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Hello, Elle!
You seemed to have enjoyed your series of "Midwives".
The sequel to "War Horse", is called "Farm Boy".
He has written lots of books.
There are several sets of books.
May be an idea to keep them in mind for BB when he gets older?
Happy exploring!

Life is full of strange coincidences. Yesterday I had a delayed Pancake Day lunch with a friend and made Crepes Suzette, which was a treat my father gave me once a year or so at uni. Never heard of them since. Then last night they were set as the Bake Off technical challenge! A few hours after I'd made them for the first time ever.
Turns that that one contestant on Bake Off, Bill Turnbull, has advanced prostate cancer. Stephen Fry was on TV less than a week ago with the same disease, telling men to get tested. But today comes the news that being tested if you don't have symptoms makes no difference whatever to the mortality rate and does harm (because many, many men will have prostate cancer when they die, which will not have harmed them. The worry and investigations are unnecessary for them).

I thought the death on "Call the Midwife" was well done but sorry they had to do it at all. Apparently the actress felt 4 years was enough on CtM. I hope she doesn't find hersef in a desert.

I received a lovely fat envelope of family history documents , copied from those taken to America nearly 150 years ago! Account books, letters ,photos. Nothing remains of that family in the UK that I have been able to trace. A busy few days ahead.

What do you all think? With cycle racing so full of bullying, people dying of thick blood (and probably steroids earlier) and other forms of cheating, is it really sensible to continue?

A Very good morning to you, Rusty!
A very wet and warm (ish) morning, here!
The ground is an absolute morass...I had a very dirty dog indeed!
She is now scrubbed clean....... and fed........and wondering whether the cat wants to play with her......
How is it in your neck of the woods?
Have you been out for your paper?
I should like to read "Farm Boy" I think, as I so enjoyed "War Horse".
My plan is to buy a set of books with that title included...so that I myself may read it......and then to save the rest of the children's books for BB.
I think Ros has set us all up for a debate on drug taking in sport!




Hello, Ros!
Of course, I was forewarned about Barbara's death in "Call the Midwife"........
Otherwise, I think I would have been fooled by her apparent recovery in the middle of the programme!
I wonder will your words about the drug taking in Sport spark a debate on here?
I am busy at the moment, but will look in again later to see what is happening with that!

Hi Rosalind,

My personal view, for what it's worth, is 'of course cycling and other
sports should continue'.
Cheating with drugs etc... has been going on for donkey's years,
and, unfortunately, will probably never be eradicated.

But there are also the good genuine sportsmen and women, so should they be deprived of a competition? Perhaps the competition is unfair because some have a drug-enhanced performance, but are ALL Gold and Silver medalists guilty of drug taking? I would tend to think that most winners do not take drugs, but that, unfortunately
the Media makes sure we hear most of the guilty competitors.

We just hear about the whole set up a lot more now than we ever
did before, but in no way does it mean that it has not gone on
for a very long time before. I dare say the media nowadays is
revelling in the situation.

Yes, drug taking has been going on for many years.
It is exposed more easily now, than in the past, as there are currently more refined tests to show up drug traces in blood and urine.
And scientists doing the testing know more now about the half life of a drug etc.
Also drug- taking is brought to the fore and to our attention by the media, far more than happened in the past.
But should competitions stop?
Personally, I think that would be a pity.... there are many honest Sportspeople out there, who deserve the chance to compete in their speciality...... both for themselves.........and for their country.
But it will never be a "level playing -field".

Good afternoon, Elle!
A lot milder today but still hanging on to our snow!
There are several sets of Morpurgo books.
I am sure you will find something suitable.
Now, cycling as a sport!
I am in the Pigale camp on this one.
I raced many years ago and my time on the bike was the happiest of my life.
It is a wonderful sport/pastime, with many great folk participating.
I still have great friends that I met through cycling 60 years ago.
Unfortunately there is drug abuse in the sport at a high level, as much the so called "governing bodies" fault as anyone elses.
I have many years ago given up on watching senior football because of the constant cheating that goes on.
There are cheats in most sports that I can think of, unfortunately.

Hi, Rusty!
Hi,, Rusty!
I have answered Ros' query as a broader spectrum question than just referring to cycling.........
I took it as relating to all competitive sports......?
Yes, I remember your telling me about your cycling days!
I recall your fixing your bike relatively recently - so do you still ride it?
I feel just the same about tennis....
Whenever possible, I played every day, be there rain or shine, for very many years!
Nowadays I just play with the children!
But BB is having tennis lessons, and is enjoying learning the sport very much.
Hopefully, YB will follow suit in due course.
I don't think we are going to make sportsmen/ or woman out of the other grandkids!

Sorry, Rusty.....
Have you deserved a double salutation?
I don't know what happened there!

Out of interest !


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../ancient-history-cheating-olympics-180960003/

Well, it did not work - shame because interesting.

if you want to see it, you can type in your search box

'The ancient history of cheating in the olympics' and it is the
very first article.