Marty

I suppose I'm going to have to award you a Gold Star, as well (if only for the Christmas suggestions).

Name three days that follow each other consecutively, without using the words Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday.

Tu es incorrigible, ma fée méchante.

Without looking at the hidden answer, I'm going to take a guess that it's a.... [EDIT] Turns out I was correct. *High fives myself*

Getting there, Albert. Getting there. Slowly, slowly, wins the race.

And you, bro. A bit cooler here today than recently. About 6°C/43°F here at the moment. Was in double figures (C) over the past number of days. No rain, though, which is a blessing. Outlook is that the temps will rise again over the next four or five days, but there may be some rain. Sun not putting in a great amount of appearance.

Greetings, young Albert! Once again, you're catching me during another gardening break.

Would I even be here had she not survived? I think she may have suffered just a little bit of survivor guilt, though. Apparently, as she was recovering, there was another young woman brought into hospital suffering from similar burns to her own. She overheard one of the nurses suggest to the the doctor to treat her with penicillin, the same as had been done to to my mam. Penicillin was in its infancy at the time, and was also in short supply. The doctor's reply was that he was uncertain as to whether he could get enough penicillin to treat her with, and also said that they didn't even know for sure whether it was the penicillin that had actually saved my mother, or whether she might have survived anyway. They didn't use it on the second woman, and she died from infections entering through the damaged areas of skin.

I tend to be extra careful when it comes to fires and the burning of things. My own mother suffered quite severe burns when her nightdress caught fire a number of years before I was born. She was looking in a mirror hung over the mantelpiece whilst brushing her hair, and was lucky to survive. Her sister rolled her into the fireside mat to smother the flames. Apparently the hospital didn't expect her to survive. They used the newly discovered penicillin to prevent infections entering through the burnt areas of skin, and she needed extensive skin grafts. Her left leg and arm were both badly scarred, but she was fortunate that she could cover those with long sleeved blouses and dresses (she tended to wear trousers in her later years). She was also fortunate that the flames didn't burn her face. She used to tell us that one day whilst she was in hospital drifting in and out of consciousness, she heard someone laughing outside the door, and someone else say: "Hush! That poor girl the other side of the door is dying!" And that's when she decided that she had to prove them wrong.

And you, bro! (And everyone else, as well )

Past few days have been mild (for Ireland), dry, and sunny. Great weather for garden work. After being a wee bit naughty this morning, and popping just over the border into Northern Ireland to post a birthday card to a grand-niece in England who will be 3 years old on Saturday (as mail can take forever to get between the Republic of Ireland and England at the moment), I started the bonfire of all the ivy, Russian vine, and branches cut from the boundary hedge when I got back home. I'm slowly gathering branches, etc, from all round the garden to dispose of on it. I reckon I'll have to continue that job tomorrow. But there should be enough heat left in the embers to rekindle the fire.

Very Albert-ish.

Greetings, young Albert!

Possibly because I've experienced it on occasions. for commenting, Parker

Cheers, Gary. I've been there myself. More than once. And yes, it is lovely - at least as a memory. But, sometimes, those twenty hours really can feel like an eternity.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, @starboardtack!

Just twenty four hours And yet an eternity... One day without him

I Don't Wanna Grow Up...

It's all voluntary work, Albert.

Greetings, young Albert! (Just finished a two hour Zoom session. Off into the garden for a few hours, now. )

That reminded me of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, which I visited in 2013 (after climbing Kilimanjaro) Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact and unfilled volcanic caldera (a collapsed volcano), and is indeed the flagship tourism attraction of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Measuring an area of 260 square kilometres (100 square miles) and extending about 20km (12.5 miles) in diameter, the crater is actually a huge caldera of a volcano that collapsed to a depth of 610m (2,000 ft) about three million years ago. Over the course of time, streams of water made their way down the crater to form little ponds, and vegetation developed all over, attracting a wide range of wild animals. The crater is host to over 25,000 animals including populations of large mammals such as elephants, buffaloes, elands, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, hippos, and rhinos, as well as such carnivores as lions, hyenas, jackals, and cheetahs. The ponds, or rather small lakes on the floor of the crater also host a wide-range of water birds including flamingoes and pelicans. Away from the crater floor, the forests on the crater rim is home to leopards, reedbuck, warthogs, and forest birds to complete a natural zoo, and Africa’s ultimate destination to see the “Big Five” (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo). Source: https://www.ncaa.go.tz/pages/craters#:~:text=Ngorongoro Crater It is part of the Serengeti, which extends northwards all the way into into Kenya, and along which thousands of wildebeests, zebras, and other ungulate animals migrate both ways throughout the year. The full trip is 800 km (500 mi). Annually, around 250,000 wildebeest and 30,000 plains zebras die usually due to predation, exhaustion, thirst, or disease. On the journey they will have to pass the Grumeti and Mara rivers though, and 3,000 crocodiles that wait and suddenly lunge at them. For every one wildebeest captured by the crocodiles, 50 drown. It is a reason why the Serengeti is so famous. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serengeti_National_Park#Great_migration

Monochrome. Week 48 of 52... Daffodil shoots (bulbs planted the week before Christmas).

So are we. And no immediate change in sight.

Great news! ♥️ Latest estimate for me (according to the online vaccine calculator): Given a vaccination rate of 81,771 a week and an uptake of 74%, you should expect to receive your first dose of vaccine between 27/2/2021 and 6/4/2021. Depending on the date of the first inoculation, you should then get your second dose by between 20/3/2021 and 27/4/2021. I'm expecting the later dates to be more likely...