Preparing For Winter

Today was one of administration spent on Mum’s estate; e-mailing photographs; and Max’s home visit from Peacock Computers.

The photographs were for a WordPress interview coming up soon.

I was able to access the Probate Forms on line and actually begin to fill them in. Some sections offered yes or no choices with boxes to be clicked. The very first of these wouldn’t work. Longer boxes required the addition of dates. When these had been typed in the spaces were split into boxes for the individual numbers.

Let’s start with Mum’s date of birth. This was 2nd October 1922. I typed 2.10.1922. This was translated to 2. 10 .1. So I typed 02101922. That worked.

I can’t be bothered to list other problems.

I was therefore most relieved when Max arrived early for his appointment, and I could abandon this task.

This pleasant young man, who fortunately, has the same model of iMac as mine checked everything and established that the core problem is probably the Broadband uploading speed. The downloading, however, is far quicker than he would have expected. I had not realised this difference when I checked the speed myself. When I have problems in transferring from iPhoto to WP I am probably being timed out.

Max has shown me how to transfer photographs through Downloads rather than the Desktop, and is going to investigate the current availability of fast fibre in our area which was not available when we joined EE Mobile.

Before setting out on the Probate fiasco, because we had noticed the expected overnight heavy winds picking up, we began once more to carry out protective efforts in the garden.

Jackie had laid down the patio chairs before the last gale and we had left them lying. This picture shows that the parasol has been removed from its base. Today we removed all three garden parasols and stored them in the orange shed.

After clearing pigeon droppings the Head Gardener covered wooden chairs and benches for the winter. Mind you, today was warm enough for us to work in shirt sleeves.

While Jackie was covering the benches I photographed the garden views from above. “Where’s Jackie?” (10) appears in a few.

We still have a colourful view from the kitchen widow,

the Wisteria Arbour still lurches.

There is still plenty of colour.

This evening we dined on second helpings of yesterday’s Chinese Take Away, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Montepulciano.

87 comments

  1. Beautiful photos of your garden, Derrick. Sorry about the forms and computer, but at least it sounds like you are getting them sorted out. I never thought of different speeds in downloading and uploading.

  2. Your garden is so beautiful, Derrick! A welcome antidote to the online frustrations. Good to hear that Max is making progress on some things though ?

  3. The garden still looks beautiful, you two! My download speed is far faster than the upload speed and I have cable TV. It’s supposed to be 30mb up and 300mb down.

  4. YAY for Max! So grateful for such good helpers! 🙂
    LOVE the above and from-over-here views! Jackie busy at work! I found Jackie in 6 photos! Did I miss any?!?!
    Good to see Florence and the owls doing their jobs, too!
    View from the Kitchen Window is gorgeous! My fave today!
    Hope all are safe from the winds!
    (((HUGS))) 🙂
    PS…I’m hungry. What’s for dinner?!?! 😉 😛

  5. The garden appears vast when viewed from overhead. Looking lovely too.

    Downloads are usually quicker because another computer is dong the sending, all we do is receive them. Uploads rely on the speed of our computer and our broadband to send them on their way.

    I have a habit of using the physical as an example. It takes more effort for a person to post a letter than it does for us to receive one though our letterbox. Same thing with computers.

    A few years ago one third of our village was connected the Leeds exchange, they enjoyed high speed broadband. The people on the opposite side of the road did not.

    So, two thirds of the village and the next couple of villages along put up with slow broadband speeds because we were connected to an exchange that needed an upgrade.

    The village is a large one, made up of mostly professional people and at the time an MP. The sort of people who were not prepared to put up with second best.

    One day one of these people started a petition for the local exchange to be upgraded. Almost all who were connected to that exchange signed it. Thankfully, the exchange was upgraded and we now enjoy high speeds.

    I hope someone in your village does the same.

    1. Thanks a lot, Sue. Your physical explanation makes it easy to understand. Max explained the difference in much the same way – using TV films as an example. Our village is more of a Hamlet. Even the garage and the pub have worse Broadband.

      1. You need an MP to become a resident!
        Our village just got bigger, another 300 houses have been built at the far end of the village – on green belt!

  6. Yes, there’s quite a few photos here with Jackie in them. 7, I think. The photos also show how big your garden actually is.

    One things we had to double check filling out Dad’s forms was the layout of date. For example your Mother’s “2.10.1922” could read “2nd of October 1922” or “10th of February 1922”. Why our modern world can’t use a global layout I don’t understand. The “2nd of October 1922” would be the usual Australian layout but often even Australian forms/websites use “October 2nd 1922” which can be a nightmare if you get it wrong.

    I’ll try not to confuse you anymore. 😉

    We’re coming into what promises to be an extremely hot summer. Hotter than our 1st two summers here on mid-north coast.

    1. Thanks very much, Chrissy. Well spotted. I think I am going to resort to printing out the forms and filling them in with pen and ink. I hope you don’t get the fires this year.

  7. The garden looks as if it is a professional botanical one.
    My Apple iPad which is coming up for ten years old and can no longer accept software updates is gradually losing function. I can’t see photos in the news for example. The latest is that I cannot like or comment on WP posts unless I provide my name, email, etc, regardless that I am already logged into my account.
    And yesterday I had to lodge online government forms. It took me four hours! And at the end of that we still have to go to the physical premises to have our identity verified. And “on account of COVID” we can’t book an appointment. But you have to queue outside so they can manage the numbers indoors. Last time I looked, the queue was snaking down the street.
    Remember the days before computer technology? When we had full employment because real people were needed to process forms etcetera? Bring back triplicated carbon paper, I say.

  8. Where’s Jackie shows how large and lush your garden is. I love the views from above and imagining gazing out the window. Glad you have a pleasant and helpful technician.

  9. I very envious of your good weather Derrick … last night we had a violent spring storm, and this morning we are being blasted by very cold gale-force winds …

  10. I espied Jackie in the various “Where’s Jackie?” photos. She looks so small!

    We lost power yesterday from the wind. That hasn’t happened in quite a while.

  11. I am sure the approaching winter will be met with expert management. I am glad your uploading woes have been sorted to certain extent. I couldn’t spot Jackie in the Quiz. Unlike winter, presbyopia is already here in the world of my eyes.

      1. I am happy for you, Derrick. I guess that bounty comes when one is moderately shortsighted early on. But when one is quiet shortsighted, it necessitates two different diopters for far and near vision, of which the latter keeps changing. I’ve invested a fortune in various progressive glasses with little luck. Someday, perhaps, there will be a cure for these common ocular afflictions but that seems to be a distant prospect.

  12. It still looks beautiful! I spotted Jackie in four photos. I hope you are spared the worst of the windstorms, Derrick and Jackie.

    I am sorry to hear of the difficulties with probate. Death of a loved one is hard enough without all the extra work afterwards. It does seem to take a while to tie up the loose ends of a life.

  13. Whenever I look at pictures of your garden, Derrick, I remember a day I spent at the Botanical gardens in Cape Town as a girl of 9. It was a school tour day and we had lunch in a private part of the garden which had lots of interesting plants, dells, fountains and other interesting things and places to explore. I’ve never forgotten it.

  14. Dear Derrick
    a good computer guy is essential for us as well. Fortunately, we have a 16-year-old friend who is brilliant and Dina is quite good as well. When they fiddle around with our computers we help our gardener to get the garden ready for the winter although it’s still quite warm and sunny.
    We wish you a GREAT weekend. All the best
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

  15. So glad you got help with your iMac! Loved seeing all the color that has survived in your garden. Our lawn maintained its green in our absence in spite of the fact that we turned off the sprinkling system before we left. If we hadn’t, that MT blizzard in late Sept. would have frozen the pipes!

  16. Your garden covers more area than I imagined! The amazing and beautiful photos you share show the results of your hard work. I wish you good luck in getting your computer issues resolved.

    1. Thanks very much, Rose. There are 6 with varying degrees of visibility, so you have done well even without coffee. Jackie didn’t change her attire from the header 🙂

  17. Your garden takes so much effort to build its outlay and then preserve all its elements It is great that both of you are able to take the time to do this and share the beauty of it with us.
    I hope you are able to get fibre and that should make your uploads so much faster

  18. It is a treat to have a glimpse of the Head Gardener working in her garden. It’s almost as though I’m really there visiting, and spotted Jackie out at work. What a huge hassle with your Internet. Your patience must be tried.

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