Valfal's favorite articles

Well at long last there is growth in the garden - well the driveway at least. The bluebells are sprouting their leaves etc, and it will be quite a few weeks before the flowers come, but it's just lovely seeing the new growth and know that Spring is on its way. It's great looking out to the driveway and seeing all these little shoots coming up. There are a few celandine and buttercup plants are showing too. It's too cold for me to be outside to weed the driveway and to be hones…

EN HUGSSS WE GOT HOME ABOUT 3PM THIS AFTERNOON. . HAVING COLLECTED THE THEM HAPPY DOGS ON THE WAY HOME YESTERDAY WAS A LNONG DAY STARTING AT3AM SO WE COULD GET ACROSS TO THE OU MEDICAL CENTRE FOR 4.50AM. I HAD GONE AND HAD THE BLOOD DRAWING AT THE LAB THE AFTERNOON BEFORE WHEN WE FIRST ARRIVED ARRIVED. WE HAD A LAYER lOF SLEET AND SLUSH. I WAS SO GLAD WE HAD DRIVEN UP THE AFTERNOON BFOR. AS SOON S I ARRIVED AT THE HOSPITAL I WAS TAKEN OFF FOR AN MRI. THST DONE WITH IT WAS TIME FO…

[EN] Dear members and friends of ipernity! 1) For playing video or audio files, ipernity has meanwhile been upgraded to modern, secure HTML5 elements. However, at this time, files embedded in blogs do still need Adobe Flash Player. 2) While this modernization went off without a hitch, another one had an unexpected side effect: In the blog editor, the “Insert a media” option no longer gives access to your content. Until this bug is fixed we recommend an alternative method . We apolog…

Emily contacted me yesterday to say that her daughter, Ruby, was in love with her octofloops. I'd made the big one for her Christmas present, but because I'd already cut the other one out, I gave it to her as well. Emily sent me this picture of the main octofloop after having been unwrapped ..... I was pleased by how it came out..... I think they look rather cute together - and apparently Ruby thought so too. I was very touched that she was so happy with them, because I know she's…

Emily offered to take me to the surgery this afternoon, so I could have my free flu jab. It was a drop-in clinic, so we thought it would be a good idea to arrive early, so we wouldn't have to wait too long. When we arrived there were a few already sitting in the waiting room, but not too many to get worried about a long wait. I'd been given a ticket with a number on it, 424, which when the nurse eventually came out to start the clinic and called 418, I was quite happy, knowing I only had 6 peop…

I've never had this happen to me before - but yesterday the second bird to fly into the window occurred. I was sitting doing some sewing, when I heard this awful "clump" against my window and I looked up and there were feathers galore floating down the window as this little bird slowly slid down out of sight. I got up and opened the window to see if he was okay - but he had a little bit of blood coming out of his mouth. I picked him up and could see his neck was broken. He breathed his last…

Dear friends, I have just had some very sad news. My good friend stormlizard (John Wellbelove) has just passed away. Please see his son's message on John's blog www.ipernity.com/blog/stormlizard/4727834 I am so sad to hear of this. I knew he was suffering from lung cancer, but did not realise he had so little time left.. :-((

Well it's half way through September and last week it was raining and it was cold, but Summer doesn't seem to want to leave us, she's holding on for grim death, because yesterday and today has been lovely and sunny. Apparently the hurricane from America has decided to come across the Atlantic and visit us but we'd rather it didn't. There isn't any wind to speak of at the moment, so hopefully it's moved away. We've seen the damage it's done over there so we certainly don't want that kind of destr…

My neighbour and good friend popped up to see me yesterday afternoon. It was so lovely to see her, because it had been quite a while since we'd had a chat. She'd been cat-sitting for her daughter and also having to pop out to Spain to see her mother to check she's okay - and also her daughter is due to give birth next week!!!! It didn't seem all that long ago that she first told me that she was going to be a granny to another baby! Well I realised that I'd made some soft toys for the other two c…

I wrote to John the other day, asking him if he was okay as I hadn't seen him on here for a while. I was getting quite concerned as he'd said his pacemaker was due for renewal. Anyway I got a quick message this afternoon, from his son Brian, who told me that John was rushed into hospital because he wasn't feeling too good. Brian has said that he'll let me know how John is when he gets more information. So I'm sure there are people out there who will join me in wishing John a speedy recovery a…

I created the header image because the United States is facing its greatest threat ever – a coup that will forever destroy the Constitution, extinguish freedom and have significant, profound and lasting consequences for not only America but the entire world as human dignity and fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, thought, religion and life are eliminated and governments determine and control the dissemination of information, shape our individual destiny and even decide who may have off…

EN I AM BACK FROM THE 2ND FOLLOW-UP APPOINTMENT WITH THE CARDIOLOGIST. I HAVE HAD RI KEEP A RECORD 4 TIMES A DAY OF MY BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE, BOTH HAVE BEEN VERY HIGH... IN HIGH STROKE RANGE (I HAVE ATRUGGLED ALL MY LIFE WITH VERY HIGH NUMBERS IN BOTH. ANYWAY... MEDICINE CHANGE ONCE AGAIN. THEY HAVE TO TRY AND GET MY BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE DOWN. I HAVEGRO GO BACK IN 6 WEEKS AGAIN BUT GOOD NEWS THIS MORNING FOR MY MRI . I HAVE AN MRI APPOINTMENT ON THIS FRIDAY 4…

People often wonder how the images become picked to ipernity Explore . And here I try to figure it out and explain, as well as I can. The very first thing one needs to understand is that Explore is more or less an overview on what is popular during last few days. However, popularity is a tricky concept. One should keep in mind that what is popular may not match with any subjective or shared understanding on what is quality . If number of ipernity members like images of fences, or more p…

This is only a quickie, but I just had to share with you.... Emily, my helper/cleaner, took some baby spider plants a few months ago, from my larger plant... I'd put the babies in water and told her to wait until the roots showed and then plant them into soil. Well when she came today, she said that she was wondering why there were tall thin shoots coming out of the top of the plant. Then she looked at my plant in the kitchen and said - that's exactly what is happening with her p…

EN THE PREICARDITIS MEDS PRESCRIBED FOR MY HEART PROBLEM DID NOTHING AT ALL. TODAY WAS THE FOLLOWUP WITH DR MIKE THE CARDIOLOGIST. HE IS GOING TO TRY NEW MEDS AND SEE IF THEY HELP AT ALL. BEING A DOGGIE PERSONE I AM VERY SHY OF PREDNISONE. EVEN MY WONDERFUL VET WILL ONLY PRESCRIBE IT IF THERE IS NOTHING ELSE LEFT FOR A DOGGIE. IT TAKE YEARS OFF LIFE. BUT.. AS DR MIKE Sid we are not looking to this S LONGTREM.. BUT MORE A KNOCK OUT PUNCH ! IT IS JUST A 6 DAY PACK HE ALSO IS RESTATING…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6imIxpEWCA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF1iZH1F40s

All of us who lived that 9/11 day eighteen years ago will never forget. That fateful Tuesday started out full of promise with a cloudless sky and mild temperatures until the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of 1 World Trade Center at 8:46 AM. A second plane, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower seventeen minutes later. By 10:28 AM both towers had collapsed and New York City was shrouded in darkness with the Statue of Liberty the only beacon of light as it…

Well as far as I'm concerned, living in this part of the UK, we've had a great summer. We've been very lucky to have avoided the severe weather that other parts of the country has endured. We've had lots of sun, but not the scorching heat that other parts have had, we've hardly had any rain, just the odd small shower, whereas other parts have been totally drenched and in parts flooded. We've had some wind, but nothing like the extreme high winds others have had - I swear my little area has it's…

I saw this rather interesting news shared on social media, and thought it may interest also peeps around here: ➽ Camera sales are falling sharply by Om Malik So, supposedly phone cameras are taking over. Whether this is a bad or good thing depends on the point of view. Someone could call that as a "progress", and some may see it as a "paradigm shift". Or it can be even a "philosophical revolution". We all can't be masters of photography and professionals, but that should not stop…

[EN] Dear members and friends of ipernity! 1) The number of new club accounts created in the first 8 months of 2019, now +74, already exceeds the total number of new club accounts created in 2018 (+62). The number of active club accounts even increased by +82 from 1,298 to 1,380 since the beginning of the year. This makes us very optimistic. 2) In addition, members of the VIEW Fotocommunity are currently interested in finding a new home for their photo hobby due to the closure of…