Day 28 No Gun Salute

Notes for new readers - as this is a diary the first entry is the last, so you get to know 'who done it' before the crime is committed! This is a pain but can't be helped. After a week of entries the scrolling will stop and if you want to venture further click on 'OLDER POSTS' and read until you get to the first entry 'The Day Before Day 1

I read today the the Queen has cancelled her traditional birthday gun salutes. I agree that this is right and proper under the circumstances but I have to acknowledge a twinge of disappointment. You see, my birthday is on the same day and for many years I have enjoyed sharing this pleasure with Her Majesty. When we lived in Pontcanna we could hear the guns in Cardiff Castle grounds. My grandmother Florence was also born on the same day.

This afternoon Sheila and I did some planting down the allotment. Sheila put in the small Fuschias  and I sowed the broad bean seeds (Dreadnought). I love broad beans. I met Sandra the other lady who has expressed an interest in raised bed gardening. We shall see.

A friend (Annie) sent me a lovely box of chocolates for my birthday some of which I shall enjoy whilst watching TV tonight. 'The Sense of an Ending' is on which sounds good with Jim Broadbent who is always watchable.

Snippet from the News

Germany has declared its coronavirus outbreak under control as it prepares to take its first tentative steps out of lockdown next week, while several European countries unveiled contact-tracing mobile apps aimed at facilitating a gradual return to a more normal life.

The German health minister, Jens Spahn, said on Friday that the virus was under control in Europe’s largest economy, thanks to confinement measures imposed after an early surge in cases. “The infection numbers have sunk significantly, especially the relative day-by-day increase,” he said.

Smaller shops in Germany are due to reopen from Monday with some pupils set to return to school on 4 May, although other restrictions will remain in place including bans on gatherings of more than two people in public and on large public events.

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Poem
     Plague by Christina Rossetti

‘Listen, the last stroke of death’s noon has struck—

The plague is come,’ a gnashing Madman said,
And laid him down straightway upon his bed.
His writhed hands did at the linen pluck;
Then all is over. With a careless chuck
Among his fellows he is cast. How sped
His spirit matters little: many dead
Make men hard-hearted.— ‘Place him on the truck.
Go forth into the burial-ground and find
Room at so much a pitful for so many.
One thing is to be done; one thing is clear:
Keep thou back from the hot unwholesome wind,
That it infect not thee.’ Say, is there any
Who mourneth for the multitude dead here?

Quote

The teeth of wisdom may well be false. Elliott Priest

 Random Photo

This is a Barbie Doll cake which I made for one of my granddaughter's birthdays. I can't remember which one as I made several. I eventually had a baking tin made for the purpose (since donated to a charity shop) but a suitably sized pudding basin works well. Make the cake in the basin, any flavour. Cook and cool. Then insert a Barbie doll into a hole cut in the top - preferably minus the legs. I used to get the Barbie dolls from charity shops and gave them a good wash and brush up. Then cover the top half of the body and the cake with icing. Decorate as you fancy.

TOT ZIENS! Stay Home! Eat Sausages!