Tessa

She was called Tess, Tessie, Tessington, TessaDog, Doodle Treasure and The Dog. But her real name was Tessa.

Claims to fame: Therapy dog reject (too bouncy). Loved to wallow in the mud. Awesome swimmer. Relentless ball chaser, and always brought it back for another throw. Sandwich stealer. Cat chaser. Sock thief. Horsey poo lover. Rolled in stinky dead things no matter how miniscule. Cutest golden doodle ever. She loved us and we loved her. She is missed.

Tessa   1 September 2007 - 25 April 2022

Prince Philip

 

I saw Prince Philip and the Queen when I was about 10. It was 1956 (now I'm giving my age away!). Children from all around the area were loaded onto green double decker buses and taken to the nearby town of Barnstaple. We were standing on wobbly risers along the walls of the ancient Pannier Market, and everyone was given a Union Jack to wave. Not sure how we got them or where they came from. There was huge excitement.... we were going to see The Queen! It must have been deafening in there when she walked up the centre aisle with the local dignitaries, and Prince Philip just behind her, his hands behind his back, as usual. I remember she was wearing pale blue. I'm in this youtube video somewhere.... on the left hand side, indistinguishable from all the other excited flag wavers. Sorry, I don't know how to embed it.

https://youtu.be/RBOQnCGiD8Y

R.I.P. Prince Philip.

In Memoriam

Yesterday evening I attended a candlelight vigil in Civic Square along with many others from our small town. 

It was to remember and honour a family living in our town,  Dr. Razgar Rahimi, his wife Farideh Gholami, their three-year-old son Jiwan and their unborn baby, who were all travelling on Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 when it was blown out of the sky by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran on January 8 2020. 

Someone had an itchy trigger finger.

138 of the 167 passengers were returning to Canada. 57 of them were Canadians.  Everyone was killed.

Many of the travellers on board were affiliated with Canadian Universities as students, faculty, researchers or professors. Five young students from schools in my local area won't be returning to school. There are vigils and flags at half-mast at towns and cities all across Canada. It is a Canadian tragedy.

We are sad. We are disappointed. We are horrified. And we are very angry. 

R.I.P. JoJo

A sad day for the family. Goodbye to fluffy little JoJo. She came to live at OlderSon's house in 2001, a tiny feral kitten found starving in a barn. She never really warmed up to being with people, and spent most of her time happily hiding in the basement. She started venturing upstairs a couple of years ago and eventually seemed to enjoy tolerate being petted, especially if the person doing the petting had some fishy cat treats on hand. JoJo, you will be missed.