She Hasn’t Forgotten Us

The morning of this warm and sunny day was rather abortive. One problem I have not yet been able to solve is that there is no longer a link to my About Derrick Knight page at the top of each of my posts. This applies to all my earlier posts. The snippet that appears at the bottom is taken from my Gravatar. Apparently About Derrick Knight is a page, not a post. My efforts to turn it into a post were so unsuccessful that I took a break and accompanied Jackie on a Garden Centre search for a garden arch similar to that shown in these two pictures produced this afternoon:

They show a sparrow perched on one that, supporting a blue solanum, stands beside the Wisteria Arbour now dominated by Paul’s Scarlet rose. We wanted one of these because the natural rust does not eat into it and, more importantly, it is easy to assemble. None was available.

The pictures above were taken during an afternoon visit from Danni, Andy, and Ella, who had, keeping the requisite social distancing come to “wander in the garden and run away”. We welcomed them and sat far enough apart in the patio.

While our great niece wandered among the flowers in the dress made by Nanna Helen, her father ensured she was kept safe and offered the occasional helping hand. As will be seen, she has not lost her penchant for pointing.

Underneath the wisteria our great niece acquired an ornamental ladybird which she clutched for the rest of the trip. She was perfectly happy to put it back and wave goodbye, as she did to us, when it was time to go.

Although Ella was not able to enter the house and root for familiar toys, we were very pleased that she has not forgotten us during the lockdown.

This evening we dined on roast gammon and chicken thighs; sage and onion stuffing; creamy potato and swede mash; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; and tender cabbage, with tasty gravy with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Syrah.

122 comments

  1. How wonderful to have your loved ones close! Not being able to hug the special people in our lives is for me the most difficult part of social distancing.

  2. It looks like such a lovely day with family in your beautiful garden. It’s wonderful you can get together. It is hard to not be with loved ones.

    Sorry about the WP problems. They seem to make things difficult there with every change.

  3. What a picture perfect day. I’m happy you were able to see your family, even if it was at a distance. I still haven’t been able to see my parents. It’s been really hard. As for little Danni, I definitely see a future gardener in the making.

  4. Well there’s a definite plus to having a big garden! It’s wonderful that the little family could pop in without bursting any bubbles. I’m not sure I could restrain myself from giving that little Ella a cuddle though.

  5. Wonderful seeing children in a garden. They know how to explore. I once did a post on a page. The only way to get rid of it was to delete it and prepare a new post. Good luck.

  6. Oh dear. You must have had a seniors moment and hit page not post. mmm… Did you say a few days ago that you were using the new editor? I was given the choice and closed the link. Perhaps the new system has thrown it out.

    I love having great nieces. I had one and then a second as from last Wednesday. I also one great nephew with another on the way. I think they will be the closest I’ll get to having “greats”. They’re just as lovable and can be spoiled too.

    1. Thanks very much, Chrissy. The new editor will become the default on 1st. June. I have begun it early to try to get my head round it. Having done so, every single one of my earlier posts has been similarly configured with no About link. I couldn’t even find it myself until I clicked on pages.

  7. That was a real treat in spite of the distancing. I am grappling with the difference between a page and a post too but doubtless all will become clear in the course of time.

    1. Thanks a lot, Tootlepedal. I tried one of their tutorial videos. They move the curser about as fast as they talk. I guess we’ll just have to figure out what we need.

  8. What a lovely visit. Thanks goodness we can do these socially distanced visits to see each other. I think a page is something on a different subject, like About me or a topic–if you wanted to have book reviews in a different place. A post is what you do every day, to our delight, and it’s on a page…

  9. Such gorgeous pictures Derrick and what a sweet little girl.
    How strange about your About Me page. My reader has been doing weird things lately and so many WP sites have dropped off. But I guess in the grand scheme of things it’s minor. Stay well.

  10. It was so nice to see Ella and her parents enjoying the garden. I can understand why they would want to wander there and also understand why Ella did not forget you.

  11. The garden must be equivalent to woods to Ella, albeit flowery, full of mysteries and curiosities. I guess she will never tire of pointing, and she will certainly remember the grand couple who lives in that exotic, playful place.

  12. Oh Ella is sooo adorable it must be hard not to scoop her up and give her a big cuddle. Look at those cute pigtails! And now she can toddle about, the garden is probably her preferred go-to place.

    My understanding of post vs page is the latter is static for non-changing, timeless, matter, such as your “About Me” or “Contact” pages. You’ll note it never has a publish date on it, for example.
    If you think of how many web pages these days are really created on a blogging platform such as WordPress, you could liken it to your online retailer. The who, what, where, when information is static (page/s), and the products on offer change weekly or seasonally (posts).
    I haven’t switched WP versions, so not sure if this has changed, but suggest you try getting into it via My Sites > Pages; or My Sites > WP Admin > Page. Double-check your About Me page still exists. You don’t really want to turn it into a post.
    Then check why it is not showing. It might be at : Settings > Reading
    Or it may be in your hierarchy: Appearance > Menus
    Or, it may be none of those 🙂

    1. Thanks very much, Gwen. When I am fully awake and have girded my loins I’ll have another go. In fact the page does still exist, so I’ll make those last two checks.

  13. Lovely. I think my youngest granddaughter (7 months) has forgotten me, she looked confused and I made her cry last week when I visited. Will have to put that right when all of this is over. Thanks to Dominic Cummings I was thinking that I might declare an emergency and go again soon!

  14. Hello Derrick, I’ve just finished writing a poem about your “Hedgerow Fairies” article from 21st May, Would it be alright for me to use some of your “Fairy” photos in my post… hopefully with your permission I’ll post the article tomorrow …

  15. It makes me smile to see a child with a love of nature in her heart. Have you changed themes, Derrick, either on purpose or by accident? I can hardly believe just using the new editor has made such a difference. It seems like you are using a theme which is just one page.

      1. The skin for your content (words, pictures etc) is called a theme. The content looks different, depending on what theme you use for it. It looks to me as if you have accidentally changed theme recently. It looks good, but it different and seems to be all one page. That is why any other pages don’t show. You don’t want your About Page to be a post because it would gradually be hidden as new posts are published. I might be able to help if you fancy having a go to put it right, but it would be handy to know what theme you were using before. If you want to try, now or in the future, send me a note through my contact form.

        1. Thanks very much, Susan. You may have hit on the explanation. I may come back to you, but first I have to find out what theme I was using before.

          1. That’s why your font changed. I could help you change the theme back, but an obvious complication is we don’t know what it was. If you have a follower using the same theme they might have recognised it.

          2. There might have been a default theme back then. It is possible to test out different themes and then save the one you like best. On the My Home page (the irritating one) there are ‘Quick Links’. One of them is ‘Change theme’. If you click on that, you’ll see all the current themes and can test them out (to a point) without enabling them. When you make the decision to change, the odd thing sometimes needs sorting out, but it is all very possible. And bear in mind, it seems you have changed by accident, so you are already in the position where you need some tweaks.

          3. Just off to give it a go, Susan. In fact I activated Mayland intentionally, not realising it was a theme, or what that would do, so maybe there won’t be much tweaking required – say’s he optimistically. Thanks once again.

          4. Hello again, Susan. Have followed this process and got as far as this:

            You can choose what’s displayed on the homepage of your site. It can be posts in reverse chronological order (classic blog), or a fixed/static page. To set a static homepage, you first need to create two Pages. One will become the homepage, and the other will be where your posts are displayed.
            Your homepage displays
            Your latest posts
            A static page
            Homepage
            + Add New Page
            Posts page
            + Add New Page
            Hide Homepage Title
            Check to hide the page title, if your homepage is set to display a static page.

            It seems I am stuck at this point because I’m not really following this home/static page stuff.

            SueW has also offered help and I have told her that you have got me this far 🙂

      2. If you are happy with your theme and happy with the blog being the home page*, then we need to look at the menu. I have a question first, but no matter your answer, we need to change or activate your menu so the absconding About page reappears.

        *To clarify, you can either have a site that is all blog so all visitors usually arrive at the blog, or a site that is more like a website, where the main landing page is a home page and the blog page is a seperate one. At the moment you have a site that is all blog, one main page, with the blog posts appearing in order, each new one going in at the top. If people land on derrickjknight.com they will go direct to your blog. I have a website style one, but I am not sure there is much advantage to it as often people land on the home page and don’t know how to find the blog. For example, if you type susanrushton.net you go to my home page which you have probably never seen, then you have to click again to get on to my blog. (The experience of reading in The Reader is completely different and we don’t control that.)

        Step 1: Can you confirm that what you have is what you want? i.e. you like your theme, and you like visitors landing directly on your blog rather than having to visit a home page first.

        I am very happy to explain more clearly if this is unclear. And of course if this is already fixed, just let me know!

        1. I can confirm that what I have is what I want. If you see today’s post you will know that I had to stop a chat with WP when a heating engineer arrived, so, no it is not already fixed 🙂 Thanks again Susan

      3. If you want to try to fix it yourself, in the same Quick Links area as before, choose ‘Customise Theme’

        Then ‘Menus’

        You might find you can work through the options there and add your existing About page back in to your satisfaction.

        If you don’t ‘Save’ at the top, it will remain as it is, so it is not too rash to experiment.

        If you need help, will you tell me where you are up to and what you see?

        You may or may not want to try this after a glass or two of wine! 🙂

  16. What an adorable little grand niece you have! I loved looking at your beautiful garden with her. My favorite today was the golden poppy. That is the state flower for California and the song we sang at each assembly when I was principal and accompanied on my accordion the 1000 students at our school: “Poppies, golden poppies, gleaming in the sun. Closing up at evening when the day is done. Pride of California, flower of our state. Growing from the mountains to the Golden Gate.”

      1. Now THAT is worthy of being titled the state song!! I had to get up and march to it. No sitting around idly on that number!! ♥️ Thanks, Derrick!

  17. My gracious, that child has grown. She’s absolutely adorable, and it’s good to see her curiosity and pleasure in the world around her shining through.

    I guess I’d best give the new procedures a go before it’s forced on us and everything goes topsy turvy. I put in a lot of work cross-linking my two blogs. If that blows up with the change, I am going to be a mite irritated. But, there’s no sense worrying until I try it. Balzac had it right: “Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.”

  18. Derrick,. Your theme has changed and your pages (not the blog posts) are no longer live. The Block editor cannot change the actual theme, a theme change has to be done by you, and I’m guessing this was done accidentally.

    You said your pages are still there, try opening a page and look to the top right of the screen, if the option of publishing is still present, Click Publish and then do the same with the other pages that are no longer live.

    If this fails, please get in touch with WordPress and ask them to assist in making your pages Live again.

    I can’t find a way of reverting back to a previous theme, but WordPress might be able to retrieve the old code and do it for you. I’m happy to help decypher anything they say about your pages, I’ll send you a different e-mail address to the one WordPress have.

    1. Thanks very much, Sue. It seems I have to customise the new theme (Mayland) which I activated intentionally not really understanding what it was. Susan Rushton has guided me to the Change theme option – it seems I have to customise the homepage like this:
      You can choose what’s displayed on the homepage of your site. It can be posts in reverse chronological order (classic blog), or a fixed/static page. To set a static homepage, you first need to create two Pages. One will become the homepage, and the other will be where your posts are displayed.
      Your homepage displays
      Your latest posts
      A static page
      Homepage
      + Add New Page
      Posts page
      + Add New Page
      Hide Homepage Title
      Check to hide the page title, if your homepage is set to display a static page.

      ????

      1. I’m sorry you have conflicting advice. I don’t remember you having a static homepage set up. Your blog page is set as your homepage and it already displays your blogs in the correct order. You shouldn’t need to go through all of the above again, I’ve changed themes several times and my pages just show up as normal, it’s not as though you are setting up from scratch.
        I’m pretty certain WordPress has backups of our sites. I urge you to contact them. Hopefully, you have nothing to lose. They may be able to restore the previous.

  19. Your garden is a welcome haven for so many, I’m sure. It’s nice that we can still visit while being cautious. It’s not that hard and makes life a little easier these days. Lovely photos.

  20. Oh, Ella, looks so sweet in her precious dress. And she clearly feels at home, even as the adults have to work to keep distanced. And Danni looks like a movie star – just beautiful. Such lovely photos of your family. So glad you got to see them.

  21. How wonderful to have your loved ones close! She is so precious, and that fox print dress is adorable what a great way to spend a day with love ones.

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