A couple of weeks ago I made arrangements with my friend Roses to take the train to her place and then walk around the lake with her.  She used to go there several times a month, as often as once a week at one time, but she hadn't been in a while.   I'd been dreaming of going there, but the area isn't generally very safe - except on Sundays when there are  plenty of  walkers out enjoying nature.  So I never went alone.  I didn't really even know how to get there. 

On April 20, I got up and met the bus around 9:20 to go to Roses' apartment.  DiGi would meet us later once we'd finished our walk.  The idea was that Roses would meet me at the train station, just a five-minute walk from her place.  However, due to construction, there were no trains going to that station, so she picked me up at another station a little further away.  After that, she showed me how to get down to the lake, where I managed to get a few shots before it started raining.  Back at the apartment, DiGi turned up about 12:30, and we spent a great afternoon (as usual) with Roses and Fox.

Today Digi and I spent another lovely afternoon at the home of friends - people with whom we can discuss most any old thing... and usually do, politics being tops on the list.

I don't think I was particularly good company today.  I'm itching to get outside, walk down to the lake and take pictures of the swans, geese, cormorants, and such.  But even if I'd been able to persuade the others, it's just too disagreeable out.   The skies are gray... and the past few days we've had rain mixed with sleet and snow - interspersed with fluffy clouds and sunshine.

So I tried to content myself with a few shots inside.  Generally I'm no good with taking pictures of people; I'm too slow.  So here's a bit of my meager harvest today:

Earlier tonight, I spoke on the phone with my mother in NC who told me that she's been eating raisins as a way of combating arthritis.  Not just any raisins, mind you - golden raisins... and soaked in G*I*N!!!  There was a time when I would have told you you were crazy if you had suggested such a thing, doubly so if you'd suggested that *my mother* would be delicately nibbling *nine* (count 'em!) - *nine* - golden gin-soaked raisins to fight against arthritis. 

But  at the age of 81, her knees don't work as smoothly as they once did.  And though generally she gets instructions from her doctor to keep doing what she's doing and come back in six months, there are the occasional aches and pains.  Besides, if it works, who cares whether it's a placebo effect, or even  some complex chemical secret as yet unknown to science?  Stranger things have happened!  I say, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!"