Diana Was At Work,

for myself I decided to take a walk, 

we saw so many spring flowers in gardens on Thursday I thought I would have a look to see if the bluebells were flowering, in the distance,

one of the neighbours having a new fence and gate fitted, 

it was about here it started to rain, it was so sunny when I set out!

what a day for a walk,

on this side of the road a few daffodils were flowering, 

a few more on the other side,

past a very wet Westgate Road, 

 the pathway at the start of the hill a quagmire, 

nearly there, 

on the way up the hill I feed a coupe of crows,

at the top of the hill,

then down,

to the star of the bluebell path,

and, 

not one flower in sight!

lots of plants,

all looking nice and fresh,

but a complete absence of flowers, 

I had a close look at some of the plants, 

not even the faintest show of a flower spike, 

so home it was, 

the sun vainly trying to pierce the grey clouds,

a few trees were brought down by the last storm, 

this one would have blocked the path, 

but the park staff had already removed it, 

up to the top of the hill,

and down past the hawthorn bushes,

through the mud, 

and on the home stretch, arriving home I decided to put together some of the videos that Diana took when her parents visited us in Thailand, 

the video is above and on YouTube here, Diana arrived home just as I finished it, 

it was by now time for my evening read, 

for my meal this evening a Chinese that we brought back with us from last night,

'Cheers!',

next out to the club to meet Steve, the tennis courts illuminated for players getting ready for the tennis season,

into the club, where we chatted the night away, after saying our farewells we made a move for our homes,

arriving home Skyfall was playing, 

which featured an island named Battleship Island which Diana did not think existed, but as it happens I made a post about the island and how at one time it was the most densely populated place on earth, it was a island built on coal, the Mitsubishi Corporation purchased the mine for 100,000 yen, the now world-famous company had expanded rapidly after its inception as a shipping enterprise in 1873, and had purchased the Takashima Coal Mine in 1881, Hashima's annual coal production reached a peak of 410,000 tons in 1941, but there is a dark side to all of this, about 1,300 laborers had died on the island, some in underground accidents, others of illnesses related to exhaustion and malnutrition, still others had chosen a quicker, less gruesome death by jumping over the sea-wall and trying in vain to swim to the mainland, during its 84-year career under Mitsubishi, the island produced some 16.5 million tons of coal, and now the good news, the last resident stepped onto the ship for Nagasaki on 20 April 1974, after which we were off to bed.