that these calls are all free so it doesn't matter; it does, my time matters. In the end today I left without completing the transaction because I had been in branch for 75 minutes and had other things to do. And I am retired, so my time is more my own than most people's.

It's no use complaining, either. After all, it is all for my protection!

Wildlife Photographer? Not Me...

I glanced out of the window this afternoon to see two collared doves on the posh bird feeder, one on the tray and the other sitting right on the top, following the action with very careful attention. What a photo opportunity, I thought. Got the camera, remembered to switch it on before I got to the window, carefelly snuck the window wider open, aimed and fired. Bird on top is out of focus, bird on tray cannot be seen behind windowsill, whole thing is lopsided, etc. Then I remembered that Ron had shown me the zoom facility only last week. My 'subjects' were still posing nicely, so I went back for another go. Unfortunately, I forgot that the zoom is very, very loud, so I got a beautiful close up picture of an empty bird feeder in an empty garden, with two collared doves way in the background (and out of focus) sitting on next door's back fence.

My brother in law takes pictures of bats catching moths and that sort of thing. I'm beginning to understand just how much patience and practice it takes to produce photographs of that sort of quality, when a simple portrait of a posing bird in daylight is beyond me. Still, there are collared doves in my garden to add to the list...

Goldfinches...

...two of them, in my garden! Well, to be absolutely honest, one stayed on the fence while the other experimentally tested the spilled seeds on the ground under the feeder, but at least it's a start. They tend to go around in flocks, like the sparrows, so I hope they will tell their friends.

The picture is from www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Restormel to Lanhydrock walk

Yesterday the dog and I went for a 'proper' walk. We walk every day, of course, but usually down the coombe to the creek or around Churchtown community nature reserve. Every so often, though, we get together with some friends and go somewhere. As someone else decides the route, it is always a surprise and often a delight.

The weather forecast wasn't all that promising; it was quite cool in the morning and heavy showers were threatened, but as it turned out it was perfect walking weather, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze.

We met in Restormel Castle car park. I had never visited the castle, and I still haven't seen it, because it is invisible from the car park (surrounded by trees, although at the top of a hill) and I didn't have the time or the inclination to pay to look around it. There isn't all that much left, apparently. The first part of the walk goes in the a perfectly straight and almost level line through a farmyard, between fields, past a sewage works and more fields to a gate at the edge of the Lanhydrock estate. The walking is easy, and the views across the valley are typically pastoral and attractive.

Lanhydrock is a National Trust property described as 'the finest house in Cornwall... ... with 450 acres of woodland' ( www.cornwall-online.co.uk/heritage-trail/heritage-national-trust/lanhydrock/Welcome.asp ), and from the gate we entered the estate from the footpath winds round through the woods and slightly uphill to the house itself. As you get nearer to the house the woodland changes from native English to more and more exotic species, mostly magnolias and rhododendrons, and opens out into a spectacular vista of crenellated towers and green parkland.

The house and immediate environs are not dog friendly (there were three collies, including mine), although they do provide a place to tie them up with shade and water, and we weren't there to look at the house anyway, so we turned right down the main treelined avenue and found a spot to have our picnic.

After eating, we continued down to the main gate and turned right on the road the short distance to five arched medieval Respryn bridge, newly rebuilt after an articulated lorry listened to his Satnav instead of using his eyes. It crosses the river Fowey and the current is quite strong, as Ty discovered. He loves a swim, and his favourite game is to allow himself to go downstream as fast as the current and his legs will take him, then battle his way back, barking happily all the way, then do it again. Under the bridge, though, he aimed for the end arch, but was turned round and taken backwards through the second one. At least five times that I saw. He would have stayed there all day doing it over and over again, but we had to move on...

Plan A was to return to Restormel Castle by road, making it a circular walk, but it was a little busy so instead we reentered the estate and followed an attractive riverside path for a while, crossed by a wooden bridge and stopped to let the dogs play in the water again (the other two don't swim, but love to splash about) and meandered through the woods again until we got to the gate where we had first entered and retraced our steps along the good straight path to Restormel.

Greenfinch in my Garden!

Yesterday I wasn't sure, as I only caught a back glimpse as she flew away, but today I am certain; a female greenfinch is using the new posh bird feeder! That makes sparrows, blackbirds (mostly on the ground) magpies, jackdaws, wood pigeon patrolling for rejected seeds and one greenfinch! Word must be getting round...

There's a new plant in my garden, too. Apart from finally identifying the big red bush that is so attractive to bees and sparrows (jasminum beesianum) I have been given two cuttings of aeonium arboretum, a weird looking succulent with a rosette of almost black leaves at the top of a bare stem. My little jasmine cutting is growing apace, and the bits of ivy I stuck in at the base of the wall are all going strong. Last night I experimentally tried sellotaping them to the wall - if the sellotape lasts long enough for them to realise there's a wall behind them, perhaps they will start to cover it.

Jackdaw v Magpie

The posh bird feeding station is still not attracting any small birds apart from sparrows, but the big boys are making their presence felt. I have just watched a jackdaw eject a magpie from the feeding tray and defend it against an attempted return. This surprised me, as of the two magpies are larger and I'd have thought them more aggressive, but no. Magpies drink a lot; sparrows occasionally take a quick sip, other birds don't seem to bother, but the magpies actually seem to relish the water, even sometimes dropping their food in and eating it from the bowl.

At the same time as the jackdaw and magpie were jockeying for position on the feeder, a wood pigeon has come in and made itself very much at home pecking away on the ground below the fence seed feeder, obviously clearing up the sparrows' leftovers.

And having said the other day that there were no collared doves about, I have just seen a pair, not in my garden but on the path at the edge of the coombe.