The Secret Life of Trees
My friend just told me something rather wonderful about
the trees in the forest. Apparently, they are all connected to and
support each other.
Even the tiniest tree is part of a wonderful support system that means that it can grow, even in the shade of bigger trees.
The whole forest is connected via an amazing web of yellow and white
fungi that carry carbon, water and nutrients from the roots of one tree
to the other. The bigger trees provide the most support.
No tree stands alone.
Next time I go for a walk in the woods, (there are no forests here
where I live,) I will be thinking about this amazing this incredible
ecosystem with the fungi busily helping the trees to keep connected.
Image Credit »
https://pixabay.com/en/forest-autumn-forest-colorful-trees-63275/ by LoggaWiggler
Uncle's Garden
The smell came first. Wallflowers and snapdragons. No adult
ever told me I could not pick a head or so to play with. In the
scorching sun with no hat on, I had flower puppets that talked and even
became friends.
Droppìng these I would walk down meandering cinder paths, my hands
reaching out to pull fragrant petals from red and white roses,yellow
too, guarded by thorns. I ignored the scratches and entered worlds of
castles and fairies and presentations of exotic perfume pressed from the
sweet smelling petals and filĺed my tiny plastic basket with more that
had escaped the bush and fallen to the ground.
The jump over the tiny privet landed me then on a lawn that always
seemed patterned with straight lines, freshly cut. The smell of newly
mown grass fresh in the air, I would make my way to jump in and scatter
the pile neatly placed by the bin at the end of the garden and return to
the house for boiled egg in a striped blue egg cup and soldiers of
toast on a matching plate, having climbed mountains and crossed valleys
in my imagination.
So, to bed. The curtains closing the world of daytime dreams and
playtime gardens and tiredness pulling me into the world of sleep.
Image Credit »
https://pixabay.com/en/gardening-can-garden-equipment-575442/ by OpenClipartVectors
Lately, Eastenders; an English soap on television severa l
times a week here,has had a storyline involving post-partum depression
and bi-polar disorder. A family member with inside experience of the
illness tells me it is well done. However, what I would really like to
see is one of these soaps use a story line and create public awareness
of another iĺlness that can affect someone having a child.
We all expect a pregnant person, unless for some reason they did not
want to have a baby, to be glowing with happiness. They can be
apprehensive or fearful, but there is also that feeling of joy.
People expect pregnant people to be happy.
Imagine then, all the worries and fears becoming so overwhelming that
they tip the person into depression and psychosis before the birth.
A much wanted pregnancy then becomes a nightmare. Drugs, with the risk
of harm to the baby, are needed, offered and sometimes refused. Days
that should be fun, exploring baby catalogues and getting things ready
for baby are lost to the iĺlness. A first, longed for pregnancy ends in a
psychiatric hospital. Who wants to go into labour from there?
Fear of losing the baby to care, of never being a proper mother, of always being ill, mar the joy of the birth.
Mother and baby units do a good job, but when every photo of the first
few months is taken there, it is always going to be a picture of a
bitter sweet memory.
There is no reason why another pregnancy should be the same, but the
joy and magic of carrying that particular child has been stolen.
The person who explained this to me recovered and became an excellent
Mum, but I remember looking for information or others going through
something similar. It was not easy. Some women even hide their symptoms because they are so
different from what society expects. You don't find leaflets in doctor's
surgeries and few support groups exist.
Yet, for some women,this is the reality of pregnancy.
Image Credit »
https://pixabay.com/en/pregnant-beach-sunset-mother-422982/ by DanEvans
The view from my window today is plain, blank and rather
boring. Yesterday and the day before a white frost painted the ground
white and refused to melt, even in the face of a watery sun. Before that, wind and rain worked interesting patterns in puddles and mud and gave movement and feeling to the scenery.
Today,it is as if the artist has laid down his brush. The sky is
white and the grass and flowers and trees all look as if they are
waiting for an inspiration to sweep the view. Nothing is moving. It is
just as if the canvas has been set up, ready, still and waiting, but the
painter has not yet arrived.
Image Credit »
https://pixabay.com/en/painter-artist-canvas-creative-981876/ by marybettiniblank
 |
| picture via Pixabay |
Lately I have had more trouble with phone companies. EE
overcharged me. It turns out they failed to add a credit for five
months, given to me for a series of issues leading to poor service. I
repeatedly asked them to look at the account history. Finally, having
been told different things by different people, I rang to pay my overdue
bill. This time I got someone with common sense who agreed the previous
bills WERE lower. I was credited with £50. The really annoying thing is
I paid the £86 they said I owed, first.
Oh we could say that is just EE, but I put in Broadband. The man in the
Virgin shop sold it to me as "you get a month's free trial, then you
send in the agreement." He was clear I would only pay £26 something. The
first bill was double. I had to go back to the shop to sort it out. We
agreed in the shop I needed to pay £19 something as I paid a £25 deposit
for the installation. I rang them. The person I got through to agreed
this was the right amount and I paid it.
Imagine my horror when I recieved the next bill for £72.00. It took ages to sort this.
There is apparently no deal involving a month's trial. They claimed the
salesperson and the person who took the payment call had it wrong. I
still owed £10 from the last month. There was a late fee, a fee for not
setting up a direct debit and a supposedly free call cost me £10.
Eventually, they knocked £35 off this bill and then told me that I owed
£7.50 and the service was going to be restricted if I did not pay it.
This made no sense as the next payment was not due.
I argued and they finally sorted that.
Yesterday I rang them again with queries about the supposedly free conference call. Hey presto. The charge has been refunded.
The moral of all this is that you never take the first person's word
for anything when you have a complaint with a phone company.
Never ever set up a direct debit as they will take too much and put
your account overdrawn. Pay early instead so the don't charge you for
allowing them to rob you blind.
I have no idea if this really worked. Tell them that even if you are
paying the bill, you are still contacting OFCOM (If the problem, like
mine, is a serious one.) You are so fed up you want to concel the
contract and you will be writing, as you are a writer, a review.
I now have an EE account in credit. I have assurances from Virgin my
next bill will be correct. I recorded the calls on an app I have on my
phone and made the one employee in EE who finally agreed to look at my
payment history send me a text saying what he had done. They are halving
my bills to the end of the contract. It only occurred to me after I put
the phone down that this was done because I was supposedly in financiak
difficuly, but the difficulty was created by EE overcharging me in the
first place.
A previous call when OFCOM gave me the number of an EE executive got me
a new phone to see if it would sort out people having to text when they
were trying to ring. I had been complaining for over a year!
I thought I had taken on giants and finally won. Not so. I have paid EE
£86 when I needed to pay £30 something and even if this wipes my next
bill the £50 was needed now, for other things, and it has all been
rather stressful. The man who sorted it out said some of the notes on my
account were just incomprehensible.
He also told me that changes are coming in the mobile phone world. I
really do hope they will be of benefit to the customer. We had a very
long chat. I got "lucky" and got someone who was willing to listen and
who had worked in the industry a long time.
One change I would very much like to see is that the charge for not
using a direct debit is abolished. These companies make too many
mistakes.
I have literally chewed the ear off of Virgin and EE. My account ended
in EE's collections as I could not pay the high bill a few months ago
and that might affect my credit rating. I might have been able to do so
had the bill been correct.
Oh, and when you take out a contract. Make the salesperson write
everything they say on the contract itself. I really did think a month's
free trial from Virgin sounded too good to be true, but the salesman
insisted. EE merely sold me a contract telling me that I would get a
free film each montn. This offer was an old one that had ended. They
record their calls. They would have mine. Call after call querying how
to get these free deals. I think that it may actually nean the contract
is void.
The trouble is, as with Virgin. The selling point is not in writing. It is my word against theirs.
Looking out of my window, I notice the sky had turned red
behind the clouds. A fierce dawn that seems to want to announce a
storm. I hear wind howling. Strangely, until I read the news and
discover that the wind and rain and snow will batter much of the
country, this area seems not to be affected.
The clouds melt into each other and the sky is orange and as yet, no
rain although I can see wet pavements and grass left over from an
earlier fall.
Considering a walk, I watch while the view from my window changes to
a strange, grey blue and the silence continues. Just below the eaves of
the house I see remaining colour, but now we have a sombre grey
morning. The heavens have closed their curtains and there is no drama in
the view at all now. The sky is one, plain colour, turning, maybe, even
slightly blue.
I am waiting and watching and wondering. Will this storm pass by? I think so.
It is silent now, and the wind has ceased to blow.
Except, that hear it comes again. That same howl. The sky is whiter, lighter now and there is water in the wind.
I know! I know! It is after 12 and I am still in the
Onesie. I did not invent this adult babygro and held out against them
for years, but I got one for Christmas, and now I am addicted. The
trouble is, I now do not get dressed. I flip flop around the house in
what is actually, a think looking like a giant babygro and get no
further. It is warm, comfortable and the only danger is that someone
might actually knock at the door. Flip, flop, I am still in the Onesie
and with a confession to make.
The other day, I went to the shop in my Onesie. It was nearly
evening and a complete Onesie day. Working from home is Onesie heaven.
However, I really did need supplies. The larder was bare.
I went to the shop in my onesie with my coat over the top and my
boots on and I hoped for the best. I really do wonder if anyone noticed
and what they would have thought if they had. I didnt tell a soul, but
is there a whisper going round the village:
"That lady went to the shop in her Onesie?"
I do not know and really I do not much care. I am converted to Oneseing and may even go to town dressed in it yet.
Meanwhile, flip, flop, here I sit, happy on the sofa with Freya the
Catblog Cat snoozing peacefully beside me, typing away here and on MyLot
and am not at all ashamed to be found, flip flop and still in my
Onesie.
The picture is from Pixabay
