Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but here in the UK, it’s been a hot week. It cooled down a little … but not enough to ditch the shorts and T.shirts. It feels like Summer!

Well my goodness, what a week this has been. Mr.Cobs has been working on the garden at the back of our cottage. It’s taken us a while but we finally found a vision for it. There are lots of new plants, evergreens, ferns and a selection of flowers. He’s sown some seeds and they’re growing madly, and things are beginning to look so lush and green. At last!

When we bought this cottage the majority of the back garden was paved over in decorative paving. All very smart and very easy to tend to, but there was nothing inspiring. Nothing that made you want to sit out and just be at one with nature. That had to change – but we had to live with it for a year before we began to make any rash moves, so that we could see what was growing, and how the sun behaved in our garden as we are surrounded by protected tallllll pine trees, so they make a high up canopy over the garden which filters some of the sunshine – but we had to work out when, how, where and how much sun each part of the garden got.

Then came the moving of some of the paving, re-laying in some places where it needed to be. Then we had to do something with the soil. It had paving on it for who knows how long – so we had to get something into the soil to make it more acceptable to plants. It’s been what feels like a long journey, but it will all be worth it – we kept telling ourselves. (Although, there have been times when we’ve said: “it would have been easier to leave the paving right where it was!”)

And now … just about three weeks after Mr.C began making planting changes this year, it’s begun to be such an incredible pleasure to sit out there listening to the birds, rather than just walk through it. It’s all looking so green and lush. So alive. Even birds have now started to visit the garden and pop along to watch whats going on! Sitting on the decking is the most amazing joy now. Truly a fabulous new blessing.

Anyhoo… you’re here to find out what I’ve learned this week, not for gardening news! … so here goes:

I learned this week that … If you were to spell out the numbers in their sequence (1, 2, 3 = one, two, three, etc), you would not find the letter ‘A’ until you reach One Thousand.

You’re now thinking about this and some of you will even now pick up and pen and see if I’m right. 🙂

I also learned that on Good Friday in 1930, the BBC announced: “There is no news”. Yes, honestly. Here is where I learned about this: BBC UK, News/No News 1930 – it will open in a new tab for you.

I learned this week: That one particular species of jellyfish, Turritopsis nutricula, is considered biologically immortal as it can—and does—revert to its immature state even after reaching sexual maturity.

When it encounters unfavorable environmental conditions, the adult Turritopsis jellyfish normally overflowing with tentacles that evoke the image of the head of Medusa – simply sinks to the ocean floor and reverts to its juvenile polyp phase which resembles nothing more than a tiny clump of cells. Even more fascinating is that the jellyfish can repeat this process of regression and re-growth endlessly. To date, there have been no reported observations of its death due to aging.

Maybe we should be rubbing ourselves with oils, lotions and potions made from jellyfish, and eating jellyfish instead of calamari (octopus/squid)? (umm …. I don’t think I want to do either of those things to be honest. ewww).

Did you know (and I learned this, this week) … 99% of all people get scared when asked this question: “Can I ask you something?”. Now, I can actually see how that would work. Can you?

If you type “Atari Breakout” into a Google page search bar and click for Google to do its search, then once the page loads choose to view “images” you’ll get a nostalgic blast from the past. NB… you have to wait a moment for the page to change – just wait … only a few seconds… it will change. Get ready to move your mouse! 🙂 (when you’ve won one game, a new game will load for you). You’re welcome. 😀

Since I became aware of them, I’ve been very suspicious of these voice activated bits of equipment which you can have in your home as a ‘helper’ … and I learned this week what I suspected …

Whenever you speak into Apple’s voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple’s data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number — not your Apple user ID or email address — represents you as far as Siri’s back-end voice analysis system is concerned.

Apple say . . . Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple “disassociates” your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes. (allegedly).

And finally … if you take your age, multiply it by 7, then multiply it by 1443, the answer you get will be your age, repeated 3 times. Go on … try it. It’s true.

But … we all know why you’re really here. You’re wanting a little Friday Fix of Fun. Ok… here are ….

The Jokes!

Doctor:“I’m not 100% certain of the cause. It could be related to alcohol.” — Patient:“It’s cool. I’ll come back later when you’re sober.”

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Q: What is Heck? — A: It’s where you go when you don’t believe in Gosh.

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Q: What did the Teddy Bear say when he was offered dessert? — A: No thanks, I’m stuffed.

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A Penguin was arrested when at check-in at the Airport yesterday. After two hours they released him saying “He’s not a flight risk.” (penguin?)

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I bought the world’s worst thesaurus yesterday. Not only is it terrible, it’s terrible.

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My friend asked me to help him round up his 37 sheep. I said “40”

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What’s the difference between a good joke and a bad joke timing.

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and finally . . .

My friend says to me: “what rhymes with orange” … I said: “no it doesn’t”

And those are the jokes folks!

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee moment with me. I love seeing you, it makes the place such a fabulously friendly place to be.

I’m sorry that my blog has been rather quiet this week. Heat, Summer sunshine, high temperatures have a rather upsetting affect upon me and make some medical problems flair up all at once, leaving me feeling less than amazing. So my apologies for being a little Missing In Action. But I bring a note from my ~~mother~~ husband. [hands note over]

May I say a warm welcome to some new followers. I won’t name names, but wanted to say hello and to say not to be shy about making a comment. You’ll soon become part of the great gang we have here and people will begin to recognise your name and even come and visit your own blog (if you have one).

Thank you all (again) so much for coming, it very much means the world to see you here and to chat.

Wishing you all a really fabulous Friday, and an even better weekend. Don’t put unwrapped boiled sweeties in your pockets. Don’t cheek your mothers. Don’t run with scissors. And … DON’T put peas up your nose!!

May today be fun for you, and … whatever you’re doing, or wherever you’re going, may your God go with you.

With love ~