Fun with Words

My daughter-in-law and two little grandsons are in Folkestone  for half term so my granddaughter brought them to stay which was lovely.  How do you explain to a French 10 year old who speaks and reads excellent English the vagaries of "ough".  He was reading an English story and wanted to know how to pronounce "though".  We then went on to---bough, cough, rough, enough, bought, thought, sought, plough, sough, fought until I couldn't think of any more. What fun to find someone else who likes the sound of words!

Floods

Further to my blog about the 1928 Thames flood clink on link belo


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26153241

Grandma goes shopping

Decided to go shopping not having been out all these rainy days.  Mike kindly dropped me off at the shops.  Not a great success but not a disaster.  I wanted some birthday cards my stock having run out.  I did get some but found I could not read the words or even make out the pictures so I shall go back to ordering the cards from my Calibre Audio Library.  Their selection is limited but they are very nice cards.   Then the chemist had not got my pills and I walked round to the Co-op and got some groceries but gave up after a bit as it is so tiring not being able to see .  However it was nice to be out.

We are very fortunate not to be adversely affected by the floods our only casualty being our eucalyptus tree.  The trains have been upset  and the winds have been horrendous.  The balcony fence blew down and is now reposing outside my bedroom window.

I was listening to a prpgramme about suggested flood defences and one man who was interviewed was an official from the water division of the National Trust with the very appropriate name of Mr. Phil Dyke!

Floods

In 1928 when I was 5 years old the River Thames burst its banks.  At the time we were living in a street just one street away from The Embankment close to the south side of Lambeth Bridge.fortunately for us we were living on the first floor of a small block of flats.  The river came over the top of the low embankment wall and flooded our street.    The row of little one storey cottages below us were inundated.   Our neighbours came running out of their houses carrying what they could rescue.  They sought shelter upstairs in our our block of flats and the neighbouring one.  People opened their doors to take them in. Furniture and possessions from the cottages floated along the road.  One man said he had been pursued by his  bed and chamber pot. In the morning the neighbours had left to try to salvage what they could,  A day or so later  my mother was changing her dress and opened a drawer to get a belt and a rat jumped out and bit her.  She nearly died of fright.  She was terrified of mice so this was an even worse nightmare.  Our dog, Flossie, jumped on the rat and killed it.  That evening while mother and I  were out my brother and a friend and Flossie emptied the chest of drawers and found three baby rats.  Mother was never to forget her ordeal and got rid of the chest of drawers.  She couldn't bear to open it.
Soon afterwards the embankment wall was built to its [present height and we had no further trouble.